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Cycling While Full Time RVing
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Friday, December 6, 2024: I rode the Aviation Bikeway for the first time this season. Two reasons to ride the A B, 1) for something different from The Loop and 2) it is the safest route into downtown Tucson. Otherwise, there are too many street crossings, poor condition of the asphalt on the trail, excessive traffic noise and it is just plain NOT fun. There are homeless camps along much of the trail but fortunately none parked right on the trail. Apparently no one has figured a solution to the homeless problem. I consider it a disease! Instead of a virus infecting hundreds it is mental illness and substance abuse. Those homeless who don't want to live like these folks aren't here. They have accepted the help which is available.  The USA has an acceptable social structure and these folks have failed to join that structure.
A culture is a two way street, accepting what the culture has to give and giving back in someway. These folks are taking but not giving. Much of the trash has been stolen. Click both photos for more views. Behind the right photo you will see at least ten stolen shopping carts. I have relatives who blame democrats and liberal thinking for the homelessness. OK, conservatives have at least the next two years to fix this. Let's learn if the problem gets better or worse.









Monday, December 2, 2024: Only four riders today for the RCE Club ride. Unfortunately, if we ride the Loop we can only go north or south which can become boring. Perhaps that's the reason our numbers are small. The crowd usually shows up in January and the Loop is usually new to them. Still, we enjoyed our coffee stop about six mile south after riding ten miles south.














Monday, November 25, 2024: Another Monday ride for the Rincon Country East Bicycle Club. We rode to the CoffeeXChange again because we like the treats and the socializing. Yes, six men and one woman but that one woman is by far the strongest rider. We expect to try something new and different in a few Mondays. Click the photo for a view at the coffee shop.











Monday, November 11, 2024: For today's RCE Bicycle Club ride only four showed up. However, these are all strong riders especially Janette. We rode south on the Loop for ten miles then turned around for 4 miles back to the coffee shop.  Our coffee stop today turned out to be special. We met Ken who is very involved with everything cycling in Tucson. We heard Ken's life story of how he became involved with cycling. He is a retired professor from several colleges. He told us of places we should visit in Tucson which I recorded and will visit sometime in the future. He reminded us of the bicycle swap meet this coming Sunday. I went two years ago and should go again.














Monday, November 4, 2024: The Rincon Country East Cycle Club began today with the first ride of the season. We will ride every Monday until mid-April, just like last year. We are a social ride so for the first ride we rode The Loop to the CoffeeXChange, seven miles then everyone had a drink and treat while visiting. Then the seven miles back home. It was perfect weather, about 60 with no wind. The riders from the left, Fred, John, Janette, Dale (Me), Wes and Sheila.









Saturday, September 21, 2024: I don't have an easy way to store my bike in my carport. I received this upright bike storage rack today. It has four wheels at the base making it easy to roll to a safe storage location.












Wednesday, July 24, 2024: The hitch attachment works as well as I expected.  It was an easy install. I already owned the roller attached below the hitch. This will protect the hitch and rack in the case the rear of the trailer hits the pavement. This hitch is specifically made for bicycle racks, not towing. Click each photo for another view. 












Tuesday: July 23, 2024: My Yakima bike rack is very heavy, 51 lbs.  I need some place to carry this hitch rack while towing the trailer. I'm thinking I will put my bike inside the trailer but I still need to carry this heavy rack so I have the use of it when not towing. Gwen's bike is in Tucson so I only need to transport my bike. I'm cautious of what this heavy rack will do to the aluminum rear bumper on the trailer. I removed one of the bike supports which brought the weight down to only 35 pounds.  I found an attachment on Amazon which I believe will solve the problem. I can carry the rack on the back of the trailer and the bike inside.










Friday, May 17, 2024: Today's ride was with our new friend, Warren. He took me on one of his favorite routes. It was all street riding, no bike trails. He rides an e-Trike which is new to him.  It is his first trike, where he previously rode two wheeled bikes. I don't trust the Tucson drivers as much as he does so I usually avoid street riding. We are waiting for some construction to be completed then we will ride the bike trails.











Thursday, May 16, 2024: Gwen agreed to a early morning ride to beat the heat. We ended up doing a nice loop ride on part of The Loop. Some of the ride was on gravel which Gwen handled well.  I'm hoping she will do even more riding.  Here is tonight's sunset photo with the palm trees of this park in the foreground. 












Friday, May 10, 2024: Recovering from bronchitis, this was my first ride in a while. I discovered the trees along the Loop are in bloom. Weather is perfect, mid-80s and little wind today. Click the center photo for a closeup of a bloom.









Thursday, April 25, 2024:  Wes and I picked out this day to ride the entire Loop around Tucson. We chose this day because the weather forecast was for a high of 78. It did get a bit warmer (81) at one point but mostly below 80.  The Loop is advertised to be more than 130 miles of paved multi-use trail but the actual Loop is 55 miles. It has multiple spurs leaving the Loop to go to different towns and residential areas away from the Loop.  Those spurs make the paved trail 130+ miles. I am familiar with the trail route on the west due to my riding last season when we parked at Rincon Country West. And, of course, I am familiar with the trail route on the east since the club would ride it every week. Wes and I stopped at one of my favorite refreshment locations on the west, the Decibel Coffee Shop which is behind us in the photo. This time we both got ice cream.










Monday, April 22, 2024: Today is the group ride day but the season is over for leading the RCE Bicycle Club.  I rode alone for a longer distance than the club usually does. However, I was in need of some breakfast so I stopped at one of the clubs favorite locations, the CoffeeXChange. I ordered a bagel with cream cheese plus water.  I sat just inside the window overlooking my bike. I always remove the Bosch motor controller so someone can't walk up to the bike and use the motor to get away fast. My helmet strap attaches the bike to the bike stand so it shouldn't be quick. This is a popular stop for cyclists because it is only 200 yards off the Loop.  Today's ride temperature was 84 - 94 degrees but I was riding at 11 am, so high temperatures were to be expected.  I rarely use assistance on the Loop and today was no different. My ride began with the battery at 92% and ended at 90% only because the controller takes a little power.











Thursday, April 18, 2024: I took myself to the Saguaro National Park East. This is my third time to ride the park but my first time to ride TO the park from our resort. That meant riding with a lot of traffic to get there and very little traffic at the park. When I ride in Oregon, I ride with very little traffic so it's enjoyable riding. Riding in Tucson traffic is not enjoyable. The park has lots of blooming plants but no running water. It was an 88 degree day but I was comfortable with the temperature. Click both photos for more views.  Total ride was only 22 miles.









Monday, April 15, 2024:  This was the last day of the Rincon Country East season for the bicycle club. The resort doesn't close but the Activity Office does close and everything is left to the "Summer Buddies" to organize.  Wes and I were the only two showing up for the usual ride today. Since Wes is a strong rider we didn't have to stick to the short ride planned so we rode to the Ren Coffeehouse, 28 miles round trip.  Wes use to teach photography at the college level. I have a strange look on my face because Wes wanted the fountain behind us. I was telling Wes, the first rule of photography was to not have two subjects in the photo. Was the subject in this photo the two cyclists or the fountain? As we rode home, I got a one hour lecture of how it was OK to have the fountain in the photo. :-) I'm still not convinced! Had the two of us been looking at the fountain, it would have been obvious, the subject was the fountain!  Click the photo for the inside of the Ren Coffeehouse. 












Friday, April 12, 2024: I rode the furthest south on the Loop since having arrived in Tucson. I've have been to these locations before but it was last year. The ride was enjoyable even though the temperature ranged from 88 to 90 degrees. It was a lonely ride today since few were on the Loop. Click the three photos for more views. 










Friday, April 5, 2024: Today was a nice solo ride on a very windy day. I had 30 mph gusts during my ride with 42 mph gusts after I returned home. I was riding the part of The Loop north along the Rillito River which has water in it. Most of the Tucson rivers and washes are dry except during the Monsoon season. Click the left photo for a view of the Rillito Park. Click the right photo for a short video of the Rillito River.











Monday, March 11, 2024: We had a team of nine ride to the Presta Coffee Shop (one rider showed up late and missed the group photo).  It seemed like a long ride today with waiting at intersections and struggling with traffic lights not working in our favor. I was afraid the group would be grumbling about the route but they all seemed to enjoy the Presta Coffee shop as well as the conversations we had during our refreshment time.  We are normally back from our rides by noon but this ride took us an hour longer. The Aviation Bikeway is much rougher than our Loop trail.










Wednesday, March 6, 2024: I rode to the Presta Coffee Roasters today to prepare for a ride with the group on Monday. Presta coffee is advertised to be very special and has a price tag to prove it, up to $30/12 ounces. I tried the "El Salvador" coffee and found it drinkable. I say it that way because I usually put a flavored creamer in my coffee but decided to try without any creamer to learn if it was special. I enjoyed my first cup of black coffee in a long time. The rider must ride the Aviation Bikeway to arrive here. It is not nearly as well kept as The Loop. The asphalt is very rough and lots of homeless camped along the bikeway. However, it is the best and safest route to downtown Tucson and the University of Arizona. Click both photos for more views.













Sunday, March 3, 2024:  I finally have taken the time to switch from the gravel bars to road bars. I was expecting this to take all day but only took 2 hours. The photo at left is the "before" photo showing the wide, flared gravel bars. Click that photo to see the bars without the tape. The center photo shows the new road bars with the gravel bars hanging below. I got the road bars last October at the Tucson Bike Swap for $1. They are considerably narrower, just the right width for me. I slowly transferred every thing from the gravel bars to the road bars. Click the center photo to see my success. The right photo shows my new tape half done. I also got the handlebar tape at the bike swap. Not my first choice of tape but it was only $7 while all other tape was $30 or more. Click that photo to see the finished product.











Monday, February 19, 2024: Today's ride was 12.5 miles into downtown Tucson to the Time Market, one of our favorites. Not everyone in our group wanted to ride that far so three of the group did their own ride south on the Loop. Four of us ended at the Time Market for refreshments and time to visit. Our ride was on the Aviation Bikeway which is not maintained nearly as well as The Loop.  Still, we all stayed together on the rough asphalt and arrived at our destination together. Two enjoyed a pizza, one enjoyed a sandwich and one had an Americano. We were back at the park before 1.












Friday, February 16, 2024: It is past time to change my road tires. I've only been riding them for a year but they might have 3000 miles on them. They have been tubeless since I mounted them a year ago and never a flat. After releasing the air the bead would not come away from the rim side wall, they were that tight. I would never use a screwdriver to pry, too easy to damage a rim but I had to use it in a twisting motion to pop the bead off the rim side wall. They made a very loud pop when coming away from rim. To get the new tires seated tubeless on the rim I used my Airshot, a pump would not work. I used the pump to put 120 psi into the Airshot then connected the Airshot to the valve stem on the rim.  I released the Airshot valve which shot 120 psi into the tire in one big blast. That seats the tire to the rim with a load bang! Now the pump will work on the tires.











Monday, February 12, 2024: Seven of us rode north on The Loop again. It was cold so everyone was ready for the CoffeeXChange when we reached Tanke Verde.  I had a bagel with cream cheese. Others had warm drinks but I already had my coffee. 









Thursday, February 1, 2024: We moved our regular off road Friday ride to Thursday because rain is forecast for tomorrow. Not everyone got the message or had other Thursday things to do so it was Wes, Ed and Me on the ride.  We did the same tide as last week, the Fantasy Island Mountain Bike Park only a mile away. However this time I remembered to bring my GoPro so I have a nice video to share showing what those in Tucson think is mountain biking.















Monday, January 29, 2024: This was a nice group considering the route today. We took the Aviation Bikeway to the Rattlesnake Bridge then beyond to University Avenue for a coffee and refreshment stop. Aviation Bikeway is not maintained as well as The Loop and is lined with homeless camps along the way in many locations. Click the photo for a view of the Rattlesnake tail and click here for a view of the Rattlesnake head.










Friday, January 26, 2024: My first off-road ride since leaving Oregon. The rides in the photo: Dale (me) on the left then Wes, Dennis and Dave. Wes organized and lead this ride into the Fantasy Island Mountain Bike Park about a mile from our location. They all had mountain bikes while I had only my gravel bike (gravel wheels exchanged for my road wheels).  We rode the "Bunny Trail" and I'm glad we did. The area is really for mountain bikes not gravel bikes. But this was an enjoyable ride due to the condition of the trail, the weather and friends. We have decided to make this a Friday event added to the Monday event. Click the photo for the "ugliest cactus" Dennis has ever seen. Also, here is a funny video I made today :-).














Monday, January 15, 2024: Our bike club grew today. I had been told by those who have been here before to expect more riders in January. We made a short ride of 7 miles to the CoffeeXChange, a ride we have done twice before. This turned out to be at many of the riders limit. A few of the riders extended the ride especially because of the great weather. My son Joe joined us for the ride. Click the photo to see the two of us.









Tuesday, January 2, 2024: I moved the regular RCE Bike Club ride day to Tuesday this week to avoid the holiday. The seven of us rode south on The Loop to a rest stop which is ten miles distant. We turned around and rode back to the Pour My Coffee Shop where we all enjoyed refreshments.  Our total ride was 20 miles and we could have gone further because these were all strong riders. Click this photo to see another view along The Loop.











Thursday, December 28, 2023: Today was a solo ride on The Loop to La Caņada beyond the Rillito Park. It ended up being 36 miles without any stop at a coffee shop.  Click the photo for a view of The Loop.











Tuesday, December 26, 2023: The RCE Bike Club rode a paved loop road in the Saguaro National Park East. It is a short 8 miles but has some decent climbing and some very steep descents. We had a total of six riders. Three drove to the start point while the other three rode to the start point. The ride is very scenic on a narrow one way road shared with vehicle traffic. The route is very popular with cyclists. Click the photos for more views.














Monday, December 18, 2023: Keeping with the RCE (Rincon Country East) bicycle club schedule, we rode 28 miles today with the Ren Coffeehouse in the middle of the ride. The 28 miles was a little long for some of the riders.  We'll do something different in three weeks since the next two Monday's are holidays.










Friday, December 8, 2023: I rode exploring the Loop south looking for a suitable destination for a future RCE Bike Club ride. Riding south the Loop passes the border of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on one side and the open, empty desert on the other side.  This open desert contains the Fantasy Island Mountain Bike Park with miles of dirt to ride between the cactus. You truly feel remote with nothing but the Loop pavement in front of you. Click the photos for more views.










Monday, December 4, 2023:  We had a nice club ride today from Rincon Country East. It was only a 14 mile round trip ride but we all enjoyed the coffee shop in the middle of the ride.  In the photo from the left, Dale (me), Co-Host Gary, Jack, Mark, Wanda, Julie and Mike.  Now I must start the plans for next week's ride.

















November 20, 2023: It was a chilly morning so the three riders for the Monday club ride are dressed warmly. From the left, Dale, Gary and Wes. Our destination is the Aviation Bikeway to the Rattle Snake Bridge. The bridge is just behind the sculpture of the Rattlesnake tail.  The distance to the tail is 11/5 miles so round trip is 23 miles. Gary and I road eBIkes but I never turned mine on.










Monday, November 13, 2023: Our RCE Club ride (Rincon Country East) was twice the length of last week. That or something else reduced the size of our group. We had a slight tailwind while riding north which meant a headwind when we returned. Still, everyone seemed to enjoy the ride.












Sunday, November 12, 2023: Years ago when I lived at Lake Tahoe, California I would attend the Ski Swap every November. Here in Tucson is a Bike Swap in November. I attended today and found an incredible amount of stuff for sale at give away prices in some booths, not all. I have been looking at drop handlebars thinking to change my flared handlebars. It will be a lot of work so I have delayed a purchase of about $60. I couldn't pass up the $1 handlebars, the exact size I was looking for. I also found a gift for son Joe and a $5 jersey for me. I also bought a muffin from a youth group.










Wednesday, November 8, 2023: I did a pre-ride today of the route I'm planning for the cycling club on Monday. On the first ride we did two segments of 7 miles each. The route I rode today is twice that, four segments of 7 miles each. That may be a challenge for some in our group but everyone did so well on the first ride I'm ready to try this. The reward is a really nice coffee shop, Ren Coffeehouse. It is literally a stroll off the Loop bike trail. There will be no street riding. The Ren has a huge patio area which will accommodate our group. Additionally, for my sister, Dorana, look what is next door.  Wow, 200 hours of instruction to become a Yoga instructor. Click these photos for more views.

















Monday, November 6, 2023: I have started a Cycling Club at Rincon Country East (RCE) in the same style as the riding group I joined last season in Rincon Country West. I had no idea how many would show up. I was pleased that we had a total of 11 riders. I changed the start time from 10 am to 9 am because of the weather forecast of 90 degrees today. I believe we lost only 1 rider because of the time change.  I had no idea of the strength of the riders so we did a short ride of 7 miles to the XChange Coffee Shop for refreshment then 7 miles returning for a total of 14 miles. All the riders seemed to do well so I will lead a longer ride next Monday. Click the top photo to see all in the group.










Sunday, October 8, 2023: While looking at a Tucson cycling map I discovered the Aviation Bikeway began only a mile from the Rincon Country East Resort. I had to go exploring since the bikeway connected the Davis-Monothan Air Force base to downtown Tucson. Fourth Avenue, downtown, has many restaurants and shops to explore. The bikeway is paved but not nearly as well kept as The Loop. The pavement is very rough in places and native plants are trying to take over in places. However the signs along the way lead right to Fourth Avenue. Now I am anxious to find the route from Fourth Avenue to the west side of The Loop so I can connect with The Decibel Coffee Shop!
Click both photos for more views of the bikeway.















Sunday, September 17, 2023:  Today was stage 21 of  La Vuelta a Espana (The Tour of Spain).  Twenty-one is the final stage of the race. Each stage the riders must cover over 100 miles with thousands of feet worth of climbing. For the first time the same team won the first three places. "Jumbo Visma" (pronounced Yumbo) is the team. The rider winning the race in the red jersey is Sepp Kuss from Durango Colorado USA.  He won by 17 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (who won the Tour de France) and about a minute ahead of third place, Primoz Roglic. I always say while watching the Tour de France that I watch because the views of France are as close as I will ever get to France. The same goes for the views of Spain. If you compare athletes, a football player must run hard for about ten seconds then rest for forty seconds. A cyclist must ride at 25 - 35 mph for 4 to 5 hours without rest!  Just say'n!














Friday, September 15, 2023: Five of us showed today for the Friday "Coffee" ride. When the ride begins in Roseburg at Gathering Grounds Coffee, it truly is a coffee ride. But today's ride began in Sutherlin at the Central Park so no coffee.  This was a good ride with people I know and enjoy riding with. I'm on the far left, then Bill, Larry, Barry and Mark. Note that Mark and I accidentally wore the same Umpqua Velo Jerseys. We rode my favorite route, Driver Valley for a total of 34 miles.









 

Sunday, September 10, 2023: Glen invited me to ride with him from Glide Oregon to the Cool Water Campground following the Little River Road. It was an out/back route with climbing all the way to the campground leading to a descent back to Glide.  Normally the descent would be wonderful but this time we had to fight a headwind all the way back. This road was more popular than the roads around Sutherlin, much more traffic. We rewarded our ride with a late lunch at The Atom, our favorite place in Glade. I had a large blended drink which was really nice after a hot ride.



Monday, September 4, 2023: After watching all the riders yesterday I took myself on my Driver Valley ride but extended it to 32 miles. It was perfect weather with an early morning rain but cool and refreshing during the ride. The replacement bridge for the 100 year old Oakland Bridge is probably only a couple months from completion.





Sunday, September 3, 2023: Today is the Vineyard Tour organized by the Umpqua Velo Cycling Club. We do one century tour each year during Labor Day weekend. My responsibility this year is to drive a SAG wagon to assist riders with problems and to follow the last rider on a route to be sure no help is needed. The riders have a choice of 17, 30, 58 or 100 mile routes. I was to follow the 100 mile riders which I did until the last reststorp where three riders decided to have me take them back to the start due to an ankle injury to one of the riders.  The top left photo is Marty with a motorized three wheel bike. He bought the bike after knee surgery.  The center photo is one of the riders showing off some energy bars from one of the ride sponsors. The photos on the right are of two of the reststops.  The group of three on the left are those I hauled back to the start from the last reststop. This reststop happened to be at a winery where the three took advantage of the tasting plus bought a bottle. Click all photos for more views. There were nearly 100 riders today which was good considering the nearby wildfires producing smoke. The start point was changed to avoid most of the smoke. Here is a video of the start of the tour.


Friday, August 18, 2023: Friday is a club riding day. Today Bill lead the ride starting from our Sutherlin park. Larry also joined us, just the three of us on the ride. We did one of my favorite rides, Driver Valley Road. It was a good ride for me with a vegetable burrito at the end.



Friday: August 11, 2023: My friend, Bill, lead the Friday club ride today. Riders from the left, me, Barry, Dick, Bob and Bill. It was one of my favorite routes which should have been 25 miles but we extended the length to 33 miles. Bill is the rider on the poster Rick posted yesterday.  Today is the "Coffee Ride" with a coffee stop scheduled sometime during the ride.  Gwen's children, Dave and Lesa were visiting today so I didn't stop for coffee.


Monday, August 7, 2023: I dropped off the Forester at the mechanic this morning early for the annual check-up.  Rather than hang around waiting for the car I brought my bike and took myself for a 38 mile ride through Dixonville then on to the community of Green. This is a nice rural loop ride which a did only a couple weeks ago with my friends Erik and Glen. This time it was a solo ride almost as good as the riding around Sutherlin. Not as good because the rider must negotiate traffic in the beginning and ending of the ride. Click the photos for more views.



Wednesday, July 12, 2023:  I decided to ride the route I plan to lead for a club ride in two weeks. It is a route I ride many times each season but others in the club may not know this route.  I created a video to introduce the route and generate interest.  Click these photos for more views.





Saturday and Sunday, July 8-9, 2023: Five of the Umpqua Velo members participated in a Honey Badger organized gravel ride in southern Oregon. Four of us camped the night near the start of the ride to avoid a 3 hour drive in the morning. These are well organized gravel rides on well scouted routes. Three of our riders did the long 48 mile ride while Glen and I did the shorter 32 mile ride. It still took four hours due to the gravel, climbing and stops to take photos. Click all three photos for more views. I did make a longer video of our ride. It will give you the gravel experience and the Oregon beauty.




Saturday, July 1, 2023: I drove early to my friend Glen's house where we drove together to pick up our friend Stan. All three of us drove about an hour east to the Bridge Country Store for the start of our gravel ride into the mountains to the north.  This is all very remote, heavily wooded area with good gravel roads and some ranches located off the gravel roads. Glen had explored the area ahead of our ride to be sure it would be a good riding destination. Our friends Evan and Owen met us at the store so a total of 5 riders. We all wore the K9Crack.com jerseys so we looked like a serious cycling team.  This is a beautiful area and surprising the number of ranches hidden in such a remote area. Click all photos for more views. I made a short video to give you an idea of the ride we did today.

Friday, June 30, 2023: It has been six months since I first went tubeless so I figured it was time to replenish the sealant. Another reason for doing it today on these gravel tires is the planned gravel ride for tomorrow.  The gravel tires are particularly difficult for tubeless because they don't keep the bead without a great deal of effort.  It is different with the road tires, they keep the bead and have a different sealant which can be installed with a syringe so the bead need not be broken.  With the gravel tires, one side must be partially removed and sealant poured into the tire. Then the tire is tucked inside the rim.  In order to reseat the bead I must use the Airshot more than once. Click the photo for the Airshot setup.



Wednesday, June 28, 2023: For the second time this year I got to choose the route and lead the Wednesday evening Umpqua Velo Club ride. I took them on one of my favorite routes for 25 miles. We had a total of seven riders.  I'm on the left then Jim, Evan, Owen, Kristen, Rachel, and Ryan.  Owen and Ryan are the youngest and very strong riders. Ryan rode 26 miles to reach our start point, then my 25 mile route, then back home, another 26 miles.  The Plat I (letter i) Reservoir is behind the riders. The ride began at 6 pm and ended by 8 pm (we stopped for photos and to regroup several times).



Monday, June 26, 2023: My friend, Glen, is planning a strenuous ride this coming Saturday which I will attend. Because of that I decided to ride a bit longer than my usual warmup ride. Today's ride was 38 mile in 2.5 hours with 2000 feet of climbing. It is one of my favorite routes but this was my first time this year to ride this route. It passes by the Mildred Kanipe Memorial Park (MKMP) at the half way point. The MKMP has camping specifically for equestrian campers, hiking trails, lots of wildflowers and lots of Peacocks. You will see a Peacock in the background under the last photo. Mildred donated her ranch to the county in her will.  The ranch is 1100 acres donated in 1983. Unfortunately it took the county 30 years to decide what to do with the donation in addition it took "friends of Mildred Kanipe" to donate the finances to develop the park into what it is today.  My ride circles much of northern Douglas County a huge county which reaches all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It is a beautiful county and the roads I ride are excellent road riding due to the lack of traffic and fairly good asphalt.  Click the three photos to see more views. Oh! I wore the K9Crack jersey for my friends Stan and Georgie, the owners of the dog treat business.




Friday, June 23, 2023: I took Gwen on a bike ride along the Roseburg bike trail to Green. That meant crossing the South Umpqua River twice, both time on a bike bridge hanging under an Interstate 5 highway bridge.  The first bridge made creaking and groaning noises as the semi truck crossed. We had to cross that bridge twice and felt lucky we made it alive. The trail follows the South Umpqua where we crossed under the next bridge which seemed safer. Unfortunately, the trail also follows Interstate 5 so Gwen did not like the traffic noise and the possibility that a passing vehicle might throw a rock in our direction. Click the photos for more views.


Wednesday, June 21, 2023: This is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. I took advantage of the longest day by riding into the countryside looking for flowers and unusual items. Click the photos to see more of what I found.














Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 16-18, 2023: Once each year the tiny town of Powers, Oregon hosts the Tour de Fronds bicycle ride.  The route length choices for the ride are 30, 63, 77 and 100 miles with an increasing amount of climbing as the mileage increases. My son Ben, plus friends Glen, Erik, Stan, and I did the metric century (100 kilometers, 63 miles) while friend Jim did 100 miles.  It seems the entire town must volunteer with preparation, food, SAG wagons, rest stops, advertising while our entrance fee benefits functions in the town. The elementary school kids made most of the signs decorating the routes and Ross Hall where we had our final meal after the ride.  The middle school girls basketball team served us our Friday night meal as a separate fund raiser. They were very happy with the $1,600 earned from that meal.  There were 220 riders with an average fee of $75 to benefit the town.  Erik, Ben and I stayed in the Honey Badger Ranch Cabin (HBR) while Glen stayed in his new RV next to the cabin and above the Coquille River.   The HBR is 100 feet from the Coquille River making it a very pleasant place to camp. This is the second time Ben and I have done this ride while the others have done this multiple times. It is very well organized with great food, great rest stops and a wonderful forest road to ride.  Ben is already planning for next year saying he wants to increase to the 77 or 100 mile routes.  Click on all photos for more views.


Sunday, June 11, 2023: I'm back to riding my bike. Today I chose 28 miles on Driver Valley Road. It felt good to be on the bike again.  Click both photos for more views.




Saturday and Sunday: June 3 and 4, 2023: Once each year the Umpqua Velo Cycling Club has an overnight ride. This year we rode to the Cavitt Creek Campground, a BLM campground south of Glide, Oregon. It is a popular campground because it has lots of big trees, a creek with a swimming hole and is close to Roseburg and even closer to Glide. It was only a 26 mile ride one way for the riders with 1,500 feet of climbing. This weekend adventure was only five brave riders. Erik on the left, then me, Bill, Dick and Glen. Erik did ALL the work of planning and cooking wonderful camp food for dinner and breakfast. Just before arriving at the campground we all stopped at the Peel Store for something to drink and a snack. The weather was perfect. I'm not a fan of sleeping on the ground but chose to take my tent rather than my hammock. On the return, I rode back to Sutherlin through Roseburg giving me 40 miles of riding. Click the photos for another view.


Thursday, June 1, 2023: This may seem silly but I do ride with a flashing read taillight. My light is the Garmin Varia which is a bit more than a taillight. It also reports to my Hammerhead K2 computer when a vehicle (or bicyclist) is approaching from the rear.  The plastic support for the Varia broke two rides ago. I'm replacing the plastic support with a metal support which arrived today. I can't mount the Varia to the seat post because I have an under seat bag to carry emergency repair tools. 




Monday, May 29, 2023:  For the first time this year I rode with my friends to Glide, 52 miles round trip. Our favorite stop in Glide is The Atom Coffee Shop where I had an iced Americano with the Atom Sandwich. We rode North Bank Road which follows the north bank of the North Umpqua River, the second longest river in Oregon.  I left Sutherlin at 8:30 and was back by 1 pm.  Click all the photos for more views.


Wednesday, May 24, 2023: Every Wednesday the Umpqua Velo Cycling Club sponsors an evening ride. I volunteered to lead this evening. That also means I get to choose the route. I worked hard to pick a route which would have sites along the way which might be of interest. There were a total of five riders on tonight's route. I knew all riders except two. The young man, second from right, was the strongest rider. He actually rode to our start point making his ride about 3x what the rest of us did.



Monday, May 8, 2023: I dodged the rain today to put my Yamaha Cross Connect back to how it was received. That meant installing the fenders, rear rack, lights, original tires, and saddle. Then I took photos and listed on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.  This has been a good bike for me and I have mixed feelings about selling it but I just have no room to store another bike.


Sunday, May 7, 2023: Before the rain started today I had enough time to preview the cycling route I plan to do on May 24. At the last Umpqua Velo Club meeting I volunteered to lead a ride on Wednesday afternoon, May 24.  The club usually likes a route between 20 - 22 miles and moderate hills. I ride these roads everyday in good weather so I know, roughly, the route I want to show the riders. It will include the only Sutherlin bike path and then off into some rolling hills with one major climb on Oak Hill Road. The photo on the left is the beginning of that Oak Hill climb.  After a screaming downhill run on the west side of Oak Hill we will pass by the historic Calapooia Church then the historic Wilcox home. We follow the road to Rolling Ridge which leads to the Rochester Covered bridge in the photo on the right.  At this point we are only 4 miles from the Sutherlin Central Park where we started.


Friday, April 28, 2023: My friends, Stan and Georgie own a business making and selling single ingredient dog treats called K9Crack. My friend, Stan, is a very strong cyclist and I try to ride with him often, or maybe I should say, "ride behind him".  He has created a cycling jersey which you see me wearing today. I think at least 20 of us have bought the jersey because we like Stan and his wife and the dog treats.  Today I got back on my bike after being off it for five days since my focus has been on completing the trailer overhaul.  It was fun to wear the K9Crack jersey for the first time. I made sure Stan knew I was wearing it. I suspect when we all get together as a group looking like we are the K9Crack Cycling Team it will be even more fun!




Saturday, April 22, 2023:This is Earth Day and our Umpqua Velo Cycling Club traditionally sponsors a ride on this day. Fortunately, we have good weather surrounded by rain yesterday and rain beginning again tonight. This turned out to be a 38 mile ride for five of us in the group. The main group did a 28 mile ride because they somehow took the wrong route, or I should say, not the planned route.  The five of us did not want to turn around to chase them down to correct their direction. We DID meet up with them again when we all arrived at the Lighthouse Bakery and Cafe in the tiny village of Umpqua. Everything in this area is "Umpqua" because the second longest river in Oregon, the Umpqua River runs through this valley. The five of us make a good group. Glen and Jim are strong riders and usually set a good pace. Evan and his son Owen are the strongest riders challenging the rest of us. I am able to keep up with this group using my eBike assistance. I still ride to my heart rate which today was usually between 140-155, higher than I usually ride. I am the oldest in the group at 76 while Owen is the youngest at 15. At the top of Cole Road, our steepest climb, Owen lead the group. I asked Owen what his heart rate was as he was pushing all of us up the mountain. He told me it was 192 which was probably close to his maximum for his age.  Click both photos for more views. I also made a short video of our five as we climber Cole Road.


Wednesday, April 19, 2023: Rain all day today kept me inside along with Abby while Gwen went shopping. I did some searching for kitchen items for the Tucson home and watched a documentary.

I ended the day with a group Zwift ride to complete Stage 1 of the Spring Training Series. Riding a workout such as this forces you to stay with the group and you can not slack off as you can on a solo ride.

Monday, April 17, 2023: The weather has become wet again but the weather man has adjusted his forecast rain to stop on Thursday rather than Friday, we've gained a day.

Since it's raining, I decided to pull the trailer to a local trailer manufacturing company to pack the wheel bearings. It wasn't long before I got a call telling me the axle was so old new parts were not available and my best option was to replace the axle! OMG! Add $300 to the cost of the trailer. I don't want to take the chance that this trailer falls apart halfway to Tucson.

Later I chose to ride with a pacer on Zwift. As it turns out, my friend Stan rode with me. On the rider list to the right you will see "K9Crack.Com". That is my friend Stan. His wife has a business called K9Crack which is a single ingredient dog treat. It makes a cracking sound when broken.




Saturday, April 15, 2023: My friends, Glen and Dick picked me up early this morning (6:20) to drive to Brownsville, Oregon to make a 7:45 breakfast. The breakfast is a part of the Swift Summit Northwest Spring Classic. It is a two day event but the three of us had registered only for the events of this day. Our events included breakfast, a metric century, then lunch. The weather was cold but dry. We were lucky because rain is forecast for a week beginning tomorrow. A metric century is 62 miles and this one also had 3,200 feet of climbing. This was really too much for me since I've been in Oregon only since April 3 with little time to prepare to ride 62 miles. Today's ride was only my third ride on my road bike since arriving. I started out easily because I know what happens if you ride too hard at the beginning of a long ride, you die before the end. Beginning easy usually means you can finish strong. I didn't finish strong today but I DID finish. This is only the second year of this event but it is growing in popularity so I suspect it will be even more popular next year. There were riders from as far away at Tacoma, Washington. They are just as excited to finally get on the road after a long, wet winter. Click on all the photos for more views.


Saturday, April 8, 2023: I was able to do a real road ride today mostly between rain showers.  This was my first Oregon road ride in 6 months. I did my favorite route, Driver Valley, a very quiet country road with a total ride of 28 miles. Today's ride was on gravel tires which are certainly a softer ride than the road tires. The photo at the left shows what is meant by "grass fed beef".  This is a good time of year with everything green from all the winter rain. Click that photo for a view ahead on the road. The photo at the right is of the new bridge being built to replace a very old single lane bridge probably built before automobiles.  Click the photo for a side view of the new bridge.



Thursday, April 6, 2023: I have been off any bike for almost 3 weeks and I feel it. It has been constant rain since returning to Oregon so I have begun using Zwift again to get back into shape. I spent an hour riding today and my body hurt badly after the ride. I need to continue with Zwift until there is good weather for outdoor riding our I won't be able to keep up with the guys. I also need to lose some of those Arizona pounds I added during the winter months.  Here is a short video as I finished today's ride.

Tuesday, April 4, 2023: We arrived in Oregon four days ago. It was raining when we arrived and has continued to rain every day since. It is a cold rain. There were cold days in Tucson but Oregon cold feels much colder. The rain has slowed me down both physically and emotionally. That has made it difficult for me to get set up in Oregon. I finally unpacked our shed enough so I could get my Zwift bike into the shed but I still have a kayak hanging in the middle of the room so unsure about riding Zwift.

The photo shows the new Deore 11 speed cassette I installed onto a second set of wheels. The bike can be used for gravel riding or road riding so I have two sets of wheels to make that possible. I was removing the cassette from one set and transferring to the other but now I won't have to do that. It will make for a quicker transfer. My cycling friends here in Oregon are into gravel riding so this new cassette is on my gravel wheels.



Tuesday, March 14, 2023: I have been passing the "A" mountain nearly every day I ride north on the Loop. I knew vehicles were not allowed on Monday then not allowed until after 2 pm the rest of the week. I happened to be on the Loop this morning riding north and decided today would be the day to climb Sentinel Peak. The "A" mountain is A for the University of Arizona. It is a popular hiking location for families before the vehicles arrive. Bicycle like the climb also since the Loop seems nearly flat and the elevation change is very gradual. Like nearly all the Tucson roads, the pavement was very rough and busy with hikers. I had to descend carefully because of those conditions. Click both photos for more views and watch this video of the ascent.



Monday, March 13, 2023:This begins our last week at Rincon Country West and my last chance to ride with the Monday morning cycling group. It was a short ride today but on a route which I did not know. We rode to the University of Arizona Campus then to the Time Cafe. That meant we were off the Loop trail much of the time and on city streets. Tucson does a pretty good job making bike routes on city streets labeling them "Bike Boulevard" and painting the streets to show where cyclists should be and where the cars should be. Click both photos for another view.



Wednesday, March 8, 2023: Riding 25 miles with Gary today. We stopped at this little "Community Fishing Lake" along the west side of the Loop. We didn't see anyone fishing but several were enjoying the warm day along the edges of the lake.

We stopped again at the Decibel Coffee Company where we enjoyed iced coffee drinks.










Monday, March 6, 2023:Finally the day came to ride the entire Tucson Loop Bicycle Trail in one ride. Previously I rode all segments but never the entire Loop in one ride. Total miles were 60 and it took me 4.5 hours of riding time. It should have been no more than 4 hours but I was feeling that great today, still bothered with congestion and only feeling about 80% in strength. Still, I rode the entire Loop with NO eAssistance working on strength building rather than record riding time. I did stop at the half way point for a far too big lunch but it did help me through the second half of the ride. I won't do this ride again before leaving Tucson but will likely do this several times next fall. I don't like the downtown portion of the Loop, far too much traffic.  There are some really lonely parts of the Loop in the south but with new housing developments, it may get pretty busy. Click all photos for another view.





Wednesday, March 1, 2023: This was forecast to be a windy day with rain developing late. I tried to start a bike ride early to avoid as much of the stormy weather as I could. The day began with clear weather, the photo shows clouds slowly developing and by the time I returned the clouds were solid over the mountains and the wind was 20 mph. This photo was taken at a junction. Riding to the right took you southeast to the most southern part of the Loop. Riding to the left took you northwest to the most northern part of the Loop. I went right, south. It is not my favorite route since it takes the rider through city streets with at least a dozen street crossings and only half of those have signal lights. My goal was a 20 mile ride and I ended up with a little over 22 miles. Half the time riding against the wind and half the time benefiting from a tailwind. The long bridge shown in the photo is the bridge used by northbound I-10 traffic to join southbound traffic on I-19.




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Saturday, February 25, 2023: Gwen and I chose to drive to the sister resort, Rincon Country East this morning to look at a park model located in that park. I took the opportunity to bring my bicycle along to join The Loop on the east side of Tucson. I wanted to ride The Loop to the north then return on the west side back to our resort here on the west side of Tucson. I was figuring 40 miles but it turned out to be 37 miles. I have now ridden the entire loop in sections. Now that I know my way around, I need to plan an all day ride to complete the loop in one day.

My plan today was to ride to the Mercado area of container stores where I knew of a very good vegetarian place to get lunch. That would be a bit more than 30 miles of riding. However, I learned that Gary and Jeanne wanted to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant so I chose not to eat lunch. I did get a drink, however. While at Mercado, I met this rider and asked him about the Ragbrai ride (in July every year, it is the ride across the entire state of Iowa). I learned he has done the ride 23 times and plans to do it again this summer.

Click all the photos for more views.



Wednesday, February 22, 2023: This was a stormy day with winds gusting to 33 mph. Gary and I decided to entertain ourselves by driving to a couple of bike shops. We specifically wanted to sit in one of the high performance trikes. This is a Cattrike road bike. I would not be brave enough to ride this on a road but the Tucson Bike Loop is a very popular route for these bikes. My head looks like it is an uncomfortable position but the bike has a headrest at that location which made it comfortable. I would like to return to test ride this bike. Click the photo for a view of the bike without me in it. You'll see the headrest too.




Monday, February 20, 2023:I chose to ride today with the Rincon Country West (RCW) bike group. This is advertised as the faster of two RCW groups. All riders were on eBikes except the leader (although I do not turn on my assistance on this flat trail). If I'm looking for an nice easy ride, I may ride with this group again, otherwise they are too slow to get any real exercise for me. We did ride out and back on the trail stopping at mile 20 at the Decibel Coffee Shop for refreshment. After coffee we finished the ride for a total of 24 miles. Click the photos for more views.




Wednesday, February 15, 2023: We have been here a month and I have yet to find the bicycle route to the east side of the Loop. I happened to post online that I was going out today specifically to find the east side. Another rider answered with some directions. I have actually ridden by the junction twice but never noticed the turn. I ended up with 34 miles round trip with only 6 of those miles on the east side. Next it will be time for a ride of the entire Loop, about 60 miles. I have been on 2/3 of the Loop so only 1/3 will be new to me. I would like to find an easy refreshment stop along the way. That will take some more research. Click all three photos for more views.

Tuesday, February 7, 2023: I am starting to suffer from a head cold so I rode only a short 13 mile ride with Gary and Jeanne. This ride had a reward however. Gary and Jeanne visited the Decibel Coffee Shop for treats and drinks while I visited the meatless burger place nearby. I enjoyed their vegi burgers the other day so thought I would try them again and I was not disappointed. Jeanne is passing the trail counter. You can see it is still cold in Tucson by the way Jeanne is dressed. Click the photo to see Gary standing by ready to ride.



Sunday, February 5, 2023: Gwen and I are seriously thinking of returning to Tucson for a longer period next fall. We are wanting to explore the Rincon Country East Resort. We are currently in the Rincon Country West Resort with over 1100 spaces and hundreds of restaurants nearby. But that means lots of traffic and traffic noise. It is also in the flight path for the Tucson Airport so we have commercial jets about 300 feet overhead often. The east resort is more remote with no major traffic nearby. There is an Air Force base nearby with Air Force planes taking off and landing. I doubt there is anyplace in Tucson where you can get away from the fighter jets. They are flying over us daily in the west.

I rode the Loop today from Rincon West to Rincon East. It was 30 miles nearly all of the ride was on the trail without vehicle traffic. About two miles of the trail was roadside sharing with vehicles but that was the only time I was next to traffic. The ride began with a 2 mile long train passing slowly. That added 20 minutes to my ride. This is the southern end of the Loop so it is much quieter and more remote than the rest of the Loop. The trail was still pretty busy so I saw another rider every minute of the ride. Today temperature was the warmest since we arrived, 81 degrees. Where the west resort sits right on the bike trail, the east resort has a two mile ride to get to the trail. Click both photos for more views.




Sunday, January 29, 2023: This is my second ride with the Cactus Cycle Club. This was a nice clear day but windy. We had to ride directly into a 20 mph headwind on the return ride. There were a lot of riders so the group was split into three groups and even those groups spread out somewhat.  The ride was 40 total miles and took 2 hours 21 minutes of riding time. Some of the group took a tour of the Biosphere but I'm saving that trip for Gwen.


Thursday, January 26, 2023: I planned ahead for this ride. I found a coffee shop exactly 25 miles up the Loop Trail. I thought to myself, "it would be fun to do a 50 mile ride with a nice coffee shop at the 25 mile point." When I started the ride today I thought, "I haven't dressed warmly enough". There is a headwind with this 53 degree temperature making it feel very cold. I wanted to turn around to get warmer clothes but decided to keep riding. The headwind didn't help my speed so I gave myself a little help from the Bosch motor. The Savaya Coffee Shop came soon enough. After a little refreshment I turned off assistance and headed back the 25 miles. Damn if the wind hadn't shifted and now I had a headwind again. I stuck with no assistance. I had decided to do a longer ride today because I can't ride the next two days and I have a longer ride with the Cactus Cycling Club on Sunday.



Wednesday, January 25, 2023:This coffee shop is only four miles from our resort, right off the Loop Trail. It was my first visit but I plan to visit often. I will have to try some different drinks. While visiting the coffee shop I noticed a bicycle shop next door. After the drink I went to the bike shop and found some really cool bags I have not seen before. Click the photo to see some under top-tube bags.



Sunday, January 22, 2023:Today was a beautiful day for a 54 mile ride on the Loop Trail to Oro Valley.  I met some new friends today. In the photo above JoAnn on the left next to Diane then David with me on the right.

We rode the multi-use Loop trail exclusively so we never had to deal with vehicle traffic. The trail is very popular on a Sunday so we did dodge and pass many other users of the trail.

Our destination was the end of the trail in Oro Valley. That is where the above photo was taken.

This was my third and longest ride on the new wheels and tubeless tires. They must have made a difference for me since I don't feel like I'm in that good a physical condition. I was able to do the entire ride without help from my Bosch motor. David, JoAnn and Diane are strong riders so they set a strong pace, often at 22 mph and above. I'm sure I would not have been able to keep up without the new wheels and tires. I am now convinced that this bike can do a century ride since it is so easy to ride without assistance. I already told my son, Ben, I would do another century with him using assistance only the second half just so I can finish with him. Click the photo above for a panorama of the Catalina Mountains and the bike trail. This WILL be an ibuprofen night!




Saturday, January 21, 2023: Gary and I rode the Loop Trail again today. We saw horses for the first time from the trail. I also started to look at some of the art found along the trail. Weather has been clear but cold. We ride with tights and long sleeve jerseys.


Friday, January 20, 2023: What a day! It began with listening to a description and history of the Chuck Huckelberry Loop Trail which circle Tucson.  It is 137 miles of  paved multiuse trail which includes bicycles. Once the lecture was over I learned the tire I have been waiting for had been delivered. This is the tire for the rear Boyd wheel I just bought. These are tubeless rims and tires and fortunately everything assembled easily and the tires are holding air. These new wheels need two more things before they can be mounted onto the bike. They need brake rotors and the rear wheel needs a cassette. I removed the rotors from my CoOp bike, the bike I use for Zwift. I needs no wheels or brakes for Zwift. The cassette I removed from the original rim and simply transferred it to the new Boyd rim.  My intention is to put the original gravel tires back on those rims so I can do both gravel and road riding with this bike. I'll transfer the cassette back when needed.  The new wheels fit perfectly with no adjustment needed.

Once the bike was setup with the new wheels I took Abby to the agility park so she could have a play time. She has never been to an agility park before so I was surprised when she ran up the ramp on this platform. I think it surprised her too. Click on both photos for more views.


Wednesday, January 18, 2023:  Today was a busy day on the bicycle. I did my first ride with the Cactus Cycling Club. It was a 41 mile ride with 20 riders. 10 riders took a 20 mile loop and called it a social time. I rode with the other group doing a 41 mile loop. They rode a paceline the entire 41 miles which increased our average speed but did not allow me to watch the scenery. Instead I had to focus on the wheel in front of me. I was pleased with the ride since I was able to keep up. I rode unassisted for a quarter of the ride.

When I returned home I was not there long before the Fedex truck arrived with my new road wheels from Boyd Cycling in South Carolina. These are tubeless wheels with tubeless tires. It is my first time to go tubeless. I was pleased when the tire mounted easily and seated on the bead just as easily. After adding sealant, it held air. I currently have only one tire which I mounted on the front wheel.  I'm hoping the rear tire mounts just as easily and holds air. Click the left photo for another view.




Sunday, January 15, 2023: The weather was threatening today but I learned others were riding so I didn't want to be a wimp.  I dressed warmly and went for my first ride on the Chuck Huckelberry Loop.  It circles Tucson and is wonderfully paved with zero automobile and truck traffic. It seems well used. Today's weather was threatening so only the hardy were on the trail. This is very exciting since the trail passes next to this RV resort. I plan to ride every day it isn't raining. I got a special treat on this ride. I came upon what I thought was a dog, but turned out to be a Javelina which crossed directly in front of me as I came closer. I turned around and got the photo behind the art on the right. Click all the photos for more views. I also found a Waffle House only 7 miles from our resort so I plan to convince Gwen to ride with me for breakfast some day.


Thursday, January 12, 2023: One of the reasons we came to Sun City was to have easy access to the paved bicycle paths nearby. Today we rode the New River Trail toward the south from the Rio Vista Community Park. The whole ride was 16 miles which I believe is Gwen's longest ride. This was only half of the trail. We will do the other half on Saturday with our friends, Steve and Tina. Once we returned to the park Gwen noticed her front tire going flat. When I got back to the motorhome and checked it out, she had picked up a goat head which gave her a tiny puncture. I repaired it with a patch and she is good as new now. Click on both photos for more views.



Tuesday, January 10, 2023: My son, Joe is vacationing in Las Vegas but took the time to drive from Vegas to Lake Havasu City where we joined him. We first had lunch at a cafe known only to the locals. Then we parked at the ball park across the London Bridge on the island to do some bike riding on the island bike path.  Joe wanted to get the feel of Gwen's eBike. He really enjoyed it and I believe will start doing some shopping for his own.

On the return from Lake Havasu City we were watching an approaching storm from the west. Gwen got this photo of the light coming through the clouds.



Monday, December 26, 2022: I did my usual ride to Quinn Pass today but this time continued over the pass to US95. This is a 20 mile ride. Quartzsite is only another 5 miles but I don't ride US95. It has no shoulder and heave truck and car traffic. Gwen picked me up with Gary and Jeanne following. We drove to Quartzsite so all could ride the short bike path then on into a new house area. The ride with the group is at "touring" speed so it took an hour to ride 5 miles. We did stop at a partially completed house to take a tour of what we thought the rooms would be.  This area gets to be 115 degrees in the summer so homes must be well built to withstand the heat. The high today was comfortable at 72 degrees.  Here is a short video of our ride this afternoon.


Monday, December 19, 2022: By 1:30 in the afternoon the temperature had warmed enough to make for comfortable riding weather. The morning low was 28°, are you surprised since this is Arizona. I had packages to pick up at the post office so I began the ride there and ended there. Riding to the top of Quinn Pass again. The sun is low in the sky since we are only two days from the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter. I did upload water twice and had to get water from a new faucet because my usual was frozen. Both photos were taken at the top of Quinn Pass.


Wednesday, December 14, 2022: This was a cold day so cold weather riding gear. I chose to ride beyond Quinn Pass to make my ride a total of 31 miles. That also means riding Quinn Pass from both sides.

Still testing methods to get this bike to 100 miles. Yesterday's ride was 100% with assistance off. Today it was off 47% (the gray line on the graph).  The "ECO" assistance mode is the least amount of assistance.

I almost did not wear tights but sure glad I did. It never got above 51 degrees and wifh a little wind was really cold.

Wednesday, December 7, 2022: Another ride today to the top of Quinn Pass from Yellowbird Road. I am still experimenting with power levels on the Diamondback Current. The range on the Current is not nearly as much as the Yamaha. The Current uses a Bosch motor and system. Bosch happens to be my favorite portable power tools. I still need to find a method to get 100+ miles from a single charge so I continue with my experiments. The Bosch system does have a nice recording and reporting system. The graphic to the right is the report from today's ride. Basically it says that only 29% of today's ride came from the Bosch motor, all the rest was from my efforts. I actually had the assistance on only half the time. This bike is much easier to ride with zero assistance than was the Yamaha.

According to the battery reports, I used 15% of the battery to ride 23 miles. In theory then, I would use 60% of the battery to ride 92 miles. According to this graph, to get that performance I would have assistance off 50% of the time. I just did 105 miles with Ben on my Yamaha for the Sacramento Century. At the end of the ride I still had 25% in my battery. The assistance was never off on the Yamaha. To get the same range performance out of the Bosch system is going to take a lot more management than the Yamaha system.





Monday, November 28, 2022: This was a big shopping and bike riding day for us. We started early but before leaving the Bouse area found a couple of burros who wanted to say hello. We drove first to Cracker Barrel for breakfast in Buckeye, about an hour drive. They were very busy so it took some time to get our meal. From Cracker Barrel we drove strait to the Rio Vista Community Park in Peoria to catch the New River and Skunk Creek Trails. After riding the Skunk Creek Trail for several miles we caught the Arizona Canal Trail. This is the type of riding Gwen wants to do so she doesn't have to worry about traffic. I enjoy these trails too. I made a video of our ride . From riding the trails we drove to the Surprise Costco to stock up on food items for the month of December. Arizona does not charge sales tax on food items unless they have been prepared. I noticed an item on our list charged 9.5% sales tax. That one item was a prepared salad. All the rest of the taxable items were 8.5% sales tax. Yes, pumpkin pie was on our list of items to buy. Not sales tax on the pumpkin pie, go figure! Click the left two photos for more views.


Sunday, November 27, 2022: I wanted to do something different from Quinn Pass so I drove about 15 minutes to Road 43E. I have ridden this road before. It is straight, flat and boring but different from Quinn Pass and a longer ride. I began at the junction with Hiway 72 and rode to the little village of Brenda. Brenda has two small cafes, one small market, a small motel and five RV parks. It has no post office.

Road 43E has open range for cattle. I subscribe to a Facebook page for the Bouse area and it has been reported on that page the last two days concerning a dead cow on road 43E. Someone hit and killed a cow while traveling that road. I chose this road to ride because it averages 4 cars per hour. You'd wonder how someone could kill a cow with such little traffic. Click the left photo for a view of the Black Rock Cafe in Brenda. Click the right photo (or don't click the right photo) to see the dead cow. I parked my bike close to the cow so you could judge the size of the cow. 



Saturday and Sunday, November 19 & 20, 2022: Plomosa Road runs between Arizona 95 about five miles from Quartzsite to Bouse, Arizona where we are camped in the desert.  The road is 21 miles long with very little traffic and about 850 feet of climbing to Quinn Pass. I rode this road each day this weekend. No doubt I will spend a lot of time on this road because all others near by are too busy with traffic. This was my first ride with my new Diamondback Current eBike. The Current is a "gravel bike" but I removed the off road tires and replaced them with road tires because I plan to use the Current mostly on the road. Saturday had a good headwind of 15 mph while Sunday had the same headwind but only 8 mph. Saturday, the lower gears would not work but after making some adjustments, they worked perfectly on Sunday. I am really liking a screen on the Bosch computer which shows my pedal power in watts, heart rate, cadence and speed. I am learning to ride to my power output as well as my heart rate. The drop handlebars helped a lot with the headwind on both days. I have made a video of the ride which will give you a good view of Plomosa Road and the surrounding desert area. You will also get a short tour of the Diamondback Current.



Thursday, November 17, 2022: Thirteen days ago I ordered a medium Diamondback Current from a shop in Wisconsin. I had been researching this bike for several months and this particular shop discounted the bike by $1100. It is setup as a gravel eBike but I plan to use it mostly as a road bike. I was not able to find this bike anywhere in my travels from Oregon to test ride so I knew there would be some surprises. I like the color. The tires are wider (for off road riding) than advertised and the rims are wider than I was expecting. I planned to remove the tires anyway so a wider tire is not a problem. I will probably put them on my CoOp bike for desert riding. The rim width, however is a problem. I have 32mm width road tires with me so I will likely try them on this rim.
No doubt I will eventually build different wheels to match the bike to my purpose.

I have much to do be get this bike ready to ride. Replace the saddle, replace the fork tube cap, figure out how I will mount my GoPro, install pedals, install water bottle cages, and change the tires. More photos to come. Click on these photos to see better views.

The story of getting the bike is pretty strange. I ordered the bike 13 days ago but it was not shipped until last Friday from Wisconsin. I had the bike shipped to the Bouse Post Office knowing it was coming UPS. I have no street address since we are parked 1.7 miles off the nearest road in the desert. The Bouse Post Office is one of the few which will accept UPS and Fedx shipments for their P.O. Box customers since this is such a small town. This week I alerted the postmaster of the large bicycle box to arrive on Thursday. I learned at that time they will not accept boxes over 70 lbs. I wasn't worried since the bike only weighs 45 lbs I figured the box would be about 60 lbs. I checked the UPS details of the box and learned it weighed a few ounces OVER 70 lbs. I still wasn't worried since I planned to be at the post office at the time of delivery. Yesterday I visited the post office again trying to catch the UPS driver to talk with him about the shipment. I learned UPS had already delivered for that day. The postmaster asked for my phone number saying she would give it to the UPS driver because he would often deliver large boxes directly to the recipient house rather than the post office. I didn't bother to explain that I was parked in the desert figuring I would have the UPS driver meet me at the Bouse Community Park. I knew the box would be too big for the inside of our Forester and too heavy to put on the roof.  My plan was to pull the bike out of the box, assemble it enough to fit my bike rack THEN put the empty box on the roof and deliver the box to the garbage transfer station across the street from the park. Today I drove to the post office about 2:30 hoping to catch UPS but learned he had already arrived, was given my phone number and said "he would take care of it". I had no phone call. The postmaster said, "this is a small town, he is still around, go find him." So I drove the first street off the main road to the other end of town. Unbelievably, there he was at the end of that street. I talked with him and he agreed to meet me at the Community Park in 30 minutes. That's exactly what happened. I got the bike, pulled it out of the box, partially assembled it enough to fit the bike rack, put the box on the roof ready to deliver to the transfer station. 

Friday, November 11, 2022: We had a few things to do in Quartzsite today so I took the opportunity to ride back to Bouse on Plamosa Road. Plamosa Road is five miles from Quartzsite off Highway 95. I won't ride 95 due to heavy traffic and marginal shoulder. The Plamosa route is good asphalt climbing about 800 feet over Quinn Pass then on into Bouse. The road is lightly traveled. Unfortunately, my front tire went flat only two miles from the finish. Rather than fix the flat, I called for a ride since I was so close. I also made a video of parts of the ride to give you an idea of the desert around here.




Wednesday, November 9, 2022: A special day for Gwen. We found an eBike advertised on Facebook and felt it would be perfect for Gwen. It is a class 2, meaning moving the crank arms or pressing on the throttle will give the bike forward motion. It has 3" (wide) tires making it very stable, hydraulic disc brakes, seven speeds, 5 assistance settings and a quick release seat post. With the wide tires it would be a perfect bike for the desert gravel roads but Gwen is going to need to get use to riding an eBike. Since this is a class 2 bike, it is much different from my class 1. Each level of assistance seems to be set to a specific speed. Once you reach that speed the assistance holds at that speed. My bike, on the other hand, gives a set level of assistance up to the maximum speed. Just moving the crank arms on Gwen's bike propels the rider forward. With my bike, the rider must add torque to the pedals before getting any assistance.  This is going to be a perfect bike for Gwen. Hopefully, she will join me on some rides. Click both photos for additional views. Here is a short video of Gwen's first ride.  Here is another video of Gwen on pavement for the first time.




Tuesday, November 1, 2022: After a morning walk with Abby along the casino portion of the Colorado River I took a bike ride north of Laughlin on a well used bike path. The path is on the west edge of the Colorado River leading to the Davis Dam. Bicycles  and hikers are allowed to cross the dam after a steep climb to the top. My goal was to ride to Katherine Landing, a small marina on Davis Lake. However, I was not allowed to proceed without a pass. I learned my Senior Access Pass would have been acceptable so I told the gate person I would return tomorrow with the proper pass. This was a relatively short ride, only 14 miles but with some steep climbing totaling 1,000 feet. Click all three photos for more views.


Saturday, October 29, 2022: Today was the men's turn at the Saint George Ironman 70.3 race. There were 4000 participants and all had to run through the Elks parking lot twice.  We watched much of the race before it arrived at the Elks on Outside TV showing live coverage. The commentator on the left was featured several time on TV and he ended up in the Elks parking lot to comment on the runners as they made their U-turn in the parking lot. There were more motorcycles today following the riders then runners in the race. Ben Kanute from the USA placed second while Kristian Blummenfelt from Norway won the race by a good margin. I overheard first place gets a prize of $50,000.  Prizes are given down to tenth place, $3,000.  All the rest of the 4,000 participants are just doing this for FUN! I made a video which I will give you an idea of the race.




Friday, October 28, 2022: It happened by accident that we are parked in the Elks Lodge parking lot during the Saint George Ironman 70.3 race. As it turns out, the running course actually comes into the Elks parking lot to make a U turn so the course gets
exactly 13.1 miles.  This is the World Championship Ironman 70.3, meaning 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile cycle and 13.1 mile run for a total of 70.3 miles. There are 4000 volunteers, 2000 women athletes and 4000 men athletes. This was televised on OutsideTV and very professionally narrated. The pro-athletes were followed and video taped by motorcycles. I walked one block to watch the cycling route then returned to watch the runners on the course through the Elks. I made a video of the women's Ironman. The ladies competed today and the men will compete tomorrow. The USA winning woman completed the Ironman in four hours, three minutes. No other USA woman was in the top ten.


Thursday, October 27, 2022: Finally, it was my turn to ride one of the fine, paved bike trails found in Saint George. I chose the Snow Canyon Bike Path to ride after riding into the town of Saint George to visit the Ironman Village. I was anxious to see all the vendors and learn more about what triathletes need for their sport.  It was a very busy place with lots to buy and all expensive. A hat was $30 so I finally decided on a water bottle with the Ironman 70.3 logo for $13. Once I finished with the village, I rode the bike path. I found several places on the path which were very steep and needed second gear to climb at about 2 mph. Since it was an out and back route, that meant very steep descent also. I did make a video which include the village and the bike path.


Friday, October 14, 2022: Today's challenge was to ride at the 5,500 foot level in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We began in Truckee, California and rode west around Donner Lake. We returned through Truckee then continued to ride east following the Truckee River before turning south and climbing to the Northstar Ski Resort and Village. There we found a coffee shop closed but the owner was present and giving away his pastries which we all appreciated.  After relaxing at the coffee shop we rode back to Truckee and our vehicles. Here is a long video of this ride.



Wednesday, October 5, 2022: My granddaughter, Chloe is still in school during fall break but grandson, Noah is on break. With Chloe's permission, I borrowed Chloe's mountain bike and was able to ride with son Ben and Noah on some trails I use to ride daily 35 years ago on the California side of Lake Tahoe. I lived at Lake Tahoe for 13 years before moving to Oregon. Our ride today had perfect weather and perfect trails. I DID notice riding at 6,500 feet was much different from the riding I do at 500 feet in Oregon. I must have been in really good condition 35 years ago. The mountain bikes we rode today were much more sophisticated that what I rode previously. Click both photos for more views. Here is a short video by son Ben.



Monday, October 3, 2022: We are all set for and evening Zwift ride in Ben's garage. The fan should work for all three riders. TV monitor is ready to go with three Wahoo Kickr smart bike trainers ready to login. We have a group ride planned with three of us here and hopefully others will join us in Roseburg, Oregon.



Saturday - Sunday, October 1 - 2, 2022: Ben and I began the Sacramento Century right at the 7 am start time. The sun was barely above the horizon. The start was at the California State Capitol and then only a few blocks to the Tower Bridge. This ride is 101.5 miles from the state capitol south along the Sacramento River to Isleton then return to the capitol. The ride is organized by the Sacramento Rotary Club as a fund raising project to benefit the children in the area. The organization was done very well for the 1,300 riders however the rest stop (yes, only ONE) and the "full lunch" stop left a lot to be desired compared to the other organized rides we have done. I just volunteered three weeks ago for the Vineyard Tour organized by my Umpqua Velo Club and we did a far better job with rest stops.  Still ... since the Rotary kept the rest stop and lunch expense low, in theory, more money to benefit the children of Sacramento, at least I hope that is the case. 80% of the ride was on little traveled roads which was pleasant but the asphalt on those roads was awful for high pressure road tires. Ben and I were surprised at our Isleton lunch stop by a visit from my sister Dorana and her partner Robin. We enjoyed visiting during our turkey sandwich lunch. The views of the Sacramento River and boats on the river was also enjoyable. Click both photos for more views. I have made two videos of our ride. Here is a short six minute video and here is a longer thirty-five minute video.

Wednesday, September 14, 2022: I ended up fooling around the place all morning starting to put things away and throwing things away. I am preparing for our winter departure in a couple weeks. I finally got on the bike to do the familiar Oakland Loop ride of 28 miles. This ride is nearly all rural roads where the livestock pay no attention to me unless I stop to take a photo, then they run away. Except for these horses. They could care less that I wanted their photo. I make a video as I rode through Oakland and Sutherlin, the last 5 miles of the ride. Take a look.







Tuesday, September 13, 2022: Saturday, September 10 was our turn to Ride the Rim with no vehicle traffic. The park offers two Saturdays each year allowing only bicycles on the road around the rim. This Saturday, 2700 riders have registered and Glen and I are two of those riders. Glen has done this many times, this in my first time but now I will make this an annual event. Our ride was a bit smokey from all the wildfires around the lake so the photos are not the usual clear blue skies and lake. The length of the ride is only 36 miles but several long steep climbs makes this a slow ride half the time. Some riders treat it as a race and try to better their previous riding time. Others, like me, stop at the overlooks to take photos and look at the views.  It is so much fun being able to ride with no traffic. I noticed riders with $50 bikes as

well as riders with $10,000 bikes. Also lots of eBikes. I also saw kids as well as riders older than me. All were having a very enjoyable time.  I came away with the desire to do this ride every year from now on. Another surprise were the number of riders starting the ride later in the day. Glen and I were on the road a bit after 8 am. Gwen and I made this a mini-vacation by arriving at Diamond Lake Campground on Tuesday then leaving for home on Sunday. The cost was the diesel then $21 per night for the campsite. Click on each photo for more views. Here is a short video of the riders having fun. 



Sunday, September 4, 2022:  This is the day of the big event for the Umpqua Velo bicycle club. Over 100 riders, many from out of the area showed up to ride the Umpqua Valley. I volunteered to help with the first rest stop located at Henry's Winery. That meant setting up the canopy and refreshments at 7:15 in the morning. The first group didn't arrive until 9 am but there is much to do to get ready for them. Click these photos for more views. I also made a short video of the activity at Henry's.  I was able to help one rider with a gear adjustment. My help at the rest stop ended at 11:30. At that time I began my next job which was to drive the routes as a "sweep" looking for riders who needed help. Most of the riders, I figured, should be well beyond the 50 mile range by now but I better be sure and start the routes at 25 miles. It seemed like I drove more than an hour before I found a rider. I made sure I had all my tools, bike repair stand, extra tubes and a few extra parts to help riders. This rider needed water and I had none to give. I drove to the nearest rest stop, got water, then drove back to supply the water. I followed the routes back to Henry's which was now the last stop before returning to the start point. While there, I got a call that a rider in Oakland needed to be taken back to the start by car. I was prepared to haul bikes and riders so I drove back to Oakland only to learn that the rider had changed his mind and was going to try to finish the ride on his own. I drove the route to check on him and found him about ten miles down the road. He said he was fine and going on. By this time I was nearly out of gas so drove straight to Costco to fill up.


Saturday, September 3, 2022: The Umpqua Velo sponsors a free ride the day before the big tour ride. Actually, they sponsored two rides on this Saturday. One was a gravel ride which I did not attend. The other is a road ride I did attend. It was an easy 26 mile ride but Gwen needed the car today so I rode from Sutherlin to the start point, 17 miles distant. The round trip ride for me, then, was 57.2 miles (I took a different route back to Sutherlin than going to the start point). We had nine riders in the road ride group. Several of the faster riders took off at a fast pace after our first hill climb and we never saw them again. My friend, Erik, is the organizer of this ride so I figured I better ride behind to make sure everyone kept up and knew where to go. The most difficult climb was within the first five miles.  The route beyond this climb was easy.  I made a video which continues beyond the group ride back to Sutherlin.


Sunday, August 28, 2022: This has been a long day of bicycle maintenance using a new purchase. I've been longing for a method to true my bicycle wheels not really knowing if they need truing or not. I was surprised to find a Park TW-2 truing stand advertised on Facebook for $50. A new TS-2 costs $360. It is the same Park tool I owned when I had a bike shop in the late 80s. I checked six wheels and didn't find than any were awful. Only small adjustments were needed. Next I chose which tires to put onto the wheels. Some wheels need road tires while other wheels need gravel tires. The CoOp bike needed to be cleaned after the gravel ride yesterday. I took the chain off to clean it but discovered it was stretched to the point it needed to be replaced. After cleaning and replacing the chain I put the CoOp back onto my Zwift setup ready for a Zwift ride.

After washing the car and golf cart with the pressure washer I began working on a location for a second water bottle on the Civante. Click the photo to see what seems to be the best location. I bought a side loading bottle cage thinking ahead to a place to put a second bottle.

Saturday, August 27, 2022: Glen organized another bike ride, this time a gravel ride to try his new Apollo gravel bike. Erik rode with us using his gravel bike. I changed the tires on my CoOp bike and used it as a gravel bike. The route Glen chose was half gravel and half asphalt for 31 miles around Diamond Lake. The lake is a 2 hour drive from Roseburg so we ended up doing a four hour drive (Glen driving) and a four hour bike ride. Gravel takes much longer riding times plus the second half of the asphalt ride was 5 miles climbing 800 feet so took us much longer than a 31 mile asphalt ride. It was Glen's first ride on the Apollo and my first ride on gravel with the CoOp. We both considered our day successful. Click both photos for more views. That is Thielsen Peak behind me.




Monday, August 22, 2022: Early Sunday morning before leaving Central Oregon Glen and I rode the Twin Bridges Scenic Bikeway. This ride begins in Bend and follows a large 36 mile loop into the rural area north of Bend. Virtually everyone has a horse and we saw no "cheap" houses. The sky cleared enough so we got a good look at all the dormant volcanoes to our west. There must be plenty of water because there was lots of irrigation happening. We finished the ride by 9:30 so tried to get breakfast in Bend but found only restaurants with an hour wait. We drove on not wanting to delay our drive home. Click the photos for more views.







Sunday, August 21, 2022: I am back in Sutherlin now after a long drive home from Central Oregon. Yesterday, Glen and I rode the Crooked River Canyon Scenic Bikcway starting very early in the morning to avoid the heat. This was our only out and back route for a total of 40 miles. We first passed farm land then many campgrounds along the Crooked River. All were busy since this was Saturday. Our turn around point was at the Prineville Reservoir.  The ride back to the start point was warmer and quicker. Click the photos for more views.







Friday, August 19, 2022: Another very early riding start, on the road by 7 am to avoid the heat. We began the Madras Mountain View Scenic Bikeway in Madras City Park. This is called the "Mountain View" ride because (on a clear day) you can see the Three Sisters, Mt. Washington, Mt. Jefferson and Three Finger Jack. But our day is not clear with a smokey haze from a few wildfires nearby. The highlight of our ride however, are the views of the Billy Chinook Reservoir on the Crooked River. We rode through wide open fields of wheat and other crops neither of us could name. Our ride was 30 miles with 1,200 feet of climbing. Click all photos for more views. Our ride was finished before 10 am and the temperatures where climbing past 80.








Thursday, August 18, 2022: After an hour drive we bagan the Sherar's Falls Scenic Bikeway tour from Maupin, Oregon. We began riding by 7:20 am to avoid the heat of the day. This was my first ride on the new Yamaha Civante road bike. I still want to make some slight changes with the bike but that will have to wait until I return to Sutherlin. It felt good to be riding a road bike again after riding the Cross Connect for three years.  This central Oregon area is very dry and hot this time of year so everything is a shade of brown except for the irrigated areas. Once we got onto the more rural roads, we had very little traffic making for an enjoyable ride. Click all the photoa for more views. Our ride was only 34 miles with 1,500 feet of climbing. We finished by 10 am but it was already 80 degrees.




Monday, August 15, 2022: Riding Zwift today for maintenance and recovery from yesterday's ride. I set out to ride 30 minutes but kept going for a total of one hour.  


Saturday, August 13, 2022: Early this morning, early enough to need jackets or vests, the five of us left Sutherlin to ride 58 miles. In the photo above from the left, Dale (me), Glen, Erik, Evan and Owen. I was the oldest at 75 and Owen the youngest at 14. I rode with some minimal assistance while Owen was his own motor. Owen is a strong rider and was not phased by the 58 miles. We included Yoncalla in our ride so we could stop at the Main Street Espresso for drinks and breakfast sandwiches. Yoncalla was about 2.5 hours into our ride and the place where we all peeled off our jackets and vests.  One of our longest climbs came after Yoncalla but then a screaming downhill run. Evan was trying a first ride on a new bike and he was pleased.  

Friday, August 12, 2022: I'm riding with the guys tomorrow for nearly 60 miles so chose to do an easier Zwift ride today. The route I chose only took 35 minutes but I continued riding another ten minutes. The ride tomorrow is early, on the road by 7:30 am riding to Yoncalla again for that special cup of coffee and treats at the Main Street Espresso. This time we hope to have a total of five riders in the group. All are strong riders so I will have to work to keep up. Today's Zwift ride went well. It was cool, high 50s but I still did a lot of sweating which made me cold after stopping. I ended up with a sweatshirt after the ride until noon.



Monday, August 8, 2022: One of the wonderful things about riding Zwift is the ability to ride with someone who is far away. Ben and Melissa are in Reno, Nevada yet we are able to ride virtually with each other on Zwift. We also use a second APP to be able to talk with each other while we ride. I chose this Zwift route because I thought it was flat but as it turns out, it hod nearly 1,000 feet of climbing. Yet, we still finished the route in slightly less than 1 hour. Melissa is still new and Zwift and with riding in general yet she still kept up with us. Click the photo to see the route complete announcement.





Saturday, August 6, 2022: Early Saturday morning, on the road by 7:15 to beat the heat. We chose a route new to me. Our destination is the town of Myrtle Creek to visit the SOCO coffee shop. This was mostly on quiet rural roads with little traffic. We learned about two hours into our ride we were following the Applegate Trail.  We enjoyed our drinks and second breakfast snack at the SOCO (South County) coffee shop. Total ride was 54 miles and we finished by noon. Click the photos for more views.

Wednesday, August 3, 2022: Last December 19th Glen ordered a Priority Apollo with a Gates Carbon Belt Drive system. It finally arrived yesterday after a long delay. This is no ordinary bicycle. It has no chain or derailleurs. Instead the gears come from the Shimano rear hub Alfino 11 speed.  Glen and all his cycling friends are anxious to see this new technology. The Apollo is a gravel bike so I know Glen will start planning gravel rides. That means I I will have to join him on these new adventures. I was lucky enough to be with Glen when he opened the box and assembled the bike. Here is a video of the fun we had.



Tuesday, August 2, 2022: I chose to ride in the cool morning into the Umpqua Valley. The Umpqua River is the second longest is the state of Oregon. The Willamette River is the longest Oregon river. This is one of my favorite rides so I do it often. Today, however, I took the time to make a video of my ride showing the blueberries, wine grapes and other scenes along the way. When watching the video I point out the Lighthouse Bakery and Cafe. It shares the building with the Umpqua Post Office. 

Monday, August 1, 2022: I pressure washed the bike, golf cart and car this morning. The rest of the morning and afternoon was with bike maintenance. I took the gravel tires off and replaced with new 700c x 28 road tires. These are narrow, high pressure tires. My idea is, less rolling resistance equals higher speed and easier pedaling. However, when I removed the rear wheel, I noticed a sound in the cassette I did not like then decided to take it apart. One of the pawls inside the cassette was out of place. I cleaned out everything, replaced the pawl correctly positioned, greased everything with white lithium grease, reassembled so now everything is working perfectly. I'll try the new road tires tomorrow morning.  





Saturday and Sunday, July 30-31, 2022: My friend Stan and I joined a gravel riding group from Medford on a forty-one mile gravel ride beginning at the Whiskey Springs Campgound. Since the start point was almost 3 hours from us we chose to spend the night at the start point camping. Unfortunately, the campground is closed due to confusion of who will manage the campground. We camped at the entrance to the campground, Stan in his van and me in my hammock. Click the first photo on the left to see our campsite. This was my first gravel ride and my first ride on the new gravel tires. The total ride was 41 miles with 4,200 feet of climbing. A road ride of that length would take less than 3 hours but this gravel ride took nearly 6 hours on a hot day. I was grateful I thought to bring my Camelback full of water or I would have run out and been in real trouble.  My bike preformed perfectly but I was not very happy with the tires. When riding off-road I am use wider, softer tires with plenty of grip. These provided none of that. I have some other tires to try but they only fit by CoOp bike so I will be the only motor. I guess I'm trying to make the Yamaha bike into something it was no intended to do. Stan and I enjoyed our ride and our two visited to the Butte Falls Cafe. The ride was a little long for my ability and too hot but I would try it again with cooler weather and the right tires/bike! There were men and some very strong women in this group ride, probably 20 riders. Click all the photos for more views.



Tuesday, July 26, 2022:  After yesterday's experience I had no intention to ride anything but pavement. However, when I reached Old Pioneer Road the county had just chip sealed except that it wasn't quite sealed yet. It was truly loose gravel. If I didn't have my gravel tire mounted I would have turned around for a different route. But since I was riding on gravel tires I couldn't refuse to ride the gravel! As it turned out only the three miles of Old Pioneer had been chip sealed and I rode very carefully for that three miles. 

Monday, July 25, 2022: I decided to take the new gravel tires for a test ride this morning on the very fine two mile trail through the woods in our park. The trail was built by Bob, one of the members in our park who loves mountain biking. Most of the members in the park use the trail for hiking while Bob uses it for mountain biking. I have done a lot of mountain biking but it was 35 years ago. This would be an easy ride and good test of the new tires I thought. I almost left my helmet at home thinking the ride was too easy for a helmet. I did begin easy but as I rode, the Blackberry bushes kept calling my name. Louder and louder they called. I was only 100 yards from the end of the trail when they got tired of calling my name and just reached out and grabbed me. They threw me into a ditch face first. After I spit out the rocks and dirt I decided nothing was broken and I still had my teeth. Maybe the Blackberries cushioned my fall.  The photo looks pretty raw but it's not as bad as it looks.  The new tires are fine and no broken spokes.


Sunday, July 24, 2022: In a week I will be riding with Stan on my first gravel ride. In the 1980s I lived on the California side of Lake Tahoe and learned to mountain bike the trails near my house. Mountain bikes were new in the 80s like gravel bikes are new in the last few years. Gravel riding has become popular because it gets the rider off paved streets and mostly no traffic. Where mountain bikes are designed to ride off road in all sorts of terrain, a gravel bike is designed to ride forest service roads with a somewhat smoother surface. So next Sunday I will learn if I still have some off road skills. I changed from my road tires today to gravel tires. The front wheel was easy. When I let the air out of the rear road tire I heard a loud pop, a spoke broke.  This is the third spoke I've had to replace on the rear wheel. I really should change all the spokes but that would be a lot more work than replacing just one spoke.





Saturday, July 23, 2022: The ride was just Glen and me today. It was relatively long with 60 total miles and lots of climbing. We started early to beat the heat but fortunately it was cool weather with a coast-like overcast until noon. Today's route was a combination of routes we have ridden before and new routes. Very little traffic on these rural roads and a stop at mile 37 at our favorite rest stop in Yoncalla. They were very busy but the breakfast bagel and breakfast burrito were perfect along with the coffee drinks we both enjoyed. I put a photo of my Hammerhead computer because it has been advertised on the Tour de France the last few days. The "climber" appeared at the bottom of the screen during our longest and steepest climb. I am more than half way to the top with 1 mile to go and 296 feet of elevation to climb. There is only 17.7 miles left in our 60 mile ride. My heart rate is at 146.. It is 6 minutes past noon and we have been riding for 2 hours and 47 minutes.  Click all photos for more views.


Saturday, July 16, 2022: Today was a group ride with, left to right, myself, Barry (80 years old but our strongest rider), Stan (the lone burrito) sticking his head over Glen's shoulder and Owen (our youngest rider who did more miles than any of us).  It was an overcast, cool day which we all appreciated. Stan, Barry and I began the ride in Wilbur after riding there from our various homes. Glen and Own began at the Joseph Jane winery where we planned to end the ride. We rode to the end of Hubbard Creek Road chosen because it is a shady route. It turned out we did not need the shade due to the unexpected overcast sky. We did end at Joseph Jane for refreshment. Our friend Erik joined us there after riding a different route. Glen had his big rack on the car to give Erik and me a ride home. Click the photo to view Joseph Jane.


Friday, July 15, 2022: A perfect day for riding Driver Valley Road. This is a 28 mile ride so a perfect length for a recovery ride to get my legs working again. I'm usually watching for wildlife but sometime the domestic animals take an interest in me. These are the only long horns on the route so I stopped to take their photo. They had as much interest in me and actually moved closer then stopped.  Click both photos for another view of my ride. 




Friday and Saturday, July 8 - 9, 2022: Another bicycle two day tour on the Willamette Scenic Bikeway. This route begins at Champoeg State Park north of Salem. The routes passes through Salem, Albany, Brownsville ending in Armitage County Park in Coburg. Our first day took us to Salem for lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant, one of Erik's favorites. We then rode on to Albany for the night passing lots of agriculture. The areas we passed advertise the "grass seed capital of the world". I notice lots of  Hazelnut tree orchards also. Our first day was 76 miles. We stayed overnight in the Rodeway Inn right next to the Albany Airport. After breakfast at the Alan Brothers coffee shop we began day two of the ride. We encountered far less traffic on day 2. We picked a Mexican restaurant in Brownsville for our lunch stop. All this area was interesting to me because the ancestors of my Father's mother settled in Brownsville after completing the Oregon Trail in 1847. We had one major climb on this route otherwise the route was most flat to rolling hills. Day two was only 61 miles so we finished about 3 pm.  Glen took a number of videos which I combined into a short documentary of the tour. Click on all photos for a second view.





Wednesday, July 6, 2022: I'm riding today with Glen and Jim. Rain was threatening but did not stop us. We began our ride in the tiny town of Glide, Oregon with the idea of starting the ride at The Atom coffee shop, our favorite place in Glide. It was a relatively short ride, total of 44 miles. Jim had hip replacement surgery recently so this is one of his first rides. I've been off my bike for a couple of weeks so I appreciated the short ride also. The day turned out to be perfect with cool but dry weather and the road grades where gentle. Our club is considering an overnight trip to Cold Water Campground at the end of July so this was a scouting ride to learn if we might all fit into one of the campsites. Glen made two short videos which I combined and added some photos. Click the above photos for more views.



Tuesday, June 5, 2022: I completed the set up of our rig. I moved the steps back to the motorhome. I rolled out the awning and attached the screen. I attached the sun shields to the windshield and two side windows. I dumped the holding tanks. 

Then I moved my Zwift setup from inside the shed to my gazebo just in time for the rain to begin. I got my gazebo TV working and found the Tour de France. I began watching one of the stages. I started to wonder what it would be like to ride Zwift while watching one of the stages. I chose today's stage, Stage 4. Of course the cameras follow the leaders so I was riding with the leader for 42 minutes. At the end I almost beat Van Aert, the winner of the stage but he pulled ahead in the end. Click the photo for another view.


Tuesday, June 21, 2022: Today was my chance to check my glucose level during a ride using the Dexcom G6 monitor provided by Ben during our Tour de Fronds ride. I have been using a heart rate monitor since 1982, so 40 years. I have used it to know how hard I am working while riding. I read a book by Greg LeMond to learn how to use a heart rate monitor. I have learned to ride to my anaerobic threshold, the point at which the muscles begin an oxygen debt. The muscles actually begin to break down rather than build strength. According to Greg, you want to limit rides above the anaerobic threshold to once per week. When I was younger, my AT was at 165 beats per minute, now my AT is at 140 bpm.

The glucose monitor is just another meter to know what my body is doing. Twenty minutes into my ride I got a warning alert tone that my glucose level was low, the 75 at left. Ben says my body is using up glucose with muscle exercise. The body then reacts to release stored glucose to meet the demand from the muscles. Click the 75 photo to see my level at 45 minutes. After the alert I drank some of my hydration water which helped to bring up the glucose level and my body naturally released glucose to meet the demand. The photo at the right is my glucose level at the end of the ride, 1 hour 17 minutes. My body has adjusted the glucose level perfectly. Click that photo to see my computer showing my heart rate at the top.













Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 17, 18 & 19, 2022: The Tour de Fronds happens only once each year in the tiny town of Powers, Oregon which is very close to the Oregon coast. Glen, Erik, and I chose to ride to Eden Valley a total of 64.5 miles. My son Ben joined us by driving all the way from Reno, Nevada to do the ride. We rented a cabin at the county park for two nights, Friday night before the ride and Saturday night after the ride. The ride takes participants into the rural and mountain areas around Powers. It is very well organized with friendly people, good rest stops and organizers who look after every participant. The weather was nearly perfect with rain decreasing in the morning and cool riding all day. We were able to dodge most of the rain drops. Besides the good snacks at each rest stop, we got a good dinner Friday night, a continental breakfast Saturday morning, lasagna with homemade dessert Saturday after the ride, then a pancake plus ham steak Sunday morning. Ben is a diabetes specialist in Reno and was able to bring a Dexcom G6 glucose monitor to each one of us. Monitoring a cyclist glucose level is a new measure for cyclists to insure they have the best glucose level before a tough ride. All of us had fun checking and discussing our glucose levels during the ride and before and after meals. I made a short video to give and idea of what the ride was like.  Also click each photo to enlarge.



















Thursday, June 9, 2022: I woke this morning knowing the weather forecast was for 83 degrees and I was feeling strong. I chose to plan a metric century (62 miles, 100 kilometers). Unfortunately the increase in temperature was slow. When I left the temperature was 58 degrees so I wore leg warmers and socks with my new cycling sandals. The route I chose had several bail-out points in the case I wasn't as strong as I imagined. The first bailout was at 9 miles, the second at 19 miles, the third at 26 miles. I was feeling good at those points and continued forward for a full metric century. I reached Yoncalla after 2.5 hours of riding. Yoncalla is 2/3 of the century ride (40 miles) and the location of my favorite mid-point stop. I bought refreshment and lunch at the Main Street Espresso and Bakery. It was now 71 degrees so I removed my leg warmers and socks. With two climbs left to return to Sutherlin, the return took another 2 hours. Arriving in Sutherlin, the temperature finally reached 79 degrees.  This was a wonderful, enjoyable ride which I plan to do several more times this summer. Click on all the photos for more views.










Wednesday, June 8, 2022: This morning began early with a Zwift ride with my son, Ben. Ben lives in Reno. One of the advantages of Zwift is the ability to ride with someone else even if they are in a different state. We used a different APP to talk with each other while riding. This was a long ride because that is what Ben wanted. We sat on our trainers for two hours averaging 15 miles per hour which is what we average on the road.  The difference, you can't coast or stop pedaling while riding a trainer so more difficult.

This afternoon my new clipless sandals arrived. I have had them on my Amazon wish list for a year but they have always been out of stock. Three days ago my wish list showed them in stock for only $60 and with my $13 Amazon credit only $47.  After delivery today I checked Amazon again finding them for $99. I got a real bargain. I mounted the cleats to the bottom and gave them a try. I have found my new favorite cycling shoes. I love the cool air on my feet.  Click the photos for more views.








Friday, June 3, 2022: During my bike ride today I rode past the Plat I reservoir again. This time I stopped to take a photo of the county park across the lake. I also took a photo of my friend, Bill's house on the hill overlooking the reservoir. He has a nice view of the lake and surrounding rural area. I happen to know of a very unique house on Fair Oaks Road, an attractive rural area about two miles from the reservoir. It is almost 4,000 square feet but with only 1 bedroom and 1 bath. Whoever built this house must have built it only for hobbies and outdoor recreation. What is interesting, it is for sale. I would love to know the story about building such a unique house then having to sell it. Click the photo above to see the real estate listing and you will understand why I believe it is so strange.
















Sunday, May 29, 2022: Another rainy day. Rain made is a good time to ride Zwift for an hour. This group is called ZZRC and they are usually riding at my pace. Today it was just right. It seemed a bit higher than the advertised pace however. 







$354 of dieselOld West We have a view of John Day River out the windshield







Rented from the Forest ServiceStove, Microwave, utensils but no waterLocated at the Long Creek General Store



Day 2 and 3 were wetDay 1 or 4 was sunny


May 27, 2022: The above photos are from myself and 3 friends biking the Old West Scenic Bikeway. It is a 178 mile look starting in John Day Oregon. We began in the Clyde Holliday State Park 7 miles west of John Day. This ride actually happened about a week ago but due to my computer problems I'm just now reporting it. We experienced 2 good weather days and 2 bad weather days. Our first night was at the Sunshine Guard Cabin we rented from the Forest Service. It had furniture, kitchen, beds, pit toilet and electricity. It lacked water so I had stashed water on my discovery tour. We had an easy 28 miles to highway 395 our next day. However, turning south on 395 gave us a terrible headwind as well as occasional showers. We struggled our way to Long Creek against the headwind to find a wonderful breakfast at the General Store. We then turned west into 9 miles of climbing and heavy rain before 11 miles of steep downhill into the tiny village of Monument, Oregon. Here we enjoyed a nice motel with showers, kitchenette, and satellite TV.  The motel owners had a small food truck which provided us with dinner and breakfast. On day 3 we turned south following the John Day river to the tiny village of Dayville. We had a wonderful late lunch and breakfast at the Dayville Cafe. We camped at a hostel located in the back of the community church. It had everything except beds. Out sleeping pads came in handy that night. We finished our loop on day 4 back to the Clyde Holliday State Park. Fortunately day 4 was a good weather day giving us an easy ride for our last day.





Another cold rideErik enjoying the ride on his gravel bike

Tuesday, April 26, 2022: This was a relatively short ride (30 miles) on my CoOp bike (not my eBike) so I was always behind my two friends.

I met Erik and Glen in Roseburg to begin the ride. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to put my front wheel into the car so I had to return to get it before I could ride. Of course Erik and Glen took advantage of my mistake to make jokes about it while riding and I deserved the jokes.

Glen took all these photos and a short video when we crosses a unique bike/pedestrian bridge under Interstate 5.

Click both photos for more views.



Preparing to ride

Our reward at the Joseph Jane WinerySaturday, April 23, 2022: This is Earth Day. Our Umpqua Velo Cycling Club planned a nice ride on one of the popular routes around the Umpqua Valley. The ride began at 10:30 so it was a bit chilly to begin. I noticed during our ride only three women and probably 25 men on this ride. Also one teenager riding. Our ride took a bit more than 2 hours because we stopped to take photos along the way. The group stopped at the Lighthouse Cafe for refreshments but the three of us, Erik, Glen and me (left to right) rewarded ourselves at the Joseph Jane Winery. They have excellent wood fired pizza with very comfortable outdoor seating. Comfortable today because we have good sunlight with temperatures above 60. I ordered a Cranberry Peach smoothie not realizing it also had a good bit of wine in it. As the meal progressed I felt better and better. It was about that time Erik and Glen informed me of the reason I was feeling so good. I believe I will return for more of these smoothies. Glen and I took several videos which I combined into one. Click all these photos for more views.

Platform pedalsThe old pedals

Tuesday, April 19, 2022: I switched to SPD pedals last year by buying inexpensive (cheap) pedals. Unfortunately one pedal stopped working so I chose to replace that pair with the same style my friend Glen uses. Brook also put this style pedal onto her bike. I got the chance to ride her pedals the last time I visited. Let's talk about shoes. I have worn mountain bike cycling shoes for 35 years. Mountain bike shoes have the pedal cleat inset into the rubber sole. When the rider is walking they are not walking on the cleat and the rider has good grip from the rubber sole. Road bike shoes, on the other hand have a solid smooth plastic or wooden sole. The cleat is mounted to the bottom of this sole. The rider, then, is walking on the cleat when off the bike. Since the sole is solid it does not flex and gives excellent support to the entire foot and needs nothing but a small point of attachment to the pedal. The mountain bike shoe, on the other hand, does flex and benefits from the platform style pedal to give more foot support. The pedals on the left are made for road bike shoes while the pedals on the right are made for mountain bike shoes. When I rode Brook's bike I could feel the advantages to the platform pedal giving my foot extra support. That is why I chose the platform pedal to replace the cheap pedals which stopped working. My feet still lock to the pedal but now have more support for the entire foot. Click both photos for more views. When installing pedals, always use lubricant on the threads.



Don't bother me!Calpooia Creek

Sunday, April 17, 2022: It was cloudy today but forecast to be 57 degrees. My bicycle computer never showed more than 50° however. I dressed warmly and rode my unassisted CoOp bike continuing to prepare for the bikepacking trip I plan to do in May.

Today's ride was a bit more than 40 miles and definitely slower than when I ride my Yamaha eBike at its lowest assistance level. So I had to ask myself if I could ride another 20 miles for a total of 60 miles. That is the distance of our first and second day on the bikepack trip. Yes, I could do another 20 miles but it definitely would have hurt. I expect we will be stopping often for photographs which will help to spread the load over time. Click both photos for more views of today's ride. My friend, Glen, also rode earlier today in the same area. He made a video of the scenic views. You will likely need a Facebook account to see the video since I got the video from his Facebook post.



Riding the covered bridge scenic route

Saturday, April 2, 2022: Glen, Erik and I rode the Covered Bridges Scenic Bike Route near Cottage Grove, Oregon. We found four bridges before we decided to visit the Coast Fork Brewing and Feed Company store. They have great food and beer. Thank you Glen for the photo and video.

A short video of our ride.



Climbing to the radio towers

Sunday, February 27, 2022: I had a choice today to ride on the road with the guys or ride with my son, Ben, on Zwift. I chose the Zwift ride. Ben had chosen the "Mountain Route" which took us to the infamous Radio Towers, a long and steep climb so at times we were only moving at 5 kph. We both achieved the top and then flew down the other side. It still took nearly 2 hours. Click the photo to see our finish.

After the ride and lunch, I took Abby for a mile and half walk around the park. The forecast calls for rain this next week so she may not get much exercise.

After dinner we watched the final episode of 1883 concerning the Dutton families move to Montana. It can be found on Paramount plus and I can highly recommend the story and fine acting.



First ride with PaulTwo rides completed

Twosday, 2/22/22: What a day for Twosday. My goal today was to ride my age in miles. Last year I rode my age in kilometers and I wanted to prove I was in better shape than last year. Besides, my riding buddies claim they don't know what a kilometer is (I'm joking). I chose two rides on Zwift to total 75 miles. I would have ridden outside but it was too darn cold and wet from the rain last night. It is much more difficult to ride on the trainer since the rider can't coast and it is more difficult to stand on the pedals. Zwiftinsider showed both rides to be 61 km but the second ride turned out to be longer due to a long "lead-in". That made my total mileage to be 80.53 miles and total riding time of 5 hours. I did get more than 4,900 points toward the next Zwift level, a nice birthday gift but I had to work hard for those points. My friend Paul rode the entire first ride with me which helped in many ways. The second ride was alone and more difficult because of the earlier ride and the need to give my butt a rest from sitting on the bike saddle that long. When I ride Zwift, I normally cast the game from my iPhone to my 32" TV and have Zwift Companion on my tablet mounted to the handlebars. That gives me the best control of the game. For this long ride I planned to use my old Samsung Galaxy S6 to listen to pod casts during the ride. I learned my S6 was now dead and would not accept a charge so nix that idea. I grabbed Gwen's old Samsung Galaxy S7 and it charged up just fine. Many people do not know that old phones work just fine as long as they are connected to a WiFi source. I downloaded Spotify to the S7 then connected Bluetooth to my Bluetooth speaker. I listened to "Hidden Brain" pod cast (an NPR radio show usually on Sunday). I finally got tired of Hidden Brain late in the second ride so tuned to my "Liked" tunes. That means I had three devices working today while riding. The reason for that, I have had a problem with my tablet dropping Bluetooth connections if it must connect to more than one BT device. It is a cheap Samsung tablet and does not offer many features. I didn't want to take a chance on my iPhone to run another BT device, hence the need for a third device. Finally, if you are wondering, while on Zwift, I am riding unassisted, eBikes do not work on a direct drive smart trainer.



Riding with The Herd

 

Tuesday, February 15, 2022: My day was a Zwift ride with The Herd, advertised to be a "recovery ride" and I was able to stay in the group until the last ten minutes when the leader of the group and the group took off leaving me behind. So much for the advertising. There is a definite advantage to staying in the group. It's called drafting and Zwift simulates drafting efficiently. Click the photo to see lonely me at the finish.



Hammerhead Cycling ComputerClimbing to Glide

Saturday, February 12, 2022: With good weather and Erik turning 54 our Umpqua Velo Bike Club did a 54 mile ride and climb to Glide, Oregon.

The day began in fog and cold but the weather forecast called for 60s by early afternoon. The day did warm but never made it into the 60s. Still, much more comfortable later in the ride.

Our route climbs North Bank Road to Glide which is 27 miles from Roseburg. North Bank Road is the north bank of the North Umpqua River so some great views along our route. We have all ridden it many time. The traffic seemed heavier than usual on this Saturday.

Once we got to Glide, we headed to The Atom Bistro and Coffee. I ordered a large coffee and bagel with cream cheese.

Once leaving Glide, we have one last big climb on Buckhorn Road then a long descent into Roseburg. My destination was another five miles beyond Roseburg to the River Forks Park where the ride began. Click both photos for more views and click here for a short video of the ride. Thank you again to Glen for the photos and the video.

I will add, this was an unusual ride for me. You know I normally ride my eBike on road rides. Somehow I lost track of the number of rides from my last charge. When I arrived at River Forks Park I noticed my battery was only at 36%, I knew I couldn't do this 54 mile ride with only 36% in the battery. I simply did not turn on the assistance for any of the ride except the steepest climbs. I avoided the assistance for 90% of the ride arriving back at River Forks Park with 11% left in the battery. I had considered riding my non-assist bike this day but chose the eBike thinking I needed the help to keep up with all these younger riders. However, my non-assist bike is 25 lbs lighter and lower gears than the eBike. It would have made an easier ride.



Long road ride today Nine riders today Country side ride


Sunday, February 6, 2022: All photos today were provided by Glen, Thanks Glen! The forecast called for a 60 degree day so a group of nine of us chose to road ride. It actually reached 57 but still felt plenty cold in the shade. Glen planned a long road to Ten Mile and back. The ride turned out to be 48 miles and I was glad to see the last mile after riding Zwift yesterday for nearly 2 hours. Click each photo for more views.

Riding with Ben

Wednesday, February 2, 2022: My morning began with an hour Zwift ride with son Ben in Nevada and friend, Jami. in Colorado. After the ride it was time for a shower and lunch.

Following lunch I took Abby for a mile long walk around the park. She likes looking for rabbets but ignores the wild turkeys.

When the walk was over, Gwen, Abby and I drove to Drain, Oregon to meet Gwen's son Dave. He is driving back to Brookings, Oregon from the Portland International Airport. We visited The Rose Inn with Dave for dinner and to catch up on his adventures.



St Jude Donation ChallengeStage 7 TdZ

Monday, January 31, 2022: I completed the January 200 mile St Jude Donation Cycling Challenge today by completing Stage 7 of the Tour de Zwift. One more stage for the TdZ and it will also be completed. Stage 8 does not become available until Friday. If you wish to donate to St. Jude, please click the link above. If I can do 500 miles each month, that will be 6,000 miles for the year, my goal. I'd like to do that and maybe more as the weather improves. Glen and Erik are pushing me to do more.



At the beginning of the rideAlmost home

Saturday, January 29, 2022: My friend Glen mapped a route around the rural area of Coquille, Oregon. We chose Coquille because it was at least ten degrees warmer than our valley. Erik and I join Glen on this route. These are Glen's photos and Glen also did a video.

It is winter so still cold. As we rode, it was 42 in the shade and 53 in the sun but warm enough with our winter riding gear.

This was a 48 mile loop into the rural and mountain areas around Coquille and Myrtle Point. We were able to find a coffee stop in Myrtle Point and warm in the sun with no wind.

We are dedicated cyclists and anxious for any outdoor winter riding in good weather. The driving time to Coquille from our valley is 1.5 hours each way. Fortunately we also found The Pub and Grill in Coquille and enjoyed a delicious meal after the ride.

Click these photos for more views.



Ride begins with a flat Road turns to gravel and mud Turning around at the end of pavement


Wednesday, January 26, 2022: Glen drove to Myrtle Point, Oregon for a rural bike ride because it was ten degrees warmer. I went with him. It felt considerably warmer except in the shade, very cold in the shade. We were three miles into the ride when I got a flat. I had been bragging about not getting any flat tires while road riding and the bragging was a mistake. The route was chosen from "Ride With GPS" so we had no knowledge of what it was like. At about nine miles it turned to gravel then mud in the shady areas. The mud stuck to everything. It was only a two mile section but that was enough to coat our bikes. We continued to ride until we reached a sign saying "Pavement Ends" where we turned around not wanting anymore mud. We also chose a different route back to avoid the mud. It was still a good ride and we plan to return to the same area this weekend hoping to avoid the gravel roads. Here is a short video taken by Glen.

012 The Willamette River Mobile transportation


Monday, January 24, 2022: Glen and I did an easy ride today in Eugene. We rode the Ruth Bascom Bike Path on both sides of the Willamette River. No hills to climb just some great views. After the ride we visited Glen's daughter who is living near the University of Oregon. We also went looking for a bike shop who might have belt driven bicycles to try out. Glen has ordered one online but never ridden one. We were fortunate to find the "Arriving by Bike" bicycle shop which Siri says is the best bike shop in Eugene. It had two belt drive bicycles we were able to try. Each bike had an 8 speed Shimano transmission which shifted very smoothly. We were impressed with the easy of pedaling and lack of chain noise, virtually silent riding. Glen's bike will be a little more sophisticated with a Shimano 11 speed transmission. Click these photos for more views.

Riding in the real world

Sunday, January 23, 2022: It was riding in the real world today with friends. Glen planned a route through Roseburg into Green then east toward the community of Dixonville back to Roseburg. It was a 32 mile ride with temperatures in the low to mid-40s. Those on the ride were Georgie, Erik, Stan and Glen from left to right. This was a great ride with some good climbing to keep us all warm.

Click the photo to view the route map and elevation graphic.



Completed Stage 2

Friday, January 14, 2022: The most important event of the day, finishing Stage 2 of the Tour de Zwift. Second most important event was getting dollar store dehydration containers to soak up the high humidity in our clothing storage cabinets.



Riding at the back of the pack again

Tuesday, January 11, 2022: A couple days ago I rode the first stage of the Tour de Zwift. A month long event which happens only once each year. There were 3000 riders in that event and I ended up in the last 10% of the riders across the finish line. That didn't have me concerned until today.

Today I rode with the ZZRC group for a 60 minute ride. This is a group I rode with last year and had no problem staying with the group. However, today the group rode away from me and I couldn't match their pace. I did finish the ride (click the photo to see the end photo). However, I was very near the tale end of the riders.

It makes me wonder if my conditioning is not keeping up with my reduction of strength due to age. On the other hand I have experienced this before when I was much younger. In that case I had been training wrong and breaking down my body rather than building it up. That could be happening now I just need to continue monitoring my heart rate to be sure I'm within my strengthening heart rate.



Glen in the foreground and DaleSaturday, January 8, 2022: My day began with the Montana State vs North Dakota football game. Unfortunately the Montana starting quarterback was injured in the first quarter and it was all North Dakota after that.

Glen and I had scheduled a road ride today with a forecast of cold but clear weather. Most of the morning was fog with temperatures not reaching 40. So we delayed our start until 1 pm where it reached 42 degrees. I dressed in my warmest winter riding gear but Glen must be immune to cold weather with only a light jacket. We did 42 miles in 3 hours, probably too much for our first road ride of the year.

I finished the day by watching the Cowboys tromp all over the Eagles on the Eagles home turf.




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