Weird attitudes

Some of the attitudes I get from fellow cyclists are weirder than the ones I get from people who don't own bikes.

A woman at work who is a triathlete (which I guess is almost like a cyclist) generally drives to work. I asked her last week where her bike was, as a way of saying she should ride to work, and the response was "In my garage, where it belongs!"

She didn't think it made sense when I told her the bike should be inside the air-conditioned portion of her house at the very least...though mine was locked up out front at the time.


Friday she rode to work (I did not, as I had a mountain bike group ride half an hour after work), and some bike stuff was discussed.

I had my Chrome Ranchero on the floor next to my desk, and she commented that that was more than she could ever conceive of wanting to carry on a bike. I had it with me so I could change into my biking clothes after work. I don't think it represents an unreasonable amount of stuff, though.

I mentioned biking to the grocery store with the Burley trailer...and her comments led one to believe that people who would own a bike trailer are mentally defective.

I mentioned that the fenders on my touring bike are nice when it rains, and she rolled her eyes and made a similar comment regarding fenders... Maybe I should have brought up my barend shifters next, eh?

I understand the desire to want to go fast and use bikes as a fitness tool, but they are so much more than that. Having the lightest parts or the newest tech doesn't do you a bit of good if it breaks while you're on the way to work.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge nerd...I love the idea of new and better stuff. I just don't like the idea of new and flimsier stuff. I have a Garmin GPS on my handlebars. I ride clipless pedals instead of toe straps. But I ride a leather Brooks saddle. I have a rear rack. I have lights all over the bike, including one with a 3 pound battery. I wear baggy shorts. I prefer wool. Oh yes, the bike is steel.

I guess I just think it's weird that "real" cyclists seem to frown on utility cycling, as if it's somehow below them. To me, that would really be the ultimate goal of cycling...screw racing, bikes should be about usefulness. It seems like the industry finally stopped being dominated entirely by racing in the past couple years. Now we have cargo bikes, commuting bikes are making an appearance...these are all good things. One can even spot the change in mountain bikes...long travel "all mountain" rigs are the biggest sellers, but those aren't generally used in racing.

Somehow I won't be surprised if in a very few years I am spotted riding a recumbent trike around town while wearing a big bushy beard (those are required for proper recumbent riding, I believe).

Here are my two on-road bikes, guess which one gets the most mileage?

1OK, it's time to start telling the world what good shape I'm in, so I can track it and hopefully shame myself into improvement.

Height: 6'2"
Today's weight: 262
Body fat: 31.4%
Skeletal muscle: 32.5%
Metabolic: 2278
BMI: 34%
Visceral fat: 14 (is this lbs? That sounds like a lot. I have to look at the manual)

OK, so I'm definitely overweight. I thought I had dropped a few pounds since I started biking since my pants fit a bit more loosely. I suppose not, though. On the bright side, my skeletal muscle is a bit over the average they give...which makes sense, because I have never really stopped biking over the past few years, so I think I just need to control my diet.


I don't really think I'm obese, though. I think BMI loses a bit of accuracy depending on the body type. I could definitely stand to lose a few pounds, though. The pic on the right sidebar was me at about 225 or so, which isn't too far from my target weight.

I bet my numbers will look better when I post tomorrow because I will be using my new magic scale first thing in the morning instead of an hour after dinner. So if nothing else, I shall endeavor to post a couple times a week to get my weight recorded.

It is sad that life sometimes conspires against biking. Tomorrow I shall have to drive to work because I have to go by the hospital in the morning to try to figure out how to convince them that yes, I really DID live here at the time of my surgery. That will help me get some financial assistance, because the $42,000 total for someone between insurances is a bit hard for me to handle.

It might be possible to bike down there, but I think I would have to leave entirely too early for it to be practical. Plus I have an annoying tendency to get lost every time I go there (the first time I was navigating while my brother drove me to the ER, the second time my GPS gave confusing directions went I went to my followup). This weekend I might try riding down to the hospital, it looks doable on Google Maps, but the 4-5 lane roads downtown might be kind of terrible to bike, and I would hate to find out during rush hour.

Remember, kids: If you're without insurance for a month, tell you appendix to wait a while before it becomes inflamed. It will save you money in the long run.

OK, so I slacked again. Whoops.

I have still just been averaging 3 days a week biking to work....the My Cycling Log sidebar tells me that that's been enough to save close to $50 in gas costs, though. So I guess that's still pretty good.

I have biked to the grocery store a couple times as well. The first trip I carried 4 bags of groceries plus a 24 pack of Coke Zero in my rear panniers--and two bags that had to hang from my handlebars. Ortlieb Back Rollers are surprisingly roomy, but two panniers aren't enough for serious grocery shopping.

Keeping this in mind, I set off for the grocery store again today. I had my Burley Nomad attached, so capacity would not be my problem today. I loaded it down with quite a bit of stuff...4 12 packs of Coke, one 2 liter (they only had Cherry Coke Zero in 2 liter form), a couple quarts of ice cream, a bunch of Crystal Light, and some other small things. Pulling the trailer wasn't as bad as expected....the Long Haul Trucker has super low gearing, so my acceleration was crappy and speed up hills was not great, but I ran into zero problems actually getting back to my apartment.

Funny story, though...It was hard to get to my apartment. I elected for a unit on the ground floor because I didn't want to carry my bikes up stairs all the time, but I still have a small staircase to climb to get to my door. I tried to push the bike and trailer up the stairs.....wasn't gonna happen. When the trailer wheels hit the bottom step, it was made clear to me that they would NOT go any further willingly. "OK," I thought, "I'll just push it up the steep grass near the steps!" I made it a couple steps before my shoes informed methat they were not going to grip the grass. Down I went, bringing the bike with me. I ended up having to brace myself, push the bike forward, grab the brakes, re-brace myself, and repeat. Not an ideal situation, I need to find a better way to get there.

The trailer itself hauled a big load for the first time....it handled kinda funny. It never felt like I was going to lose the load, but going over cracks in the asphalt was odd. I think the boom has some flex to it, because every bump caused a "push/pull" sensation, like the trailer was attached with an elastic band. Tolerable and probably not dangerous, but weird.

I have deicded that I am going to use the trailer for now, but when I get a bit more money, I will sell it and get an Xtracycle. I am not sure if I want to put the Xtracycle on the Long Haul Trucker, or build a up a hardtail MTB to use it on. Maybe I can do the LHT first and then move it to the MTB when I get one.

Speaking of MTB, I discovered a mountain bike trail only about 7 miles from my apartment. Considering I had to drive at least an hour north or south to find anything when I lived in KY, I would have been happy if it had just been a crappy oval in the dirt. Luckily though, it is no such thing. The trail is called MoMBA (I believe it stands for Metroparks outdoor Mountain Bike Area). It is an 8 mile system of beginner to advanced trails, built on land the city provided just for that purpose. It is all built to IMBA standards, and it one of the sweetest trail systems I've ever ridden. If you live in the Dayton area and like your trails tight and twisty, come ride it, you will have no regrets.

I really need to get some batteries in my camera, this thing looks kinda dull.

Edit: Looks like I caused some confusion. I do have a mountain bike already, a Santa Cruz Heckler, but I was thinking of purchasing a hardtail mountain bike and then putting an Xtracycle on that. Full suspension is the enemy of the Xtracycle.

So, so true

I am fully convinced that XKCD knows secrets.

I am doing rather a bad job with regular updates, for that I apologize. I figure that either I will get the hang of this blogging thing and start writing good entries with more regularity, or I will run out of ideas and fade back into the void.

Either way seems fun, I guess.

I had hoped to bike to work every day after I moved to the new apartment, but that hasn't really been as much of a success as I had originally hoped. I have had to run around to
various licensing bureaus and BMVs (Ohio oddly has the BMV instead of the DMV) to get my truck's title transferred and get new license plates. Sadly, they did not have the "Share the Road" plate locally--it has to be ordered beforehand, and my KY plate expired 2 days after I discovered this. Next time I need a new plate, perhaps I can have my truck proclaim my love of biking. Or maybe I can just get a bumper sticker.

Anyway, I've managed to bike to work 60% of the time since I have been in the new place. That's not too bad, since everyone else where I work is sitting at 0%. I need to figure out how to really spread the word and get people riding--this is such a great city for biking, if only people would give it a try.

Speaking of people at work, can someone explain to mye why it is that it seems so amusing to others when you don't bike on a given day? I'm sure they all think it's very clever to look out the window at the light rain and say "Hey, where's the bike today?"....but somehow I miss the incredible humor. Maybe it's a Seinfeld joke. I never thought Seinfeld was funny either.

Anyone have experience with the body fat scales? I was thinking of getting this one from Performance, but I don't especially want to waste my money on something that's pointless.

I guess that's all I have for today. Keep the rubber side down, kids. I think I've only ever heard one person actually say that.

He's back!

After the long and unplanned delay from commuting, I finally got moved into my new apartment
yesterday, and had my first ride from there today.

Something new today was riding in fairly dense fog...when I lived in Kentucky my commute was all on fairly high traffic rural roads, so when visibility became an issue I would not risk the ride--my life does hold some small value to me, after all. Since I only had two miles of road today and I trust the ability of my Superflash and bright yellow Shower's Pass touring jacket to keep me visible, I decided to go for it. It was a wise decision.

The commute itself is actually nicer than I imagined...the rail trail is perfectly straight and very nearly flat, though it does have a downhill tendency for a moderate distance on the way to work. The feeling of nearly effortless speed, spinning in the big ring while the wind whips around me is nearly without better in my cycling experience. We'll see if it's really a downhill or if that just happened to be the prevailing wind direction today. Of course, the last two miles are a fairly constant climb, so that doesn't work out exactly as I'd like....I always thought the big climb would ideally be at the beginning or middle of the ride so that one can arrive at work in an unsweaty state. The good far outstrips the bad in this case, though.

The ride back was good as well, though my out of shape legs were feeling the burn. I was impressed at the number of riders out today....I probably didn't see more than a dozen, but in my hometown I think I only ever saw one or two other riders--and not regularly. I passed a couple of recreational riders and a bunch of joggers, but then a couple miles from home I got passed by a guy on a lime green road bike (I think it was a Trek, but I am not sure). Heeding the roadie instinct to chase any other bike we see (I wonder if this is what dogs feel when they see cars?) I decided to give chase. I couldn't just hammer and try to pass him immediately though, that would look like I was trying too hard--plus the sudden effort would probably drain me and I'd get passed again immediately, which is like an extra loss for me. Besides, as a big guy I have discovered that while I am horrible at sprints, I can usually dial my speed up just a little bit higher than other peoples' and eventually catch them and then leave them behind. Unless I get tired and they get away first.

So I slowly gain on him as we draw nearer and nearer to my apartment...trying not to look like I'm trying to gain on him. I am the ninja racer. We pass the entrance to my apartment complex when I am nearly within drafting distance, but I decide to keep going because not only do I not have a clear idea of exactly where this trail goes, but I saw a branch of my bank on Google Maps and wanted to find an ATM.

Very soon after we pass my complex's entrance, we run out of trail. I was a bit taken aback by the sudden T-junction into another trail (Mad River), so I slow down a bit more than necessary. When we get on the new trail heading North, I see that he has opened up a huge gap between us, and worse--there is a definite upward turn. Nothing serious, but enough that I decided I was done playing racerboy for the day. It was time to settle back in and just ride again.

I will really have to ride this trail more in the future. It goes by a creek one the west with dirt trails on the far side (I wonder if I can ride my mountain bike on them...probably not, but I will have to check), with a fenced in park area on the east side. Even though it's very near dense residential areas, I could almost trick myself into thinking I was in the woods. The smell helped...it smelled, for lack of a better comparison, like mountain biking. So it was a very enjoyable ride.

Upon reaching my bank, I discovered that there isn't even an ATM, but there IS an Aldi there--maybe a mile and a half from my house. This could be where the majority of my grocery shopping is done in the future, and I totally dig the low prices (plus it's highly convenient).

I had better end this now, I will run out of things to say tomorrow.

Pics to come soon, but I don't want to stop for photos until I have a better idea of how long it takes to get to work.