Salado Smoken’ Spokes - Started out targeting the 100 mile ride ended up with an easy, enjoyable, 100k instead.

With about 200 riders the Salado ride was competing with the LBJ 100 and the Cow Patty Classic.

Today’s ride was beautiful if not a little windy - 15 mph gusting to 21 mph. Usually the high winds are a challenge in the F-40 but yesterday I’d make some modifications which really negated almost all the wind’s effects. I’ll detail the changes in another blog entry - I used to be challenged when riding in gusty winds over 15 mph but now this does not seem to be a problem.

Just a couple of other recumbents at the ride:

Don Bynum on his Catrike 700 (http://donbynum.wordpress.com). Brian Buckmaster on his ICE Vortex and Tom Roberts on his Cruzbike Vendetta.

I got to talk with Tom a little before the ride. Turns out he crewed for Maria Parker during her 2013 RAAM win. Tom is from Victoria TX, a very nice guy, and extremely fast on his Vendetta. I rode with mainly the 2nd fastest group on the ride and, for the three rest stops I stopped at, each time as I was leaving the rest stop Tom was pulling in on his Vendetta. There is a nice write up on Maria’s RAAM ride here: http://www.ultraracenews.com/2013/09/04/raam-2013-maria-parkers-amazing-comeback-victory/

The Plan

My pre-ride plan was shot to pieces almost immediately. I wanted to start towards the middle of the riders, keep my heart rate under 120 and then gradually try to push it a little bit to see if I could make it the 100 miles. Well, once again I started at the front of the pack because the initial ride out of the park had a good uphill left hand turn that I did not want to try and navigate with lots of other inexperienced riders. Once out of the park the initial mile out of town is climbing out of the river valley and my heart rate stayed around 150 for the first 30 minutes.

I finally managed to calm down my enthusiasm down some. However it was a constant struggle to try and just take it easy.

The increased heart rate at the end of the ride depicted below was because of some unusual road condition.

Twice during the ride the following happened: would be peddling along, when for no apparent reason it would be extremely hard to peddle and my heart rate would shoot straight up. The first time I was on a very slight up hill cruising alone normally and then gradually, but pretty quickly, it got extremely hard to peddle. I finally unclipped and got off the bike to check what could possibly be wrong but found nothing. The wheels spun freely, the peddles spun easily, none of the brakes were dragging. When I got back on the bike again everything was normal again???

The second time it happened I was on a part of the road that was under construction. I figured that some dirt (calliechee sp?) was getting onto the tires and frame and plugging things up. However, once through the construction I got off the bike to clean it up and again nothing was wrong. The bike was perfectly clean, everything moved free and easy.

When talking to Brian Buckmaster after the ride he indicated that he has the same issue with his ICE Vortex at the construction site. If this happens again on another ride I’m going to have to find out what is going on.

The Excitement

Several times during the first couple of hours I mixed it up with the fast riders. Going up the hills they’d pass me and leave me behind. Going downhill I’d catch them and pass them doing a little over 35 mph. Once I passed them doing 40 mph - when a big pace line of 15 to 20 riders is cruising along at 28 mph and you whip out into the passing lane at 40 mph you can get by them pretty quick. The first time I did passed them seem to startle the riders at the front of the pace line when I yelled ‘On your left’ as I flew by.

Once on a level part of the road I’m cruising with the group gabbing at 18 mph and one of the lead riders asks ‘You have any problems with that thing on a windy day?’.

(Now remember, on this ride the wind is already 15 mph gusting to 21).

My answer - ‘You mean like today?’.

They laugh and said - ‘We noticed that when you got to the bottom of the hill the cross wind shoved you to the left a couple of feet.’.

Shortly thereafter we turned directly into the 15 mph headwind and I was easily able to pull away. (F-40 says ‘Headwind? What headwind?’).

There was a 2 mile stretch around mile 40 where it was a quartering tail wind. The F-40 acted like a sail boat with a keel and I was able to cost slightly uphill for about 2 miles with the fast group doing about 18 to 20 mph. They were peddling pretty good - I was coasting.

That looks Effortless

Several times previously I’ve had other riders tell me how the F-40 just glides by them silently and effortlessly. They always ask if I have an electric motor in the thing.

I know they cannot see any movement because my feet are hidden. But really I’m peddling like mad inside the thing.

Well today I had someone make a comment that helped me understand their thinking.

Riding slightly uphill I’m slowing passing a lady and she makes the usual comment ‘That looks effortless!’. I reply that I’m actually peddling quite hard. She says ‘Well your head is not moving so it looks like you are not doing anything.’ I guess that my peddle stroke is smoother than I thought it was.

Sisters On the Fly

About 30 miles into the ride, turning onto TX190 just outside of Killen I came across a place of business that must do something with Airstreams. Stopped to take a picture for my wife Robyn who belongs to a vintage airstream womens group (http://www.sistersonthefly.com).

36 miles into the ride the rest stop was at Stillhouse Hollow Lake. One of my favorite places to ride to from Georgetown. The view is beautiful on a sunny day.

Hydation and Nutrition

I did ok with fluids and food. Started to cramp some around mile 45 but took some extra endurolytes and easy spun out of them. I probably could have finished the 100 miles (instead of the the 100k) but I decided to finish the day really good and just enjoying myself tremendously.

By the numbers:

Last, but not least, the post ride recovery drink sitting on the back porch after a wonderful day:

Was out for a nice ride today when 23 miles in - boom - flat rear tire.

While fixing the rear tire, and finding the two nails in it, I decided I also needed to look at the front tire just in case - it was flat also.

After I got the tires fixed, back on the bike, the bike put back into the garage, I was cleaning up my area and found these two plugs on the ground.

Bummer, pull the bike back out, take the rear wheel back off and replace the velo plugs with rim tape.

Today I spent more time working on the bike than riding the bike.

Took a nice easy ride today to Andice to meet Robyn for lunch.

Still a little tired from Saturday’s ride. Tried to keep the heartrate under 120 and peddle easy the whole time.

The Marathon Supreme tires are definitely slower than the Kojaks.

Was a little cold when I started - in the mid 40s. Not a single other cyclist on the road today.

A lot of people ask me when and where I’m going to be riding. Following is a list of most likely rides I’ll be doing the beginning of this year.

At the HOT Rally I bought this Bacchetta Ti Aero. About 22 lbs with 650c lightweight wheels.

A couple of days ago I was able to ride the bike a little around the neighborhood and dial-in the fitting.

Today I went on my first long ride with it - 51 miles. Faster than my other non-faired bikes (Musashi, Baron, P-38). Slower than the F-40.

Once fitted, it is an extremely easy bike to ride. Coasts like crazy and solid as a rock.

This will be my ride-with-others bike. The F-40 is a leave-others-in-the-dust bike.

Nice easy ride to Salado and back (mostly) with Brian Buckmaster.

Since I’m so out of shape I mostly coasted whenever I could.

SunCity was having a vendor fair today. EasyStreet Recumbents had a nice double booth there. Rode the F-40 out to Sun City and back to show my support.

Bike Changes

Kept getting flat tires with all of the road debris from the winter rain months. Put the Marathon Supremes back on for a while - they are bomb-proof. I could not get those thick sidewall tires to fit into my skinny deep-v carbon rims so now I’m back to the original tires and rims.

Yellow spandex looks like new after Robyn washed it yesterday. Cool water, gentle cycle washing machine, layout over a couple of chairs in the garage to dry.

By the numbers

Hit every stoplight and had some issues with restarting my garmin. Overall it was about 15 miles round-trip even though the garmin shows less.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/464905488

Well, I sold the BatBike.

The Baron was a fun bike, always lots of comments at rides, I put almost 1,000 miles on it.

The summer of 2012 was big time Baron:

• Katy Flatland 100 Mile Century ride in just under 6 hours averaging 17.1 mph for the 100 miles.
• Austin to Shiner GASP ride - 100 miles
• Georgetown Poppy Ride - 86 miles
• Bosque Tour de Norway - 43 miles
• Tour d’Italia - 40 miles
• Vineyard Tour de Florence - 63 miles
• Tour de Longneques - 36 miles
• Several training rides of 27.2 miles averaging over 18 mph (never quite made 19 mph).

It went to a great home - congrats Billy Younts!

During the HOT Rally I was ask how do I find out about all the rides I go to?

Well there are several websites I visit to build a ride calendar for myself.

I have these bookmarked under a single tab on my browser.

	http://www.texbiker.net/blog/calendar/ Information about rides all across Texas organized by date.
	http://www.bicycle-stuff.com Mainly focuses on the DFW area but does have rides all across Texas. Click thru to the 2014 Calendar.
	http://lifeonabaron.blogspot.com Lots of detail about rides within a 500 mile radius of DFW including AR, OK and LA. Mainly focuses on very flat rides in the Houston area. Very fast rider on a low-racer. Search the archives to find prior yearly rides the current calendar sites to find the dates for this year.
	http://austincycling.org/rides/non_aca Mostly rides in the Austin TX area. Some very big rides far away.

What a blast the Heart of Texas (HOT) Recumbent rally was!

The fast ride (Warrior ride) consisted of two velomobiles and two F-40 streamliners.

With no other uprights, or unfaired recumbents along, the pace was quite brisk. Even counting the time we stopped to help other people, the rest stop and a tire change we still averaged 15.5 mph for the 35 mile ride.

This is the first time I have ever ridden with a group that had the same ride dynamics as myself. Never a rest on this ride. Usually when I get to the bottom of a hill everyone else is a LONG WAY behind me. Today everyone was right on my butt - time to keep peddling. Fortunately the F-40 is significantly lighter than the Quest so I was able to recover while climbing the next hill.

On the way back from Coupland there was a significant headwind, maybe 10 to 12 mph. I wasn’t really paying much attention to the wind because everyone else on the ride was just easily keeping up with me running about 18 mph directly into the wind. After a few miles I noticed we were catching an upright group that had left the reststop about 20 minutes before us. They must have been struggling riding directly into the 12 mph headwind. I think they had to have been doing less than 9 mph because we caught and passed them pretty easily. Aerodynamics rule!

The starting group (left to right):

• Dan Hansen : Lightning F-40
• Steve Wood : Quest Velomobile
• Carl Murdock : Lightning F-40
• Suzanne Teshera : Quest Velomobile

The ride was incredibily scenic.

Although, other people who saw our vehicles must have been really confused.

Suzanne took a great picture of Carl and I riding up towards the New Sweden Church:

And the very funny facebook comments from non-recumbent riders:

Some good pictures by Carl Murdock:

By the numbers:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/450634871

http://app.strava.com/activities/115716381

All things techy

Taught by Professors Hansen and Younts about riding technology, which will cover all things tech toy – electronic wonders that tell you everything from how fast you go, far you go, how long it takes you to do it, horoscope, newspaper - oh okay maybe not ALL of that, but most of it! I don’t know enough about it to even explain the class. Class ends at 10:50. Take 10 and then head to the next class.

Enjoying the ride

Things you wear

• Shoes
• Gloves
• Helmets
• Jerseys
• Other clothing (running?)

Things for your bike

• Lights
• Bags
• Hydration
• Music
• Tires
• Kickstands
• Electric Assist

Computers

• GPS
• Garmin
• Cell Phone
  • Quad Lock
• Sensors
  • Heart Rate Monitor
  • Cadence
  • Power
• Cameras
• Video
  • Mounting
  • Dashware

Sharing the ride

Facebook

• Posting
• Notes
• History

Sport Specific

• Garmin Connect
• Strava
• MapMyRide

Blogging

• blogger.com
• wordpress.com
• custom

Performance Riding Class

The performance riding class starts at 11:00. Taught by Professor Hansen and his council of advisors, this class will focus and maximizing your riding performance. Professor Hansen will cover what you can do to get the best performance by YOU and your ride. Should be a very informative class on how to develop a great riding strategy to help you achieve a top performance.

4 to 12.5 mph

• Enjoy the ride
• Want to do it again
• Comfort
• Seeing new things
• Lightening the engine
  • Losing Weight
  • Calories in
  • Heart Rate Monitor
• Finish century in 8 hours
  • Learning to eat
  • Learning to drink
  • Gels, Endurolytes, Salt
  • Embrace the turtle

12 to 16.6 mph

• Injuries
• Don’t ride slow (uphill)
• Fitting the bike (trike)
• Getting your bent legs
• Learning to spin
• Pacing
• Reducing time off bike
• On bike stretching
• At 15+ mph -10 lbs equals +1 mph
• 15+ mph usually means new bike
• Finish century in 6 hours
  • While also enjoying it

17+ mph

• Dedication
  • Lots of hard work
• Aerodynamics
• Weight (engine and bike)
• Don’t ride slow (ever)
• Intervals
• Riding at 30+ mph
• Finish century under 6 hours
  • Eating during hard exercise
  • Drinking during hard exercise