New Bike!

I seem to have the cycling fever! In December I learned how to ride a bike and bought a 2010 Trek flat-bar road bike. In April I bought a 2010 Surly Long Haul Trucker – a steel frame touring bike that can go pretty much anywhere outside of technical mountain bike trails! The other day I just had my longest ride, so far, of 18 miles, and finally hit the roads to play in traffic two weeks ago.

Are my skills perfect? No, but there is only one way to get stronger and to build my skills – and that is to ride, ride, and ride some more!

New stuff!

New post coming in the next couple of days! I have two bikes now rather than one, and will have pics. Just been having too much fun riding to post on blogs – but I do want to keep this blog going.

Mad bike handling skills!

Extreme Urban Biking

I am progressing in my biking practice, and had a professional fitting yesterday. The details of those things aren’t all that exciting though, so will spare the details until I reach a milestone I am, however, keeping up with my winter training schedule at the gym, which is a good thing. What is of much more interest are the following videos – the bike handling skills of this young man must be seen to be believed!

This is from the same guy:

More:

And finally, The Clan, Scotland’s Cycling Stunt Team (lead by the young man in above videos)

Enjoy!

Winter training

Ok, this is what it looks like outside these days – or at least feels like it… Obviously I can’t practice on my bike right now, but I have to do something to gain fitness and prepare this out-of-shape body for cycling! Right now that looks like 3-4 spin-cycle classes a week, two personal training sessions, and a couple of sessions where I work by myself at the gym – generally prior to the spinning class. As I see more benefit in increased health, flexibility, cardiovascular endurance, and all around just feeling better, it becomes much easier to maintain this 5 day a week schedule. I don’t want to go into too many details here, and I suspect that I am the only reader of this little journal, but it will be interesting to see how things develop.

There are two rides I want to prepare for this summer, one is a 20-mile ride that is realistic for my first year – but there is another 2-day, 100 mile ride that I am considering. That may well have to wait until next year, but time will tell. Thankfully my personal trainer is a competitive mountain biker, so he knows what kind of training is required I do have a goal of at least one 50-mile ride in 2010, then we will see about that 100 mile event!

A beautiful day…

This is what it looked outside of my apartment this afternoon – an absolutly beautiful day! Sadly however, it is only 15 degrees – and I do not yet have the right clothing to ride my bike in such temperatures.  I hope to rectify that soon! Until then, my new steed rests in my living room and catches my eye from time to time as she tempts me for a ride…

I have added a few of my favorite cycling blogs to the list, please check them out if you haven’t had a chance to do so!

A little adventure

Along with most of the country, Central Indiana has received a little snow/ice/rain over the past week – and I’ve really wanted to get my bike out there and play in it. Plenty of cyclists do that, and in far worse weather, but they generally have far more experience and if the weather calls for it, probably have different tires than my Bontrager Race Lite tires.

I talked myself into it the day after Christmas! Temps were above freezing, no precipitation for the moment, and I know of a massive office complex where they take very good care of the pavement during the winter. So, the Trek (soon to be named) went up on my bike rack, I changed clothes, and off we went.

The parking lot was fine, just a LOT of salt and a little slush here and there. I walked/drove the portion of the lot I was interested in and there didn’t seem to be any black ice – a great beginning!

My plan was to ride around the lot a couple of times to warm my legs up, and then to practice riding in figure eights and riding/stopping at different speeds. That was the plan at least….

What actually happened was my chain fell off at the end of my warm up laps – and it jammed between the front chainring  and frame – I could NOT loosen it. That wasn’t much of a surprise as I haven’t even seen it done – so when my hands became too cold to feel anything I racked the bike and home we came. Once home the chain was easily fixed once I turned the bike upside down – and I know how to fix this in the future without having to turn the bike over.

Considering the changing weather at the time – it probably wasn’t a bad thing that it happened – it wasn’t the best of weather conditions in which to get creative. However, I have another session, albeit a short one, in which I didn’t fall over – and that is a good thing.

My pedal stroke problem is increasing though – time will tell what the real problem is – I am, after all, still learning!

It doesn’t look like there will be much of a chance to ride over the next few weeks, but time will tell! I am going to start taking photos where I can to make this journal a little less text-heavy

Car Rack

Today the weather was a little too dicey for a beginner to head out for practice riding – so I went my favorite bicycle shop to have them check out my left shifter as it has been much tighter than it should have been. It did need adjustment, and they took care of it.

I also purchased a Saris Bones RS car rack for my bike. Sure I can take off the wheel and transport it in my trunk – but it is awkward and I am afraid that I will damage my bike. This is much easier and gives me options on the best way to transport my lovely new steed.

Hopefully I can practice in the next couple of days, seems a shame for that beautiful bike to just rest in the corner of my living room!

Week One

I’ve now had my lovely Trek 7.6 FX WSD bike for just a little over a week, and have been able to go for TWO rides so far. As I am learning how to ride, this is something of an experience. I am sure that the main difference for a 50-year old over a 10-year old is that I KNOW that I can fall over and break something. I don’t think children understand that quite yet. That being said, I have only fallen over on my new bike when I was test-riding at the store before deciding to purchase it.

Ride 1: Rode around my narrow apartment parking lot – and it was something of a white-knuckle affair. Getting started was difficult, my bike was wobbly, but stopping became easier quickly. NO falling over!

Ride 2: Received permission to practice in a small church parking lot.  Starting became easier very quickly. My bike was NOT wobbly, at all, and stopping was easy as well. I rode for about 40 minutes in that little lot until it was time to leave for an appointment. All in all, much better! Shifting, however, was a problem. My left shifter is very hard to move and there may be a problem with that – probably no more complicated than a shifting cable that needs adjusting.

It IS the end of December, and I am hoping that I will be able to get in a practice session this week. However, that will be up to the weather. I am having a good deal more fun out of all of this than I anticipated! This started out as a different avenue of exercise to gain fitness, the fun is a wonderful bonus!

The Adventure Begins!

Say hello to my wonderful new bicycle! I am in the process of learning how to ride a bicycle, and am using this blog to write about the process. I am seeking to turn back an early diabetic condition and to gain over-all health and fitness along the way. A little fun would be a great bonus