A Smattering of Cycling Stuff

Last weekend, we packed the bikes up and the kids and I hit the local greenway. My daughter was leery of riding around the lake, but I offered two assurances: 1) riding the greenway is easy and 2) we can stop before we get to the lake... if we want. Now, I realized that it would be a couple miles before we ever saw a sign of the lake at all and figured we'd be lucky if we got that far and back. So, I wasn't too worried. A bit relieved, but still unsure, my daughter joined in and the three of us were on our way.

The new routing that has been done around the greenway connector from Marketplace to Salem Lake takes all but one road crossing off the route, so it's really a stress-free ride. Very pleasant.

As you'd expect, my 11 year old was gone -- noodling around on the Univega. It's possible I may have lost that bike to him. Man, he looked like a spider, big long legs pedaling on that bike of mine. I know I have short legs, but the difference between my ride on that and his gangly ol' self is something... I started calling him Matty Long Legs on this ride. Ha!

Well, the ride to the lake was great and it wasn't long before we stepped off the path to see the progress on the dam. Then, the long climb to the lake path. I knew we were getting to my girl's limit, so we rode out a little farther, just over the bridge and re-assessed. It was agreed we were ready to go back, so we started the return trip -- a good 3 - 4 miles under their belts. Not that I told them...

Ready to go home, my daughter takes the lead, with me and Matty Long Legs in the back.

Energy renewed, the kids were gone -- climbing and racing and having real fun. On a small climb, I noticed the bike stopped. Lo and behold, my beautiful Paul brake had got caught UNDER the rim of the wheel! I'd never seen that before. I'll have to make some adjustments...

WTF?

Back on track, the kids were waiting for me and giving me a hard time for being slow. Fair enough. The rest of the ride home was a breeze. We were all goofy and chatty and I remembered that the bike is this great thing. Not only efficient transportation, but communication tool and toy as well. I loved this ride.

Speaking of riding slow and easy...
Upcoming ride alert #1! My neighbor and newly-anointed Daddy is putting on a little velocipede extravaganza of his own in a few months. Dubbed The Autodrop Invitational, it is a point-to-point race where, like a 'choose your own adventure' book, you pick where you're riding, collect points for distances you can amass and get back by a specific time to see who tallied the most. Pretty unique and cool. Oh, and it's a team event.

Check out the blogspot for the ride. http://autodropltd.blogspot.com/ Very cool.

As that I don't do teams well, I've already started to break the rules and am working on the notion of a two-man team -- me and Matty Long Legs. Not many points would be collected, but it could be fun. ...that's IF we get to ride. We're also celebrating the little girl's birthday, so wheel time could be out of the question. We'll have to see.

Ride Alert #2...what!?
No, I can't tell you why, but I'm, somehow, riding in this year's Tour to Tanglewood charity ride. It's a ride for MS and a bunch of my cycling buddies are doing it. I've ridden it twice before and it looks like I'll be at it again! So, time for ol' fatty to get back on the seat.
As with all charity rides, I'm collecting dough, but I've decided that I'm tired of begging for the bucks and it's generally a pain on people, so I'm trying just to get folks to throw $5 and get my money collected in small samples. Check out the site to see my progress.
Personal Tour to Tanglewood Donation Site

So, no sense of order, but lots of cycling themed stuff to share. Cool. Finally, getting that thing movin'!