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Bike to Work Week

It’s National Bike Month! All three of us rode to work/school this month at least once.

Bryan’s been getting things together to begin commuting to work on occasion. His goal is once a week through the summer months. His first commute went well, and he even established a safe and convenient bike-parking spot. He’s looking forward to many more commutes just like this one.

 

I commuted by bike to my annual two-day workshop in Ferndale. It’s about 15 miles, much of which is very curvy and hilly, on shoulderless roads. I enjoyed it so much I’ve done some research into the possibility of riding all the way into the university area in LR to my office. It’s farther but flatter, and with better shoulders, and if I time things right I can use Little Rock’s bus system for part of the trip. Stay tuned!

 

Mandy had to take her unicycle to school this week, and decided to make it into a one-wheel commuting day. I let her out of the car in a neighborhood near the school and she rode in on the unicycle, heavy school backpack and all. She stashed her wheel in her GT teacher’s classroom. And after school, she rode to a nearby park and alternately practiced riding and relaxed until we were able to pick her up.

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Beagles for Sale, Five Cents

A couple of Sundays ago, while I was mowing, two beagles showed up in the yard. They seemed to be on their way somewhere, but were clearly in need of a shady nap and a bowl of dog food. We complied. I’m not sure what instinct prompted me to install them in the back yard, when I usually send wandering dogs on their way. It just seemed to me that these two needed a little help.

Over the next two weeks, I emailed and called all the shelters and rescue groups I could find: nobody was looking for lost beagles. I put an ad in the paper. I put a sign on the road. We bought dog food. We picked ticks off and squashed them on the porch. Bryan sprayed them for fleas. And he sprayed them again. And he sprayed them again.

The guy who comes quarterly to spray for spiders did a flea and tick treatment of the backyard and didn’t charge us for it. Our neighbor Josh gave us some food, and he took care of them when we were away for the weekend. (His wife left me a note: “Josh overfed them. And provided snacks.”) I put up signs at work, and asked around. People would run into me in the hallways and bathroom and say “Good morning, and no, I don’t want a beagle.”

It was discouraging. It was hard to imagine having BETTER dogs. These two were sweet, and hardly any trouble at all. They were grateful for visits, food, and chewy-bones, but if we weren’t outside, they were content to look cheerfully in the windows. They didn’t dig. They only barked occasionally, and even then, it was the almost-charming beagle-bark, and it was only brief, and they immediately looked very sorry. We started asking ourselves “what if we don’t find their home?” We couldn’t keep the dogs, but it made us all sad to think about taking them to a shelter, where they might never find a good home.

And then, FINALLY, I got the call. It was late on a busy Friday afternoon, and three phone calls later I was in touch with a guy from Mesa Bend, just a few miles away through the back roads. He described our two visitors exactly, and after supper Mandy and I loaded them up and took them home. They were very glad to see their dog-friends and their kid-friends. And we were very glad too, knowing that we’d done the right thing in keeping them healthy and safe until their family could be found.

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Inlaw Inspection 2010

Bryan’s mom is off work for Spring Break, and his dad took a week’s vacation to match. They came up to visit for part of the week, and asked for a good long weekend of camping near the Buffalo River.

On Saturday, on the way to Jasper, we showed them some of our favorite near-the-road waterfalls. At Falling Water Falls we got an extra treat — kayakers dropping off the falls into the water below.

Kayakers going off Falling Water Fall

Due to recent local rain, the water was up in Falling Water Creek. Six Finger Falls was flowing hard. We’ve spent lots of time in the creek here, playing in the clear water and sitting in the little hot-tub pockets that form at the edges of the six fingers, and downstream from here. Not today, though; the water’s rushing so hard I’m not sure we could even have waded across, much less relaxed in a quiet pool.

We tried to camp at Kyle’s Landing but the sign said it was full so we headed down the road to Steel Creek and set up camp for the night.

HDR photo of Six Finger Falls

On Sunday we rented canoes from Buffalo Outdoor Center in Ponca, AR and floated the Buffalo, from Steel Creek to Kyle’s Landing. Bryan and I are in a canoe together exactly often enough to be bad at it, so we always take a few minutes to remember how to pilot the thing. This time, though, we didn’t get that chance. Within ten feet of starting our trip, we went off some sort of stupid ledge and tipped our canoe RIGHT IN FRONT OF about ten other people who hadn’t pushed into the water yet. It was completely ridiculous. We were soaked all day, and I never warmed up.

Apart from that, the day was great. As a surprise for Mandy, Bryan rented her a kayak, and she adores having her own kayak. She happily paddled along with us most of the time, and traded spots with me only when her arms tired out. Bryan’s parents declined the trip up Big Bluff but did take the short hike to see Hemmed-In-Hollow waterfall (his dad is staring up at the 200+ foot waterfall in the photo below). We ate supper at the Ozark Cafe for the second night in a row, and Mandy and I headed back to Little Rock.

Bryan stayed another night at Steel Creek with his parents, and on Monday they went to see the Pedestal Rocks. His dad can’t hike a lot because of issues with his feet, so this trail was my pick for them — short and easy, with a great payoff.

I love the Pedestal Rocks. They don’t look like something that should be in Arkansas; they belong out west, or in Mexico, or as part of some alien landscape. And underneath, they’re like caves that aren’t.

HDR image of the underside of a pedestal

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Bat Houses

Audubon Arkansas has moved into their new repurposed and remodeled facility down near the airport. Mary Smith, their director of education, asked Mandy if she’d work on the bat houses there. They aren’t being used at all, and Mary didn’t know why. Mary also had two used houses she wanted installed close by the new building. Mandy did some research and together we decided what work needed to be done.We reroofed, recaulked, repainted, and added some length to the posts for two houses Mary’d brought in from someplace else. Now firmly set in Quikrete near the building, they’ll serve as good teaching props and hopefully soon will shelter some bats.The Kampwerths brought some night vision equipment and an Anabat monitoring device, which was fun to use. We didn’t see many bats that evening, but it was neat to touch the monitoring equipment and talk about how to progress with the bat house project.

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Ride Crowley’s Ridge: The Final Day


Once again I wasn’t able to join a group for their entire week of riding but I was able to join them (~20 people) for their last day. This group was organized by the Mississippi River Trail organization in partnership with Delta Scenic Byways, Arkansas State University and the Jonesboro Parks and Recreation Department. Their goals for the week included:

  • Scouting a possible alternative route for the Mississippi River Trail through Arkansas
  • Exposing the Crowley’s Ridge/Arkansas Delta area to local cycling groups
  • and exposing the communities on Crowley’s Ridge to the idea of promoting and accepting cycle-tourism

The group started in Cape Girardeau, MO on Monday and will finish the week 320 miles later in Helena-West Helena, AR. I was meeting them on their final day at Village Creek State Park and would wind up riding about 65 miles with them (new record for me!).

This wasn’t an ordinary van-supported tour though, these folks had appointments with mayors, county judges and chamber of commerce folks in the various towns along the route. I got the impression that there had been some education/explanation phone calls and materials made to these folks prior to the ride and meeting with them was a way to show that cyclists that want to ride in the delta DO exist.

So our day started off with people leisurely packing up camp, loading gear into the trailer and heading out at their own pace for a Waffle House breakfast in Forrest City (about 12 miles away). After a filling breakfast, we rode to the county courthouse where we waited to meet with the county judge and present him with a certificate for his support of cycle-tourism in the delta region.

As the day went by we met with the director of the Mississippi River State Park, the Mariana chamber of commerce president and several others whose names/positions I’ve forgotten.

Our group stopped at the Delta Heritage Trails State Park and met with a group of local (Helena-West Helena) cyclists and supporters. This state park is at the beginning of a future 72 mile rails-to-trails project! They currently have about 14 miles made into a nice gravel trail and in the future the trail will extend south to Arkansas City. From there it may be possible to have a gravel trail on top of the Mississippi River levee and ride all the way into Louisiana. That’ll be cool!

At the end of the ride there was a balloon arch, beer, cookies and Gatorade awaiting the participants. The mayor and county judge were also present to meet these cycling advocates and to express their support for cycle-tourism in the delta region.

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Last Days of the Spring Tour

The Arkansas Bicycle Club had its “Spring Tour” and even though I couldn’t ride with them all week, I did manage to join them for their final two days. Susan picked me up on the way to Glenwood where we met the road warriors for dinner at a very nice Italian place. After dinner we set up camp at the canoe outfitters, hung out for a bit around a camp fire and headed off to bed at a respectable time.

The next morning we rode several miles and had breakfast at a cafe on the square in Amity (that’s Janice coming into Amity in the photo below) and bought supplies for lunch at the grocery store next door.

We pedaled about 40 miles that Saturday and made camp at Lake Degray State Park. The photo below shows most of our bikes parked in a single parking spot (two bikes were parked elsewhere) outside of the Visitors Center.

Camp was set up, showers were taken and then dinner was had at the state parks restaurant. The next morning, breakfast was again at the on site restaurant and we headed to Sheridan where five members of the group had started out seven days before.

On the way home though, Brad had a shifter cable break! Don’t worry though, Brad had the spare part with him and we stopped on the porch of an abandoned storefront in Donaldson so he could make the repair.

Here’s a shot of my LHT waiting patiently in Donaldson. The bike has functioned extremely well… it’s comfortable, stable and easy going, I’m not sure what else could be asked for in a touring bike. Today we rode about 58 miles which is a new record for me.

The Brooks saddle was comfortable straight out of the box and I’m getting used to the drop bars and gearing on this bike. I wound up using Aly’s front panniers and really liked the way the white bags looked but I’ll be ordering myself a pair of yellows to match our existing rear panniers.

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Big Dam Wheel

After hours of carrying rocks and digging holes, I was ready to go home, but Mandy wanted to see if she could ride the unicycle over the Big Dam Bridge (BDB). According the Wikipedia’s BDB page, the bridge itself is about eight tenths of a mile long and the approaches are at a 5% grade.

It was clear she could do it. She was strong enough to ride up the bridge, and balanced enough to steer around little kids and dogs, and controlled enough to descend without falling. In fact, she was strong enough to do all of it over and over. But she’d get the ‘hard part’ done and something silly would happen, like people who didn’t move out of the way, or sand in her eye, or a violent apple-juice-induced coughing fit, and she’d fall.

And that wasn’t good enough. She was determined that she was going to do it straight, up and across and down, without dropping the uni.

Finally, on the fifth try, she did it. She says her next project will be a triple backflip with a twist. (Surely, she’s kidding.)

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Two Miles for Mandy

While we adults have been fiddling with our bikes lately, Mandy has been happily practicing on her unicycle. (And also getting straight A’s in all her classes. And also applying for and being accepted to 7th grade Advanced Art for next year. And also deciding to be a National Geographic photojournalist when she grows up. So she’s been busy.) But back to the uni: she’s quite good now at controlling her direction and at going up and down hills and at riding on grass. Today she asked if we could go to the River Trail a little early, because she wanted to see if she could ride a whole mile on the uni. Bryan rode alongside her with the GPS so that she could establish the mileage.

When he told her she’d reached a mile, she still felt fine and decided to try for two miles. She was thirsty so I handed her a water bottle as she rode by. She handed the drink back the next time she passed me, and a few minutes later completed the two miles at exactly one o’clock, right in front of the assembled ABC riders, who were waiting for Bryan to begin their group ride. Yessss!

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Downhill speed: the LHT on River Mountain Road

So today I finally got to take the LHT out for a good first ride and we drove to Little Rock to meet up with the Arkansas Bicycle Club’s “Sunday @ 1 o’clock” ride on the River Trail.

At the end of the ride, mind you this was after 29 miles of riding and a stop at the Community Bakery, I decided to ride up River Mountain Road (see route map below, make sure to check out the elevation profile!) and see how well the Trucker climbed since it was geared about 25% lower than my previous bike.

I’m pleased to report that the LHT climbed amazingly well. I stopped once on the way up for a 60-second water, leg and lung break and then finished the climb. I don’t think I’ve ever made it up that climb (c:

On the ride down, I tucked into the drops, watched the road ahead of me and bombed down the hill. The bike tracked perfectly and wasn’t twitchy at all. Being a touring bike, I was afraid that it might be twitchy since it had no baggage today.

After arriving back at the car, I checked the “max speed” on my GPS (shown above) and was flabbergasted to see it say 42.8 mph! I wouldn’t have guessed that based on how the bike had performed and I definitely wasn’t trying to go stupid fast. Mandy and I have had the GTT up to ~42 mph before but I’ve never had a normal bike above 30-35 before.

All told, today was a nice ride though I wasn’t able to keep up with the main group since I had to stop and adjust my saddle twice. First time it was nose down which put too much weight on my wrists and the second time it was nose high which put too much weight on my parts and pieces. I think it’s about right now though.

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Feeling… Surly!

So this weekend I took possession my new Surly Long Haul Trucker (LHT for short) and wound up selling my old Giant Cypress hybrid bike to my friend Gordon. I bought the LHT (pictured at the top of this post) from Sam at The Community Cyclist bike shop in Little Rock and had him…

The LHT is a touring bike that is supposed to be very comfortable to ride day after day and it had a reputation of carrying all your camping gear with nary a complaint. When Aly rode part of the recent Arkansas Bicycle Club “Touring 101” trip, she noticed that the 15 or so bikes were evenly divided between Truckers, Bike Fridays and Everything Else.

Here’s the final photo of the old Cypress. My last ride on it was when Aly and I rode the Forest Service roads near Lake Sylvia. Funny thing is that was really the first time I had ridden off road and, thanks to the Cypress, I enjoyed it a lot. I can definitely see a mountain bike of some sorts in the distant future.

Below you can see the cockpit of the new bike, with the handle bar stub, the Thumbie and the cross brake. Sam left the stub a little long and I believe I’ll either cut it shorter myself or bring it back in so he can do it. Better too long than too short though since it’s way easier to trim than glue (c:

The second stem was drilled to allow the brake cable to pass through and then tapped to allow it to function like a barrel adjuster.

I had Sam leave the steerer tube uncut so I could start out with the handle bars up high and lower them over time as I get used to riding with drop handlebars. The higher handlebars should also be more comfortable over longer distance.

This close-up shows the Thumbie a little clearer. The theory behind the Thumbie and the cross brake is that cyclists tend to ride in the “tops” the most and these changes place your two most commonly used controls (rear shifter and front brake) right at your fingertips.

I added a black Brooks B-17 Champion Special saddle that I purchased from Wallingford Bicycle Parts in New Orleans (Ed: Closed as of 2016 due to retirement). They have a no questions asked, SIX-MONTH return policy on their Brooks leather saddles. So that means if my tush fails to adapt to the leather saddle (which is supposed to be one of the most comfortable saddles for long distance riding…. once it’s broken in) then I can return it and either try another model (like one with springs) or just give up entirely.

This bike is going to start out with some MKS Grip King pedals from Rivendell Bicycle Works. I added blunt spikes to the pedals to make them even grippier and so far they have been very nice to ride no matter what shoes I’ve used (sandals, tennis shoes and dress shoes). I included some notes at the bottom of this post on the installation process.

Here’s a shot showing the Salmon Kool-Stop V-brake shoes and pads that Sam installed and the Planet Bike Cascadia fenders I put on. I’m still not clear why he wanted to go with V-brake shoes (which are thinner) instead of the traditional cantilever pads (which are about twice as thick).

Here’s the current “build list” for the Trucker…

2010 Long Haul Trucker
   Size: 56cm with 26" wheels
   Color: Velvet Blue
Comfort...
   Black Brooks B-17 Champion Special saddle
   Planet bike Cascadia fenders (black)
   Uncut steerer tube
Drivetrain/Brakes/Shifters...
   Front Cross/Interrupter Brake
   Rear shifter on a "Thumbie"
   Grip King pedals with blunt spikes
   Salmon Kool-Stop brake pads
Cargo Carrying...
   Second stem and handlebar stub
 Tubus Tara front rack
   Tubus Cargo rear rack (both racks from The Touring Store)
 Arkel handlebar bag ("big" size so it'll hold my dSLR)
 Ortleib Bike Packer Plus rear panniers (also bought from The Touring Store)
Safety/Other...
 Dinotte 200L headlight (AA batteries)
   Dinotte 140L tail light (AA batteries's)
 Velo Orange aluminum bell on headset spacer (not installed yet)
   Topeak Turbo Morph pump (not installed yet)
 Click-Stand "kickstand" (not installed yet)
Vanity...
   Fork, chain stay and seat stay decals were removed

Grip King Spikes – Installation notes

Installing the blunt spikes was fairly easy though I used a different method than specified on the Rivendell website:

  1. I used a 3/32″ drill bit to make a pilot hole
  2. Then a 1/8″ drill bit to enlarge the hole. This way the hole stayed in the middle of the nub.
  3. Next I used a pair of vice-grips to start the spike in the hole.
  4. When the spike was gripping good, I switched over to a 6mm socket and drove the spike the rest of the way in.