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Do You Have a Good Ride Coming Up This Year?

02.02.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

This evening, I caught myself staring blankly at the computer screen, paying no mind to what I was doing. I realized that I had been daydreaming — my mind off somewhere in the sunny future, watching myself ride and ride in a “must-do” event.

Actually, I wasn’t that far off in the distance. I was thinking about the MS 150 coming up in April. It’s got to be one of the premier biking events for me. I’m looking forward to it, and am already getting apprehensive that I haven’t been putting in the miles I need to to get ready for it.

The MS 150 runs from Houston to Austin over two days. It’s really 180 miles — 100 the first day and 80 the second. The organization of the ride is super-efficient.

Thinking about the ride takes me back to a recent letter from reader Bill Wood of Ft. Collins, Colorado. “I’m going to ride in Italy some day,” said Bill, who, after pounding the pavement as a runner in the ’90s and the Oh-ohs, is rediscovering the joys of road biking. Bill wants to know what big cycling events we’d like to do — if not this year, then sometime.

Having lived many years in Minnesota, I’m well aware of RAGBRAI — The Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, one of the grandaddies of cross-state tours. I would love to take a stab at that sometime, complete with the ritual dipping of the front tire in the Mississippi River when the ride is done. That’s a ride I first thought of doing 25 years ago, when I just rode my bike casually around the neighborhood. I never acted on my thought, though — maybe it’s time to put RAGBRAI on my Bucket List.

If things work out right, I’ll even have a chance to meet Bill this summer. He’s coming to Texas for the Hotter ‘n Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls, and I’m planning on riding in that one, too. It’s a flattish century ride, but temperatures in late summer can be over 100°F (38°C). However, it’s also a Happening, if you’ll forgive the ’60s expression, with around 11-12,000 cyclists at the event.

So, what better way to spend a chilly, dark winter night than thinking about rides you’d like to do? What’s a “must-do” event for you? What tour, event, or location would you ride if nothing stood in your way? Go ahead and comment here, or shoot me an email, and I’ll compile everyone’s thoughts.

A dream ride gives us a goal to shoot for, and it’s still early enough in the year to be setting goals.

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Categories // Rides Tags // charity ride, organized ride, ride

Bike Rollers – Pros and Cons

01.31.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

Guest poster Don Blount rides in bad weather — indoors, on his rollers. He discusses some of their pros and cons.

I feel fortunate to live in a part of the country where outdoor activities can be done year round. I fully appreciate that, having grown up in Philadelphia and living in Denver for several years.

Where I live now in Northern California, the rains have settled in. Other parts of the country are dealing with snow or high winds during winter. Out here we get rain, fog, wind and much lower temperatures. I’ll ride in cold weather. I’ll ride in the dark, in fog and other inclement weather. But I have my limits. And although I’ve gotten caught in the rain, I won’t go out for a ride in the rain. I’m not that hard core, or crazy. But instead of curling up next to the fireplace with a good book or the television, I’ll still ride. Instead of riding outdoors or in a spin class or a stationary trainer, I’ll ride on my bike rollers.

I purchased these rollers in the fall of 2008 for a few reasons: 1) To ride when the weather was too bad to go on the road. 2) To practice technique and handling skills.

I’ll admit that I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into. It took me some time to get used to the rollers. I started out riding in a doorway and took my share of tumbles before being able to move to less confined places. One fall caused my wife to come rushing out to the garage to see what the problem was. I fell in the opposite direction what I had to grab onto. It is a sinking feeling to see something that could save you from going down slowly float out of your grasp. Fortunately by the time my wife arrived I was on my feet, with some of my dignity, claiming that nothing had happened. Later I found that I had bent my derailleur hanger.

What I’ve found that makes rollers most awkward (aside from learning to balance) is getting on and off. The rollers elevate you several inches off the ground, so getting on, moreso off, can be challenging because you just have this little skinny rail to balance your foot on. Miss that and whoosh, slipsville. I’m considering building a small platform to solve that problem.

I can now ride with a chair or counter, something that I can use to steady myself, next to me. And  I have gotten proficient enough that I can stand and pedal. I have begun working on clipping in and out of the pedals, although I won’t be doing anything close to what this guy does.

What I like about rollers is that I can still ride without going out in inclement weather. It helps conditioning, technique and handling skills. If your pedal stroke isn’t smooth while riding rollers, you’ll know because you’ll bounce around. Sprints, intervals, cadence work, all can be done on rollers.

What I don’t like about rollers is that they can be incredibly boring. Even wearing headphones and listening to music or watching television. Then again that just provides more incentive to ride outside once the weather calms. And after a few sessions on the rollers I can do that while working on my handling skills, technique and without losing too much conditioning.

Don also points us to this video by cycling coach Marc Evans, who demonstrates how to ride rollers.

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Categories // Accessories, training Tags // Blount, guest post, rollers, trainer, training

When Bikes Hit Bikes

01.28.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

Last summer, I was on a club ride when we approached our turnaround point. We had to get ready to make a left turn into a gas station. We were riding two abreast on the road; I was in front on the right.

The rider next to me was experienced, but unfamiliar with this route.I told him we’d be making a left, and started to ease my bike in that direction.

He didn’t move. I nearly crashed into him. I was looking ahead to the turn, and didn’t see that he wasn’t moving with me. I jerked the handlebar to the right, somehow avoided falling over, and we got to the gas station without a mishap.

I’m thinking about that incident, because I recently came across some data about bike-on-bike crashes.

The Safety Committee of the Twin Cities Bike Club in Minnesota compiles records of crashes involving the club’s members. Each month, they print the crash rundown in their club newsletter. Their January newsletter toted up the crashes for the year: 34. Five of those crashes were bike-on-bike.

We always hear about solo crashes, where bikers lose control and go down, or car-bike crashes, which most often seem to happen when a car turns right in front of a bike. But why would bikes hit other bikes? Isn’t the hazard obvious? Can’t it easily be avoided?

The Twin Cities Bike Club listed causes for four of the five crashes. All were different.

  • Rider failed to signal intention to stop, rider behind hit front rider.
  • Rider turned into another rider riding beside him.
  • Riding in pace line, tire of rear rider touched the one in front.
  • Rider behind looking into rear view mirror ran into a slowing rider in front.

Three of the four somehow involved riders hitting the bike in front of them. All because of different circumstances, but the results were the same — a crash.

So one way to be a safer biker is to pay close attention to the bike in front of you. This is why you always hear warnings against “half-wheeling” in pacelines. That’s when your front wheel overlaps the rear wheel of the rider ahead. I witnessed the results of this when riding my first century. A serious crash on a wide, arrow-straight road.

In fact, it was a bike-on-bike crash that got me wearing a bike helmet. In the 1980s, my wife and I would take our bikes out on the local hike & bike paths in city parks. In one case, the path came down from a bridge over a creek, and merged with the path that ran along the creek. A rider coming down the hill couldn’t hold a tight line, and hit my wife head-on. She had cuts and bruises, some road rash, but was more frightened at the collision itself than the consequences. We went to the closest bike shop and bought helmets right away.

The bike club’s safety column concluded that most accidents — bike-on-bike or otherwise — are caused by inattentiveness.  It urges all bikers to take a Traffic Skills 101 course, which teaches defensive biking techniques.

And here’s something very timely: The League of American Bicyclists is partnering with the city of Houston to offer the classroom part of Traffic Skills 101 online, at bikeed.org. Registration is free. It’ll take about four hours to complete it, but you can take as many or as few modules at a time as you want. There’s a quiz after each module. Once you’ve completed the online part, you’re eligible to take the on-the-road portion. I signed up for the online course tonight, even though I’ve already passed Traffic Skills 101. We can all use a refresher.

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Categories // crash, Safety Tags // crash, League of American Bicyclists, Safety

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