Ken Steinhoff – Page 66 – Palm Beach Bike Tours

June 1, 2008June 16, 2008

Ride of Silence – A Minority Opinion (Maybe)

I’ve debated for a couple of weeks whether or not to make this post, because it’s likely to be about as popular as kicking a puppy.

I’ve ridden my third – and last – Ride of Silence.

When I realized that it was getting to be that time of year, I turned to the Ride of Silence web page to find a local ride, which turned out to be an eight-mile loop in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. That seemed a little short, but it was convenient for my son, who could ride from home, and for my daughter-in-law, who was on the way. I added two coworkers to our band.

It was a much smaller group than I found in Boca Raton, FL, in 2006 and 2007, but, a ride is a ride. Riders ranged from young to old and were astride everything from beater bikes with rusty chains to light-weight carbon babies that cost more than three times my first car.

We started off with police motorcycle escorts fore and aft, despite that we were doing a loop in a mostly gated residential community.

After the roll-out, the group was cruising at 10 to 12 miles per hour for the first 10 or 15 minutes while everyone got sorted out.

At the 20-minute mark, though, the pack started tightening up when the speed dropped to 6 MPH. Riders started weaving into each other.

Shortly after making a turn, my cyclometer showed that my speed had dropped to 4.6 mph (confirmed later by looking at my GPS track) and I unclipped several times thinking I was going to have to come to a complete stop.

I had riders on all four sides and we were were coming close to touching wheels as we tried to maintain our balance. I don’t like riding close to folks I KNOW and I didn’t know these folks. I pulled up next to one of my coworkers and said, quietly, “This is too dangerous for me. I’m abandoning the ride.” [If the picture doesn’t look like we’re too close, you’re right. It was the last time we were still riding fast enough to safely hold a camera.]

I sprinted away from the group (if you would qualify 14-18 mph as a “sprint.”

When I passed the lead motorcycle cop, I said, “This is too slow. It’s dangerous back there.

“I know,” he said. Continue reading “Ride of Silence – A Minority Opinion (Maybe)”

May 18, 2008

Swagman rack drags on Honda Odyssey

When I tried to use my Swagman hitch-mounted rack on my 2000 Honda Odyssey minivan, I had to be careful to keep the bikes from dragging.

I debated having an extension welded to the upright, but decided to take a less destructive approach. I went to a local trailer store where I bought a short hitch with a drop / rise. Normally it’s installed to lower the mounting ball on vehicles with high bumpers.

I needed it to work in the opposite direction: to raise the mounting point on a low hitch. I mounted the hitch upside down, so it was higher than the original hitch. This picture shows a comparison between the original hitch and the new one. The extra height made a big difference.

I eventually replaced the traditional trailer ball with a bolt that was easier to tighten.

May 18, 2008August 16, 2009

Adjusting a Brooks Champion Flyer Saddle

When I bought my Brooks Champion Flyer saddle, I read everything I could about how to break it in properly. Some cyclists swear by leather Brooks saddles, others say that nothing they could do would make it feel like anything but an “ass hatchet”

Some sites recommended break-in procedures that used to be prohibited by the Geneva Convention: water torture by soaking the saddle in water to soften the leather; dipping in molten wax; motor oil baths and the like.

I opted for a more conservative approach. I put a heavy coating of Proofide, the Brooks recommended treatment, on the underside of the saddle to protect it from water thrown up from underneath. Then, for several days, I would lovingly caress the top of the saddle with Proofide, figuring that more has to be better, right?

The upside was that I had a very soft, comfortable saddle that quickly molded itself to my backside. Unfortunately, soft can sometimes mean sagging. The leather stretched, causing the skirt or sides of the saddle to splay out when I sat on it, chafing my thighs and wearing out my shorts.

That’s not a good thing.
Continue reading “Adjusting a Brooks Champion Flyer Saddle”

May 18, 2008July 27, 2008

Matt’s First Bike Century — 100 Miles in Florida

My son, Matt, and I wanted to end off 2007 with something special – a cross-Florida trip from Hobe Sound, FL, on the east coast, to Ft. Meyers, on the west coast.

The weekend of Dec. 9 turned out to be perfect: cool temps with a strong tailwind out of the east. By the time we got to Port Mayaca, though, the wind had shifted slightly to the north, meaning that our next leg would have a strong headwind component.

Our original plan was to pick up the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST) at Port Mayaca, and let it carry us north, east and west around the Okeechobee arc of the Lake. Then, we would jump on 78, a newly paved rural road with good shoulders and make it into Moore Haven. The LOST sits 30 feet above surrounding terrain with no windbreaks, so the prospect of headwinds wasn’t pleasant.

A cheap Radio Shack wind gauge confirmed that the winds were 12 to 15 mph and gusting higher. We decided to ride south on 441 to pick up the LOST at Pahokee. We weren’t looking forward to this stretch, because the road is narrow and under construction. What shoulder there is is badly broken. As it turned out, the southbound section wasn’t as bad as we had feared. It wasn’t great riding, particularly with a strong crosswind that left my shoulders sore from trying to keep the bike straight, but I’d do it again in a pinch.

We stopped at Canal Point for a snack and to replenish our water. I had sucked down almost a whole Camelbak of water and would have been dry in another 10 miles or so.

The road improved once we got to Canal Point and the run into Pahokee was nice. We climbed back onto the LOST and scoped out the improvements being made to the Marina. The campground was mostly wiped out by the 2004-2005 hurricane seasons and a fleet of very nice looking trailers have been brought in for rentals. They look like a nice place to stay if you want to make Pahokee your fishing and biking layover.

The trip south along the LOST was great except for the strong cross wind that would occasionally gust strong enough to almost knock you over. My brother, Mark, likes to lift his bike overhead to celebrate milestones. Matt, who rides a heavier bike, opted to just PRETEND he was lifting his bike when we chanced on this pile of rocks used to reinforce the dike. Continue reading “Matt’s First Bike Century — 100 Miles in Florida”

May 17, 2008May 17, 2008

Phil the Knife Sharpener is a Trailer Guy

If you want to start an argument on a bicycle touring list, ask the question, “Which is better panniers or a trailer?” The world is divided into two groups, trailer cyclists and pannier cyclists and each group is passionate about his or her choice.

Back in February 2002, on a ride from West Palm Beach to Hobe Sound, FL, and back, I ran into Phil the Knife Sharpener near the Riviera Beach FP&L power plant.

Phil, it goes without saying, is a trailer guy. Phil is a Big Trailer Guy in more ways than one.

$Closeup of Phil\'s trailer$

I asked him where he was headed.

“Daytona Beach,” he said.

Where did you start?

“Key West.”

Where you going after Key West?

“South Dakota.”

At that point, I said, “We have to talk. How MUCH does that trailer
weigh?”

“About 300 pounds. I’m another 275 pounds,” he added.

How hard is that thing to pedal?

“I’m in a mid-range gear right now, give it a shot,” he offered.

I climbed on the beast, stood up on the pedals and went…..nowhere. Zip, nada, zilch.

“That’s what happens most of the time someone tries that,” he laughed, reaching down and lifting the trailer straight off the bolt that held it to his frame.

“Does that thing ever pop off when you’re riding,” I asked?

“Yeah, a few times. Once I was going down a steep hill doing about 40 miles per hour riding the brakes when I hit a speed bump. The trailer popped off. When the load came off, then the brakes grabbed hold and the trailer tried to pass me. This trooper saw things start to get interesting and asked if I was hurt. ‘Yep,’ I said. He wanted to know if he should call an ambulance. ‘Yep,’ I said. He wanted to know if I wanted to get down off my bicycle. ‘Nope,’ I said. ‘I got a broken leg.'”

Phil said he had ridden about 250,000 miles in the last 18 years, most of them on the beater bike and trailer he was riding here.

When we approached the Port of Palm Beach flyover, a fairly good grade for these parts, I said, “I don’t get much hill climbing experience down here, so I hope you don’t show me up too badly.”

About 15 feet up the incline, Phil said, “OK, I’ve run it out as far as it’ll go. I’ll walk it from here.” And that’s what he did.

Understanding why he didn’t exactly zoom up the hill, I still had to ask how the heck he managed to make it over the Rockies. “It takes me about three days to push the bike UP the mountain, but only about two hours to go DOWN it.”

He then went on to tell a story about how he drafted an 18-wheeler down the side of a mountain at speeds that stripped the gears in his mechanical speedometer. When the truck driver finally pulled over, he came back to check his rig. He looked at Phil and said, “Geez, I passed you 50 miles back. What are you doing here?” “I’ve been drafting you. Just how fast WERE we going?”

The truck driver said he had hit 85 mph at one point. [I suspect a large grain of salt might be in order here.]

Phil makes his money sharpening knives. “I love those little towns in the Midwest with about 200 people in them. I’ll stop in the downtown area and sharpen some farmer’s pocketknife so sharp that he don’t know he’s been cut until he sees blood. Before long, half the town is running back into their homes to round up all their knives.”

On the way back south, I ran into Phil, still plugging away northbound at 4 mph.

One hint if you run into Phil on the road: ride upwind.

Phil poses with his bike and homemade trailer.