My Recumbent Days

A t 9:00 AM I ran out the door to get my ride in for the day as we had a birthday party to attend. Everything was in my favor for a good ride. I rode 20.08 miles in 1 hr and 33 min. The weather was perfect with a temperature of 77 degrees with winds from the WSW at 6 mph gusting to 14 mph. My average speed was 12.95 and my max speed was 24.20 mph. I needed to get some more miles in as I am still trying to loose a few more pounds. I burnt 973 calories but that won't make up for the food I ate at the party. I would love to get my weight back down to 153, so I have 5 or 6 pounds to loose and it has been very hard. I don't eat junk and I don't eat large meals, so I don't know what my problem is. I am not giving up as I feel better at a lower weight. I am still tweaking the steering modification and have another ride to complete with the bracket mounted below the kingpin. My next test will be with the bracket above the kingpin as i had it originally. I will report back with

T he new steering brackets were installed yesterday, but I had made a error installing the 3/4" strap. For appearance sake I should have mounted the strap under the bracket, so first thing this morning I made the modification. I also put my steel wire brush on my Dremal tool and touched it to the bracket giving it a swirl pattern which gives the bracket a finishing touch. N ow for the test and ride report! I figured I would be able to test the bracket better if I used my normal route. So early this morning i headed out for my ride. The air felt heavy and it was hard to breath, the temperature was a 88 degrees but with the humidity being 48% the temperature felt like 96 degrees. I started my ride and was able to have an average speed of 13.14 mph and a max speed of 22.50 mph. I rode 11.12 miles in 50 minutes 56 seconds and burnt 535 calories. I noticed right off the starting line, that the steering was much more crisp and it took a very light hand on the steering to keep it in con

T om's steering modification kit arrived today and I installed it as soon as I got home. It took about 20 minutes to remove the old kit and install the new kit. Tom did a beautiful job with the design. Instead of having to use a bracket that connects to the fender mount, it uses a nice rubber coated 3/4" tubing strap. The strap is nicely finished, but I think I will do a brushed finish on it, which will give it a little pizazz! I put the safety bracket on top of the main bracket, but Tom pointed out that the intent was for it to be below so it would have a cleaner look. I will replace the bracket early tomorrow morning before my ride, so that I am not working in the heat of the day. Left & Right Steering Brackets Front View of steering bracket and tie-rod

Y esterday I headed out for my ride in a lot of pain. I have been having some pain and my doctor diagnosed it as a Prostate infection and put me on an antibiotic. I have now been on the antibiotic for three days with no relief. I still managed to ride 12.01 miles in 57 minutes 1 second and burnt 581 calories. My average speed for this ride was 12.68 mph and my maximum speed was 25.40 mph. The temperature was 74 degrees and the wind was out of the NW at 10-21 mph. T om told me that the new steering brackets are in and will be shipped shortly. That will be a nice job to take care of in a few days. I will check alignment when the parts arrive, I am not sure if I want to paint them as they are made of Stainless Steel. The new brackets are shaped by milling machine and look real nice. While I have the trike apart i have to adjust the fender on the left side.

T his morning early I went to buy stamps at the post office and I just asked if there was a package for me, and sure enough the new pair of Scorcher TR tires had arrived. As soon as I returned home I went to work removing the old tires one at a time. The beads are real hard to break away from the rims, but after a little fighting using my tire irons I was able to free the first tire and remove the tube. I then went to work mounting the new tires which was a job and a half. Those tire beeds areal tight and took a lot of effort to mount the tire. It took about 45 minutes to remove and then mount the new tires. Next time a soapy solution should do the job a little easier. I took the trike for a test ride just to make sure the tires were set properly and not twisted which causes bumpy ride. I inflated each tire to 90 PSI which was the same pressure the original Scorcher TR tires were. Right off the starting line I noticed that the ride of the new Scorchers was much more comfortable and

I started my ride late today and planned on doing 20 miles, but alas no luck today. After 8.5 miles I had a flat the first for the Scorcher tires. I tried to find the hole but it was so small and the pump didn't have enough volume for me to inflate to higher pressure for a leak test. I was close to home so I replaced the tube and headed back. When I got home I repaired the tube to use as a spare. I was playing with fate by riding when the roads are wet, as they tend to pick up debris. I wonder if there is a tire demon, since it is the day after I ordered replacement tires. I heard form Zach Kaplan today via email, he told me that I should have the tires by tomorrow, but I tend to think Friday will be the day that they will be delivered. I received the I-Ride speakers that I had won from Active Tunes a few minutes ago. That reminds me I have to replace the batteries in the speakers.

T his morning I again started my ride a little early in order to beat the heat. I rode 10.08 miles in 48:52 minutes and burnt 488 calories. The ride was another very hard one, as the wind gusts exceeding 21 mph made things miserable. The temperature was a cool 80 degrees and the wind was coming from the South. My average speed was 12.41 mph while my top speed was 22.40 mph. A fter further inspection of the Scorcher TR tires yesterday I called Zach Kaplan Cycles in California and ordered a set of 2 406x1.5 Scorcher TR tires at a cost of $31.00 US each plus $10.55 for USPS Priority mail. I felt that $72.55 was a fair and competitive price. The Scorcher TR tires held up very well under the horrible road conditions. The wear indicators are still visible, but I didn't want to get to the position where I had no tires and was waiting for the delivery and couldn't ride.

T his morning I decided to head out for my ride real early as the temperature was supposed to hit the 90 degree mark. I wanted to ride the Kendall Park & Middlebush Road loop, which is about 10 miles each lap. I did two laps at an average speed of 12.77 and a max speed of 26.0 mph. Total distance was 20.26 miles and it took 1 hour 35 minutes and 15 seconds. I burnt 981 calories for this ride with 160 lbs used as my body weight for the Adeo to compute the calories burnt. The temperature was 83 degrees and the wind as usual was making things hard. The winds were out of the NNE at 6-13 mph with gusts exceeding 19 mph. Mu usual speed run is on Middlebush road which runs NNE so the wind was a large obstacle in getting any faster than 26 mph today, and it seems like the wind is going to be a big part of my riding. L ater today I will be contacting Zach Kaplan in regard to purchasing a pair of Scorcher TR tires from him. He mentioned on www.bentrideronline forum that he sells them for $31

Y esterday I had a full plate, so there was no time to ride. Today I am going out to my daughters in PA for Father's day , so this will be another day without riding. Yesterday I had some time after my wife and I finished all our chores, so I decided that I had enough time to lubricate the trike. I wiped the chain real well and inspected it for damage then lubricated each chain link using Dumonde Tec. lite. Lubricating each link is time consuming, but I have it down to a science. I figured out a little trick so I that I can be sure I lubricate each and every link. I bring the master link to the edge of my bottom chain-ring, then insert a spring clip in the link next to my bottom chain tube. I then start lubricating from the pin to the chain-ring. Then back pedal the crank so the pin is now at the bottom of the chain-ring. I remove the pin and re-insert it next to the bottom chain tube, and lubricate again starting at the pin to the chain-ring. I repeat this process until all th

I left a little later than normal for my ride, but the temperature had not reached 70 yet, so it was perfect for cycling. I rode the Middlebush Road loop two times, a grand total of 20.30 miles. My average speed was 13.09 and my max speed was 23.9. I know I am not a speed demon, but if I wanted speed I would have stayed with a bike and bought a low racer. The first thing that comes out of every DF biker I run into is how fast is it, and I always answer the same way "How fast do you want it to be?" Yes I do like to do a few sprints, just to get the heart moving, but 12 to 15 mph is fine with me. I burnt 946 calories, and at least I feel real good after the ride. Those Endorphins really help with the back and neck pain. The longer the ride the better I feel, but sometimes I just can't do more than ten or fifteen miles. But there are days that thirty miles is easy to do, I take the good days with the bad and I guess they average out. The wind today was from the NNE at 4-9 m

I headed out at 9:00 AM as the weather called for thunder storms. The wind was from the North preventing me form maintaining any speed or doing my daily sprints. The wind was from the North at 7-15mph with gusts as high as 20mph. The temperature was 73 degrees which was great, not to hot or not to cool. At 9.14 miles it started to rain and I didn't want to be out under all these trees in a thunder storm, so I headed back home. I made it just in times as it started to pour. I burnt a measly 426 calories, which is far from what I was hopping to do today. tomorrow calles for rain, so I don't even know if a ride will be possible. I wore the Pearl Izumi Attack socks yesterday and washed them to see if they would shrink, and I am happy to say that they didn't shrink. I am planning to wash them again today and check the results. If they show to be as good as I have seen I will purchase a few more pairs, they will be worth the additional cost.

T his morning I headed out for my daily ride, which I didn't do on Saturday or Sunday do to prior commitments. The weather couldn't be nicer, the temperature at start of ride was 68 degrees and quickly climbed to 78 degrees. The winds were from the North at 5-7mph which slowed my speed down on the flats as they run North to South. My distance for today was 22.22 miles and I burnt 1035 calories. My average speed was 13.28 and my max speed was 23.50mph. A s I had said in a prior post that I was testing the SweatGUTR, and I am happy to report it works very well. My only complaint is that I still have sweat in my eyes from my lids, but that is no fault of the SweatGUTR. I am a little cooler now that I am not wearing my Headsweat. I do recommend this product for those that want to keep as much sweat out of their eyes as possible. O n another subject (Socks) Yes I said socks!. Over the years I have tried many different socks to wear with my cycling shoes and none lived up to the pro

T oday I went on my daily ride early as the temperature is heading into the 90 degree area. I rode 20.01 miles and burnt 872 calories. My average speed was 12.41 and a max speed of 25.70mph. The temperature was 78 at the start of my ride and 82 by the end. The wind was from the North at 5-7mph. N ow for the Adeo problem. I was at the 15 mile marker on my loop when all of a sudden all the Adeo voice prompts started to give mileage, speed and even calories in amounts not possible on this planet. I have sent an email to both the president of MotionLingo and the tech support team. Below are two screen captures from todays ride, notice the scroll bar and speed and calories. If you are able to see the mileage recorded was 325.22 miles and the average speed was 44.44mph and calories burnt was 15,161, I would be faster than the fastest ever recorded.

T his afternoon after meeting my son for lunch I headed out for a ride. It sure is hard after eating a heavy lunch to get this old body moving. Instead of pushing the envelope I decided to just take my time and do my local 10.07 mile loop through Kendall Park and Franklin Park. I averaged a respectable 12.04 mph and a top speed of 21.40mph. The weather was a nice 79 degrees with wind from the South at 3-11mph with gusts to 18mph. I burnt 469 calories, not enough to burn off the lunch we had at Famous Dave's BBQ. W hen I returned home I found the SweatGUTR I was getting sitting on my doorstep. I quickly removed it from the blister pack and adjusted it to my head and helmet. It feels comfortable, but only wearing it on a ride will tell the true story if it is any good or not. I will post a mini review after I wear it for any duration. Tomorrow it is supposed to be near 90 degrees, so I will try to get out for a ride.

I went out to ride a little late today, but the weather was much cooler this morning and I didn't feel like dressing for cooler weather. It was 12:45 when I finally got my butt moving, and by that time the winds was howling. The winds of late have been very strong and today was no exception. The winds were from the North North West at 10-21mph with gusts exceeding the high 30mph range. There were times that I was cruising along at 20mph and the wind quickly reduced that to 10mph and less. My average speed today on this 10.07 mile loop was 12.16mph with a high speed of 22.40mph. I burnt 469 calories, but it felt like 4,000. I have to head for the shower as my face feels like it has embedded grit all over it. I can actually see the dirt and sand in the hair of my arms, making for a very unlikeable feeling. For the last 5 rides I have been drinking Fruit 2'0 Hydration instead of water and find it not bad at all. I have to pick up a few more bottles.

T his morning was my first ride do to bad weather and other events. I rode 20.48 miles and burnt 954 calories. The temperature was a beautiful 78 degrees, but the wind as usual was real strong. I guess i better get accustomed to these strong winds. The wind was form the South South West at 9-28mph with much stronger gusts. While riding I cam to a few spots that were free of trees and other obstructions and the wind hit me like a freight train, and I was actually pushed a little, I am glad I was not on a bike. My average speed on this ride was 12.46mph and my top speed was 26.5mph. I was just glad to be able to ride today. I truly wanted to ride some more but there were some real nasty looking clouds and the weather report said severe thunder storms. I have always rode with a wicking head sweat, but always felt that it was in the way and a little hot on warm days. A bunch of people a while back suggested a product called the Sweat GUTR . It is a band that goes around your head above

I started out this morning at 11:00AM for my loop through Kendall Park and Franklin. I rode 10.29 miles at an average speed of 12.41mph. My top speed was 26.90 mph, and I burnt 479 calories. The weather was a humid 80 degrees at the start and 89 at the end of the ride. The wind was from the NW at 5-8mph with gusts to 12mph. A pet peeve! Lately I have noticed on the BROL forum that a few things have gone down hill. Example: a member posted and "asked what songs people like to listen to while riding?" The fact that many of us don't agree with using ear-buds while cycling has no relation to the question, and if you want to tell him which songs you like that is fine. But the ones that don't agree seem to post their opinion thus hijacking the thread. My opinion if you don't have the answer keep your mouth shut. Well that was my two cents.