Two Wheels, one GPS and a Camera
This isn’t my style of riding (I’d probably break a hip), but I still have to admire Danny Makaskill’s ability to stick the bike where he wants to.
His web site makes him sound like a pretty nice kid who was surprised that his trick riding has become one of the most popular sports videos on YouTube.
I saw my first LHT in the wild when my Trek 1220 was at Cape Bicycle getting a shifter replaced. I wish I had put the money into an LHT instead of the repair. I really liked the LHT's look and feel, but wasn't sure I was ready to buy a new bike.
When I got back home, a buddy of mine offered to sell me his Cannondale T800 at a good price. I was torn. Did I want to buy a used bike and make it fit me or make the jump to a LHT?
My first stop was to get a professional fitting to see if the Cannondale was right for me and to see which LHT would be suitable. The fitting was a good investment. I wish I had done it years ago. Read about it here. The best part is that the fitting was free if I bought a bike from them.
The fitting determined that the T800 WOULD work if I did some tweaking, but after polling the phreds and getting Wife Lila's blessing, I decided I'd rather have a brand new bike. After all, I had just retired. I DESERVED a new bike.
When the new bike came in, the LBS did a final fitting to get everything dialed in right.
I finally got to wheel my LHT into the driveway and go on its first ride. I tell folks that the Surly Long Haul Trucker is a Peterbilt, not a Ferrari: both of them will get up to 80 mph, but the Peterbilt can do it with 40 tons on board.
Adding a second stem gave me plenty of cockpit room for all my toys, plus my Arkel Small Bar Bag.
The next big step was to get a wheel built around my SON generator hub. I'm fairly pleased with the video and I'm REALLY pleased with the hub and wheel.
I later replaced my B&M DLumotec Oval N Plus and B&M Lumotec generator lights with a single Busch & Muller Lumotec IQ Cyo R N Plus. The Cyo IQ easily puts out more and better light than the other two combined. You can see a video of the installation here.
I kept the taillight setup I had on my Trek 1220. My NiteRider battery died, so I took it off the bike, but I haven't gotten around to removing the NiteRider taillight. I think this video will give you an idea of why I don't think anyone should miss seeing me at night.
I use a ESGE/Pletscher Double-legged kickstand AND a Click-Stand to hold the bike up (not at the same time). It's overkill, but they both have their uses.
I have a much-loved Brooks Champion Flyer that I almost killed with too much Proofide. I cover it when it rains. It is perched on top of a Velo Orange Grand CRU seat post which allows finer adjustments to saddle position than the factory post.
I've only had a couple of problems with my nearly-year-old Surly. My seat tube had a tendency to slip down. On one ride, I cranked a fraction of a turn too far and snapped off the seat tube clamp bolt.
That caused me to stock up on some spare bolts and take an inventory of the tools I carry on the bike.
Some rust has shown up on some of the bolts. I guess that's to be expected when you live surrounded by blowing salt air like we do here in South Florida.
Wimp Alert: you off-road folks are going to sneer at me.
I took my Surly Long Haul Trucker on an 8.34-mile shakedown ride last weekend with the Florida Off-Road Cycling Enthusiasts when they rode around Lake Okeechobee. I wrote about their experiences earlier. I shot a video before the ride where Tom Rassiga of the Bicyclery gave some good advice about bicycle selection.
View Lakeport-Indian Prairie on LOST in a larger map
I’ve ridden the paved portions of the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail plenty of times, but I had never ventured onto the unpaved western side before. And, while my Surly Long Haul Trucker has seen some short stretches of gravel and shell rock, it had never had any long rides off pavement.
Lynne Daniels, president of the Florida Off-Road Cycling Enthusiasts (FORCE) and a rider of a stripped-down Long Haul Trucker reduced her tire pressure. When I squeezed her tire, it was substantially more “squishy” than mine.
(The next morning, Lynn checked her front tire and said it was about 30 or 35 p.s.i.).
I dropped my tire pressure in my 26″x1.5″ tires to 45 or 50 p.s.i..
I had envisioned some nifty camera angles with the video camera held at arms-length close to the ground so I could show the road surface from the moving bike.
That thought lasted about five feet.
This isn’t a nice, smooth shell rock track broken up with an occasional rut or washouts. There are sizable (and sometimes pointy) rocks that are firmly embedded in the marl dike top. I tried to apply the Cowpie Rule (don’t look at the cowpie, look at the spaces BETWEEN the cowpies when you’re maneuvering through the pasture), but there were too many rocks/cowpies to dodge all of them.
The first casualty (after my dignity) was the Delta Airzound Bike Horn mounted on my second stem. It bounced out of its plastic mount in the first few hundred yards. No big deal, I just took a wrap of the air hose and secured it to the bars.
The jolting was hard enough that you may be able to hear my bell ringing from time to time on the video.
Other than that, though, the Surly stayed in one piece.
We hit a section where the jolting was almost tolerable because it was covered with grass. Some of the other riders said we were lucky this year because it was cut fairly short. In other years, it’s had a Field of Dreams cornfield feeling.
My love of grass lasted about a tenth of a mile.
Schwalbe just did an interesting report on the effects of tire pressure and tire width on different riding conditions.
Probably not.
Non-riders consider all bike riders to be masochists, but there is a limit to how masochistic I am.
One of the reasons I like to ride the LOST is to see the scenery and wildlife. When you’re concentrating on dodging cowpies, then it’s tough to see birds, gators and neat stuff.
When Wife Lila and I were dating, we’d go horseback riding from time to time. I always felt guilt about having some sweaty horse haul me up a hill. I had the same guilt feelings about the pain I was inflicting on my poor LHT. I felt like I should pick it up and carry it to keep it from bruising its tender tires.
Actually, that’s not completely true. I hate cell phones that ring while I’m riding.
Sure, I COULD turn it off, but lifetime of being on call makes that hard to do. Besides, in might be an important call, like “The Publisher’s Clearing House van just pulled up in front of the house….”
When Son Matt was about two years old, Wife Lila pulled me aside when I got home. “You’re going to have to change the way you answer the phone.”
“???”
“Matt was playing with his toy phone today. It rang, he answered it by saying, “Oh, BLEEP! Hello.”
Some habits are hard to break.
Friends don’t call friends who are riding.
When I got back on 78 to retrieve my car, my LHT cruised effortlessly at 18 mph, with nary a jolt, rattle or ding. It was great.
By the way, the woman at the Lakeport Lodge didn’t hesitate when I asked if it was OK to park in her lot for a couple of hours. The place looks pretty new. I may give it a try some night.
This weekend was the 115-(more or less)-mile bike ride around Florida’s Lake Okeechobee.
Billed the Lake O Challenge by the Florida Off-Road Cycling Enthusiasts and supported by Tom Rassiga of the Bicyclery, the ride started in Clewiston, stayed overnight in Okeechobee and ended up back in Clewiston.
The riders left the Corps of Engineers parking lot at Clewiston shortly after 9 AM, and made their way to the paved section of the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST) that leads to the Moore Haven locks where Tom Rassiga and his yellow Bicyclery bus was waiting.
Except for a slight crosswind, the trip started smoothly. One rider mentioned seeing a couple of gators along the rim canal.
Even though they’d only been on the road about an hour-and-a-half, the cyclists took full advantage of the food and drinks waiting for them.
For the record, there are clean restrooms at the Moore Haven trailhead. Facilities on the LOST are few and far between (read non-existent), so it’s good to note when you find some.
Tom said that they ride would be more comfortable on a wide, low pressure tire and that it would be rideable on a touring bike like my Surly Long Haul Trucker, but that a mountain bike would be more suitable.
The video above covers some of the challenges experienced by the riders on the first unpaved leg of the ride between Moore Haven and Fisheating Creek. Not only did they have the expected rocks and grass, but the authorities had been grinding up trees and brush into mulch that drifted onto what passed for a trail.
You have to understand that a lot of these folks are members of the Florida Off-Road Cycling Enthusiasts (FORCE). What we road riders consider a barrier is merely a challenge to these folks.
I don’t have pictures of that section because I opted to go directly to the Fisheating Creek rest stop. I learned a long time ago that I can either do an activity or I can COVER an activity. I figured I’d get a taste of the dike later. You’ll see a video of that in a couple of days after I’ve stopped vibrating. The video looks like it had been shot on the inside of a popcorn popper.
Apparently the non-native trees that used to provide shade had been cut down. Fortunately, Tom carried fold-up shade with him. Some of the riders needed his repair skills to take care of bikes that had been knocked out of adjustment by debris that had blown up on the trail.
Tom and his daughter, Kailyn, climbed the observation tower at the Pier II Resort to see if they could spot the stragglers at the end of the day. They made it in just before a search party went out to look for them.
That was something I noticed about this group of riders. Some of them had ridden together before and others were newbies like me, but everyone went out of their way to be friendly and helpful.
Most of the group stayed at the Pier II resort, but I waited too long to make reservations and it was booked solid by the time I called.
I fell back on the Scottish Inns a couple of miles away. The room was about $20 cheaper and was perfectly adequate for a biker night.
After some discussion, the bulk of riders ended up at the Golden Corral in Okeechobee. Most of us were interested in fast food and lots of it. I’ve never had a bad experience at this particular Golden Corral, so I was less surprised than some at the quality of the food.
I didn’t have any problem falling asleep, and I only rode a shade over 16 miles.
One of the best things about this ride is that it doesn’t start until 9 AM.
I’ve never liked rides that expect you to roll out at 6 AM, which means you have to be up at 3 AM.
The original plan called for riding from Taylor Creek to Port Mayaca on the dike, hopping on the road to Pahokee to avoid construction and then continuing on the dike to the finish in Clewiston.
Some folks who were riding the lake counterclockwise told me the night before that construction had the trail shut down north of the Torry Island trailhead, so we would have to stay on the road a few miles longer than anticipated.
I had told the riders that one of the best places to spot big gators is at Nubbins Slough, where I had seen as many as 25, many in the 8 to 10-foot range, on some days.
I stopped to see if there were any around and saw only one hanging around. It didn’t make any difference. These folks could smell home and didn’t waste any time blasting by me.
Tom set up the yellow bus at Chancy Bay (also known for J&S Fish Camp) and it wasn’t long until the first riders came bombing down the dike to the parking lot.
Here’s another way you can tell it’s an off-road group. They go off road every opportunity they can.
Chris, obviously, likes beer as well as he likes ice cream.
The last chance for riders to take on food and water before the final 16-mile run to Clewiston was at the boat ramp in South Bay.
As soon as they made the turn west at the bottom of the lake, the nice quartering tailwind they had for most of the day turned into a head wind.
Since you are perched 25 or 30 feet up in the air with nothing around you to block the wind, that can be a real killer.
Fortunately, the winds were light, probably in the 5 to 7-mph range, with gusts only slightly higher. Of course, that’s easy for me to say. I was in my van.
Before long, everyone had their luggage sorted out, their bikes racked on their vehicles and they were sitting around, pigging out on chicken, subs, left0ver fruit and some beverages in brown bottles.
Even though everyone was ready to go home, you could tell that they wanted the experience to go on just a little bit longer.
Tom’s wife, Lynn, and Pam Karagoz pull out a camera and look at pictures of the ride.
Our parking lot was directly west of a cemetery where a burial service was being held several hundred yards away.
I thought back over the weekend and how much fun it had been and realized that you have to take advantage of times like these while you can.
Boys will be boys. Per, Andrew and Chuck relaxed by ogling a magazine centerfold spread.
In a biking magazine.
I told you they were off-road cyclists.
The Florida Off Road Cycling Enthusiasts – FORCE – are scheduling a Big “O” group ride around the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST) Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 14-15.
The ride will leave at 9 A.M. from the Clewiston Army Corps of Engineers on the north side of U.S. 27 as you come into Clewiston. There is safe parking there.
View The Big “O” Ride Nov. 14-14. 2009 in a larger map
The whole ride is about 115 miles, done over two days. The first day, which is on the mostly unpaved west side of Lake Okeechobee, will cover 50 miles. Sunday’s ride will be paved, with a short stretch on a roadway that has adequate shoulders.
The group has made arrangements for a special FORCE rate with the Pier II Resort at the north end of the lake. Call 1-800-874-3744 to reserve your $69.99 double. Mention the Big O Levee Challenge to get the price break.
The west side of the lake is unpaved, so you will need a bike with at least 32mm wide tires. If you plan to ride on a high-pressure, narrow-tired road bike, you may want to drop down off the dike onto Highway 78. It’s a low-traffic, wide-shouldered highway.
For more information, stop by the Bicyclery on Military Trail south of Okeechobee Road and ask for Tom Rassiga. OR, you can watch him on this video.