Say It Ain't So...!!

I went cycling this afternoon for about 10 miles. I had planned on using some of that winter weather gear I had bought. But stepping outside, into the sunshine, I immediately peeled off most of it. It was crystal clear and over 65 degrees. In fact, with my wind vest on, it was actually hot.

I am a native Arizonan. I grew up in Scottsdale and remember seasons. Both the winter and summer seasons seem to be getting shorter. Hopefully this last week of morning temperatures in the 20's isn't over, and we are just having a short warming spell. I'm not ready for summer yet...!

It will still be in the 30's or 40's in the mornings for a while, but may get up into the 70's during the day! Guess we'll just have to ride in the mornings this week and wait for the sun to be going down thereafter to ride when we are back to work.

Winter Cycling

It is early Christmas evening. We are all sitting around recovering from dinner. It's in the 50's outside and has been overcast and raining most of the day.

Last Saturday is the day I volunteered to take a group of older Scouts (14 to 18 years old) out on a 30 mile ride. It was a simple ride up through Papago Park (by the east side of the Phoenix Zoo) and then north and east to the Indian Bend Wash bike trail. My wife could not come with us, but my oldest son decided to brave the cold and come along.

And it was chilly. I had wanted to leave a little later in the morning, around 9 am. However I was told one of the boys had to be back home by 11 am for another activity. So we all showed up around 6:30 am in our Church's parking lot only to find out that that boy didn't show up! The Scout leaders said they'd make sure he heard about this...

When we left my house it was 33 degrees. But with our 10 to 12 mph "ride generated" wind chill, it was colder. My son and I had gone out on a short ride the day before just to see how "bad" it would be (temperature-wise). After that short ride, I headed off to the bike shop to pick up a balaclava (looks like a police SWAT mask -- just a slot for your eyes) and some arm warmers.

On Saturday morning, I had on a long-sleeve t-shirt, a bright yellow short-sleeve jersey, a wind breaker vest, and a long-sleeve, hooded sweater, along with my bike gloves and a pair of cloth cloves on over them. I also wore long pants. It was still somewhat cool (especially my finger tips and, even though it was covered, my nose).

We were off and cycling. One of the boys decided to whoop and holler as we went along and we had to continually remind him that people were sleeping and to be quiet (read that as, "BE QUIET! Or the support vehicle will pick you up and take you home!"). One other boy kept yelling, "Merry Christmas!" to everyone he saw... that wasn't that bad though... most responded with a "Merry Christmas" back. (Interestingly enough, at the top of the ride at Chaparral Park in Scottsdale, we saw "Santa" walking his dogs... a jolly old individual with a white beard and red and white Santa hat and little round spectacles; he most merrily responded "Merry Christmas!" to our "Merry Christmas!")

We rested for a few minutes up at the park and then headed back home on the bike path. We were on the trail about four hours. What was really amazing was that most of the boys were riding those single-speed, tiny- wheeled trick bikes. But they kept up and, being young Scouts, were not that worn out at the end of the ride. The leaders did well too (though some tended to lag behind on the ride...).

After the ride, I went out and got some long-fingered riding gloves. I want to try them out, but it has been raining here the past couple of days, and I have also come down with a bad cold (right after the very cold ride). My wife says we are not going until I feel better. My oldest son and my number two son, who is visiting from Minnesota, both want to go with us on an extended ride; we'll probably go this coming Saturday or sometime over the New Year's week.

Way too hot...

We haven't done much the past few weeks. On a Saturday about two weeks ago we did go for a short 10 mile ride along a route we hadn't tried before. But when it's 85 degrees in the morning and the sun's not even up, it's hard to get enthused about going on a long ride (since it would be well over a 100 degrees by the time we got home).

A couple nights ago, I was getting the tires on the bike and trike pumped up in anticipation of going out the next morning. However, I had problems, again, with our tire pump. It is from Performance and has always caused me grief with the Presta values. For whatever reason, it is hard to get on and sealed, and once on and with the tires pumped up, even flipping the handle on the stem end of the pump hose doesn't release the pressure in the pump value. As a result, it won't let go of the stem on one of the tires on my wife's bike! In trying to pull it off the stem, the pump end ripped the guts out of the value on the tube. Obviously the tire went flat immediately and the tube was at that point useless. (I had a similar problem with my hand pump, also from Performance, when using it on my daughter's bike in the Tour for Tucson's Children and ripped the guts out of the Presta value there as well.) The pictures show the stemp after the fact and the end of the pump value (red arrow points to the Presta value opening). I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, the pump is just defective, or the Presta value is just really fragile.

I plan on drilling out the wheel rims on my trike so that they will take Schrader values. But I don't know if I can do that with my wife's wheels (since they are so much thinner than the ones on the trike).

112°

We didn't go riding today. It looks like even early in the morning it will be kind of warm (the low tonight is going to be around 86°). We'll have to gather our courage together and brave a morning ride in the next few days (before the sun comes up).

My friend's comments (on our previous post) about his 25-mile ride is yet another good warning for those that might want to challenge the heat AND the bad air around here.

Summer In The Desert

Well, it's really summer again. Today is Fathers' Day and we are expecting 111 degrees. It's currently two in the afternoon and 104 in the shade. So maybe we won't make it to that 111 after all (at least in the suburbs). We set up our small solar oven in the backyard and my wife is making pineapple upside down cake to cook in it. That will be followed by some potatoes to bake (all in preparation for our Fathers' Day meal). Two of my sons and their sons will be here for a while (most of the kids were here last week for a different occasion and so we had a head start on Fathers' Day celebrations).

We went out somewhat early yesterday morning for a quick 10-mile ride. We went around the ASU Research Park a couple times and then came home. It was pretty warm by the time we got home. We went by a couple people we know who were standing outside their house and we waved. They waved back. When we saw them later in the day, we asked about waving to those strangers on the bike and trike and they laughed and asked if that were us. They hadn't recognized us, but since we waved to them, they waved back. I wonder how many of our other friends have seen us out riding, have done a double take, and said, "Nah, it couldn't be THEM..."

We will be trying to do part of the Tour de Phoenix course early on the Fourth of July (if we are not in Tucson trying a route down there with our daughter and her husband). Chances are, if it is like our other early morning rides, even the long ones, when we get back, the rest of the family will still be sleeping or just getting up.

45 Miles!! Again!!

We did it again! Friday, we set out from our home and went up through Tempe and Scottsdale to Shea Blvd. There were three of us this time. My son, visiting from Minnesota, came along for the ride. This time we took extra water and some food (in the form of energy and cereal bars). That made the exertion part of the trip much easier. And in this case, the computer on my son's bike agreed with mine in regards to the mileage (45 miles). So we think we need to revisit the settings on the computer on my wife's bike.

We started out at 5am and hit the top part of the ride around 7:30. We made it home around 10:30. It was still plenty warm. But it wasn't the warmth that slowed us down a bit this time. It was my knee. It started hurting in earnest about two-thirds of the way on the outbound leg of the ride and hurt all the way home. The knee brace didn't seem to help this time.

Here's a video of our going homeward and going across the north side of Tempe Town Lake.

My wife thinks we can do the 67 mile portion of the Tour de Tucson. I am not yet convinced. We'll have to decide soon so we can sign up for the event.

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...

"Could you hold that sun a little higher please..."

I went and bought a helmet cam and tried it out on a 13-mile roundtrip jaunt to the ASU campus from my house. I won't bother to post the video (or even portions of it). Though the camera was mounted properly on the helmet (I'll comment on that a bit more later), cycling in a recumbent means your head, and so your helmet, is tilted back a bit more than a "normal" cyclist. As such, I had an hour's worth of video of tree and telephone pole tops and the bright blue sky. And the mounting mechanism that came with the camera for helmets consists of a small plastic fixture (into which slips the camera), a rubber pad between that fixture and the helmet, and a velcro strap (that goes into the head space of the helmet). Not real secure or steady.

The next time out, I mounted this small helmet cam on a "boom" of sorts made from PVC pipe fittings hooked together and forming a platform on which to hook the camera (with one of the many mounting devices it came with). This boom was tightly affixed to the frame of the trike and rose above my head and helmet. We used this for the first time going through the ASU Research Park in south Tempe. Again, I won't bother to post the sped up video here either. The camera kept drifting to the side (so most of the scenary is as if you were looking out of a car window). And, even when straightened out, we were out late in the afternoon and as such, the sun was low on the horizon and continually got into view, washing out the view (showing up as a black circle surrounded by bright light).

I was also a bit disappointed by the quality of the video (even when just walking around with it in hand and taking video). Granted, the camera is ruggedized to withstand hitting the ground and bumps and such for off-road cyclists, and, if you fall into a lake, can take pictures to up to three meters under water, but still, the 640x480 resolution seemed a bit blotchy. I have seen video taken with this type of camera before and thought it would be better than this. Maybe it's just my setup or maybe I got a "bad" camera. What I am thinking now is to expand my PVC pipe fittings mount to allow me to attach my regular digital camera (the one I held by hand as I took the video posted elsewhere on this blog).

I will give the camera one more try on my helmet, tying it down in a more secure manner (yet to be figured out) and angled farther down in front so when I am riding reclined, it is looking straight ahead or slightly down as well.

Now the only problem is, if I do start using it on my helmet and getting good video, how can I disguise it so I don't look like I am wearing Marvin the Martian's helmet...?