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CRAWLand1000

The Bicycling Thread

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Posts: 3588

(05/23/08 11:28 AM)

The Fuzzy Physicist
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I rode my bike to work today. Except it'd be more accurate to say that I rode it a little, and walked it the rest of the way. Did I actually think that riding a bike would be like walking, except with more of a mechanical advantage? And did I really think that walking in the woods with FO would be enough to stay in shape? It felt like I was towing two tons.

The second to last time I rode a bike, I don't even remember. It might have been the better part of a decade ago. The last time I rode a bike was last year, with FO, when we went camping. It was difficult, but I managed to ride the bike all around the park, which was a decent distance.

Today, I went a block, and was totally beat.

So, I'd ride a block, walk 4, ride 1, walk 4...

I can think of two particular problems. Number 1, I have a 21 speed bike, and I've never used a multispeed bike before. Number 2, I don't think the front (left) gear shift was working. It looked like it was in low gear all the time. There are other maintenance problems. I just finished throwing it together this morning.

Also, are you supposed to just get used to the seat, or what? It was murderous! I wonder if you can get seat pads. I know that my sister used to ride a bike pretty seriously, but had to quit because of the pain it was giving her. (She wouldn't have used a pad even if they were available because she wanted to race)

And to think I used to ride a bike constantly when I was a little kid. No wonder I was so skinny.

I wonder if FO would be able to pick me up tonight? I don't know if I can do that route twice in one day yet.

"Without a foothold in the past, we cannot walk towards the future."
-Vagrant Story

Flying Omelette

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Posts: 17995

(05/23/08 12:40 PM)

But you had to have the BIIIIIG salad!

I can pick you up tonight, but a couple of things:

1. I won't get there until sometime between 5:30 and 6:00.

2. You have to decide, one way or another, to use the car or the bike after this. It's not fair to me that I'll now be expending more gas in my car to pick you up every night.

Think of what you're saying,
You can get it wrong
And still you think that it's all right.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out
And get it straight or say good night.

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

CRAWLand1000

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Posts: 3588

(05/23/08 1:31 PM)

The Fuzzy Physicist
Administrator

I'll try to get my own way home.

"Without a foothold in the past, we cannot walk towards the future."
-Vagrant Story

Flying Omelette

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Posts: 17995

(05/23/08 4:33 PM)

But you had to have the BIIIIIG salad!

How? I think it's best if I come for you. I need to know if I should just go straight home or to your work.

Think of what you're saying,
You can get it wrong
And still you think that it's all right.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out
And get it straight or say good night.

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

Flying Omelette

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Posts: 17995

(05/23/08 4:58 PM)

But you had to have the BIIIIIG salad!

You've got 4 minutes to let me know... Otherwise, I'll just go straight to your work place.

Think of what you're saying,
You can get it wrong
And still you think that it's all right.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out
And get it straight or say good night.

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

Flying Omelette

[-]

Posts: 17995

(05/23/08 5:02 PM)

But you had to have the BIIIIIG salad!

Allright, I'm leaving now. I might have to stop for gas along the way, so give me about a half an hour to 45 minutes.

Think of what you're saying,
You can get it wrong
And still you think that it's all right.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out
And get it straight or say good night.

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

Crawl and 1OOO

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Posts: 11759

(05/23/08 6:08 PM)

The Fuzzy Physicist
Administrator

I ended up walking / riding home.

I saw FO driving *past* home, and I waved and yelled. She then got in the left turn lane, so I thought she saw me. But she just went to get gas. I had to walk back to the gas station. It's funny that there were hundreds of cars on the road, and just me walking with a bike, and I saw her but she didn't see me.

She really should have planned to come home, as 1) it was halfway and 2) it would have given her a chance to see if I replied to her message.

Well, I learned a couple of things today. One, it is theoretically possible to even *walk* to work, given enough time. Two, for some reason it's harder for me to ride a bike than it is for me to walk.

If I'm gonna be serious about continuing this, I'll need to get some sort of padding for my seat. A water bottle and holder. And I'll have to read up about bicycling.

Crawl and 1OOO

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Posts: 11759

(10/07/02 3:11 PM)

The Fuzzy Physicist
Administrator

It will probably take me some time to figure this all out, but I think one of my problems is that I was trying to shift into too high a gear.

When you play a car racing videogame, you always want to shift into high gear because that's how you go fastest. That's probably true for a bike, too, but it's probably not good for a person just getting into biking to try to go as fast as possible. It takes more force to push a bike in high gear.

It was weird using a really low gear, though. It felt like I wasn't pushing anything. But then you go really slow, so I started pedaling faster just to keep the momentum going. But that defeats the point of not having to push as hard, because you're still working hard to pedal fast.

Another weird thing was that at one gear, it felt like I wasn't pushing anything, and I shifted to just one gear higher (the back gear, which has 7 degrees), and the change wasn't continuous at all; all of a sudden, I was back to towing the two tons.

Maybe I should try riding in the lowest gear, just slowly casually cruising around, and see if that works and if I can keep momentum.

Crawl and 1OOO

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Posts: 11759

(05/23/08 9:43 PM)

The Fuzzy Physicist
Administrator

I wonder if part of my problem with the saddle is that I'm not sitting enough on my butt?

The pain I have from it (which I still feel now) is mostly at the very tops of my thighs, maybe just below where I really should be sitting.

Crawl and 1OOO

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Posts: 11759

(05/24/08 12:33 PM)

The Fuzzy Physicist
Administrator

I did get a memory foam padded seat cover, and a water bottle.

Flying Omelette

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Posts: 17995

(05/25/08 11:07 AM)

But you had to have the BIIIIIG salad!

I bought a Diamondback sport bike yesterday. I have a bicycle back home in NJ that I forgot to take with us when we moved. I don't remember what type of bike it is, but I actually won it through an Arby's contest a long time ago.

Anyway, I don't know if and when I'll ever be able to go back to NJ so I thought I should get a new bike so I can go riding with Crawl sometime.

Think of what you're saying,
You can get it wrong
And still you think that it's all right.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out
And get it straight or say good night.

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

Kitsunexus

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Posts: 106

(05/27/08 12:45 AM)

Banned User

Crawl and 1OOO

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Posts: 11759

(07/05/08 8:53 PM)

The Fuzzy Physicist
Administrator

Sheesh. I got a flat tire (the rear) while riding my bike today. I got it replaced (well, the tube) at Dick's. Fortunately, it wasn't too expensive. But it seems like I can't get the front tire as hard as it should be. I wonder if I should have just gotten them both replaced at the same time :/

Crawl and 1OOO

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Posts: 11759

(07/13/08 10:21 PM)

The Fuzzy Physicist
Administrator

FO and I did a nice bike ride tonight!

First, FO got some fish for dinner tonight, but she forgot to get the marinade. We went to a gas station near a grocery store, and she ran in for the sauce. Meanwhile, I used the free air for car tires to fill up my front bike tire. It warned to only use it for cars and trucks. Well, I only put it used it for a second at a time, then checked the pressure (by hand). It only took a few seconds total to reach what felt like the same pressure as in our other tires.

When we got to the park, I suggested putting the marinade on the fish, then biking around for a while. I first planned on only going around a little block in the park, but we ended up doing pretty much the entire all purpose trail, for something like 1~2 miles.

After dinner, we did a longer trail that even left the park. The total trail length is more than 6 miles one way, but the park joins the trail about a third of the way into it. So, we did about 2/3 of the trail, but twice, so really 4/3 of 6 miles, maybe another 8 miles?

Even if I'm overestimating, I'll bet we did at least 7 miles total tonight. I feel a lot better now than when I tried riding to work that day. I might want to try that path a few more times before I try riding to work again, though.

I wonder if I should pay for a bike tune up, though. It kind of makes creaking noises. I thought maybe that was the spring, but I tried paying more attention, and it only does that when I pedal.

Flying Omelette

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Posts: 17995

(07/14/08 5:49 PM)

But you had to have the BIIIIIG salad!

Crawl and 1OOO wrote:
First, FO got some fish for dinner tonight, but she forgot to get the marinade. We went to a gas station near a grocery store, and she ran in for the sauce. Meanwhile, I used the free air for car tires to fill up my front bike tire. It warned to only use it for cars and trucks. Well, I only put it used it for a second at a time, then checked the pressure (by hand). It only took a few seconds total to reach what felt like the same pressure as in our other tires.

The marinade adds a little bit of flavor to the fish (I mostly noticed a spicy aftertaste), though not as much as one would probably hope. However, it did one important thing that made a difference - it kept the fish from getting dried out on the grill. At least, I'm guessing it was the marinade that prevented that, and not just that we didn't overcook it or something. I remember once before we made fish fillets on the grill and parts of them got really dried out and stuck all over the aluminum foil.

Think of what you're saying,
You can get it wrong
And still you think that it's all right.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out
And get it straight or say good night.

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

Crawl and 1OOO

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Posts: 11759

(07/27/08 4:29 PM)

The Fuzzy Physicist
Administrator

We did a bunch of bike riding today. And we might go out for a cook out and more bike riding for dinner.

We did a lot of that big 6+ mile trail today. First, we went the long way down it, but only half way. Then we turned around, went past where we started, continued down the "short" way (which is 2.5 miles). Boy, the "official" beginning of that trail is as lame as hell! I thought there'd at least be a parking lot, a bench, a drinking fountain, something. It just starts in the middle of a road. There's another "start" to the trail about a mile in which does have a parking lot, bench and a drinking fountain. (Where we start is a big park)

So, going that way and back was 5 miles, plus we did maybe 3 on the other side. We also rode the all purpose trail around the park. I don't know how long that is; probably at least a mile. The trail head sign says it's over three miles, but there's just no way. I think they count this weird offshoot of the trail twice (as though you started there - somehow - did the loop, and went back down the offshoot).

We'd probably have to ride our bikes at least 3 times a week to see much improvement.

Rushifell

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Posts: 655

(07/28/08 12:50 PM)

i ride my bike to work in summer, spring, and whenever else the weather decides to be warm. i haven't had a running car in years. in winter, i have to get a ride from someone. I have a mongoose montana 26" mountainbike, I think... had a BMX years ago and totally destroyed it trying to do tricks on stair rails and dirt jumping.

R U $ h 1 F 3 ||

Crawl and 1OOO

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Posts: 11759

(08/05/08 10:11 AM)

The Fuzzy Physicist
Administrator

I successfully rode my bike to work today. "Successfully" meaning, I rode it the whole way, and I feel good enough now that I should be able to ride it back home tonight.

I did use a fairly low gear (1/3 on the left, 6/7 on the right), and I got a wider saddle as well as a padded cover for it. I don't feel any pain in my nether regions at all now. The rides I did with FO also could have helped me prepare for this ride. The downside is that I don't have a water bottle, but I don't feel dehydrated.

It might be a harder ride than even trails at the parks that are intended for mountain bikes. There was one hill at the end that was tough. It wasn't so much how steep it was, but how long it was. At least it'll be downhill on the way back.

I also think it took me about half as long as when I walked most of the way. Maybe as I do this more, it'll take even less time. I plan on driving to work tomorrow, though. Maybe I'll ride every other day for a while. We'll see.

See how your opinion ruined Christmas for everyone!

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