April 24, 2009
I rode hard both ways to and from downtown Redwood City. While it was flat, there was a pretty stout head wind that I rode into. Got a few errands done. Felt strong. Feeling ready to bike the US!
Man have I come a long way. I remember how much work this was, especially for my arms, less than two short months ago. Then, I rode a touring pace.
Today, I felt like all my training came together in this one ride. My mounts were easy and consistent. The bike rode great. Inside I felt myself thanking all the people who have helped me get to this point in preparation for quite a large undertaking.
Delicious tailwind made my riding feel even stronger as I turned my pedaling up a few notches harder on a straight away on the way home |
3.43mi Bike Bridge here 3.61mi Made left here to avoid light on Middlefield 8.24mi Cut through ofc complex here 9.60mi Underpass ahead of me was the first hill I hit on the Eagle almost two months ago. Then is forced me to dismount. This time it was so easy I took photos of it ... 9.83mi Whole Foods food and drink replenishments 12.83mi Enter neighborhood with no sidewalks and tons of shade trees - little traffic 13.53mi Delicious tailwind made my riding feel even stronger as I turned my pedaling up a few notches harder 16.29mi Apple Store - talk about upgrading to 3g so I can GPS on my iPhone so I can track the route I take across the US. Found out that I can sell my first generation iPhone for more than what it costs to buy a new one!! Whoaaaa.... 18.26mi Post office 18.56mi Country Sun buy dinner items End 20.26mi |
What the underpasss looks like from the bottom......
Light Limited for 17 | 4-23-09
Ahead here are the Palo Alto foothills as seen from Foothill Expwy
Could have gotten more miles (it started getting dark) if I had spent a little less time at the bike shop and if I had left at 5 instead of 5:30. Lots of thinking about all the what ifs of my upcoming ride
Pedaled entire length of San Antonio Road again today. This is noteworthy because at several miles in length, it pitches down at 2 to 3 per cent and was a stretch of road I could use to rest my tired legs by draping them over the front steer tube...... |
2.26mi PO BOX 2.72mi< Cardinal Bike - Bought New bike gloves! Jeff Kistler suggested I park my other HiWheel at Molly Stones with a sign on it explaining my lost sponsor and ask people to send me money or contact me 7.23mi All Hill - got pretty steep at the end 10.86mi Needed a bigger hill even tho most of what I rode after Allied Arts was rolling 11.09mi Turned around at top 12.09mi Saw a deer here (arastradero) going back & forth on road no too far from oncoming cars - such a beautiful animal - I felt so bad for him 15.36mi Grocery Stop End 17.26mi |
April 22, 2009
Errands, Hills, 360s for 26 miles - 4-22-09
This must have been a spectacular way to get to the coast
Used a lot of today getting our San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley receptions together. Also answered a ton of questions for the Palo Alto Daily News that is doing a story about our lost sponsorship and how the community is coming together to help make our ride real. Here is one answer that explains why I am not feeling so desperate about money right now:
| I have collected $800 so far enough for a week worth of motor home and won't be needing (the support vehicle) until I reach the base of the Sierras come 5/11. I figure that once we can give face to the operation as it pulls the Busycle and supports my ride over the mountains and we give our first demonstration ride with the Busycle in Reno on 5/14 that people will want to help me get through the Loneliest Hwy to Salt Lake City on 5/25. By the time we get thru the challenge of the Rockies, 6/6. with all the press and attention we will have collected, we should be solvent for the rest of the ride. On a separate note, it should be mentioned that I have the honor of riding the Eagle across America as this is one of the only bikes like this that can do the job and not collect dust in a museum. This was offered to me because of my story and all of the experience I have had riding Hi!! |
The day's ride began witth the discovery of a broken spoke. I called Jim Spillane because the one (really two spokes shaped in a 'V') he sent me was too long. And it was very important that he and I talked. It broke not so much because I've been bouning on the pedals the last few days when I get out of the saddle, but because I've been running the tension too tight. Whooaaa, he said they can be so loose that you can touch two of them together! I can even have as many as 12 broken spokes, four per quadrant, before it becomes a danger. He is going to replace it after I send him the one that broke.
We also talked about suaging. The steer tube and tube that connects it to the rear axle were sauged for strength and for spring. To achieve this a tube is compressed in a taper out to the ends so that its diameter is increasingly smaller. Back in the day, that is how they made tubes strong. Today, engineers can just use different material to gain strenght and/or more spring .....
As for my ride, I mounted in front of my house as I rolled down the same curb that had once thrown me off the back of the bike the first time I tried getting on. I then did the errands you see in the map notes below and then headed for the hills. The captions for the pictures explain some of what I saw.
On the way off the Arastradero downhill, I started to feel like a downhill ski racer where I was out of control, totally at the mercy of God as I did the "welding myself to the bike prayer" you've seen me talk about in here. I also looked for uphill work and, for example, pedaled up the busier Page Mill from the freeway to Foothill instead of taking the more serene and muchh easier Old Page Mill that runs below it. I also pedaled all of San Antonio which pitches down for about 2 miles at a 2 or 3 per cent grade. When I first got the Eagle, I used to do it with my legs over the bars because I needed the rest.
It is common to see pacelines like this on busy Alpine Rd
Talk about share the road, Alpine carries lots of cars
Route
1.69mi Bank - deposit 6.5 days on the road worth of checks!
2.20mi Post office
2.88mi Cardinal Bike - figure out what kind of shoe is similar to my tired Carnacx for the Eagle
4.96mi Stop at North Face - find out butpak with large water bladder got discontinued
5.22mi Did a handful of 360 degree turns inside of a regular crosswalk!!
5.65mi Enter a tree shaded epic road along creek
6.20mi Allied Arts located here
6.47mi Bike Br to Stanford here I did not turn left to go to it
7.80mi Hills begin
12.79mi Sign warns that road is closed
12.88mi Hill steepens
13.24mi up & down riding
18.40mi Opted for hill work here
24.43mi Whole Foods
26.32mi
Some of the horses of Arastradero
April 21, 2009
Eagle Shadow Ride 4-21-09
The Long and Unusual shadow I cast
We are in a heat wave right now with temps in the 80's & 90's. So with my 4PM start, I felt myself visualizing some of the heat, especially on Nevada's Loneliest Hwy, that I am going to be hard pressed to avoid. The last few days have shown me that I need to be able to carry more water. Tomorrow, I will get over to North Face and see what they have that I can wear around my waist again. I dropped that ball over the winter.
As for quiting at 19, I wanted to get back to the fires that are burning here for the ride and there is so much to do with only 11 days left. As such, I focused on quality miles (hill work) but a few less of them. I was still out for 2 and 1/2 hours...
Route
0ft
4.20mi - Chose to go over the hill instead of under it
6.81mi - Almost got it but a car passed breaking my concentration just as my heel struck the pedal arm which is still a wee bit twisted
9.62mi - Turned around after climbing hill
13.83mi - Steep little pitch with lots of 5Pm traffic passing me forced a dismount - almost made it - had to walk 10 feet before I got back on
14.29mi - Got going to fast so like turnouts for trucks I made a right turn on this little court to slow down, I had entered this descent with my feet over the steer tube. Should have stayed on pedals c-o stop at bottom. My brake got so hot I c/feel its heat on my calf!
16.03mi - Enter bike path
717.25mi - W Foods
19.25mi
That shadow (with legs over the steer tube) as it rolls off the back of Arastradero
Main Sponsor Pulls Plug - Help Save Ride to Boston!!
First Posted: 4-14-09
Last week, and, in hindsight I could feel it coming for months because their business was off the mark, the Main Sponsor for my ride pulled the plug. The quarterly payment that I got from them for web work and soon the advertising exposure they would have gotten for helping the two most photographed vehicles in the world get from one coast to the other, fell victim to bad economic times. It was this money that I had planned on using to get me out of the gate come May 3.
Nor can I feel at all mad at them. When the orders were not coming in, they had to figure out some way to keep themselves fed. Nor do I know what more I could have done. I moved forward in good faith finishing my book, learning this backwards HiWheel so I could pedal the mountains, and even though we barely broke even, holding fund raisers so we could maybe actualize some of the bigger dreams I had for this ride.
Instead of using this month of April trying to add a few sponsors so I could buy some needed supplies in addition to the motor home I had planned to rent to blog and stay in touch with Mayor's office from, sag my ride and get the Busycle back to Boston, I am finding myself starting from scratch. Besides dollars, I also lost my sponsor's office support, so I will have to build two crews in three weeks time - one for the road and one for here at home.
Do I crawl in a hole and throw the last six years away? Or do I look for new ways to make all of this real? I suspect that those of you who have read my book, "Awake Again", know the answer. I was up against a lot tougher odds in rebuilding my broken body, mind and the world I had created then. So, just as I got better from my setback by listening for God's voice, I am doing the same thing now. And it does seem that a Bigger Power is saying that I need to come before my community of friends for help. Here is how:
If you are a business For a three month motor home or camper truck and car trailer rental, you can have your name associated with the most photographed bicycle and human powered machine (the Busycle) in the world. We estimate that coast at $15K. Your name will appear on my jersey, on the Busycle and at our web site as the Main Sponsor of our ride. Details if you contact me at hiwheeler@gmail.com or 415-240-4712
If you want an even bigger presence at this ride, your business name can be silkscreened on to my helmet visor, front handlebar pack, the side panels of my biking shorts, on my buttpak or on to the side panniers I am thinking about running. Heck you can even sponsor one of the chapters in my on-line book.
Sponsor a day (or more!) on the road - for $100 you can keep us fed and pay the daily cost of fuel and motor home rental - in exchange you will be listed as a Day Sponsor at the main page for our 7th Annual National Mayors' Ride http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide2009 . You will also get free on line copies of "Awake Again" and "How America can Bike and Grow Rich, The National Bicycle Greenway Manifesto".
Loan us your motor home, camper truck or bus - our first most important need is for a vehicle that at least one other (a driver) can sleep in that is also strong enough to tow the Busycle from San Francisco to Boston. Kitchen, toilet and shower facilities are also a must! Not crucial, but it would be great if we could also sleep a blogger and a publicist!
Surely there is someone out there with undecided vacation plans who might like to lend us both his or her vehicle and services or has a motor home, camper truck or bus that is moving very little due to the high coast of fuel (for which we are building a war chest). And yet there again, there just might be such a truck that needs to be delivered to the east coast and can wait until August 3rd for it to be there.
Sponsor an NBG Day - at the above link, you will see the 25 cities we are visiting. You can adopt one of them, like Angle Tech Cycles has done for Denver, for $500!
Donate via Payl Pal - to NBG@bikeroute.com (nonprofit ID 770344732)
For tax purposes - National Bicycle Greenway is a 501c3 nonprofit, our ID is 770344732
Help me make this a people's ride. Contact me at 415-240-4712 or hiwheeler@gmail.com
THX 4 all of U!!
btw: Join the May 3rd festive ride from Palo Alto to San Francisco
btw2: In case U missed it, here is the Palo Alto Weekly article
--
Perfect love drives out fear - John 4:18
Martin Krieg "Awake Again" Author
2009 w/"How America Can Bike & Grow Rich"
http://www.bikeroute.com/HBGR
'79 & '86 TransAmerica Bike Rides
Coma, Paralysis, Clinical Death Survivor
NBG Founding Director, HiWheel Cyclist
April 20, 2009
Sponsor Idea Breakthrough & Eagle Training
Did a lot of logistical work with the Mayors' Ride today. As well as a lot meditation work on how to go about getting a vehicle for our ride and I think it all began to gel as I brought it into today's training ride.
Seems I can get to as far as Folsom without a support vehicle on this Eagle that is not outfitted for cycle touring. And even that leaves the question of the Busycle out of the equation. So that means we do need a truck of some sort after all. Toward that end, we can rent a motorhome that will do the job for 9,500 to 12,000 dollars. Which was the plan all along even though I was putting out for something far more grandiose. Remember the bio-diesel bus?
One small detail though. We don't have a sponsor to foot that bill any longer, And then it dawned on me as I was putting out for guidance. Since I will be riding the most photographed bicycle in the world and will be much in the press as I meet and exchange with 25 different Mayor's offices, why not wear the name of a business that would benefit from such exposure? Surely there is such a purveyor that would like to be as part of the history we will be making and excitement we will be generating from one coast to the other,
I mean how can we not? With the 15 person Busycle, my book and the 1891 Eagle traveling across America the first time since 1891, there are many angles around which newscasters will be very interested..
Gotta work it!! Per diem money is coming in steadily!! Yahoo. See http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide2009 to get a look at who is helping. And now we gotta get a sponsor so we can get that bus!! Whoever it is that takes on this opportunity, and that is what it truly is, will find that their $15,000 investment to be the main sponsor of this ride will be the best expenditure they will have ever made.
Let me know if you are interested. I had wanted to keep the jersey space for BikeRoute.com, but that is out of the question with only 13 days to go. Let me know if you can help!!
btw: Tom Ayres, PhD, is not only escorting me from Berkeley to Napa on the first day east but he also just bought a day on the road!! Join us at http://www.pingg.com/events/ZQZ0mzv-zZ0ft/view
btw2: Former Palo Alto Mayor, Yoriko Kishimoto, a bicycle powerhouse who is soon running for assembly, is not only ridingf with us from Palo Alto to San Francisco on SDunday May 3, but she just also bought 2 days on the road! Join us at: http://www.pingg.com/rsvp/t28r652g2st4tgj8q
Here is my route today: http://www.bikeroute.com/BRdC/routeViewer.php?routeid=192
In Menlo Park, this sign directs you to the Bike Br that goes to Stanford
Also in Menlo Park, this sign sends you to Allied Arts, a former art colony where John Steinbeck did a lot of his work
Notes
1 1.59mi Post Office
2 3.18mi Beaten by the last 5 feet of this small hill where it turns to the right. Tied it three times. Twice my feet slipped out of the pedals. Last time one foot was barely hanging on. I noticed earlier that my right pedal is slightly twisted - and this was the foot that slipped all three times....
3 4.01mi Had to do the Hanover hill to get my confidence back. Also remembered to bounce up and down as I got out of the saddle. Hadn't subconsciously wanted to do that for fear of breaking the bike. But it did seem like a light touch!! Way easier. Feeling springy - lively!!!
4 4.86mi Went this way to get a hill
5 7.29mi Missed the light so did :U-turn at first hole in island
6 10.32mi Missed light again. Even more cars. So make right and too many cars coming toward me to make U turn so turn left
7 12.54mi Trader Joes eat dinner items outside on sidewalk chair
8 13.45mi Site of tree that Palo Alto is named after, Tall Tree in Spanish
9 13.70mi Park Path
10 15.69mi Molly stones Pit Stop - 92 plus degrees today
11 17.61mi Since it was dusk, I determined that El Camino would be doable. It was.....
12 18.44mi Missed light.....
13 18.52mi Cut through restaurant parking lots here
14 18.73mi Whole foods for puffed millet, rice milk and Tejava ice tea
15 19.72mi Wilkie way Bike br - too a few pics - see how they come out as a little dark......
End 21.02mi
I finished in the dark. Here on the Wilkie Way Bike Br, these trees I am heading into are at eye level.......
April 19, 2009
The photo that opens today is of Manzanita Rd in Woodside. With beauty like this right out our back door, it is this that needs to be more seen and known about so more cyclists will get out and explore.
Rode The Loop again today to the Woodside Store and back. Saw Paul Goldstein, as per the map notes below.
I also made friends with Kristen from Bend, OR. Kristen Dunkelberger bicycled the outback of Australia!
As you can see above at the bottom right, I cast a long shadow here on Sand Hill
Above is what the freeway overpass that leads over 1-280 and into the epic hills looks like.
The ride ended for me at the Farmers Mkt
In all it was 26 miles at this SITE
0.47mi With 7AM Start thought I'd "sightsee" on El Camino Real - a road I rarely use being w/o a car
3.80mi Lots of closed car dealerships here
4.50mi Enter quaint Menlo Park biz district
4.84mi Leave quaint Menlo Park biz district
6.29mi Enter smaller quaint Menlo Park biz district
6.95mi Begin moderate climb here
8.96mi Climbing gets steeper
9.42mi Fun Down hill begins
9.89mi Turn off of downhill here
10.17mi Stayed in saddle for this 8-10 per cent climb
10.55mi Steepr pitch ends but still ascending
11.19mi Cut thru prkg lot
11.40mi Woodeside Store - no stop
11.78mi Easy Turn to miss
13.05mi Turn here puts you on steep ascent - prob 12 to 14 per cent. I also turned rightin front of Paul Goldstein, Mr Bicycle Infrastructure of Palo Alto. We talked about my ride for a short bit. He then watched me do a legs over downhill
16.93mi Run up with Kristen from Bend OR who asked me about my bike - start riding with her so we could visit
18.28mi Stop and take pix of Kristen when I found out she is a big adventurer who has biked across outback of Australia and is getting ready to hike Pacific Crest trail
20.89mi Descide to show this road to Kristen since she is not from here
23.94mi Ride Kristen to Famers Mkt where she was to meet a friend
24.02mi Take snack break at Country Sun as jazz band played in background
End 26.06mi