Changing Bikes

Changing bikes, my first ride on my new to me Bacchetta Giro 26

It’s been a while coming but I’ve decided to make a change in my bike.

The Rans F5 has been a fantastic bike for me.  It’s taken me from about 230 pounds down to 188 pounds, from a 44” waist to a 34” waist, it’s taken me to my first century in almost 20 years, and to my first ever brevet of 125 miles with the nice folks at Lone Star Randonneurs.  It’s had one limitation though that has bothered me almost from the start.  It’s limited on tire clearance.  While it will run 26” MTB wheels, (or 559’s if you prefer) as well as the stock 650c wheels, it just won’t handle a tire bigger than a 26 x 1.1 in the front and a 26 x 1.3 in the back.  This really limits the choice for tires and types of terrain you can ride.  Knowing what I know now, I would have bought the Rans F5 Enduro or a Bacchetta Giro 26 from the beginning just to have the ability to run some wider tires should I want to get off the pavement and put a little gravel in my travel.

So not to long ago I started shopping for a different bike, and of course as normally would happen when I am looking for something it’s nowhere to be found within my price range.  Several bikes were available but they were either not quite what I was after, a little to far out of my price range, or were going to end up being to expensive to upgrade into what I was after.  Ebay came through however.  I usually keep a close eye on recumbents and related items on Ebay but this listing had slipped through my search net.  I happened to run a different search string for no real reason, and there it was.

The seller must have had real similar ideas as to what I wanted to do when they set up their bike because it had about 95% of the things already done to it that I had been contemplating:

Spare 700C wheels?  Done

26” MTB wheels?  Done

Disc brakes?  Done

Fat tires for gravel?  Done

Skinny tires for road?  Done

Carbon seat pan?  Done

Original Euromesh seat pan?  Done

Spare fork?  Done

Spare Flip-it  stem?  Done twice!

Bacchetta Brain Box for carrying gear?  Done

A price I can fit in my budget?  Done

The bike showed up via FedEx on Saturday and I spent the majority of Saturday evening getting everything put together.  The last few details were taken care of Sunday morning before church and I was ready to ride.

I’d mounted the 700C wheels on the bike to see how it rode with those as opposed to the 26” ATB wheels I had been riding on the F5.  It was different being up that much higher.  Stopping and starting were a bit different and took some getting used to.

I road my normal route north out of McKinney to get out into the county and away from most of the traffic.  I discovered a couple of different things out there.  Either; the new bike is faster, the 700C wheels were faster, or I was having a really good day.   I did set a new personal best through a stretch of road that I’ve nicknamed “Triple Bypass”, its three short but nasty steep hills on CR 125.  Another nice discovery was that the county has totally repaved Weston road, it is smooth and fast, a really nice change from what it was.  The other nice discovery was CR 171 out of Weston, a couple of other cyclists had recommended this to Vicky they other week instead of FM 455.  CR 171 is a nice little road, lots of bends and shallow hills, its well worth riding.  The ride ended up being 62 miles with about 2200 feet of climbing, which was about the distance I was looking for, it’s a distance that is generally long enough for me to figure out if something is going to work for me or it isn’t.   I ended up stopping several different times to do some tweaking and tuning on the bike.  Around mile 40 and after doing lots of little adjustments and tweaks the bike seems to be dialed in pretty close.

As usual lessons were learned on this ride.

More water.  I’d started with a 100 ounce Camelbak that was full and two 24 ounce bottles.  I finished with just a couple of ounces left in one bottle.  I guess I need to find a refill point out there somewhere as the temperature around here is heading toward summer.  I’d weighed in that morning at 190.4 pounds, after the ride I clocked in at 183.2 pounds and that was after drinking about 140 fluid ounces of water and electrolyte replacement.

A series of short rides would have been better for dialing in the majority of the fit issues.

Make sure your new disc brakes aren’t scrubbing the entire ride.

I need longer reach handlebars for the Giro.  I found myself reaching way out for the bars.

Oh, and sunscreen is a good thing...

04.28.2012 Muenster Metric Century

     

I finally got the chance to ride the Muenster Metric Century yesterday.  This had been on my to do list since I first heard about it back when I was riding in 2004.  Since I've gotten back into riding this was high on my list of rides to hit this year.  I am glad that I did it, it was a really great ride over a challenging course.

According to the pre ride announcements there were over 2000 riders for the various routes.  Lots of normal upright bikes and a good representation of recumbents.  Saw a pair of Carbent Ravens, a couple of Catbike Mushashi's, Carolynn on her P38 Lightning, John on his Bacchetta CA2.0, Texpug on her Catrike, and after the ride I saw Roy's Morciglio Apache, there were several others who I didn't catch names on so don't feel left out.

Given that many cyclists all starting together down a narrow rural farm to market road was "entertaining".  I saw one crash occur about 20 minutes into the ride, I think someone bumped wheels from the looks of it.  I was stuck in traffic and didn't have an option to stop and help, (I still feel bad about that, I hope the cyclist was OK).

With the ride starting into a stiff headwind the 2000+ herd broke apart fairly quickly into separate groups.  I had fun bridging groups and launching out into the wind by myself and putting my lower wind profile to use.  Several riders on uprights caught on pretty quick and sat on my wheel for what little draft I offered.  I was more than happy to pull as I was having fun chasing after the next group, catching them, sitting in the back to recover a bit and launch after the next group.

I hit SAG #1 for a quick bathroom break and a chance to ice down my water bottles, I tried a bottle full of Powerade as that was what they had, (lesson learned, stick to Gatoraid).  After SAG #1 the short route turned back toward their finish so the traffic dropped off quite a bit.  I continued bridging groups from one to another, sitting in and chatting with each new group I came up on.  I rolled through SAG #2 and kept on going.

I was sitting in talking to a guy on a Catrike Speed when I noticed a jersey with the Marine Corp emblem go by.  As I was also wearing my Marine Corps jersey I had to catch up to him.  Come to find out he was in the reserves based out of Fort Worth.  He was up with a couple of other Marines for the ride.  We hit SAG #3 where his buddies caught up and we had a full Marine Corp fire team ready to go!

After SAG #3 the 65 kilometer route split out for their finish and I continued up the road.  During the pre ride announcements grooved pavement had been mentioned.  It wasn't just grooved, it was cratered.  That was some of the roughest, nastiest bits of road I've been on in a while.  And of course that section, in the middle of a steep uphill, had to be when the flat fairy came for a visit.  A quick tube change, check the tire for something sharp, re-install, and then courtesy of the nasty rough road, break out the allen wrenches and start tightening down loose bits.

Once the bike was ready it was more hills, up and down into Saint Jo, Texas.  Another  Sag stop, more pickles to fight off leg cramps, more ice water and down the road I went.  I'd been hearing reports of a really nice downhill north of Saint Jo.  The reports didn't lie, I hit 49.7 mph down the hill.  Check out the video link by clicking on FREE FALL.

The last part of the ride was south back into the wind with more hills, one really brutal one where you paid for the ride down Free Fall.  Grinding my way up it with my heart rate maxing out and my forward speed barely being enough to keep me upright and on the bike I was praying for a large semi.  I figured if he hit me hard enough it would stop the pain and misery.  But once I got to the top, convinced my heart rate to climb down out of the 180's, tried to ignore more leg cramps, the speed picked back up and I started rolling down the road.  Again, being on a recumbent really paid off as the south wind was really putting the hurt on the people on the upright bikes.

I rolled back into Muenster, looked at my odometer, 60.67 miles, considered turning around and rounding it up to 62 miles, said no to that idea and headed for the van.

Several lessons learned from this ride.

• Hunt down the flat fairy and shoot the bugger in the head
• Check, recheck, and loctite appropriate bits on your bike as needed
• Bragging about how fast you can go on a downhill and then cramping up while sprinting down the hill is no fun.
• Dill pickles are your friend when you are cramping
• Going 49.7 mph on a recumbent is an adrenaline rush
• One application of sunscreen was not enough, give me a war bonnet, a bow, a pony and I could open my own casino!

What a difference a year makes!

It's not been an a whole year for the diet and exercise plan but I was able to dredge up a picture of me from a year ago...

Then:

Now:

Yep, I really was that bad.

03.31.12 The first brevet is done!

Ok, so for y'all out there who don't speak French and are wondering what a brevet is, it's just a different type of bike ride.  Generally it's characterized by longer distances usually 200 kilometers, (or 125 miles) or more, and sometimes a lot more!  You have a time limit to complete the ride and you have to check in at control points along the way to verify you completed the course.

When Vicky first started talking of joining the Lone Star Randonneurs and riding brevets and such, it sounded like a really fun group of people and a fun new type of ride.  I'd no idea at the time just what I was getting myself into.

Imagine a group of people whose idea of a really good time is 20+ hours on a bicycle saddle for 250 or more miles, and I thought I was crazy, I'd not seen crazy till Saturday.  I'd also not met a much nicer group of people either.  Here I was, well out of my pay grade getting together to start a ride with folks who were riding 350-400 miles or more a week.  There was a huge amount of experience and information regarding long distance riding contained in that group.  And what was great for me, they were more than willing to share that information and help me out.

The group at the start...

The ride was the Fleas and Trees brevet out of Canton Texas.  The ride is named for the Third Monday Trade Days flea market held in Canton and the huge number of trees along the route.  About 6-7 of us chose to do the 200 kilometer route with the rest opting for the 400 kilometer ride and a trip to Louisiana.  

One the road to Gilmer.

 

A really nice shade tree to pump up a tire under!

 

The route itself was fantastic, it was classic east Texas with wonderful springtime weather.  Myself and another rider did hear a rumble or two of thunder but no rain developed for us fortunately.  I discovered that east Texas is not at all like around were my family and I live.  East Texas has hills!  Some of them even are pretty nice sized hills at that.  I remember looking up at an upcoming climb at one point and thinking how much that was going to hurt going up.  As I was starting down  a rather large hill I decided if I was going to hurt climbing up the next hill, I may as well enjoy the trip down.  Time to jam onto my big ring and see just how fast I can make my bike go, (I managed to break 41 mph, I guess next time I need a bigger hill as I want to break my best on a bike of 55 mph).

As this ride was a couple of firsts for me it was a huge learning experience.  This was not only my first brevet I'd ever tried, but it proved to be the longest ride I'd ever done.  It was also the second century ride I'd done since getting back on the bike and into shape.

The lessons and take aways from this ride:

·         Meeting and making new friends on the road.  This was a huge plus for me and a huge thank you to Michele for talking me through the ride,  and to the guys from Trinity Bicycles for finding what was causing my flat tire issues.  You all were great!

·         When there is a flat tire, take the time to hunt down the root cause of the problem and fix it right the first time.  Having flat tire issues from mile 25 to mile 109 was a bit of a problem. 

The I hate my tire face..

 

·         Don't let issues take you off your nutrition / hydration plan.  I let my flat tire issue get me off the nutrition  and hydration plan and paid for it on the return trip to Mineola.  I ate at the turn around in Gilmer, (mile 62) and didn't eat again till Mineola, (mile 99).  As a diabetic, that is a recipe for failure.  Although after looking at it and doing the math I now realize I averaged about 300 calories per hour, it just wasn't spaced out like I had intended it to be.  Hydration was the other big issue.  I'd refilled my bottles and Camelbak at the turn around in Gilmer.  About five miles out from Mineola I ran dry.  As it gets warmer, I'm going to need to carry more water in areas where towns are widely spaced apart.

·         Speaking as a type II diabetic, yes you can do endurance type events on a diet of mini Clif bars, Clif Shot Roks, Lance wheat and cheese crackers, Fig Netwons, natural peanut butter, Oreo Cakesters, (I know, but they looked tasty!) and Gatoraid.  Oh and the big bag of M&M's at the finish was a bonus!

·         I have to pack my seat bag better and come up with a system that when I need item "X", I can reach in and put my hand on item "X".

·         You don't have to be a hammerhead on every ride!  Sit back, enjoy the company, scenery, and the ride.  And don't forget to take more pictures!

·         The last big take away from this ride...  Make sure you don't accidently hit the stop button on your Garmin bike computer when changing flats.  As much as you wished it would have, it didn't record any data from mile 25 to mile 63.

Of course the next question is what's next?  Proving to myself I can go 125 miles now has me looking once more toward hitting that goal I set all the way back in October of 1988 of a double century, 200 miles all in a day.  That goal had better watch out, this fat old diabetic is sneaking up on it!

03.25.12 Too nice of a day to not ride!

Well last week I promised myself a special treat if I managed to do 100 miles on the bike.

This was taken as I was getting ready to leave to meet up with a fellow diabetic rider.  Can you spot the special treat?

The first part of today's ride was meeting up with Jeff K, who is the manager for Team Red, (the diabetic team for Tour D' Cure).  Jeff and I have been trying to get together for a ride for two months or so.  It was finally nice to meet and get the chance to ride.

The first part of today's ride was a 25 mile ride through the local hilly loop north of the town.  I felt bad for Jeff as he is a transplant from Michigan and his allergies are not yet used to a wet Texas spring and all the pollen.  I can well remember the time my allergies had adjusting down here.

Once Jeff and I finished up, it was just too nice of a day to not enjoy so I headed back out into the county and looped up around Weston.    80 some odd degrees and very light wind with hardly any clouds, days don't get much nicer around here.

What worked and didn't work.  I'd added a new bike bag from Bent Up Cycles and it worked great!  My homebrew mounting system for it though needs work.  Fig Newtons, Clif Shot Roks and Gatoraid continued to do well for nutrition.  I know I should have drank more, but as it was, I was watering trees about every ten miles.  What didn't work was somewhere on my bike I have something loose, time to go rattle hunting.

The total distance for today was 67.22 miles.  A quick check of my blood sugar after the ride showed I was at 93, right in the normal range!  An added benefit of today's ride was getting home and seeing this...

Too bad it's mostly all water weight.  Darn!

My first century in 20 years.

Well I managed to pull it off. 

Every since I did my first century back in 1988 I've loved the challenge of riding long miles.  It just seemed to be something that fit for me, it settled into my soul, this was my event.  The challenge of nothing more than myself, my bike, and a number on my bike computer.   To see if I can go longer than I've done before, to continually set that bar higher and higher.

Unfortunately years ago I'd let my love of cycling slide by the wayside due to career, an auto accident, poor lifestyle choices, (eating the wrong foods), and life.  It just seemed that although I loved to ride my bike, life was just going to get into the way.  Add a wife, kids, dogs and a house into the mix and things got busy.  Who had the time to ride?

The first wakeup call was getting diagnosed with Type II diabetes, the second was becoming insulin dependent, the third and final was realizing if I didn't do something I was going to lose my eyesight.  That third wakeup call I heard.

My wife and I made a change to a better diet, more exercise and a return to cycling via a recumbent.  Once I started riding again, that old love of the long distance ride came to the front in a big way.  While a 20 mile ride was nice, a 50 miler was better, I knew the true challenge was going to be 100+ miles.  That if I could make it 100 miles, especially as a Type II diabetic, I would be back.

All last week I had the nagging question running through my mind, could I do it?  Could I go the distance without blowing up and dying out there on the road?  I needed to figure out if I could do the distance as the local Randonneurs have a Brevet, (200 kilometers, 124 miles) ride coming up the end of the month that I'd like to do.  Saturday morning came around and the weather was right, breakfast was right, the time was right, this was MY day.

I rode it solo, just me to keep myself company.  I enjoy rides by myself, it gives me time to turn the brain loose and let it wander around on its own.  I find that this works great for problem solving, it allows me to look at things from different ways and come up with good solutions.   I tend to call this high speed meditation, (although on some portions of yesterday's ride, low speed meditation would be a better description).  One of the decisions reached was better glucose monitoring.  I'm even exploring the options for a 24/7 monitor for while I am on the bike, I'd really like to see what my glucose is doing during hard efforts.

And of course, there are pictures!

My GARMIN data for those interested is HERE.

Of course no effort like this comes without setting some type of carrot out in front as a treat for accomplishing the goal.  As to what the carrot was, you'll just have to look for the pictures later, I think you'll be surprised.

And once you hit one goal, you have to set the next one to chase.  And yes, I'm going back to that first century my buddy, Glen Handke and I did in 1988.  I looked at him and said, "Well 100 miles was fun, is 200 miles twice as much fun?"

Playing in traffic!

I've decided that it was time to drag out my mountain bike and turn it into a commuter to get back and forth to work.  With gas doing nothing but going up by $0.05 to $0.10 a leap it's time to cut back where I can.

Feed the kids, put gas in my car...  Decisions decisions.  Fortunately feeding the kids won out, if you don't feed them on a regular basis they get noisy and misbehave.

Doing some major digging in my garage unearthed a bunch of forgotten bike bits, I was able to locate my mountain bike fenders, several bits of dead lights and batteries, my old seat bag, (complete with a dead tube) and other somewhat useful bits.

My current plan is to drive to work only on Monday and Friday, and ride my bike the rest of the week.  I can bring three days worth of clothes and necessaries in on Monday and take the dirty stuff home Friday.  My Camelbak HAWG allows me to take my pocket items and lunch daily.

The commute so far is working out pretty good.  A 7.5 mile ride first thing in the morning does wonders for my metabolism, (kick starts it into high gear for the day).  This is good due to fact that with my diet and normal exercise load my metabolism runs for the hills screaming FAMINE and slows way down.  An added 15 miles a day, three times a week really helps the fitness base.

The commute also has another side benefit, as I'm on a bike I see a lot more of what is around and under me.  The other day was free tool day!  It looked like a tool truck has blew up on the road.  Unfortunately for me, it wasn't the Snap On truck but the cheap tool truck, but hey, free is free!

The only negative issue I've had on the commutes has been traffic.  Now it's just commuting through suburban McKinney, through mainly four lane roads, at non peak traffic hours.  One would think this wouldn't be an issue, however it's become an almost daily occurrence that someone gets a bit to close or doesn't want to move over into the open lane next to them and has to try and pass me in my lane.  Mind you, I'm one of those cyclist who believe in wearing high visibility colors, I have enough lights either blinking or shining that I can signal space aliens, I obey the rules of the road, and I ride in a steady and predictable manner, some drivers though just seem to have an issue with a regular bike on THEIR road.  As an aside note though, when I'm riding my recumbent, stupid behavior from drivers is a relative rarity.  My primary defensive weapon when on the bike for idiot drivers is my mirrors.  Since any argument between a bike and a vehicle is going to be a losing situation for me on my bike, I keep a close eye on what traffic is doing behind me and always leave a bailout path to safety.

I'd think of mounting a belt fed machine gun on my bike to solve the inattentive/aggressive driver issue, but aside from the paperwork though, the local drivers would have to get their noses up out of their phones to notice it.  It would only be effective once I went LOUD with it and that brings out so many more problems.