Palm Beach Bike Tours – Page 77 – Two Wheels, one GPS and a Camera

May 11, 2008April 6, 2009

About Palm Beach Bike Tours: How We Came to Be

First off, if you got here looking for a formal tour of Palm Beach, we’re not there yet. We may not ever get there.

Here’s what happened along the way: several months ago, my two sons, their wives and my toddler grandson in a bike trailer, started doing weekend rides. It was convenient to meet at my house and ride Palm Beach. That riding group has grown to include friends, co-workers and the occasional tourist we’ve swept up.

Thirty-five years of working at the local newspaper, The Palm Beach Post, has given me lots of war stories and historical tidbits that I share with the riders. Some of them may actually be true.)

For my birthday, they set up this site and said, “You’re so close to retirement that you can taste it. (Why don’t you do Palm Beach bike tours and get paid for what you’re giving away for free?”The more I thought about it, the better I liked the idea. See if I could cut a deal with a local bike shop that already rents bikes; use FRS radios for commentary; convince the city fathers that we would emphasize safety, get a foodie friend to provide picnic lunches, etc., etc.

Then we had a larger than average group show up one Saturday. It was a mixture of hammerheads who wanted to go fast and newbies who wanted to ride 10 mph and who weren’t comfortable in traffic. That made me wonder if I really wanted to go into the cat herding business.

In the meantime, this site was already getting hits, even with nothing on it. I didn’t want to disappoint folks, so I thought about the hundreds of messages I’ve posted since the early 2000s to bicycling newsgroups and email lists about rides, equipment, technique and stuff that you think about when you’re on a saddle for hours at a time.

This site is going to be a distillation of those postings, plus some of the ramblings of friends and family. Instead of herding cats in the real world, I’m going to do it in the virtual world.

For those of you who are actually looking for good places to ride, I’ll have GPS tracks, Google Earth .kmz files and lots of pictures as quickly as I can put them up. It’s taking a while to edit the original postings and to learn the software that runs this site. Please be patient and visit often. There will be a lot of new (old) content posted in the next few weeks. Comments, questions and critiques are welcome.

December 15, 2005November 29, 2008

Carven’s Pimped-Out Bike with Audio System Trailer

On my way to work this Thursday morning, I saw Carven cresting the top of the 10th Avenue I-95 overpass. The fixed-gear tricycle he was on looked pretty beat-up but the trailer he was pulling is what really grabbed my attention. $Carven\'s Bike with Pimped-Out Audio System$

His low-riding plywood trailer had two 12-volt car batteries, an audio amplifier, two subwoofers, two mid-range speakers and a pair of tweeters all connected to a Kenwood car stereo. The batteries alone must have weighed in at more than 50 pounds. Toss in what looks to be half a sheet of half-inch plywood and you’ve got another 15 pounds.

One of the trike’s wheels had a spinner. The other drive wheel used to have a spinner but it fell off and he hadn’t yet put it back on.

Even better, he had dual bicycle bells on the front chopper-style handlebars. You don’t get any flashier than that.

I couldn’t resist. I parked at the bottom of the overpass, jumped out with my camera and took a few pictures. Carven was proud of his ride and didn’t mind at all. He did think it odd that some guy in a tie stopped him on the side of the road.

I told Carven I was really impressed by the engineering but moreso his legs. All in, his full rig must have topped a hundred pounds or nearly six and half Trek Madones. No weight wennie there, that’s for sure.

After not more than a couple minutes, he left for school and I left for work. As he rode off, one of his buddies hopped on the back as though Carven was driving a taxi and caught a ride to school.

$Carven\'s friend catches a ride to school on the back of his bike.$

If I see Carven again, I hope it is in my rear view mirror, briefly, as he passes my bike on the road.

—Matt

June 18, 2002May 15, 2008

230 Rule: Calculating Mileage Using Heat, Humidity

In South Florida, when the temperature is 90, the humidity is likely to be 90.

I’ve developed the 230 rule: 230 – the temperature – the humidity equals riding miles, give or take 20%.

Hence, 220 – 90 degrees – 90% humidity = 50 miles.

Ever notice how folks on the porch call it a breeze and folks on a bike call it a headwind?

June 18, 2002June 3, 2008

Schmidt Generator Hub with Lumotec Headlights

About half of my riding is after dark this time of year. (It’s hot in Florida.)

I just got a Schmidt generator hub on Friday, so when I put it on the bike I’ll have it, with two Lumotec headlights, along with a NiteRider Pro 12E in the front. In the back, I’ll have a NiteRider taillight on the bike and at least an Eclipse LED blinkie on my Camelbak.

Depending on how well I like the Lumotecs, I may only use the Niterider for the taillight and for backup.

Cost of lighting stuff: about $600. Cost of Trek 1220 (used) $600.

Fewer than one in ten riders I see after dark have any form of lights. If they have something, it’s usually a blinkie with low batteries.

I get lots of positive feedback from motorists and peds.

June 15, 2002May 15, 2008

Riding a Century Slowly with Doppler Radar

My first century took about 10 hours. I can’t put my hands on my log book for 1999 right now to know the exact rate.

Looking back at the log for the 11 mph century in 2000, I see that I was slightly off. My rolling average was actually 11.6 mph and total rolling time was 8 hrs, 35 mins. With stops, though, it was still close to 10 hours. The next day I rode 81.2 miles at an average of 11.0 mph. (That must have been why I remembered 11 mph.)

Those centuries were done on a comfort bike with 26″ x 1.95″ tires. When I took it in a couple weeks before my first century, the wrench just shook his head and said, “100 miles on that bike is like 130 on a road bike.” I also bring along the kitchen sink when I ride. My bike is on my LBS Wall of Shame because it weighed in at 49.5 lbs, with lights, tools, food, etc.

While I’m plodding along, I comfort myself by thinking that anybody can ride fast on a 17-pound bike with 21-year-old legs, pulled along by a paceline.

My most recent century over the same route with my new road bike was done against a headwind and a rolling average of 13 miles an hour.

I have a regular 66-mile ride I do at least once a month. My rolling average there is usually 13 to 14.5 mph.

On group rides, I pass a whole lot of folks who are slower than me and I get blown off the road by a whole lot of folks who are faster than me. I hope both groups are enjoying their day as much as I am.

Nah, aero I’m not. My chest and stomach changed places about 20 years ago. One thing I did notice was that fat guys have an advantage on the downhill runs.

I wouldn’t consider a 13 mph century fast. The major difference between the 11 mph and the 13 mph was that I was the absolute last person to make it in the first year. The last sag wagon of the day tried to convince me to give it up when I still had about 30 miles to go. I told ’em that I had lights, water, food and a cell phone and that I was used to riding alone. I was monitoring the ham frequency the wagon was using, so I heard them radio back that there was one rider left on the century course “and he’s got everything but doppler radar and he says he’s gonna make it.”

The next year, I was still passing lots of riders when I finished up. That made me feel much better.

Putting that in perspective, hundreds of riders were already showered, napped and on their fourth pitcher of beer long before I pulled in.

I admire the hard-core riders who knock off a century in less than four hours and I wish I was a couple of mph faster. On the other hand, I don’t want to ride in a paceline sniffing someone’s shorts for those four hours.