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:
Need to know elevation profile : A lesson learned from my first tour was to reduce the first day’s mileage so I’d have some energy left to explore my destination once I got there. The route to Wimberley was about 15 miles shorter than my ride to Fredericksburg. Unfortunately, a good portion of my ride to/from Wimberley involved climbing some big hills and a few monster hills. One hill about 30 miles into the trip was so steep and long that I spent most of the climb in Zone 5 and even hit Zone 6 on my heart rate monitor. As a result I found myself, once again, pretty spent by the time I arrived at my destination.
Make it a three day tour : While reducing mileage is one strategy, another would simply be to stay two nights at my destination. A day of travel, a rest day to explore and a return ride home.
Plan tours with more notice : I got to share the ride home with my brother-in-law and nephew. Sharing the experience with others is a lot of fun. I need to provide friends and family with several weeks notice to increase the chance they can accompany me.
Several things worked really well on this tour including:
Planning the route through towns where I had lunch options, could refill my water bottle, buy drinks/snacks, etc.
Most of the roads were bicycle friendly – road like Smithson Valley and Bulverde Road had light traffic while busier roads like Hwy 3159 and Hwy 306 had large, wide shoulders.
The Mountain View Lodgewhere I stayed was incredible – a great value for the price and literally a room with a gorgeous view. The establishment was also bicycle friendly as they allowed me to keep the bike in the room with me and even offered at not additional charge a nearby, vacant room as a place to keep our bikes if we wanted more room.
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.
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:
Commuting: 2,118 (biking to work)
Training: 612 (preparing for an event)
Fitness: 158 (general fitness rides)
Recreation: 199 (easy rides with family)
Events: 96 (organized rides, special events)
Touring: 163 (overnight touring trips)
TOTAL: 3349
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).
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!
That was my sentiment today as I stared up at the overcast sky and felt a light mist fall on my face.
I’d just arrived at nearby Bullis Park and was going on a bike ride despite Mother Nature’s prescription of drizzle with temps in the mid-50’s.
My road bike is quite familiar with Bullis Park as this picturesque location is a popular starting point for a variety of fast routes characterized by rolling hills and scenes of farm animals grazing peacefully in wide-open fields.
But staring up at me this afternoon was not my Felt F75 but my Trek Valencia. I chose the Valencia because the wider tires, disc brakes, full mirror and stable handling would be perfect assets to deal with the unsavory weather.
I also made a decision to liven things up by forcing myself to do the entire ride in the big chainring.
So off I went…and wow was I impressed.
This was probably my first true “fitness ride” on the Valencia and it passed with flying colors. It was a nice change to be spinning along having a new experience on a very familiar route.
I took a quick break in “downtown” Bulverde where I find a colorful building to snap a photo or two as an interesting back drop.
Instead of feeling slow and cumbersome (the Valencia is a good 10-15lbs heavier than my road bike) on this ride, I felt comfortable and in full control. I kept my heart rate solidly in the “target zone” and 58 minutes later finished up the ride feeling energized.
The sounds of my three cats meowing and a much needed reminder from my wife ensured that I’d be making a trip yesterday to grab a new bag of our favorite cat food, Science Diet Hairball Control Light. Two of our cats are very furry and one is notorious for eating things. The “hairball control” has been a life-saver…but that’s another story!
On a whim, I decided I wanted to try and make this errand a bicycle trip versus a car trip. My Trek Valencia was ready for the task and I was pretty certain that my Topeak Explorer rack would be well-suited to handle the nearly 20lb bag of cat food.
As the crow flies, the distance to the local Petsmart store was just under three miles. My Garmin Edge 705 found a bicycle-friendly route that ended up being about 4.3 miles one-way.
Piece a cake!
90% of the ride was on neighborhood streets and about a 1/2 mile from my destination I popped out onto some big streets and did some urban riding.
Grabbed the cat food and slung it over the rack and then used a spider bungee cord over the top to keep the bag from shifting backwards on the rack.
Needless to say, the hills on the ride back were a bit more challenging with 20lbs of cat food on the bike. In the end, however, the added weight had only one true consequence –> I burned more calories.
It felt great to “bike this drive” and get in a good workout in the process. Here’s a little video of my arrival home…
During my bicycle commute home on Thursday afternoon, I rolled past the 2,000 mile mark. 2,000 miles of bicycling back and forth to work since January 1st, 2009. As a result of this milestone, I thought I’d pause and reflect for a moment.
My primary reason for bicycle commuting, as I’ve said on more than one occasion, is to maintain and improve my physical fitness. Bicycle commuting has truly made that happen. It ensures I get between 4-6 hours of cardiovascular exercise every week – exercise that’s almost never monotonous. I’ve lost about 9lbs this year and am working hard to continue that trend (with a little help by reducing my obsession with sweet tea).
While physical fitness may be my primary motivator, I simply can’t ignore the additional benefits that come from using my bicycle to commute to work 2-3 times a week:
Lower auto insurance premiums since I’m driving fewer miles in my pickup truck.
Leaving my Ford F-150 in the garage for 2,000 miles has saved me from purchasing about 154 gallons of gasoline.
Using an average gasoline price of $2.30, that’s about $350 that never left my wallet.
I’ve prevented about 1.4 tons of vehicle emissions out of the atmosphere.
These benefits are a testament to the bicycle’s efficiency as a truly viable means of transportation. Consider going on your own two-wheeled adventure to work, the grocery store, a movie, etc. – there’s a darn good chance that if you do it once, you might just find that two-wheeled, human-powered transportation becomes a healthy addiction!
During my sojourn to Fredericksburg, TX on my bike, my Trek Valencia crossed the 2,000 mile mark. I thought I’d pause and reflect on this milestone and give an update on how the bicycle is doing. I purchased the bike in December of last year.
In a nutshell, it’s doing great! The bike has really held up well despite taking a lot of punishment from the pavement. The life of an urban bike is not an easy one but the Valencia has met these challenges and continues to deliver solid performance.
Now for a little details:
Brakes: the mechanical disc brakes continue to perform confidently in all weather conditions. They do squeak a little from time to time, but I’ve never found this to be very annoying.
Frame: despite the punishment of railroad tracks, pot holes and uneven pavement, the aluminum frame looks as good as new. A small ring of metal that the front derailleur is attached to picked up some corrosion which I’ve treated – not a complete surprise given the humidity and moisture I’ve encountered along my journeys. The frame itself is corrosion free, of course.
I’ve taken the bike to the shop a couple of times for minor adjustments – most recently, I discovered a loose spoke which was easily tightened back up.
In summary, at the 2,000 mile mark the Valencia continues to demonstrate that it packs a lot of value and longevity into an urban bicycle well suited for bicycle touring, errands and of course, commuting.
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.
