Fall Riding

OK, so yesterday I was bummed because my planned 20 mile plus ride turned into a 5.5 mile hop. Today we had a chance to make up some of that lost mileage. KJ's usual Monday outing with his aide got canceled, and since I usually don't work on Monday evenings, we had a chance to get a ride in after KJ got home from school. We rode to a different park, referred to locally as "Blue Slide Park" (because of the long blue concrete slide built into the hillside), and officially known as the Frick Park Parklet. The Parklet is approximately a 9 mile round trip. We played for a bit, including KJ playing with the fallen leaves, before riding home as the sun set.

This time of year, with the sun setting sooner, and the weather getting cooler, there are some things a cyclist needs to do differently. Tonight we had our jackets stufffed in our bags when we left the house because it was still quite warm. But by the time we were ready to come home it had cooled off, so we pulled out the jackets before we headed home. Worked out perfectly, especially since the trip home has some long downhills that can be quite chilling. The other thing that came in handy was our flashing red taillight. If you are riding at twilight in traffic one of these things is a MUST. You can pick one up for $10 or less from Target or WalMart. I've even seen some that are built in to the back of a bike seat. Our particular unit is a TREK five-bulb model that offers 270 degrees of coverage, so it helps you to be seen from the side in addition to from behind. Handy when you are going through an intersection. It has settings for solid light, slow blink, and fast blink, and runs off two AAA batteries. Our TREK unit sold for about $24.

Sometimes Things Don't Go As Planned

A few days ago I started looking forward to this Sunday. The weather forecast was calling for a perfect day, and I anticipated being able to take a long (20 miles or more) ride with KJ and his younger brother PJ on a trail, pushing closer to our goal of 1000 miles for the year. Because of work and school schedules, Sunday is usually the only day of the week such rides are possible

My wife had a work assignment at 3 pm, and she wanted to do something with PJ in the three hours between when he got home from religious school and she would have to leave. I would need to be home at 3 pm so my wife could drop off PJ and head to work. This shot down any idea of riding on a trail, since that typically required 5 hours, and KJ also had religious school until Noon.

OK, so Plan "B" was that just KJ and I would ride from the house into nearby Squirrel Hill. I figured that if we didn't stop, we would get 11 or 12 miles ridden, and still be home by 3 pm. Not a bad ride, still double digits on the mileage.


KJ and I headed out, and after 2.75 miles passed Frick Park, a large public park that is a frequent destination of ours when time is limited. KJ signed he wanted to play in the park, rather than continue riding. Rather than make an issue of it, I headed into the park

At the point I was thoroughly bummed. My original vision of a nice long ride on a sunny day had been reduced to a short jaunt to a nearby park. KJ was content to have his snack, and then spend his time finding berries, branches and leaves to push through the storm grates (bottom photo).

About 15 minutes after we got to the park, we suddenly hear sirens, and three police cars come flying by, headed in the direction we would have gone had we not stopped at the park. Five minutes latter, a fire truck came by, headed in the same direction. Shortly thereafter one of the police cars came back and blocked the road so no one could head up that way.

Clearly there had been an accident of some sort on the road ahead. I don't know exactly where it was, and I don't know if we would have been involved had we not stopped at the park. But for once I was glad that things hadn't gone accrding to plan.

Oh, and by the way, our mileage for the year stands at 862 miles. 138 miles to go...

Our Current Bike

Our current ride is a blue and silver 2004 Raleigh "Coupe". In any given model year, Raleigh offers three different models, and the middle one is known as the "Coupe". Our Coupe is an aluminum-frame bike with 27 speeds, 26 inch (mountain bike) wheels and straight handlebars. We originally started with a maroon and silver 2002 Coupe that we purchased at the beginning of 2003 (saving some cash because it was "last year's" model). In 2004 the welds holding a small plate to the frame cracked, and Raleigh replaced the frame,with a 2004 frame. There were minor differences in the frame, the main one being there was room for a fourth water bottle cage.

The bike is pretty much stock. We added a rear rack, four water bottle holders, bent bar ends for both handlebars, and dual cyclometers (Planet Bike model Protege 8.0). Originally the bike came with a suspension seatpost on the rear seat (a standard feature for most tandems). I had to replace it with a solid seatpost when we added the hitch for my younger son's trailer bike. But KJ has grown so much that I can probably put the suspension seat post back on, and still have enough solid seatpost available to mount the trailer bike hitch.

The bike came with 26x1.95 Kenda tires, which are smooth in the center and have a tread on the outside edge. I replaced those with 26x1.5 inverted tread tires which ran faster, but gave a rougher ride. When those tires wore out I put the old Kendas back on. Along the way I replaced the original wheels with Bontrager Mountain bike wheels.

KJ absolutely LOVES this bike. When we first got it, I was concerned that our annual mileage (which was around 500 miles per year when KJ was riding on the trailer bike) would go down, because the tandem REQUIRES KJ to pedal (which isn't necessary with a trailer bike). What actually happened was the complete opposite. Our mileage doubled to 1000 miles per year, and has stayed at that approximate level ever since.

A New Milestone...

This past Sunday (October 7) was the first time that KJ actually ASKED to go bicycling without any prompting from us or any indication that I was planning to go biking. Unfortunately, I had a photo session planned for most of Sunday afternoon, so we didn't get out the door until around 5:30 pm. Enough time for us to bicycle to Frick Park, play for a bit, and then come home (5.5 miles round trip). It was fortunate that we went out, because our favorite ice cream stand near the park was closing for the rest of the year. So we had one last chance for KJ to get his usual Strawberry sundae.

For the year we are up to 838 miles. That's more than we managed in 2006 (810 miles), but my goal is to get to 1000 miles. So we have our work cut out for us. As long as the weather holds we should be able to make it.