Bikes and Dogs

Dog clip art created by Dog-Paw-Print.com

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".

Trailers and Kids

Jon's new HASE Trets child trailer.

This past Sunday marked the first Sunday bike ride with kids this season. So the friends and family cycling weekends have officially begone.

This was my daughter Maya's first ride on the trail. I waited until she was a bit older before taking her out on the trailer. She did quite well, sleeping half way until we neared Loveland Ohio. 

Shawn and Maya enjoying the swings.

The kids always liked the part of playing at the local park playground once we reached Loveland. This gets them nice and hungry for lunch.

The season would be different for me, since my buddy Jon will not be hauling his daughter Violet and my son Shawn on his old trailer. He recently bought a very high end single seat child trailer for his daughter. It's more like a trike but without the front wheel. So now, I''ll be hauling my own kids up the trail.

On the way back, Violet was fast asleep. I'm surprised that she was able to keep her foot on the pedals.

Hauling two kids and a trailer is a chore. The weight combined is around 90 lbs. My speed varied from 10 mph to 13 mph on the flats. On a slight grade going down I can probably get it to around 14-15 mph.

Here I am with my son Shawn inside the Trek GoBug trailer.

On the way back Maya rode home in my wife's car, while Shawn enjoyed the ride.

At the end my lungs were the ones tired instead of my legs. I have to find a way to hook up a child carrier to my wife's Trike, in order for her to share in the load.

Trets and Trailers from glenn m on Vimeo.

It's not the bike, it's the engine

Today I took out my RANS Zenetik crank forward bike. The factory handlebar was replaced with a Nitto Albatross handlebar, twist shifters replaced with bar end shifters and pedals with Crank Brothers clipless pedals.

The Zenetik was my latest acquisition for hauling my kids around in their TREK Go Bug trailer. I figured that it would be much better and safer than hauling them on one of my recumbent bikes. The Zenetik sports 700c wheels which are designed for less drag on road surfaces, meaning a faster ride. But it also depends on the engine; I could be riding a $5000 road bike and still not keep an average speed of 18 mph, at my current fitness state. Plus, the design of the Zenetik sits me in a more upright comfortable riding position.

When hauling my kids around I’m not looking into breaking speed records. It’s all about enjoying the ride.

The issue I had was adjusting to the different seat position. On my recumbents my weight is mainly distributed on my back, but on the crank forward seat it’s on my butt. Constantly changing my seating position allows the blood to flow and relieves the aches.

My Zenetik rides smooth and feels like it’s on rails. Accelerating quickly on the bike was no problem at all. The bike itself weights around 20-24 lbs.

Night Ride 20090316

I decided to ride my Baron lowracer this time around.

Another night ride, but with some company. This time, on my night ride, my buddy Jon and his friend Brian joined me on an evening ride. We rode from Newtown, Ohio to Loveland, Ohio. The pace was a bit faster this time around (18-20 mph). Round trip 27 miles.

On the way up we spotted three deers. We almost hit them as they stared at us coming towards them. The term "deer in the headlights" was true that night. Jon had his Light and Motion Arc light and I used my smaller 900 lumens led flashlight.

Images are references only.

On the way back we saw a large owl. Probably the same large owl Jon and I saw a year ago. Several rabbits and two coyotes ran across the trail from us. The coyotes were the first Jon and I have seen on the trail.

Jon on his Cervelo TT bike.

Brian Duffy (location Milford, Ohio)

The photo comes close to illustrating the type of illumination my small 900 lumen led flashlight gives off.

Another warm day not wasted

February 25th was another Indian summer (61 degrees) and the second ride of the 2009 season for me. This time I had 45 minutes of sun light left before dusk. I used that extra time to ride a bit further on the trail before it started to get dark.

There were allot of cars in the Bass Island parking lot in Newtown. A good clue that there were allot of people taking advantage of the warm weather on the trail. On the way up to Milford I passed a fellow recumbent rider going the opposite way. We both recognized each other and exchanged salutes.


At Milford I saw a roadie just coming on the trail heading north. I decided to tag behind him. From 15 mph I slowly accelerated to 18 mph. For about half a mile we road together until I couldn't keep the pace at 23 mph. Maybe next time when I'm on my Baron lowracer I'd be able to give him a run for his money. The roadie turned off the trail and took the road towards the hills of Indian Hill.

At Miamiville I rode past a couple walking their dogs (pit bulls). Two were on their leash, but one was let loose. Luckily the dog was doing a number two when we both locked eyes on each other. Then I heard the sound that I and any cyclist dreaded, the sound of an owner yelling at her dog to come back. Well I didn't wait to see how far little razor blades with legs was behind me. Two quick clicks on the shifter and an accelerated heart rate soon got me back up to 23 mph again.

I turned around just before the I-275 Bridge and met Terrence on his way back from Xenia Ohio. He called in sick from work so that he could take advantage of the warm weather. Starting his trip at around 11 AM and spending several hours to recover at his halfway point, Terrance got back to his car at Milford around 7 PM. I said goodbye to Terrence at Milford and rode on.

Taking advantage of the sloping downward grade past Milford I pressed to get my speed to around 20 mph. By this time it was pitch black and my LED flashlight was nicely illuminating the whole trail. I soon came across Michelle who also parked her car at the Bass Island parking lot. We talked about the great weather and taking every opportunity to ride. Her bike light died on her while we were only a mile away from our cars, but mine was still going strong.

Every ride is an adventure and every cyclist that I'm lucky to meet is a blessing.

First ride of the 2009 season

First night ride of the season and testing out my 900 lumens flashlight on the trail.

February 13th, 2009 was another Indian Summer. 50 degrees temperature and sunny, days like this are rare in winter. I jump at every chance to ride.

By the time I got home from work, get ready and park on the bike trail I had only 15 minutes left of sun light left. But, that doesn't stop someone that is prepared for a night ride.



The temperature dropped 10 degrees by the time I ended my ride. I was prepared in clothing as well. Lycra long riding pants, cycling short sleeve shirt, cycling long sleeve shirt and a light hooded sweater kept me warm threw out the ride. I didn't wear the hood over my head though, the helmet would get in the way.

This would be only a short 1 hour ride round trip. Being the first ride in two months I took it easy, keeping it between 13-15 mph. Parts of the trail had several trees blocking the way, casualties of a huge wind storm that came a few days earlier, leaving me with only 10% space to ride threw.

I started in Newtown, Ohio and turned around in Camp Dennison, a 14.8 miles round trip. 1 hour and 3 minutes was the time duration that read on my cycling computer.

The leaves were still off the trees and it was interesting seeing the landscape off the trail that would be hidden by the foliage. The trail also had allot of rabbits. I must of counted around 12 that I saw and 2 white tailed deer. Dust is when these creatures would usually become active. I made sure to make allot of noise to get the deer off the trail.

On the way back I noticed a yellow headlight behind me. I decided to slow down and let the cyclist catch up to me. On the way up there were about 5 cyclist, a few walkers and runners. On the way down I seemed to be the only one on the trail. It was already pitch dark, but my 900 lumens flashlight lit the trail in front of me.

The cyclist with the yellow tinted headlight caught up with me and we struck up a conversation. He just started his ride from Camp Dennison and would turn around at Newtown. He was riding a normal mountain bike and wearing nylon athletic pants and jacket. After a short side-by-side ride together he said he had to get along before his light went dead on him. He pushed his bike up to 20 miles an hour until he got to Newtown. I stayed close behind him and was amazed that he could keep it up that fast. It was about 3 miles of this speed until he reached his turning point.

It's always fun chasing someone and made the ride more interesting. We both said goodbye to each other, I reached my truck and drove home. It was a good quick ride for the new season. On my next blog I'll talk about what to bring for a night ride and hopefully have some photos of my flashlight illuminating the trail.

900 lumen flashlight under $60

In my never ending search for an affordable bike like, I came upon a website that sells LED flashlights advertised up to 1000 lumens for under $100. The company's name is DealExtreme. It's a Hong Kong based company.

I bought the Aurora AK-P7-3 SSC P7-C 900-Lumen 2-Mode LED Flashlight advertised at $50.02. The reviews say that it's not a total 900 lumens but close to around 800 lumens. 800 lumens is still allot. Plus, compared to some high end LED lights such as the SureFire E2D LED Defender (120 lumens/over $100) it's a steal.

So what do I get with this little toy:

• Seoul Semiconductors SSC P7LED emitter
• Powered by 4 x 3.6V CR123A or 2 x 18650 batteries (sold separately)
• Input voltage range: 7.2V~17V
• Maximum brightness: 900 lumens on high, 230 lumens on low (manufacturer rated)
• Maximum circuit outpet: 2800mA
• 2-mode tail cap clicky switch: Hi > Lo
• 1~1.5 hours total estimated runtime (manufacturer rated)
• Regulated driver circuitry
• Glass lens with alumium textured/OP reflector

Pros:

• Very bright (I can aim the light at a room ceiling and the reflection fills up the whole room to about the amount of a low watt bulb)
• Gives off a white light
• Aluminum body (well crafted)
• Low price for the amount of lumens
• No shipping cost
• Can use PayPal services to buy

Cons:

• From reports that I have read it gets warm after a while, but I'll be using it on my bike so it's a non issue with me.
• Shipping takes about two weeks (it's coming from China)
• Packaging is so-so (mine came in a brown envelope, flashlight in a plastic wrapping inside a paper box. The box looked like it had be crushed, but since the light is made out of aluminum it didn't suffer any damage)
• It uses very expensive/uncommon batteries (18650 or CR123A)

The length of the light is a little bit over 9 inches and the width of the lens is about 2.1 inches

The main issue I have with the flashlight is the uncommon battery size (18650 or CR123A) and price. The CR123 size is common in cameras, but at a cost of around $6-$12 for a pack of 2. I searched online to get better prices and was able to find it at cr123batteries.com for $0.92 each. I waited another week for these to arrive.

Keep in mind that on HIGH the length of run time is about 60-90 minutes. I guess that's one of the drawbacks of a hand held flashlight. Light and Motion HID ARC's battery life is hours compared to the Aurora. It's too bad that Light and Motion has discontinued the HID ARC line.

I wasn't disappointed when I first tried out my new toy. If I was in a search and rescue team, this would be the light I would have with me (plus extra batteries). The spot area was definitely above 800 lumens and the fill or flood area was bright as well. Aiming the beam at a wall 16 feet away the overall coverage was about 20-25 feet.

Two 150 LED flash lights mounted on bike above.

One 900 lumen LED flashlight mounted on bike above.

Twofish flashlight holder.

Click on the images above to get a bigger view.

360 degrees view of 900 lumen flashlight on bike from glenn m on Vimeo.

Information on how I mounted the lights to my bike is posted on my "Thursday, October 16, 2008 - Poor Man's 300 Lumens Lights". If you're looking for a very cheap way of riding in the dark, but don't have $300 lying around, don't mind the uncommon battery sizes and run time, then tryout the system that I created.

• $50 for Aurora 900 lumens LED flashlight
  
• $13 for Cycloblock (plus shipping)
• $40 for (Optional if you have a recumbent bike) TerraCycle Mount (plus shipping)

The downside is, cycling season is pretty much over, unless you're a hardcore rider that doesn't mind the wind chill hitting your face at 18 mph. Until spring, it's the bike trainer for me, because I'm not that crazy anymore to be riding in freezing temperatures.

I'm so impressed by this light that I'm thinking about getting another one for use around the house. Just last night I helped my neighbor with raking up his leaves late into the night by using my flashlight. And yes, he said "wow" when I first turned it on.