Various and Sundry Items

Sweat Management 101

Well, after many, many red, stinging eyes, I've finally found a system that works to keep sweat out of my eyes. I was using a lycra-like stretchy headband with a rubber ridge that goes just above my brow when I put it on. The rubber ridge acts like a rain gutter and sweeps the sweat away from my eyes. That is until I sweat enough to overwhelm the material, then the sweat drips over the rubber gutter-like device and into my eyes. It takes about fifteen minutes for me to sweat enough to overwhelm the headband.

A few weeks ago, I purchased a cotton cycling cap to wear under my helmet. I wear the visor up in the mornings when it is cool and when I'm not sweating too much.



When it is hot, I flip the visor down. The sweat tracks down the visor and either evaporates if it's not too humid, or drips off of the center of the bill when I'm really sweating and when it's really humid. This is the best system I've found yet.



Trek 500 Tri Series

I found out that my bike is a 1986 Trek 500 Tri Series. I thought I bought the bike in the fall of 1985, which I think I did.


But some on line research shows that it is a 1986 model, apparently the only 500 model that Trek called the Tri Series. I think Trek made a model 600 Tri Series also - that bike was red, as I remember. I couldn't afford one of those.


Anyway, I disassembled my old rear wheel and sent the hub to Peter White Cycles. Peter built me a new wheel using a Mavic Open Sport rim and double-butted spokes. Since Monday, I've been riding the Trek. Man, I forgot how fast this bike is compared to my beloved Tricross! I've got a 100 mile ride Saturday down in Decatur, and I'm taking the Trek for some sweet long-distance action.


Post-ride Recovery

Last Saturday, I did a club ride, and felt pretty punky the whole way. The club members where originally going to ride 75 miles, but with the temps forcast in the high 80's (yes, we are wimps up here), we all decided to ride 55 miles. I never made it that far - I turned off at the cut-off for 40 miles with Kmart Dave and we rode a moderate pace back to the start. The previous week I did several interval workouts, and my legs weren't fully recovered for the ride on Saturday.

Saturday afternoon, Alex and I went to a nearby nature preserve to walk and enjoy the woods. The things we saw there helped put my mind in a better place, and the walking helped work some of the soreness out of my legs.


When Alex and I walked across a small foot bridge over a creek, there was this fawn standing, staring right at us. I was able to take a few photos before he bolted.


There is no pie on the planet better than Gooseberry pie. This gooseberry isn't ripe yet, but I'm coming back here in a couple weeks to check on these. We found a big patch of them. Sorry, can't tell you where they are, it's a secret!


The black raspberries are just starting to ripen. I gorged myself on all the berries I could find. These fit perfectly into my post-ride recovery.


Graduation

The best part of the last couple of weeks was my daughter's high school graduation. It's difficult to see Georgia in this picture, but she's on the left side, walking into the photo.


Georgia shared her graduation party with her best friend, Savannah.


No more cross-country meets, no more parent-teacher conferences. I'm going to miss her high school years.


Georgia graduated with high honors, and is headed to Purdue University this fall. She's planning a dual major in dietetics and fitness and nutrition. I'm so proud of her!


I hope all of you folks out there are having a good week.

Happy riding!

New Trail at IPFW

Alex and I took a bike ride on the new trail built on Indiana University Purdue University at Fort Wayne (IPFW) campus last night. The new trail runs more or less north and south along the east side of the St. Joe River. The city is building another trail on the west side of the river across from the IPFW campus. That trail is a part of the Rivergreenway system in Fort Wayne.


This trail is actually "Native Trees of Indiana" trail - you can see the description signs in the distance, near the trees they describe.


Alex is so competitive!


The Vendrely bridge here connects IPFW with the Rivergreenway system on the west side of the river.


Immediately south from the bridge is Johnny Appleseed Park, the final resting place of John Chapman, who in the 1800's shared his passion for apples with settlers in the old Northwest Territory. The park is inviting, but getting across Coliseum Boulevard's 4 lanes of high speed traffic has been a problem for a long, long time. Well, the city has it figured out by taking the trail under Coliseum Blvd by following the river under the bridge.


Here's the incline from below the bridge up to the bridge deck crossing the river.


Voila! On the Coliseum Blvd bridge, in my own bike / pedestrian lane, I can safely cross the river without the risk of spreading my blood and flesh all over someone's car.


Although the new trails are great for recreation, they are not good for most folks interested in transport by bike, because the trails meander with the rivers, adding miles to an otherwise shorter and more direct commute. Plus, the yearly floods take much of the trail system out of commission for one to two weeks at a time.

The city must be commended (and IPFW) its dedication to making Fort Wayne a more bike friendly place. Sharrows are showing up here and there. Bike signs are springing up along city streets. And a few bike-only lanes are set up downtown. The city is planning even more bike infrastructure improvements in the future, including education for drivers and for bicyclists, so both parties can share the roads responsibly.

For something completely different, here's one of the few visible and remaining fiberglass mastodons the city made available to businesses maybe 10 or 12 years ago. After Chicago's cow contest, Fort Wayne decided to do it's own decorate a fiberglass Mastodon contest. Mastodon skeletons are still occasionally found in surrounding peat bogs that are mined for their peat and black dirt.


Happy riding!

Back on the saddle

I took a spin on the Schwinn Continental tonight, just before the rains came (again). Riding this week has been sparse. Travel for work, extra hours, etc. Anyway, I did make it to the bike club meeting last night. The club started a new thing - during the warm weather months the bike club will be sponsoring a pre-meeting ride lasting about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. I showed up on the Schwinn last night and got many chuckles from the other riders.

The funny thing is, the Continental was probably the best bike to be riding on that ride. We rode through downtown Fort Wayne up through the north part of the city. The old Schwinn kept up with the road bikes, and easily out-paced the mountain bikes.

The rivers flooded last week, and so much of the Rivergreenway trails were under water until a couple days ago. There was a thick coating of wet silt deposited on the trail, which made for very slippery riding. But the Schwinn handled the mud easily. The road bikes took a different route, but I followed the mountain bikers. The mountain bikers had to stop to clean the mud out of their brakes and off their chain stays because their knobby tires picked up oodles of mud. Not the Schwinn!



The sun came out for a very short time before the rain came.


The Schwinn rides again!


While the sun was out, this photo presented itself.


Happy riding!

North to Michigan!

On Saturday and Sunday, Alex and I met up with Alex's sister, Brooke, and her husband, Anders, to bike the 33 mile Kal-Haven Trail in Michigan. The trail is located on a former railroad bed that extends from Kalamazoo to South Haven, which is located on Lake Michigan. It is now its own state park - the Kal-Haven Trail State Park.



The weather was unseasonably hot - in the upper 80's both days. The skies were sunny, but the humidity was low. These dame's rockets along the trail approved of the weather.


Our goal was to ride to the half-way point on Saturday, then ride back to our motel in South Haven. Shortly after we left the trailhead at South Haven, we descended a gentle hill to ride along side the back end of the harbor at South Haven. This harbor was used to load grain on to small ships in the late 1800's and early 1900's, until rail expansion across the midwest improved. When locks and dams were built up and down the Mississippi, it became more economical to ship grain to terminals via rail to ports on the Mississippi, which then was loaded on to barges and headed toward New Orleans.


The demise of this rail line years ago is to the benefit of thousands of bikers, hikers, and snowmobilers today. The trail is mostly crushed lime, carefully graded and compacted. I saw several road bikes on the trail both days with skinny tires, which for the most part were having no problems. There is a section, about 3 miles long toward Kalamazoo, where the state park is widening the trail where there is some loose material on the sides of the trail. As long as we stayed in the middle 12' of the trail, the surface was fine.


Bill, Alex, Brooke, Anders at the half-way mark in Bloomindale.


Alex and Brooke on the trail.


Another view of Bloomingdale - yes, that is an oil derrick. I believe most of the oil has been pumped from this area. We saw only one pump running, and the lady in the depot museum said that pump is pumping salt water, which is applied to the trail surface to help settle and bind the crushed lime.


The state park folks did a very nice job respecting the railroad heritage.


On day two, we rode from Bloomingdale to Kalamazoo and back. This is a view of the widened trail surface. This area is very well compacted and graded. It made for a great riding surface. The only down side I see to riding on a lime surface such as this is that my fender-less bike kicked up fine gravel which pelted my legs and collected in my shoes. This was a small price to pay for riding on a smooth, car free trail. Probably 97% of the trail is covered with woods, which was a blessing on hot, sunny days.


The trail widening project is at least partly funded by Recovery Act funds.


This is the end of the state park trail in K-zoo. There is another trail that connects here and takes trail users into the heart of Kalamazoo.


Apparently people aren't the only trail users. This snapping turtle was moving down the trail also.


Only 4 miles from the end is the small town of Gobles, where we found Jan's Trailside Cafe only 1/2 block from the trail. The bikes out front told us there was something good inside. Although Jan no longer has her ice cream shop, she still serves ice cream in her cafe next door. So I had a sandwich and a chocolate malt. Plus plenty of ice water. Good stuff when the temp is 90 degrees!


A couple of sweet Rivies.


The Kal-Haven trail has no tunnels or high bridges, but is very well maintained and well used. I'd recommend this ride for anyone who wants a safe, rural ride. We had a great time!

Happy riding!

Weekend of Bike

On Saturday, Michael of Ear to the Breeze blog, came up from Bloomington to ride the Bike 101 Lakes ride in Fremont, Indiana. The ride was 106 miles through 3 states: Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The weather was the best biking weather I've experienced this year. The morning was cool, in the low 50's, but warmed into the low 60's by early afternoon. And the wind was light for the first time in two weeks. The only funky thing about the ride was the mass start at 9:00 am.



We passed by these Big Bud tractors - back in the 1970's these were the Cadillac of big farm equipment. The largest farm tractor ever made was a model 747.


Unfortunately my camera battery died, so I was not able to take anymore photos. The ride, however, was excellent. Michael and I cruised at 17mph for mile after mile. About 3/4 of the way, we adopted a fellow who was in need of food and water. He followed us to the next sag stop, where we waited until he was properly fed and watered. Michael and I took turns pulling him for the last 25 miles or so.

You'll want to check out Michael's blog when he writes about his experience on this ride - he is magically able to produce his camera faster than I can blink my eye. He must have taken 100 photos on this ride.

Today, Sunday, I rode the May Madness ride sponsored by Fort Wayne's bike club, the 3 Rivers VeloSport club. The ride started in Roanoke (Indiana) and headed south to Huntington, then over to the small burg of Andrews before heading back to Huntington then back to Roanoke. One thing I like about organized rides are the people I meet and ride with. They all seem to be interested in bikes. Since this ride was sponsored by 3RVS, I knew a bunch of the folks I rode with, so it was a good time. At least until I got to Andrews.

The wind blew us from Roanoke all the way to Andrews - about 38 miles - at a mighty speed. We were cruising at 20 to 23mph! Once we turned back to the east in Andrews, however, great pain set in. The next 20 miles back to Roanoke was a real suffer fest. In addition, there were 3 killer hills up and out of the Wabash Valley. Add in a 15 - 20mph headwind, well, you get the picture. I was passed by two different groups of people I've ridden with before many times. I really tried to keep up with each group, but I couldn't keep up the 17mph pace going into the wind, even with the benefit of draft created by the other riders.

It took longer for me to travel the last 20 miles than it took me to ride the first 38 miles to Andrews. I was happy to see my truck, and I have to say I blinked a couple times when I saw it to make sure it wasn't an apparition. Anyway, as tough as the biking was, it was a good training ride. Now for some rest and recovery.

Happy riding!

New Wheel Ahead

About 20 years ago I re-built the rear wheel on my Trek 500 using an Araya rim. It's lasted quite a while, but frankly, I'm tired of having to true the damn thing after every other ride.

I took the spokes off, cleaned up the hub, and mailed it off today to Peter White in New Hampshire. I'm asking him to re-build the wheel again, this time with a Mavic Open Sport rim with swaged spokes.



Peter built the rear wheel for my Tricross, and after 5,200 miles on it, I've had no problems at all. Not even a tiny wobble.

So, I'm looking forward to getting my new wheel for the Trek. I've been riding the Trek on weekend club rides because it's faster than my Tricross, and with the Trek, I have more of a chance of being with the lead group near the end of the rides. At least until the sprint starts.

Although I don't aspire to beating those folks, I'd at least like to not have to true my wheel anymore.

It's a Comfort Thing

After a busy week of travel away from home and the bike, I've been able to ride each of the last three days. And despite the high winds, it's been sweet. Tonight I rode east over to Grabill. A half mile from the feed mill here I could smell the savoriness of ground soybeans and supplement. It's a comfort thing. Comfort food. For goats.


On the other side of town, another savory treat. Comfort food. For Bill.




Happy riding!