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From Mountain to Road

05.01.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 2 Comments

I got up too late to make the Sunday morning club ride today (Which was pretty eventful – details farther down), so I decided to stick close to home and do a neighborhood route that wound me up at the Veloway.

And who should I see there but Mike Watts, a regular commenter on this blog under the nom de guerre “Sine Botchen.” I’ve enjoyed his input, because it comes from the point of view of a long-time mountain biker, who seemed to feel at home on a blog that caters primarily to roadies. We’ve met on the Veloway before, and he was able to easily outpace me on his 29-inch MTB.

So I was pleasantly surprised  to see a Tweet from Mike that he’d bought a road bike. He’s had it for a few weeks now. We decided to ride a few laps together.

Mike Watts with his new road rig.

The bike is a Fuji SL-1 Pro with a Shimano Ultegra drivetrain. It’s a carbon fiber frame, and he says he’s amazed at the quality of the ride. But it does take some getting used to, after 20 years on a mountain bike. He’s bothered about battling the wind we’ve had to put up with around here for the last two-plus months.

The lightness of the bike and the different riding position (hands out over the front wheel, a more vertical fork) makes the bike “twitchy,” says Mike. Going into a corner and getting buffeted by a crosswind is a feeling he’s not used to yet. He’s confined his riding to the Veloway, because he’s a little uneasy about riding in traffic on highways with a stiff wind.

“Why did you decide to get a road bike?” I asked.

“The guys I used to mountain bike with have all moved on in their lives,” he replied. He found himself riding almost solely on the Veloway, which is a smooth, paved track. “I realized the mountain bike was not the right tool for the job,” he said.

“So what’s the biggest difference between riding a mountain bike and a road bike?” I wanted to know.

“You know, I thought it would be the lack of suspension,” he said. “But that turned out to be the least different thing.” The big difference, he said, is how subtle the road bike is when responding to the pavement.

He had a few questions for me. “How do you loosen the brakes?” he asked, “if I want to get a wheel off?”

I showed him the quick release for the brakes.

“I got an owner’s manual with the bike,” he said, “but it was full of basic stuff like ‘Always wear a helmet’ — lawyer protection stuff. Nothing about operating and maintaining the bike.”

I’ve got some time off coming up, and we agreed we’d get together again and this time take his bike out on the roads. I’ve got some area routes in mind that will really show him what his road bike can do. In the meantime, though, he said he’d keep riding four days a week — and finish making the transition from mountain biker to roadie.

————

Like most bike blogs, Bike Noob has dealt with the issue of dogs before. But today really put that issue into perspective.

The Sunday morning club ride headed out to Creedmoor, a crossroads southeast of Austin. I had planned to ride with them for the first time in months, but couldn’t get my act together in time to make the start.

About 12 miles into the ride, a small terrier of some kind got loose and rushed at the group, targeting the two lead riders. It hit one bike broadside, knocking him over, and careened into the second bike, taking it down as well. The other riders missed the pileup, but at least one ran over the dog, who limped away, badly hurt.

An ambulance came for the two downed riders. Both were in considerable pain. It turned out both had fractured pelvises and are spending the night in the hospital (one of them happens to be an emergency room physician at that same hospital).

Police ticketed the dog’s owner for an unrestrained dog. Neighbors said the dog is always running loose. Mrs. Noob says I should confine my riding to the Veloway from here on out.

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Categories // Bikes, crash, People Tags // Bikes, dogs

Riding With Friends

03.06.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

I mentioned in my year-end post that I’ve really enjoyed meeting people online, then getting to ride with them in person. That happened again today. This morning, Mrs. Noob and I went over to Austin’s Veloway to do a few laps with Ramon H. and his wife.

Bike Noob readers might remember a guest post Ramon recently did about his new bike. We first made contact when he sent me an email about how he got into cycling. I enjoyed it so much I had him turn it into a guest post. We’ve corresponded a lot since then, and briefly met during the MS 150 last year. But we’ve never really spent any face time together, until this morning.

Ramon readies his gear for the Veloway ride.

Ramon and his wife, Irma, were in the area to ride Pedal Thru the Pines in Bastrop, about 25 miles east of Austin. It’s a ride known for its hills, and is a locally popular route. But this year, it was more of a bear than usual. On top of the generally short, but quite steep hills in two state parks, it was cold this year. And rainy. And windy.

Irma.

Ramon and Irma live in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, along the border with Mexico. “We’ve got three highway overpasses on our Sunday route,” said Ramon. “Whoever gets up them first is the King of the Mountains. There’s a lot of competition each week.” Otherwise, their rides are flat. Just plain flat.

So the hills, combined with the wind, rain, and cold, took their toll. Irma was especially feeling it, and when I told them that the Veloway is 3.1 miles long, she opted to do only two laps. Since that’s what Pat usually rides at the Veloway, the two of them fell in together quickly. Ramon and I did three laps.

Irma and Ramon head out for their inaugural Veloway lap.

KOV — King of the Veloway.

When it was over, we agreed to meet at a nearby restaurant for lunch. Talk didn’t get far from biking. Irma rides a lot less than Ramon, and doesn’t keep up with the big dogs, “…but I like to finish what I start,” she said. She completed her first century, the Jalapeño 100 in Harlingen, Texas, just last month. Now, she finds herself getting more and more into bike advocacy, and has appeared at her local city council to lobby for more bike lanes on city streets.

To get in more saddle time on weekdays, Ramon organizes a 5 a.m. group ride on Tuesdays and Thursdays. No, that wasn’t a typo. The ride begins at 5 a.m. Usually, 4-6 people show up. They get in anywhere from 15-25 miles, and despite his pleas, it often turns into a race. At the college where he works, Ramon helped organize a cycling club, which competes in statewide events. Oh, by the way, Ramon’s job is in network security, which is why he prefers I don’t use his last name on this blog. He has first-hand experience with the damage hackers can do.

The visit was cut short because they needed to hit the road for the five-hour drive back to the Valley. We tried to entice them back up to this area by telling them of some other rides they’d want to sample. We’ll see. I’d love to ride with you again sometime, amigo. Maybe we’ll even go fast.

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A Cyclist’s Heart Beats Again

08.13.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

Just about a year ago, I returned from vacation to learn that a local cyclist, Kevin Underhill, had died after crashing in a bike race.  I blogged about Kevin, who was a regular reader of Bike Noob.

What I didn’t know at the time was that Kevin was an organ donor, and his heart went to a man who also rides a bike.  Thursday, that man went back to the scene of Kevin’s crash.  Watch the story from Austin’s KVUE-TV.

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