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| Author |
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| 25 new of 291 responses total. |
danr
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response 75 of 291:
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Jul 8 16:37 UTC 2002 |
Not to be outdone, I rode 100 miles yesterday, too. Our route was the
100-mile One Helluva Ride route which took us through Dexter, Hell,
Gregory, STockbridge, Munith, Portage Lake, Napolean, Grass Lake, and
back to Chelsea.
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jiffer
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response 76 of 291:
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Jul 8 17:10 UTC 2002 |
I have done only *one* century bike race, it took a long time (9
hours), but I made it, didn't arrive last, and had fun. This was years
ago. My bike rides are about 5 miles in length due to the heat,
humidity and the lack of time.
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keesan
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response 77 of 291:
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Jul 8 17:20 UTC 2002 |
John, our trips are on gravel roads, which may be as much as twice as tiring
as paved roads, so you had better continue building up to this. Can you bike
two hours without a stop, rest a couple of hours, and bike back two hours?
John III if he gets tired can just sit and let you pedal, but I doubt that
you can do the same if you get tired (let him pedal for both of you).
You might want to try an evening jaunt with us, say one hour each way, on
gravel roads, some time this month. It is currently light until about 9:45
(time we got back yesterday) if you stay out of the woods. Biking back
through the woods from Bandemer park we scared an awful lot of winged
creatures - it sounded like the woods were full of gulls.
We could start by biking across Broadway Bridge, west along a dirt trail to
Argo Park, along Longshore Drive to the bridge at Bandemer Park, and across
the river and back on the other side. Maybe even try a bit of Barton Shore
Drive, which is not too hilly.
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jep
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response 78 of 291:
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Jul 8 19:36 UTC 2002 |
Yes, I'd be interested in getting together some time, but not during
the week on a night when I have John (such as tonight, for example).
Maybe Wednesday? Thursday through the weekend, I'll be out of the
state.
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keesan
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response 79 of 291:
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Jul 8 21:13 UTC 2002 |
Maybe next week if not this Wednesday. We have not yet worked up to trips
out of state (50 miles each way to Toledo).
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jep
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response 80 of 291:
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Jul 9 01:38 UTC 2002 |
Maybe next week would be better as I'll be packing for my trip on
Wednesday. I'm sure we'll do it some day!
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russ
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response 81 of 291:
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Jul 9 03:46 UTC 2002 |
I'm seriously impressed by Steve's distance and time (that's an average
of about 17 MPH!), but I don't think I'm doing so badly (15+ MPH) given
that I'm riding on an unpaved surface with off-road tires and sub-optimum
gearing for the higher speeds. A good road bike would improve my stats,
and more practice would improve my stamina. My resting heart rate has
dropped below 60.
A 30-mile round trip with a dip in a lake at the far end, cruising at
12 MPH, would be a piece of cake at this point. 12 MPH feels *slow*,
even up a slight grade.
One of the advantages of a mountain bike is that you can take to
unpaved shoulders to give clearance to traffic; I once took a road
bike onto a dirt road covered with a lot of dust and lost directional
control, winding up with some scars which took years to fade. Fat,
knobby tires handle that a lot better.
I suppose I should be amazed about how cheap bicycling is as a means
of transportation. I can do 10-20 miles and all I pay for is the
filter usage on my Brita pitcher (well, there's extra detergent and
such when I actually *wash* my sweaty clothes instead of just rinsing
them and hanging them up to dry, but they go with regular laundry).
Even the little car is about 4 cents a mile for fuel. I'm still on
my first set of bike headlamp batteries this season (I don't do much
riding after dark) and the tail flasher is going on a year-plus on a
pair of AAA's. I got new tires this year; the old ones were well-used
when I bought the bike 4 years ago.
My non-washable bike gloves are getting stiff (accumulated sweat?)
and raggedy too, so I got some washable ones today. $15. And I
got a cheapo bike computer, also about $15. I should have more
accurate info on time and distance when I find time to install it.
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scg
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response 82 of 291:
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Jul 9 04:30 UTC 2002 |
Riding with bad traction shouldn't lead to crashing, as long as you know about
the bad traction rather than being surprised by it. Keep the bike upright,
and shift your upper body around when you're turning and need to shift some
weight. If you're leaning over and the bike starts to slide, it's pretty much
impossible to recover from. If the bike's upright, it can slide a bit and
not matter too much, as long as it doesn't slide far. It's good to practice
this at low speeds on a soft surface.
12 mph used to feel really slow. In Michigan, at least in the days when I
was riding a lot, I used to cruise along on the flats going at least 20 pretty
consistently. There were a few "long" up hill sections that requred slowing
below that, and speeds in the low 30s were possible when riding really hard
or on some downhills, but there really wasn't too much variation. Here, with
lots of hills, my speed tends to be far more variable, with many rides
containing both 6 or 7 mph sections and 40-45 mph sections. On hilly rides
here I tend to average 14-15 mph. I'm still not all that good a climber, but
I'm getting better at it. I'm still 30 pounds above my weight from my racing
days, and that probably makes a big difference. Yesterday's ride, in Marin
and Sonoma Counties, had a few difficult climbs, but was mostly a lot of
rolling stuff. My computer said my average for the ride was 17.1.
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clees
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response 83 of 291:
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Jul 9 06:20 UTC 2002 |
Altough I am a Dutchman, I have only started bicycle racing six years
ago. To this very day I haven't got the feeling I control my bike to
master level. Since my country is flat like a dime, I seldom get to do
hills or mountains. I try to do some in my vacation time (France,
Italy) and descending always scares me. I descend slooooooowly.
Steve's averages sound quite impressive to me.
Would this be an average from door to door, like I always do? (with
traffic lights and Amsterdam's hectic city traffic)
Or do you start timing from a given point?
In my case it would differ considerably. No matter how fast I go, or
how much effort I put into my cycling, I never get my average above 20
miles/hr.
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omni
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response 84 of 291:
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Jul 9 10:04 UTC 2002 |
I drove 132 miles and burnt 10 gallons of gas. That'll teach you bike
riding, wheat germ eating commie liberals. ;)
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keesan
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response 85 of 291:
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Jul 9 13:34 UTC 2002 |
I use the brakes going downhill and watch carefully for potholes and large
gravel. The skunks fortunately finished crossing before we got near them so
did not need brakes then. I go through brakes fast esp. in the city.
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gull
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response 86 of 291:
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Jul 9 13:40 UTC 2002 |
I wonder when we'll see the first hybrid-electric taxicabs. With all the
stops and starts, it seems like a natural application for the technology.
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jmsaul
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response 87 of 291:
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Jul 9 13:42 UTC 2002 |
The long charging times could be a problem, since I think many cabs are on
the road as close to 24-7 as practical.
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gull
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response 88 of 291:
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Jul 9 14:59 UTC 2002 |
You don't generally plug in a hybrid-electric car and charge it. It charges
during coasting, braking, and sometimes steady-state cruising. The stored
energy is then used to aid accelleration. The battery's being used as a
load-smoothing device, here, not as a primary power source.
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jmsaul
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response 89 of 291:
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Jul 9 15:14 UTC 2002 |
Ah. I didn't know that.
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scg
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response 90 of 291:
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Jul 9 20:31 UTC 2002 |
re 83:
I generally take averages for the whole ride, but I tend not to do too
much city riding. While I live in what is in effect a big city (from a
non-political, non-legal standpoint -- the official city I live in is not that
big, but flows right into other cities with no noticable borders), it's a
dense urban area that's about 60 miles long and three miles wide. If I'm
riding from home, I'll start the milage and average stuff at home, but I tend
to head straight for the hills and not spend much time riding in the city.
If I'm starting the ride from somewhere else, I'll start counting wherever
I get the bike out of the car, which is often somewhere reasonably empty.
Sometimes I'll take a train to the start of a ride, in which case I'll count
both the rides between home and the station, and the ride itself (but not,
of course, the time spent on the train).
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jep
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response 91 of 291:
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Jul 10 00:33 UTC 2002 |
John and I rode quite a ways tonight; across Tecumseh, to the Kiwanis
bike trail on the far side, and then down it as far as M-52, and back.
It must have been at least 15 miles. I don't feel bad at all that it
took us nearly 2 hours.
The bike trail is amazing; it goes through the edge of farmland,
through woods and alongside running streams; really beautiful
countryside. It's paved, and flat as little else is outside of Lenawee
County. The trail goes all the way to the north side of Adrian. I'd
never been on it before today. We'll be taking it all the way to the
end when we have a weekend day to spend some day. Very nice ride.
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bru
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response 92 of 291:
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Jul 10 04:01 UTC 2002 |
that track used to be a railroad right-of-way adn comes out by the Adrian
school board.
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keesan
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response 93 of 291:
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Jul 10 12:16 UTC 2002 |
After you have worked up to 15 miles each way, we can go to the lake together
on gravel roads. Our pace is about 15 miles in two hours.
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jaklumen
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response 94 of 291:
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Jul 10 16:51 UTC 2002 |
resp:87 besides, it's old technology. The unleaded engine/electric
hybrid is the same tech as the diesel/electric for trains.
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jep
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response 95 of 291:
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Jul 10 17:22 UTC 2002 |
re #93: I think we might be too casual of riders, Sindi. I'm
envisioning John and I being fine going one way, but then I've imagined
what it would be like if he decided he didn't want to ride back. It
could turn into a long and miserable trip for him. He is, after all,
only 6.
Maybe there are some shorter rides we could try out?
BTW, I believe it's cherry picking season in Tecumseh. I'll be gone
this weekend, but will be around at least part of next weekend.
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gull
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response 96 of 291:
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Jul 10 19:53 UTC 2002 |
Re #94: No, actually, it's quite different. The *concept* is the same, but
diesel-electric locomotives don't have any energy storage. Having to manage
the state of charge of a battery, and make good choices as to when to charge
and when to boost, makes the control electronics a lot more complicated.
Also, all the commercially available hybrids so far have been *parallel*
hybrids, meaning the gas engine and electric motor are both physically
coupled to the wheels. That makes for a more complex mechanical design. A
diesel-electric locomotive would be more analogous to a series hybrid, where
the gasoline engine only generates power and the electric motor is the only
thing connected to the wheels.
The goals are also a bit different. Diesel-electric locomotives make sense
for a few reasons:
- No need to have a mechansim for shifting gears while under heavy torque
loads.
- Accurate and fast-acting speed control to prevent wheelspin.
- Ability to use the electric motors as braking devices, to reduce heating
of the wheel brakes ("dynamic braking"). In locomotives that energy isn't
stored, it's dumped as heat in resistor grids.
Hybrid cars make sense for two basic reasons:
- You can have a smaller, more efficient engine while still having brisk
accelleration. The amount of power required to hold a car at 80 mph is
small compared to the amount required to accellerate it from 0 to 60 in 8
seconds, but gasoline engines are inefficient at small throttle openings.
- You can recover kinetic energy from braking, instead of dumping it as
heat in the brake rotors.
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keesan
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response 97 of 291:
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Jul 10 21:35 UTC 2002 |
John, I checked and the orchard is not doing U-pick this year because the crop
is so small. They even ran out of cherries to sell at the market. We will
find some other excuse to bike south, later this summer.
If John III gets tired of biking, he only has to sit while you pedal, right?
Coming back is slightly easier as it is a bit downhill, and cooler. We can
just bike out into the country somewhere, not all the way to the lake. There
is no place closer than I know of to swim than Independence Lake, except
chlorinated pools. The gravel pit 6 miles away used to be swimmable but the
new owner did not allow trespassing any more. The river is not clean enough
downstream from Dexter. There are some metroparks but I don't know of any
way to bike to them without having to go on bad roads part of the way, such
as Huron River Driver or Miller.
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slynne
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response 98 of 291:
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Jul 10 21:42 UTC 2002 |
Yeah, what is UP with the cherries this year. There are no Michigan
cherries in the grocery store. Was the weather bad for them or
something?
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mcnally
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response 99 of 291:
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Jul 10 21:59 UTC 2002 |
There was a severe late-season frost which decimated the cherry crop.
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