Palm Beach Bike Tours – Page 72 – Two Wheels, one GPS and a Camera

July 11, 2008August 25, 2008

My Bicycle’s Warranty is Out?

Call My Bicycle A telemarketing company (from 802-878-3477) keeps calling to tell me my vehicle is about to be out of its warranty period: eight times in three weeks. Every time their machine calls me, I press ‘2’ to be deleted from their call list.

Today, I decided to speak with them. The entire call took nearly eight minutes.

Vehicle Make and Model? Trek 7300

Dave asked for vehicle’s make and model: Trek 7300. Dave asked for the model year: 1998. Dave couldn’t find ‘Trek’ in his database. I told him it was a bike. He asked how much it weighed. I wasn’t sure but guessed ’28; maybe even 32 when fully-loaded’. He asked if it was heavy. I explained that it was twice as heavy as I’d like — a serious rider would like a bike that weighs half that amount.

Dave was very confused. Dave asked me to describe my bike. I told him it was a hybrid bike — tires of a road bike, straight bars and thick frame like a mountain bike — with 27 gear combinations, about its generator hub for lighting and the sweet, melodic bell.

How Big is My Motor?

Dave wanted to know if it had a motor. Yes: the Trek’s motor can do 100 watts for several hours at one time but could push two or three times that for short bursts. I’m looking forward to tuning up the motor this summer before I ride the MS 150 in Memphis.

Dave asked if I was talking about a bicycle. Yes, of course, what did you think I was talking about? He didn’t know.

He was simply calling because my vehicle had a warranty that was soon to expire or had already expired.

My Trek Has a Lifetime Warranty

I explained that my vehicle only had a lifetime frame warranty but that the components were no longer covered. I asked him what it would cost to add a warranty to my Trek 7300. He asked how much the bike cost and how many miles it had on it. My answers: $550 or so and, pitifully, fewer than 10,000 miles.

Dave explained that his company only sells extended warrantees for cars and light trucks used for non-commercial purposes.

Worse Than Road Rash and Harder to Get Rid Of

Continue reading “My Bicycle’s Warranty is Out?”

July 9, 2008February 6, 2010

Do Bike Helmets Really Save Your Life?

There’s a thread in one of my favorite comic strips, Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery, about bicycle helmets. Check out the comments. I was hooked the first time I logged in.

I normally stay out of the helmet wars. I confess to being irked when the first question / statement folks make when they hear I’m a biker is, “You wear a helmet, right?”

I reply that the more appropriate questions would be, “Do you ride like a vehicle, obeying all of the appropriate traffic laws? Do you ride WITH traffic, not against it? Do you have plenty of lights and reflectors so you’re visible? Do you take the lane when necessary? Do you signal? Are you always aware of your surroundings?”

Helmets: parachutes for your head

That magic foam hat is just like a parachute: it’s only needed if things go horribly wrong. And, just wearing one doesn’t mean it’ll save your life.

Now, having said that, I’m going to tell you why I never get on my bike without a helmet these days. Here’s a message I wrote to the phreds on January 7, 2007, explaining why. It’s a long story and it doesn’t have a happy ending.

A place for my mirror

For the record, I wear a helmet on the road. I don’t think it has magical properties, but it’s a good place to mount my rearview mirror and it takes care of the scenario where some pond-scum lawyer says,
“Yes, my client DID squash your client like a possum with his Hummer, but YOUR client wasn’t wearing his helmet.”

My riding partner, Mary, and I took off for a jaunt on the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, one of our favorite riding spots. Holidays, rain, etc., had kept her off the bike since our impromptu century in November, so she was ready to hit it.

It was a perfect day

It was a perfect day, clear, about 82 degrees with a 4-6 mph cross headwind. She was in the groove, but for some reason, I couldn’t get the right rhythm going and she left me in the dust. At our normal seven-mile rest stop, she was a quarter-mile ahead of me.

Figuring I might just need to top off the tank, I popped an energy gel and split an energy bar with Mary. We called my brother in Missouri to rub in our great day, then hit the road.

The gel helped, but Mary still took the lead by a good tenth of a mile. The bill of my cap was pulled down and I was looking down slightly, so I didn’t see her until I was about 100 feet from her. Oh, great, I thought, she’s rubbing in that I’m so slow. She’s stretched across the trail pretending to take a nap until I can catch up.

Nobody gets road rash for a joke $Mary\'s crash on Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail$

That’s when I noticed that her bike wasn’t on its kickstand and that the rear wheel was still spinning. When I got even closer, I saw that this wasn’t a joke. Nobody goes to all the trouble of getting road rash for a joke.

I was still expecting her to sit up, embarrassed at taking a header on a clear, straight path.

She didn’t move.

Continue reading “Do Bike Helmets Really Save Your Life?”

July 2, 2008July 7, 2008

Florida Maps Show Good Roads for Bike Touring

Several years ago I discovered that Florida’s Department of Transportation was making highway and traffic studies available on DVD for free. I gave them a call and talked with a guy who seemed really pleased that anyone was interested in their work, particularly to find good places to cycle.

Every June since then, like clockwork, a new and improved set of DVDs arrives. I usually spend a couple of hours poking around and still never discover all the cool things that are on them.

Green means low traffic

This screen shot is an example. The green roads in the map at right have an annual average traffic count of less than 15,000 vehicles per day.

Now, low traffic counts don’t always mean that the road is suitable for safe cycling, but it’s not a bad indicator.

You can turn on more or less detail, depending on how closely you’ve zoomed into an area and how cluttered it gets.

The map at left is showing the Tallahassee area where the 2008 TOSRV was held. I turned on place names, road markers and river and lake names.

Ever pass those black hoses stretched across the road and wonder what they were? Continue reading “Florida Maps Show Good Roads for Bike Touring”

June 29, 2008February 3, 2021

Ask Ken: How did you start cycling?

Deeds asked Ken:

Ken,
I wondered when you started riding your bike? How did you get interested in bicycling?
Deeds

Despite the fact that my kids think my original bicycle wheels were carved from stone ala Fred Flintstone, my first bike was a Schwinn when I was about 13. I’m digging around trying to find some pictures of it.

My parents bought it for me to make it easier to deliver The Southeast Missourian.

Reflectors must have kept me alive

It had a massive front basket to hold the papers, a big headlight that put out minimal light, fenders (with mudflaps) and a battery-powered horn. Interestingly enough, even though my route kept me out after dark, I don’t recall having a taillight. It DID have reflectorized tape all over it, so maybe that’s what kept me from getting run over.

In the early days, a lot of the streets I delivered to were gravel, which didn’t make it any fun going UP or DOWN the steep hills on a single-speed bike.

I can remember a couple of times when the streets were covered with snow and slush that ice built up on the fenders between the fender and tires. The more you rode, the more water that was thrown up and the more the ice built up. That wasn’t so bad as long as you were moving, because the friction of the moving tire would melt the ice. When I stopped once, though, I found out that the tire was solidly frozen into the mess. I had to leave my bike at a customer’s house and continue the route on foot. Continue reading “Ask Ken: How did you start cycling?”

June 29, 2008July 7, 2008

Pizza – Biker Fuel

One of my staffers is headed to Tallahassee to move a phone system, so I wanted to make sure he had the address of a pizza joint that was recommended by local cyclist Ed Picolo when Brother Mark, Wife Lila, Kid Adam and Kid’s Wife Carly did the TOSRV in April.

$Paulina\'s Pizzeria in Tallahassee, FL$ Riding builds up strong cravings. When I climb down, I usually want Dead Cow, pizza or nachos. That night, it was pizza, and I don’t mean run-of-the-mill chain pizza.

Ed told us that Paulina’s Pizzeria, 6615 Mahan Dr Ste 308-B, Tallahassee, FL 32308 was a favorite stop for local riders.

It quickly became evident why.

The menu offered so many selections that it was hard to make a choice. The waitress was friendly and put up with our (to us) good-natured bantering.

Salads fresh and attractive

It’s been a couple of months, so I don’t remember specifically what we ordered, but I do remember that it was all excellent. The salads were fresh and attractive looking and the dipping sauce for the garlic knots was good enough that I was afraid Brother Mark would start licking the plates. (We’ve pretty much broken him of that in public, but he’s been known to relapse.)

When I expressed a preference for a thin, crispier crust, the waitress said she’d talk to the boss because they’re pretty particular about how they make their pizzas. She came back and said the cook would do his best, but that he couldn’t guarantee that the dough wouldn’t tear. His good enough was good enough, because it was perfect.

Adam and Carly ordered the Crème Brulee desert. They didn’t proclaim it the best they had ever eaten, but they also didn’t leave any on the plate. They have a large selection of imported beer if you are dry as well as hungry.

If you’re on the LOST

Closer to home is Gizmo’s Pizzas & Subs, 3235 US Highway 441 SE, Okeechobee, Okeechobee, FL 34974. They’re located in Taylor Creek, on the north side of Lake Okeechobee, convenient to where you must come off the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST) to cross Taylor Creek. Continue reading “Pizza – Biker Fuel”