Biking
If I remember correctly, I was in first grade when Mom and Dad bought me my Schwinn spyder bike with the burnt orange metallic paint job, white metallic banana seat, and three-speed with the shift lever on the crossbar. I wasn't supposed to ride it, as I recall, until after I'd received the report card that would provide proof of the good grades that were the condition of my receiving the bike.
Of course, I couldn't resist the lure of that sexy beast, just sitting there in the garage, its fat racing slick rear tire just begging to take a bite out of the neighborhood streets. I sneaked out with the bike to show it off to my buddies, who wasted no time pressuring me into riding it down a dirt hill. Not used to front brakes, I promptly went arse over elbows, and worse... bent the shifter lever, breaking the click stops that separated the gears.
I guess Dad understood, because I don't recall catching too much hell as he took me down to the Schwinn shop to buy a replacement shift lever. I rode that bike everywhere, well into high school, by which time it was far too small for me, and every rotation of the worn-out crank bearings threatened to cause me to "pop a wheelie".
THAT'S ANCIENT HISTORY
 '03 Marin Redwoods comfort bike |
But like those crank bearings, what goes around comes around. More than twenty years since that orange beauty went out to pasture—pasture being Jeff Bidwell, as I recall—I bought myself a new bike. When Cheryl started talking about getting back into her racing wheelchair and training for a marathon, she encouraged me to look for a bike to ride around the streets and sidewalks to keep her company. It didn't have to be anything too radical, just something that would ride well on pavement while handling uneven sidewalks and patches of gravel.
When one of the local bike/camping/canoeing shops had a tent sale, Cheryl dragged me there to take a look. We ended up picking out a Marin comfort bike with decent Shimano components and a front shock to help soak up the bumps. I have some back and neck problems, and the more "relaxed", upright postioning of the comfort bike geometry seemed like just the thing. After all, I'm too old to be jumping off ramps and racing around on dirthills, right?
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
Between the insane heat and the vast assortment of sinus-clogging allergens that are part of summers in North Texas, Cheryl didn't get outside to do much training and I didn't go out to do much biking on my own. Sometime during the summer, though, I discovered the Dallas Off-Road Biking Association (DORBA) and the member forums at their web site. There, I read about the various trails in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and the DORBA folks seemed to be having so much fun riding them that I started thinking about giving it a shot myself.
I took my comfort bike out on what was suggested to me as a beginners' trail and nearly killed myself on roots and steep climbs, so I decided to take part in one of DORBA's free beginner clinics. It was fun and informative, but I managed to damage my chain and bend a tooth on one of my chain rings.
 '03 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR |
Once bitten by the all-terrain bug, I realised that I was not going to be able to do the things I was becoming interested in doing without destroying the Marin, so I started shopping for a true mountain bike. This time, I had a better idea about what I was looking for, both in terms of the bike itself (tough, front and rear suspension to save my poor old back) and the bike shop (friendly staff, mechanics who are available during daylight hours) with whom I'd be establishing a relationship.
I shopped around for a few weeks, asked lots of questions, took some test rides, and finally decided that the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR was the ride for me. I was impressed with a number of the bike shops I visited while shopping around, but Bicycles Plus was the closest that carried Specialized—and they were closing out their 2003 bikes at a discount that put the Stumpjumper just a little above the upper price limit I'd set for myself.
Training Ride Log
Let's be honest: no one really cares how far I ride or where, but it was a nifty excuse to play around with some data-driven web coding. If you're curious, the log I started after buying the road bike is here.
Diary of a Novice Biker (most recent first)
2 September, 2007 - Since switching to the recumbent last year, I've done dozens of club rides and a bunch of charity rides—Collin Classic, Cotton Patch Classic, Autumn in Bonham, Richardson Wild Ride, Tour de Paris, Peach Pedal, and Tour d'Italia, to name a few. This past May, I even rode my first MS 150 (details here). I've yet to complete my first century ride, but I did set my all-time best time for a metric century (100 kilometers ≅ 62 miles) at this year's Tour de Paris, with an average speed of 18.9 mph.
When I began this section, I referred to myself as a novice biker. With over 7000 miles logged, I'm hardly in the league of the serious cyclists I know, but I think I may have moved up to "intermediate".
14 April, 2006 - I went down to the bike shop and test rode a few
recumbents and brought my favorite home to test ride over the
long Easter weekend. On 17 April, 2007, I became the happy owner
of an '06 Bacchetta Corsa.But why? It's not as if I'd always dreamed of piling yet another ostracizing stigma on to my life, in the form of a bike that most other cyclists associate with fat, slow, broken-down, old guys with beards and pocket protectors. I can't even grow a beard. But after riding the Trek for a season, my neck problems had reached a point where it was either find a bike that didn't hurt me, or give up road cycling—and I wasn't prepared to do that.
So I picked out the lightest, tallest style of recumbent with the largest wheels and a wheelbase comparable to that of most "normal" road bikes and have been racking up the miles ever since. Without the pain in the neck and the numb body parts.
6 December, 2004 - I finally came up with the rest of the cash I needed to go shopping for a road bike. I'm generally a Specialized fan, but after test riding both the '04 Trek 1500 and the '04 Specialized Allez Elite around the neighborhood surrounding Plano Cycling & Fitness, I was surprised to find that I preferred the Trek. In some way that I can't quite quantify, it just felt like a smoother ride. Smooth is going to be good, when I start doing some big miles this coming Spring.
'04 Trek 1500 road bike- 6 November, 2004 - Tour
de Habitat, McKinney, TX.
This was the inaugural year for the Tour de Habitat, which was put on by the Habitat for Humanity Council of North Central Texas and its local affiliates. Once again, Chip joined me for this ride and because neither of us had been riding much since the Denton Power Rally a month earlier, we opted for the short 26-mile route. The ride was well organized with a well-marked route, plenty of volunteers with int'l orange flags to make sure we didn't miss critical turns, and well-stocked rest stops manned (and womanned) by enthusiastic, friendly volunteers. I've since read that the last 10 miles of the 64-mile route had a lot of traffic and even a few unpleasant exchanges with frustrated motorists, so I'm hoping that the organizers will have tweaked their routes by the time I might be ready to return for a longer distance. - 5 November, 2004 - Sold the Marin comfort bike. That means I've fulfilled Cheryl's first requirement for shopping for a road bike. Right now, I'm eyeing a 2005 Specialized Allez Sport triple... in black.
- 18 September, 2004 - Tour de Gravel, Lindsay, TX.
My first repeat rally. My riding partner, Chip, and I drove up together this year, and since Chip was riding his fully-rigid cyclocross bike, we decided we'd plan on riding the 27-mile route that I did by mistake last year and then extend to the 37-miler if we were feeling froggy. Chip was feeling a little off, though, and the combination of the heat and climbs got to him so we decided that 27 miles was plenty. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. I bought my first event photo, just because I didn't have any of me actually on my bike. -
28 August, 2004 - Hotter 'n' Hell 100, Wichita Falls, TX.
I rode the 50-mile tour with a few of my coworkers. This started
as a lark, when I learned that a couple of the guys had ridden
the 25-mile route last year. I asked if they'd mind if I tagged
along, and before you know it, we'd picked up a fourth rider
and company sponsorship. That's right, the company paid
our entry fees and bought each of us a cycling jersey with the
company logo on the back.Since 50 miles was a greater distance than I'd ever ridden in one stretch before, Cheryl put me on a training schedule where I was riding an average of 60 miles each week, mostly on knobby tires because they have more rolling resistance. By the time race day rolled around and I'd switched to the skinny street slicks (which look really goofy on my mountain bike), I was ready. We left for Wichita Falls about 3:30 in the morning, and it thunder stormed most of the way up. The Lord was with us, though. The rain stopped just about the time we headed in to the convention center to pick up our packets and didn't start again all day. Hotter 'n' Hell? I don't think it got hotter than the high 80s. What a blast!
All lined up and ready for the mass start of the Hotter 'n' Hell. (Photo: Mickey Neill) - 15 May, 2004 - Cross
Timbers Classic, Flower Mound, TX.
I rode the 30-mile tour with a couple friends, all of us on mountain
bikes. After watching all those folks on road bikes blowing past
like it was nothing, I'm beginning to wonder if... no. Don't even
go there. Not until the finances have recovered from building
the house. One thing is for sure, though: the next time I ride
any distance on the pavement, I'm going to swap the knobby tires
and slime-filled tubes for slicks and kevlar rim strips.
- 11 October, 2003 - Tour de Gravel, Lindsay, TX.
This was supposed to be an easy 17-miler, but I got busy gawking at the remains of Camp Howze (where German POWs were interned during WWII) and missed the turn, which meant I was in for the longer, hillier 27-mile route. I didn't have to ride back to the starting point in the back of a sag truck, so I count this a successful debut. - September, 2003 - Bought a '03 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR from Bicycles Plus, in Flower Mound.
- 23 August, 2003 - Arlington, TX.
Participated in DORBA's beginner mountain biking clinic at River Legacy Park. Threw the chain and bent a tooth on the small chain ring. This is when I began to suspect I might want a real mountain bike. - March, 2003 - Bought the Marin Redwoods comfort bike.
