Tag: Cycling

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Minnesota 2026: Part 1 (Getting Ready)

This is the first part of a multi-part trip report. Remember that you can click on any of the photos to see larger versions of them.

It’s a busy summer. The end of the school year is difficult and I find myself spending a lot of time in June doing paperwork and interviewing for new jobs. While I have a two-week internship with Central Arkansas Water, Bryan puts an enormous amount of time into finding the perfect packing setups for our mountain bikes and even buying new shorts and shirts and gloves for both of us. He plans an awesome eight-day gravel cycling loop starting and ending near Tofte, MN, including a day off the bikes to paddle in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and another day off to be tourists in Grand Marais, on Lake Superior. A mysterious entry on the cue sheet says “Secret Date” on that day.

Continue reading “Minnesota 2026: Part 1 (Getting Ready)”
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Goodbye, Diane

Our friend Diane was hit by a car in November, while riding her bike.  She spent over a month in the hospital, in a coma, before her death last week.  I think it was hard for everyone who’d known her to wrap our heads around the loss of such a beautiful person, in such a difficult way.

2012 12 15 Diane

I feel a little self-conscious for taking it so badly, since I hadn’t known her as well as many of our other friends had.  Is it because I feel sort of responsible for bad things that happen to cyclists in LR because I was involved with trying to make things better?  Is it harder for me because my granny died in such a similar way?  I don’t know.  When it comes right down to it, loving people means knowing we’ll hurt when we lose them. Continue reading “Goodbye, Diane”

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Arkansas Footdown Championships

2012 12 14 Vinny Footdown 1

What, we’ve found yet another ridiculous bike-related thing to do?  Ummm.  Yep.

Avoiding ‘foot down’ is a highly valued skill in bike polo; if you can’t balance on your two wheels and your mallet, and your foot touches the pavement, you’re penalized.  I suppose it’s also good to be able to balance without touching down in things like cyclocross and mountain biking, too, since putting a foot on the ground would mean a loss of forward speed and rhythm.  Even road bike people like to be able to ride very slowly so that they don’t have to unclip from their pedals.  And it goes without saying that people who ride tall bikes and unicycles should avoid the need to put their feet on the pavement.  Learning to improve balance, in all kinds of cycling, is important. Continue reading “Arkansas Footdown Championships”

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Training Rides, New Bike

Mandy and Kathy have spent the last couple of weeks getting ready for their trip to New York.  Neither has been riding a lot, so now that Mandy’s back from her trip to Tulsa, they’ve been getting together nearly every day to spend some time on the bikes.

It was a good idea, except that on Thursday, on the way home from their practice ride, Kathy’s little grey Mini got rear ended on the interstate.  The liftgate is crumpled, the bike rack is ruined, and – the worst news – both bikes are twisted up.  Both front wheels look like flattish Pringles.  Mandy’s frame is only bent a little, but because of it the bike won’t shift properly. Kathy’s carbon fiber is dinged enough that two or three bike shop people have said it would be unsafe to ride. Continue reading “Training Rides, New Bike”

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A Jaunt Around England

Mandy’s bike needed an inaugural ride, so we planned a loop through from Scott to England and back to Scott (we didn’t do the spur to Toltec this time). I didn’t realize it until partway through the ride, but this almost-thirty-mile loop is by far the longest Mandy’s ever ridden on her own bike (as opposed to ‘ridden as the stoker on a tandem.’) We invited our friends Gordon and Lois to come along for what was also Lois’ longest ride up until now. Kathy decided to join us as well.

We picked up another cyclist just five miles shy of our ride’s end. She was alone and was at the side of the road working on her bike. We stopped to help, and Bryan found that she’d broken some spokes. He was able to get her wheel straight enough that she could ride back toward Scott, and she called a friend to meet her there.

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Mandy has New Wheels!

Mandy’s only concern about selling the GTT was that it would leave her with no bike to ride – she’s been too big for her last pink-and-purple Schwinn for at least a year now, and still too small for anything else in the garage.

So Bryan did a little shopping online and found a good deal on a Motobecane cafe bike. It’s got thin “road” tires but flat bars. We measured for frame size and chose something almost but not quite too big. She approved the color (black and white, emphatically NOT THE PINK ONE), we placed the order, and two days later a big box was delivered.

She grew enough in those two days that the bike fits her perfectly. We put my old Terry saddle on it, which works well for her. After her first 30+ mile ride, her only request was a change in handlebar grips, so Bryan ordered some Ergons with bar ends, and she loves them. He surprised her with a bike computer, too. We added a rack and the white Ortlieb bags she picked out. Mandy’s ready to roll.

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Tour de Hoot

The Tour De Hoot is an annual bike ride in McGehee, AR, offering cyclists a chance to help support the small town’s Boys’ and Girls’ club. There’s a pasta dinner and other fun activities the night before, free air conditioned indoor camping, a big breakfast on Saturday morning. We’ve had a busy week though, so we just rolled in on Saturday morning just in time for the ride.

We opted to do the metric century: 100km, which is about 62 miles. (There were other options, too. Riders could register for as little as 25 miles, or as much as 100 miles.) Rest stops along the way were sponsored by area organizations. The best stop by far was the first one, around mile 15. The Red Hat Society of Arkansas City (and the county judge) provided sliced melon, homemade cookies, dried fruit, and cold drinks.

Sag support trucks were never far away, and an ambulance made the rounds too. It was clear that if anyone had trouble, help would be nearby. Food might not be, though — some rest stops had only weak Gatorade and warm pickles by the time we arrived, and there were no convenience stores or restaurants along our route. The weather was lovely. It was about 90 degrees, but the sun stayed behind clouds almost all day. Most of our route followed flat, two-lane rural roads, and though shoulders were narrow or nonexistent, the traffic was so light it didn’t matter.

We hadn’t brought much to eat, so our energy was flagging toward the end, and Bryan’s legs hurt. My new Brooks saddle is beautiful but not yet broken in, so I wasn’t totally comfy, either. We were both glad to get back to McGehee, where a handful of people sitting outside the Boys’ and Girls’ club clapped as we pulled into the parking lot.

When Emil gets helmet hair, he REALLY gets helmet hair. We caught up with him, finally, at the end of the ride, when we shared barbecue sandwiches and chocolate milk. He’s 67 years old and still using his original legs, but he’s still faster than us.

When I say “Our friend Tom is an excellent wind-block,” I am not commenting on Tom’s width. What I mean is that Tom is an understanding sort of fellow, who can see when Bryan’s hurting, or when I’m frustrated with the wind. Tom just gets in front rides a straight line, at a perfectly even speed. You can put your front tire right on Tom’s back, and he’ll pull you in. And that, I think, is just about the best kind of friend to have.

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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.