a long, hard, then slower and slower, ride
or, 15 miles too long and 5mph too fast
I went on my first ever club training ride tonight, with the Gopher Wheelmen. I’ve been a GW member since last fall, but it was cyclocross season then, so i just did a few dirt rides with the few members that do CX racing, and they were pretty casual. It was also late in the year, so they were winding down and i was relatively fit. Tonight, well, i fell off the back after 25 miles or so and was thankfully accompanied through to the end by Malte, who knew the route well. At least i didn’t have to use a tow rope or anything.
In retrospect, i was pushing too much in big gears when i should have been spinning. I was feeling pretty good and on top of things, so i was up toward the front for a while too, when i should have just hung back in the pack. I had no clue where we were or how much ride was left, so i didn’t pace myself very well, but all of that might not have made a difference. It was a good ride by my standards, but they go fast! After about 2 hours at 21+mph, my legs just ran out of gas.
I had a good time though, and i’m not dead, so i must be stronger (or something like that). With the regular work commute and the ride to the shop and back, i was just over 62 miles for the day.
local TC framebuilders
Rivendell lower head lug, sitting on my desk at work.
While riding along the Greenway trail last week, i passed by an guy riding a fixed gear bike with a frame with the name Domínguez on it. I said hi, but didn’t really chat because i was on my way to a meeting. The web being the web, and it being a small world and all, when i saw the name Domínguez on the Mpls Bike Love forum the next day, i decided to follow-up, found a website, and as it turns out, i’d passed Vincent Domínguez himself, local framebuilder and nice guy to boot.
I’m periodically reminded what a fantastic cycling hub the Twin Cities really are when this sort of thing happens. I’ve met a couple of other local builders, and they’re both really nice too, aside from doing amazing metal work. There are a lot of great bike shops in town, and a lot of cool people riding bikes, but probably not that many people realize what great talent this area has in bicycle framebuilders. I’ve known of a few for a while, but it seems like i’m constantly hearing on new ones in the last couple of years. It’s exacting work; part metallurgy, part craft, part art, and when done well the result is a beautiful and useful machine.
To keep track of them, I have started a page listing local framebuilders, at least as many as i can find (10 so far), always linked on this site. I’m hoping someday to throw some business their way for my own custom frame, but i also hope to build my own frame someday. Let me know in comments if i’ve missed any and i’ll gladly update the list.
Metro Transit Commuter Challenge
Metro Transit - Commuter Challenge
Metro Transit has a new challenge going to encourage people to take the bus or train, carpool, bike or walk. Ok, it’s a pretty good thing to encourage people to try transit options other than driving their car. And it’s nice that there are prizes to encourage people to give it a try. But what are they saying with these prizes? Let’s take a look:
iPods (4)
Bicycles (6)
6 megapixel digital cameras (2)
Listen to music, ride your bike, take pictures. Good stuff. Next?
Salon gift certificates (3)
Mall of America gift cards (3)
31-day transit pass
Reward your effort with a little pampering, bike or take the train to the Sprawl next time. OK. Next?
$75 in gas
Grand Prize A flat-screen TV (an $800 value)
That trip on the bus sure was an experience, eh? Now go burn some gas. And go back to sitting on the couch.
Six bikes is a good thing, and iPods and cameras make fine prizes. But perhaps more of the prizes could encourage further alternate transit use. How about making some of the bikes folding bikes, and promote that they can be taken along on the train? Make the grand prize a nice Breezer Uptown 8. How about 6 months free bike locker rental? Even non-bike related, how about sports tickets to venues on train & bus lines? Restaurant gift certificates for places on transitways. Something. Sheesh, already.
I LIKE that the trains are using wind and solar power, and that the busses are using some biodiesel. I’m really looking forward to having a train line nearby. But let’s get the message straight, eh?
TV-B-Gone!
Oh, the fun i would have with a TV-B-Gone. I would actually have a reason to visit a Best Buy again! bwaaaa ha ha ha. ha.
dances with helmets
The girls wanted to have an evening bike ride the other day, and while i was getting ready to go, Fiona broke out some new dance moves. She can really work the bike helmet and Buster Browns.
finally, some ride pictures
I had an evening meeting in Mpls yesterday, and in a rare instance, had plenty of time to get there. So i did the only rational thing on such a nice day; i biked there the long way. I took the Greenway trail as far as i had time for, accounting for the returning headwind, and ended up somewhere out in St. Louis Park before turning back into the wind.
I was going much faster on the way west, as evidenced by this photo of time actually warping in the wake of my rear wheel:
Still and all, a fun ride - i got in 34 miles for the day, including my regular work commute. Here’s a shot artfully blurred (by the time warping speed!) to mask the rushed and shabby weave job on the bar tape:
the bike tree
YouTube - A New Way to Park Bicycles.. Hang them in a Bike Tree
(click for nifty demo movie)
I don’t know where these are installed, maybe only in Geneva. This would be a super cool thing to have these around here, wonder how much they would cost for a monthly bike storage card. I wonder too if there’s enough solar power to keep them running here year ’round. Looks like an excellent solution for places like train terminals and central bike stations near downtowns.
More info on biketree.com.
Kurt Vonnegut
(via Salon.com)
vonnegut021601.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)
This is an audio file of Kurt Vonnegut reading the reversed war movie passage from Slaughterhouse-Five. This should be required listening in these times, but so it goes.
a lovely Easter 50-miler
When it’s been in the 30s and raining or snowing for a week, and the next week has 2-4″ of snow predicted, 40° and sunny might as well be 75°, because we’re going to spend it outside. For Easter sunday this year, we spent a lovely 4 hours or so biking 48 miles to the end of the Gateway Trail and back home again. We started off with Ella on the trail-a-bike behind me, and Fiona in the Burley behind Autumn. Malte rode my mountain bike, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. As usual for our family rides (an usual for any teenager, i think), he didn’t seem to think that the ride was worthy of cycling clothes or his road bike.
We’ve done a few of these long rides with the kids before, so we were pretty well prepared with a mini picnic, lots of water, some toys, and warm clothes for the 30° noon start. The first few miles were a lot of starting and stopping to adjust things or add more clothes because of the headwinds. Once we were heading past Roselawn cemetary into the woods everybody’s moods picked up, at least partly due to the wind-blocking trees, and partly due to the fun twisty descents.
The first few miles of Gateway trail are honestly kinda lousy. The trail crosses so many streets that you’re stopping at least every 1/4 mile or so, or so it seems. It’s especially hard when you’re pulling a load, but these crossings are bigger streets with 35-40mph traffic, so they always warrant a stop. It’s not all that picturesque either, as this is a rails-to-trails route, and we’re following the rail line through the backsides of old industrial areas. I like these kinds of views though, it’s mainly the stopping i don’t like.
A little further out though, and trail becomes really lovely. You’re passing through farmland, with occasional marshes or creeks, there’s a horse trail alongside the paved trail and Malte gets a few dirt miles in for a change. We stop a lot less often now, just a quick bathroom and snack stop with lots of running around from the girls. Then we settle into a nice rhythm and decent pace, listening the choruses of spring peepers, spying a rabbit dashing along the edge of the woods. Before we know it, we’re at Pine Point park for the turnaround @27 miles. We stop for a break here, the kids run off to explore while we stretch a bit and eat.
Ella had been in the trailer for the last 15 miles (we traded, me pulling both kids), but she got back on the trail-a-bike for the ride home (trading back again - the trail-a-bike is too wriggly for Autumn’s bike, the hitch needs adjustment). What a trooper; by the time we got back home, she had put in 30 miles of trail-a-bike riding, and very happily riding along until the last 2 miles when the cold and fatigue caught up. Then it was back to the Burley (Autumn with both now, me deadheading the t-a-b) for the final stretch home. The ride home was considerably warmer, with less wind and stronger sun, but it was a long afternoon to be outside in the cool air, and we were all ravenously hungry.
The final tally was 48 miles, just under 13mph average, but lots of fun. I finished in pretty good shape; Malte looked beat and he didn’t pull a trailer, Autumn was tired at the end but with 2 kids in the trailer, it’s hard NOT to be tired. A really nice ride overall. No pictures, but just imagine being surrounded by the sound of peeping frogs, the warm sun and cold breeze, and you’ll have most of it anyway.
Headwind and the angry inch
… inch of progress, that is… into the wind. the cold, unforgiving wind.
A north wind is the worst, especially when you live north of where you work. And did i mention the cold?