My Recumbent Days

T his afternoon I rode only 7.08 miles in 32 minutes at an average speed of 12.95 Mph. Strong winds made it virtually impossible to keep any speed and made things real hard. I managed to get home, but I was dragging myself there. I burnt 330 calories and total elevation gain was 100.26'. The temperature was 45 degrees, which is not bad riding weather. T he speakers I use for my Adeo and Ipod are not working out very well so I ordered another set of different speakers, when they get here I will figure out a mounting method.

I went out a little late for my daily workout and rode 15.10 miles in one hour 5 minutes. I burnt 703 calories, and my average speed was 13.85 Mph and my top speed was 20.80 Mph. The temperature was 45 degrees with the wind out of the NNE at 3 Mph with gusts to 7 Mph. Total elevation gain was +122.71 feet. I feel I had a good workout and I deserve lunch, so I am cutting this short. I am hopping to get another ride in before the new year. A HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO ALL

T oday I went out and took my long loop through Kendall park. This route takes me through sub development roads as well as state roads and highway. Top traffic speed is 45 and the rest remains at 25Mph. I rode 15.07 miles and burnt 706 calories. My maximum speed was 23.5 Mph and my average speed was 13.33 Mph. The weather today was mostly cloudy with winds of 5 Mph gusting to 10 Mph coming from the West. The temperature was 34 degrees at start of ride and 43 on the return. W hile testing the new Adeo firmware Beta 2.0 I ran into my first problem. The problem was from the elevation mathematics. for some reason the Adeo gave me perfect readouts during the trip, but after download to Motion Lingo software the graph showed no elevation data. Also when it uploaded the workout to the MotionLingo web page it showed a flat line. I spoke to support who as usual were extremely helpful and found the problem. This will be fixed in the next Beta. What everyone must understand is that I choose to ...

T his morning I headed out for my ride and the temperature was 40 degrees. The wind was extremely strong with a speed of 14 Mph with gusts exceeding 20 Mph coming from the NNW. I did a different loop through Kendall Park with a total distance of 15.21 miles. My average speed was 13.09 and I burnt 713 calories. My elevation gain for this ride was 171.69 feet. T oday was my first ride using the Radical Design Panniers and I am impressed. There is no wind resistance since they sit tucked behind the seat and my body. There is less wind noise do to there shape. So far I like them very much, and they sure hold enough. I did my shopping with them today and there was plenty of room left over. M y riding partner (Adeo) is nice to have along for the ride she keeps on pushing me to my limits and I enjoy the ride a huge amount more.

T his morning and part of the afternoon was spent waiting for the UPS truck to arrive. At 2:00 PM the truck came and dropped my new red panniers off. It took a few minutes adjusting the straps and transferring the contents of the old panniers to the new Radical Design Panniers. These new panniers are a huge step up from my old Nashbar panniers. They each hold 20 liters and are much larger than the old ones. After transferring the contents I found that I had a huge amount of additional space left for when I go shopping. These panniers have a sloppy look when not full, but that is the nature of the beast. I am not sure how much different the Medium or Large panniers would be. Tomorrow if the weather holds out I will take them for a spin, and see how much it has changed the ride. I doubt it will change anything, but there might be a little drag, from the wind. I really don't think I will notice anything. I am still contemplating the purchase of the Windwrap XT fairing and mounts, bu...

I went out early this morning for a local ride and to test the new Firmware of the Adeo. I rode 15.08 Miles in 1 hour and 10 minutes. I burnt 707 calories and my average speed was 15.08. The temperature was 45 degrees with very strong head and cross winds. The wind was 8 Mph out of the NW gusting to 15 Mph and higher. I felt my workout today was very good especially with the winds as they were. I will end this for today as i have much to do. I wish everyone a very happy and healthy holiday!

T his morning when the rain stopped I figured I had the 30 minutes necessary to finalize the Adeo firmware Beta installation. After the software was installed on my Adeo I went outside as instructed and mounted the Adeo on my trike with the ear phones unplugged and turned the Adeo on. I watched a waited from afar to watch for the orange light to turn off, the sign that the upgrade was complete. On then plugged the speakers in and turned on the Adeo then pressed the start workout button to acquire the satellites. The pressing the start workout button is a new procedure not on the last version of firmware. After doing this I expected at least a minute for the Adeo to find the satellites and lock on to them. But this time it took only a few seconds for the Adeo to say "Satellites found, press start workout button". A vast speed increase, when the weather and the time allows I will take the Adeo out on the road for a test. Maybe I can ride tomorrow morning and do this. I am ...

W ell bad weather has forced me indoors, and I am bored. I received a email from MotionLingo regarding a new firmware beta for my Adeo GPS Trainer. I have installed it on my Adeo and will run the optimization program when it stops raining, which should be tomorrow afternoon. This firmware version is supposed to increase the signal levels and fix a small rounding bug. I need a full half hour for this process, so I am hoping for the rain to stop. I did some general maintenance on the trike today, and need some time to tweak the settings. I would like to wish everyone a very happy and healthy holiday and new year.

I was feeling a lot better today so I decided to say the hell with it and take a ride on our local roads. The roads on went on were in very poor shape and winter has just started. I rode 15.05 miles in 1 Hr and 7 Min. Average speed was 13.28 Mph and my top speed was 23.66 Mph I burnt 706 calories. There was intermittent showers, but nothing even got wet. The temperature was 44 degrees at the start of ride and 49 degrees at the end. It sure felt good to get out on the road, I hate even going one day without a little ride. The riding makes my back and neck feel a bunch better, not that the pain goes away it doesn't, but it is bearable. Tomorrow rain is expected so I will not be riding, unless the weather changes. As I look at the weather report now it seems to look better than expected. I will know for sure tomorrow morning. M y new panniers are expected on the 26th, I wish it was sooner, it is a pain shopping with these panniers I have. My friends here in my neighborhood never ride...

Y esterday afternoon I developed a bad sore throat and I felt it necessary to take it easy today. I am on an antibiotic so I hope by tomorrow I will be feeling better. I have updated my web page to show the changes in equipment. My new Mega Horn is shown as well as the Adeo with the Ipod Shuffle. My new gloves were delivered today from Performance Bike and they look great. I hope to try them tomorrow. I called Dana from Bent Up Cycles and my panniers are on the way.

T his morning I went out for my daily ride and rode a distance of 14.54 miles in 1Hr 8Min. The weather was a cool 38 degrees at the start and 42 degrees at the finish. The wind was out of the NNW at 5 Mph gusting to 10 Mph. My average speed was 12.77 Mph and I burnt 681 calories. Total elevation gained was 141.16'. A ny day now I should be receiving the case for my Ipod Shuffle. This way it is protected while on the trike. Tomorrow my winter gloves should be delivered by FedEx. I will call Bent Up Cycles today to verify everything about my pannier order.

T his morning I rode 14.23 miles in 1 Hr 5 Minutes. My average speed was 13.13 Mph and I burnt 667 calories. The weather for todays ride was mostly cloudy with winds out of the NNW at 6 Mph gusting to 13 Mph. The temperature at start of ride was a nice 56 degrees and at the end of the ride it was 62 degrees. I combined my ride with a little trip to the vegetable market. T he repair of the speakers went well and the noise is gone. I have become very accustomed to the sound of the Adeo and the music while I ride. I still haven't taken any pictures of the Adeo and the Ipod Shuffle mounted on the trike, and the MegaHorn mounted. ©Radical Designs UPDATE: This evening I bit the bullet and ordered the Radical Designs Panniers in the small size. I felt the small size will give me enough room to carry my tools and have enough room for the occasional trip to the market. It might be a bit of a challenge mounting them as one end goes over the seat while the other hangs off the rack. I wil...

Y esterday morning I left on my ride to test the Adeo and the Ipod Shuffle combination. I rode 14.33 miles under a bright sun and mild winds. My average speed was 12.90 a slight gain from my prior ride. I burnt 672 calories and managed to go a weekend without a weight gain. T he Adeo and the Ipod Shuffle worked very well together and made my workout very pleasant. As advertised the MP3 music was just about muted when the Adeo was announcing some ride information. The volume of the music and the Adeo was perfect and easy to hear over the road noise. I was able to hear the surrounding traffic even with the music playing. This morning I have to work on the speaker mount, I am not satisfied with it as of yet, a little fine tunning is called for. I hope to take a few photos and update my web page this morning. The weather is threatening so a ride might be out of the question. Once I get a few photos I will update this Blog.

T his morning at 11:00 AM I headed out for my local loop and completed 14.27 miles with an average speed of 12.63 Mph. I climbed a total of 180' over the course of the ride. The temperature was 45 degrees and the wind was out of the North at 11 MPH gusting to 15 Mph. The bad thing was the complete climb was with the wind in my face. Since I have been using the Adeo GPS Trainer I have a 1 Mph speed gain over each ride, so the Adeo is doing its work. I guess having my speed and average speed read out to me as I ride is a physiological plus for me. M y package containing my MegaHorn was found and I picked it up at the Post Office this morning. It took five minutes and I had it installed and working. The sound is not as loud as the ThunderHorn, but it is plenty loud and it has a wobbling sound to it. I will post a photo at a later date.

I started out on my ride at 11:15 AM for what I planned to be a relaxing Friday. Well a few minutes after I started and was a mile into my ride my cell phone rang, on the other end of the phone was my daughter in law explaining that my son needed to be taken to the ER. He was having another bout of his Crohns and was in a huge amount of pain. I turned around and rode the mile back to my house and changed out of my riding cloths. I drove to his home picked him up and took him to the hospital. From then on the day continued to go down hill very fast. We waited around in the ER for 3 hours and the doctor showed up at the end and didn't understand what was my sons problem. My son got annoyed as well as I did and we left the hospital and ended up in my sons doctors office where we received a script for pain medication. I have to say that in all my years I was never treated this badly in a hospital. The reason my sons doctor never got to the hospital is because by the time we got the p...

T his morning I left for my ride and the temperature was a cool 38 degrees, the time my test ride was over i had rode 15.20 miles at an average speed of 12.63 and a peak speed of 21.63 Mph. The temperature at the end of the ride was 48 degrees. The wind was out of the ESE at 8 Mph gusting to 12 Mph, and the sky was very cloudy. The calories burned today was 713. T oday I tested the new speakers on my local ride, and the sound for the Adeo was exceptional. my only problem with the setup was an excessive rattle which I think is the speaker mount. I isolated the speaker on a piece of closed cell foam and Silicon sealed the edges. I am hoping this solves the problem, but i am almost certain it will. Tomorrow I will try another test ride as long as the weather holds up.

T his morning when the temperature reached 39 degrees I headed out for my local ride and some local shopping. I rode on local roads with moderate climbs totaling 240 feet gained. My distance was 14.21 miles at an average speed of 12.29 Mph. According to the Adeo Trainer I burnt 666 calories at a moderate exercise level. I have found that since I started using the Adeo my average speed has increased a little on each ride. T oday was a full test of the SlipStreamz ear protectors, and found that they work, but I must increase the volume of the Adeo so I could hear well enough to understand the commands. I am also wearing a beanie that covers my ears so the sound has to penetrate that layer also. The SlipStreamz reduced much of the wind noise, but not totally. I have adjusted the straps on my Bell Metropolis helmet so the SlipStreamz are located just right. I will report tomorrow on how the adjustments worked. UPDATE: T his afternoon the postman delivered the set of speakers I ordered fr...

T his morning I ordered the MegaHorn a horn that has been tauted to be used by the local police. I have heard it and it sounded louder than the ThunderHorn that I am replacing it with. I will be limited on how to mount it, but I am planning to mount it on the right hand bar-end. This will be maybe a little more convenient than on the left side. The big question will be is the length of the wire from the horn to the button. I remember as a kid those old chrome horns had real long leads to the button, but both these look like real short leads. I should have it sometime the end of next week, since it was shipped First Class Mail today. O n another thought regarding my panniers! I have them almost a year and all the seams are beginning to open. I am thinking about getting the ones made by Radical Designs The small version looks like they will do a good job without looking and being too large. They are far from inexpensive, but any good pannier is costly. ©Radical Designs

D o to a miscalculation on my behalf I was unable to do exactly what I wanted using the bar-ends for the new instrument cluster. The reason is that the bar ends don't fit over the top of the existing bar-ends. I was able to place the foam grips over the bar ends that are installed. It is not exactly as I would have liked it but it does the job and looks very presentable. Also the bar ends were offset so the instrument cluster would have been on an angle. I have a few other things that I must take care of in the next few months. I am hoping to have a ride report for tomorrow if the weather is favorable.

T his morning I started out for a nice leisurely ride. The weather was great except for the strong winds that seem to hang around for days. There were gusts to 15 Mph coming from the SW. I rode 14.07 Miles at an average speed of 12.50 Mph and a peak speed of 22.9 Mph. I feel great except for this lingering stomach problem. The more I ride the better my back feels, not that my back doesn't hurt a huge amount, but it is somewhat better when I ride. I have become accustomed to the voice of my Adeo, that I don't think I could ride without it. It makes my solo training rides much more pleasant, and it sounds like my coach pushing me. If any of you reading this have an Adeo I would love to hear about your experience using it. I was supposed to be receiving the bar-ends today, but I tend to doubt it since there is no update on the UPS site. Today would have been a perfect day to do it with the nice weather. I will update the blog if I do get it. UPDATE: T he bar-ends delivery ha...

T his afternoon I decided to ride even that I didn't feel to well, still having stomach problems. I rode my local loop with an additional loop on other streets. The weather was sunny and 37 degrees with a wind out of the South at 13 Mph gusting to 19 Mph. Of course the wind kept my speed to an average of 11.6 Mph with a peaks of 21 Mph. I wasn't in a race and don't expect there to be a huge increase. The route gave me a total elevation change of 140', but that 140' was a steep climb. My total distance for today was 14.08 miles. T he Adeo worked flawlessly during the complete ride. I love the pause/resume function built in it makes for a much easier report. I guess as i use the Adeo I will make some additional adjustments to my program to suit my needs. One adjustment will be the distance updates will be closer together. I will continue to report any changes untill I get this down to a science.

Y esterday I made up my mind and ordered a pair of SlipStreamz to go along with the Adeo. I had also ordered a set of speakers, but I feel after my test ride yesterday that the SlipStreamz will do a better job. I don't want to block my ears completely do to safety concerns, and after an incident today that thought was enforced. The Ipod ear buds slip into the SlipStreamz and ride outside the ears allowing the cyclist to hear the traffic around him or her. They also reduce the sound of the wind making for a nicer ride. I was told they would be shipped today by USPS Priority mail, but as of now I have not gotten notification of shipment. I was hoping to have them for the weekend. T he pair of bar-ends I ordered are expected on Thursday, so I can start the modification to the instrument cluster. The foam handlebar grips are expected also by Friday that will allow me to complete that project. I will post photographs when the project is done. I will have to order a new horn as I br...

E arly this afternoon I left on my daily ride with all intentions of giving the Adeo a workout. I didn't start off to well, and it was not the a problem with the Adeo but just plain old user error. I had started the ride, and acquired the satellites, but forgot to press the start workout button, so after two miles according my regular bike computer I started over. This time I pressed the start workout button and was greeted with a friendly voice and at a perfect volume to hear over the traffic and wind. T he Adeo acquired the satellites in less than a minute, and the signal was good according to Adeo. It found 6 satellites and sometimes 7 and 8. The ride was through local tree lined streets and rows of homes and the signal was still good. In one area the tree cover even in winter was very heavy and the Adeo still gave me 6 satellites with a fair to good signal. So far I was genuinely elated to how well the Adeo worked. D uring the ride the Adeo routinely told me my current speed m...

I spent a few hours setting up the Adeo by optimizing which takes 30 minutes, and then acquiring the satellites which took less than 30 seconds. The voice is very clear and loud enough to hear over the traffic. I will do a real time test on my next ride.

T his morning I installed the necessary audio wiring from the left bar-end to the rear of the seat, this way I can plug either the speakers into the jack or a headphone. If I decide to use headphones I will order the special ear cups that don't contact the ears and hang from my helmet allowing me to hear the traffic. These can be found at www.slipstreamz.com. and I don't plan to do this in the unsafe manner by just using straight headphones. I installed the holder for the Adeo on the inside of the left bar-end, and it looks real nice. My only concern is that the Adeo might not be able to receive a signal do to the metallic parts surrounding it. I was taken by surprise by the small size of the Adeo, it is 3" tall and 2" wide making for a aerodynamic shape. The Adeo will take anywhere from 4 to 6 hours to charge the battery, so testing it today will probably be out of the question. O n another subject! The new layout for the trike computers is very usable, but ...