Cycle Ti Thunder

Black Thumper parked in my office. No rest for web developers when a new site has to be complete by a deadline date.  This is my seventh day in a row working long hours. I decided to forgo driving my truck to work like I did for the past two non-scheduled work days.  My commuter is in the local bike shop for repairs, so I decided to ride Black Thumper to work.  One thing I have learned through bike commuting, if you ride your bike to work you will always have time to ride your bike.  Riding my bike also is a de-stressing activity. I took some dirt alleys and was chased by some dogs that got out of their yards.  Nothing like the thrill of racing to get away from rabies shots on a commute.  The rear trunk rides perfect on this bike.  I put my tennis shoes in it along with my trusty Thermos full of Bullet Proof Coffee.

I have seen a lot of things from the seat of my bicycle.  Living in SW Georgia way south of Macon, GA it is a whole different world outside of the Atlanta beltway.  I have past this house a few times as I cruise around the neighborhood, but today I circled back to take a picture. Parking a off road vehicle on the steps.

Today just one day  after a lot of rain fell in the area I was surprised to find that it was a little chilly for my morning commute.  To be clear, anytime I can ride a bike here in the deep south without sweating is a blessing.  I really like it when it is cool and damp on a bike ride.  I even like to ride in the rain.  I guess I still have web feet from living in Oregon.

The retention pond about 1/4 mile from my office at work. Sometimes on my bicycling adventures I come upon a visual experience that I have to stop and capture. On Friday, March 31, 2017 on my way to work I ride down a gravel alley just before I reach the university campus where I work.  I pass this retention pond that sometimes has a bunch of ducks or geese hanging out.  The sky was covered over with low dark grey clouds for most of my short 4.68 mile commute.  Right when I got to this pond a few rays of sunlight poked through to present this wonderful view.  I had to stop and capture it. One thing about my photography is that it has sort of de-evolved so to speak.  I use to carry around a cutting edge digital SLR when they first became affordable for me.  I have since resorted to just taking photos with my Samsung Galaxy Note 5.  For me sometimes it is more important to be at the right place at the right time than it is to have all of the fancy ...

My bike right after getting it from Cycle World  bike shop.  I had a new taller seat post and had my rear rack mounted. This rear  Expedition Rear Rack Tall Boy - 29er by Jandd was purchased in 2002. Rated for 75 pounds Here is my bike with the Ortliebs  Back-Roller Classic. These were purchased in 2002 in Portland, OR The well worn product label Rear view of the bike. Today I completed my commuter bike build.  I am not going to be doing my normal 15 mile loop through the countryside bike commute for a while.  riding my road bike for a short commute takes too much time to put on the extra gear.  This bike allows me to quickly get on it in street clothes and take a short ride to work rather slowly without breaking a sweat. My goal has always been to keep one less car on the road.  So this bike,, while it will not be my choice for riding 50 miles, it certainly is a bike that I will use on short trips to work and to the sto...

Almost near perfect weather for my short ride to work.  Feet first bikes are lousy hill climbers.  I guess I should not complain since I am use to road bikes for taking hills. Almost 53 degrees at 7:30 AM, almost too warm for a jacket, but I wore one anyway. I just had to wear the BCC colors today. My new parking lot for my bike. I am going to follow  +Aixe Djelal  lead and name my bike.  I have named my mountain bikes, the bike color followed by Thumper.  not sure waht to call this bike.

I have reinvented myself several times during the course of my life.  If I could leave one bit of advice to my children and any other young person that will listen it is this, Whatever you are doing today, it most like will not what you will be doing tomorrow.  You can either wait until someone else decides your fate or you can choose the path that you want to take. I have always thought of myself as an artist and a cyclist.  I have had other roles in my life, son, brother, husband, dad, and a coworker at a few companies.  Some of those roles I was born into and others I sort of stumbled into with the exception of being an artist and cyclist.  I chose and continue to strive to be an artist and a cyclist as a way of allowing me to be the best that I can be in my other roles that I have. Lately I have been struggling to maintain my role as a cyclist.  I am coming out of my second major bicycling accident that I have had in the last two years. ...

I am having better luck making videos with my GoPro camera.  Here is a video of my bike commute along a part of Mud Creek Road.  Mud Creek Road is one of my favorite county road bike commute routes. Well I got a title on the video this time. I really want to share the beauty of bike commuting near my home. Although I loved the challenges of riding in traffic, at this point in my life I hate traffic lights on a bike and in a motor vehicle. This 33 mile ride has three traffic lights on it. Two withing three miles of the start and one two miles from the finish. Sometimes I get lucky and make them all without stopping . Clover near the intersection of Mud Creek Road and Leary Road Pecan trees just barely showing leaf buds A nice shaded lane to ride on when it is hot.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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 bl...

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 an...

I am so happy that my Zombie Raccoon cycling cap came in the mail today.   +Kent Fackenthall  did a great job on designing this cap.  Now All I need are some Zombie Raccoon slacks to round out my outfit.

On my bike commute home on Friday I rode really fast. I was trying to make it home on my 25 mile ride in under 90 minutes. I made it. I was feeling depressed at the slow commutes this month. It has been a cold stretch of weather, but I wanted to see if I could still ride fast like I do in the summer.

Tonight I was taking my short route home because my wife had some friends call and they wanted to go to dinner with us.  I was riding along listening to random songs from my offline playlist from Spotify and a selection from Handel's Messiah came on.  I played it twice as I rode home. I am the son of a African Methodist minister and a music teacher.  I was raised to revere theological thought and music.  I can remember learning to sing Handel's Messiah for a Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles as a young child.  On Sundays as a child I would listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the radio and I loved to hear them sing.  I know this may surprise some of you who may be reading this that know me but I have a deep appreciation for classical music. So today when I was riding home and For Unto Us A Child Is Born came on my blue tooth speaker I was so happy.  I was spinning along and treated the song just like any other song to set my pace and pedal s...

Tonight I took my zigzag route home.  I had to stop by a local business to pick up a check for payment on a freelance project.  I wanted to still ride for at least 20 miles before going home so I did a zigzag through Albany.  I rode really fast on the leg from the office to my house.  I was inspired because I was listening to Taj Mahal's "YOU AINT NO STREET WALKER MAMA HONEY BUT I DO LOVE THE WAY YOU STRUT YOUR STUFF" on m y Spotify "let's Boogie" playlist.  I really felt like riding as fast as I could from the office to my house. My playlist. I hated spin classes on a stationary bike in a gym, but my outdoor spin class is a blast.

My commute home last night on February 15, 2016 was really windy.  A storm front was moving in from the south which means that it was time to do some training.  The wind gusts were so strong at times that my bike almost came to a stop as I pedaled forward.  Did I really want to ride 25 miles in this wind, or should I take the short route home? 2/15/2016 Wind Wind Speed 12   mph  (SE) Max Wind Speed 25   mph Max Gust Speed 33   mph Visibility 8   miles Events Rain Since my commute goes in all directions at some point in the route I can enjoy the benefits and the penalties of strong wind no matter which direction it is blowing.  My ideal day is for the wind to blow from the north west in the morning and from the south east in the evening.  Usually it is just the opposite as a weat...

Yesterday morning it was 22 degrees and I rode to work really slow. Today during my morning it was 52 degrees and I rode a tad faster. The biggest problem I have had this winter is the drastic changes in the temperature. I do not have a rack on my bike so I have to carry my extra clothes stuffed in my pockets in the afternoon when it is 30 degrees warmer than when I ride in the morning.  today I will not have to pack the extra gear as I rode in with just my arm and leg warmers on.  It was really humid as a warm front is pushing in from the Gulf.