Killing time on a bicycle ride

Resting and relaxation are big parts of my bicycle riding. On a trip to Grant Park on a Sunday afternoon, I sat on the grass at the farmers’ market and watched the action. It looked like this, except that people were actually moving around.

Living to fight another day
Another time, I found myself in a scary traffic situation:

• lots of cars and school buses
• 55 mph to 60 mph
• too close for comfort

I gave up and pulled into a fancy apartment complex and called Joan to come and rescue me. While I waited, I stared at the hill I didn’t complete. It looked just like this, but with lots of traffic.

Keeping abreast of people along the way

Joan and I decided to try a leisurely ride from the Jimmy Carter Center (free parking) to the Decatur area (and back, of course).

Pink ladies
As we rode along the Path, a Susan G. Komen fund-raising march was moving in the opposite direction. Here’s a photo of their luncheon on the path—and I mean literally on the path.

 

A few more photos from recent rides

---

Theology 101
OK, it’s a church. Its worshippers (those who honor and love a deity or participate in rites of worship) are interceding (pleading on another’s behalf or acting as mediators) for excellence (extremely high quality, or superiority). Got it!

 

---

Parking lot art

Man Ray parked here

 

Jackson Pollock parked here

 

Paul Klee parked here

 

James Stephens parked here

 

Piedmont Parked here

Riding every bicycle path in metro Atlanta: part 1

We needed a goal to get ourselves in shape and to adapt to our new bicycles. That goal? Riding every foot of all the Atlanta area bicycle paths. These are mostly off-road trails, usually paved, and probably safer than riding out on the roads. Generally speaking, they are:

• The Path
• The Atlanta Beltway
• The Silver Comet Trail (includes the Chief Ladiga Trail)

First three legs
We started with the Silver Comet Trail, which runs from near Cumberland Mall to Anniston, Alabama. Each leg was out-and-back because we had to return to the car, so our mileage is twice the listed mileage (below).

After three days (not consecutive) at the Rambo Trailhead. No Sylvester Stallone in sight, but many people asked me for my autograph.

Please note the new handlebars with yellow tape. Joan and I decided the traditional drop bars (below left) were not for us, so we ordered new trekker (butterfly) bars (below right). That decision meant we had to change out our brake levers and shifters. But we no longer have to lean forward as much.

---

Miscellaneous photos

Piedmont Park patterns at lake bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Piedmont Park

 

Surly bicycle at the deserted John B Gordon Elementary School (where I spent about seven years). The school building is in the shadowy foliage. Look hard and you can see the bricks. I played under this tree when I was in kindergarten.

 

We have some very steep hills in the neighborhood

---

Next: More adventures and some parking-lot art

Learning to ride and learning to fall

When people say “It’s as easy as riding a bicycle,” I’m no longer sure what it means. Sure, riding is easy, but so is falling. In fact, falling may be easier because you have gravity on your side.

Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18)*
Falling is embarrassing, especially when an elderly woman leans out of her car to ask if I need help. That happened on North Druid Hills Road when I was test-riding a bicycle.

It’s also embarrassing (but more pleasant) when a young French woman tries to assist me after a fall near the Carter Center. The French woman departed when Joan arrived to take this silly picture of me.

*The quote from Proverbs doesn’t exactly apply to this situation, but I wanted to see how my spell-checker would handle “goeth.”

---

Pedals
Pedals have changed a lot in 30 years. The old-style platform pedals (below) are still around (Think back to your childhood). They’re easy to use and they’re safe, but maybe inefficient.

 

Build a better rat trap . . .
Lightweight metal (rat trap) pedals with toe clips are pretty good; they keep your foot on the pedal during the upstroke so you can lift as well as push. But I sometimes have trouble getting my foot back into the clip after a stop.

 

Becoming attached to your bicycle
Today, so-called clipless pedals are popular because they literally lock your feet to the pedals. I’ve tried it, and it works. In an ideal world, you should be able to unlock them when you slow to a stop. Please refer to this detail, where my shoes are still attached to the pedals.

Nonetheless, I’ve settled on clipless pedals of the eggbeater style (below left). These are called Crank Brothers Candy 2 pedals. I’ve also included a picture of a real eggbeater.

 

It’s all about appearance
At least when I fall, I’ll have really cool-looking pedals.

Keeping it simple
Joan threw in the towel and reverted to platform pedals. But she still falls from time to time. I’ll try to get a photo.

---

Next: Riding every bicycle path in metro Atlanta (maybe)

Looking, test riding, and buying a bicycle (or two)

If you recall, a touring bicycle is hard to find—at least, for me.

Shop ‘til you drop
Joan and I looked, priced, researched, and test rode bicycles all over Atlanta. Some bike shops were helpful; others were downright arrogant. But most of all, I found that most dealers didn’t really understand what I wanted in a touring bike. I was pretty much on my own.

I narrowed the search to one brand: Surly. With a great reputation for its steel touring bicycles, especially the Surly Long Haul Trucker, this looked like the right bicycle for us. But there was a problem. I didn’t dare buy any bike without a good test ride, and only one bicycle shop in Georgia actually stocked the Surly brand. The good news is that the shop is about two miles from my home.

Loose Nuts Cycles
Located in an old building near Grant Park, Loose Nuts (I know, I know) is a local bike shop (LBS) that caters to neighborhood bicyclists. And when I went there, they had a Surly Disc Trucker right there in the store. It was a Long Haul Trucker with disc brakes. It was green and it was just my size.

“You want a test ride, just go to Grant Park,” I was told. Unlike all my other test rides, I didn’t have to sign a release form, leave a credit card, or hand over my car keys. But they held Joan hostage until I returned.

Test ride
I rode for a long time—so long that Joan began to worry. Not about me, but whether she’d be released to go home.

When I returned, she rode a smaller-framed Surly. Because this was the exact day that the 2014 Surlys were announced, we got a deal on these out-of-date 2013 models. What’s the difference from year to year? They change the colors. That’s about it.

Colors
Surly’s colors are nothing if not inventive. They have colors such as:

• Sparkleboogie Blue
• Cash Black
• Tar Pit Black
• Agent Orange
• Necromancer Black
• Beef Gravy Brown
• Burned Nougat
• Foamy Hospital Green
• Smog Silver
• Blark Blue

Our bicycles are “Super Dark Green.” We can hide in the forest and never be seen.

---

Next time: Learning to ride and learning to fall

 

The confusing search for the perfect bicycle

As usual, I over-analyze and over-research everything, and finding bicycles for Joan and me was no exception.

If my idea of a perfect bike was my Schwinn Varsity Sport (without the tonnage) or the Motobecane (without the French hardware), my task was simple: I just needed to find a lightweight bicycle with similar geometry.
This image shows just a few of the dimensions that make a bicycle—that is, how it rides, handles, performs, climbs, steers, and tracks. Throw in the material (steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, bamboo) and you get even more variables.

Bicycle geometry

What is a touring bicycle?
It's a bicycle built for longer rides, usually carrying much more than the rider and a few tools. It should be:

• strong
• comfortable and easy to ride (hour after hour, day after day)
• repairable (in the middle of nowhere)
• reliable

This short list excludes almost every single bicycle manufactured today.
First, it must be strong. Well, aluminum and carbon fiber are strong, but not easily repairable. Both types are reliable until something happens to the frame. Just try to repair aluminum or carbon fiber in the middle of South Georgia.
And both types of frames are fairly stiff, perfect for racing, cyclocross, and a myriad of other things people do with bicycles.

Steel is the answer
Yup, steel is the old standby—the material that was used for a century or more—for just about every bicycle. Yes, it's heavy, but when you're thinking about carrying 40 or 50 pounds, the bike's weight is not so important.
Steels flexes a bit and gives you a smooth, solid ride that absorbs shocks without breaking. And steel can be repaired almost anywhere you can find a farm or a shade-tree mechanic with a cheap welder.

Back in 1976, I was decked out for a winter trip with my custom bicycle (steel, of course) and supplies for a week: clothing, tent, food, maps, sleeping bag, ground cushion, spare tube, tire patches, tools, and of course, a camera.

Whether the bike weighs 18 pounds or 28 pounds, it's not quite as big a deal if you're hauling 40 additional pounds. And these days, I'm almost twice the person I was then, so if weight is a real concern, I should lose a few pounds.

---

Next: Visiting some bicycle shops

Back to bicycling . . . maybe

The bicycle blog begins with my decision to get back in the saddle after three non-bicycling decades.

As much as I like to live in the past, I won’t do it here, except to say that a mid-1970s bicycle/automobile collision scared me away from cycling. I was on that bicycle (a French Motobecane).

I tried a few more times with a custom-built bike, but I never felt comfortable; I finally gave up and put  the bicycles in a garage to gather dust.

Fast forward to today and a change of heart
So, Joan and I decided to buy bicycles, gear, and all the stuff we need to be serious touring bicyclists. Not speedy, but comfortable and safe. But I quickly learned that all my bicycling knowledge is pretty much worthless after 30 years. Everything has changed.

The biggest shock is the price of a decent bike. My first 10-speed bicycle, a Schwinn Varsity Sport, cost an outrageous $65 in 1966. It was a struggle to justify the expense.

James and his Schwinn Varsity Sport
 Here it is in 1968. I don’t know the skinny guy in the picture.


The location is the McDonough Heights Apartments—the cool place to live after graduation from Roosevelt High School. The apartments are still there, right across the street from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.



The Schwinn Varsity Sport has a reputation for being the heaviest bicycle every built. That’s just a joke of course. There were two or three others that were probably heavier.

Historic bicycle
Nonetheless, it was the bicycle that started a revolution in the United States, and it still holds the record for being one of the top selling bikes of all time. Read more about this historic bicycle right here.
http://sheldonbrown.com/varsity-shaddox.html

It’s also interesting to consider that this (heavy) bicycle was not made from steel tubing, but steel plate—pressed and welded into tubes.



If you’re interested in manufacturing processes (and who isn’t?), read this:
http://sheldonbrown.com/varsity.html

---

Next time: The search for the perfect bicycle