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Showing posts from March, 2016

Cycle World Group Ride 20160329

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I went on the Cycle World Group Ride yesterday evening.  It was a great ride and the weather was perfect.  i have been playing around with my GoPro and here are some unedited time lapse videos of the ride.

Tire Wars

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This morning I was forced to divert from my normal path to avoid hitting a cyclist who was riding on the wrong side of the street.  It was dark and he did not have a light and if it were not for the lone reflector on his bike.  I noticed that he was not going to pass me on the outside to my left as he was riding in the gutter.  I merged to my left and ran my back tire into a huge hole that I avoid every day.  This event would set in motion my bike repair this evening. My failed 32 tire. I went on the group ride tonight and I noticed a wobble and bump in my rear tire.  At the 10 mile turn around I looked at my rear tire and to my horror it had two spots near the rim that looked like the casing was going to pop out.  I figured it would last until I got home, and it did. I decided to put the Gator Skins back on that I took off months ago because the brand new rear tire had a small chunk flap in it.  I took it of because I did not want to ride on a tire with a potential failure poi

Jenny Lane Close Call

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I was within eyesight of my mailbox and I saw this woman backing out of her driveway.  I knew she was not looking where she was going.  I pulled over to the far right side of the street and slowed down.  I started yelling for her to look where she was going to no avail.  She never looked my way.

First Spring Bike Commute

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Was it supposed to get colder on the first commute of spring?  I thought that my last commute with wool sweater and leg warmers was done, but nooooo, today it was quite a bit colder than last week. I tried to capture my ride in the dark with 1 image every 5 seconds.  It is a bit choppy.  Still playing around with the GoPro.  I think the battery went dead which is why it stopped before I got to work.

Tsali Right Loop

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I had a fun ride with the group that was attending the summit. There is always a little bit of Fear Factor when I am on a trail for the first time. This Trail was not lacking any of the technical riding that I like but it also had a lot of the danger points. I know for most mountain bike riders this was an easy Trail but for me it was just right. The Course

IMBA SORBATE Summit

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I am attending a mountain bike summit in Bryson City North Carolina.  I have never participated in a conference based on cycling.  I am learning a lot about the relationship between the National Forest Service and volunteer train maintenance groups. Google did this nice Pano

Wednesday Morning Commute

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Today was the first time I used my GoPro Hero4 Black on my bike.  I have a temporary mount set up on my head tube. I am still waiting for the beefier Ram Mount to arrive in the mail.  I wanted to show how well my Busch & Müller Luxos U IQ2 lighting system performed on dark country roads.  I also wanted to see how the Hero4 worked with default settings in the dark.  Pictures for your enjoyment are below. GoPro Hero4 Black mounted to head tube. GoPro Hero4 Black mounted to head tube. GoPro Hero4 Black mounted to head tube. Here is my first GoPro Hero4 video.  Believe it or not but I have done a lot of graphics with computers, but video editing is brand new to me.  I know I will get better at this. My ride data.

I Got Hit By A Car AGAIN!

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So I was forty minutes into my commute home enjoying a mild headwind and warm sunny weather.  I had stopped at the intersection of Old Pretoria Road and Lily Pond Road to let cars pass by before turning left.  Then a woman driving a Kia slowly came into my lane.  I yelled at her really loud to get her attention.  She did not hear me because I could see she was on her phone.  She hit me and I rolled onto her hood and then hit the pavement.  When I was on the hood of her car that is when she stopped.   I stood up and turned my attention to my bike.  My fear was that my front wheel and carbon fork were damaged.  I spun the tire and it seemed OK.  After my tire check I turned my attention to the woman who by now was standing outside of her car apologizing for not seeing me.  For a moment she started to say that I ran into her, but I was clearly at least a foot behind the thick white line on the pavement.  Another women in a black SUV that stopped behind her backed me up and said she s

Flint River Roll Number 1

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It was a wonderful start for the Flint River Roll.  I will add more pictures to this posting when I have the time.

Spinning In The March Wind

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I make up and play lots of games to keep my life interesting.  Below is an explanation of my cycling game that I play when I am bike commuting. This morning I found myself spinning into the wind.  Every direction I traveled on my morning commute seemed to have a head wind or a cross wind.  the wind was not too strong, just enough to be annoying.  I had my CycleMee playlist on to keep my pace up and just decided to get in the drops and move along. My CycleMee Play list I have a measuring point on my route that I use to gauge how fast I am going.  I usually like to ride fast a few times a week. The point that I always the end to my splits at the intersection of Lily Pond Road and Newton HWY. In the morning I my goal is to get there in one hour.  This means that I have to maintain an average speed of 18 MPH as this is 17.7 miles from my start.  Realistically I have never made this goal and most of the time I get to this point between one hour and 5 minutes and one hour and 12 mi