Tag: bikes

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Back on the Bike

Back in 2021 I became a walking guy, and I walked a lot in 2022 and 2023, and then in December 2023 I had an extremely bad case of plantar fasciitis so I had to take a break from walking. I managed to get a bike trainer stand thing and put my bike in the basement and tried riding it for exercise while I was suffering from extreme foot pain. I missed walking outside but it was also winter so basement biking was… okay. I’d usually listen to music or NPR or watch some streaming show.

As December 2023 rolled around I had a new issue, a neck injury and some weird foot/toe pain so I took a break from walking and any other exercise for a bit to do physical therapy (thanks Erin!) and now that’s all done. I still have the weird foot/toe pain so I was concerned about walking so hey, it’s back to the bike!

First things first, I had a flat tire which wasn’t an issue on the trainer but would be on the road. The last real ride I did was the Black is Beautiful ride in… 2020!? I took the bike into Emerys for a tune-up and tire repair. They did a good job, though they did call me to ask why there was a 7 gear sprocket instead of an 8 gear, and asked if I ever had issues shifting. I answered “I don’t know!” and “Yes…” so we got that fixed. I got the bike used, so someone must have done something weird along the way. Well, it shifts better now!

It’s been a long-ass time since I biked to work and I lived in the “country” then, and since my commute to work now would probably include Lisbon, Burleigh, or Capitol, I’m pretty sure I’d be risking my life so for now I’ll stick to the car for getting to work.

Anyway, to make a long story short (which is probably too late) I’ve started riding again. I’m typically out around 7am most mornings and doing a few miles, and it feels good. I’m doing this for health and fitness since I hate going to the gym and without the daily walking I just don’t move enough.

Oh, and remember my post about reporting potholes to the city? Well, guess what? Biking into a pothole is even worse that driving over one! So if I’m out on the road and see a pothole I hit the brakes, snap a photo, and submit it.

(Oh shit, did I become and urbanist!?)

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Beach Bike

Beach Bike

I shot this bike at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware using my Nikon, and then after I synced the photos to my iPad I used Trey Ratcliff’s 100 Cameras in 1 to do a little processing.

I was quite pleased with how fast the iPad processed the photos in comparison to my 3G iPhone (but that’s to be expected I guess.) The images came out at 600 pixels wide/high. I’m not sure if there’s a way to adjust that, as higher resolution would certainly be nice. I should also mention that I have the iPhone version of 100 Cameras in 1. (There’s also a separate iPad version, though I didn’t feel like plunking down more money for it… yet. Of course, this may be why the images came out at 600 pixels wide/high.)

At first I was sort of overwhelmed with 100 Cameras in 1, because, hey, that’s a lot of cameras! But I’m slowly getting used to it. It’s quite a difference from Plastic Bullet, one of my favorite iPhone photo apps, but it’s growing on it.

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Bike Drawing (from memory!)

Bike

Here’s my bike. It’s not my bike, but it’s the bike I drew.

I read the Drawing a bike from memory post on Boing Boing and filed it (without looking at any drawings) until I got a chance to pull out the drawing tablet.

After I drew it, I then went back to the post, looked at the attached drawings, and then went over to bikedrawings.tumblr.com and man, mine totally sucks! Well, no, I actually do like mine… but there are some amazing bike drawings over there…

I really enjoy this type of creative challenge, and as always, I need to make more art… or at least, make robots that make art.

Update: Yay! It’s now over at bikedrawings.tumblr.com

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Biking to Work (Again…)

Well I managed to bike to work again. (I did it a few months back.) This time it was a 7.28 mile ride, which was slightly shorter due to taking a different route. I saw my lowest speed about 5 MPH and my top speed was 23.8 MPH. It took 42 minutes and my overall average speed was 10.2 MPH. I didn’t make any stops but I did end up walking up part of a particularly nasty hill.

The most embarrassing part was when a guy who was probably 10 years my senior passed me on his bike like I was standing still. I was probably going close to 12 MPH and he whizzed passed me. He did have a racing-type bike and the whole serious biker outfit, so I didn’t feel quite so bad. As usual, I didn’t bike home. The wife came to pick me up with the Honda and the bike rack at 9PM.

We also hit the Bugline Trail over the weekend. We took the kids, so we only went about 6 miles, but it’s a nice trail. There is a reason it’s called the “Bugline” though. We got completely bitten up by mosquitoes. We’d like to take this one again when it’s cooler out.

As long as we’re talking about biking, the Milwaukee County Zoo is holding it’s “Ride on the Wild Side” Family Bike Ride on September 16th, 2007. We might do this ride, depending on how busy it is that weekend.

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I Biked to Work (Last Week!)

I mentioned Bike to Work Week last week, because that is when I Biked to Work.

Even though my youngest child did not support me (“What if you don’t make it?” she said) I did it. According to the GPS it was a 7.6 mile ride, and took about 43 minutes. My average speed was around 10 MPH. Going uphill it was around 6 and going downhill it was more like 20. In fact, 24.9 was the fastest I could go.

Trek 7200

It was fun, but not something I could do every day, or even once a week. There are so many days when I just need a car. Obviously I can’t bike to work on the days I need to pick up the kids, or have to meet someone in Brookfield or Milwaukee, or whatever. And since I sometimes work long days, I wouldn’t look forward to riding home in the dark after working 12+ hours. Of course, I’m just an excuse-maker.

But it got me thinking… What if I got a scooter? I mean, sure I wouldn’t exactly be getting the exercise, but think of the money I’d save in gas and wear and tear on the old CR-V! This line of thinking lasted about a day, and included looking for used scooters on Craig’s List, and chatting with a friend who knows more than I do. I even tried to do some rough math and figured if I got a used scooter cheap it would pay for itself in car/gas savings after 3 years of riding it to work. I’m insane like that.

I’d like to try biking to work again this year, and the crazy scooter idea is on the back-burner for now, unless you know someone who wants to trade one for some freelance web development and hosting.