Time to get up earlier...

Normally we go cycling in the evening, just before the sun goes down. Well, given the current temperature, it might be time to go cycling in the morning when it's a comfortable 78 or 80 degrees...

Easier riding...

As I stated in an earlier entry, I decided to see what I could do to make the ride on my trike a little easier on my back and seat.

I took some very porous foam (the manufacturer of which claims will dry quickly and not be prone to mildew and the like) and tried putting it on top of the existing "canvas" seat of my Catrike.

The immediate problem I encountered in doing this was that it hiked my reclined position up and toward the front of the trike. This threw off the, until then, correct positioning of the boom and pedals. I no longer could get a "straight stroke" on the pedals (I was essentially pedaling from an angle -- imagine sitting on a regular bike's handle bars and still trying to pedal -- although not that extreme) and my knees also ended up being bent more than they should on the outbound stroke. This wouldn't work without some adjustment to the trike boom and who knows what else.

The Catrike canvas seat is "wrapped" around the frame and connected in the back with plastic snaps (like what you might find on some backpacks or fanny pack belts). There is a space (the width of the frame) between the front seat and the rear of the canvas.

I cut the foam pads I had to fit between the frame bars and within that space -- one on the bottom, going slightly up the back, and the other going from the top by the head rest down the back to meet up with the bottom one (that way the "gap", if any, between the pads met somewhere in my middle to upper back instead of directly under me).


The pads make the canvas seat stick out a bit (looks puffed up like a small pillow), but not enough to throw my location off (thereby not affecting the boom length and how I reach the pedals).

I took it out on some bumpy Tucson streets and felt a marked improvement in the comfort of the ride. Granted, large bumps and dips still jar me a bit, but overall, my teeth didn't chatter as much.

Over twenty seven miles and climbing...

Saturday we started our ride from a park along the Indian Bend wash greenbelt, headed south to the north side of Tempe Town Lake and then back up to north of Shea Blvd and 92nd street in Scottsdale. It was a little over 27 miles! Not bad for having re-started cycling just three months ago. We even met a gentleman that was resting by the side of the trail with an ActionBent recumbent tadpole trike.

Going as far as we did, it drove home a couple points to me that I have had in the back of my mind along with a "warning". The points are: 1) My helmet does not have a visor; I need a visor and one that is a bit longer than the normal visor one finds for bike helmets (since I am reclined on the trike), and 2) I need greater support for my back and, well, the bottom line. I am still pondering the visor, but, with the help of my wife, we bought two open (large) pore, spongy cushions (Ez-Dri Outdoor Cushions) from a local fabric store, and will be "encasing" these in a porous pillow case (black to match the Catrike canvas seat) and using that as a pad on the trike seat. It will probably be Velcro'd on (to keep it, and me, from slipping off). We'll let you know how it works. I am hoping it will at least keep my teeth from chattering so much on those nasty bumps we encounter...

The "warning" was from one of my knees. I had heard that riding a recumbent can be more hazardous to your knees than a regular bike. I have been careful not to push too hard -- in that, using the seat as a prop for my back to allow for a stronger or more forceful pedal stroke. However, I think I disregarded my own caution on this last trip. By the time we got done, my knee was hurting quite badly. It has since stopped hurting, but if I bend it for awhile and then move it, it hurts. I looked into various knee braces and have gotten one to try. I am hoping that with better support, my knee won't be bothered as much. I also need to shift down a little sooner on the hills (thus relieving the hard pumping I was doing on occasion).

A "thump" in the road...

On one of our previous jaunts, we were on a regular, multi-use path and doing quite well. Then there was that bump...

As we went through an underpass, we hit a trench in the concrete path, obviously put there by the designers to help funnel rain water out of the path and onto the park grass. However, the trench is about two to three inches deep and only about six inches wide. Consider it like a reverse speed bump.

The first time I hit that, on my trike, I was probably going 12 miles an hour or so. It was quite a jolt. I twisted one of my ankles slightly, and I won't even mention my lower back (and other areas) that took a beating going over that man-made, elongated pothole. It was several days for the pain in my back (and insides) to go away. (Coming soon will be a note on my search for a proper cushion to put on my canvas seat.) On our second trip over that same area, I slowed WAY down (my wife, who was behind me, yelled out and asked why I was slowing down... then after the bump I thought I heard, from behind, "Oh ya...").

I am surprised that there isn't a sign or some colorful markings on the trail itself warning about this trough. I would think that even joggers could twist their ankles and the like if they were to hit that long hole wrong.

But maybe I am just being picky. There were many other spots on the trail where it was obvious that the cement slabs had buckled and the city engineers had conscientiously come out and ground the differences down so the bumps were gone. Maybe they just didn't think about this mini-ditch as a problem or mistake.

And besides, my daughter from Tucson was with us, and all along the way she kept saying, "This is WONDERFUL! -- compared to the condition of the roads and paths in Tucson." Well, we will see. We'll be down there sometime soon, riding those trails. I kinda hope, for my back's sake, she was exaggerating...

Late start...

We had planned on doing a 26 mile ride last weekend, starting at the north side of Tempe Town Lake. Our daughter and her husband were going to come up from Tucson to join us. However, my daughter called the night before and said they wouldn't be coming.


We got up at 6:30 am and just as we did so, the phone rang. It was our daughter. She said her husband wasn't coming but that she was about an hour to an hour and a half outside the valley on her way up and "could we wait for her?" We said yes.


By the time she got here and we had the bikes and trike loaded in the van it was between 8:30 and 9 (a little later than we had hoped to get started). We headed over to the marina parking lot by the lake. As we pulled in, we were greeted by two young men in fluorescent vests who told us that there was a boat regatta that day and only those involved in the regatta could park in the parking lot. They said there was another lot farther away, but I noticed that the bike trail to that lot was blocked by some fallen tree debris.


So we headed over to our other starting point at Eldorado Park in Scottsdale (the 18 mile route start). My wife said we could do the 18 miles up north and back and then head south to the lake and back, giving us around 26 miles.


We managed the 18 mile portion, but by the time we passed back by the van, it was later than we had anticipated and was beginning to be rather hot (we are getting into the 90's here...normal for this time of year, in fact a little lower than normal).


We figured we would try the start from the lake another weekend (this time checking the city's calendar to see if there were going to be any more such exclusive events that would keep us from parking there).