Year: 2008

I rode my fixed gear for its first extended ride (I’d ridden it a couple times commuting last week). I don’t have clipless pedals for it yet so I was braking more than should be necessary on the down hills and had a hard time staying with the group on the descents. As the bike will only go as fast as my legs will go around and I didn’t really want my feet coming off the pedals and getting hit by the pedal continuing its rotation I kept it at around 25mph max.

It was a pleasant enough ride and the bike handled well on the climbs. It was an out and back route and there was a really strong headwind coming back which was a bit of a slog. You know it’s a strong wind when you’re going downhill, standing, and only doing about 8 mph.

5 miles from the finish back at the hotel there was a loud clattering from my back wheel and I stopped to investigate. I’d run over a large nail which had gotten jammed between my tire and brake and torn my tire side wall.

I got the wheel off and booted the tire with a dollar bill (with the help of Steve holding my bike while I worked and providing morale support). It all held together to get me back to the Inn and the end of a successful first day.

Faster than the girls, just …

Mileage: 61 miles

Average Speed:14 mph

Elevation Gain: 4162 ft

Today it rained, snowed and shined (multiple times) but we still made it up to the school for a couple hours of bike riding practice. This time Caitlin got one of the smaller bikes as well and gave it a try without the pedals. She quickly wanted the pedals back on as she felt that would be easier but by the end was practicing gliding with them off again.

Ashley’s gliding really came along and she had a brief try with pedals on. She went for the best part of 2 hours and was enjoying herself for the whole time (had to be dragged away). Tuesday, the next session, should see the breakthrough to actual pedaling!

Ashley on bike

Caitlin on bike

Dad on bike

Helping Caitlin

Ashley solo

The pedals go back on!

A momentous day yesterday as Ashley started down the path of learning to ride without training wheels as part of her school’s cycling program. I took the pedals of her bike in the morning and we walked it up to school (her sitting on it for part of the way and pushing herself along).

After school she, a couple other kindergarteners, and of course Caitlin on her 3 wheeler, met up with her PE teacher to start practicing. They started by pushing themselves along with their feet (with the seat down as low as it could go) and got the hang of balancing by gliding for progressively longer distances. Once they get the hang of that the pedals will go back on and they’ll start really tearing around the school playground.

Ashley was delighted with herself as she glided for longer distances. (Though was hyperventilating a bit with nervousness at some stages. 🙂 )

Here are some action shots.

Pre-ride briefing (spot the sister on the 3 wheeler)

Delighted with herself

Stabilizing hand

Downhill glide

Gliding along

The results are in for the 300K at the start of April. There were 57 riders (56 of whom finished). It’s difficult to compare times between rides due to differing terrain and conditions so one way I’m using to get a feel for my level of improvement is to compare my position within the pack.

My time of 16:00 hours was in the middle of the pack with 23 riders with a faster time (i.e. 40% of the people beat my time).

Last years 300K had 106 riders, with 96 finishers. While my actual time was essentially identical, 16:04, 60 people were faster than me then (i.e. 56% of the people beat my time).

So am I improving or were there more strong riders out last year during the PBP year? Who knows? It doesn’t really matter but is fun to look at.

We’ll see how the 400K goes next month.

Here’s a shot of my new bike. All set to enter the world of fixed gear riding.

I went with the Redline 925 in the end.