Ani's new Felt

My daughter Ani wanted a new bike for Christmas, and said she wanted one just like Dad's. Nothing could have made me happier than seeing her getting into cycling on a more serious level than what her previous department store bike could offer.

Walt at Contees hooked us up with a 24" Felt. It's a sweet ride...much better than any bike I owned when I was eight. It has STI shifters and even a carbon fork. This was the first time Ani rode a bike with gears. After a few minutes she was shifting effortlessly, and wanting to pick up the speed. We maxed out at fifteen miles an hour...not bad for her first ride! We got one day of riding in before the blizzard dumped a foot of snow on Connecticut, but we're already planning our first long ride. Look out Lance...

Pittsburgh Walk and Bike

Check out this inspiring film about eco-friendly transport in Pittsburgh. It would be nice to see this kind of support for biking and walking in Newport News.

Hill Riding and Clean Bikes in Connecticut

Oh to be a bike in Stonington, Connecticut...

The semester is finally over, so as we do most holidays, my wife and I headed for Stonington, CT. This is a beautiful little town on the coast, right between Mystic (think Julia Roberts in Mystic Pizza) and the Rhode Island border. I always look forward to these trips...especially for the cycling. The roads around Stonington give riders a nice variety of everything from flat stretches to some serious hills.

The trip north was fraught with snow and ice though, so I was a little concerned about the cycling possibilities:

The bikes, being on top of the car, took a real beating. I wish I had taken a picture of them, as they were caked in some serious salt and road grime. The guys at the local bike shop, Mystic Cycle Centre, said they had never seen road bikes so dirty. I was actually really concerned they may have taken some permanent damage, but the guys at the shop did an amazing job cleaning them up.

I opted for the "deluxe tune up." The price seemed a little spendy, but damned if it wasn't deluxe. The bike was cleaner than when I bought it, and ran smoother and quieter than a fixed gear...I thought I was running Sram Red. The guys at MCC were super friendly, and had the bikes back to me in less than twenty four hours. So I did what any self respecting cyclist would do...I headed out for a twenty five mile test ride. It was beautiful, but after riding in Tidewater Virginia for the last six months, my legs weren't used to the hills. I felt like Jan Ullrich trying to catch Lance on the Alpe d'huez.

I was so inspired after the ride, I decided to take a few pictures of the clean bike with my new itouch:

Spoke View

Dead Powered

Not that impressive to most, but I felt like I was flying:

Rainy Ride

I'm certainly not the first to say that there is never bad weather, just bad clothes.

On this dreary rainy Sunday I hooked the Burley trailer up to my fixed gear, and headed out to the grocery store. The bike can even transform a day like this into something magical. It was a beautiful ride...the crisp December air, with drops of rain on my face, made the ride an invigorating adventure!

When I got home, the following get up kept me as dry as a bone, and I was much happier than when I left:

Salomon Gore Tex shoes

REI waterproof pants

fisherman's foul weather gear jacket (I got this for ten bucks at a thrift store in Beverly, MA)

Specialized skull cap (to keep the ears toasty)

Bike Nashbar waterproof helmet cover (the ole noggin even stayed dry)

fleece gloves

For a few bucks even the weather can't stop you from going by bike.

The caravan

The thing that is more interesting than an xtracycle pulling a baby trailer parked next to two sleek performance oriented fixed gear bikes (which is a combination that looks something like this video ) is that Chris "the ladies man" Putney is making eyes at my eleven month old daughter.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Ride

Tony and Chris joined Veda and me for a quick ride up to Panera for breakfast. It's amazing how such a short ride (about a mile and a half) turns a rather mundane weekend ritual into an exciting adventure. I ask this question quite a bit on my blog, but why would you take a car, when going by bike is this much fun? Here we are navigating through CNU's campus.

Note the absence of any students. With exams being over, and the holidays approaching, the sight seeing wasn't the best. There were, however, quite a few crappy Wal-Mart bikes left alone in the bike racks around campus...you know, the ones that have terrible geometry, look like some mix between a full suspension mtn. bike and the Millennium Falcon, shift like a 1980 Ford Pinto, and are heavier than John Candy after a Thanksgiving meal.

Track standin'

Gunslingers waiting for the green light....

Bike Bus

I don't know which is a cooler way to get around town...a fixed gear bike or a trippy looking Westfalia bus...though either one is sure to catch the ire of both soccer moms and the men in blue.

Wheels4Life

Check out the great work Wheels 4 Life is doing:

and if you feel like supporting a good cause this holiday season, go to http://www.wheels4life.org/

Tour de France Training?

I wasn't going to post anymore today until I ran across this picture of Andy Schleck doing god knows what to a poor sheep. Who could pass up the opportunity to aid this picture in its travels around the blogosphere?

Now I know why he was following Contador so closely up the Col du Tourmalet in this year's Tour de France. Alberto better watch out in 2011...that is if he can beat his own meat packing charges.

"She's the Schznit"

After that last post, depicting some arguably unstable youths in San Francisco speeding down Potrero Hill in San Francisco on fixed gear bikes, I bring you a real fixed gear rider. This looks like the future for my daughter Veda and her good friend Charlotte.

"...variable gears are only for people over forty five."

~Henri Desgrange (founder of the Tour de France)

Potrero Hill Bombing (SF)

Some crazy fixie riders have taken to bombing down Potrero Hill in San Francisco. I thought my legs spun fast trying to keep up with Tony on Snake Hollow in Newport News. I don't know whether to be impressed with their skills, or be disgusted at their flagrant lack of concern for their own safety (note that they have no helmets, no brakes- one of the dumb asses is surprised that he has a hole in his tire, and run a stop sign which results in one of them almost getting hit by a car). I found myself hoping the video would end like this:

Potrero Hill Bombing from Lester Lyons-Hookham on Vimeo.

Motorists Overwhelmingly the Problem

A new study shows that motorists were at fault in 87% of collisions, near-collisions, and "incidents" involving cyclists.

Keep your heads up out there...ride defensively!