Last Afternoon Ride unitl Fall

Today was an unusually cool (80) and windy day, probably the last until November. I managed a ride in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve on one of my favorite loops. Starting out at 4:30, I only saw two other riders and two hikers. Since I have been working a lot of hours over the last 6 months, my pace was pretty slow, averaging about 5 mph. Not long ago, everything was as green as the desert can get, but today it was obvious that summer is coming, flowers have almost finished blossoming and the flora is settling in for a long hot spell.

Speaking of that, when its 115 in the shade and you come across a wild burro, they show absolutely no inclination to move, no matter what. Its like they are catatonic. "Please leave me alone" is what they seem to be saying. Its really a wonder they survive the heat.

I hit the road yesterday in the late morning and cranked out 30 miles, which isn't a lot for most cyclists, but for an old guy with a bad back, being hunkered over a road bike for that long sure stiffens up the joints. Getting out on the MTB and working over and around the rock loosens it all up again. Good therapy.

For a little change of pace from Phoenix, we took a vacation to Ashland Oregon, which is usually pretty springlike in late March. This week, it has been dropping below freezing at night and reaching highs in the low 40s. In spite of the weather, Sean and I decided to ride some of the trails above town. It was snowing when we unloaded the bikes and started out. The trail we took started out at about 2500ft and climbed to around 3400ft in 2 miles. Both of us being in winter condition, we pushed the bikes a good portion of that distance. Being slippery added to the charm. Once at the top of the climb, we had an enjoyable run across some sidehills, then down a trail that was reminiscent of Little Bear at Flagstaff. The snow depth got to about 3 inches and the temp hovered around 32.

Given our poor level of condition, we had no problem keeping warm in spite of being wet and muddy. Good times

New Road Loop

Happy Valley Rod just opened up between 83rd Ave and Lake Pleasant Blvd. It actually has a bike lane. I decided to do a different loop today on the road bike, So I left the house in Sonoran Mtn Ranch and took 67th down to Happy valley, west to Lake Pleasant Blvd, up to Westwing Parkway, east to Jomax, east to 67th and back home.

It was a bit windy today and I took adantage as much as possible, averaging 22+ mph to Lake Pleasant Parkway. Unfortunately, the wind was out of the northeast and most of the way home is slightly uphill. Having a rather ample frontal area did not help. Overall the distance was 16.2 miles, and the average speed was 16.2. I'll let the math lovers figure out the average for the return trip.

Other than the wind, it was a beautiful morning for a ride, but it left me wishing I had chosen to go sailing instead.

Here we are battling the elements on Lake Pleasant a couple of weeks ago. Picture courtesy of Sean.

Good Bike Light Buy

Since there aren't a lot of good trails near my house, I have been mostly road riding just to stay in shape for the weekend MTB rides. The road riding is 5:00am, which means that its now dark when I leave and dark when I get back. I've been running a dual halogen setup with a bottle cage battery. It was cheap and continues to work well, even though it's a bit heavy.

Somewhere along the way, I saw a web page at GeoManGear.com for an LED light at $84.99. Hard to pass up, so I placed an order a week ago. I added a helmet mount for another $9.99, so with shipping it came to about $103. It arrived on Thursday and turned out to be a really good deal. I am generally impressed.

My box did not say Magicshine. It simply said "Bicycle Light." I must have received the generic version.

It was neatly packaged, just like the picture. The battery is only about 3 inches long and weighs 205 grams. The light comes in at 120 grams, so in all the setup is way lighter than my halogen set.

Note that the power cord exits toward the front instead of the back. Not sure why. I'd have taken it out toward the back. Note the mounting clip. This set uses a rubber o-ring (2 sizes included) that wraps around the handlebar or helmet mount. My first impression of that was "cheap!" Then I thought about it and two things came to mind. First, I only paid $85 for an LED light set, so it is cheap. Second, the o-ring is actually pretty heavy duty and replacements can be found at hardware and auto parts stores for almost nothing. The o-ring actually holds the light pretty firmly. Kudos to the folks who came up with that idea. It tracks well with my theory that if you can't fix something with duct tape, baling wire and rubber bands, it ain't worth owning.

The helmet mount has two velcro straps, each about a foot long. They allow you to strap it down just about any way you want. The mount stays in place. With the light, is seems a little heavy, just because it's noticeable, but it isn't a real distraction.

Performance of this set is, dollar for dollar, the best around. It puts out 900 lumens for 3 hours on a single charge. At lower levels, 500 and 200 lumens, it should be good for at least 6 hours.

Since lumens don't really make sense to anyone without a physics degree, 900 lumens doesn't seem too far off from an automobile low beam headlight. Like laser warnings, don't look into the light with your remaining good eye. This sucker will make you wish you hadn't done that. With this light mounted on your helmet, when you meet people on the trail, make it a point not to shine the light in their eyes. They'll be seeing spots for a week.

The light has 5 modes, 900, 500, 200, flashing, and SOS. Flashing is a very rapid and should get the attention of drivers. SOS mode is interesting, mainly because it doesn't spell out SOS. It actually spells out 37. It flashes 3 dots, 4 dashes, 3 dots. Close, but no cigar. Frankly, if I get into a situation where I need the SOS function, I will probably have broken the light in the crash.

FYI: SOS is ...---... 37 is ...----...

I'm not one for making recommendations, but this is an exception. If you want an LED light that works great at low cost, check it out at www.GeoManGear.com. Its well worth the price.

Not so bad after all

The final results are in from last weekend's race and I wasn't dead last. Among all beginner men, I finished 43rd out of 49. In the age appropriate category, I finished 12th out of 16. Probably the most interesting statistic (interisting statistic, isn't that an oxymoron?) was that if I finished 10 minutes faster like last year, I would have had the same place finish in my age group and would have only moved up 1 place overall. Weird.

Well, at least I finished

Somehow, I knew that 17.2 average speed on the road bike wasn't enough. I did finish the race in Flagstaff, but I was a full 10 minutes off my time from last year. And, from the posted results, I finished dead last in the over 40 beginner class. maybe next year.

Trained and as ready as I'll ever be

So I've done all the training I can do before the Absolute Bikes St. Mary's Food Bank race in Flagstaff this weekend. I was hoping beyond hope to be a little stronger than I seem to be. As noted before, my out of shape average speed on my road bike is about 15mph. Last week it was right at 16. I managed to get it up to 17.2 this morning. Tomorrow is a rest day. We're going up to Flag tomorrow afternoon so we can star gaze at Lowell Observatory tomorrow night, then race in the morning. Last year I finished the lap in 1:26:36. Probably won't beat that this time. We'll see.