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Archives for April 2008

Tomorrow’s the day

04.25.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 1 Comment

It’s finally here. Saturday is the day of the Hill Country Ride for AIDS, which Pat is riding in.

Her training this year has been less intense than last year’s. She has not accumulated longer rides in the numbers she did last year, but at the same time, she is in better shape. She can go out and ride almost 20 miles without a strain, and a year ago at this time, it wouldn’t have happened.

Last year, whether she would complete the ride was an open question. But she did. This year, she’s confident she’ll finish, and is hoping to do it in a better time than last year.

Today, I picked up her bike at the LBS. They did a pre-ride tuneup, and installed a new, taller stem to get her more upright. With any luck, she’ll be able to do a short practice ride today, to get a feel for the new riding position. Tonight, we’re off to the pre-ride carb-loading spaghetti dinner. Tomorrow, a friend will pick her up at 6 a.m. for the ride out to the start. Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll head out to the ride site to catch her at the finish.

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Categories // Rides

Book Review: New Cyclist Handbook

04.23.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 2 Comments

Since the purpose of this blog is to share my experiences as I get into cycling, with the hope that others new to the sport might get something out of them, I thought it might be worthwhile to take a look at some books targeted at the newbie cyclist. I only have a few on my bookshelf — most of what I know about cycling I learned from the fine posters to Bike Forums and other biking blogs — but I’ll briefly review the ones I have and add reviews to other books as those books come to my attention.

The first in this series of reviews is Bicycling Magazines’ New Cyclist Handbook, edited by Ben Hewitt, Rodale Press, 2005. It’s an update of an earlier version that came out in 2000. Why a three-year-old book? It’s widely available in bookstores, and is likely to be a candidate for selection by a new rider looking for fast info. That’s how I wound up with it.

The Table of Contents indicates that the book will address major issues faced by new cyclists. The book is broken up into six parts: The Bike, The Body, Skills & Techniques, Getting Good (training), Body Care, and Bicycle Care. The chapters within those parts deal with specific topics in a bit more detail. Not exhaustive detail, because many of the chapters seem to be adapted from — or are outright reprints from — articles that have appeared over the years in Bicycling Magazine. Editor Hewitt suggests in the Introduction that the reader take a look at only one or two chapters at a time, and let them sink in while going for a ride.

I found some of the chapters to be worth revisiting several times. The “Getting Good” part has a chapter called “Instant Improvement” — little things a cyclist can do to become more efficient. “Training for a Century” has two versions of a training plan: One for those who just want to survive the 100 miles, and another for those who want to thrive on it. Other chapters were too elementary to spend any real time with, such as “Choose the Right Bike” — it’s likely the reader already has a bike, and just wants to get better riding it — and “Clothing and Accessories” (mostly accessories).

In today’s Internet age, everything in this book can be found online, usually in better detail. Much of it can be found on Bicycling’s own excellent web site, Bicycling.com. In fact, if you visit their home page today, you’ll find links to articles on Ten Cycling Tips Every Cyclist Needs to Know, Bike Buying Tips, and Training Tips — the same kinds of info in the book.

So why even bother buying the book? For me, sometimes having a reference in my hands is important. I’m of a generation that likes to sit back in an easy chair and read, rather than hunch over a computer keyboard and search. For that reason alone, the New Cyclist Handbook could be a useful addition to your bookshelf.

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Categories // Books

Cyclocomputers

04.22.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 18 Comments

I wrote some weeks back about tracking my rides — keeping stats on distance, time, speed, etc. One reader suggested it would be easier with a cyclocomputer. I agree, which is why I’ve had one since the beginning of the year.

As you might have discerned by now, if you’ve read more than a few posts on this blog, I’m a tightwad miser frugal sort of person. When I considered which computer to buy, I glanced at the Garmin GPS gizmos, but decided that several hundred dollars was a lot more than I wanted to spend. I must admit that they do cool things, though. One acquaintance used his to post a map of his ride, and you could trace the route in motion. Altitude profiles are nifty, too. But I decided that what I really needed in a cyclocomputer was something that would register my speed, distance and time of the ride. Anything else would be a bonus.

The Ascent Delta V. The ride this day lasted 55 minutes and one second. The scratches on the face are from flipping the bike over without taking the unit off.

I decided on the Delta V, by Ascent. Picked one up at the local Performance store just after Christmas for around $25. It’s a small little unit, about the size of a silver dollar (remember those?) and mounted on the bike with a pair of zip ties. I was attracted to the unit because it’s wireless, and while that raised some dependability questions in my mind, I figured for the price, what the heck. Performance has a liberal return policy if it didn’t work out.

When the computer is first turned on, it has to be set for the diameter of your front wheel and tire. Hold down both buttons, and four digits flash. Starting with the digit on the far right, you click the right button for each time you want the number to advance. Ascent’s instruction manual says for a 700C x 23 tire like mine, the numbers should be 2096.

Another way to determine the setting is to figure the circumference of the front tire. I turned it until the presta valve was at its lowest point, and drew a pencil line on the garage floor at that point. Then, I pushed the bike forward for one full turn of the tire, and drew another pencil line opposite the presta valve. I measured the distance between the two lines. Eighty-three-something inches. You then multiply that number by 25.4 to get the metric figure. I got 2095.5. I figured the one-half a thing off wouldn’t make too much difference.

Well, it apparently made some difference. My trip from home to the Veloway, three laps around, then back home again measures 14.9 miles, when mapped on Map My Ride or similar programs. On the Delta V, it’s more like 14.7. Still, two-tenths of a mile difference over about 15 miles isn’t too bad. I guess.

It’s supposed to have a clock, and does, but it defaults to 12:00 at the beginning of a ride. The instructions say I can set it to real time, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. That’s not all that important, since it does clock the time of the ride, which is what I’m most interested in anyway. That, and average speed, which it measures. During the ride, I can set it to “scan,” or read all the numbers in progression: first distance, then maximum speed, average speed, and time. I don’t deliberately try to push up maximum speed, but it’s fun to chart. The max speed reading has a glitch, tho. On my long ride last weekend, it reported my maximum at 63.7 mph. Now, I like to think that I’m getting faster, but even I know my top that day was no more than 30.

When the ride is over, I take the computer off the bike, and enter its numbers into a spreadsheet I keep. (Except for a ridiculously high max like today’s.) So far, I’m satisfied with the computer. I know you get what you pay for, and I got a very basic model. If I can figure out how to adjust it so its mileage matches my mapped GPS mileage, this will turn out to be all the computer I need.

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Categories // Accessories

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