Bikes Bikes Bikes (the kind you pedal)

I live in an area (Pacific Northwest) that has some of the best flying and biking combo options in the world. I have 4 bikes; a Giant Defy Advanced carbon and a Pacific Bikes aluminum folding Pacific Reach for the road, a Ghost Mountain bike and a GT Grade Expert Carbon for gravel. My plane is a Maule MX7-180C and the back seat comes out by just removing 2 fast pins, so loading bikes into the plane is sweet and easy. Here's my Pacific Reach folding bike next to the plane on Lopez Island getting ready for a morning 20 miler:
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Here's a video link for a bike ride on San Juan Island on my Giant Defy Advanced:
 
Unfortunately on bikes it's another case of not if but when. Occasionally I see people on the shoulders of highways, and it just seems like suicide to me. In traffic like Manhattan I think it's a case of needing the appropriate skill; if you can get bumped, hop curbs, jump, etc then you stand a chance if you ride, like you say, with your "head on a swivel" and assume everyone is trying to kill you. Sounds sort of like CFI'ing when I say it like that.

15-20 hour weeks are humongous, regardless of the combination of sports.

On the bright side, it's a little ego boost when we have to list Bradycardia on the visit to the AME ;)
 
Hengelo said:
.... hop curbs, jump, etc then you stand a chance...
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Speaking of chance and jumps, the older I get, the more I believe chance plays a huge role in our lives. One time I was riding on a sidewalk, downhill, and came across a segment torn up for construction without any markings. A hole around 2 feet deep. To this day, I have no idea how I jumped it. I never practiced any such thing. Fast forward 15 years, I come across hurricane Helene debris much less significant, yet I hit hard. Sprained shoulder. Torn rib cartilage which still hurts. I remember lying in the road with the wind knocked out of me not able to move and thinking if I can't get out of the road I'm dead. I'm still here :-)
 
TCABM said:
Horrible. A couple months back, my wife and I were riding one of our normal routes to breakfast and came across a cyclist down in the middle of the road. No cars, no damage to the bike, no visible sign of traumatic injury except his being unconscious with blood leaking out his ear. MIPS helmet, no ID, an old iphone with no ICE info. We stayed until he was loaded up and gave the fire/rescue guys everything we knew.

Ran into the fire crew a week later at the grocery store and they had nothing to positive to report; they took the bike back to the fire station and it still sits there, entirely ridable today.
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Sounds like he might have had a heart attack or stroke.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Sounds like he might have had a heart attack or stroke.
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Yeah; at speed. Can’t he certain since he was a John Doe, but the cracked skull from the fall likely ended up killing him.
 
TCABM said:
Yeah; at speed. Can’t he certain since he was a John Doe, but the cracked skull from the fall likely ended up killing him.
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Bad situation either way. RIP.

I am conscious of good and bad routes. There is a lot of construction going on in the county to my north, where, generally, the roads are wide with wide bike paths. But a lot of the former rice roads are barricaded with no shoulder and no passing room for cars, for long stretches. Suicide. I adjust my routes based on safety.

In all, I'm just shy of 45K of riding miles as recorded by Strava and maybe add probably no more than 5K in my lifetime. I've had some close calls but nothing serious on the roads. The only bad accident I've had was, ironically, on the bike trail. I was approaching a rest stop to my left, I de-clipped, signaled to turn left, and moved to the center of the path. I patiently waited for an old lady on a cruiser to go by then turned left.

This complete A$$$895u3w09343ole flew by me, to the left, and crashed in to me, full speed. What a f$*(#&%(*&ing idiot. It sent me flying, and I ended up in pain in the middle of the trail. And I was taking blood thinners at the time. Not cool, man. I managed to ride home, with a semi-broke front wheel, and I later went to the ER for a leg swelling issue where I impacted.

Needless to say, I don't ride the bike trails anymore, at least not for long stretches.

And what makes the trails worse is that they have signs that tell pedestrians and runners to use the left lane, and bikes to use the right. Idiots. I've seen more nasty accidents from cyclists colliding head on, and cyclists colliding with runners, from that. If everyone uses the same lane, cyclists can slow down and merge for runners and pedestrians. If everyone uses opposing lanes, sometimes the entire traffic grinds to a complete stop because you can't slow down. You have to come to a complete stop.

Did I mention I hatred bike trails?
 
@Bill love the baggy sleeves - just like Froome! (ps I know that jersey, but I promise not to tell ;))

As for the solo crash; I've seen people crash on their own more times than I'd like to think. The internet is full of examples if you have the stomach for it. I even had a teammate go down once because he'd failed to check the compatibility of a chainring and slipped his chain sprinting. Also, that guy could have been riding with 50 other guys who didn't stop when he went down... or gotten attacked by an eagle...
 
@Sac Arrow I've tried just about every ear device and my favorite by a huge margin are shockz. They sit great under the helmet, the control button is easy to reach and they don't interfere with ambient sounds. On the rare occasions where wind noise overwhelms them, it's usually a sign I'm going downhill over 40 and should turn off my book. Battery life is amazing, and they charge quickly.

Open-Ear & Bone Conduction Headphones | Shokz Official

Explore open-ear headphones and bone conduction headphones for running, workouts, and all-day comfort. Designed for situational awareness with secure fit and premium comfort from Shokz Official.
shokz.com shokz.com
 
Hengelo said:
@Sac Arrow I've tried just about every ear device and my favorite by a huge margin are shockz. They sit great under the helmet, the control button is easy to reach and they don't interfere with ambient sounds. On the rare occasions where wind noise overwhelms them, it's usually a sign I'm going downhill over 40 and should turn off my book. Battery life is amazing, and they charge quickly.

Open-Ear & Bone Conduction Headphones | Shokz Official

Explore open-ear headphones and bone conduction headphones for running, workouts, and all-day comfort. Designed for situational awareness with secure fit and premium comfort from Shokz Official.
shokz.com shokz.com
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That's a thought, but I'll probably just opt for USB C corded earbuds if I go another route. The Bluetooth set I got works fine, the only real annoyance is that with proper ear inserts that won't fall out, they won't fit in to the charging case with them attached. I might just drill holes on the case. I don't ride with music that often anyway.
 
+1 for Shoxz, love my set, listening to them right now!
 
My wife and I like to fly places and then take the bikes out. This is at Mackinac Island. I can fit 2 of the Zizzo folding bikes in the back of my 9A. They take some work to get them in but they fit and the bikes are reasonably comfortable. Not really long distance bikes but better than walking!
 

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Went hunting for a sustained 20 minute hill climb today. Ran out of hill at 18... white wine problem I suppose. Back to google maps.
 
Hengelo said:
Went hunting for a sustained 20 minute hill climb today. Ran out of hill at 18... white wine problem I suppose. Back to google maps.
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Heh, we have plenty. Both of these were from the same ride, both >20min hill climbs.

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Many more where this came from.
 
Regarding Florida - Mountain Biking on Santos Trails near Ocala is super fun. Especially if you’re not first for the day and someone’s cleared out the spiderwebs. Interesting history too - it’s an abandoned canal project. Perhaps the best example of riding on “artificial hills” anywhere.
 
FastEddieB said:
When I lived in S FL the bridges over the Intracoastal and over to Key Biscayne served for my hill training.
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That's what I do as well. Two intracoastal bridges on one of my loops. Had decent KOM position on one of them when I was training/racing. Not so much now.
 
Sadly the best climbs are always a little further afield...

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That's just a short drive from Franceso Moser's winery.
 
I was thinking about my max speeds. The ride up to Forest Hill I posted earlier, I logged 45.9 mph max on the downhill. I searched through my Strava and found the fastest recorded time was 47.5 mph on Oakville Grade in Napa, CA. I might have had faster times but I didn't spend a lot of time looking. It is a very steep hill with mild curves, conducive to high bicycle downhill speeds. But I was sort of not into attaining the fastest downhill speeds by the time I was recording to Strava.

The fastest downhill speed I have achieved is 56 mph, down Oakville Grade, on my Schwinn Traveler. I had a Cateye installed. It was a chore to pedal that think up to the top but it had a triple crankset. But the steel frame, and the 1 1/4 inch 27's (essentially the same as my 30 mm x 700 tires) felt planted. I won't lie, that felt slightly scary.
 
I've gone well over 50 in a pack, and crashed going over 40. Can't say I'd recommend either.
 
Another nice loop for you Adirondack based guys.

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You are 100% right! Geography was never my strong suit. That was a stage from the Tour of the Catskills; you'd have thunk I'd be able to figure it out lol
 
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