This one is just too good not to share. It does a great job of capturing the essence and allure of using your bicycle as a true method of transportation.
If you’re on the fence about bicycle commuting or using your bicycle for errands and short trips, click on the “bicycle commuting” category on the right side of this page to find articles that can help you take the next step!
Rumors of my abduction by aliens were greatly exaggerated.
In all seriousness, the lack of blog updates has been a combination of an aggressive work schedule with associated travel, a bout of “the crud” which seems to be a vicious cold virus and a decent number of inclement weather days.
A “perfect storm” that has put a big dent in my saddle time.
That said, I have a lot of things in the works. Several product reviews are just around the corner, including:
In addition, I’ve signed-up to attend the League of American Bicyclists’ “League Certified Instructor (LCI)” seminar in Houston, TX. I’m looking forward to this seminar and the chance to teach cycling safety workshops later this year.
More to come folks!
I enjoy using my bicycle for small grocery store visits so when I noticed the Topeak Trolleytote I was instantly intrigued. On the outside it looks like nothing more than an egg crate strapped to my bicycle’s rear rack but in this case, looks are quite deceiving.
As I put the Trolleytote through its paces for a full review, here are some first impressions I’d like to share based on my first trip to the grocery store:
So far, I’m pretty impressed. I’ll be keeping a close eye on how well the Trolleytote can hold up to repeated use.
As a continuation of Part One, let’s take a look at two more powerful bicycle tail lights that I’m convinced will improve your visibility and contribute to your safety on the road.
The TL-LD1100 is Cateye’s top-of-the-line bicycle tail light with 10 super bright LEDs – six that point rearward (aligned in two rows of three) and two on each side.
What I like: Each row of three LEDs that face to the rear can be toggled through several settings like a) constantly on, b) flash, c) cylon mode (side-to-side display) and d) random. Choosing a different flash pattern for the top and the bottom row can yield a very eye-catching overall pattern that is sure to be noticed by motorists.
What I don’t like: This is a big damn light. I find this to be a minor drawback since this light fits perfectly on the end of my bicycle rack. That said, I could how this light might be unwieldy for someone clipping it to a backpack, clothing, etc.
The CherryBomb features a half-watt LED powered by two AAA batteries.
What I like: The flash pattern is noticeable and a variation of the popular PlanetBike Superflash design where two smaller LEDs fire before the brightest LED fires. In this case the two smaller LEDs fire from top and bottom while the more powerful LED fires immediately afterwards in the middle. In addition, this middle LED has a lens covering that tends to diffuse the light not just rearward but also to the side. I also like that this light has a reflector built-in so that if your batteries die, the reflector built-in will be picked up by headlights and still offer some visibility.
What I don’t like: At least for me, the default clip for this light had far too much of a gap for it to hook on my Topeak bicycle bags in the designated place on the rear of the bag. I solved this problem by wrapping some duct tape around the clip to “bulk it up” enough to close that gap to keep the light from flying off the bag at the first big bump.
Here is a shot of the Cateye light on the back of my Topeak Explorer bicycle rack:
At 9am on Wednesday, December 30th I rolled out of my driveway on my Trek Valencia and embarked on my second bicycle tour. My destination, Wimberley, TX, was about 50 miles northeast of my home.
I planned the route using Garmin’s Mapsource program on my PC and downloaded the route to my Garmin Edge 705 so I’d have the benefit of turn-by-turn directions. This arrangement worked flawlessly. I also successfully implemented several lessons learned from my first tour.
Like my first tour, I came away from the experience with several key “lessons learned” including:
Several things worked really well on this tour including:
The experience of this trip proved, once again, that bicycle touring is a ton of fun. It amazes me that you can travel so far on a bicycle.
Here’s a photo gallery of images from the tour providing a brief glimpse at my latest cycling adventure.
Happy New Year!
Time to reflect on my year-end total mileage and key milestones for 2009 (thanks to Garmin Connect which lets me track all of this). It has been an incredible year for my cycling! Here are some mileage totals and some key events that made 2009 an amazing journey on two wheels.
Mileage Totals:
Another way to look at this mileage is I spent 287 hours on the bicycle, climbed 137,400 feet and burned about 180,000 calories. It was the most mileage I’ve ever done in one year.
This was not a surprise since this was my first full year of using my bike to commute to/from work 2-3 days a week.
2009 was a first for this and for completing my first two bicycle tours – one to Fredericksburg, TX and another to Wimberley, TX (a full write-up of that adventure is coming soon).
Other highlights included:
A huge thanks to my family and friends for all their support and a thanks to God for his many blessings, keeping me in good health, etc.
May 2010 be a great year for you and may it see you in good health, with the love of family and friends. If you haven’t been on a bicycle in a long time, think about doing a little adventuring of your own on two wheels!
I purchased a Trek Soho S this past weekend and have managed a few short rides on it. I plan to do a comprehensive review similar to my series on the Trek Valencia.
The Trek Soho S is a single-speed bicycle which shares an almost identical frame to the Valencia – this means you’re getting a stable ride and a more relaxed, upright position – but the similarities end there. Without components
I joined my Dad for our typical “Sunday Morning Ride” for breakfast and took the Soho. My first experience on a single-speed bicycle.
But wait. I’m lying. This wasn’t my first ride on a single-speed bicycle and after just a few pedal strokes this reality came back to my mind quickly. My first single-speed bicycle was that bike I rode when I was a kid. You know, the one with the coaster brakes. There weren’t any “speeds” on that bike – you just hopped on it and started pedaling – you experienced simplicity.
When you encountered an incline or hill, you pedaled harder and you were out of the saddle if you really wanted to speed things up or if that hill was really big.
This little flashback reminded me that you can have quite an enjoyable ride experience without shifting a dozen different gears along the way.
The bike ride to breakfast proved to be much easier than I’d imagined and quite enjoyable!
I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with the new bicycle so look for that detailed review soon!
Merry Christmas!
Justin
My Recent Rides Commute By Bike In the Bike Lane