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| Author |
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| 25 new of 291 responses total. |
russ
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response 64 of 291:
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Jul 6 02:04 UTC 2002 |
I saw something today which made me wonder about the wisdom
of some parents.
I was riding a bike trail which isn't all that wide in many places.
A family group was coming the other way, and a little boy (maybe 4
or 5?), whose bicycle still had training wheels, was not paying
attention and steered right across my path. Fortunately I had enough
reaction time to avoid him, but he looked up as if he had no concept
of how dangerous his error was (I'm sure he didn't).
If children aren't mature enough to have situational awareness, they
shouldn't be under their own control on major bike trails any more
than they should be riding in the street. They should be on
Trail-a-Bikes or the like.
John, you've made an excellent choice for little John. Way to go.
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clees
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response 65 of 291:
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Jul 6 20:51 UTC 2002 |
Amsterdam traffic is way worse.
Seemingly nobody abides to traffic rules and cyclists take the cake.
Parents often fail to understand the lack of situational awareness
(thanks russ) of little children. They just go about with their own
affairs, hardly paying any attention to their offspring. Exemple I have
eprienced in more than 1 occassion: Some parents go as far as letting
their kids (6 or so) ride their own bike in rush hour. In let's say
winter time when it's still dark at 7.30 a.m.. Why ignore the red
traffic light, with a small kid on its own bike beside you? Why not use
your bike lights? (in Amsterdam almost no cyclist uses them, except for
the mayor and me :)
Another example while wainting for a traffic light. A mother with a
small kid on bike passing a red traffic light. She teaches the kid to
look left and right. When I gained up on her I first complimented her
on the effort before scolding her lack of sensibility.
What are they thinking? That a kid of five, unseen by drivers, can
comprehgend the danger it is in?
But it happens also with people who are walking their dogs.
Endless rows af cars are parked at the city curbs and honestly I cannot
know what lurks between two parked cars. Why in earth canīt they keep
their dog on a leash instead of letting it barge on the raod from
beteen two cars?
When I make a remake of it most often people react in a agressive
manner, like what am I not minding my own business?
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jep
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response 66 of 291:
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Jul 6 21:31 UTC 2002 |
I see kids all the time, on my way home from work, swerving around on
pretty heavily traveled (and fast) paved country roads, paying no
attention to traffic. Sometimes I see this kind of behavior at dusk.
If I could tell where these kids live, I'd stop and talk to their
parents.
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slynne
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response 67 of 291:
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Jul 7 15:25 UTC 2002 |
There is nothing wrong with learning a little safety but I dont think
it is very unreasonable for a parent to allow a child to ride under
their own control on a bike trail where there are no cars present. Isnt
that what bike trails are for?
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scg
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response 68 of 291:
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Jul 8 04:20 UTC 2002 |
My ride today:
110 miles. Around 8.5 hours total time, with 6 hours and 22 minutes of that
on the bike. This brings me up to about 220 miles for three days of riding
over the four day weekend.
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jep
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response 69 of 291:
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Jul 8 10:25 UTC 2002 |
Wow.
When I was a Boy Scout, to get the bicycling merit badge, we had to go
on 6 25 mile rides and 1 50 mile ride. That 50 mile ride was the
longest I ever rode a bike. I mightlike to get to the point where I
can do that again some day, but 110 miles in a day sounds like an
incredible amount of bike riding.
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mcnally
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response 70 of 291:
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Jul 8 12:15 UTC 2002 |
Yep.. Even when I was biking pretty regularly a few years ago I never
got much further than sixty miles in a day and that was with the benefit
of really flat SE Michigan terrain. I'm told you get a lot further with
a lot less effort on a properly adjusted road bike but 110 miles is still
a very substantial ride.
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keesan
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response 71 of 291:
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Jul 8 14:12 UTC 2002 |
We did 75 miles in 24 hours once, loaded with camping gear, on gravel roads,
via a very mosquito-ey swamp where we spent the night listening to people
fishing from boats comment on our tent, and swatting mosquitos.
Yesterday we did about 35 miles taking a roundabout route to Independence
Lake. Traver Road, a few other roads to Nixon to cross over the highway moat.
Nixon was not too bad for a paved road - light traffic and some sidewalk.
COntinued on paved Sutton until N. Territorial then unpaved, north to 7-Mile
(paved, bad), south again to Six Mile (some of it board walk thru The Links)
to cross another highway, then 2 more miles to the Lake. Horseshoe Lake is
bathtub temperature. You can get cooled off by dunking under then standing
up to let the air evaporate the water. We were 'guests' of the next door
neighbor at one of several members and guests access points. The lake was
full of large loud objects towing smaller objects in endless circles, so we
continued to Independence, where the boats were as persistent but not so
close. Saw three deer, a family of skunks crossing the road, woodchuck,
raccoon, three rabbits, two brown herons, etc. ANd some small triangular
flies that tried to chew on us. John, are you up to doing 30 miles with a
trailer yet? The direct route (Barton Hills, N. Maple, Stein, Jennings) is
gravel except for Barton Shore road.
Our total time was probably also about 6 hours biking, maybe only 5. Took
a detour while Jim tried yet again to rescue a 700 mm wheel from an abandoned
bike. His battery was not charged enough.
The curb gods left us one recent issue of Playboy, and some peach colored
cloth napkins on which to spread out our bread and water picnic at the lake.
And a 12 volt battery but Jim left it there.
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clees
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response 72 of 291:
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Jul 8 14:27 UTC 2002 |
Steve rides like hell!
My longest ever have been 100 mile rides.
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slynne
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response 73 of 291:
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Jul 8 14:54 UTC 2002 |
Sindi and Jim sound like they had a pleasant day. While I am sure Steve
enjoyed his day, I dont think I would have. That 100+ miles had to have
lots of hills! It kind of reminded me of this guy I knew who lived near
Steve who used to ride his bike way up in the hills to this lake. My
friend Shannon and I drove up to the lake to meet him once. I couldnt
believe anyone could ride up that hill. Sheesh! OH well, it sounds
healthy anyway.
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jep
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response 74 of 291:
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Jul 8 15:03 UTC 2002 |
Sindi, the longest I've ridden this year is about 13 miles, which was
both ways. I could probably ride that far twice in a day, so 30 miles
is not out of the question. I'm not sure if John could do it, but he'd
probably be willing to try, especially if there's swimming involved.
We're going away this weekend, but maybe toward the end of the month we
can get together.
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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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