I have found over the last few months, that I don't need a full bike rack all of the time. While it is nice to be able to haul four bikes down the road, I rarely actually do it. This is a picture of me and Daylia in front of my 4-bike Reese bike rack.
I like the Reese rack, because it has an easy locking system, bolts into place to reduce vibrating and shaking, has a sturdy structure, clamps the bikes down tightly, and allows me to tow a trailer even with 4 bikes in place. However, it does not allow my rear hatch to swing open even if there is not a bike in place, without pulling out a pin and swinging it down and out of the way. My wife is now pregnant with our 3rd child, so the task of moving it out of the way has become a cumbersome.
Also, I have found that my rack has clotheslines a number of people as they walk around the rear of my vehicle. It is just not what you are prepared for when rounding the back of a car. (Although it is good for a few laughs)
I worked for a while on my new rack, which holds 1 bike and does not interfere with the rear hatch. I took the idea from my friend Mark Pittman who made a similar looking rack for his Suzuki.
As you can see if you look at the pics, the design is very simple. I did need to angle the fork mounts slightly to allow room for the handlebars at the rear window. Aligning them exactly perpendicular to the crosspiece left my handlebars bumping into the glass as I went along.
I was able to build the entire rack with parts off of an old roof rack I had laying around, and about 4 bucks in nuts and bolts to hold it together. But if you were to start from scratch I think you could build a similar rack for around $35. And I still am able to pull a trailer at the same time!
Check out the pics and ask any questions you might have. I would love to answer them!
I have to give the disclaimer immediately, that this video is not of me. It is done by Jonathan Pait, someone I only loosely know through the blog world, and is a contributor to the Greenville News.
I have ridden at Paris Mountain a number of times at night. However, i have never been fortunate enough to have a light with me. Usually I have overestimated my own riding speed, and bit off more than I could chew, or pinched a flat mid-ride, which forced me to come home after dark. Nonetheless, these guys look like they are having fun, and I hope to give night riding a try in the near future...wanna join me?
I rode in this road race for the first time last Saturday. It was sponsored by http://www.swoutfitters.com/ , a really sweet Christian camp that is impacting this generation for Christ. The race was part of a fundraiser day for the camp, so I took a few of our guys from http://www.ridgestudents.ridgeviewchurch.net/ and let them experience all the cool recs that the camp has to offer. But, in order to come out for all the fun in the afternoon, they had to volunteer during the bike race in the morning.
One of my high school students, Andrew, decided he wanted to ride in the race with me. He is in great shape, is a cross country runner, and a fantastic MTBer. But he had never done a road race. He borrowed Erin's bike, and signed up for the 55 mile race that I was doing. The race is in it's 4th year, so they are still working out a number of bugs in the organization of the event that could really make this race do well. The 55 mile race only had 8 people sign up for it, while the 21 miler and the 40 mile sprint relay were much better attended. For some reason no one wants to ride a bike for 55 miles. I wonder why?
The course started out with a 2 mile fast downhill, followed by a 3 mile fast paced section with small rolling hills, and nice smooth road surface. I took off pretty fast, averaging somewhere between 20 - 25 mph for the first 5 miles. I glanced back to see that Andrew had dropped off from the pace, and knowing it would be a long day, and that there was no reason to make him suffer so early, I eased off until he caught back up to me.
We had been warned at the beginning of the race that the final 5 miles would be torture. However, very little had been said to us about miles 5-15. It was ridiculous. The climb was a continuous grade for all of 10 miles. It took us all of an hour an 15 minutes to complete - How miserable!
Then we got to take a fun 6-8 mile decent into the Nantahala river gorge which made the previously horrible climb almost worth it. Somewhere in the fast downhill, my sunglasses flew off and disintegrated into a thousand tiny pieces. There goes 10 bucks down the drain.
Climbing out of Natahala was painful again, but this time traffic had become an issue. We were on 19, which is the main drag through the gorge, so the hill was less difficult to climb, but cars were not as friendly as one might hope, and made this part of the ride stressful.
Andrew and I made our own pit stop at a gas station for a power bar, because we were both feeling very weak. Snowbird provided a number of water stations, but we really needed some bananas, apples, or granola bars... our fuel tanks were empty. I chose the Cliff bar, and he chose the Powerbar...I made the right choice. BTW it was funny to see people's looks when we walked in with tight shorts, jerseys and numbers on. They acted like we had beamed in from our alien spacecraft!
Next we headed on to Andrews, NC. The race course took us through a very beautiful valley alongside of a small airport. Getting down and around this airstrip took much longer than I would have liked. Andrew was really hurting now, unable to put any power behind the pedals, so instead of making time up on the flat section of the race we ended up losing more ground. Nonetheless, we circled the airstrip, and came to Fairview Rd followed closely by Pisgah Rd, the final climb of the day.
All the hype over this climb was not worth it. We were expecting a series of switchbacks like the ones on the Hincapie challenge at Paris Mountain. This climb had a few, but really was not nearly as difficult as the earlier climb in the race. We made it to the last water station, where the girl told us we had 1 mile to go... she lied. There was about 2.5 -3 remaining. Distances driven in a car should never be taken for granted. We agreed to race it out to the finish, and I beat Andrew to the line by about 1:30, and we came in 4th and 5th place just under the four hour mark. I was really proud of Andrew for a great effort his first time out.
So I found out a few days ago about the paris mountain downhill race! The Greenville News did a great article on this weekends festivities.
Now if you will click on the small picture link for the race pic/vid site, you will notice these guys floating over the same rock with brilliance and ease. they look so peacful don't they? Aren't they looking like it is a bunch of fun?
So this little beaut has been my ride to work for the past week. My buddy Ryan affectionately calls it the liquorcycle. Here is why I am riding it. Since Austin and Eve joined our commune, they noticed that everything we need is within a 2 mile radius from our home. If homeless guys and bag ladies can ride to work, why can't I do it? Especially if I am going to call myself a cyclist.
As I have talked about on here before, I do have a nice bike that I could ride each day. However, I have found it to be too difficult on a day to day basis to put on the tight shorts and clicking shoes and a backpack. This ghetto bike is most definitely a beater. I am proud to say that 5 dumpster bikes are represented in its current formation. And although it is probably the heaviest thing I have ever pedaled, I have enjoyed pedaling to and from work, the grocery store, and Phil's music. Also, if it does get stolen, or if I get hit by a car, the loss is not too great.
But when I strap my helmet on, and fill by crate full of gear I am looking pretty styling let me tell you. Yet, my truck has not moved in 4 days. I am getting unbelievable gas mileage. Pretty sweet deal huh?
This is my new bike! I can't tell you how excited I am to ride it! My buddy Wes from NGU emailed me a couple weeks back to let me know that he was going to get rid of this bike. He had started biking a while back, but never really gotten into it as much as he thought he would. By reading through my blog, and talking to me at different times - he knew that I really enjoyed to cycle.
After talking to Wes, our friend Dana called us and asked if we knew of anyone who was selling a bike, because her friend was just getting into the sport and needed something inexpensive. If you have followed my blog very closely this year, you know that I had gotten a new play it again sports bike a few months back. You see where this is going right? Yea, Erin saw it coming too.
We were able to sell the Trek bike for exactly what we bought it for, which meant I now had some spending money to go back to Wes and make an offer on the Allez bike. The reality is, I couldn't offer him nearly what it is worth, but the dude took what I offered him anyway, and he gave me all kinds of extras like a computer, shoes, clips, a pump, a chain tool, water bottles and water cages! What a guy huh?
As far as the bike goes, it was such a great gift you gave me to allow me to buy it for basically nothing. I have ridden it only a couple times seriously, so I am still figuring out what I like best about it. The real deal is that the bike is incredible. It seems light as a feather, it shifts really well, and it has enough low gears that I can pull my girls in the bike trailer without feeling like my legs are being dipped in a volcano again and again.
The computer on it seems to be really sweet, but I can't quite figure out how to use it. Hopefully Wes has an owners manual somewhere on it, because right now I feel like a caveman with a stick when I try to use it. The shoes are probably a size too big, but the gearing of the bike means that I don't have to work the pedals nearly as hard as I have been in the past, so they will be just fine.
I would like to buy a new helmet that would match the new bike. This is purely a pride thing, but basically my bike now is like the cool kid at school who doesn't want to hang out with the loser helmet kid it used to hang out with. All in all, I am very appreciative for it and want Wes to know that I am going to get a ton of use out of it...
THANK YOU!
I met Mark today to ride for lunch... it was anything but the perfect ride. First we were both about 15 minutes late, construction on Hwy 29 set us back. Then, when I arrived, I realized that I didn't have any bike shorts with me. Fortunately I did have some gym shorts, but the ride is much more unpleasant without all that extra padding. Mark arrived with no shoes, helmet or gloves. I had some flat pedals which he was able to use, and he put his black dress shoes back on. We had a great time, but I am dead tired because of it. Croft is a trail with a great deal of up and down, so Mark and I had decided to ride our single speeds... It was a decent ride considering all the reasons why we could have given on it, but Croft is not meant for single speeds... not until I get into better shape anyway. Maybe next time!
Mark called me last week and asked if I would be interested in doing the Marion race last minute. I was more than happy to oblige him, because I had considered the race a month ago after finishing the Isaqueena ride, but had never really made a decision. By the way, I found out that the Marian race and the Mt. Mitchell race are the same thing. I did not know that previous to about 48 hrs ago.
We went over to Spartanburg Memorial auditorium on Sunday afternoon to register and pick up our packets. I was race number 1446, so I assume I was nearly the 1500th person to register. (That is for the Marion race, the Mitchell guys had a different set of numbers.)
I arrived at 6:00 Monday morning, although I had every intention of being there by 5:45, I arrived at 6 nonetheless. Mark is an exclusive MTB, and had borrowed a bike from a friend, which he had brought home Sunday night at 10:00. Needless to say, we had to do some adjusting with the seat and handlebars to get a proper fit, and hope for the best as far as derailleurs adjustment was concerned. I had decided to try out my "new" Trek 1200, which I posted about last week, and take it out for a long ride. By the time Mark and I got our bikes set up, we made it to the line with 4:00 left on the countdown clock. Perfect.
The start was slow, and some poor soul had a flat less than a block from the start line... but eventually the train got moving. Mark and I jumped on a group of about 10 riders weaving through the mass, and passing people. Lots of people! Man we were flying! My computer on the new Trek looked really cool, but it was completely dead... even with a brand new battery... so I have no idea how fast we were moving. But I was amazed that no matter how many people we passed, the long line of riders strung out ahead continued on and on.
Then, I realized that Mark had fallen off the back. I had a mirror to look back and see him from time to time, but apparently it vibrates too much at higher speeds to be of any good whatsoever. I had lost him. So somewhat begrudgingly I eased off the pace, pulled over to the right, and started letting riders go by knowing Mark would be only a group or two back. Not the case. I waited for one, two, then three big groups to pass me. This was not like Mark at all, was something wrong? Then he caught me. It took me a few seconds to jump back on pace after riding so slowly. When a big group comes by, you had better get your speed up, or you won't be able to jump in with them.
We took off again, this time I let him lead. When another 5 man group went ahead, this time he jumped on their wheel. The pace picked up, and as we took turns pulling I could feel the adrenaline kicking again. Man, I felt good today! There was one dude who felt he was calling the shots for everyone kept yelling "short pulls" then "get off and wrap around" I thought he was funny. Mark did not appreciate the extra encouragement. We moved along pretty well, but once again however, Mark fell off. After I dropped back this time he told me to meet up with him at the first stop at 20 miles in. So we did.
Problem was, only 6-8 guys total stopped at this first SAG. The rest went spinning along and left us there. Mark was feeling better, but he told me to not come back for him if we got split up again.
3 miles later Mark was no longer. He told me later that his legs just continued to cramp again and again, and he just couldn't seem to fight it off. Too bad, because Mark is a great rider - typically very strong as well. I rode alone for a while, picking off riders from time to time, then saw a group of 4 up ahead that were really working well together. I pushed it about as hard as I could to catch this little pack, and was rewarded for when I caught them. They pulled strong, and took long turns each, so by the time it was my turn to pull, I had gotten my wind back.
Side note> I found it to be very encouraging when I would lead out, then someone what say "nice pull" when I fell off. That little bit really is motivating... so consider me as a guy who says: "nice pull" from now on.
At mile 40 - 50 (as I said before, I do not have a working computer) there was a dead stop for everyone. Apparently no one told the DOT that we were having a race today. They had stripped an entire stretch of road down, and were only letting traffic through every 10 minutes or so. This was awesome for someone like me who suddenly was in the main pack again. But man, some of these riders were really ticked! They were yelling obscenities at the steamroller guys (very effective) and trying to pass dump trucks to skip the detour altogether (also very effective).
This changed the whole race for me. After a SAG about 10 miles later, we climbed Bill's hill. I was feeling really strong, and passed people all the way up. My concerns about racing with a double instead of a triple seemed to be of no concern at all. My concerns about having down-tube shifters had long been dispelled. I was riding this thing strong!
I was under the impression that after Bill's hill the race would be flat. I was mistaken. I lost much of my new confidence over the next series of hills, and found myself hoping that this all would be over soon. After a quick SAG with 17 mi to go, I was able to hold on to a pack of 6-8, and we pressed on home the rest of the way. I felt great, I finished under 4 hrs, ride time of 3:40, but the entire pack I had ridden the last 20 miles with only stopped for a few minutes before continuing on to the top. Not me, not this year. Today I was finished!
Now all I had to do is wait for Mark to come in...
 Free Wheels Perform crazy stunts to gain points! |
| Play this free game now!! |
Erin and I were driving around on Saturday, and I randomly convinced her to swing by Play it again sports to look for a road bike for her. To make a long story short, we bought a TREK 1200 in great shape for $199. It is a bit older bike than the one in the picture, but in great condition. It has Shimano 105 shifters on the downtube, which is very old school, and different to get used to.
We got home, and soon found that really the bike frame was really too large for Erin, and therefore I had just bought myself another bike. My Mongoose Pro Morzine was a great buy a year ago, but it has been a little too small for me. We spent some time while the girls were napping switching some things over, and decided to take them out for a spin.
As a side story, Erin has recently fallen in love with Craig's list. She was able to find someone in town that wanted to even swap our single bike trailer for a double for a double bike trailer/combo jogger unit. Nice work Erin!
Erin has never ridden a road bike, but she wanted to go to our freinds the Turner's who live about 10 miles away. (10.2 miles we found out) The new TREK is only a double, where the Mongoose is a triple. This would be the first time I had ever pulled the girls in anything other than a moutain bike. It soon became the equalizer between Erin and I.
We flew along, but I was hurting the whole way. What a workout! We got up to 34mph on some of the downhills, but climbing was painful. When it was all said and done, we averaged out at 12mph, Erin loves her new bike, and I like the bigger frame size much better. I got used to the different shifters, and to pulling the extra weight. We barely made it home before dark, I was exhausted, and loved every minute of it.
Look out world! After I get used to training with the trailer, imagine what I can do after unhooking it!
I have been planning somewhat unofficially to ride in the Miracle Hill Cycling Challenge on Saturday. However, it appears that we are going to be out at Lake Keowee with my wife's family. Fortunately I had not signed up for the race yet. (BTW, they expect each rider to raise $950.00 in sponsorship - is that even possible?) I stumbled onto another race in Walhalla the same day called Issaqueena's Last Ride. This is only about 10 miles away from my in-laws lake house: perfect. I have never done a race of this type of distance, and this one boasts of over 8500ft of climb over the 100 mile course. I don't know what I'm getting into, but it should be interesting! My longest ride to date is 65 miles from Lake Robinson to Saluda... I might be in for a lot of pain. I hope they have SAG vehicles!
My girls sleep each afternoon for about 2 1/2 hours. Today I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to ride Altamont for the first time today. We parked at CVS on State Park Rd, and started the climb from the base of Altamont, but my brother in law had already had enough at about 1 mile up the climb so we hung a right on Audabon which was a nice downhill break. At this point I was lost, but I knew we could work our way over to S Buckhorn which would be a little easier. This is more like what he was looking for. I stumbled onto Sleepy Hollow, which wrapped us back around to Fairview Rd which I had been on before. This ties into S Buckhorn. We went from here over to the Paris Mountain State Park where we could ride on the flat for a while before driving it hard up the Hincapie Challenge to the top. From the culdesac we turned it around and followed the same roads back to the truck. This ride came out at 15.4 miles, with a fair amount of climb. I would do it again, but on my own I would definitely want to come in faster than the 2 hrs it took us today. I know it has a lot of climb, but an average of 6 miles an hour is pretty sad. If you read this Matt... ... you did a good job for only riding 2x in the last 18months, but next time we need to pick up the pace. I hope to actually go over Altamont in the near future. Any suggested routes or start/finish locations?
Corey called me up and asked me to ride today at the drop of a hat. Fortunately I was able to do so today. It was a blast!
We rode Paris Mountain...
We parked at the culdesac at the top of the mountain so that we could get back to the truck easier if need be. We climbed Firetower trail pretty quickly, I stayed in 2-6 through 2-8 on the whole climb. Its a deceiving climb, but we had both done it a hundred times it seems, so no big deal. We reached the top of the newest trail at Paris, Kanuga. What a ride! We went left at the top, and just flat out hammered down to the lake. I got into the big ring up front coming over the top and just let it rip. for a sweet 5 minutes of descent. We took a left at the bottom when we hit the North Lake loop. We completed the loop all the way back to the base of Kanuga where we had come down. Corey wanted to climb this new trail and see how it felt on the way up. I hated every minute of it. What was incredible on the way down was miserable on the way back. I ended up shredding my chain at one point when I stood up in the pedals for a moment - which slowed our overall time considerably. Fortunately, I have had this happen before and I had the chain tool with me to fix it. We climbed back to the top of Kanuga, but instead of heading home on Firetower we took the downhill run of Kanuga over to Brissy Ridge. Again, it was an awesome downhill section. Corey asked me if it reminded me of slalom skiing up north as a kid, and I most definitely had to agree. This particular trail has some tricky off camber turns that really could be nasty mistake if you aren't on your game. Then the familiar climb out on Brissy Ridge back to the Xterra. We cam in at 68 minutes even with the broken chain. It was a great ride. I love riding with guys like Corey. His legs are waaay stronger than mine, and it is all I can do to stay with him.
Awesome.
So we went to the Student Life tour this weekend with 5 guys and really had a blast doing it. The speakers were great,the music was loud, and the dramas were intense! The schedule gave us a 2 hour time block for lunch on Saturday afternoon, but we had to go out and get it on our own.
I received an email from Chic-fil-a about a week before the tour letting us know that they would provide lunch at Miliken in a field where kids could play Frisbee or football if we wanted to pay $5 for it. Well, this gave me a brilliant idea. Right next to the Miliken plant there is a 7 mile Mountain Bike (MTB) trail which is fairly easy for beginners, yet challenging for advanced riders if they really push it an ride fast. I decided to work it out where I brought 4 bikes on our vehicle, and had a friend bring another 4 so that all of my guys could get a bike and do this thing.
These guys were not good. They fell all over the place. They walked up all of the hills. They complained about the rain. They would keep their helmets on. They also walked across this narrow footbridge over a creek which can be ridden very easily.
One of the kids asked Tracy, (the other guy who brought bikes for me) who was better on a bike - him or me. Tracy puffed me up real good when he said "Aw man, Milo is waaaay better!"
So there is a verse in Proverbs that says: Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall... you get where I am going with this right?
I fell off that footbridge trying to ride across. I have never fallen off of it before - I doubt it will ever happen again. But yesterday I fell off a bridge and looked like a big loser in front of all my guys. Not because they saw it happen. Nope, no one saw it but me and God. It was like God was saying: "Nice bike skills Milo, but next time keep your pride in check - WAM!" Next thing I know, I'm bleeding all over the place, my bike is twisted in half, meanwhile my 7th grader rides peacefully along with noticing a thing.
I love all of my 5 readers very much so I'm not gonna lie to you. It really hurt - and I am really sore. Keep your pride in check!