Best Laid Plans of Men and Potholes

Hi all,
Well, for the third time in about 4000 miles, I crashed. Sigh, yes 'tis true. The Little Red Bike is now officially broken in. Thankfully, not very broken. Our story starts where all good stories start: It was a dark and stormy night....

Well, one fact in that it was dark. In fact it was 4:45 in the morning! I had planned to rise early and commute the 26 miles to work, and enjoy the lovely warm morning and have a nice peaceful ride into work. Sadly, it wasn't to be. As I headed down the first hill (Gentile St. for you Utahns) I hit a pothole. Not a big one, nor a deep one. The fact that I was going almost 30 miles an hour might have been a causal factor in the festivities. Well, right after the pothole, the front tire flatted, and before I could get control of the LRB, things got exciting as a standard crash and burn occurred.

The results:
Nice jogging tights: Trash
The seat cover of the Rans Seat: Torn.
Front Rim: Intact, with a bit of a hop. The tube however is trash. My new Conti GP tire survived. They make good tires!
Road rash: In full bloom. Yowee it feels special.

Pics below:








For now it appears the bike is intact, all important moving parts appear to be working fine. Seriously, it could have been a lot worse!The FAA Doc says I will be sore as heck for a bit, then heal just fine. I will take the rim down and have it checked. So, that's the news of the day. Hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend and get some fresh air and sunshine.

Happy Riding

JIm

Ready for Riding

A few folks have mentioned that they wanted to see the bike as it is now, not all pretty for a portrait, but equipped and ready for a long summer of riding. So here are the 'before and after' pictures. First when the bike was brand new, uncluttered with any extra accessories. And secondly as it is now, with the light mount on the front, new bags under and behind the seat, bottle cages for carrying snacks, ready to go anywhere!

Enjoy!

Lights! Action! Birds?

Hi all
A quick Sunday post to bring you a short update. First off, I finally figured out my Minoura Light Mount for the Barcroft. The mount is used to support lights on recumbents out on the front of the bike on the front derailleur stem. I had attempted using this a while back without success, so mounted my Light and Motion 5W light on the handlebar stem. The light worked fine in that position, however my knees interfered with the light beam, and also it was quite distracting to ride like that. Upon receiving some advice from friends on BROL - http://bentrideronline.com/ I once again mounted the light out front. Will report on usability after this weeks commute.



And more importantly, we have new houseguests! Seems a robin has taken up residence in our tree in the front yard, and would appear to nestling on her eggs. Exciting times here! I was lucky to get a photograph of her this afternoon while working quietly on the bike.



And lastly, I found a nice article about bike commuting to work. The article is not recumbent based, and just addresses the wonders and benefits of riding to work. Link below.

http://www.ultracycling.com/equipment/commuting.html

Happy riding, all.

Jim

Riding in Florida

Hi all,
Sorry for the long delay in posting. I was in Palm Coast, Florida about 20 miles north of Daytona Beach. The FAA has a training center there, http://www.cmel.faa.gov/and they enjoy sending us there from time to time to enjoy classes, and lovely dormitory living. Along with all the comforts of a college dorm, CMEL has a garage full of Giant Simple beach cruiser bikes. So everyday around 5 PM one could escape on a bike and enjoy the wonderful bike paths in and around Palm Coast. Enclosed below are some snapshots from riding around the area. On Thursday last, needing an escape from the dorm, I took a drive to the largest Harley dealership in the world. Now, I am not a biker, and don't ever expect to be one anytime soon. But I have a lot of friends from my work who own Harleys, so I took the tour to ogle the fine machines and take some pictures. Just in case I win a million dollars, I picked out a snazzy one just for me.

In other cycling news, today (Thursday 5/11) I succesfully rode the full loop to my work and back. 51 miles round trip! No flats, no crises, no near death experiences, no middle finger salutes from any SUV drivers. Working towards ride commuting to work once each week. Have done it twice so far, and eventually will get better at it. Don't forget that next week, May 19th is national Ride your Bike to Work Day. I expect all of you to hop on your bike and take a ride!

And finally, hats off to my friend Pete, from Canberra who last weekend completed a 1000 kilometer 2.5 day bike ride. That's almost 650 miles folks! Check out the link below to learn all about Brevet's and other such distance events.

http://www.audax.org.au/

That's the news for the day. Happy riding all.

Jim




The Intercoastal Waterway


(A great beach for Kathy and I)


CMEL Beach Cruiser bikes


(My friend Dwight, from Minneapolis)


My new (in my dreams) bike!
I don't even know how to shift it!