B.C. Adventure Report- Finally...

Summer time, sum sum summertime
One thing about this summer I can tell you: Avoid being in a cast.
I many aspects this has been a tough summer.

You know about me breaking my toe : well here is the rest of the story:

I joined up with 15 other hearty souls to explore the rail trails in the south western mountains of BC. north of Casltlegar and over to Nelson. The scenery and companionship was awesome. The hills and rail trails were a challenge on my Tour Easy Recumbent. Plus 1/2 way along the first day I had a spill and severely twisted my other ankle and achilles tendon. I rode another 40 km that day up one of the steepest longest climbs in my life. But I did it. I can climb anything it seems after that. 7% grade for 7km. I was unable to ride a total of 1/2 the trip due to the ankle and the toe.

Trip synopsis:
Stayed at the Nakusp Hot springs: was a great soak and the scenery awesome; turns out it was my favorite hot springs of the tour.

Next day we rode the Galena Trail to New Denver down hill from the old mining town of Sandon. It was an awesome morning with the history of the area around you and the tram over the creek made it a great ride on my bent. It was the best trail surface of the week. But ¾ down I took a spill to avoid a log down across the path, twisting my ankle, I could have done with that. Then it was on the road to Slocan on the pavement. I never thought the hill south out of Silverton would end. I geared down and pushed my way up in my granny gear at an average of 5.3 kph. I would not reccommend doing this with a healing broken toe on one
foot and a sprained anke and pulled achilles heel on the other. Once we rested at the summit we pushed on a nice rolling (mostly downhill) ride to Slocan on the highway. A beautiful ride. The next day was the Slocan rail trail. I was very sore but determined to ride. The trail was good except the loose sand near the south end in Little Solcan near Frog mountain. Lots of wild berries to eat and bear poop to dodge. Riding alot besides the river, a great ride. Again down grade with mostly packed sand and gravel.
Last 20k on a rolling up hill ride up the pass creek road then down into Castlegar. That night we stayed at the community college. Nice single dorm rooms but my cel phone died and my ankle really began to ache. Did not ride the C&W trail the next day to Christina Lake. I started out with every one but was not feeling well after 5km of riding, was shaky and nauseous.
Yeah, I Bailed out and got on the Sag Truck. Turned out that it wa a good decision not to ride a recumbent on that trail even with the fat tires I had. The mtn bikers had a tough time and it turned out to take 12 hrs instead of 8! The first 6 hours were okay because they allow quads and they packed and cleared the trail; the last 6 hours no trikes allowed, so it was very large, loose gravel. It made me feel a bit better to not ride that day, but not much.
The others who did it did not enjoy it; but hey, they Did it! I felt a wee bit left out.

Next day we had a lay over around Christina lake, so we did the cafe latte and beach thing.

The next day we drove up to the Nancy Greene summit and rode down into Rossland. 30 k of downhill highway was a nice ride. Yep I felt I could ride downhill most of the day so I jumped on the Te and zipped down. Had a warm wind in my face so I did not get going to fast. I felt my back tire feeling kinda mushy, I stopped and I found that it was flat due to a leak in the rear wheel valve stem and had to blow it up twice in 3km to make it into town. Walked around Rossland to much that night; feet were too sore the next day. So I rode in the Sag wagon the next day hoping to recuperate for the last days ride.

Salmo to Nelson.
Next evening I went to put a tube in my rear tire to get ready for the last days ride but once I got the new tube in and inflated the valve came off. Nobody else had the right sized tube so I was bummed I could not ride the last day. I do not like schrader rubber valve stems any more! It turned out the trail was again fairly rough so the group bailed and rode the highways. They had a great time, even stopping at a lake and swimming for a couple hours, sigh.
After arriving in Nelson we took two days more to get home with stops at Aimsworth and Radium hot springs. It was so nice to rest and soak my legs! I have to admit I was not in great shape and in constant pain for those last few days. I could barely walk down the stairs.

On the way home from Radium I was dropped off in Nordegg to spend the next week camping with my family and friends from Calgary. Alice and I took a morning to ride the David Thomson highway from the crossing to the Davis Thomson Resort. What a gorgeous ride!

I realized on the trip that most long distance riding ability is in your mind and you can do alot more than you think if you just suck it up and push a pedal. With a low enough granny gear riding even at 4kph, you can ride up anything if you want to. I learned to appreciate my Tour Easy even more on this trip. The TE is The Touring bike. When we were on the road it shined. On my other bents I would have walked up the slopes. But it really is not a mountain bike. The main weakness is the lower, rear based center of gravity that throws the back wheel out in loose conditions. For me it’s a great fit. I just gotta get a Rans Dynamik Trail for the off road stuff! (don’t tell my wife!)

I realized that for long, mountainous road tours, a fat man on a recumbent, with too much gear is not the best combo. Its a long, slow, grind that tests ones spirit to the bone! Can I do it YES. Is it enjoyable? Only when the day is over and you are drinking something big and cold reminiscing. Is it worth the effort? OH YEAH!
I hope to do some more tour group rides in the future when I feel better and have lost some more weight. Or Not. What I mean is I am 49yrs old, 310 pounds and more alive now than I was 3 years ago. Sure I was the heaviest person on the trip, BUT I WAS THERE! Will I lose more weight for Next year? I hope so; but even if I don’t I’ll still be on the bike! Riding somewhere. I am fat but fit! (Slimmer would just make it faster and easier) Hmm maybe a Bionx Electric Assist would help mmmm
See ya on the road!
Larry

I'm Back

Well after my last post I was called back to the hospital and found out that, yes I HAD broken my big toe. I had a crack in the long bone of the big toe right at the joint in the ball of my foot. I was in a removeable cast for over 4 weeks. NO riding! No work on my feet. NADA. So I went to the shop and was stuck at the desk and sat around the house for almost 6 weeks of no excercise. As of this morning I had gained back what I had lost this spring I am now back at 314lbs. Arg! Well now I can get back to my regular riding and weight loss reigm again!

So the rest of june and until the 15th of july I was in a funk. I did cheat towards the end; I traded the cast for my stiff soled biking shoes and did a couple of short rides. As long as I pedaled in the arch of my foot I did okay. It was actually easier to ride than walk!

On the 17th of july I took off for My biking trip and holidays. I will upload another blog report tomorrow. Was it a good time -well yes and no- would I do the rail trtails again- yes, but not on a recumbent- At least not those. Will I ever go on another organised biking trip? In a heart beat. Stay tuned...

Fathers Day Report

I had a fairly nice Fathers Day-Did you?

After lunch on Sunday I received my gift from my family- A Kelly Kettle/1 pint. It is a volcano kettle used and originated by Irish Fisherman for over a century. http://www.kellykettle.com/ It uses small kindling (leaves, grass, twigs etc.) to boil 20oz of water under 5 min. It is fast. We can use it for a "spot of Tea or hot chocolate " on a bike trip or a picnic. or to heat water for freeze dried on a overnight 24hr trip. It is small enough to fit in a bike bag. I read about it on Kent Petersons blog. http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/

Later that afternoon worked on my TE and removed the rear fender and replaced it with a rat tail and then I replaced the 1.35 marathon tires on my Tour easy with wider XC tires. A Specialized CX Borough 1.9 rear, and a Kenda Kontact 1.8 on the front. I rode it down the gravel packed road by my place and was amazed at the difference!.The wider tires seemed to float across the loose stuff. My narrow marathon tires just seem to plough in. On the asphalt it was a little slower and more bumpy with the kenda on the front. So I switched it out with a 1.75 Chen S. from a Bike E and it improved the tarmac ride and speed and still rode exceedingly well on the gravel. I think I will take both tires on the tour and use the knobby on the days on the rail trail and the smoother chen s. on the road days. Speed on the tour is not primary, stability on varing rail trail surfaces is.

Marathon - Cheng S. - Kenda Kontact

Later that evening Alice and I went for a ride around Calmar - I was fooling around and the front tire went out and I ended up on the road. I thought I pulled a muscle in my foot when I got up. But rode home, a wee sore but not for worse. Until I got 50 feet from home when I felt/heard a pop from my left foot and I was in agony. Well it didn't go away over night; so I went into the emergency for an xray this morning. Nothing broken- just pulled and tender- so its no cycling for a couple of weeks or so. Hopfully I can be ready to go on my tour! My wife says it serves me right for "swoopin" around - but hey its so fun!

Take care - ride safely -

Larry

07 MS Tour Report

Faster, Stronger,
More Endurance,
More FUN!

That really describes my tour this year.
It was a perfect riding weekend, Sunny warm lite wind blowing to south east on Saturday. Cooler, wind blowing strong to the west Sunday!

We had great ride on the weekend on the Leduc to Camrose AB. MsTour. Over 1.2 million dollars will have been raised for MS research and programing. Thanks for all you who sponsored Alice and me. Alice and I rode with Sandy and Murray G.

Every year I have had better times, due to a different bike, better conditioning and support from family and friends. I flew the course on the Easy Racer Tour Easy with comfort and speed. I hit 40- 50 kph on some stretches and avg in the low 30kph range alot of the east trip back-I almost felt like an athlete! Look out Lance - yeah a 300lb Lance! right......

Made it up ALL the hills, TOO!

It was alot more fun this year with my wife Alice along on her TE and our friends Sandy and Murrray on their Agios. Alice did great too, Not only did she look great she rode strong avg 20kph for the whole ride!

I really enjoy the comradery with other riders.

Sandy egged Murray and I to push it up a notch to ride a full metric century on Sunday. (It was easy -we had a east wind pushing us Sunday)

So I rode from Camrose to Calmar- 105km, for a total for the weekend of 180+km.

Not bad for a 300#, 50 year old eh?! I can hardly wait for my Kootenay adventure next month. Boy for a 300lb dude those 200km plus brevets look like they are in reach...next year. I need less of me and more time on the bike, but I can see 'em in the future!

Lower pic: The BEnt Posse
Larry, Alice, Sandy, Murray, Joe Justice - 70 yr. young riding a Bacchetta Corsa (He sells em at United Cycle!)
The more I ride- the more I want to ride. It is a real stress reliever and healthier way to enjoy life!

Now I'm getting into Kootenay Adventure mode: I just need to modify the TE for Rail Trails and keep up the riding 'til then.
I'll keep you posted

Larry

If you want to see some more pics click on the link to the right to see my flickr site.

Long Ride

Alice, my significant other, riding and life partner and I went for good long ride today. It was +30 on the road. Sweaty, salty, hot. Anyways, we rode from Calmar to Thorsby and back on a long loop. 50.2k. Alices longest 1 day ride to date. It was a real nice day until we headed east on highway 39. Can you say HEADWIND! felt like we did 75k. I averaged 21kph for 2hr 23 min. Alice averaged 17.8 for 3hr 15. Needless to say I stopped and waited for her every 5 k or so. Hey she is worth it. I have several friends whose wifes would never ride woith them. I'm very fortunate. She is improving alot but the wind just messes with her head and she forgets to keep cadance and starts to mash dem pedals.
Well next weekend is the MS Tour, we are both riding along with the Greers and a new rider in our group named Teresa. It will be great to have company this year.
Put a terracycle idler on the TE yesterday. When I changed to a larger 52t chain ring earlier in the spring it shortened the chain a bit. So it was a good excuse to order one from the states and put it on. I saved about $50 ordering it instead of picking it up at a Lbs a ways from home. Mail order can cut into a lot of local business. But I only have so many dollars to spend and gas is getting real expensive.
Well, Get up off the couch, get away from the computer and family and go for a ride a couple of times this week, eh. It does wonders for the body mind and spirit.
Larry

Wizard Lake Ride

Hi de ho Riders!

Well as of this past weekend I passed the 500k mark for the year. While this number may seem tiny to some I think I am doing great. I do think that 2500k this year is an attainable goal. Besides we have had a very cold spring up here! The good weather is upon us and I am going to make up k.

This past weekend ALice and I went up to Alberta Beach saturday for our Annual ride around the Lake (well south east roads anyways) It was a great ride and our daughter Kara rode with us. Its nice to ride and see the open water and wondering road. Our regular training rides are straight east or west and back along highway 39. Same old thing alot.

Sunday we had 9 riders out for 1st ananual Wizard Lake and Picnic Ride. It was a Sunny and breezy day with a good stiff headwind on the way back. We had a nice hot dog roast along the shores of the Lake and then rode back to Calmar. A relaxing weekend with a total of 63k of riding. But thats not the exciting News!

A couple of weeks ago I went to an informational meeting at a local church to see if there was enough interest for a 10 day rail trail ride in the West Kootenays this summer. Alas the dates did not hook up with my holidays so I decided to pass. Fellow 'bent ryders Sandy and Murray Greer lLoved the idea and decided to go. I have had my eye on those trails for couple of years and was envious of them, but I couldn't take the time off and force my kids to ride that much on "our" holidays. Well over a couple of weeks and listening to the Greers I was starting to feel trapped by my business. (Small business owners can be slaves to thier enterprises and find it really tough to take breaks often) To make a long story short: Alice surprised me with the offer to stay home and run the shop then we would go on our family holiday. I was astounded. It took another 12 hours before it would sink in and ask if she was really serious. She was/is! I have a wonderful spouse. So I will be away from my shop for almost three weeks. The longest time I have had off in over 17 years! WA hOO! It looks like I will be joining the group on my TE on a large segmant of the Spirit Of 2010 Rail trails. http://www.spiritof2010trail.ca/ Part of the Trans Canada Trail in BC. Trestles, trains, tunnels and track.
I am so excited! hmm how many sleeps left...

Home made tailsok frame

I thought it was time to share how I made my tailsok frame. I originally found how to do this from a now defunct web page (tigrr8?)
I also believe that this was from an ERRC magazine article a few years ago (I have not seen the issue. But since I was interested at the time I copied the web pages into a CorelDraw file that I used.) So I don't deserve the credit.
Items needed:
4- smaller hose clamps
2- zip ties
2 fibre glass bike flags from Canadian Tire
some flexible metal clamping strips
dremel
assorted small nuts and screws
some copper airplane tubing (from local hobby shop)

Actually its easy to do this if you have the time and are patient. I think the total cost was $30 cdn .

So here is the pics use them if you you want to create your own tailsok

The rack ferruls - just clamp on a piece of copper tubing, cut to about 1.75" on the diagonal braces oon eitherside your rack. Use a nail set to ding a couple of insets about 1/4 from the bottom of the tubes, so the fiberglass poles won't pass all the way though.

For the seatback ferruls I used the ones that came with the flag poles. I just flattened the ends drilled a hole and used the flexible metal clamp stuff to attach to the seat back. Worked out nice as they are on sort of a swivel too.

I cut down flag poles -they come in a pack with a flag at the top that I ripped off along with the joining ferruls. I sized the poles to meet at a point.

I adjusted the fibreglass poles to fit together using an antenna ball from Jack in the Box. Drilled the holesin the ball, stuck the poles in.
The Tail Sok its self came from Terracycle via the Hostel Shoppe; but you can search the web or the Easy Racer Forum for other places to get one.

Overall I am happy with the looks, safety and perforance I get with the Sok. Now I should fly on the MS TOUR!


Oh Yeah!

I saw in ERRC Magazine letting on a fellows fairing. I made some minor adjustments and had a local sign company do it in vinyl and put it on mine. I have so many people ask about the bike or oogle it when I am in a store or restaurant. So I thought this was a cheaky self promoter when they do:



I like to listen to music or Audible books when I do longer rides. This year the local MS TOUR has stated they would like riders to not use earphones on the Ride. So after some thought and seeing some examples on the web and at the Recumbent Rally; I added a pair of Creative Travel Sound Speakers to use with my mp3 player. They sound great and my wife likes 'em also when we ride together. I will probably let her use them on the Tour (I always use earphones that sit on my ear not in the ear canal, so I hear all the traffic anyways.)

Well it looks like I got the Tour Easy all Blinged out and ready to go on the MStour. Just gotta ride some more to be ready!

See ya Soon
Larry

T shirts

I like to fool around with Coreldraw and have always created my own riding and work t-shirt iron ons. A couple of years ago I found a site that takes my designs and adds them to shirts for you to buy direct. I have several images, If you like one get it. Its fun to promote our kind of ride. The little I make helps to send a couple of kids to summer camp!

Click the link on the side:

Larry

Slip sliding Away

on Beboop Cleats and pedals. Last year I had put on some clipless pedals on the Django. When I traded it in, I took off the Beboops and kept them in my bike stuff drawer until Sunday. I replaced the bigger platforms with studs for the Beboops and dug out my biking sadals to test how I liked riding clipless on the Tour Easy. So far I have mixed feelings. Going flat out on a training ride down the highway they seem to deliver more power (speed). Starting and stopping in town is a pain. I plan to give them a couple of weeks to break myself in again . I know that alot of riders use them for speed and distance. The Editor of Recumbent Cycling News dosen't seem to care for them on a 'bent. I plan to take my other pedals and wrench to the lake this weekend, just in case.

Got an opinion?
Larry