tag:www.beeweebents.com,2006-11-14:/archives/2 Copyright (c) http://www.beeweebents.com/bmachine 2006-11-14T13:08:37+00:00 2006-11-14T12:20:58+00:00 2006-11-14T13:08:37+00:00 tag:www.beeweebents.com,2006-11-14:/archives/2/16 So after weeks of preperation, well almost two months, I was ready to go on my first Brevet.  I really wanted my first one to be a 200K and in an area I thought would be nice to ride.  I got most of it.  The Brevet was a 240K.  Not a distance you see most times.  Most run in even amounts like 200, 300, 400, 600, 1K, and 1.2K. 

A few days before I did some last minute shakedown rides and started carbo-loading and working through some mental checklist for the bike and engine.  One of my goals was to try and not do anything different than my training routine.  Well, I got most of it right and will cover that a bit later.

Watching the weather forecast closely it was looking to be an ideal day.  Temperatures with a low of 58 and a high of 71.  Mostly sunny and cloud cover moving in mid afternoon and rain after midnight.  So the weather was going to cooperate.   I admit to being a bit of a fair weather flyer.  Sure, I will ride in some bad weather, if it were going to rain for an hour or two and then clear, or a chance of a mid day shower, I still would have gone but I was not going to ride my first Brevet in an all day rain event.

I got up at 4:00AM and showered, relaxed a few minutes and checked the weather one last time.  All looked good and I dressed and headed out the door.  I made sure as to not disturb the kids by grinding coffee and would fill my travel mug at a shop on the way out of town.

I had loaded the van the night before with "everything" but the bike.  I planned to load it onto the rack just prior to leaving while letting the car warm up.  My bay of the garage is still full of stuff from moving my Mom out of her house so the van still sits outside.  Otherwise the bike would have been on the car in the garage the night before.

I stopped by the Crown Stati ..]]> wedgiefree http://www.beeweebents.com/bmachine/profile.php?id=1 2006-11-10T10:00:54+00:00 2006-11-14T13:08:37+00:00 tag:www.beeweebents.com,2006-11-14:/archives/2/15 On Saturday the 11th I am going to attempt to ride a 240K Brevet. The first half of it is flat. So I think I can finish it. I am at least going to try and if I don't make it I will at least learn from the experience. I will post the details, finish or not, within a few days of the event.

I have been spending the past month or two preparing both myself and my bike. I have learned quite a bit about what I really need and plan on leaving off what I don't and packing a few personal comforts for along the way. Last night I did a final short and easy shakedown ride around BWI. Using parts of the trail as connectors through portions where the roads are not as "bike friendly."

I loaded the bike just as I plan to have it for Saturday. All the gear, Cliff Bars, extra Gatorade, some other goodies. I equipped myself just as I want to be dressed for Saturday AM when I leave from Glen Echo. The ride starts at 6:00AM so the first 30 minutes should be dark and I expect the last 4 hours (6:00PM to 10:00PM) to be very dark as I roll into (hopefully) the final control. So part of the shakedown was not just riding with lights but using one light versus the other. A stop to change batteries in the dark woods. Sparing use of my visor clip light. Here is a copy from another ride on the BWI from the iFinder.



The ride went well.  I have now done a nice handful of night rides.  While none of these have been on unfamiliar roads or for more than a few hours, I feel they have given me enough taste for it and I love riding at night so far.

I got back home and felt exhilarated and enjoyed packing the bike up and getting the gear cleaned for Saturday. 

A nice benift to this setup was that I now have everything packed and can relax a little more on Friday ni ..]]> wedgiefree http://www.beeweebents.com/bmachine/profile.php?id=1 2006-11-05T17:17:56+00:00 2006-11-14T13:08:37+00:00 tag:www.beeweebents.com,2006-11-14:/archives/2/14
Our youngest and my son haven't taken to two wheelers so we are looking at ways to get them onto the bikes and away from the television.  We also have chatted about how we both felt a tandem might be fun for for the two of us as well as involving the kids.  

I started looking about and reading on Bentrider and on manufacturers web sites.  I also spoke with some other tandem bent riders.  So I thought we'd check some out at local shops. 

Along the way I looked online at the Barcroft Columbia.

I looked Barcroft up and called Bill Cook. I asked him about somewhere nearby where we could test ride a Columbia.  To my surprise he mentioned picking his Columbia up for the weekend and trying it out.  So a week later my family and I arrived at Barcroft Cycles and met Bill Cook in person.  What a great person! He spent time fitting my wife and I to the bike and helping us get acquainted with a tandem bent.  Let me say this, I have never been on a tandem before and my wifes recumbent experience is a few minutes on my old BikeE AT.  We did well enough on the test ride, so we packed up the bike onto the rack of the van and then suffered through the Washington DC traffic on the way home. 

We ordered some pizzas for dinner and went to pick them up.  The Bike Doctor of Linthicum was closed, but a few of the shop guys were just leaving and they gave the bike a once over and a few parking lot spins.  The shop manager said ..]]> wedgiefree http://www.beeweebents.com/bmachine/profile.php?id=1 2006-10-23T17:15:26+00:00 2006-11-14T13:08:37+00:00 tag:www.beeweebents.com,2006-11-14:/archives/2/8
Here is the loop:



Since I didn't go into the park there is a short bit missing.  I have only now started to fugure out how to get the data off of the MMC card from the iFinder.  I don't have the profile or hill data on here.  I am still working on that and it's a Beta version of the software. 

Garmin has a much better system for this type of thing for cycing and running.  Lowrance has better custom mapping and integration to things like autopilots but you don't use autopilots on a bike.  Garmin is also supporting Max OS X.  So things  are trickier for me using the Lowrance, but I inherited this unit and I think I can make it work.

Off the bike today, I plan on riding Tuseday and Thursday nights this week and at least one century this weekend.  Hopefully the weather will hold.

Scott
]]> wedgiefree http://www.beeweebents.com/bmachine/profile.php?id=1 2006-10-22T19:08:53+00:00 2006-11-14T13:08:37+00:00 tag:www.beeweebents.com,2006-11-14:/archives/2/7
After a lot of asking around I got some opinions from people I respect and purchased a Cygo HL100.  I also got a Nite-Hawk Raptor.  Each a little different and I think the two will serve me well and I will change if I find any deal stoppers.

One of the biggest issues on short wheel base recumbents is mounting lights.  Many lights flood and create what I call "Flashy Feet."  I think the term is self explainatory.  I mounted the Raptor under the frame initially using the included mount and zip ties.  The assembly worked okay but was difficult to adjust and left me feeling that the light might slip on the teardrop shape of the frame.  After looking at many different systems, some commercial and some home made, I tried to make a few different mounts.  None of them worked as well as I wanted.  I was ready to give up and pay for one of two very nice solutions (Grip Light) (Accessory Mount) .  I really wanted to make my own setup so I went with a solution that one of the folks on the Bacchetta Forum had mentioned using a Rivnut.

This was the bar mounted setup with the Cygo and the Raptor up top.



The Cygo beam is tight enough there is no "Flashy Feet" so it can stay up top where I can reach it and easily adjust the tilt if I n ..]]> wedgiefree http://www.beeweebents.com/bmachine/profile.php?id=1 2006-10-22T14:32:20+00:00 2006-11-14T13:08:37+00:00 tag:www.beeweebents.com,2006-11-14:/archives/2/6
The USA Randonneurs

DC Randonneurs

Over the years I have tried many styles of cycling and while I have enjoyed them, I do just like riding the bike, but after reading some stories of other randonneurs, this just seams to call my name.

I have been working on getting the engine into shape but the bike needs to be equipped too.  I have another post coming for the bike lighting but after I started to hone the bike lighting I was still in need of a reliable, easy to use and preferably inexpensive  reading light for the cyclometer, cue sheets and GPS.

Here is my $7.99 solution.

I love Harbor Freight, it's yet another toy store!

So for $7.99 plus tax I picked up this:



I figured it was worth the gamble and I like to tinker.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Below is the light out of the package as desigend.  There is a magentic base on this lamp. 



My original thoughts were to cut the flexible shaft and use velcro on it and the helmet.  After a little thinking I went with a design change. 

The next step was to open the light up and remove the cable.  A little twisting and cleaning of the hole and it was ready to have the flexible shaft cut and reinstalled.



Here is the assembly after the cabel ..]]> wedgiefree http://www.beeweebents.com/bmachine/profile.php?id=1 2006-10-21T20:48:28+00:00 2006-11-14T13:08:37+00:00 tag:www.beeweebents.com,2006-11-14:/archives/2/4
Here is a picture of the motley crew on the trail:




The WMRT is ~22 miles of light grade (Flat) railroad bed that has been converted to a paved trail.  It is a great ride through Western Maryland.  It's easy to access and only 90 miles from Baltimore on fast Interstates.The lower end is at Fort Frederick.  Here we unloaded our cars:



We met a ranger as we unloaded and knew we were in good company as he pulled up on his Tour Easy.

The scenery along the way is worth driving out there.  Here we stopped and Steve is standing next to his GrassHopper with fall colors on the moutain in the background:



Here is a shot of more fall colors:


...and another shot of the same area lookng Northwest:



You could spend all day just shooting pictures and still never capture everything you see.  There is a very small waterfall North of Hancock but the light wasn't right  for capturing it's beauty.  Perhaps in the early Spring?

Below is a picture of some bluffs in the distance.  The little black dots a ..]]> wedgiefree http://www.beeweebents.com/bmachine/profile.php?id=1 2006-10-19T10:57:17+00:00 2006-11-14T13:08:37+00:00 tag:www.beeweebents.com,2006-11-14:/archives/2/3 wedgiefree http://www.beeweebents.com/bmachine/profile.php?id=1 2006-10-18T21:49:51+00:00 2006-11-14T13:08:37+00:00 tag:www.beeweebents.com,2006-11-14:/archives/2/2 ]]> wedgiefree http://www.beeweebents.com/bmachine/profile.php?id=1