Bikes and Dogs

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Riding on the trail I've seen allot of dogs, with their owner and without. This evening's ride was one of those rides where I've encountered two dogs without their owners.

The first half of my 21 mile short ride I saw a small Terrier. It just barked at me and ran into the woods, hopefully home or it's Coyote food. It had a collar, so it was a house dog.

On the way back, there was a large, long haired, brown dog. It was loose and running along side a rode parallel to the trail. There was a Good Samaritan walking his small dog trying to get a hold of it. But, as soon as it saw me pass by, it clicked into chase mode after me. It was 15 yards away and closing. I yelled out "Get Off the Couch!", which confused it for a second and that gave me enough time to accelerate from 15 mph to 20 mph.

Nothing gets your adrenalin going than seeing a loose dog running after you. I kept the 20 mph pace for about a mile. The dog chasing me disappeared from my rear view mirror after 10 seconds from first contact.

Every ride has it's own characteristic. This one I will title "Two Lost Dogs".

North Meets South

Last Saturday I did my long bike ride (53 miles) after a week or so of non-riding. On this bike ride I rode with a recumbent cyclist that I met online at one of the cycling recumbent forums.


His name is Ray and we scheduled to do a ride together at our local bike trail. He lived north of the trail and I usually start my ride at the very southern end of the Little Miami Bike Trail. I met Ray on my return ride from Morrow Ohio. From South Lebanon we both rode south.


The ride started early in the morning and it was still dark. I forgot that the days were getting shorter and sunrise came around 6:40 AM instead of 6:00 AM. I took off from Newtown, with lights on, to Morrow Ohio. I was the only cyclist on the trail until I arrived in Loveland Ohio. I did met a group of runners coming towards me in the dark, carrying a flashlight. Their bobbing light gave me the clue that it was a runner and not a cyclist coming towards me.

By the time I met Ray my legs were almost spent. We rode between 18 to 22 mph. I didn't drink allot of fluids this time around and I guess that was my mistake. At times I couldn't keep up with Ray when he went past 20 mph.

Here is Ray getting set to turn around and head back up north to his car. Just 3 more miles south and Ray would have reached the southern most part of the trail.

Ray rode his Bacchetta Aero, a titanium frame recumbent. It had carbon fiber wheels that made a "whoosing" sound as he rode past. He recently bought the bike several weeks ago and is looking to upgrade it some more.


On the last half of the ride my legs were done. I didn't have an ounce of energy left to draft off a roadie that pasted me. The grade of the trail was at a decline and I could only get it up to 18 mph, that's how tired I was.

Video recording the ride, I passed by a cyclist with only one leg. I've seen him before on the trail, but this time I was luckily enough to capture him on video.


Ray Bent Ride from glenn m on Vimeo.

You may have to wait a minute for the video to fully buffer or download. It's about a minute long.