Beating the heat

It seems fall might come early to Texas.  The temps this morning were in the mid 70s with a strong breeze.  Absolutely wonderful.  I pedaled along at about 5 mph in no hurry at all, just enjoying being out today.   You can see how crowded the trail was.  In 2 hours I saw about 10 people total.  I'm looking forward to the next few months of great riding weather.

Some like it hot!

My Saturday went from a boring trudge to a long slow grind that led to me getting slammed in the backside and then ended with a Blond Bombshell.  And it was wicked hot.

What, you want details?  Ok.  I decided to go hiking with a group of people Saturday morning in the woods about an hour north of here.  Too much of it was uphill, through soft sand or on a long asphalt road.  Here is the group taking a short break before more uphill trudging.

 When it got up to 95 degrees I told the group I was taking the shortcut back to the parking area and promptly hitched a ride with a passing car.  I left my hiking buddies to another two hours of trail I wasn't interested in.  I told them I'd meet them at the brewery later as planned.

This is one of the roads we hiked along that joined a couple trails.  This isn't the car I hitched with, wish it had been, they looked like they were having fund as they blew past horns honking.  There was about 20 of these antiques of various models.


How hot was it out here? Hot enough for almost all the ground cover like these ferns to be dried to a crisp.  Fire hazard for miles.

Anyway, on the way to the brewery after a stop for lunch a dingy girl hit my car at a stop light.  We pulled over to look at the damage and there wasn't really any so we decided to not worry about it.  Oh, and the blonde?

Southern Star Southern Star Brewery makes a great beer I discovered called Blonde Bombshell.  How good?  It turned to this really quick--->


It made up for what was otherwise mostly a crappy day.

Riding Out of Control

When I started out riding my trike a 2-3 mile round-trip ride was enough to get me slightly winded.  I was, and still am, very out of shape.  I’ve made an effort to ride 2-3 times a week and doing my best to make one a weekend ride of around 3 hours.  I’m up to 18 miles in a 3 hour window without being exhausted.  As I work in increasing my average moving speed (I spend too much time sightseeing) I will build total miles quickly.  I’ve been testing some smartphone tools to work as a cycling computer, I think I’ve settled on Endomondo, it’s nice and does what I think I need. But because it took me so long to pick one and switching around I lost track of my mileage so far. My current estimate is about 175miles.  A paltry sum I plan to build on enormously.                           

So what’s the point?  I ride mostly on paved trails like this one:

I’ve gone a few hundred yards on some wide dirt paths (flat as a board here in Houston) So my trike has been pretty gently used so far.  But the other day in the middle of a ride down a wide pave trail through the Heights my steering yoke started to wobble from side to side.  Tightened the nut the runs through the frame that I thought might be loose. No change.  So when I got home I took off the seat to see how I could tighten up whatever was loose. The handlebar was deflecting about an inch up and down on either side and that’s really annoying.   It’s a new trike so some things have worked loose as I’ve ridden cables have stretched, brakes needed adjusting, all the things I expected.  But under the seat I discovered this:

The weld on the Steering Brace seems to have failed.   It’s been gently used and doesn’t have that many miles on it so far.  I’ve never abused the steering yoke.  I dismount by grabbing the top of the front tires and standing up. I sit down in a similar fashion.  So it’s not from me pressing on one side other the other with a lot of weight.   I discovered this just a week before an organized ride with a cycling group I just joined and this isn’t a part I can pick up at the local bike shop.  Its a key part, of course, in keeping control of my trike and I don't want to risk it failing the remainder of the way while riding.

So first thing Monday I called up TerraTrike to find out what part, how much, Is it possibly under warranty, etc?  Can I even get it by this Saturday?  They told me I could get it by then for $66 Plus $11 for shipping.  But since I bought it through UtahTrikes and I wasn’t in their system I needed to call them for warranty replacement.  I’ve had a great experience with the guys and gals at UtahTtikes so far so I called them up.  I don’t know who I talked to that day, but he asked me to take some pictures of the part and the trike to show the damaged part and that the trike was undamaged.  So I did that and emailed them off.  By the end of Tuesday I was getting worried about potential shipping delay making it impossible to get the part by Friday so I resolved to just purchase the part warranty or no and get it overnighted.  Since they said it was in stock and I had already been talking to them I called up UtahTrikes again and explained to Ashley what I needed.  I didn’t even mention that I had talked to someone else about possible warranty replacement.  But he had seen the email and guessed that it was me.  He was confused as to why the folks at TerraTrike handled things this way and said that he would ship me the part if i send the old on back to him.  he said he could weld it back in place in 2 minutes and powder-coat it back to original condition.  I believe that would be easy for them.  Go have a look at the custom trikes they do.  Awesome stuff.

Anyway, the part came today and I've go to get it on before its too dark, I don't want to be messing with this the night before the ride.

When the lights go down in the city

So you want to ride your bike at night?  You better have a crap ton of lights to see where your going and more important be seen. I'm still planning to get more for my bike.  But for now I have the Planet Bike Blaze 2Watt LED Headlight lights I mentioned in a previous post for the front they are really bright, but my biggest worry has been not being seen when approached from behind.  So I got a Portland Design Works Radbot 1000 1W LED Tail Light it has a reflector and a hellishly bright red light that can be set steady, flash slow or epilepsy inducing flash.  I also hung a pair of Serfas Guppy Combo Bicycle Light Kit on my highly reflective PurpleSky flag on the back.  They also have flashing and steady modes.  They are easy to hang anywhere and if placed against something, (backpack, seat back, etc.) they will light up a good sized area to add to overall visibility.  I still want to get a second rear light the Planet Bike Blinky Super Flash 1/2-Watt Blaze LED Plus 2 eXtreme LED Rear Bicycle Light probably, its really popular too and should make for an impossible to ignore combo with the Radbot.  I attached the rear light with zip ties on the rear rack using the mounting bracket that comes with the Radbot, the are well attached and don't move.  I still plan on more reflectors and maybe some down-lights under the seat or frame.  I may be paranoid, but I will be noticed.



In the summer in Texas the best time to ride is early in the morning or late at night.  And going without lights at night well, you won't be doing that too long.  Do yourself a favor and get as many lights as you can stand.


Click on one of the links to check out more reviews and get the best safety equipment you can find, even a minor car/bike accident is bad for the cyclist.

New trike work stand

PVC is my friend.  I took the plans from Utah Trikes website.  Trikes and PVC Article I bought all the parts for about $33.  Then in the morning, I chopped up the pipe with my saw.  It all fit together just fine.  So I started taking it apart and gluing it back together.  That could have gone better; I glued a part wrong and had to hammer on the thing to get it to go together. The crossbeam in the front is missing some pieces.  I actually broke my rubber mallet hammering it together.  But it’s assembled its sturdy strong and lightweight.  It makes tuning the tike up a lot easier.  I can’t imagine a cheaper way to get a decent safe stand for a trike. 

Anybody have a different stand or way to work on a trike without knelling on the floor?

George Bush park trail

I've been testing out various tracking programs for my phone.  Google's My Tracks works really well with lots of different data,  The one I think I like the most though is Endomondo.  Its pretty user friendly and the web tools allow you to find and plan routes.  The phone will give you updates every mile of how long that last mile took and the expected total time of the route based on what you've done up to that point.  It butts in to my podcasts, but it does help me keep the speed up when I notice the total expected time starts going up.  No I just have to figure out how to embed it here properly...

Endomondo Cycling Workout: "was out cycling 17.73 miles in 2h:49m:50s using Endomondo."

Pave paradise and put up a parking lot.

I have been traveling around town looking for the best places to ride my trike. I have not explored even a third of them yet. There are many nicely paved trails in Houston as well as wide dirt trails that work well for a trike. That said the hard part is not finding a trail, its finding parking for your car! Oh, I've found a few places close to a number of trails, but not many look like my car would be safe even for an hour unattended, especially if the "locals" watched me cycling away. Not to mention parking tickets and getting towed.

Why not just ride out of your garage and go wherever you want? Well I could cross the highway I suppose. I might live. And I could ride on the shoulder of a few of the roads with 50mph traffic and hope all the cars stay in their lanes. Then there are the roads with no shoulders and no sidewalks at all. I can get about 3 miles of safe low traffic roads near my home, but even repeating that a second time doesn't really last long enough, and going in circles bores the hell out of me. So I have to drive to some place to ride most of the time.

Putting my trike in my CRV isn’t too hard, the back seat folds down and I roll it in easily. The back wheel of my Cruiser comes just barely between the front seats. It’s actually better than using a bumper rack I think. When I carry my wife’s and mine I put mine on the roof and tie it on with rope and put hers in the back. Hers is much heavier and would be harder to do the overhead press necessary.

So for the time being I have found five different places that have over 10 miles of trail with a good parking spot close to the trails I like. I have three more to try and I will keep searching the others for good parking.

Anybody in the Houston area have suggestions for locations?

Visible changes

You might have noticed I now sport a noticeable flag on the back of my trike.  I bought it from Purple Sky Flags. It is, as you can see a very bright yellow and has a neon green streamer.  The silver circles you see are very reflective material. In the second picture you can see the amount of reflectiveness, that was a picture in the shade at about 8:30am and the flash illuminated it nicely.  They have many colors, three sizes, and circles or stripes that you can customize with. I chose yellow and green to make me as obvious as possible. 

I now feel like I might be a little safer venturing on to streets when I need to.  With this and lights that I have added, even poorly lit streets are going to get used on summer nights when the daytime heat makes riding impossible.  The construction of the flags is the highest quality, I can't say enough good things about that.  Its fabric, not plastic and doesn't make much noise at my below 15 mph speeds that I have noticed.  There are a couple of other flag choices out there, but this one looked like the best to me.   I intend to have the most obnoxiously lit trike I can have for night riding, I'm still working on that and will let you know more soon.  I'm still testing the rear light and some others that I will be mentioning as soon as I can. Teracycle still hasn’t' shipped the mount I ordered for the headlights.  I want to have decent pictures to go along with all the things I mention I've tried out to give as clear an explanation as possible.  In the meantime here is the video from Purple Sky's site:

  

Sinking in the sand

I had a mostly free day to ride all I wanted. I decided to map out both of the trails near home. One its about two miles and the other about three.  They both connect, although they do so at a street with a standard curb.  Kinda hard to get down and back up on a trike without dismounting and dragging the trike over them...annoying.  

Going to the end and backtracking it just about eleven miles. Not too bad, about half

is wooded with good shade, the rest is very sunny. I found a few dirt trails that were wide and flat, I would love to find more like this.  So I decided to try out the track I noticed on the other side of the 

gully on the way out.

Other riders and joggers confirmed it went the right way.  Halfway though I found out why some off road tires like Schwalbe Big Apple HS 338 Fatty Bicycle Tire

 (20x2.0, Allround Wire Beaded, Reflex) or Fat Alberts would have been nice to have bought with the trike. My road tires have fairly smooth tread and they are not so good for traction once you sink into sand. I was literally spinning my wheels.  Sigh, another dismount and drag the trike.  I should have tried the left turn I passed.  I got back to paved trail pretty quick and decided no more off road till I switch tires.  Too bad, this type of trail is fun

 
View Cypress Creek/Louetta Trails in a larger map  <----Click this to see it in a readable view.

Working on my Trike

Since I don't have a proper rack yet I have been improvising to get my trike off the ground to work on it.  A cooler in the wagon seems to be the most stable so far.  I really need to get around to building a PVC stand.

Why do I need to work on my almost new bike? Since I have an Internal Gear Hub (Nuvinchi 360 which I love, more later)  I have a chain tensioner to keep the chain tight if I shift the front triple crank set.  Unfortunately now that I regularly ride in my highest gear a lot I've found that when I down shift the spring on the tensioner  sometimes pops off.

I've never been able to force it all the way back on, even when I loosen the chain.  I have thought the chain was too short and was hyper extending the whole gizmo.  But even with the chain off I can't get it to work.  Maybe the spring is permanently damaged?  Its make is Origin8 Pro Pulsion UL Chain Guide its about $29 and it came with the bike.  Until it came loose I would have recommended it, but how I'm thinking of tossing it out if bigger tools wont force the spring back in place.  The difference in my front rings might be more than this tensioner can handle.  I'm also considering a different one like the one below because it can take up more slack that this one I have supposedly.  It might make the chain quieter too if it weren't so tight all the time.

Off road trailblazing

I tested out Google My Tracks on my android phone.  Its really cool.and it has this handy upload feature which then has this cool embed tool (see below)  it tracks speed, location, elevation changes and of course distance. I should have kept it recording for one solid track, to make it more useful.   I was riding with a mixed group, road bikes, MTBs and we even gave a dirt path through the woods a try.  When we got to several tree trunks blocking the path we turned back to the pavement.  But the trike did pretty well where the brush wasn't too overgrown.  It made for about a 9 mile ride and I got up to 14mph for a bit.  Thats my longest ride and fastest sustained speed with the trike so far.  When my stamina is built up more I might alter the gearing or swap the back wheel for a 26 in to get a higher top speed.  For now having to peddle fast is a good thing for improving my ability.  We didn't do the entire trail, I think there is another 3-4 miles of trail if we had gone all through Bear Creek Park and there is more trail north of where we turned around.  I'll definitely be going back here.


View 2011-03-26 07:23 in a larger map    <----Click this to see it in a readable view.

Time to Accessorize

With the spring rolling in its warm enough to get out and ride.  With daylight saving (though I still hate it) its light enough if I rush home from work for a quick ride.  But as my rides are getting longer and I don't always get out of work that fast its dusk before I know it.with such a low trike, in dark blue with no flags or lights I'm not going on any pavement that is shared with teenage drivers.  Or cars in general.  Doesn't matter how safe I am, or how careful the drivers are.  I would be hard to see and an accident is one of those things that often only happens once. Car vs. nearly prone man? Lets just move on from that though to what to do about it.  I bought some lights.  Amazon had a sale on Planet Bike Blaze 2Watt LED Headlight so I bought a pair.


I looked at a lot of lights that are out there first. Many of the choices are just "see me" lights.  This is what was available in most of the local shops. I wanted something to see with.  For a while I though I would get the CygoLite Trion 600: Triple LED Bike Light with Internal Li-Ion Battery It really looks like a the best light for the money but seemed a little pricey for my first uninformed light purchase.  What if I chose wrong? I was also concerned that on a trike it wouldn't illuminate the ground very far ahead.  Would I have to mount it on a pole because its too large to use as a helmet light?  Find a lighter and smaller light like the NiteRider MiNewt LED Li-Ion Bicycle Head Light?
 I revisited Halogens with battery packs, Dynamo powered lights, DIY LEDs, even a few that rival the brightest car head lights...and are prices like a car.  DIY sounded really temping, but its not always affordable and requires skills, supplies, tools, and effort that didn't seem worth it.  I was struggling with how to get the Lumens, beam size and range that was best and on a reasonable budget.  Arrgg! Overwhelming choices, options and performance!

Then I realized what I needed was a light for the type of riding I intend to do.  I'm not going to be riding through a forest at midnight, downhill at 30 mph.  I'm going to be ridding bike paths, and low traffic residential streets.  I just need two reasonably bright light to focus one on the road ahead of me and one pointed farther out or maybe strapped to my helmet pointing to where I'm looking. Hopefully where I'm looking is where I'm going. So when the high end of the "commercial" headlights came up with a discount on Amazon, the Planet Bike Blaze 2Watt LED Headlight I bought a pair.  With Amazon Prime I got free shipping too.  They are great.  Very bright, have a low and high beam option and attention getting flashing mode.  I'm ordering a mount to put one on the front of my trike and I'm using one on my helmet.  If I weren't riding a recumbent it might be a little heavy to wear on my too heavy helmet (more on that later) but my seat angle puts it right on top so I don't feel it on bumps or anything.  If I were riding a two-wheeler and staring at the ground most of the time I would choose a NiteRider like I mentioned above for helmet use. At the same time I've been looking in to taillights and flag to increase my visibility.  I've ordered some things and when I get them I'll post my thoughts on that.  If you ride anywhere after dark get an appropriate light or two. You won't regret it.

Herman Park part two

The train comes right down Main street to the park.

I think a lot of people must take the train to the park. Because finding parking is a real pain.

This guy laid his blanket down in a big open space and was calling on the phone. Girlfriend didn't show up?

Lovers standing close on the footbridge, whispering declarations of love to one another?

Oh wait, they are having an argument...perhaps its that now apparent baby on the way?

I love people watching and interjecting my own script on their lives. But this pair did not seem to be getting along too well.

Many flowers in the park were blooming.

Not all though, these Crepe Myrtles seem to have been set back by excessive trimming. Most around town are blooming.

Wild Life in Herman park

The train at Herman Park looks like a fun ride. The kids on board were all waving and having a good time.

Miller outdoor theater has a lot of kites flying, kids rolling down hill and in this picture a toddler that seemed to have no parent around as he wandered off. They eventually realized he had been running pretty fast and caught up with him. Some teenagers had a weird skateboard with giant wheels and they were taking turns bombing down the hill. I raced one down.  He was fast, but with me, the trike and a little peddle power at the start, he didn't stand a chance. Funny thing is it looks much steeper going 25 mph down the hill...

Kids get to cool off at the miniature replica of the Washington monument with reflecting pond.

Herman Park has great paved and crushed granite paths to cruise down.

They are wide and have interesting scenery everywhere you look.

The paddle boats look fun, but I have my own peddle powered fun at hand.

Huge beautiful trees everywhere. Though not for the Charlie Browns among us.

Someones fun was spoiled.

I've always liked this sculpture in front of the Zoo.

This duck seemed suspicious of the strange man on the strange bike.

He was giving the the stink eye for quite a long time.

Kite flying looked pretty crowded. Up close some of the kites were incredible. Birds, dragons. etc. Next time I'll try to get pictures of the grounded kites. I should bring the video camera for this stuff, the point and shoot is good for pictures, but video is a bit blurry...oh wait my video is fine, YouTube just smashed it down to near unwatchable. I'll have to figure out how to embed better quality video.

Resistance training

I found a great paved trail just a five minute drive from my house. Its about 4 miles of nice wide paved trails with another long section of curvy sidewalks through a neighborhood that is attached. The weather has turned great and it makes for a wonderful ride, even when towing a wagon full of a 5 year old and her toys. Toy wagons don't roll as well as a nice low slung trike. Cant wait to get out here and go nuts by myself. There are several hills that I know I could get going full speed down.

Edit: I did come back a couple days later and went the other way, even went down a short dirt trail that looked like a lot of two-wheelers use. The trike worked great even off road, but I think its time for a tune up, it felt and sounded like the brakes might dragging a bit. I haven't seen either end of where I can ride on this trail, both ends connect to another place to ride. One looks like it might come pretty close to my house. With some winding through a few neighborhoods and an off road short-cut or two I might be able to plan a route out that dodged most traffic. It would be great if I could roll out of the garage and be able to get in a long ride without getting the car involved.

Spring is Springing early?

The weather has been warm enough for a couple of short rides through Terry Hershey park. I took my daughter with me and brought along my wife's trike. Did I mention she has one? She has a Sidewinder. Its a very fun rear-steering trike. More on that one another time I suppose. And I should detail my experience with the NuVinchi internal gear hub. It was worth every penny. Over the next few posts I'll try and talk about the accessories and gear and its good, bad or ugly elements. But the main thing is we should have really great riding weather coming for a while. Might be time for a few spare vacation days to get used up...

Christmas Threw up on my neighborhood!

Starting the week after Thanksgiving every year the annual competition to out-do the Grizwalds happens in my neighborhood. Once that happens the streets are nearly impassable for a month as cars and eventually buses prowl every night, often with headlights off, around the streets. Walking an biking are out for a month. I'm not kidding, freaking tour buses. Some of the lights are art, some tasteful, and some jaw-dropping displays. Most in my opinion just look like Christmas went on a bender and threw up lights and inflatable yard decorations. Imagine being embarrassed by just looking at it, thats what many are like. But this isn't a blog about Christmas decorations and excesses or I would be telling you about a neighbor that throws a party every year. "So what?" you say? This year he had Sting perform. And I have to tell you putting my lights up on the roof while listening to Sting perform live is pretty cool. The years before? Hanna Montana, Dolly Patrton, and so on. Its a really big event. I live in an interesting place.

So trike riding had to be accomplished by hauling my trikes around in the SUV. I found it a tight fit to put both of them in with the seats folded down and it takes two people to do it easily. The Sidewinder folds and breaks down easy enough, but it didn't matter that much in the end it still fit about the same once both were in. I will bee seeking or building some sort of roof-rack option. I don't have a trailer hitch and I'm not sure I want to go that route as it would be an expensive solution for a hitch mount rack or trailer.

I found a great little paved trail not far from my house to go to. Its only about 2.5 miles, and around 4 if I extend the ride through the neighborhood it ends in, but since I have to backtrack to the vehicle it can be turned into a pretty decent ride. There were some mis-starts, the boom on the Sidewinder needed shortened for my wife and this lead to the chain falling off several times and she discovered if she hits the brakes hard the trike tips up a bit. Not unsafely really, but startling none the less. We lost the allen wrenches I brought along somewhere. Oh well, I plan to get a small bag to put stuff like that in that attaches to the bike in the future. Probably the Terra Trike seat bag.

I took the trikes over to the in-laws while we were visiting for Christmas and riding around their gated community found a hill that I could pedal up to 30mph. Pretty thrilling at 12in off the ground and a 90 degree turn just past the bottom. But really not enough room to ride very far.

I also got over to a place here in town called "The Anthills" or Terry Hershey park. I didn't have nearly enough time that day at all. I hadn't been there since they were being built years ago and its a wonderful park with at least 10 miles of paved trails and many others. It also butts up to 2 other parks with almost as many trails. Its also pretty nice scenery for Houston. I will be going there a lot.

I'm going to try to get in a ride this weekend before I have to fly off to Chicago for work stuff I have to take care of. We will see how that goes.