Join in the fun; The Calorie-Count Cycling Club...

Welcome to all who have an interest in anything cycling of any kind.( road, mountain, commuting, stationary, whatever).

This is the place to come to ask that question you have been wanting to ask,

or tell that story about your latest adventure riding your bike,

find out how to use cycling to get in better shape, or anything else you can think of.

So, to start, tell us, what you ride, where you ride and what type of riding you enjoy.

Come back often too check out what's going on and see what's on everyones mind or add your knowledge to the group. 

 

bdgolden, A big welcome to you and your wife, thanks for joining in the fun.

sounds like a pretty varied menu of cycling you do there. Me and my wife share in the experience of excersise and weight loss, (more control than loss now). It's nice to have a cycling pal living with ya.

Lolly2. Welcome to you as well, check out the thread like carrie mentioned, then we will happily help you spend your money, LOL.  sounds like you will probally end up with a cruiser or hybrid for what you wast to do.

jiggles, I have never done a time trial, want to, just haven't, think It would be great to see how I could fare all by myself out there. Good luck and don't let those tri guys see the fear in your eyes.

behanna, sounds like a great trip you had, I just got to get down to Pitts and ride some of those hills, I think you sent a link to cheat mountain century once is it still comming up?  If so can you send me the link again.

 BTW,.Good morning carri and gmule. Time to go to work, see ya all later.

DAN

good morning all,

got in a nice commute home last night & in to work this morning. overnight thunderstorms threatened my ride this morning, but the rain stopped so i just hopped on the cyclocross bike and prepared myself for mud & puddles (which i got plenty of!). and it's cooled off here - it was up near the 90s for a few days, but now it's back down in the upper 50s-low 60s in the  morning & low 80s max in the afternoon. perfect riding weather :-)  i wish you all much of the same!

the motorcycle perspectives are interesting. my husband is sort of in the market, so i'm doing my best to learn everything i can on the best way to be safe on one.

Carri, I've been into motorcycles for a while.. not owning em but just an outside enthusiast.  Reading all the magazines and so on through the years I've found that for a beginner just getting something around 600cc's is plenty.   Pushing for something with a bigger engine is asking for trouble as there's so much extra power involved.

behanna, hey nice to see some more motorcycle f eedback here. That's some pretty crazy downhill speeds... the  mountain road I ride up takes me to around 1850 ft above s ea level... but I also live on the si de of the mountain further down so I  can only benefit around 850 to 1000 feet of the climb upwards.    And yeah i'm the sicko too that on t he downhill gets into the racer positio n all tucked in and wants to see a new top speed.   Even though i t's kind of freaky to think such a sk inny wheel on my road bike is going t o handle it without a problem but it  does :)


NEXT RIDE:  Thursday with my co-worker friend.  But I may hit the mountain again today since I'm not going to get to run due to an end of the year school program for my oldest son which I'll attend during my lunch break.

Finally got back on my bike today!  I was shocked when I realized it has been a full week.  I had some issues with sleeping in on Wed and Thurs last week, so no commute.  Then I took a 3 day weekend for my wedding anniversary, and I slept in yesterday again.  :)  But it felt good to be back.  Although, I'm glad I have to stop by the bike shop tonight to get my fenders.  Because for the second time after a rain I've had brake issues, where the two sides don't come together evenly until a few miles into a ride.  Not sure how to describe it exactly.  But, it's disconcerting.  The first time I thought I did something, but now I'm thinking it has to do with the drying process, somehow.  I had to manualy pull one of my pads off the rim of my front wheel a couple times this morning because it was sticking.

Random question - will anyone in this thread be bothered if I start something similar for runners?  I don't know that it will get this much activity, but this is such a fun place for me to come and read about everyone's experiences I thought it would be helpful to have a CC track club, too.  But I don't want to step on anyone's toes in here!

Dan, regarding your truck drafting story - I'll admit I have a biased perspective because my hubby is a truck driver.  But I couldn't help but wonder how scared that driver was when you were drafting behind his truck.  :)  Had to rattle his nerves a bit, wondering what could happen if you did have an accident!  Definitely not something I could ever convince myself to do, you must have steel nerves!  ;)

gmule, you can post pics in your journal from an image hosting site, and then direct us there if you'd like.  It's the best alternative to the fact we can't post pics in the public forums.

panda, I would not call what I did "nerves of steel", more like empty headedness, stupidity, foolhardy, testosterone driven machoism, you get the idea.

Like I said the cycling gods let me get away with one!

By all means start that track club thread we don't have a copyright that I know of!! LOL

DAN

pandajenn19,

I will continue to use Dee's "Learning to Run" thread for now.   It's built a nice regular community of people.


Tonight...

I'm feeling the pull of the mountain road (It's Chimney Peak in the city I live in if anyone is curious).   Today I finally got a NEW CAMERA so I'm itching to take some pics even though there's a lot of smoke in the air from some wild fires burning in Georgia and I think there are some here in Alabama as well.  Craziness... it kills the awesome view (which is actually quite comparable to that site linked on the last page with the downhill talk)... but I should still get a good view of it.  I may even mount the camera on the front of the bike and get a video of the way down.   That would be pretty rocking!

Here's some old pics taken close to the end of the road but it doesn't really show the full view.

Eastern View... the city... poor quality pic but you can see you are well above the earth :)
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/nightc1/ IM000224e.jpg


Southern View... but not from the top where you can see more mountains:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/nightc1/ IM000222e.jpg

nice pics night!

Well big weekend of riding ahead for me and the wife.  She is off to Kentucky for the horsey hundred with her friend.  I have our club century on saturday.  Sunday and monday are full of rides, just  have to see which one suits my fancy.

The weather (knock on wood) looks real good so far.

How about everyone else any big plans for the Holiday weekend, doesn't have to be bike related.

DAN

Great commute today.  I extended the ride on both ends so it ended up being a 30 mile roundtrip.  Okay, I rode an extra mile on the street in front of my house because I didn't want to end up with 29 miles.  The problem with extension on the morning route is a left turn at a major intersection.  This morning I got into the right hand lane so I could make a wide left along with 99% of the cars.  I was just about ready to make my turn when I realized that the truck beside -- a pickup with a pretty big trailer -- was going straight through and therefore I was going straight through.  He got out of way in time for me to make the left at the far edge of the intersection.  This afternoon, I got stuck behind a 2 mile an hour pedestrian on an overpass sidewalk -- concrete barrier on my right and high speed traffic on my left.  I guess I got a taste of being stuck behind a guy on a bicycle.  Oh yeah, I cut it pretty close when I passed him once we got off of the overpass.

Evening all!  Well, I commuted to work today as well as to and from my softball game tonight, for a grand total of 15.6 miles for the day. 

And, I have come to the conclusion that while I am not fast compared to experienced serious cyclists, I am faster than your average riding a bike from point a to point b person.  I passed a few of them on my way to the game tonight.

Question for commuters - do you stick to the road 100% of the time?  Twice today I was passed by a cyclist who bypassed traffic at a four way stop by hopping onto a sidewalk.  And once I could have done the same to get around a backup due to a one lane construction area.  I don't feel right about being on the sidewalk, but it kinda sucks to get passed by people that way.  Me doing the stop-start-stop-start bit waiting for my turn at the 4 way, them zipping along 'cheating'.  I don't plan to start taking the sidewalks, just curious about what you guys do.

As for my weekend plans, they include hosting dinner at my house Sunday, and running in a Memorial Day 5k Monday morning.  I will be biking there, as the starting line is just under 4 miles from my house and it's in a parking nightmare type area.  So we'll see how my running legs do after a short commute.  :)

 I stay on the road. It is faster and more predictable to motorist on the road. The only time I am not on the road is when I am on a MUP.  I hate it when I am stopped for a red light and another cyclist blows right through it. I think it makes us all look bad when they do that.

Dan, there is a Cheat Mountain Challenge every year, usually in late September, although there was talk last year of moving it to the end of August so that they can have better weather (last year, we had temps in the low 50s up high, plus wind and rain).

This year's event is August 19, 2007. Web site is http://www.wvcf.org/CMC/index.html.

There is also a Brasstown Bald Buster Century every year, and that is moving from April to June, in part for warmer weather (low 50s at the start this year) and in part to get past the super-unbelievable spring pollen in Georgia. Website is www.brasstownbaldbustercentury.com. It is a much harder ride than Cheat Mountain, as you hit Hogpen Gap after 77 miles of rolling terrain and then you turn left onto Brasstown Bald at the very end, at mile 100.

Locally, the American Cancer Society is putting on a century (also on August 19th :-( ), ending in Raccoon Creek State Park in Beaver County. Details at www.acsevents.org/pittsburghbike (this redirects you to another site, but it's OK). I have no details about the course, other than the end. Given that it's Western Pennsylvania, you can expect anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 total feet of climbing on the day, mostly from the rolling terrain. What hills there are will be short and steep, for the most part.

Switching topics to bikes and traffic laws: running red lights is dangerous, stupid, and makes us all look bad. I don't do it. I take the lane so that I don't get crowded or squashed, but I will position myself such that cars that want to make a right on red can get by me. See How Not to Get Hit by Cars for more information. Riding on the sidewalk is a very good way to get hit by cars at intersections, btw.

jiggles, nice job, I always enjoy shaking up the young ones.

jc, I use a bike path to get to a lot of my rides, the one thing I think is interesting is how everyone seems to converge on the same spot at the same time, how does that happen.

panda, I kinda figured with your fitness level, fast riding was just going to happen for you.  I don't like seeing cyclist jump lights like that like all have said it makes us look bad.  When I'm on the road i act like a car and stop even if I know i could roll thru it.  The motoring public has a dim veiw of us as it is why add to it by acting the fool.

behanna, I'll check those links out, thanks,  must say thoughafter see the price of gas today I don't know if i'll drive anywhere to far away to ride.  Kinda defeats the purpose.

Everyone have a great day,  DAN

Well I plan to take my kids to 6 flags on Friday. They are open from 9 to 6 that day and we will go all day if the smoke from the forest fire in south Georgia isn't being blown this way. If it is being blown this direction not at all. If that's the case we'll go to a movie and try to  Sunday. I'd like to go Sunday as well, even if we go Friday, because they open Skull Island, their water park. It would be nice to get a little wet.

Monday I am going to do my fifty mile ride on my stationary bike. Will definitely have a fan, drink lots and lots of water, and eat a couple of protein bars around 25 miles. Have either a good movie, maybe watch the whole Star Wars series, some music and a great pit crew, my family, check on me every once in a while. After that probably one long nap. Monday night, probably grill some burgers  and some veggies outside.

Thanks to all of you who are so diligent on the road. Respect for others seems to be a thing only for older people. Maybe it's always been the case but it seems worse now.  

mrj, that sounds like a harrowing accident. it seems way too many people have motorcycle experiences similar to yours. and daunting to think you went down so hard after taking the safety class & everything. gravel stinks.

grayman, good luck with that 50-mile ride! what strength that takes!! strength and gooood movies! you should rent Breaking Away and American Flyers and some Tour de France videos!

panda, riding sidewalks IS a good way to get hit by cars. i saw it happen (the guy was fine, but still not-so-smart ;-). hopping a sidewalk to skip by bikes & cars at an intersection is totally unacceptable. i'm not going to lie, i occasionally use sidewalks, so i'll try to distinguish/rationalize the circumstances where i think it's OK. 

- lamar blvd. : in austin, lamar is a  major thoroughfare, and on the west side of the street there is a park for several miles where it has a relatively new, wide sidewalk that works well for cyclists. much better than the street during busy times. technically it is a sidewalk, but with few driveways & intersections to deal with, it's more like a bike path. i use it unless i'm riding at 6:15 AM and the street is deserted.

- occasionally when i'm going through an intersection with cars, if there is something in the road ahead that, with my presence, creates difficulty for motorists or me, i'll go through the intersection and get on the sidewalk on the other side, usually just until the next driveway back onto the road after the obstruction. for example, if the roadway is narrowed by trash cans or a car, and the sidewalk is open, i'll stay very far right through the intersection (watching for 'creeping' traffic from the right) and roll onto the sidewalk if it's available.

on the point of whether to stop in line with cars at an intersection or to pass on the right in the bike lane & go to the head of the line, i admit i'm wholly inconsistent and i've not found an ideal universal approach to the situation. over the years i've nearly been hit doing both (once by a Police car!). i usually feel i'm safer if i pull to the front of the line where i'm most visible, but i hate passing cars on the right (especially cars that previously passed me before we all got to the light).

I prefer to not use sidewalks but I use them in a number of situations.  I use the sidewalk across the 295 overpass because the right lane becomes an exit ramp onto 295.  I stop to wait for a break in the traffic before crossing that ramp.  Continuing west on 193, I ride the street if the traffic isn't too heavy and motorists can get around me easily.  But when I feel like I will be competing with 3 packed lanes of 60 mph traffic, I will use the sidewalk, which is actually a MUP.  Part of the problem on that road is the number of traffic lights which make you guess when you are going to have to abruptly stop from 20 + mph.  Another part of the problem is the number of times the right lane is set up to allow motorist to "exit"  or merge onto the roadway.  These can be tricky.  You need to get to the left so you don't get stuck in the exit traffic but when you ride on the right side of the straight thru lane you can have cars passing on both side of you.  When I am on the sidewalk, I am competing with pedestrians and an occasional cyclist going in the opposite direction.

I wouldn't use a pedestrian crosswalk to beat a light but I do occasionaly use the pedestrian crosswalk to get across intersections when I feel like it is easier for everybody if I act like a pedestrian because of the heavy traffick.  For example, just as I am leaving work there is a big intersection.  Most of the motorists going my way are turning left but it is not uncommon for a motorist to go straight through.  I generally go all the way across the intersection and then take a good look to make sure that nobody is barreling straight thru before making my turn.

Landover Road is supposed to have an on road bike path -- it doesn't.  Again I will ride in the road when the traffic isn't too heavy.  But on my way home in evening rush traffic, I generally use the sidewalk.

Ok yesterday I did my mountain run.  The smoke from GA/FL fires wasn't heavy for breathing but it affected visibility.  Looks like today it's gone so maybe thegrayman won't have as much of it as it passes back through GA and over towards sixflags.

Time on the way up was about 37 min... this included stopping about 5 times for making pictures and enjoying what parts of the view I could see.

On the way down I kept in mind the two major turns I needed to slow for and let loose.

The first part of the road I managed to get to 45mph.   So new record there.   But then the second branch I kept it under 40 (it's pretty short)... but then the final part which is probably the biggest incline (which kills you since it's right at the beginning of the ride up) I hit...

53.1mph

Whew!  Crazy.  I won't push it that hard again.  I really dug in deep for the start of that last downhill part and it really showed on the speedometer.

Next time I'm just going to try and keep it at 40 or less.  I don't want to kill myself or anything.  But it did feel pretty amazing to tuck in tight and see what my $150 bike could do.

Oh and I'll get some pics up later.   There was no good way I could see for attaching the camera to the bike.  I'll have to build a bracket if I want to do that (which I'm sure I could do fairly easily).


Next ride is tomorrow.   It'll be on the bike trail which is pretty tame.   My co-worker friend and I will probably only go around 20 miles.  But that means I can push myself a bit harder since I know I won't fizzle out as much.

nightc, good for you stopping to take pictures! can't wait to see them! i took some this weekend, mostly of long flat open texas backroads, perhaps i'll post them. that's some serious speed. i think my top downhill speed is around 46mph.

i just realized that i've only been in a car once since monday. i guess it's only wednesday, so it's not that long, but it feels kinda cool!

what i enjoyed as a tailwind on the ride home yesterday, greeted me as a headwind this morning on the way to work. that coupled with some sand volleyball last night has left my legs a little wobbly this morning :-)

PICTURE TIME!

See my profile for the pics.  Unfortunately though even uploading them in order has em pretty screwy in order.   There are 2 from the way up the mountain.  One facing forward (note the trees, the road is steeper than it appears)... one looking down after the first of 3 major stretches... the first is the worst... again note the trees.

There are 2 more pics at the first of two lookout points.  I took these on the way up as well but this is pretty close to the end of the road.

Finally there's the big looking down pic.  You can't see the mountains in the distance thanks to the fires in GA & FL... but you can imagine em I guess until I can get a better pic.

Also I threw in a few family pics.  One pre-weightloss... though not the on the beach picture which disgusts me too much to look at right now.  So ya'll can see my progress so far.. and also see my wife and kids which are the biggest part of my life!

Oh and hey a shot of my bike computer set to show the top speed.

Whew!

Fifty miles on a trainer takes descipline (and chamois butter).  I'm shooting for a fifty miler this weekend too but I'll do it outside