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Archives for March 2011

Springtime Equals Mileage Time

03.03.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

Spring is coming. We’ve been enjoying mild daytime and cool nighttime temperatures here lately, so sleep comes easily and lasts long. I look forward to the beginning of spring every year, because spring heralds the onset of long ride season.

During winter, I think many of us are prone to cocooning. We curl up in our warm houses, and when we venture out in our layers of cycling gear, the rides are just not as long as they would be at other times of the year. Some of us tough it out on indoor trainers. Others hit the gym for crosstraining. I try to ride as much as I can, but of necessity, the miles aren’t there in the winter.

But with nicer weather, there’s no reason not to get in some miles. The kind of ride I have in mind is the kind that takes at least two hours to complete — so it’s probably a minimum of 30 miles (50 km) or so. It’s done at an easy pace. I like to average around 15 mph for the ride. I’m not racing for the city limit sign, but at the same time, I’m not lollygagging.

The whole point of doing these longer rides is to build up your aerobic threshold. These are your “base” miles, and all the other training you do depends upon a solid base. As always, you can’t just decide one Sunday that you’re going to ride for three hours if your normal weekend winter ride is an hour. Add a half hour to your long rides each weekend to extend them, and to condition yourself gradually.  Back when I was a jogger, we used to call these sessions LSD, or long, slow distance. Approach your bike rides with the same attitude.

Then, you can start throwing in some training elements. Every 15 minutes, ramp it up a bit and pedal harder for a minute or two. Cycling coach David Ertl suggests that when you’re 20 minutes from home, pedal at a faster pace for about 10 minutes, and use the remaining 10 minutes of your ride as a warm down.

My own mileage has been lagging of late — I’ve done nothing more than 30 miles so far this year. I need to get in some longer weekend rides. This is probably my favorite time of the cycling year.

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Categories // training Tags // long distance

Use A Bike Trailer To Share Cycling With The Family

03.01.2011 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

Here’s a guest post from Ron Fritzke on an addition some Bike Noob readers will want to make to their stable.

Riding a bike can take up a tremendous amount of time.  We love being out on our bicycles and, when you don’t have domestic obligations, that usually doesn’t pose much of a problem.  But what’s a cyclist to do once the kids start arriving, especially when they’re too small to keep up on a ride?

In the right circumstances (rides that aren’t weaving through the honking and bumping that occurs on city streets), a bike trailer may be your savior.

What Good Is A Bike Trailer?

  • Bike trailers can start a pattern of the family doing things together rather than separately.
  • Rides can be guilt-free, since there’s no issue of abandoning the spouse with the kids while going off on a solo ride.
  • It’s nice to have some companionship on long rides…and sometimes refreshing to ‘see’  a ride through the eyes of a little person.
  • Taking the kid(s) along introduces them to a healthy lifestyle.
  • You can even take along some of the extra gear that you wouldn’t have been able to stuff into your bike jersey.

So Many Features…Which Are Important?

So let’s say you’re interested enough to look into the bike trailer world.  What should you be looking for?

On the most basic of levels, the type of metal used for the frame will be important.  The least expensive trailers are made of steel, while the better trailers use lightweight aluminum tubing for their frames.  In high-end bike trailer companies, even the basic models like the Burley Honey Bee feature a strong, light aluminum frame.

Quality trailers roll along on wheels that are made of a metal alloy, but cheap trailers will have plastic wheels.  And then there is the issue of ease of storage.  It helps if the wheels are quick-release so that the trailer is easily reduced to a small package taking up as little room as possible in the garage between rides.

The best trailers have some sort of suspension system in them.  When I first became aware of this I was expecting to see leaf springs, nitrogen-filled shocks, and a few of the other things you see on redneck trucks.

I should have known…the suspension system is so subtle that it could be missed completely if you lack my sleuthing skill-set.  A bike trailer suspension is essentially some elastomer plastic between the axle and frame. I suppose it’s effective, but because I already weighed 150 pounds (and  couldn’t fit into the trailer) when this feature was first introduced, I’ll have to go on faith with this one.

The Burley D‘lite and its little brother, the Burley Solo have this type of suspension.

A feature you won’t necessarily see is any UV protection that may or may not have been put into the plastic windows.  Your kid may be in the trailer for quite a long time, so limiting their exposure to harmful UV light is important.

If it isn’t important, why are you pinning them to the ground while you drown them in sunblock any time they even think about going outside?

I also mentioned earlier that the best bike trailers have wheels that come off easily…and that increases the ease in which the trailer folds down for storage.  Let’s face it, most of the time the trailer won’t be rolling down the road; it’ll be taking up space in your garage.  Along with a whole bunch of other toys.

So the ability of the the trailer to be reduced to a flat little square may be appreciated as much, or more, than any other feature.  I know that when I had an early model Burley (before the folding days) I had to store it with other junk piled into it so that I could salvage as much wasted space in the garage as I could.

Enjoy A Bike Trailer Now…Sell It Later

I won’t beat a dead horse (I’ve already given you a list of the benefits of getting a bike trailer), so here’s an added slant to the bike trailer angle.  If you get a quality bike trailer to begin with, the resale value can remain relatively high.  That means selling it on Craigslist will recoup most of what you paid for it…and if you bought it used to begin with you may lose very little at all.

And the benefits you’ll gain by taking your kids for rides may set up a parenting style that lasts long into the future.  I know that I’m glad I did.

About the author: Ron Fritzke is a cycling product reviewer with a passion for ‘all things cycling’. His time spent pulling his kids around in an old school bike trailer are some of his fondest cycling memories.

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Categories // Accessories Tags // trailer

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