riders collective may 2010 1 ’ ’ ’ ’ riders collective ’ Presenting the first issue of...

©’’’’ ’riders collective

©Aggrezine™ Publishing LLC. All material used with permission and © original sources. Cover photo ©HiMY SYeD

/by us/for us/about us/

a cyclist’s sampling of some of the Web’s best blogs, ride reports, tips, videos, reviews, and photographs

may 2010aggrezine

www.riderscollective.org may 2010 1

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Presenting the first issue of Riders’ Collective.A dozen stories—about cycling, by cyclists, and for cyclists—from New Zealand, Australia, Czech Republic, Tunisia, and all across America. They cover a wide range of riding styles in a wide range of writing styles. I hope you enjoy reading them. You can visit writers, photographers and advertisers by clicking on any ad, photo, or URL in the text.

Paul S. Kramer,

publisher, editor,

designer, producer r c ’

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A Night(mare in Tunisia

)

Posted: November 22, 2009, by Tyler. Filed under: “no.”

goingslowly.com charts Tyler Kellan and Tara Alan’s cyclotour, begin-ing in Glasgow on April 1st, 2009, and headed for Kuala Lumpur. Seven months later found them in Tunisia.

When is a bike not a bike?

When it’s used to baricade a

door. Tara and Tyler learned

that local color comes in all

shapes and guises.

For great back-

ground music,

listen to Miles and Bird play

“A Night in Tunisia”


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t is good to be on the road again. Everything has quickly fallen into sync: we

had crepes for breakfast before breaking from our secluded free camp this morning, saw a giant spider and then made our way down the road. Par for the course!

Hammamet turned out to be very touristy and rather underwhelming. The medina might have been interesting had it not been for the constant barrage of hawkers trying to guess our nationality and sell us some useless trinket.

Actually, it is starting to seem like everyone here is trying to sell us something. Tara and I are both really tired of it; so much so that we’ve stopped being polite with our refusals.

We’ve also vowed not to visit any more medinas.

On our way out we spent some time relaxing by the shore and then headed

inland for Kairouan, home of the fourth most holy mosque in the Islamic world.

Around 4:30PM we decided to call it a day and pulled over by a

promising looking

field. As we did so, a man on an old tractor passed us. We waved

him down and asked if

we could pitch our tent on his land. He told us that if we waited for a half an hour, he would come get us and would have a much better place to sleep: in his gate-secured orange grove.

As he chugged away, we discussed our options and talked about how we felt about our new acquaintance.

““ ...we both

felt comfortable with the guy

tunisiahammamet

night(mare) in tunisia

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—from www.bamboosero.com


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enight(mare) in tunisia

We decided to wait for him. Even though night was falling and we wanted to get settled, we both felt comfortable with the guy and agreed to sit and rest until he returned to escort us to a safe free

camp. Unlike the people we’d met during our morning, he was

straightforward, friendly, and didn’t seem to want anything from us. It was refreshing.

While we waited, a boy named Ali came to say hello, and he too seemed genuinely nice. We talked about bicycling and he brought us fresh oranges and pomegranates before

asking if we were on Facebook! When Mohammed returned,

Ali followed us and we walked 200 meters or so to his gated field. They

both proceeded to stare at us while we assembled our tent, just as the shepherd had done yesterday.

Though I’m sure we present quite the alien spectacle to someone who is unfamiliar with cycle touring, we secretly decided we hate being stared at. Tara tried to make conversation to

We talked about bicycling and he brought us fresh oranges“ “

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...the situation quickly devolved into one of the most uncomfortable experiences we’ve had.

““

Tyler and Tara’spreparation for their World bicycle tour

temper their intense gazes. Finally, when it was well past dark and we tried to look as uninteresting as possible, chopping potatoes for dinner, Mohammed and Ali let

us be. We ate, snuggled, watched a couple episodes of Arrested Development, and fell fast, fast asleep.

Around 10PM, we awoke to a man just outside our tent, saying “C’est moi, Mohammed!” Mohammed had come to our tent with dinner! At first we appreciated this friendly gesture but the situation quickly devolved into one of the most uncomfortable

experiences we’ve had since our dramatic encounter in the ocean side town of Newton by the Sea.

We had both been fast asleep and neither of us was even remotely

hungry; I’d made a huge cheesy fried potato dinner not more than an hour ago. We didn’t

want to be rude so we accepted the food, thinking he’d leave and we could save it for tomorrow. Not even close.

For the next 15 minutes, crouched in our vestibule, Mohammed proceeded to eat dinner with us, practically force-feeding Tara and I roasted lamb in the process. After a token bite of bread, lamb, and salad mechouia, I began

night(mare) in tunisia

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Towards the end of the unwelcome meal, Mohammed became increasingly forward. He tried to place food in Tara’s mouth. He tried to place food in my

mouth. He touched and petted Tara’s

hand in a lingering gesture which she recoiled from violently.

Then he said he was going to sleep in our tent with us.

Normally one or both of us gets a bad vibe when we meet someone we should probably avoid but we had been honestly relieved by his seeming lack of agenda at our initial meeting. No triggers tripped, this came totally out of left field. At first, we thought he was joking. Tara laughed him off in French, hoping to discourage this ridiculous idea. Then he insisted again, with a smile and another attempted hand-pet.

Sitting in our tent just inches from this man, every muscle in my body snapped absolutely taut in visceral attention. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. A surge of electricity coursed from the base of my neck down my spine. It took a serious, conscious measure of control not to spring

forward and attack what was now clearly an intruder threatening our safety.

A hair trigger away from violence, I spoke over Mohammed with one word and fire in my eyes (according to Tara)

every time he opened his mouth. No. With Tara and I simultaneously refusing, he eventually backed down after a good minute of insisting and slimy weaseling

““

politely refusing his persistent offers. It felt very much like another strange meeting we had with a man on Ile de Noirmoutier who wouldn’t let us leave

until we drank his disgusting tea (I flat out refused a second cup).

“

“ I spoke overMohammed with one word....No.

“

“

He tried to place food in Tara’s mouth.

Then he said he was going to sleep in our tent with us.

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ewww.riderscollective.org may 2010 6

a night(mare) in tunisia

a night(mare) in tunisia

)about how he had no place else to sleep.

With a laugh and trailing “just kidding...” the tension lifted ever so slightly, and he offered to bring us coffee in the morning. We quickly agreed and he left.

As soon as he was gone we breathed a huge sigh of relief. We discussed packing camp and leaving immediately. Given that it was very dark and the shoulder of

A footnote: Reading their journal you’ll find many positive accounts of those that Tyler and Tara met in Tunisia—a reminder that one should never let a person define a people.—riders’ collective

the road was very narrow, we eventually decided to stay and set about Mohammed-proofing our tent.

We propped and locked the bikes up in front of the door on Tara’s side, so that if anyone tried to get in, they’d have to knock the bikes over, waking us up in the process. Then we set the alarm for 5am, got out our arnis bastons and tried to get some rest. —tk

January 21, 2009Posted by TaraTyler and I started taking Arnis de Mano lessons at Dual Dragons after it got too cold for biking so we could stay in shape until we leave.... Arnis is different from anything I’ve done, though, because it is much more focused on practicality than on the art form. You actually learn to hit people, and we leave class with stinging forearms. I love it. I didn’t realize how much I missed martial arts, but I really did! I missed getting my butt kicked every week, and that feeling of accomplishment you have when you can do something better than you could the last week. —ta


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By of the end of April, Tyler and Tara were in Romania, where they found some abandoned puppies among the other creatures they came upon.


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by Krystal McManusPosted 12/09/07 on her site:

mcmanusweb.com

This is a sore subjecT and ThaT is no joke. if you’re at all

like me you’ve spent lots of time, money and tears

trying to find a saddle worth it’s leather. My laundry room looks like a saddle grave yard.

each new (expensive) purchase i was hoping

against hope that the new saddle was all i had read it was. here is a sampling of just some of the ones that have gone before: Terry; brooks; specialized; Vetta.

These are some great saddles and i know there are lots of individuals that found their comfort zone with one of them. i personally gave each one my best try. some things i noticed were:

Gel saddlesThese caused rubbing for me, the thicker the gel saddle the less comfortable i ended up being.

review: the selle an-atomica saddlecheek cheek

to

Heaven! I’m in heaven!And my heart beats so, that I can hardly speak!

And I seem to find the happiness I seek,

when we’re out together, dancing cheek to cheek.

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cheek to cheek

Gel saddles were the only saddles that i got “saddle sores” on. My problem with gel saddles was friction that built from wiggle room i am guessing caused by the flex in the gel.

Hard leather covered plastic saddles

These were the most bearable of the unbearable bunch for me. (if that makes any sense) i could ride all day long on one. (as long as it had a front cut out) i would be hurting after the first 50 miles but still riding. The problem with these saddles was bruising for me. i could not ride consecutive days on this type of saddle. My sit bones would be so bruised the next day would be completely miserable. The third day was unbearable. i never got saddle sores with this type of saddle just deep bruising. i like bike camping and would often ride out on a Friday and ride back in on sunday. i found myself

calling my dh to come pick me up on the third day while using this type of saddle with one sore posterior.

The Brooks saddleLet me say right here of all the saddles i tried i had the most hope for the brooks. i love its classic look and really wanted it to be a “good fit”. I found in short order with the brooks that i could not do without a center cut out. it wasn’t an issue of breaking it in…it was a crushing thing.

i am starting to believe it must be just cm’s or even mm’s of difference in body anatomy that allows a given

saddle to work for one person and not another.

Sella An-Atomica saddle,

brown leatheri have learned that a front cutout is something i can’t

live without in a saddle. another need i have is a saddle that can conform to my anatomy.

by the time i had tried and failed with the brooks saddle i was starting to seriously wonder if a recumbent was my only option. i had been scouring the internet for saddle information

during this time and I finally ran across the selle an-atomica site. They have more information about their saddles then you can

Oh! I love to climb a mountain,And to reach the highest peak,

But it doesn’t thrill me half as muchAs dancing cheek to cheek.

FAIRFIELD, CA 04/26/2010 5:00 PM MST: Tom Milton, the man behind the Selle An-Atomica road saddle, died on Sunday while riding the Devil Mountain Double century in the Bay Area. Milton was in his early to mid 60s in age.

“He was famous for bending ears,” said Larry Black, founder of Maryland’s Mt. Airy Bicycles & Fitness, who met him six years ago at a California bike show. “We were one of the first adopters of his saddle.”

Milton wasn’t only a third generation engineer, but also an avid cyclist. In 2008 Milton completed 11 California double century events, rode from Sacramento to L.A. a couple times and did 600 miles in four days.

Milton’s saddle patent (7,341,308) pub-lished in 2008 (filed in 2005) improved a molded leather bicycle saddle by provid-ing a carefully designed slot between the nose of the saddle and the rear of the seat portion.

Selle An-Atomica completed its first year in limited release October 2005. The saddles were ridden an estimated 800,000 – 1,200,000 miles by consumers. Although Milton’s office was in North-ern California, his saddles were made in Wisconsin.

What made the saddle so special was Milton himself. “Tom’s pitch,” Black said. “He had the pitch. He was convincing.”

—bicycleretailer.com

Selle An-Atomica Founder Tom Milton Dies

self-portrait from caltriplecrown.blogspot.com

probably go through, but after some reading i decided to give it a try.

Four day bike ridei had planned to head out on a little four day bike camping ride the next weekend and i was worried about my comfort

level. i know it’s not a sound idea but thought i might as well try the new saddle on the ride instead of going through the progressive deep bruising of my nether regions. They said on the rivendell site that there is no “break in period”

with the selle an-atomica saddle and i knew i’d be hurting with the old one anyway. What did i have to lose?

i ordered my selle from rivendell instead of selle direct because they would express the saddle to me and i’d have it for the trip. (i had asked Tom at selle an-atomica to do this for me but he had JUST finished PBP on the saddle the week before… he said he was swamped with orders while he was out (and i imaging a little exhausted) and couldn’t do it. i believe any other time he would have tried to accommodate me.)

i say all this because ordering it from rivendell instead of selle direct caused me to end up with the clydesdale version of the saddle. The leather on this saddle is not as thick as on a brooks. one of the ways they compensate for this is laminating the under side of the saddle. There are

two thickness of lamination. regular and clydesdale. rivendell only caries the clydesdale version.

i am glad i got it. The selle an-atomica saddle is a very hummocky saddle. i believe the clydesdale version will last longer then the other. i have never ridden the other but i can attest to the fact that this is a comfortable saddle right out of the box. i am able to ride this saddle for days in comfort.

i am not saying i never get sore… I still find myself scooting around on the saddle after the first 50 miles or so. I still need to change my position… The big difference is no more deep bruising. The saddle has the right amount of give as well as support for me. The cutout takes a lot of issues out of the way for me as well.

believe it or not i no longer bother putting on padded shorts for rides under 25 - 30 miles or so.

cheek to cheekwww.riderscollective.org may 2010 10

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Oh! I love to go out fishingIn a river or a creek,

But I don’t enjoy it half as muchAs dancing cheek to cheek.

watch this video from the selle an-atomica website

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Mental preparation is the most important aspect of a successful long distance ride. Visualizing the route months in advance will get you to the starting line with body and bike prepared. If nothing else, the time spent planning and training for the ride will pack your goal with a heavy emotional payload, which could be the thing that keeps you rolling when a failing bike

or an aching body are signaling you to bail out.

For every rider who makes it to the starting line of an endurance cycling event ride, there may be ten or even 100 who dream of partici-pating but do not be-lieve they

are capable of it. Still others, who would like to try, just don’t know where to start.

So what is the best way to prepare for the

longest rides? While there are riders who just show up and rock the route, most mortals need to

train, and training demands time and effort, which is why even experienced

riders who haven’t pre-pared are just

as vulner-

able as the beginner.While it may not be

possible to complete every ride we start, our chances are improved if we invest the time to iden-tify a goal that has deep emotional value. This year, randonneurs from all over the world are preparing for the quadrennial Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) Grand Randonnee. If you have ever heard a PBP ancien speak of the ride, then you know just how rich the experience can be. And it is more far reaching

Setting a goal that is aligned with your values is the key to success in everything, including long distance cycling.

Why I Didn’t Ride Paris–Brest–Parisby David Rowe, creator of Ready to Ride©


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than the 1200 kilometers these cy-clists will spend on the bike.

Riders going to PBP plan their route to

the starting line as care-fully as the event orga-

nizer plans the cue sheet for the brevet;

the richer, more rewarding ex-perience is the training, the wrenching, the collaborating and the commiserating leading up to the event.

I won’t be going to Paris this

year. As you can imagine, being a member of the country’s larg-est randonneuring community (Seattle International Randon-neurs), and opting-out of PBP, was something I have constantly had to explain, not just to my comrades, but to myself. I chose the Portland-to-Glacier 1000K as the primary goal of my 2007 sea-son. While many Paris-bound rid-ers viewed “the Glacier” as a PBP training ride, to me, it was an ex-perience that defined my year. The thought of it motivated me to get out of bed on the coldest

winter morn-ings to ride.

Montana has been on my list of plac-es I need to see before I die since I read about it in Backpacker Magazine in the late 1970s. From the moment the Or-egon Randonneurs announced the club would host a 1000 kilo-meter brevet starting in Portland and ending in White Fish, my commitment to the ride was un-wavering. The only question that I could not so easily answer was,”Would I also ride in PBP?”

Here in the Pacific Northwest, PBP has been the focal point of the year. It is hard not to at least con-sider making the trip to France. But

the mental images I held of riding there in August with 3,000 other cyclists did not

capture my imagination the way the ride to Glacier Nation-al Park did. Much of this stems from a spiritual connection I feel to this region.

The main attraction of PBP for me was the idea of rid-ing through rural France with my friends from the Oregon and Washington clubs. I read the bro-chures and I watched the videos and I attended informational semi-nars that featured riders who told colorful stories about PBP. Still not ready to commit one way or the other, I penciled it into my calen-dar. I decided to ride the four qualifying brevets and leave the option open as long as possible.

Finding the balance between my goals on the bike and the other priorities of life is important to me. In the Randonneurs Hand-book, Bill Bryant warns riders who are new to brevets about the opportunity cost of being a successful endurance cyclist. Spending weekend after week-end on the road training and rid-ing permanents and bre-

vs. P-B-PPortland-to-Glacier

why I didn’t ride PBP

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vets is bound to impact other aspects of one’s life including relationships, the condition of one’s home, personal finances, and career.

I often wonder how randonneurs keep it

all in together.Preparing for a 1000K or

1200K certainly tested my limits. I began training for the Glacier on December 31, 2006. For the next six months, I was up before 5am on weekdays, riding or lift-ing at the gym. Saturdays were spent doing long rides, usually alone, in the farmlands and foot hills of the Willamette Valley. As the time spent training increased to as many as 20 hours a week, it seemed I had just enough time in a day to eat, ride, work, and sleep. Chores around the house

went un-done. Mail piled up on my desk

at home un-opened.I began eval-

uating PBP in terms of the time required to con-tinuing training at

this level through the end of Au-gust, and the sacrifices that would be asked of my wife. She didn’t make my decision any easier; she encouraged me to go to Paris, even if our bank ac-count couldn’t support the trip for her. It is moments like these that define a marriage; it helps to explain why I have been with this woman for 25 years. It may also explain why the idea of visit-ing France for the first time with-out her wasn’t even on the table for discussion. Nor was the op-tion of putting any portion of the trip on the credit card, possibly a sign that I have read too much Suzie Orman for my own good.

By mid-march, the brevet sea-son was under way in Oregon. I rode the 100K populaire al-most 30-minutes faster than

why I didn’t ride PBP

Portland-to-Glacier vs. PBP’’

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First run in 1891, the 1200-kilometer Paris-Brest-Paris, or “PBP” as it is commonly called, is a grueling test of human endurance and cycling ability. Organized every four years by the host Audax Club Parisien, the Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneurs is the oldest bicycling event still run on a regular basis on the open road.

Beginning on the southern side of the French capital, it travels west 600 kilometers to the

port city of Brest on the Atlantic Ocean and returns along the same route.

Today’s randon-neur cyclists, while no longer riding the primitive machines used a hundred years ago over dirt

roads or cobblestones, still have to face rough weather, endless hills, and pedaling around the clock. A 90-hour time limit ensures that only the hardiest randonneurs earn the prestigious PBP finisher’s medal and have their name entered into the event’s “Great Book” along with every other finisher going back to the very first PBP. To become a PBP ancien (or ancienne for the ladies) is to join a very elite group of cyclists who have successfully endured this mighty challenge.

No longer a contest for professional racing cyclists (whose entry is now forbidden), PBP evolved into a timed randonnée, or brevet, for hard-riding amateurs during the middle part of the 20th century. The event is held in August every four years.

—From the Randonneurs USA (RUSA), the bicyclist’s resource for information about randonneuring in the USA, at www.rusa.org

The Next Paris-Brest-Paris is in August, 2011

I rode it in 2006. My times in the 200, 300, 400 and 600 brevets

were hours faster than a year earlier. The weight lifting and interval training played a big role in that. Just as important were the riders I connected with and rode along side dur-ing the Series. I called them the Pass Hunters af-ter the blog published by Jon Beilby.

The Pass Hunters lifted

my riding. Staying with them meant I had to maintain rolling speeds of 18 mph or more, rath-er than the 15 mph I strived for during the 2006 season. Despite the training, I did not make this leap without feeling some pain. But

the elation I felt at the end of each ride inspired me to practice with even greater intensity so that I could stay

with these riders on the next, longer brevet.

Although none of them knew it, complet-ing the Super Randon-neur Series with the Pass Hunters helped me make a decision

about PBP. During those moments when my legs ached as I fought to stay with them on the flats; during those hours long af-ter dark, when I wanted to get off the bike, lay down by the side of the road and sleep, the image I held in my

mind was not of Paris, France; it was the snow-capped peaks of the Gla-cier National Park, and of my beautiful wife, waiting there for me.

I am certain that one day I will

ride PBP. Its importance has already increased for me, now that the Glacier is done. But, as Ken Bonner advised in a 2006 issue of Ultracycling Magazine, we must ride every brevet as if it was our last. If it turned out that the Glacier was, indeed, my last brevet, then I can leave this sport knowing I have no unfinished business on the bicycle, and the rest of my life is still intact.

David Rowe lives, works, and rides in the Pacific Northwest. With his son Evan, David created Ready to Ride in 2005 with the goal of helping cyclists excel at distance cycling events of 100 miles or more. Together they have published two eBooks, A Rider’s Guide to Building the Long Distance Bicycle (2007), and The Ride of Your Life (2009, Both available online from RoadBikeRider.

There is no direct English translation of the French term randonnée, which translates loosely as a long outing, or ramble, usually on foot or a bicycle, along a defined route. A person who goes on a randonnée is called a randonneur. The sport of randonneur-ing is participating in non-competitive, long-distance, against-the-clock, un-supported endurance cycling events.

A randonnée is not a race. Over-all, about the only thing being first earns is some bragging rights. It is not uncommon for the last finishers to get as much applause as anyone else. Indeed, there is much camaraderie in randonneuring. One does it to test oneself against the clock, the weather, and a challenging route—but not to beat the other riders. Randonneuring stresses self-sufficiency. Help can only be given at the checkpoints, known as controlés, along the route.

An event, known as brevet [rhymes with croquet] is typically a challenging 200-, 300-, 400-, 600-, 1000- or 1200- kilometer ride, each with a specific time limit. The randonneur carries a brevet card which is signed and stamped at each checkpoint along the way to prove they have covered the distance from the last controlé within the time limit. Failure to do so results

in an automatic disqualification.

—Adapted from the

RUSA website

You’re aRando-what?!


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ewhy I didn’t ride PBP

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review from down-under:

the Kona Unit 29er excerpted from www.paulpetch.com • Christchurch, New Zealand

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kona unit 29er

uring the new Zea-land summer time Christchurch is the perfect place for a

mountain biker to reside. there are the excellent Port hill trails right at the foot of the city with pristine alpine singletrack a little more than an hour’s drive away in either direction. however, when the seasons pass and winter arrives with its snow and rain those same trails are usually too wet to ride. Fortunately, there is one lo-cation in Christchurch that is accessible no matter what the weather, Bottlelake for-est. the forest is located 10kms north of the city cen-tre and is working forest-ry land situated right next to the coast. One unique fea-ture is that the surface of the forest floor is sand, and as such it is not only ride-able in wet conditions, but actually rides better after some rainfall.

For the more experienced mountain biker the tracks at Bottlelake doesn’t of-

fer much in the way of a challenge on a traditional geared bike as there are lots of small undulations rather than any climbs or descents with more than a few me-ters of vertical change. the

singletrack has plenty of twists and turns though, but without speed or some technical challenges those twists and turns aren’t very exciting on a fully suspend-ed trail bike! with winter fast approaching i began searching for a way to enjoy Bottlelake more with some challenges and i decided that a different kind of bike and mindset was needed!

the plani wanted a bike that would give me 100% feedback from the trail at Bottlelake For-est so it needed to be rig-id and it had to be a single speed. i spoke to a friend

of mine who has been rid-ing single speeds for a num-ber of years, which culmi-nated in a 12hr solo single speed race at rotorua last month so he therefore un-derstands single speeding

more intimately than most. i had one question left for him...26 or 29. i described Bottlelake and my style of riding and he had no hes-itation at all in prescrib-ing be a 29er. rolling mo-mentum is why i wanted a 29er—apparently. i had a look around at my options and in what seems a typi-cal trend in Christchurch of late...not a single local bike shop had a rigid 29er sin-glespeed in stock.

heading online and armed with no more than a price range i narrowed the op-tions down to either: ra-leigh XXiX, gt Peace or a Kona unit. not being in a

position to test ride, i could only base my decision on online reviews from plac-es like mtBr that led me towards the Kona unit. what’s more, i found an-other post with a guy of a

similar height and same in-seam leg measurement as myself enjoying the 20″ ver-sion of the frame...so a plan was coming together. Con-sidering that i had no op-tion to test ride, this was about as good as i’d get so i took the plunge and laid down the cash to an auck-land bike shop. after a few clicks and two days later the Kona unit arrived. life in the 21st century is al-most too easy.

first ridei must admit that my early thoughts as i threw my leg over the Kona unit were not exactly the best. oming

d After a few clicks and two days later the Kona Unit arrived. Life in the 21st century is almost too easy.

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components that you might not have imagined in carbon fiber

Oming FrOm a medium

siZed trail bike, the 20 (large) felt colossus, and sitting atop the 29-inch wheels left me feeling like i was driving an old london route master bus. add a riding position which was most peculiar with the 120mm stem forcing me to

peer over the edge of that monster 29 wheel…i was not really sure. with a fairly standard “out of the box” 32:18 ratio—which i

have been told is usually quite tall for a 29 single speed, but perhaps good for Bottle lake as it’s devoid of any real climbs…felt “ok”. On top of the strange riding position, single geared, huge wheeled monster…i also ran clip-in pedals for the first time in almost 2 years.

o what did it ride like? From a standing start the 26lb bike pulled

away—slowly, at least for such a light bike compared to my trailbike is around 32-33lbs. Once up to speed i was relieved to find that the gearing felt good, which was a relief as the 32:18 gearing initially felt bit tall. with the new bike feeling a bit big and unwieldy i overcooked far too many corners, and was braking far more than i should have. i also had a large number of short climbs where i ran out of speed and really struggled as i grinded the bike up the rest of the

incline. Fortunately these climbs weren’t large and i managed to get to the top of each without having to get off the bike and push. with a serious lack of flow and clumsy antics, the maiden ride was not very satisfying at all. Back at the car park though, i was at least in the position of being able to fantasise about the bikes potential and the new challenge and benefits that only come with riding a bike with a single gear.

this deFinitely wasn’t mOuntain BiKing as i had BeCOme tO KnOw it…and i CannOt wait tO get Out there again!!!!

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kona unit 29erwww.riderscollective.org may 2010 17

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How to ride with your wife

Hi everyone. Wade’s wife Christine here. I hacked into Wade’s blog again to make sure he’s not planning on posting more podium girl shots. While I’m here I thought I’d give some good advice on how to have a successful leisurely ride with your wife. This activity used to end up in smoke for us, but after a few training sessions we’re starting to get the hang of riding together. Here’s a few hints:

posted june 26 2009 on melbourne’s www.cyclingtipsblog.com Get your ride off to a good start by complimenting

your partner on how great and thin she looks in her spandex. This will go a long way before you’ve even left the house. CauTIon: Make absolutely certain your compliment sounds genu-ine otherwise it could have the opposite effect i.e, your partner accuses you of lying or making fun of her and your ride is over before it started.

nEVER half-wheel your partner (this will cause unneeded tension and likely lead to an argument).

On that same note, REFRaIn from comment-ing on how nice it is to just “spin it out” and ride at a slow pace. Trust me, she is

most likely riding as fast as she possibly can in order to keep up with your “recovery” ride.

REFRaIn from talking about anYTHInG bike related. Preferred topics include gossiping about various people, deciding what to do

with the rest of your day, life planning etc.

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How to ride with your wife


ride with your wife

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REFRaIn from breaking in conver-sation with your

partner by waving and chatting to every single cyclist you pass on the road. Yes, you may know them and even be friends but they will understand your lack of social grace when they spot your part-ner (unless of course you’re half-wheeling her at this point and they think you’re riding alone). Pre-tending you don’t see them is even accepted and un-derstood.

Do, push your partner up any big hills if she appears

to be tiring. Caution: aSK before doing this or your gesture (albeit well intend-ed) could lead to an argu-ment….after-all we are quite capable of riding up a hill….or so the argument might go.

Do, buy the cof-fee when you stop for a break.

Do, offer to carry as many of your partners bike-relat-

ed belongings (tools, pumps etc.) as possible. Her comfort is your happi-ness.

REFRaIn from offer-ing tips on her technique unless

your advice is explicitly solicited. Unwanted advice can lead to retaliation criticism of your own biking style…which always has the possibility of lead-ing to criticism about you in general! Best to keep all comments to compliments and encouraging remarks.

FInallY, remember that your bike is likely three times

the cost of her bike and therefore three times as efficient. At least that’s my theory and justification when trying to keep up!

Ladies, please feel free to add to the list or alterna-tively, if you blokes have any tips for us in order to enjoy our leisurely togeth-er, now’s your chance!

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...and of course, if all else fails: “Original 1940 Gazelle Tandem, heavy and very

strong, with big rod-driven drumbrakes.”

“Onl

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ith b

anan

a se

ats.

Who

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it?”

“One day I found two frames of same make, model and color and heard a voice say, “You will build a tandem!”

Beautiful Fongers Tandem with the

steering from the back !

“My kind of transport! A classic 1950s with a

help engine, probably from Gefle Velocipedfabrik.”

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excerpted from a post by Peter Wimberg

posted January 7, 2010on bikeworldnews.comcycling

theblue ridge parkway

“The Blue Ridge Parkway offers bicyclists 469.1 miles of picturesque travel across Virginia and North Carolina. Ranging in elevation from 600 to 6,000 feet, the road encompasses a variety of ever-changing weather conditions, regardless of season. The Parkway was designed as a scenic leisure road for motorists. Bicyclists should be prepared for significant distances between developed areas and services that vary by season.” —blueridgeparkway.org

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Most of us are never going to suMMit Mt.

everest, walk the entire Pacific crest trail or sail around the world.

those adventures take not only considerable time to train for but also months to actually accomplish. those of us with full-time jobs, families, and mortgages to pay just don’t have the time or resources, even if we had very understanding spouses. Just because we won’t stand on the highest peak on the planet, walk several thousand miles or sail the oceans doesn’t mean we can’t find a little adventure.

blue ridge parkway

Bicycling the Blue Ridge, 4th: A Guide to the

Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway

(Paperback)

Blue Ridge Parkway Simply

Beautiful(Hardcover)

Best of the Blue Ridge Parkway: The Ultimate Guide to the Parkway’s Best

Attractions (Paperback)

Guide to the Blue Ridge Parkway (Paperback)

reso

urce

s

PORTLAND STRIDER BIKESA revolutionary bicycle that will grow with your young child, from 18 months up to 5 years old.

The Strider bike has no pedals, cables, chain, grease, or sprockets to injure or tangle up your child’s feet and legs! The bike is propelled by the child pushing with their feet, and eventually running and gliding with their feet off of the ground.

www.portlandstriderbikes.comJanelle Scruggs, owner of Portland Strider Bikes, and her son at 20 months, when he became a strider rider.

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blue ridge parkway

my older broth-er Tom turned fifty this past July. he’s an avid recreation-al cyclist and want-ed to take a bike trip to celebrate his half-century. Our first thought was to ride from cincinnati to north-ern Michigan where our families vaca-tion in July. while there wasn’t any doubt that the ride from central Michigan heading north along the coast of lake Michi-gan over the rolling hills, past the sand dunes and through the vineyards and cherry orchards

would be wonderful, we just didn’t think the first two days through ohio and in-diana would be as in-teresting. and no of-fense to ohio and indiana is meant. i’ve done plenty of cycling in both states and we are fortunate to have such wonderful roads. we were just looking

for something a little different.with the challenge of finding a

ride to commemorate my broth-er’s birthday and something to redeem dan’s and my ego, i sug-gested riding the 470 miles of the Blue ridge Parkway. the Blue

ridge Parkway runs from waynes-boro, virginia to cherokee, north carolina. this two lane road has not one stop sign or traffic light and the speed limit is mainly 45 mph with a few sections at 35 mph. it is a national Park that came to be well after the parks of the west. Basically, the east side of the coun-try had some catching up to do and the de-pression of-fered inexpen-sive labor for constructing park facilities— in this case, a road through the southern ap-palachians.

building a road through moun-tainous terrain was a monumen-tal task. authorized in the 1930s as a depression-era public works project, the Parkway wasn’t ac-tually completed until the late 1980’s. the Blue ridge Parkway was our nation’s first—and to this day its longest—rural parkway. it connects shenandoah nation-al Park in virginia with the great smoky Mountains national Park in north carolina. we decided this would be the road we would ride in september of 2009.

now, counting the miles on the parkway is easy. each and every mile is marked with a stone mile-age sign. as you ride south, you count up from 1 to 469, and from the south you count down from 469 to 1. i do remember pass-

ing many of the milestone-markers, like #1, #100, #200, #300, #400 and the last six or seven. there would be many times when i missed them, or ignored them, but the first one was pretty noticeable mainly because of our slow pace. we’re used to riding from 18-20 mph on the local roads for rides of 50 to 100 miles and we did debate on the drive to virginia how fast we would ride the

parkway. our initial thought that we would average 17 to 18 mph on the parkway was crushed in the first three hours as we strug-gled along at 16 mph. the up-hill sections had us riding around 8-10 mph, and the downhills around 30-40 mph. it did seem that we spent the entire morn-ing going up. we bounced around from 2000’ to 2500’ most of the morning only to drop to 650’, the lowest point on the entire park-way, by lunch, having covered 62 miles in 3.75 hours. this was go-ing to be a long week.read the coMPlete storY here

“We spent the entire

morning going up...by lunch

having covered 62 miles in 3.75 hours. This was going to be a long week.”

Peter Wimberg, Level 2 USA Cycling Certified Coach, is eight time Ohio Individual Time Trial

champion and owner of www.cincicyclingcoach.com.


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In the last few years the endurance communIty has been beseeched by untImely deaths (ryan shay, steve larsen) and most recently unexpected retirements (torbjorn sindalle). It makes us all, pro and amateur endurance athletes alike, pause for a minute and think: Is this life I have chosen the right one?

well, I am here to tell you as a cardiologist and an endurance athlete that I don’t think about it too long because the benefits outnumber any risks. ryan shay, steven larsen and torbjorn sindalle are the unfortunate exceptions to a very simple rule. exercise, don’t smoke, eat a healthy diet, maintain an appropriate body weight (i.e. don’t be fat) and your body will reward you by allowing you to live a healthier, disease free, happier, and more energetic life.

unfortunately, for most of us, we tend to focus on the exceptions to the rule. I see this everyday in my practice. I can be counseling a 30- year-old on the horrors of smoking by dr. salvatore tirrito, m.d., f.a.c.c.

excerpted fromwww.womensbiketalk.comPosted by melanie 02/2010

Is Being an Endurance Athlete Dangerous?


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eand she tells me about her grandmother who smoked 3 packs a day, lived to be 98, and died peacefully in her sleep. she says this so emphatically, like some how this negates the millions of people who smoke and die of lung cancer, heart disease, and emphysema every year.

being physically fit outweighs the risks of not being physically fit any day of the week. however, in saying that, it is definitely not good for your mental well being to be out there on a 50-mile bike ride and be wondering if you drew the short straw at birth (genetically speaking) and are destined to drop dead at mile 49.

so what does this all mean to the average Joe (or Josephine) endurance athlete? I hate to say it but this isn’t the last time that someone well-known and respected pro or amateur athlete will die suddenly. It will continue to happen, just like people will continue to die in car crashes and planes will suddenly fall from the sky. however, just like we can do things to reduce the chances of this happening (like wear seatbelts, and have planes get regulary scheduled maintenance), we can also do things to make sure that we lessen our chances of dropping dead suddenly on a training ride or at a race. here are eight suggestions:

endurance athletes

endurance athletes

Know your family history: Do you have any family members who were seemingly healthy and then died at an early age? Are all your relatives dying of heart attacks in their forties and fifties? These are red flags and should be taken seriously.

Do you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes in your family? If you do then you are at increased risk and should be tested.

Get screened. Simple tests, like a good physical exam, EKG, echocardiogram, stress test, or cardiac CT can identify a lot of these congenital abnormalities before it is too late.

Don’t assume because you are athletic that you are healthy. When was that last time you had your cholesterol, blood sugars or blood pressure checked?

Be a smart consumer. Just because it isn’t banned by the WADA doesn’t mean it is completely safe. There are a multitude of products (supplements, energy drinks/shots, etc…) out there that purport to increase your performance, but at what price? Avoid them. Their claims are anecdotal (not scientifically tested) and their safety questionable.

Stay well hydrated, well rested, and properly fueled. When disaster strikes, it generally happens when you are at your weakest. If you are exhausted, dehydrated, and depleted of calories and electrolytes you are just upping the ante that something bad will happen.

Don’t fear the doctor. Your doctor should be your friend. Let him or her know your fears and concerns so together you can come up with a plan to help keep you exercising until a ripe old age.

Be Happy. No one lives forever (as far as I know). If we obsess about all the things that could kill us, most of us would never make it out of the door each day. Relax, follow the above steps and you should be just fine.

Dr. Tirrito is a cardiologist at Pima Heart Associates (www.pimaheart.com) in Tucson, Arizona, who specializes in the prevention of heart disease and cardiovascular imaging. He is co-founder of XOOD Sports Drinks (www.xoodhealth.com) and recently published “So you’re fat, Now what?” (www.soyouarefatnowwhat.com), a no-nonsense guide to losing weight and unlocking your athletic potential.

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You have to try it to believe it!

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A profile of Emily O’BriEnat the ’05 Furnace Creek 508

from UltraCycling magazine, the magazine of the Ultra marathon Cycling Association,January/February 2006 editionBy Janet “Osprey” Christiansen

The fix is inwww.riderscollective.org may 2010 26

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“What possessed me to ride my fixed gear for over 500 miles? I like my fixed gear. I like the steady feeling of the momentum keeping my feet going around, the connection to the bike, the control over the rear wheel and

awareness of the road that a fixed gear gives me.” —Emily O’Brien

rEally did nOt think Our ridEr would complete the 508. She’s young for ultra endurance events (only 23 years old). She has never been to the

desert, let alone done a cycling event in an arid climate, and she lives in a city where it snows or rains in about 80% of the time. the odds were pretty long. hubris of the young. not burdened with self-doubt like us baby boomers.

i cannot tell you what Ms. archeoptyerix endured doing the 508 on a fixed gear, only she can. But as one of her crew i can make these observations:

First, the obvious question: What the h*** is an archeoptyerix? i quote Ms. archeoptyerix:

“it’s archaeopteryx, dammit. it was the earliest fossil discovery (found in 1861) that demonstrated an evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds. a few people argue over whether it’s actually an intermediate form, or ‘missing link,’ or not, since by some definitions it’s really a bird already.”

Moving on to less obvious questions: What on earth possessed her to consider riding a fixed gear for 508 miles over 35k feet of net elevation gain through harsh terrain. (does 508 miles not seem hard enough as it is??) i suspect the following are the primary causes:

She doesn’t like multi-speed bikes—so many moving parts, too much time to clean them!

She read Sam “Seal” Beal’s tall tale from 2004 and got hooked on the notion of trying the “almost impossible.”

not having a car, she rides around Boston day and night, in the middle of winter on snow, ice and potholes—now there’s adventure!

two days after the 508 she was commuting back and forth to work, but rumor has it she might have relented and used a multi-speed machine.

it was obvious early in the 508 that she had researched the ultra experiences of other fixies and

applied what they had learned, like wrapping towels around your bars and using a Gelco saddle for the worst road

surfaces. that lessened the hardship, at least a little tiny bit.

less apparent was her game plan. instead of peeling out of the parking lot and screaming through the first five time stations, only to take 12 hours or more to get to the last two (kind of like yours truly, Ms. Osprey), Ms. archaeopteryx applied a sensible regimen including rest stops up to one hour and short naps in between.

not realizing she had it pretty well figured, i fretted to the other crew that her chances of finishing in the next 24 hours were slim. after 24 hours we were fourth to last, and had scarcely covered 250 miles. On a positive note, she was riding a very steady conservative pace (~14mph) and showed no signs of mental or physical breaking down.

leaving Baker a little before 6 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, the crew decided we had to get strict about time off the bike in order to reach 29 Palms by 7 a.m. But she was way ahead of us. the legs suddenly started turning up the after

burners, and we marveled at her relentless pace up the 21-Mile Granite and Sheephole climbs. Watching her ride instead of coasting and recovering, it was easy to forget the extra discomfort of riding a fixie on bad road surfaces or having to spin 100+rpms down every descent. if she was suffering she hid it well. i think she only stopped once to switch chamois lube regimens.

the highlight of the 508, besides finishing, was the race she had with the other fixed gear

rider, Sabertooth Salmon. She passed him on the Granite climb, and then had to relinquish her lead while the crew fiddled with a technical problem with the bike. She passed him again on Sheephole. he streaked past

her and we could see him saying something to her as he passed. he was challenging her to a sprint-off! So they both went “supernova” up a steeper section of Sheephole, both crews


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888.732.7030 www.wabicycles.com

She doesn’t like multi-speed

bikes—so many moving parts, too much time

to clean them!

“I like the steady feeling of the momentum... the connection to

the bike”

the fix is in

waiting for them to collapse in lactic acid-precipitated organ failure. She didn’t. hmmm. She slowed a little and resumed her climbing rhythm. Poor Sabertooth Salmon blew up after his burst of speed, and was last seen falling farther back…

there were some bumps in the road along the way. like the navigator (i think it was me) sending her the wrong way on neutralia avenue right before tS #1, or watching her lean over her bike and paint the side of the road with regurgitated V8 juice on the way to Baker. Ms. archaeopteryx recovered nicely and was back on her bike within 20 minutes. She never lost her composure and was not once impatient or grouchy to the crew, although she did nearly break my ankle with an errant water bottle toss in the early going. “hmm, i don’t think she likes me very much.”

Both my 508 experiences reduced me to tears, temper tantrums, and nearly giving up at one or more points. Photos of me at the finish line reveal

what i will look like after a nuclear holocaust. in contrast, Ms. archaeopteryx looked like she was in the middle of one of her weekend club rides, with

only a few dark circles after cresting townes pass Saturday night. She looked better with each passing hour Sunday evening and into Monday morning. She never complained, cried, or swore. i only saw her grimace at the head winds at the top of the

Johannesburg summit and at the summit of townes pass.

the crew, in turn, made every effort to supply whatever she wanted. We played 17th Century italian Early Baroque music on the van speakers at 2 a.m., gave up our cozy sleeping positions so she could nap, served up her specially brewed Boston coffee, and performed stunning athletic feats on the side of the road during leapfrog support to keep her inspired. Jake, her boyfriend, crewmember and Michelangelo of the photojournalism world, took shots of rider and

She never lost her composure and

was not once impatient or grouchy.

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the fix is inAdventureCORPS, an event production firm specializing in ultra-endurance and extreme sports events, will host the 27th Anniversary Furnace

Creek 508 Bicycle Race on October 2-4, 2010. Known as “The Toughest 48 hours in Sport,” it is the world’s premier ultramarathon bicycle race. This 508-mile bicycle race is revered the world over for its epic mountain climbs, stark desert scenery, desolate roads, and its reputation as one of the toughest but most gratifying endurance challenges available, bar none. The course has a total elevation gain of over 35,000’, crosses ten mountain passes,the Mojave Desert, and Death Valley.

Adapted from www.the508.com

desert landscape for posterity. Ok, that’s my plug for our crew. Way to go, crew!

We even performed ritualistic sacrifices to the death Valley gods to spare our rider impossible heat and wind conditions. and they delivered. But with four hours to spare and plenty of energy reserves at the finish, i am not sure Ms. archaeopteryx needed this dose of good fortune. Chris kostman made her sprint up the driveway at the finish twice more until he could get a decent video clip. Both times she obliged, getting quicker each time. She wanted to wait up for Sabertooth Salmon to cross the finish line. Fixed gear solidarity i guess. her exhausted crew bailed out on her.

What is next for Ms. archaeopteryx? Graduate school (music), outdoor concerts, and maybe another 508-like adventure somewhere down the line.

Emily O’Brien adds: “i did not see the Furnace Creek 508 as something to be suffered

through to begin with; i planned to enjoy it to the utmost. i expected that there would be times when it would feel like an interminable, grueling slog but those never materialized. i expected to have fun, but i never dreamed that i would have as much fun or feel as good as i did. i would never have believed it was possible to go

500 miles without encountering a single red light!”

“What possessed me to ride my fixed gear for over 500 miles? i like my fixed gear. i like the steady feeling of the momentum keeping my feet going around, the connection to the bike, the control

over the rear wheel and awareness of the road that a fixed gear gives me. in particular i like the position

and ride characteristics of my 1974 raleigh Professional. i have done all my longest rides on my fixed gear, and i take my fixed gear on the vast majority of my rides because i think it’s more fun that way.”

“riding fixed over long distances and hills isn’t all about making life more difficult. Because the momentum keeps your pedal stroke smooth and helps you around the weaker parts of the pedal stroke when climbing, it’s advantageous on flats and moderate grades even if steep grades mean you’re either way over-geared or spinning ridiculously fast. riding fixed in the 508 wasn’t a completely insane idea. So far, everyone who has entered the (pretty new) fixed gear category of the 508 has finished!”

“My ‘hubris of the young’ was more like a careful effort to be sure that i sort of knew what i was diving into. at times it took some effort to focus on the task at hand and not worry about what the crew thought.”

“Riding fixed in the 508

wasn’t a completely insane idea.”

“I never dreamed that I would have as

much fun or feel as good as I did.”

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Post: BohemianStainless Steel

By: The Lemmings

Bike and Paint: Bohemian Bicycles

Tube set:KVA Stainless

In collaboration with Fairwheel Bikes and KVA David Bohm has created a road frame, utilizing KVA’s new stainless steel tube-set. The weight of the frame came in slight-ly over 3lbs, with the complete bike weigh-ing just 13.5lbs – one of the lightest steel builds we’ve seen.

Bohm’s design con-tains keen aesthet-ic themes such as Art Deco inspired lugs, Egyptian influenced color, and unique ma-terials not general-ly seen in frame con-struction. Palladium Leaf, Gold, Mother of Pearl and shell in-lay, as well as raw Sil-ver are just some of the exotic adornments making this bike a one of a kind creation.

The pigment for the paint was created us-ing hand-mixed and ground Lapis La-zuli, the rare rock found in Afghanistan.

The exceptional qual-ities of the bike don’t end with decoration. Bohm is a master at construction, custom making the lugs to meet the intentions of his forms. His custom made seat-post and stems further enhance the custom and unq-iue look of the bike. In fact, aside from a few small items, the frame is entirely built with hand created el-ements, using as lit-tle pre-existing com-ponents as possible.

Since 1994, David Bohm has earned a reputa-tion for creating some of the most beautiful, custom steel bicycle frames in the world. Cyclists seek him look-ing for a unique, exqui-sitely crafted bicycle that they’ll be proud to own and love to ride.

From: fairwheelbikes.com

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typically devoted to raising awareness and money for various causes or organiza-tions, while simultaneously letting participants also wear their “sport” or “recreation” hat (or helmet, if you will). Charity rides often walk the line between utility and sport/recreation, but that’s just fine. There is still a great deal of

utility in riding for a cause. To that end, I have charity bike rides on the brain, as the famous El Tour de Tucson just occurred a little less than three weeks ago here in Tuc-son. While I did not partici-pate in El Tour (I was too exhausted from working El Tour), I did spend three days at the venue getting a feel

hen we first set out to define the concept of utility cycling, we identified the compo-

nent of community building as being one important form of utility cycling. Community

building refers to using the bicycle as a way to bring people together for some kind of purpose be it through a solo fundraising ride, critical mass, self-expres-sion, social action, protest, or just plain fun and celebra-tion. Bicycles—and riding of bicycles—can bring people together in fun and unusual ways. One way that bicycles bring people together is through charity rides, which are

Excerpted from Charity Bike Rides, posted 12/11/09 by Melanie Meyers on utilitycycling.org

cycling for changeThe idea of Utility Cycling has taken on many meanings. The Charity Ride might be one more to add to the list.


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cycling for changewww.riderscollective.org may 2010 32

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for the event, which inspired me to find out a bit more about what drives people (on the order of more than 9,000 for El Tour) to participate in these sorts of events.

Charitable OrganizationsCommon types of chari-ties are organizations that raise money or awareness or provide aid for disease research and awareness, homelessness and poverty, disaster relief, and other social and political causes. Charity does not have to go hand-in-hand with an organization either; it can simply mean help-ing someone in need, but for the purposes of

this post, we will be refer-ring to charity as a charitable organization, not as a prac-tice.

Charity & Athletic

EventsSo what does charity have to do with cy-cling? Sure, there is a long laundry list of the benefits of cycling to

society and so-on, but that does not neces-sarily have anything to

do with cycling for charity. In a post for the Case Foun-dation, Nicola Beddow cites research from Princeton University that suggests that people like to partici-pate in charity athletic events that involve a little bit of discomfort: Mr. Olivola attributed the results of the study to a phenomenon he dubbed the “martyrdom effect.” “When you have to work hard and suffer for a cause, then you become more involved and more motivated to help that cause,” he said. That could explain the appeal of charity triathlons, marathons and the latest craze: running up the stairwells of skyscrapers. (from Beddow’s post)

Another good tidbit that I discovered was from this

May 16, Montclair, NJ

Montclair’s 8th annual Tour de Montclair brings together families, cycling enthusiasts, and casual riders on a non-competitive ride.

bikemontclair.org973-489-8476

[email protected]

Portland, OregonJune 5, 2010

Join us on a scenic tour of the historic Willamette Valley. Route

options include 32, 45, or 55 miles. Combine 2 routes for 77

or 100 miles. Registration is now open at Active.com

“People like

to participate

in charity

athletic events

that involve a

little bit of

discomfort.”

cycling for change

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slideshow/ webinar by First Giving that calls this idea the “Endorphin Effect”. The presen-tation indicates that people not only participate in charitable athletic events for the “martyr effect”, but also due to personal relationships with people who might benefit from the charity, social responsibility, motivation, and last, but certainly not least, training partners/ support net-work/ camaraderie/ community.

Impact of Charity Cycling

EventsCharity athletic events not only raise money for the charities they are associated with, they also stimulate the local econo-mies and communities in which they occur. Such events also provide benefit to their commu-nities by fostering relationships between the cycling community and the local government, law enforcement, and land manage-ment agencies, which can be beneficial to the overall quality of the cycling infrastructure and environment in those communi-

ties. Not to mention, charity cycling events benefit the bicycle industry, since all the participants need to have bicycles and bicycling equipment. According to Bikes Belong, 2/3 of the nearly 1,700 recre-ational road cycling events in the US raised money for a charity.

Isn’t a Charity Bike

Ride Just a Glorified

Race?Not surprisingly, cycling tours and rides that are in support of charity often turn into pseudo races, but this does not negate the charitable principles that guide them or the fact that they raise money for charities, and

most importantly, for the purposes of this site any-how, help to build a strong commu-nity of cyclists. This is not about the “subculture” of charity bike riders;

this is about the overall community of people who ride bicycles that are brought in honor or support of a cause, and they come in a shapes and sizes and ride many different kinds of bikes.

So in many ways, charity bike ride par-ticipants are also utility

cyclists. These participants not only use the bicycle as a vehicle for supporting a cause (while allowing themselves some fun/suffering along the

way), they are also participating in the larger network of commu-nity building between local cyclists and cities; they are supporting local com-munities/economies and the bicycle industry; and they are contributing to the develop-ment of a network and commu-nity of cyclists.

Melanie Meyers is a student, cyclist, and writer who resides in sunny Tucson, Arizona. Melanie is currently working on her PhD in Geography from the University of Arizona. In addition to being a Category 1 road racer and professional mountain biker, Melanie is an avid utility and transportation cyclist. When not riding or studying, Melanie writes for UtilityCycling.org, which is a blog and online resource dedicated to utility cycling. Melanie also writes for and manages her cycling team website – WomensBikeTalk.com.

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“When you have to work

hard and suffer you

become more motivated.”

The last week of the Co-penhagen Climate Con-ference saw a lot of buzz for something completely unrelated.

While world leaders tried and failed to put together a sensible plan on cli-mate change (who am I kidding, there is nothing sensible about anything re-lated to politics) an announcement out of MIT’s SENSEable City Lab ba-sically stole the show for many in the bicycle community. The Copenhagen Wheel combines hybrid technolo-gy (think Prius), connectivity through the use of a smart phone, and the best, most reliable, and technologi-cally simple form of transportation to yet exist…the bicycle.

This really is a great idea, for more in-formation watch the video here, but af-ter my initial WOW reaction to reading about this invention, I started to think about how I would find the Copenha-gen Wheel practical to use in my ev-eryday journey by bike and I came in-stead came away with two concerns.

First, the Wheel’s main means of generating energy to be stored is when a rider uses the coaster brake. This goes against the basic operation of a bicycle, where a person attempts to conserve as much forward momentum as possible and braking makes up a very small portion of a per-son’s time on a bike. In the attempt to conserve for-ward momentum cyclists blow through stop signs and even red lights (I’ll ad-mit to doing exactly that when there is no traffic to worry about).

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Some thoughts on the Copenhagen Wheel

by Lewis Kelley posted on carbusters.org jan 11.2010

copenhagen wheelwww.riderscollective.org may 2010 35

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It’s highly doubtful that people would significantly change their behavior just to get a little charge. Unlike with a hy-brid vehicle, where-by people changing their driving behav-ior to fit the dynam-ics of a hybrid and thus driving becomes

more efficient, changing behavior to fit the mechanics of the Copen-hagen Wheel would seem to make a ride less efficient.

However, Christine Outram, a research associate at the SENSE-able City Lab informed me that the Copenhagen Wheel does take these facts into account having an additional “exercise”

mode that can be switched on. In this mode, excess energy from pedaling is

used to charge the bat-teries. Of course, this mode is meant for those who like to ride at a fast clip and so may not be of much utility to those cyclists whom prefer to take a leisurely ride.

The second concern is the distraction

of operating everything

through

a smart phone. A large debate surfaced this summer surround-ing the safety implications of tex-ting and driving, and I see no differ-ence here just because the bicycle is a few thousand pounds less. Texting or talking on a cell phone while biking is extremely distract-ing and dangerous. I can attest to this by witnessing plenty of people attempting such feats and thereby swerving all over the place, losing their balance, and generally becom-ing unaware of their surroundings.

While the Copenhagen Wheel

smart phone interface is integrat-ed into the handlebars of a bicy-cle, this system still requires that a rider look down and take one hand off the handlebars to operate, cre-ating a distraction and making the bicyclist take their eyes off the road. It’s not hard to imagine someone fiddling with their smart phone and wondering into a busy intersection.

“It’s highly doubtful that people would

significantly change their behavior just

to get a little charge.”

is published four times a year by the World Carfree Network and produced by an international ac-

tivist team in Prague, Czech Republic. It critiques our society’s car culture and explores pos-itive alter-

natives. Car-busters aims to serve as both an in-formation source and a call to ac-tion, cover-ing Driving as Addiction to Ecoc-ity Visions, with world news and even cartoons poking fun at the car and oil industries.

Carbusters is a project of the World Carfree Network—an in-ternational network of carfree proponents from around the world and the hub of the global carfree movement—and acts as a clearinghouse for information from around the world on how to revitalise our towns and cities and create a sustainable future.

Carbusters magazine:[email protected] Carfree Network: [email protected]

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Last Saturday should have been the source material for Part III of The Marathon Chronicles (read Part I and Part II here)—the part where The Runner dragged me on a fifteen mile run.To my great dismay,

however, we had a nice big snowstorm Friday night, rendering the streets an icy, snowy, slushy mess on Saturday. Not ideal for a big run.I was kidding about

the “great dismay” part, by the way.I called The Runner,

asking for an alternative workout idea.

“There’s a spin class at Gold’s Gym in an hour. We

could do that,” she said.I was intrigued. You see, there are three forms of cycling that I have never tried, but have always been

Originally posted onwww.fatcycl ist.comas Spin Class01.25.2010 | 8:31 am


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been there/spun thatwww.riderscollective.org may 2010 37

curious about, mostly because they seem so bizarre. These include:

UnicyclesRecumbents

Spin classWell, maybe it was time to tick the “done” box on one of those items. I found an ancient pair

of road shoes I knew had SPD cleats, put together a complete, matching Fat Cyclist kit — I know it’s important to look good when going to a Gold’s Gym — and headed out the door.

I Inspect EverythingThe Runner and I got into the spin room about thirty minutes early. There were about

90 stationary bikes, all adjustable in pretty much every direction.“Oh good, we get a

place near the fan,” the Runner said, as she picked the bike closest to that fan. I chose the bike next to her. I did not realize at the time how incredibly important that would turn out to be.I busied myself

setting the saddle height. Then the saddle position. Then the bar height. Then the bar position. As others trickled in, I noticed that nobody else adjusted anything but the saddle height. Evidently, I’m a bike fit snob. Or just a goofball.The Runner and I

started warming up — high cadence, low effort. Then I turned the little knob that controls the resistance. One half turn was all it took to go from virtually no resistance to completely locked up. Which meant, basically, that I’d be giving the knob little nudges when asked to increase or decrease my effort,

instead of the big manly power-twists I thought would more accurately represent the change in how hard I was working.

Which meant that I’d be forced to use other methods to add drama to my spin effort:

Dramaticallysquirting water from my bottle into my mouth, onto my head, and down my back

Dramaticallytoweling my face off

Dramaticallygritting my teeth during maximum effortsAs we warmed up, I noticed one other guy, in full Pearl Izumi PRO kit, doing the same. I looked at his legs. Hairy. I waited until he made eye contact, then flexed my freshly-shaved quads. He looked down and away, deferentially. We

About FattyHi. My name’s Elden, but please feel free to call me “Fatty.”

How it StartedFor the past fifteen or so years, biking—whether on the road or on dirt—has has been essentially my one and only hobby/activity/obsession. The thing is, though, cyclists need to be light if they’re going to be fast. So, a few years ago, when I went on a nice long bike ride and noticed I was having to walk up hills I had easily ridden not many years before, I realized something had to be done.

And yes, I also noticed my knees pushed into my gut with each pedal stroke. Shaddup.

I had known I needed to lose weight, but hadn’t really done much about it. As I pushed my bike up the road, I realized I had not tried one very successful diet tactic: humiliation. I resolved to start a blog, embarrassing myself by proclaiming my weight on a daily basis, no matter how bad I was doing.

I didn’t want to just post my weight, though. So I also wrote stories. Sometimes these stories are about rides. Sometimes they’re fake news (especially around Tour de France time, when there’s usually lots of stuff in the bike industry that begs for satire). Sometimes they’re about whatever bike-related thing has popped

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been there/spun that

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into my head that morning (lunchtime, evening, whenever).

And lately the blog’s been about a little bit more.

Besides being a middle-aged guy who loves cycling, I’m also the father of four kids (2 boys, identical twin girls). Until August 2009, I was also the husband of a woman—Susan—who passed away after a five-year fight with breast cancer.

So while I still write lots of the jokey stuff I always have, I’m now inclined to also write the occasional serious post, keeping my family and friends (including the hundreds of friends I’ve made on this blog, but have never met in person) up to date with how how I’m doing.

I also am prone to frequent contests for my readers, geared toward making money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation

both knew who was the alpha male in the room.Then the instructor

came in, and it was her turn to be inspected. The first thing I noticed was her legs.

No, not for that reason.

I noticed her legs because they were freakishly skinny. Seriously, her quads were no bigger than my calves.And then she climbed up on her bike and started warming up. At which point it was all I could to not go over there and volunteer to help her get her

position set up properly. Her saddle height put her legs at 35 degrees at maximum extension.And then there was

the cockpit. So cramped I was surprised her knees didn’t hit the bar with every rotation.To my credit

— and to The Runner’s relief — I refrained from going over and setting the bike up for the instructor.

I Give 110%, Which May

Actually Have Been 92%

And then the spin session began.The instructor

took us on a virtual bike ride, having us adjust the resistance for climbs, sometimes standing up, sometimes sitting down, and sometimes increasing or decreasing our cadence.All of which is fine,

and pretty much what I expected.But there were parts

that were hard for me, as a cyclist, to get past. For example:

She said we were riding on a mountain road, which definitely indicates a road bike. But then — when she wanted us to just use our legs, not our upper bodies — she’d have us stand up, go to high resistance, and tell us we were riding on a “swinging bridge,” which would probably be best handled on a BMX bike. In any case, on a swinging bridge I’d definitely stay seated and would go for high cadence, low effort riding so as to keep the side-to-side motion to a minimum.

From time to time she’d let us know we were on singletrack, which made me start thinking about real singletrack, which made me wish desperately that I were not in a gym at all. In any case, now I’d need to be on a mountain bike, which made me think that this instructor needs to pick a better riding course, because it’s hard to pack three different bikes with me.

been there/spun thatwww.riderscollective.org may 2010 39

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and the Huntsman Cancer Institute, two organizations that have helped us in immeasurably in our fight against cancer.

How to Reach MeIt’s easy to reach me. Just send me email. You should know that there’s a reasonable chance I won’t respond, because, well, I have a full-time job, a blog, a love of bicycles, and a short attention span. So follow these guidelines:

>>>Ask one question when you email me, and keep it simple. If you ask a whole bunch of questions or a question that requires hours of work

from me, I’ll think to myself, “I’ll have to get back to this one later,” and then I never will. This isn’t me being snobby about email with strangers; this is how I am with everyone, including friends, family, and my boss.

>>>If I don’t reply, try emailing me again. I’m probably not ignoring you on purpose. I’m just not very organized or responsible.

Wrapping UpAs of this moment, I am twenty pounds heavier than I was when the picture you see here was taken. Once again, I can accurately call myself “Fatty.” ’

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Sometimes we were asked to “run” on the bike. I didn’t get this at all until I saw a few people swinging one arm at their sides. I tried this for about one half of a second before my ridiculosity meter went so far off the chart that I had to go back to both hands on the bar.

We were supposed to put our hands behind our backs and ride sometimes. I have a feeling this would

be frowned upon in a group ride.

At high effort — when We were supposed to be

at a 9 or 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 — the instructor would be turning such an incredibly slow cadence that she would have been a swerving mess on a real bike. (I wanted to raise my hand and volunteer it would be more efficient to turn a higher cadence at a lower resistance, but had the sense that this kind of feedback was not currently being sought.) Curious as to what it would feel like to have that much resistance on a bike, I tried ratcheting the tension until I was going at the same cadence as the instructor. Unfortunately, my legs are so powerful that the friction caused by the bike’s braking motion briefly set the wheel on fire. Fortunately, my sweat quickly dowsed the flames.

Throughout the session, the instructor called out the effort she wanted us to put out. “Go to a 9,” she would call out, which I would interpret as “you should feel like barfing but can probably hold it back.” And then she’d call out,

“Now go to 10!” Which I would interpret as, “This should feel like a sprint finish at the end of a race and should not be sustainable for more than one minute, tops.”

And then she said, “Now go higher!”“But I’m already at ten,” I thought. “I’m maxed out.” But just to see what would happen, I’d nudge the resistance up a hair.And I was able to keep

going.

So I nudged it again.Still going.So, evidently, my

perceived maximum effort is really about my 85%. Which means I’ve been slacking a bit.Okay, maybe a lot.

Catastrophe AvertedThe thing about spin

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classes is that riding technique isn’t rewarded, or even encouraged. You can thrash around and pedal squares and ride with your hands behind your back, and that’s just fine.Which means that if someone

ever wants to go on a ride with you and uses “I’ve been to spin class a lot” as their justification for why they’re in good riding shape, you may want to keep your distance.And so the

irony is super sweet that I very nearly caused a multiple-bike pileup in the spin class.It was during a standing,

30-second standing sprint, I think at level 7. I was putting in about a 7.28 effort, though, because that’s the kind of guy I am.And then I pulled my left

cleat out of the pedal on the upstroke.My knee came up nearly to

my chin and I leaned heavily and wildly to the right, very nearly crashing into The Runner. Which — I have to assume — would have caused her spin bike to fall over into the next person, causing a domino-style

crashing cascade of spin bikes and humanity.Which would have been

embarrassing.

I Am Strangely Competitive

The Runner and I didn’t talk during the spin class. We did, however, have a competition…which she was likely unaware of, but which

I’m sure she’ll be very excited to find out about right now.The competition

was called, “Who Sweats More?” And the rules were simple. Whoever had the larger diameter

sweat puddle at the end of the spin class, wins.She won. By a landslide. Or

by the sweaty equivalent of a landslide, anyway.Before I knew it, the 45

minutes was over. Which is odd in itself—45 minutes on a bike, even at high effort, kind of feels too short.My overall impression? spin

classes might in fact be an interesting and fun way to change up your workout, and they probably burn a lot of calories in a short period of time.

But I really doubt they make you

a better cyclist.

at the end, a look back

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riders collective may 2010 1 ’ ’ ’ ’ riders collective ’ Presenting the first issue of...

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