Injured Reserve

My ankle is still a bit swollen after almost 2 weeks

I have not been on my bike since my accident the Monday before last. It happened just before I got to work and I was able to ride home with some discomfort but I felt worse the next day and even now, my ankle is still swollen and tender and it hurts to sit. As I mentioned in my last post, I can sit leaning forward but I can’t lean back, which is what I have to do on a recumbent bicycle.

I seriously thought of buying a cheap conventional bike that I could ride until I healed but my wife frowned on that idea. I also thought I would be better by now. Unfortunately it looks like I really did “bust my ass.”

I have a doctor’s appointment on Monday. It was supposed to be just an eleven year check-up (yes, it has been that long since I have been to the doctor) but now I think I will have something else the doctor can do that does not involve rubber gloves and Vasoline. Although, since I am turning 50 this year, I don’t think I can avoid the unpleasentries. Makes me wish I had picked a female doctor.

I guess I will need to find something to do while I am recovering. Perhaps I can do maintenance. Can’t wait.

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Seven Days, No Bike

Lately I’ve been too busy to write but now I’m bored so I thought I would bore you with my problems. Just kidding, they are not problems, but rather, opportunities for improvement. Believe it or not, I actually welcome a minor issue with my bike every now and then, as long as it does not leave me hurt or stuck somewhere. This is because I need to learn how to repair and maintain my bicycle and if it is not broken, I will not be motivated to work on it.

Last Monday, the shifter knob for the rear gears broke and left me stuck in high gear. This was not a major issue, because Florida is pretty flat and most of my ride is in that gear anyway. One notable exception is a bridge I go over on the Upper Tampa Bay Trail.

Upper Tampa Bay Trail

It’s hard to tell from the angle of the above picture but the bridge gets somewhat steep and I usually shift to an easy gear while I go over the bridge. This time, I changed the front gear, which I usually leave on the center sprocket, and the chain fell off. This caused me to lose my balance and, since I have not fully adjusted to the clipless peddles, could not unclip my right foot in time and fell over. Another cyclist saw this happen and asked if I was okay. I told him I was more embarrassed than hurt. Fortunately the rest of the ride home went fine.

When I got home I was tired and did not feel like working on the bike so I decided to drive to work on Tuesday and fix it that evening. I picked a good day to drive because it was a rainy day.

I had a new shifter knob that I bought months ago as a set when the other one broke. I thought about changing them both at once but then got lazy. So after work on Tuesday I took the broken knob off and put the new one on. It came with a cable so I threw the old cable away and snaked the new cable through the old sheaths, or whatever the official name is for the cable covers.

When I got them all the way through I discovered the cable was too short. I suppose it was designed for a standard bicycle, which my recumbent bike is not. I ended up pulling the short wire out of the shifter knob and fished the old wire out of the trash. I thought I could just thread it back through the knob but I needed to take it apart. When I did a small plastic piece popped out. I wasn’t expecting that and had no Idea where it went back in.

It took awhile but I finally figured out how to get the wire in and put the two pieces back together, minus the little plastic piece. Leftover parts are common, right? I then had to thread the old wire back through the covers but the end was frayed so I had to cut the last inch off. This worked almost good enough except there was always one strand that stayed out while the others went in. I kept cutting the wire shorter and the same thing kept happening until finally I got it to work, except now it was also too short.

I was determined to ride my bike on Wednesday so I decided to make sure my front shifter was properly adjusted, which I did, but noticed another problem while I was doing that. The adjustment on my rear brake was broken and one pad was rubbing against the tire. It must have happened when I fell over. I thought it seemed a bit harder to pedal but I did not consider that I had another problem. I guess I wasn’t going to ride to work Wednesday after all.

I ordered the parts I needed from Amazon on Wednesday and since I have the Amazon Prime, I got free two-day shipping, so they arrived on Friday. I put them on Saturday with few problems and I am ready to ride to work on Monday. The only problem is that Monday morning is going to be around 40 degrees and since I am a cold wimp and since I have not yet bought good cold weather cycling clothes, I think I will wait until Tuesday.

Change of Scenery

The other day I decided to take a different route to work. I was looking for a change of scenery and found a way to work that seemed safe and added a mile and a half to my ten-mile trip. Since I actually wanted to ride a little further this seemed like killing two birds with one stone.

The new route was easier. I got on the road near my home and stayed on it for at least half the trip. It was a busy road but it went through a newer part of town so it was well planned with bicycle lanes the entire trip. It was also good because it allowed me to keep a faster pace than usual. I actually spent part of the ride passing cars that were stuck in traffic. Since I didn’t have so many turns and stops, I made it to work in one hour and five minutes, just about my usual time on the shorter ride.

Unfortunately, it seems with every silver lining there is a dark cloud. I assume Florida is not home to every idiot driver in North America but it sure has more than its share. I talked about bicycle lanes in another post, Riding on Sidewalks. In that post I mentioned almost getting hit by the mirror of a passing truck. This time I had a car drift into the bike lane and barely miss me. That forced me over to the far right of the lane where a pickup truck,  two vehicles later, also drifted into the bike lane. I guess I was lucky the first car forced me over. It also seemed that every large vehicle, such as buses, would come uncomfortably close when passing me.

If anyone is curious, I recorded that trip and a few others using mapmyride.com. They have a nice feature that uses Google Earth to show a “Flyover” of the route. I tried to embed the video code directly into this page but for some reason it did not work. Some of my maps are private because they go directly to my home so if one does not work, try another. If you sign up, feel free to send me a friend request.

I decided to stick with my older route for now and rode home from work that way. If I want a change of pace I will have to go riding on the weekends, but that is time reserved for my wife. We bought her a bike a few months ago but it was too hot for her then. After that, her seat hurt so I bought her a comfy seat but then her wrists hurt from leaning forward on the ride. I few weeks ago I looked at another recumbent bike that I would really like to have but can’t afford it now. Rose said that perhaps after Christmas I could get a new recumbent and she could have my current one. Then she would ride with me. No comment!

In other news, on the way home on my ride mentioned above, my chain fell off while changing gears. It was dark at that time and even though the street I was on had lights, it was still difficult to see. I put the chain back on and then got back on the road but when I tried shifting to a higher front gear, the shifter broke apart and I was stuck in the lowest gear. I had to finish the last three or four miles of my trip in that gear.

I ordered a new shifter, that I think is correct, and it should arrive tomorrow or Wednesday. Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to install it. In the mean time it looks like I will be driving to work.

Tropical Storm and Weight Loss

As I write, Tropical Storm Isaac is preventing me from riding my bike again, which is why I have time this morning to write a post. It looks like the rain will be here for a few days and then we will go back to the normal summer weather, which is rain.

On a better note, I weigh myself most morning and I have notice a slow trend downwards. Before you say it, I know weighing yourself everyday can be bad, but I think for me, it is good, because I am encouraged and energized when it goes down and when it goes up I am motivated to reverse it. I also know weight fluctuates day-to-day so I look for lasting patterns.

When I bought my recumbent bike and started riding, my weight went up about three pounds and stayed there for quite a while. That was discouraging. Several people mentioned that muscle weighs more than fat, which I knew, but I expected better.

I did get a comment from David Clancy who has an excellent blog, College Tri. He said, ” …you may not have a big change in weight at the beginning. It’ll get there though, trust me. When I started running and cycling, my weight declined very slowly for a while then sped up at a point before leveling off…”

This gave me some hope. It is always nice to get advice from someone who has been where you are at. Hopefully I will someday be the go-to guy when a newbie needs advice.

Alternate storage for my rainjacket.

Speaking of advice, I figured out a way to keep my rain jacket from taking up half the room in my bag. I stuffed it between the seat and the bag. It is in there pretty tight. I wrapped the arms around the seat frame just as a precaution, but either way, I don’t think it will fall out. This of course is only useful if you have a recumbent bicycle with a seat bag.

A Casual Ride

I bought a new, more comfy seat for Rose’s bike in hopes that she would join me on a ride, which she did on Saturday. Her friend Michelle also joined us, both on their new bicycles.

I finally felt like I wasn’t the newbie anymore as we rode the two miles or so to the park. I wanted to get a photo of me on my bike for the header of this blog so I asked Rose to photograph me at the park.

I made two big mistakes. I failed to mention I needed a wide-angle photo and she took a close up of me. I also failed to look at the photo she took. I just assumed it was good. Lesson learned.

When we got home, Rose complained about how hot she was and I realized that I did not even notice the heat while we were riding, which is unusual for me because I tend to enjoy a very narrow temperature range. I guess us humans can get used to almost anything, even this Florida heat.

Three in a Row

I was actually able to ride to work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. I was allowing myself to rest between rides but it seems I have reached a point where that is no longer necessary. The only questions remains, if I am really starting to improve physically, why have I gained two pounds since I started riding?

I guess I have only myself to blame. Last night I did not get home until 6:45 and then my wife wanted to go out for dinner. Since I am a pushover, I said “okay.” I then proceeded to eat a large Italian dinner and  went to bed shortly after getting home.

Today I am bringing the car to work so I can get home early enough to do some other bad thing. Perhaps we will go see a movie. Just one more reason I need the bike.

I just want to change gears a little (pun intended) and share something I learned. In fact, one reason I started this blog was so that newbies like myself could learn what a new rider might encounter on a recumbent bike, or any bicycle.

When I bought my bike it came with two drink holders. It did not, however, have the bottles that they were designed to hold. I didn’t mind though because I am not a big fan of squirting water in my mouth. I prefer to drink from a standard bottle.

So on my first practice ride my half-liter water bottle fell out every time I hit a bump. My good friend Rick, who has many more miles under his belt, suggested I loop a rubber band around the top part of the holder and then loop the other end around the neck of the bottle. This worked great. Thanks Rick. Hopefully I will be able to share more great tips in the future.

If anyone has more tips they would like to share, please leave a comment. Also, check out my other blogs at badcatchris.com and RomeoRooster.blogspot.com

Where are the Bikers?

On my ride to work on Thursday, just after I passed the entrance to the trail and before I noticed my mistake, I passed a man even older than me on a recumbent bike. We waved as we passed like we were two guys riding Harleys.

After I realized my mistake and found my way to the trail, I started thinking about the odds of running into another recumbent bicyclist. I wasn’t sure if seeing one on an eleven mile trip was good or bad. It occurred to me then that I saw very few people on bicycles, including on the bike trail. I estimated the number between five and ten.

Pinellas Trail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That seemed strange because I recently lived in Dunedin, on the causeway that leads to Honeymoon Island. There, the Pinellas Trail crosses very close and even has an extension along the causeway. We had to be very careful every time we drove because there was a steady stream of pedestrians and cyclists. In contrast, I saw only one bicycle rider on the portion of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail that I was on.

On the way home I decided to count. I saw two cyclists on the trail and four more off the trail. That is just over one for every two miles traveled. Why is north-west Tampa so bike-free compared to west Pinellas County? I understand the appeal of the Pinellas Trail but does nobody own a bike in Tampa?

Introduction

I would like to start by introducing myself and tell you what led me to want to start blogging about recumbent bicycle riding. I want this to be from the point of view of a true newbie. Hopefully, I can give you a first hand account of my triumps and failures and all my progress along the way.

My name is Chuck and I am an out-of-shape, middle-aged man who is about to turn 49. I have had a bicycle almost my whole life but unfortunately, ever since I got a license to drive, that bike spent most of the time in storage, except for about six months last year when I rode it the four miles to work once or twice a week.

I started eating healthier about five years ago and lost about thirty pounds but my life situation changed, the bit of exercise I was getting vanished and I gained it all back and then some.

I realized the best way to motivate myself to exercise is to start riding to work again, this is especially motivating at the end of the day when I have only one way to get home. Unfortunately, I now work almost nine miles from home (more if I want to ride safely) and that distance causes a strain on my back and a pain in my butt…literally.

It then occurred to me that a recumbent bicycle would be the perfect solution. I started looking into them and was hit by sticker shock. Most web sites I looked at did not have one under $1200.

Eventually I went to OTE Bicycles in Dunedin, Florida (at the time I lived within walking distance). They tuned up my current bike and  seemed honest and reasonable. They also sell used bikes there and was hoping they would have one I could afford. He did not have any used bikes but he said he could order a Sun EZ-1 for $500.

I took him up on his offer and two days later was disappointed to learn that it was discontinued and he could no longer get it. The next version up was $650, which I might have considered but the price had gone up to $850. The owner (or co-owner, his name escapes me) felt bad and even offered the other bike at his cost, which was just a little more than I wanted to spend.

Two months later I started looking again and decided to put a “wanted” ad on Craigslist. I got an immediate response from someone who had a first edition Sun EZ-1 for $275. My wife, Rose, and I went to look at it, somewhat expecting it to be junk, but were surprised it was in relatively good condition. It even came with a saddle bag and two cup holders. I decided it was a great value and did not haggle over the price.

I took it for a short ride after we got home and in just five or ten minutes I could feel the strain in my leg muscles. I want to ride it the ten miles to work on Monday which means I need to get used to it before then. I know the first day will be rough but I think if I leave early and take my time, it could be fun.

My new “old” recumbent which my cat is investigating. You can read about him at my other blog, badcatchris.com