Frogs and Peeps in Rock Creek

A couple of weeks ago, I installed some Speedplay Frog pedals on Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent. I like them a lot, mostly because they feel like they aren’t there. So I decided to try them on Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist. I needed a short-ish, easy ride to test them out.

Kristen was looking for folks tor ride with. She was doing a ride to add some miles to her office’s National Bike Challenge team total. She put out the call to meet at Pierce Mill in Rock Creek Park. Despite the fact that I have spent the last two Sunday’s in Rock Creek Park I decided to join the ride. Unlike the prior two weekends, I drove to the park instead of riding,

The original plan was to ride a big loop up the park to the Georgetown Branch Trail. We’d take the GBT to the Capital Crescent Trail. The CCT would take us to the Georgetown riverfront. From there we’d ride on the dilapidated trail back up to the start. We eventually decided to ride up the park to Woodbine Road. Then we’d make our way on the streets of Chevy Chase, Maryland. Then we’d take the new-ish Bethesda Trolley Trail. As it turned out, the BTT led us to a coffee stop in North Bethesda. From there we took side paths and streets back down to Rock Creek Park at Garrett Park.

The weather was incrementally muggier than last Sunday but we were spinning at an easy pace. Our group consisted of Ted and Jean, Kristen, her co-worker Chris, Ryan, and me. Twas a loquacious posse. We chattered and pedalled up the windy road, shaded by the canopy of green. As we spun our way through Chevy Chase, I admired the tastefully modest million-dollar homes. Ryan pointed out one house that deviated from the modesty theme; it looked like a white castle (not the restaurant, an actual castle with towers and ramparts and a moat).

We wiggled and waggled until we found ourselves at Bethesda Row. Ryan led us to the Trolley Trail and we followed it through parks, down sidewalks, and between housing developments. I was thoroughly lost. We stopped as luck would have it about a block from White Flint Mall. We checked our phone maps and saw that instead of turning around and heading back to Bethesda we could ride around the mall and take a small park trail to Garrett Park. During our search for the trail, my compadres found a cafe. After some coffee and a bite to eat, we headed over to Garrett Park, a neighborhood that takes traffic calming concepts to the max. Over the railroad tracks and down another park trail and we were back in Rock Creek Park.

The gentle downhill made for a fun easy ride. Traffic was light. One deer, then another cross the street in front of us. Big animal, small brain. (I’m refering to the deer not myself.)

Windy, gently rollling Beach Drive took us all the way back to the start.

At the end of the ride, I drove Kristen home so she didn’t have to ride up the imposing hill on Tilden Street. I lifted her bike to place it in the rack on my car. Dang. It’s a Mule!!! I have been impressed with her ability to ride up hills but now I am doubly so.

The verdict on the Frogs is thumbs up. Way up. I climb much better with them and I never once came close to falling over from not clipping out.

Some pix from the ride are on my Flickr page.

Faster than a Speeding Turtle, or Dead Fish

The day started like any other. I walked outside to get my bike out of the shed. The combination on the lock didn’t open the lock. So I tried it again. And again. And again. I checked the combination that I carry in my wallet. I was using the right one. I went inside to get me a hammer. In my military high school we popped locks using the butt end of a rifle. So I smacked it several times with the hammer. I did some minor damage to the shed door but the lock held.

I waited until 8 and went to the hardware store. They sold me a bolt cutter that went through the lock like bud-dah.

Off I went on Big Nellie. I took the long way since i was already 90 minutes late for work, Coming down the Mount Vernon Trail north of the stone bridge I came upon a big snapping turtle. They are pretty common around here. This one was just moseying along the trial. I took a couple of pictures and rode on.

A short distance up the trail I spotted an orange traffic cone with a sign on it. It marked the site where a snapping turtle had laid her eggs.

Under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge what looked to be an entire elementary school was out doing physical fitness adtivities. Must have been a school field day.

North of Old Town I spotted the remains of a large prehistoric fish. Something had eviscerated it. Ewww.

For the next two miles I passed clusters of running/jogging/walking people wearing similar shirts. As I made my way north of the Humpback Bridge, three motorcycles approached me on the trail with their blue lights flashing. Behind them was a group of army people jogging with a flag and a torch. It was the Special Olympics torch run.

At lunchtime i went for a two-mile walk. I didn’t seen any turtles or dead fish or school kids or torches. It was pretty disappointing.

The ride home featured the always loathed dead legs. I’ve ridden about 180 miles since Saturday and my legs are not happy. I kept pedalling along, mostly because it would suck to tip over and spend the night on my side along the trail. Just south of the Morningside bald eagle nest, I spotted yet another turtle on the side of the trail. This one was actively digging into the dirt with its hind legs. It was laying its eggs! Pretty cool.

When I got home I decided to put some new pedals, Speedplay Frogs, on Little Nellie so that I could ride it to work tomorrow. My thinking was that riding an upright bike as opposed to a recumbent would give my legs a breather. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the pedals off. And the headset was loose. So I guess I’ll ride Big Nellie to Friday Coffee Club and take LIttle Nellie to the bike shop on Saturday.

Some more pix can be found on my Flickr page.

May by the Numbers

It was a difficult month. My back woes came back with a vengence. And I had a stomach bug on top of that. By the second half of the month, my body finally got back toward normal.

I managed to crank out 746 1/2 miles in May. 419.5 of that was just riding to and from work 14 times. The rest was a hodgepodge of rides mostly for the heck of it. The longest ride of the month was last weekend when I rode to a get together in Meridian Hill Park in DC by way of a northern suburb. That ride was 64 1/2 miles.

Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent, logged the most mileage with 576. The Mule, my Specialized Sequoia, and Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist, had 170 1/2 miles bewteen them.

I attribute my back recovery to new medications (I am off of all meds as of today) and riding Big Nellie.

I also started to experiment with clipless pedals. I like them a lot but I have come to understand that switching back and forth between clipless and clips-and-straps pedals is a bad idea.

For the year I have logged 2,788 miles. About 40 percent on Big Nellie and the Mule and the rest on LIttle Nellie. I’ve ridden to work 55 times.

Sunday in the Park with Flor

Last Sunday I rode to Meridian HIll Park to hang out with my friend Florencia. Flor and I met on the Fifty States Ride on a day that was epically hot and humid. She rode like she had a tailwind the entire way. She was particularly strong on hills and I had absolutely no hope of keeping up with her.

These days, Flor spends much more time working than riding. So last Sunday she asked me to go for a not-too-hard ride to get her biking legs back. BIke ride? Moi?

We planned to meet up at noon. I decided that the least difficult route with the fewest hills and stop lights and cars would be a ride up Rock Creek Park as far as she felt comfortable. I knew from riding this route last week that it was about 15 miles from Garrett Park, Maryland to Flor’s neghborhood so I thought 30 flat-ish miles would be the maximum distance she would want to do.

The trip also allowed me to check out Big Nellie’s new headset. (This is the mechanism that connects the handlebars and stem to the fork. Without a functioning headset a bicycle can’t function. Long story short, the steering felt a little loose at first but I soon adapted to it and had no troubles with it. Thanks to Carl, the mechanic at Spokes Etc, in Belle View Shopping Center for the repair.)

After a stop to buy sunscreen I rode north on the Mount Vernon Trail. As I expected on a perfect weather Sunday, the trail was packed, With some patience I made it into the city without hitting anyone or cussing anyone out. I took the 15th Street cycletrack north past Meridian Hill Park and found Flor’s place after only one wrong turn. Along the way I was twice quizzed about my bike by passers by.

“Is it more comfortable?”

“Did you make it?”

“Does it help your back?”

“Can I buy one online?”

(Answers: Yes, No. Yes. Yes.)

After a brief wait, Flor appeared. She seemed like she was lacking her usual spark. You would be too if you worked on your feet yesterday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. We decided to ride to the Rock Creek trestle and re-asses my route plans depending on how Flor felt.

Flor led us through a traffic mess at the Zoo. Then we rode on the pitiful Rock Creek trail until we passed Pierce Mill. We then picked up Beach Drive which was closed to car traffic intermittently for the next several miles. The water washed over rocks in the creek. The breeze made a rustling sound in the green, green canopy of leaves above us. Through the canopy above we could see a beautiful blue, blue sky with puffy clouds floating this way and that. Flor and I pedaled the curving road at 12 to 14 miles per hour chatting the whole way through the park. I defy you to find better biking conditions than this.

We stopped at the trestle for a couple of pictures. Flor gave the green light for some more miles and we headed north to Garrett Park. Once in Maryland the traffic restrictions no longer apply. We dealt with quite a bit more cars than I did last week. Flor rides in the city everyday so she didn’t care.

I mentioned a nice little restaurant in Garrett Park in case Flor wanted to stop for a bite to eat but she seemed uninterested. Once we reached Garrett Park Road we turned around and headed back south. I had misplaced my camera prior to the ride. Normally, I take shots of the people I ride with while I am riding. I decided to try taking pictures on the fly with my new iPhone instead. It was impossible to tell if I actually had Flor in the frame so I took a four. They all came out fine. Credit to the subject.

Flor Miraculously Managed to Stay in Frame.

A deer appeared at the side of the road. Another one five miles farther along. We talked on and off. During the “on” we discussed everything under the sun (computer dating, job searching, living near the zoo, Rolfing, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) except cycling. During the “off” we were lost in the stupefying beauty of the park.

We climbed Park Road to get back to Flor’s place. Flor’s legs were pretty tired but she looked pretty happy. I think the ride did her good. I hope she can walk tomorrow.

My ride home involved bombing down 18th Street. It was a bit like a Giant Slalom event. Cars, buses, pedestrians, cyclists all seem to appear out of nowhere. I switched over to 16th Street which ends at Lafayette Park across from the White House. Tourists milled about. I rode straight through a bunch of participants in the Post Hunt, an annual scavenger hunt put on by the Washington Post. I am pretty sure the answer to one of the hunt’s questions was not “Old dude on a recumbent.”

I took the cycle track on 15th Street. It was video game. Pedestrians popped off the sidewalk into my path over and over. Two Mennonite women stood in the track. One spotted me and shoved the other one to the sidewalk. Clearly, she will get bonus points on the day of reckoning when she goes to that great cycletrack in the sky. At Constitution Avenue, an airport shuttle van nearly took me out as its driver rushed to make a left turn across my path. Lucky for the driver I left my bicycle death ray at home.

The Mount Vernon Trail was still packed. It didn’t slow me down. My legs were pretty tired. I hadn’t eated anything in seven hours and I could feel a bonk coming on.

Never let ’em see you bonk.

I didn’t.

Thanks to Flor for another excellent ride. (We’ve never had a bad one.) We have to do some more this summer. 50 States will be here before you know it. (Then she can once again leave me in the dust on Kansas Avenue.)

A few more pix are here.

Fox Kits at Play

Lately, there have been frequent fox sightings at the Rootchopper Institute. This morning while I was reading the paper over coffee on my deck, I spotted a fox kit out of the corner of my eye. Then another. And another. And another. And another! Sorry if this breaks your cutometer but I had to post it.

Mystery Flat #2

I began my day with a flat. The Mule was in the shed when I spotted the squishy rear tire. Being an adaptable sort of guy, I quickly sized up the situation: fix the flat or take Little Nellie to work. Little Nellie won.

I haven’t ridden Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist, with its little wheels because I have been protecting my back. Little wheels and a stiff frame mean my back takes a beating on this bike. Little wheels also mean that it is quite a lot of fun to ride. Fun won over back concerns.

Except for a short ride on The Mule yesterday, I have been riding Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent, exclusively for the last two weeks. My arms, butt, and legs were not ready for riding Little Nellie so the ride in took about 10 minutes longer than expected.

During the day, Carl, the mechanic at my local bike shop, called. He said that the problem with the steering on Big Nellie was a cracked headset. This made me mad. I almost called the manufacturer. You’d think a headset would last longer than a mere 36,000 miles.

We discussed whether I wanted to spend a ton of money on a “better” headset. I thought about it and told him to put a headset of the same quality as the one on the bike. If it fails in 36,000 miles, I’ll consider an upgrade.

The ride home was a muggy slog. I beat a line of nasty thunderstorms home by about 45 minutes. All the way I was wishing that I had put Speedplay Frogs on Little Nellie. That will have to wait until they come in the mail.

Once home, I wiped off The Mule’s rear tire and took it off. I pulled the tube from the wheel and inflated it until it was supesized. No leak anywhere. This same thing happened to the rear wheel on Big Nellie a few weeks ago. Not finding anything sticking through the tire itself, I put everything back together and pumped up the tire. Maybe the valve is bad. I’ll know in the morning.

Bike Shop Monday

Big Nellie is cursed. About every other summer, Big Nellie ends up at the bike shop for repairs for weeks. During the last few rides, the steering on Big Nellie has been erratic. I can’t quite explain it but it is definitely not right. Sometimes it feels as if the front wheel is going to disconnect from the bike. Other times it seems like the front wheel is riding in a rut in the road. So I took the bike to my local bike shop. There was a long line for repairs, this being a holiday and good weather.

As happened yesterday, the mechanic could find nothing obviously wrong. So he took the bike for a test ride. I thought I would have to give him some tips because riding a long wheel base recumbent is entirely different from riding a regular bike. This mechanic however worked for several years in a bike shop in Portland Maine where he frequently worked on Tour Easy recumbents. I couldn’t believe my luck.

After his test ride he still wasn’t sure what I was finding wrong with the steering so we decided to do some exploratory surgery. (Frankly, I am scared to ride the thing at this point.) It could be a problem with the headset, the bearings or the fork inside the tubing of the bike. Hopefully, he won’t find something fatal like a crack in the head tube. Fingers crossed.

I went home and decided to go for a ride on The Mule. The Mule has conventional pedals and straps and after five miles I missed the Speedplay Frogs on Big Nellie. So I decided to ride to REI and get anothe pair. It was in the 90s and my ride took me across Alexandria, a hilly ride. I used the new bicycle lane on King Street. It’s painted a bright green and looks pretty spiffy.

REI was pretty busy. I tried some Keen cycling sandals while waiting for a sales person. They looked really wide but felt horrible on my feet. Luckily a sales person appeared because I was in buy mode and lord knows what I would have found to haul home if I waited any longer. The clerk went looking for the Frogs and came back empty handed.

Fail.

I rode home but stopped at The Dairy Godmother in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria. I consumed a root beer float. They didn’t have any more vanilla ice cream so they made my float with caramel heath bar ice cream. I am pretty sure this concoction is on the short list to be classified as a controled substance by the Food and Drug Administration.

When I got home, I ordered some Frogs online. (For some reason, REY doesn’t include them in its online catalogue. Their loss.)

Tomorrow it’s back to work. By bike, of course.

Very Interesting but…

I have now logged about 90 miles using Speedplay Frog pedals on Big Nellie my Tour Easy recumbent. This is a progress report on my frogitude.

Frogs are a kind of clipless pedal system. A cleat on the sole of your shoe clicks into a fitting on the pedal. This supposedly gives you more pedalling efficiency. Frogs are reputed to be the kindest pedals for your knees. Since I have knees of glass this is an important consideration. Frogs are knee friendly because they have free float. This means you foot can swivel a whole lot without detaching your shoe from the pedal.

Years ago I tried a Look pedal system on my old Trek 1200 road bike. The Look cleats allowed lots of float. I used them for an entire summer and never much liked them. The float felt like I was pedalling on ice.

Most recumbent riders says that clipless cleats should be put as far back on your shoe as possible. (Some recumbent riders even expand the holes in the sole with a Dremel tool so that the cleat can go even farther back.) I positioned the cleats all the way back and went for a 20-mile ride.

For some reason this cleat position aggravated a nerve condition in my left foot. For my second 15-mile ride, I moved the left cleat forward a bit. This felt better. So I rode the bike to work on Wednesday and Thursday.

Bottom line: I like Frogs. They feel like they aren’t there. This is great until you need to get a foot on the ground and your brain says, “Oh, yeah, I gotta unclip.” I haven’t pulled an Arte Johnson side flop yet but I’ve come close three or four times.

(Side flops are not that big a deal on a recumbent because you have much less farther to fall.)

Another aspect of Frogs that I like is the fact that I don’t have to expend any energy keeping my feet on the pedals. This is not much of an issue on a conventional bike when the pedals are directly beneath you but on a recumbent your feet are out in front of you. With my old platform pedals, I was unconsciously curling my toes to maintain pressure on the pedals. No need to do that with Frogs. My feet are attached.

The forward position of my feet on Big Nellie means that my feet are not bearing much weight, unlike a conventional bike. This means that I don’t get that ice feeling that I disliked with the Look pedals.

My pedalling is a little more efficient making me about a mile per hour faster. This is a nice little bonus.

One thing I wasn’t expecting was the fact that being bound to the pedals makes the bike feel different. Big Nellie already felt like a street luge when going downhill but the Frogs extend that feeling to the flats. Going around curves is a gas.

It looks like the Frogs are a keeper. I need to do a long ride to see if the nerve problem is gone but for now I am pretty happy. I’ll probably try them on Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist next.

So as Arte Johnson said, “Very interesting…”

Bike to Work Day T-Shirt.

I missed Bike to Work Day (BTWD) this year. Instead I drove 8 hours in a rainstorm to go to my son’s college graduation. (The graduation was great. The rain not so much.) I signed up for BTWD anyway because I bike to work most other days (like today). Lucky for me I could still pick up the 2014 BTWD t-shirt at the Arlington County Commuter Store across the street from work. I now have red, light blue, dark blue, white, orange, light green, dark green and white BTWD t-shirts in addition to this coral one. (I missed out on the year with the purple shirt.)

Most of my BTWD t-shirts are stretched beyond wearability. I still wear them though because I need to maintain my reputation as a fashion disaster. My red one is currently doing service as a shop rag.

Back to Clipless

Today I returned to my back doctor. For the last five days my back has felt pretty normal. My back doctor checked out my MRI. I have a moderate bulging disc that is the likely cause of my recent problems.

We don’t know if my back is getting better or the medications are keeping me out of pain. There is only one way to find out. I am gradually tapering my medications for the next week or so. If my back problems return, I’ll go back to the doctor for a cortisone shot. If they don’t return, I’ll call the doctor and tell him thanks.

Among my recurring symptoms are a burning sensation in my left hip and an aching sensation in my left knee. They hurt enough that they wake me up at anout 5 every morning. So I decided to give clipless pedals a try. I know three people who use Speedplay Frog pedals and they all swear by them.

Yesterday I got the left pedal off my bike and installed a Frog pedal in its place. The right pedal simply would no t budge. After my doctor appointment, I took Big Nellie to Spokes Etc. at Belle Haven. Fred, one of the mechanics there, has been working on my bikes for over 25 years. He pulled out a long pedal wrench and had the old pedal off in less than 20 seconds.

When I got the bike home, I took the bike out for a trial ride. I did 20 miles and didn’t fall over once. I think I need to tweak the left pedal cleat because my foot was a little achy after the ride.

I liked the feel of these pedals after only ten miles. My hope is the foot ache will go away when I move the cleat forward a bit.

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