Why I Ride

The "Why I Ride" theme is from my recent entry for a Brand Ambassador position with Pactimo. Pactimo has a great line of cycling related clothing, and of all my cycling gear, the Pactimo items are my goto gear of choice.

The "Why I Ride" themed video, is a compilation of some clips from my favorite rides of the past year or so. It was hard to pick from hours and hours of video, when the entry video could only be 60 seconds, but these where my choices:

• The 1st clip after the title is from this seasons Lapham Peak Fat Bike Race Series. This might have been the first one where we had some snow, right after Christmas. All of the races in this series were at night.
• The 2nd clip is a from a ride to Holy Hill, that particular part was a bit of the decent, probably after having a piece of pie at the cafe after the climb to the top.
• The 3rd clip is also at Lapham Peak, but this time during daylight hours and some of our bike club members rented Fat Bikes to try them out for a group ride.
• The 4th clip is me rolling in to the start of one of our clubs (Spring City Spinners) summertime organized rides.
• The 5th clip is short, so if you blink you might have missed the deer crossing in front of me on the trail. Early morning Fat Biking, with a little snow falling, is a great time to see deer on the trails.
• The last clip is from the 2015 Santa Rampage event in Milwaukee, with every rider (and there were a couple of thousand all together) dressed as Santa (or - as in the video - some winter or holiday themed characters).

So, even thought I didn't supply any audio for the video, other than the background music, these clips represent "why I ride".  For the love of cycling, friendship, group rides, experiences, the downhills, and the climbs.

Here's the video entry, wish me luck, the winners will be announced on March 17th.

Pactimo Brand Ambassadors and Misc.

Pactimo made their announcement, and sadly I didn't make the list. Oh well, maybe next year. They had ~1800 people register for just 25 positions. The full announcement and the list of ambassadors can be found at Pactimo Brand Ambassador Program. Pactimo did provide a consolation gift, of a non-transferable discount on a future order, which is a pretty good deal.

This coming week, on Mon, Feb, 24th,  I'll be the substitute/guest yoga teacher at Soleil Lune Yoga Center for the 7:15PM Yoga for Stiff Folks who Ride Spokes class (FYI this class is full, so no Drop-in slots are available).

Training continues indoors (as it's still cold and icy/snowy around here) for my summer list of rides in Wisconsin's Iowa County's Drift-less Area: Horribly Hilly Hundreds, Dairyland Dare and The Wright Stuff.

Most recent Garmin logged bike ride

Century Rides that were like Night and Day

With summer winding down, I just participated in a couple of great cycling events. I usually try to do a couple of mid-summer Century rides, but with vacation and some other things that came up this summer I wasn't able to do the Heat Stroke 100 or Bay View Bicycle Clubs - Lake Country Classic.

These next two rides were only a week apart but they were like Night and day...

A little over a week ago I rode in the Cream City Cycle Club Century - Aug. 29th. This ride started out of Waterford Wisconsin and it wasn't bad at the beginning, but as the day wore on, the temperature and wind speed both started to increase. By the end of the ride I was close to "bonking". Not as bad as some, who required some medical attention, but I downed some fluids, ate the post ride meal (spaghetti dinner) and rested in the AC of the Waterford High School building before heading home. This was definitely a last ride of Summer with the heat, sun and wind to prove it.

Now fast forward exactly one week to Sept. 5th at Mt. Horeb, WI - actually Tyrol Basin Ski Lodge - to start the Wright Stuff Century (WSC). For this ride the temperatures were almost 35 degrees cooler (maybe 40 degrees at the start) and no wind for the first 3-1/2 to 4 hours. I followed a few tips on this ride that helped thru the day. Started with a 16oz sports drink about 2 hours before the start, I drank more during the ride (my hydration pack helps with that) and ate less at the rest stops. That's not to say I didn't eat, but I kept it to a piece of fruit and carbs with some protein; like a 1/4 bagel with peanut butter or I spread some peanut butter on a oatmeal cookie and then a banana or watermelon or orange slices. At the end of the day I had no cramping and felt a lot better. No doubt the lack of heat played a big factor it that, but the hills (and the number of them) are a lot tougher on this ride than the one a week early. The WSC was definitely the first ride of Fall (but not the last).

Safe riding all.

Maintaining your bikes Free Hub

While riding out to Dousman last week, I noticed some intermittent vibration in the rear wheel of my bike. When I got to Dousman I pulled into the Bike Doctor and asked them to take a quick look at it. Luckily it wasn't anything too serious, my Freehub was in need of some maintenance.

After a quick rebuild and lube they had me off and riding smoothly again. Here's a link to a page for Freehub maintenance, that way if you're so inclined, you can give it a try yourself.

Home made cookies and bicycling

There's something about baking that brings back the same kind of memories as riding a bike. At least for me, it's memories from childhood, my first bike ride, the smell of home made cookies or brownies, all hearkening back to simple pleasures (and simpler days). For biking it's the wind in your face, and for baking it's the smells and the taste, that link us to those memories.


So what does this have to do with Pedal The Kettle? Well, one of the first Pedal The Kettle's (then known as The Spring City Annual Tour), was supplied almost entirely with homemade goodies. I wasn't there, but you can imagine that it was probably like the days when you were a kid going to a family reunion. Little if any of the food was store bought (or Fast Food), everything was homemade, from the Fried Chicken to the desserts. Since then, we ask each of our members to supply four(4) dozen cookies, which are distributed among each of the five(5) Rest Stops.

So our goal with Pedal The Kettle is to bring back some of those feelings and memories, from the past, to the riders (our guests) here in the present. It's what keeps Pedal The Kettle a little bit unique and special among so many other local rides.

Safe riding all

A Century ride per week?

The Wright Stuff Century ride was a ton of fun. A small group (three to be exact) from our bike club started and finished together. Initially it was cool and very foggy, so much so that we had to shed our glasses for about the first hour or so, due to the condensation. The temperature swing wasn't too drastic, starting out in the hi 50's to low 60's, but then after the Sun came out I think the peak temp. was in the low 80's. With the clouds and slight breeze, it made for an enjoyable ride, through some very picturesque sections of Dane and Iowa County.

My next Century ride will be a members only event (Sept. 12th), previewing our club fund raiser, Pedal The Kettle coming up on Sept, 20th. This year, we're following the trend of many of the bigger organized rides, with a "Grand Unified map and cue sheet" for all three routes. Here's a sample of the map that I've been working on.

Our All-in-One version of the map

If you're in the area and decide to participate, stop by and say hi, I'll be manning Rest Stop #2 (for the 66/100 mile routes) at Rome Pond Park, just before the 66 and 100 mile routes split.

Safe riding all

Horribly Hilly 100K - badge of honor

The heat that day got the better of me, so I scaled back from the 200K option to 100K. Here's my souvenir "badge of honor" from the event, on my trusty Camelbak (couldn't have gone as far as I did without that either).

Early in the ride I was fine, making it up the three major hills (Mounds Rd, Scherbel Rd and Barlow Rd. The first rest stop was a little tricky though, because just as we got there, rain from the previous day/night had weakened a tree which fell onto a power line along the climb to the Festge Park rest stop. I navigated around that, with many other rides, only to discover that the power lines that were down had also taken out the electric water pump at the rest stop, so we had to wait for water.

Maybe I waited around at the rest stop to long, but after climbing the hill on Barlow Rd, I started cramping. So when the option to split between the 100K and 200K presented itself I opt'ed for the 100K.

It was a great event and it was very well supported. Several members of our club, Spring City Spinners, participated in the event and it was great to see them having 'fun' as well.

I'm not sure what my next event will be, maybe just a nice relatively flat Century Ride.

Safe riding all.

Vacationing in the Land of Lincoln

Specifically, Springfield, IL -- and what might you ask is in Springfield? Well as of 2005 the new Presidential Lincoln Library and museum are located in the downtown area near with the Old Capitol Building. Part of the reason for going was for my wife and daughter to do genealogy research at the Lincoln Library (which by the way led to some very fruitful findings).

We also went on several of the typical tours; Lincolns home, Lincolns Tomb, the Old Capitol building and some of the surrounding buildings, such as Union Station (also recent renovated - 2007) and the old Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices .

One non-Lincoln site that we toured (which luckily was re-opened recently as part of the re-opening of Illinois historic sites - no thanks to the ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich) was the Dana-Thomas Home (a Frank Lloyd Wright designed home from circa 1902-04). It's in remarkable condition, again thanks to tax payer money and a previous owner - Charles Thomas/Thomas Publishing who preserved it even while using it as office space for almost 40 years.

I did manage to get some bike riding in by contacting a local club (Springfield Bicycle Club) and rode with some of its members. On one of the routes I even crossed the historic Route 66.

This week will be a "tapering down" training week, with the Horribly Hilly Hundreds coming up this Saturday.

Safe riding all

Upgrades prior to HHHs

After that first training ride at Blue Mounds, WI (on the worst hills of the route) I decided on a gearing change for my bike. Transitioncycle.com helped me out with a "like new" used chainring. For a better gear ratio I went from a 36T to a 34T. After the change (the following weekend) I had a second practice ride at HHH (200k) stages 2 & 3 last and it was a big improvement. Now the only problem, with a couple weeks to go before the event, is finding any hills around Waukesha for training that compete with those around Blue Mounds.

I've been tweaking the insoles of my bike shoes with a couple of different brands; Superfeet and Powerstep), I need the arch support, particularly in the left foot. Right now I use a Superfeet insole in the right shoe and the Powerstep Pro (3/4) in the left.

The last change is that I recently dumped my Polar CS100 and it's multiple sensors for the Garmin FR305. I've been using the FR305 for a little over a year, but I just installed it's accessory quick attach/detach bike mount. It's nice to have the display back up on the handlebars and to be able to pop it on and off the bike. I also added the cadence sensor, for the complete telemetry package.

That's about it, I'll be on vacation for about a week, hopefully I'll get some training rides in while down in the Springfield, IL area.

Safe riding all.

66 mile biking weekend

Spring was definitely in the air over the weekend. It was "almost" perfect weather for riding, but even if it wasn't, it was close enough. Saturday was a hill circuit day with 3 sets out near Wales, WI. The next day I wanted a longer ride with a mix of hills and flats, so I went out around Ottawa Lake Park. The route has some moderate hills (Cty C & Waterville Rd) and a nice downhill and flats around (Cty ZZ, Z & CI) the park. The route is posted on Motionbased.com.

This weekend looks like it will be a little less than ideal, with snow in the forecast.

A View from the Exercise Ball

While doing some stretches, it occurred to me that the view of the ceiling in the next room had a kind of stark appearance. So I grabbed the camera and took a picture from the same vantage point.


The winter here in Wisconsin has been especially bad for outdoor biking, so all of my miles, so far this year, have been indoors. Also, my blogging has been mostly quick posts to twitter, either directly or via Dailymile.com, while logging my training. This week I move into intervals of longer duration and change ups on the weekend with a long ride (2-3 hours).

My next project is going to be to build another camera mount for a bicycle (like the steadicam arm) and I plan to give it away. Details coming in future posts.

Bike Computer Consolidation II ?

A while back I posted an article about consolidating my bike computers into one unit, and at the time I choose a Polar CS100. But now, due to a problem with accessing their website, I can't login to my old account and I can't register a new account, (because the CS100 S/N is in use by my old account). I've tried emails to Polar, but so far no response and I hate to lose all the data I've entered. If I can't get access to the original account, I might have to think about a new cyclometer. I like my Garmin FR 305, but I'm not sure that I want to use it every time I ride. Any suggestions for a good alternative?

I may venture out tomorrow, it's supposed to be colder than it was today, but there should be some sun, with a chance of flurries. That makes it at least a 3 layer day, starting with the;

Feet - wool socks, shoes and shoe covers
Lower Half - Bike Shorts and CWX winter running tights (that's only two layers, but I should be ok)
Upper Torso - short sleeve base, long sleeve mid layer w/ hood and a jacket
Head - Hood, helmet and helmet cover.
Hands - Lobster Claw (Vulcan Salute) gloves

Its got to be better than riding inside on the CycleOps Trainer.

Safe riding all (no matter where you ride; inside or out)

Blogs in the bike lane

There seem to be multiple "In the Bike Lane" blogs out there lately. I started posting to this blog a little over 2 years ago (Aug. 2006), but what's interesting is the name seems to be very popular lately.

Trek likes it with their Life In the Bike Lane blog.

Bicycling Magazine also likes it with their recent In the Bike Lane blog.

Blogging for me is a type of journaling, to get thoughts from the brain into "print". One of my early posts expressed it this way;

"Sometimes life is like being in the Bike Lane; watch over you're shoulder, keep pedaling, heads up, stay in your own lane, pedal harder up the hills and coast down them, drink plenty of fluids and take a rest day once in a while."

Currently I'm working on a re-design of the Spring City Spinners website, as the current one is getting a little long in the tooth.

Safe riding all (no matter which bike lane you're in)

Busy cycling weekend

On Saturday the bike club had one of its last scheduled rides of the season, our annual Chili Dump ride, to celebrate the success of the Pedal The Kettle fund raiser. We had several ride options, I picked the 30 mile route, out to Holy Hill and back. It was a perfect day, with very little wind and temp's in the high 70's. We shared the back roads north of Pewaukee with many other cyclists and motorcyclists as well. After the ride there was plenty of great food and conversation to go around.

Getting ready to ride

After seeing so many motorcycles on the road yesterday, my son and I decided to visit the new Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, WI. It was very impressive, not for just the shear number of bikes on display (which is huge in and of itself) but also the amount of information and history that's provided. We only had the morning for our visit, but could have easily spent the whole day looking around. Here's a couple of the many pictures that we took.

Exterior of the Main Museum Building

1903 Model #1 (under glass)

Safe riding all, no matter what type of bike you ride!

Barns of the Pedal The Kettle

In previous posts I've mentioned that, as a kid, I spent a lot of time on my Grandparents farm. So the first time that I road the Pedal The Kettle route, I saw several farms that reminded me of those childhood days visiting the working farm. Today I decided to ride part of the PTK route and take some pictures of the barns on some of those farms. Here are of few of those pictures.







There are many more barns on the route, some in better shape than other, but it's a very scenic ride.
Hope to see you at this years Pedal The Kettle - Sept. 21st, 2008 - Waukesha, WI
As a member of the club I won't be riding that day, I'll be helping out at one of the rest stops (probably the Rome stop just before the 60 and 100 mile routes split).

Safe riding all

Thanks Julbo

On Monday I had a package in the mail, a replacement pair of the Julbo "Race" glasses. This was great service, I had sent the original pair of glasses back to Julbo on Jul. 23rd and had the new pair in hand on Aug. 4th. There was even a hand written note with the new glasses. Like the title says, Thanks Julbo.

Riding Glasses - The saga continues

I've been pretty happy with the riding glasses that I got just over a year ago, the brand name is Julbo. In some previous posts I mentioned that I did have a problem getting the prescription insert (a mix up at the lab). Recently I've had a couple of things happen with the glasses themselves. 1) the rubber "friction" inserts at the ear end of the ear pieces have come out and were lost and 2) the screw in the hinge of the left ear piece keeps working it's way out.

The great thing about the Jublo line is the lifetime guarantee. I contacted Julbo and they said to send the glasses back and that they would take care of it ASAP. I sent the glasses out a little over a week ago, so I'm looking forward to getting them back sometime soon.

Tomorrow I'm leading a "chat ride" from Waukesha to Old World Wisconsin, near Eagle, WI. It's a scenic 45 mile ride with a rest stop at Old World Wisconsin.

Safe riding all

BVBC Classic Century

It was still sprinkling as I got close to Oconomowoc, WI on Saturday morning. The Bay View Bicycle Clubs Lake Country Classic was due to start (for the 100 mile route) at 7:00AM. I pulled into the parking lot of the church that they were using as their start/end location at about 6:30AM. As I parked the car I saw Gloria and Laura, two member of the same bicycle club that I belong to, looking at the sky and trying to decide if they would ride or not. I went inside and picking up my cue sheet/map and the wrist band, and by the time I came back out the rain had stopped. As I was unpacking my gear and the bike a few more members of our club showed up for about 8 of us all together. One snag, somehow I forgot my helmet, but fortunately a local bike shop (Wheel and Sprocket) was on site and sold me one at a reasonable price. Our group pulled out to start the ride at about 7:30. My part of the ride was logged on my Forerunner 305 (posted in the right hand column of this blog). The ride goes through some very pretty country side, know as the Kettle Moraine. The rest stops were well stocked with water, Gatorade, homemade treats and even BW3 wings at one of the stops. Gloria and I pulled into the church at the end of the ride at about 2:30PM, we had passed the other group from our club, who had stopped to help with a flat tire. All in all it was a great day, a little on the cloudy side, but it wasn't cold and the sun did come out occasionally during the course of the ride.

This weekend Waukesha, WI hosts the Carl Zach Cycling Classic (part of the Super Week Pro Tour). Our club, Spring City Spinners, is a sponsor and we'll have a booth near the start/finish line in downtown Waukesha on Saturday, July 19th.

Safe riding all.

Life Options and my mission statement

I took an interesting class a few months ago, it was called Life Options, it dealt with self discovery, dreams, and values. One of the things that I found was the my past jobs paralleled my love of cycling, so my mission statement was pretty simple;

Be the Ride Leader, by navigating, mapping or rerouting
around the obstacles in life, while helping others complete the journey.

As responsible ride leaders, we practice this all the time.

Posts have been a little scarce lately, I was on vacation in Disney World last week. I took some advise that I had read about doing things you don't ordinarily do and inversely, not doing things that you normally do, while on vacation. So, no computer and no driving while we were there, of course it helped that we stayed at a Disney resort. We took the buses, boats or monorail everywhere that we went. One of the more interesting things that we did was to take one of the unadvertised behind the scenes tours, specifically, "The Magic Behind the Steam Trains Tour", more on that in a later post.

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July weekend