Bicycle riding

[revenge_of_shocka_khan]

I got in 37 over the weekend and 75 for the week. Back home and everything is hectic, perhaps I can add more around Thanksgiving.

[MoValley John]

I've been using the trainer, getting better at it. I can see how ill burn through tires. New set of no magnet sensors arriving today. My real goal is to improve cadence, I have a lot of power and don't go through gears, but my cadence has always been a little slow. I hope to get better at working gears and bringing my cadence up. We'll see. I dont have the whole thing set up, so when I ride, I take over the 70 inch tv in the living room, really pisses off the kids!

[dregn]

Not sure for your tires, but I know road bikes you can get a solid tire for riding on a trainer. My old trainer I had put the resistance against the rim. Wasn't as nice of a trainer overall, but saved my tires.

[revenge_of_shocka_khan]

Went out tonight until my light died. Rode 4 laps 14.6 miles in a little less than an hour, so I was well over 15 for the ride. We're getting a pretty stout front through Saturday, high Sunday will only be 63. Its supposed to rain Saturday, so I may have to push to get 83 miles at least (so I get my 300 for this month) . I also just broke 3000 for the year.

Hope everyone is having fun and staying safe.

[N Crestway]

Ran into a bear strolling down the bike trail about a month ago... a 5 year old male who surfaced in the city park 2 days later. Other night I heard an eerie cry or howl just to the south of the trail in the same area where I saw the bear...then a pack of coyotes began howling. There have been occasional bear and mountain lion sightings in this area in the past. Curious what precautions other bike riders would take...

[JVShocker]

Ran into a bear strolling down the bike trail about a month ago... a 5 year old male who surfaced in the city park 2 days later. Other night I heard an eerie cry or howl just to the south of the trail in the same area where I saw the bear...then a pack of coyotes began howling. There have been occasional bear and mountain lion sightings in this area in the past. Curious what precautions other bike riders would take...

and if that doesn't seem to work...

[N Crestway]

Been leery about this section of the trail for years due to high brush on either side of the trail...especially leery after running into a somewhat shook guy who had just seen a mountain lion on the trail. Have now resolved to ride early enough so that the return trip is not at twilight or night.

[revenge_of_shocka_khan]

Ran into a bear strolling down the bike trail about a month ago... a 5 year old male who surfaced in the city park 2 days later. Other night I heard an eerie cry or howl just to the south of the trail in the same area where I saw the bear...then a pack of coyotes began howling. There have been occasional bear and mountain lion sightings in this area in the past. Curious what precautions other bike riders would take...

Wow, that's pretty wild. I've seen a LOT of deer around my house and on the trails. I also saw a coral snake on one of the trails one day. It was probably a young adult, I'd guess 24 inches, which would seem to be pretty good sized based on what I've heard, but the reference I saw said they can get up to 5 feet long. It did not want to have anything to do with me, but it was having problems getting across the smooth concrete on the trail.

[revenge_of_shocka_khan]

Another 15 miles yesterday. Hoping to get 25 or so today.

[revenge_of_shocka_khan]

25 today in 1:40. 55 for the week.

If I can get out early tomorrow (in front of the rain), it will only be a short ride in the colder windy weather on Sunday. If you're wondering where Saturday went, we have an 80% chance of rain Saturday, so I've already planned it out as a rest day.

[JVShocker]

Finally have had time to get in some bicycling miles outdoors. Weather has been pretty cooperative. Swamped at work so I sadly missed 2 golden opportunities on warm sunny days. We'll bike again tomorrow to finish up the week, but Friday and Saturday were pleasant (Saturday was beautiful - took some pics). Weather was a bit chilly around 50 degrees and some breeze out of the north. Saturday I made my first trip down the bike path south to Derby (near Spirit). The path ends (or begins - first photo) here. The landscape is pretty barren in places so the bicycling is pretty different from other bike rides in town or along the river. You can really take a hit or two of wind in some places. I imagine the trip can be extended east towards Spirit/Derby along the street and there's probably a return trip somewhere.

While we were out and about today I saw a road cyclist on a yellow road bike and for a 10 seconds and thought Maddog had a yellow bike. Didn't catch the brand of bike, so may not have been. 35 miles the past two days and another opportunity tomorrow. 268 for the month so far. Actually had to work a bit today on 4 projects so it cut short some of our time. Hope everyone is well and enjoyed their Thanksgiving Day.

[MadDog]

Hey JV, I did get back out on the yellow bike yesterday. I’ve been keeping my eyes on the Redbud construction and wanted to get out and get a closer look, so I did the 21 miles from Chisholm Creek Park to the end of the pavement in Andover and back. Many walkers and bikers on the path yesterday. Saw a couple of couples I thought might be you and your wife but they didn’t have the new jackets, so I assumed they weren’t you. I’m only getting outdoors about once a week but am still spinning 3 or 4 times a week.

As for the Redbud, it is essentially complete. The only work to be done is to insert those lovely concrete filled round posts at the street intersections to keep motorized vehicles off the path. The path builders are getting smarter as the posts are spaced further apart. I will say I’ve never hit one of those things, but along the K96 path I keep thinking it’s just a matter of time.

I hope you enjoyed your trip south yesterday. I enjoy that ride. Did you find the “path to nowhere”? It’s right down there by the dog park and heads towards Spirit. And someday if you want to get adventurous you could continue south on your route clear to Mulvane and would only have to ride about two blocks on residential streets to get there. Thankful we were able to get outdoors yesterday!

[JVShocker]

Hey JV, I did get back out on the yellow bike yesterday. I’ve been keeping my eyes on the Redbud construction and wanted to get out and get a closer look, so I did the 21 miles from Chisholm Creek Park to the end of the pavement in Andover and back. Many walkers and bikers on the path yesterday. Saw a couple of couples I thought might be you and your wife but they didn’t have the new jackets, so I assumed they weren’t you. I’m only getting outdoors about once a week but am still spinning 3 or 4 times a week.

As for the Redbud, it is essentially complete. The only work to be done is to insert those lovely concrete filled round posts at the street intersections to keep motorized vehicles off the path. The path builders are getting smarter as the posts are spaced further apart. I will say I’ve never hit one of those things, but along the K96 path I keep thinking it’s just a matter of time.

I hope you enjoyed your trip south yesterday. I enjoy that ride. Did you find the “path to nowhere”? It’s right down there by the dog park and heads towards Spirit. And someday if you want to get adventurous you could continue south on your route clear to Mulvane and would only have to ride about two blocks on residential streets to get there. Thankful we were able to get outdoors yesterday!

MD...the guy on a yellow bike we saw, I thought he had road bike bars, I thought yours was a straight top bar? I don't get on the drops too often myself. The crossing at Greenwich/K96 is just awful. It was much safer when you could ride across the path east/west without having to go to a light/crosswalk. Love the ride down south. Can't wait to see it in the spring/summer. I kept an aero bar on my road bike for the longest time, mostly because after long distance, it was a nice place to rest your elbows or even place the hands for steering. Since I'm not entirely comfortable riding hands free on the mtn bike, I switched it to that bike. I can rest easy and ride hands free all day long on the road bike. And the road bike is lighter now, so there's that. Enjoy your week.

[MadDog]

JV, my yellow gravel bike has drop bars, not the straight bar. For the most part it looks it looks like a road bike with just slightly wider tires. I don’t mind the light at K96 and Greenwich if you’re there at a non-busy time of day. It gives you 45 seconds to cross the street which means that you can usually also cross the Academy Sports entrance without having to stop. However, if there is a lot of traffic, you can wait on two long crosswalks and it can take several minutes to join the other side of the path. Enjoy your week and hopefully we can get some decent riding weather this week.

[revenge_of_shocka_khan]

Welp, I got in 18 miles yesterday. Cold (at least for me). Temp in the lower 50's, wind out of the north at 15-20. Wore my NewBalance thermal hoodie (bought it at a running store). Had to use the hoodie part for the first time yesterday (my ears were getting cold). Used two pairs of gloves - one 'normal' pair and a pair of defeets with no padding and that were full length. No wind, I could have handled mid to upper 40's. I think that's progress.

Ended up with 299.3 miles for the month, not riding tonight, we are getting our first freeze. I did not get out today (boy was it ever a long day at work) but it wasn't supposed to get much warmer than about 55. Note we are only supposed to be over 60 two days this week - Wednesday (and I plan on riding Wednesday night) and Saturday.

We went straight from the mid-to-upper 80's to this. Straight from late summer to winter.

Winter is a time for me to take a natural seasonal break. If I get 200 miles in December and January, I'll feel real good.