Tag: recumbent

Horse Dentists and Wonky Wheels

Yesterday I rode the Great Pumpkin Ride in Fauquier County, Virginia. I have a closet full of the shirts they give out to attendees so I am pretty sure I’ve ridden this event more than a dozen times. The long-sleeved, lightweight shirts are made of technical fabric; they are excellent base layers for cold winter rides.

On Friday night, I stayed up to watch Game 2 of the World Series. I woke up before my alarm at about 4:45. Nothing like riding a 62-mile event when sleep deprived, I always say. After persuading Big Nellie onto my bike rack in the dark, I drove an hour to Warrenton and checked in a little after 7:30. The temperature was a toasty 33 degrees. Ugh.

While waiting around I found myself in conversation with another rider with an interesting English accent. He told me when he came to this country many years ago he worked as a jockey. He raced at east coast venues like Saratoga. After his riding days were over he became a horse dentist. Open wide! He goes from place to place filing down the irregularities on horses’ teeth which allows them to chew their hay better. Who knew? He loves his work. To each his own I suppose.

At 9 we set off, a mass start on a narrow rail trail. I waited a bit to avoid the insanity so I waited for most of the field to get underway. Being a slowpoke and the only recumbent in the field I took care to avoid the impatient lycra-clad roadies who were desperate to set a record on the ride. (I am pretty sure these are the same people who stand as soon as the plane reaches the gate.) Ugh again. In prior years I’ve seen these same folks crash along the course. No two-wheeled karma this year though. I suppose there is hope for the future.

In the past the course took a counter-clockwise route but this year it was reversed. The familiar seems novel when seen from a different perspective. Mostly we rode through farmland, post-harvest and pre-peak foliage. The pallet was dominated by brown leaves and fields of dirt offset by sunny blue skies. (Sorry no pictures. I was busy suffering.)

The first eight miles headed more or less downhill and east into the rising sun. Visibility was difficult. I was cruising down one hill at about 25 miles per hour when out of the sunlight I saw a road rider coming my way. WTF! He must have dropped something but he was unaware that he was backlit and nearly invisible.

The next eight miles were rolling hills through farmland. I noticed that my pedals felt funny on the uphills. Onward. I came to the first rest stop (normally one of the last) at 16.5 miles. I was expecting in a few miles later but grateful as I had a need for a blue room visit. With temperatures soaring into the mid 40s (thankfully it wasn’t windy) I changed into shorts and a vest then joined the long line for relief. The wait was about 15 minutes. Not wanting another 15 minute wait for food, I grabbed a quarter bagel from the crowded food table and set out into a more wooded section of the course.

As I negotiated each hill, that funny feeling in my pedals returned. On hills I use my granny gear, with the chain on the smallest chainring in front. The low gear creates some slack in the chain. The slack is taken up by an idler roughly under my seat.

The ride progressed uneventfully. I managed to avoid two wrong turns along the way. The terrain was rolling. With each climb that funny feeling while pedaling returned. Is my pedal or crank arm coming loose? The more I rode, the worse the feeling became. It became clear that the problem was emanating from the rear of the bike. Was my cassette (the cluster of gears in the back) coming apart? Oddly, the chain wasn’t skipping across the cogs; it was completely disengaging.

The problem worsened. I stopped using my granny gear, opting for my middle chain ring for climbing. After a few miles, the chain problem began to happen in that chainring as well. I’d been riding bikes with gears for over 50 years but nothing like this had ever happened before.

After the rolling wooded area, the course flattened out a bit. An small oncoming SAG (Support and Gear) car came by. The driver could see that I was distressed and asked if I needed help. I waved him off but he did a u-turn and pulled over to make sure I was okay. We agreed that I would continue on to a rest stop in the town of Remington where a bigger SAG vehicle could give me a ride to the finish.

As I continued to ride, I though that maybe the problem was with the rear wheel itself. I made it to a half mile before the rest stop when the back of my bike went totally wonky on the short rise to a railroad crossing. I pulled over and inspected the rear end of the bike. I picked up the back of the bike and the rear wheel dropped off! Somehow the quick release on the wheel had become disengaged. The chain had been keeping the wheel from falling off while I was riding. Dang.

Doing roadside repairs on a long wheel base recumbent is difficult. I managed to get the chain entangled with the right brake pad and to knock the left brake pad cassette out of its holder. I wrestled with the chain, then after a couple of attempts, during which I wrenched my lower back, I seated the rear axle into the frame. Finally, I coaxed the left brake pad back into its proper orientation. I lifted the wheel and gave it a spin. Bob’s your uncle.

Crossing the tracks, I immediately took a wrong turn, adding a half mile to my ride. Eventually, I found the pit stop where the SAG drivers were breaking down the food tables. (No soup for you!) They had heard about the recumbent rider in distress and were ready to help me out. No need, gentlemen. I thanked them and headed out for the next six or seven miles along the rail line, blissfully devoid of hills.

Since we rode downhill out of Warrenton at the start, it was only fair that we’d ride uphill to the finish. I felt very sluggish as I rode. At one point I stopped to see if my rear wheel was properly aligned. No problem. Right as rain. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to ride 62 miles on a quarter bagel and a Clif bar. Ya think?

On the way home I dropped off Big Nellie for some TLC at Bikes at Vienna. Take care of my baby, Tim.

As for riding, I’ll do better next Saturday when The Mule and I take on the Washington Area Bicyclists Association’s 60-mile Cider Ride. Stay tuned and check those quick release levers, y’all.

Big Nellie near the starting line (at the caboose in the background).

Agin’ and Ragin’

At my 25th high school reunion my classmates and I lined up for lunch. The line next to us comprised the 50th year alumni. Overhearing their conversations, I couldn’t help but laugh. All they talked about was the diseases and operations they had been dealing with.

Of course, now that I am at the tail end of my 60s, I am finding that medical woes are the topic du jour no matter where I go. At Friday’s Coffee Club we had three shoulder impingements and one post-op rotator cuff. My shoulder impingement is an interesting diversion from my whiplash recovery (nearly complete), my lumbar spinal stenosis, my wrecked left knee (nothing new), and my recovery from carpal tunnel surgery.

Another thing that seems to be new is my difficulty in dealing with excessive heat and humidity. Aren’t old people supposed to love hot weather? This summer in the DC area has had it usual oppressive, swampy weather. Lately when I finish a ride in “feels like” 109 degrees F, I need to drink a gallon of whatever I get my hands on and take a nap.

You don’t want to know what it feels like. Trust me.

That hourly chart makes me super glad I hired out lawn mowing this year.

It’s at least ten degrees cooler inside this outbuilding on Capitol Hill.

The heat and humidity does provide us with some entertainment. We routinely have raging thunderstorms. The other day I was doing a 50-mile ride on Big Nellie when I came upon a tree that had fallen across the Anacostia River Trail in DC. Fortunately, a young whippersnapper (in the green jersey below) helped me by hefting my bike over the tree and sent me on my way.

Another recent storm dropped a tree from my neighbor’s property into my backyard. Most of what fell in my yard was from the top of the tree. My neighbor was not at all concerned that his rotted tree had left a mess in my yard. Thanks, pal. I decided to return the wood to its rightful owner and threw it over the fence onto his derelict property.

The other night another line of storms came through. A tornado warning was posted for the northern edge of DC about 25 miles away. I was sitting in my kitchen when the loudest bang and biggest flash went off right over my house. The floor shuddered. WOW! Somehow the lightning bolt didn’t cause any damage other than my frayed nerves.

The heat and humidity does bring some interesting flora. The lotuses, water lilies, and other marsh flowers were in full bloom at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in northeast DC. This, combined with Friday Coffee Club, made for a nice 48-mile jaunt on Big Nellie.

Speaking of Big Nellie, I have gone full on bent, riding it for 460 miles over the last two and a half weeks. My right arm, the one with the impingement, is happy.

A week ago my wife and I signed up to use the newly renovated recreation center three miles from home. I used to go there to lift weights before the pandemic. It had a crummy little weight room but it served my purposes. The renovated weight room is massive, with brand new equipment. Lifting helped my riding, especially during my recovery from pulmonary embolisms back in the winter of 2017 and 2018. I use only upper body machines with very light weight. I concentrate on going very slowly. One interesting result is that my upper back can now comfortably lean back when I am sitting. This makes for a much more efficient and comfortable ride on my recumbent.

Tone for my nap….

Cookin’ in June 2025

Weather

We’ve been dealing with heat waves and violent thunderstorms. One of the latter dropped a tree that partly fell into my yard. I worked on cleaning it up and hacking back invasive vines for an hour and was soaked in sweat by the end. I did another assault on run-away vegetation a week later and looked like I had jumped in a pool. I have a method that keeps me from doing too much; I own three 30-gallon garbage cans. Once they are filled with clippings and other debris, I stop. One more round of yard work to go and I can find another way to trash my aging bones.

Bicycling

I had three unstated goals this month. One was to reach 5,000 miles for the year. I ended the month at 5,211 miles. Yay me. I wanted to hit some thousand-mile milestones on my bikes. I hit 33,000 miles on the Tank, my Surly CrossCheck, on June 5. Five days later I hit 52,000 miles on Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent. On June 25, I hit 80,000 miles on The Mule, my Specialized Sequoia touring bike. My last goal was to hit 1,000 miles for the month. This may seem like a lot but I’ve done it every year since I retired in 2017. This year I fell short by hitting only 50 miles. I guess it helps to be on a tour.

I spent the last week of the month on my recumbent to get my “bent” legs back. Recumbents stress different parts of your body so they do take some getting used to after riding conventional bikes for over a month. Once I get dialed in, and have no other problems, I’ll test ride some tadpole (two wheels in front) trikes.

Reading

1776 by David McCullough. The story of the rag tag US Continental Army’s fight against a massive British force augmented by Hessian mercenaries. British General Howe had the US forces in his hip pocket at New York but let them escape. The ultimate outcome, American independence, according to McCullough, “seemed little short of a miracle.” My last McCullough book. Not a bad one in the lot.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. The plot focuses on the coming of age of two girls in a working class neighborhood in 1950s Naples. Both are intellectually gifted. Their relationship evolves as they grow into their middle-teen years. Their lives become intertwined with their family and neighbors. Basically, it’s a soap opera. It sold extremely well and was praised by critics. I suppose if I had read it in one sitting I’d have liked it much more but, in the end, it wasn’t for me.

Watching

Good Night and Good Luck – CNN broadcast a live performance of this Broadway play about Edward R. Murrow’s confrontation with Senator Joseph McCarthy. It is based on the film of the same name In the film Murrow was played by David Strathairn, one of my favorite actors. Strathairn is now 76 years old so he’s aged out of the part which is taken by writer/producer George Clooney. (Clooney played Fred Friendly, Murrow’s boss, in the movie.) It was very well done. The sound, staging, and acting were all first rate. It shares one rather depressing thing with the Beatles’s Get Back. Like George Harrison in that film, Murrow is constantly smoking. Murrow died in his 50s from lung cancer. (The cloud of cigarette smoke from virtually every cast member is constant.) Harrison died from throat cancer that spread to his brain. The whole time I was watching I wanted to reach into the television and slap the cigarettes out of their mouths.

Mat Ryder Unplugged – Mat’s editing pal Ross made a 3-hour video from the massive content documenting his ride across America. This one has no commentary or music, just ambient sounds. Watching this I am a bit amazed that I rode across the continent at the ripe young age of 62. Mat also produced three new, shorter videos. One was about overhauling his bike. Another about his plans to ride mostly off-road from Land’s End to John O’Groats, the length of Great Britain. The third was about how he and Ross did a day tour riding the perimeter of the Isle of Wight.

Washington Nationals – The Nats went into a tailspin transforming from a promising team to one of the worst teams in the National League. They have a legitimate, emerging superstar in James Wood, and a couple of good starting pitchers who I pray won’t have arm problems. Where have you gone, Tony Two-Bags?

Trikes – I’ve watched countless videos on the various aspects of trikes, So many decisions: folding or not, will a rear rack impede the fold. drum or disc brakes, direct or indirect steering, three small wheels or two small ones up front and a big one in back. How would I carry stuff? Where does the water go? How will I transport it? Is the seat adjustable? Should I get one with an electric assist? It’ll probably come down to which one I like to ride the most.

Medical Merri-Go-Round

I noticed an odd looking spot near my left elbow last week. I am paranoid about getting skin cancer from my thousands of hours outdoors so I went to a dermatologist for a skin screening. It was a nothing burger. I’m of Irish and English ancestry so I burn easily. Nobody (that I know of) in my family has had skin cancer. Weird.

I continue to deal with pain in my right arm that resulted from my topple over crash on the Streetmachine that I test rode last month. Somedays I feel only mild discomfort. Other days my arm is screaming at me. I thought about going for physical therapy or I could just save myself the hassle, frustration, and expense and let time do its thing.

The Continuing Adventures of Johnny Two Bents – Recumbent Test Pilot

Today was test ride number 3. After a false start, I skipped doing laps in my neighborhood and headed straight out to the main road near my house. Unfortunately, my new wireless bike computer didn’t get the message so I stopped after a half mile to try to fix it. It started then stopped then stayed on. I have no idea why it worked perfectly for the first two test rides and now was glitchy. Maybe the battery in the sensor is worn out. Time will tell.

I rode over to and across the GW Parkway. No cars were coming so I didn’t get to test my starting skills. They need work as you will see below.

I headed north toward Old Town, Alexandria by way of Fort Hunt Road. This is a 35 mph two-lane road. It features a quarter mile long downhill. I feathered the brakes and kept the top speed to 25 mph (I could easily hit 35 with more confidence.) There was a traffic light at the bottom but I had the green so once again I didn’t get to practice starting from a standstill. Over the next half mile I climbed up two small hills. Another traffic light failed to cooperate so I rode unimpeded all the way to Old Town. I encountered still another traffic light at South Washington Street. This too was green. I was beginning to think my Streetmachine had some sort of traffic light sensor on it.

I rode under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge passing through some bollards without clipping them, up Union Street, and across two sets of railroad tracks without stopping or any other incidents. I picked up the Mount Vernon Trail and rode through a chicane at a decommissioned power plant (every bike trail should have one.) Here I encountered the world’s slowest pedestrian, a young man deep in conversation on his cell phone. I couldn’t pass him because we were approaching a blind curve. (Good thing I didn’t because a bike was coming our way.) I slowed and stopped for Mr. Cellphone. When I stopped I was in the middle of a cloud of midges. Ack. It took a couple of attempts but once Mr. C cleared the blind curve I was underway again and free of the bugs.

I made it to Daingerfield Island, a convenient turn around point. Before the ride, my friend Charmaine had invited me to have lunch at a pizza place on busy Duke Street but I told her I needed to do more test riding and Duke Street is a car sewer, unsafe for test riding. She hooked up with Reba, a mutual friend. They both are bicyclists and were interested in seeing the Streetmachine. After hanging out for a bit on the Island’s river side deck, I texted Charmaine that I was heading back south.

After a couple more false starts I was underway. The ride back was a piece of cake. No issues at all. I stopped a few times to drink water and got underway with just a wobble or two each time. I crossed the GW Parkway again. I made it halfway across and had to stop at the traffic island in the middle. I made it across the second half of the highway with nary a wobble at the start.

My route took me mostly on the relatively narrow Mount Vernon Trail. I managed the width much more confidently than yesterday.

I shifted to neighborhood streets with little traffic. As I approached Fort Hunt Park I heard someone call my name. Charmaine and Reba had tracked me down by borrowing my wife’s cell phone which has a tracking app. Clever.

We had a nice chat. Then they wanted me to show off my skills. I started to push off with my right foot and lost my balance to the right. I pulled my foot off the pedal to arrest my tilt. To my surprise. my right shoelace had somehow wrapped around the pedal. When I pulled my foot off, it yanked the bike sideways and down I went. Hard, bearing most of the impact on my upper right arm. Ow.

After the appropriate interval of cussing and pain assessment, I stood up and righted the bike. The bike didn’t have a scratch on it. Me not so much. I had a nasty straight line cut above my left ankle (from either a pedal or the big cog on my chainring). I also had some road rash near my right knee. Reba, being a nurse, insisted that I clean my wounds and even provided some unopened bottle water and clean paper towels.

Once I cleaned up I got going and did a few turns for my audience. Then we parted ways and I rode into the park. Oddly, my front derailer stopped working. The shifter kept slipping into my (easiest) granny gear. I stopped and checked the cable. All good. I tried riding holding the shifter in place but found this annoying and let the chain drop onto the granny gear for the last three miles of my ride.

There is a silver lining in these clouds. Since I was stuck in my small chainring, I discovered that starting in the granny gear is quite a bit easier than using the middle or large chainrings.

Interestingly, the distractions of the computer and the shifter meant that I wasn’t paying much attention to my riding technique. I was riding on automatic pilot and the last couple of miles went by very smoothly.

I called Tim Fricker for advice about the shifter. He explained a simple adjustment was all that was needed.

As for the bike computer, I’ll probably put a new battery in. If that doesn’t work, I’ll take it back to the shop.

Another 31 miles in the books. Tomorrow, another nice weather day, will be the final test ride. Hopefully, I will keep the rubber side down for this one.

A Better Ride

Today’s weather was good enough for another test ride of the Streetmachine. To be honest, after Saturday’s 31-mile ride, I had very low expectations. In fact, I had all but decided to take the bike back to Bikes at Vienna, tip my helmet to Tim Fricker for letting me try it out for a week, and moving on.

The ride started with yet another precarious bike mounting. I then rode the 3/4 of a mile circuit around my neighborhood. I made it a point to consciously keep my shoulders against the seat back, something I didn’t do on Saturday. Within a couple hundred yards I could tell the bike was handling much better. I suppose the change in position had put more weight on the big, fixed rear wheel and less on the underseat handlebars and the small front wheel underneath the seat.

After one lap, I stopped. Instead of planting my left foot, I slid off the front of the seat and popped up to a standing position, just as I had seen in a YouTube video and just as I do on my Tour Easy recumbent. Bingo. I dismounted surprisingly smoothly. After an awkward re-mounting, I slid back on the seat, pushed my shoulders into the seat back, and pedaled. I wobbled a bit but I was underway more or less in a straight line.

As I did another lap I tried to focus on technique. Shoulders back, arms relaxed. Find a comfortable gear. Head up. Success. This time the pop stop worked better. As I slowed to about three miles per hour I slid forward and let the momentum of the bike push me into a standing position.

Now it was time to leave the cozy home loop and try some other skills. I rode to a nearby neighborhood and went down about eight different cul de sacs. Initially, I tried to consciously steer the bike with the handlebars. Nope. After a few 180s I learned the secret. Pedal, lean, relax. Let the bike do the work instead of my arms. Success. After a few left handed 180s, I did a few right handed ones. No problem.

I rode over to Fort Hunt Park and took the bike on less-than-perfect road conditions: asphalt with some gravel, slick spots, and tight squeezes through orange traffic barrels. After a couple of 1.75 mile laps I had things down. I also learned that after the pop stop I could easily reach my water bottles. While I’d prefer to drink while riding, I don’t think that’s a skill I am ready for just yet.

I left the park headed into two more neighborhoods, each with a circuit and a small hill. As I rode and gained confidence, each passing mile was a bit faster. I did notice that if I was distracted I tended to drift a bit. A few times I seemed to be headed for a curb. Relax. Lean. Recover.

Next up was a bigger downhill and uphill. The downhill was a little sketchy (I tensed up) but the uphill was straightforward using the granny gear.

The last challenge of the day was crossing the George Washington Parkway. I was in a too-high gear and my bike was pointed up about one degree making the initial push of the pedal difficult. After a couple of false starts, I made it across easily.

The last mile or so my form deteriorated. I can’t say I was tired physically but my mental focus was pretty much gone. I turned onto my street, rode past my house and did a low-speed u-ey. I didn’t quite have the room to complete the turn and ended up pivoting on my left foot. Bad idea. My knee did not like it one bit and is barking a few hours later but I am sure it’s fine.

So lessons learned: (1) the pop stop means that my left hip doesn’t bear nearly as much stress as on my first rides. (2) The bigger stress to my left hip comes from my awkward mounting of the bike, not the dismounts. (3) The more I ride, the better my technique becomes. After Sunday’s ride, I was exhausted from mental stress and my upper body was spent from trying to physically control the bike. After today’s ride, I finished feeling very good both mentally and physically. My upper body was not the least bit tense.

Another thing that is working well is my choice of pedals. I took the Catalyst pedals off The Mule and put them on the Streetmachine. These pedals are extra long and have grippy studs. My feet are pretty happy.

So, tomorrow afternoon, I do another test ride. This one likely will feature bigger hills and more starts at road crossings.

Stay tuned.

Hip Don’t Lie

This week I was planning on test riding the HP Velotechnik Streetmachine I have on loan from Bikes at Vienna. Since I do not own the bike, I am being careful not to ride it in rainy weather. I did manage to ride it in gusty conditions during my 31-mile test ride the other day. The bike handled just fine. The weather forecast for the last two days has called for intermittent rain so I haven’t ridden it since.

Yesterday I decided to ride the Tank, my Surly CrossCheck instead. The reason was twofold. First, I don’t much care if the Tank gets messed up with rain. Second, I needed to test out a problem I had after my Streetmachine test ride. It involved sharp pain in my left hip.

Back in 2019, I rode The Mule 3,000 miles from Indiana to San Francisco. My left knee and hip were screaming at me the entire way. When I returned home I had a series of cortisone shots that put things right. An MRI revealed that my left knee has very little cartilage in it. I suspect that several crashes on my bikes which nearly always involve a fall to the left have damaged my hip as well. As long as I am careful and refrain from mashing big gears, both the hip and the knee behave themselves.

After riding the Streetmachine, the sharp pain in my left hip returned. Aside from my decrepit anatomy, the cause could come from a number of factors.

First, when I stop the bike, I have to put my left foot down. I need my right foot ready for the first pedal stroke at start up because my left knee won’t tolerate the initial mashing. Also, the seat is rather high so when I stop, the bike leans hard to the left. The bike (and the engine) are quite heavy. I suspect this weight is part of the problem. When I stop the Tank, also a heavy bike, I only put my left toe down because much of the weight is borne by the wheels. My body weight is mostly on my arms and my right foot which is pushing on the right pedal. On tour, there’s an additional 30 or 40 pounds of gear to add to the equation. Thus, the pain during my 2019 ride.

Another issue with the Streetmachine is the process of getting started. Getting rolling is ungainly to say the least. It usually takes me two or three tries to get rolling. Each time I have to start, I have to re-weight my left hip.

A third possible issue is the shape of the seat. The sides of the seat curve up. When I stop my left hip bumps awkwardly into this curve.

Finally, when I get off the bike, I swing my right foot over the front of the bike, supporting the bike and all my weight on my left foot. I then pivot on my left foot toward the rear of the bike. This spinning motion probably adds stress to the left hip.

My wife took a short video of me riding away from the house the other day. I rode down my front lawn, over some root heaves, and into the street. The bike was quite stable but I noticed in the video that my shoulders and head were leaning forward. All the videos I have seen online show the riders’ shoulders pressed against the seat back. So I might just not be riding the bike properly. Given my lower back issues, this may not be correctible.

The forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday looks pretty good. My plan is to take the Streetmachine to a local park and practice starting and stopping, mounting and dismounting. I will also try to concentrate on committing to the seat with my shoulders more.

I have until Friday to make a final decision. Fingers crossed.

Use the Force, Luke

Yesterday I brought the Streetmachine home on a garage sale, trunk bike rack. I had concerns that it might end up falling off the car on the Beltway but all went splendidly. At home, I made a few adjustments to the mirror, bell, and bike computer and rode around the block a few times. With each lap, I mounted and dismounted the bike. I am proud to say that I didn’t fall once.

I used the YouTuber’s mounting technique which worked well. Take hold of the seatback and stand up tall. Tilt the bike a wee bit toward you then lift your foot over the boom and plop it on the opposite side. Done. For dismounts both the YouTuber and Melissa use a spin move that takes the right foot over the cranks and ends up with you facing backward. It’s actually easier than getting on.

I had heard that stopping would be a problem because the seat is somewhat higher than most recumbents. That extra inch or so before the left foot hits the ground will take some getting used to but it’s not a big deal.

Starting the bike is another matter. You push forward with the right foot then quickly lift your left foot off the ground so that it can complete the pedal stroke and send you merrily on your way. If you don’t succeed, gravity may send you not so merrily onto your left side. This sort of thing happens with all bikes but the twicthy underseat steering adds a bit of excitement to the process. If you fail and put you foot back down you can start again, of course, unless the procedure leaves you in the middle of an intersection with an Amazon van bearing down on you.

To start the ride today, I rolled down the front lawn and over a half dozen tree roots. The suspension made easy work of the bumps. I rode what I call the perimeter ride, a circuit around the Mount Vernon neighborhood. It features plenty of curves and a few very gentle inclines.

In Fort Hunt Park I encountered a couple of short stretches where the asphalt was torn up. The Streetmachine handled the gravel and bumps without trouble.

During the entire ride, I had flashbacks to when I first rode a bike without training wheels. I kept feeling like I was going to fall over. I could feel my shoulders rising up whenever some normally innocuous situation arose. Sit back, relax, and trust the physics!

One cool feature of this bike’s design is that you can pedal through turns because the pedals are high up and half a leg length in front of the front wheel. Once I realized this, turns became much less scary. And more fun.

The ride did highlight some other interesting aspects of the bike. Most bikes have the front wheel in front of the rider. The Streetmachine’s front wheel is beneath the seat. This means that the wheel encounters bumps a split second after it normally would. Tim Fricker, the Bikes at Vienna owner who is letting me do a week-long test ride, mentioned that one odd thing about underseat steering is that people are used to steering cars and bikes with their hands in front of them.

It’s ironic that today’s entire ride was stressful. I don’t have the muscle memory for this kind of bike so I have to think about every little thing. I have to keep reminding myself, sometimes out loud, to relax. Use the force, Luke.

You can carry pretty much anything you need on this bike. Unlike all my other bikes, everything you need is behind the seat. There’s nowhere to put stuff in front of you. In a way this is a good thing since you will be fully immersed in the riding experience. This came in handy when the driver of a humongous SUV back up into the road in front of me without looking.

About 20 miles into the ride, I tried out the Mount Vernon Trail. It is substantially narrower than the road so this was not a trivial exercise for the wobbly newbie. Along the way I stopped to help Jonathan and Shareen (sp?) fix a flat on Jonathan’s bike. It turns out the pump that I bought and don’t like is pretty useful on skinny tires.

Fixed it!

April 2025 – The Not So Cruel Month

Reading

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green. Green is famous for writing several, very good young adult novels, including The Fault in Our Stars. Lately, he has shifted to adult nonfiction. This nonfiction work explains pretty much everything you’d want to know about TB, and then some. TB is very rare in the developed world but continues to kill over 1.2 million people per year worldwide, despite the existence of effective medicines. The causes of this situation are poverty, social stigma, poor medical and non-medical infrastructure, the spread of HIV, and pharmaceutical companies more focused on finances than medical outcomes.

Watching

Daredevil Born Again. Just as Andor is Star Wars for adults, Daredevil Born Again is Marvel for adults. A complex plot that evolves over nine episodes (with nine more to come). It tells how blind lawyer Matt Murdock is sucked back into vigilantism by the murderous corruption of New York City Mayor Wilson Fisk and his sinister wife Vanessa. Shockingly explicit violence and vulgar language make this series utterly inappropriate for kids. Charlie Cox as Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio as Fisk are exceptional as is the supporting cast.

Andor Season 2: Diego Luna returns as Cassian Andor in this prequel to Rogue One, which tells how Princess Leia obtained the plans for the Empire’s death star in the first Star Wars movie. Over the course of the two seasons, we learn how Andor becomes radicalized in the fight against the Empire. Luna is fantastic as is Stellan Skarsgard (Is he in everything?) and the rest of the cast. Andor and Rogue One are the very best of the Star Wars canon.

Riding

The highlight of the month was my week long van-supported ride up the 444 mile Natchez Trace Parkway with a group of 12 others. The tour itself worked out quite well but was nearly spoiled by some shambolic pre-event administrative by the Adventure Cycling Association.

My back did not handle the tour well, so when I came back home I shifted from The Mule to Big Nellie, my long wheel base recumbent. My back is still messed up but the discomfort that seemed to last all day during the tour is now more intermittent, a welcome development.

On the last day of April, I test rode an HP Velotechik Streetmachine, a short-wheel-base recumbent with under seat steering. It’s quite tricky to ride. I did about ten laps of the parking lot at the bike shop before venturing out on the W&OD bike trail. On the way back to the shop I diverted to a neighborhood street to try my hand at climbing and at riding at speed over speed humps. Climbing was tough (it’s a heavy bike and the pedals were a bit too close for optimal mechanics) but the speed humps were fun thanks to the bike’s suspension system. The seat is higher than my Tour Easy so stopping can be awkward. This seat height also means that getting on and off the bike is challenging and, frankly, a bit scary. I consulted Melissa, a Natchez Trace rider who owns a Streetmachine, for tips. She was very helpful. I am also watching whatever I can on YouTube.

The Streetmachine in one of its seemingly infinite configurations.

Since I have been a regular customer of my local recumbent bike shop for nearly 25 years, the shop owner, Tim, is letting me test ride the bike for a couple of weeks to make sure I can handle the bike’s unusual characteristics. (I can just see Tim having a heart attack yelling “REFUND? REFUND?!” if I bring the bike back.)

I broke 1,000 miles for the month (1,019 to be exact). The Mule, mostly the bike tour, accounted for 631 miles. Big Nellie chipped in 360 miles. For the year I have racked up 3,458 miles. To be honest I am fast approaching burn out and hope the Streetmachine can put some life back into my riding.

Mid-April Bentabout

Yesterday I spread eight bags of mulch then went for a ride on Little Nellie. I lasted 16 1/2 miles before nasty weather nearby chased me indoors. I rode the equivalent of another 16 miles on Big Nellie in the basement.

Today the weather was perfect. I spread another 8 bags of mulch, ate lunch, and decided it was time to free Big Nellie from its winter perch on the resistance trainer in the cellar.

Big Nellie starts working on her 2024 tan.

I took the inland (away from the Potomac River) toward DC. Near the Pentagon, I discovered that a road reconstruction project was nearing completion. This included a new traffic circle and some new bike multiuse trails. After the traffic circle and the I-395 underpass there’s a second traffic circle. Here the new trail connects to a trail that goes under the GW Parkway and intersects the Mount Vernon Trail at the Humpback Bridge.

The new underpass at the Humpback Bridge. Note the sign says that there is a barrier ahead but the barrier is gone.

After using the underpass I looped up onto the bridge where I saw two bike tourists. They were gazing at the monuments across the river and DC and discussing something. I figured they were trying to find their way somewhere.

I rode on and crossed the Memorial Bridge. Near the Lincoln Memorial I noticed that the tourists had stopped on the trail behind me. I circled back and asked them if they needed help. They said they had just flown into Reagan (note: NOBODY in DC calls National Airport “Reagan”) and were riding to Pittsburgh. Been there. Done that. So I gave them encouragement and some directions then idiotically proceeded to go exactly the way they were going to get on the C&O Canal. (Why didn’t I just say “Follow me”? Derp.)

We rode more or less together along the river past the beach volleyball courts, under the TR Bridge, past the Kennedy Center and the Watergate when I decided to take them past the Swedish Embassy on the Georgetown waterfront. Just before the turn to the embassy we saw signs for the C&O Canal Milepost 0. I had never seen it! It was the perfect photo op.

Dallas tourists Raegan (sic) and Sue near the Lincoln Memorial.
Milepost 0

After the photo I directed them to the Water Street cycletrack. Go thata way. Do not stop until you get to Pittsburgh. (It’s really that easy!)

As for myself, I headed up Rock Creek Park to see the trees leaving out and check out dogwoods and azaleas and wisteria and more. After about ten miles I left the park and headed into Bethesda where I picked up the Capital Crescent Trail and zoomed back down to Georgetown and, eventually, home.

The ride ended up being 53 miles. It is my longest ride since the Cider Ride in early November. Thanks to Big Nellie’s comfy ride, I arrived home not the least bit sore.

Hockey Tape, Duct Tape, Carbon Fiber and Beth

About a month ago, Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent, broke. Literally. The front fork broke off. While I was riding.

This was not fun.

Easy Racers, the manufacturer, has apparently gone out of business. Long before that happened, they put out a recall on the fork on my bike. My fork had something like 30,000 miles on it. What me worry? Doh.

With little hope of success, I conducted a nationwide search for a replacement fork. After a few recumbent bike shops sent me regrets, I had just about given up hope when Peter Stull from Bicycle Man shop in Alfred NY told me he had just what I needed. To be sure that it would work, I had Peter talk directly to Tim Fricker, owner of my somewhat (23-miles away) local recumbent shop, Bikes at Vienna. They determined that the fork would work on my bike but I’d have to replace the headset and the stem. I took Big Nellie out to Vienna and dropped it off.

After the usual delays due to summer backlogs, pandemic supply chain problems, and such, repairs began. Beth, who like Tim and me owns an Easy Racers recumbent, worked on my bike. In addition to replacing the fork, I asked her to replace my chains (it’s a long bike) and the cassette. I also figured I might as well replace the grip shifters that were in very rough shape. For the last year or so, the rubber grippy part was worn off. I’d “fixed” them with hockey tape.

During her work, Beth discovered that my bike needed a whole bunch of other repairs. (Deferred maintenance is my middle name.) The middle chainring was bent. (How I could do this without bending the other two chainrings is a wonder.) One of the crank arms was also bent. My plastic rear fender mount was cracked. (How they could have an obscure part like this lying around is beyond me.) She replaced all three.

Beth also noticed that the brakes worked very poorly (don’t need them if you crash, is my motto) and that all the cables and housings needed to be replaced. I think they were all over 10 years old. Maintenance? Moi? Mais non!

Lastly, Beth could not get my 20-year-old bike computer to work. Considering the fact that it was literally held together with duct tape, I wasn’t surprised. I’ve been searching for a replacement for ages. Sure enough, the store had one in stock.

Before I went out to Vienna to pick up the bike, Beth advised me that it would take an hour to dial in the set up on the bike. The set up on Tour Easys is complicated. As it turned out, she needed to cut the grips on the shifters, replace my bar end mirror, adjust a limit screw on the front derailler, and tweak the handlebar position.

The handlebars need to be a bit higher to allow the bar ends to clear my knees and for my hands to be a bit closer to my body. Beth put in an order for a stem riser that will solve the problem.

I think we could have done what we needed to get done in 20 minutes but as the 43 emails suggest, Beth is rather loquacious. (In this regard and in physical appearance, she very much reminds me of my friend Klarence.) We talked up a storm about our bikes and bike touring. She wants to ride to Key West. I said, “No Way So Hey!” I also told her about my Erie Canal tour which I did on Big Nellie.

With bike repaired and new friend of the wheel acquired, I headed home.

Today, I took Big Nellie out for a test ride.

Sweet!

It needs a few more tweaks. There is an odd intermittent noise from the drivetrain that may have something to do with the cassette. When you replace a worn chain, you should also replace the cassette but, thanks to pandemic supply chain delays, a new cassette was not available. The noise may just be an issue of links and cog teeth meshing improperly. No worries.

The last time I rode this bike I crashed so my steering was a bit tentative. The new handlebar position isn’t terrible but I am looking forward to a more compact steering posture.

The quality of bike computers is generally lousy these days, but the replacement computer seems to be working fine. I’ll keep an eye on this one. (Beth, mindful of my ego, keyed in the mileage – over 45,000 – from my old computer.) I am pretty sure the wheel size is on the generous side but that’s something I can deal with.

Big Nellie back home. Note craptastic duct tape fender extension.

My plastic fenders, with duct tape extensions, are all about keeping my bike and me dry. They are ugly. Beth wanted to replace them.

I declined but in the course of the email conversation she learned that I had stashed in my shed an Easy Racers carbon fiber front fender. Beth owns a Ti Rush, the titanium version of my bike, that retailed for 2 and a half times the price of my bike. It is a thing of beauty and weighs nothing. It also has a stiffer seat back and can go faster miles an hour.

One of these days I’m going to steal it.

In the meantime, it needs fancy fenders. I gave her mine.