TT biking club

“i've been riding in a pair of high top tennis shoe hikers with nobby soles. Would it be worth my time to invest in MTB shoes? Just wondered what others ride with. I don't have clip pedals, i have platform pedals with metal cleats.”

“Woohoo! Got some new pedals for teh road bike. I can move my old clipless Wellgo pedals back to my MTB :D

Just some cheap Nashbar road clipless pedals by Wellgo.”

“birch - pics....we want pics!! :=)

IJ - I would definitely recommend a pair of MTB shoes, the soles on biking shoes are a lot stiffer....better power transfer plus less strain on the bottom of your feet!
One more thing..when you get a little braver...I would also recommended a pair of clipless pedals, be prepared to take a couple of tumbles tho, till you get used to them!”

“IJ, as UPluver said, get the MTB shoes and clipless pedals, the difference is amazing.

Upluver, when I get the frmae (hopefully today) and get the bike rebuilt I will get pics...”

“What exactly is a clipless pedal? Do you mean clip pedals where shoe actually locks into the pedal?”

“IJ, thats it, you clip in but they are clipless...lol”

“clip="rat trap"

clipless="Look", "SPD" etc with cleats that lock into the special pedal.”

“Hey IJ if ya come up and hike the MRT with me and Salem on 7/23-24 I'll show ya mine :=)”

“Interesting website

Cycling Around the World”

“I had some difficulty understanding that too. I always heard the toe cages refered to as cages, not clips.”

“Upluver i'd love to but i have my dauthter that weekend. Keep me informed on other hikes though.”

“toe clips and clipless pedals is how it goes around here...

I finally decided to sell one of my bikes along with some old bike gear I no longer use. Now if I could only get to that point with my camping gear...”

“tried to true my wheel last night after replacing a spoke. I made a mess of it. Kind of like being lost, hard to know where to start. I think putting it back on the bike and adjusting it with the brakes as a guide would be a start. The truing stand gets me confused. Half the time I can't tell whether I am loosening or tightening the spoke.”

“I can make a tire look like an oval in three seconds when I try to true, its an art.”

“I put it on the bike, what a mess. I think it is a good time to do a major spoke replacement now. I'll ride the mountain bike for a few days.”

“Lol @ Pathman & birch....man can I relate!
The last time I tried to true a wheel, the guy at the bike shop just shook his head and laughed...."Just bring it to me next time and I'll fix it for ya."”

“Karo and I biked the loop at Cades Cove in the Smokies this past Saturday morning. It rained a little bit but we didn't care. There were dear everywhere grazing along with bikers everywhere biking. We had a great time and I highly recommend it.”

“Did 65 miles Saturday morning. 300 % humidity.


Ugh.


Felt good. Even denied an offer of a ride from my buddies house, up the 3 mile hill to mine. Finished it off.

Flet pretty strong at the end.

Worked outside the rest of the day digging out a pathway, laying wheelbarrow loads of of gravel and sand in the trench, and then laying irregular granite pavers.


By days end my back was GONE.


Watched the tour Saturday night without knowing how it was going to end . ...fun.”

“Maybe I was "supposed" to ride my MTB today. Hit a wood screw that just stuck in the tire, no flat. I think I would have been sunk on my road bike.”

“Did some trail riding at Scales Lake park this past weekend. Good times. Nice trails with some fast, steep downhills, couple of nice jumps that sneak up on you.

My buddy wiped out on the last day just as we were getting back to camp. Did three somersaults and landed on his shoulder. took a freakin divet out of the ground. He may have dislocated it. He's been off work last several days. One of those ones, you wish you had a camcorder for though...couldn't stop laughing till i realized he was hurt. First words were "John, go see if my bike is ok!"”

“Doing the scenic shore 150 this weekend. A nice ride up the shore of Lake Michigan”

“thought this was funny.




Most cycling skills are simple to acquire.

Want to climb better? Ride up hills, fast. Don’t eat foods that contain fats, sugars or, well, calories. Make sure you were born with lungs the size of air bags.


Want to descend better? Ride down hills, fast. Don’t eat foods that will make it back up past the lump in your throat. Make sure you were born with a brain the size of a ball bearing.



But one biking skill is agonizingly difficult to pick up. It requires hours of practice and demands iron discipline. Many riders labor for years but never attain proficiency.



I’m talking about nose blowing.



Part art, part science, nostril cleansing marks the successful practitioner as a true cyclist. The others just blow.



You’ve seen these proboscis posers. They discreetly pull a tissue from their jersey pockets and dab daintily at their nose. Or they pretend to wipe their sweaty brow on their shoulder when they’re actually honking into an armpit.



This is just wrong, people. Here, possibly for the first time in print, is the right way:



(a) Tilt head to one side of bike. When clearing left nostril, tilt head to left side. And vice versa.



(b) Clamp right thumb over right nostril with fingers slightly curled. (Well-bred riders may extend the pinky if so desired.)



(c) Forcefully exhale through left nostril. Don’t namby-pamby it, or you’ll decorate the top tube.”

“ewwww, ewker

I usually use the back of my cycling glove.

Rode in this AM, great weather 69F. Some guy grabbed my wheel and held it for 5 or so miles. Never pulled! When I turned off finally, took of with not a word. Good workout though!”

“snot rockets are the way to go!”

“except now that I read it more closely, they are doing it wrong...

a) aim head/nose to miss your shoulder...
b) press finger against side of nose opposite the nostril you want to clear...
c) ok, this one's right...a quick, forceful, BLOW!
last edited: 7/28/05 12:48:51 PM”

“twiggy, you know how to win guys over don't ya ;)”

“well I try!

:)”

“Just don't be behind someone when their snot rocket lifts off.”

“no kidding RichB!
I've caught a rocket on the Trek a couple of times (eeeewwww!) so I always check to see if anyone is behind me. Course sometimes my aim is off and I catch my own rockets, hehe...”

“(eeeewwww!)that's for sure. Good riding etiquette to check behind first. Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of that.”

“note to self: always ride ahead of twiggy”

“LOL...that should be easy to do!

It's a common practice on any ride I've ever been on, so I'm not the only one you'll have to watch out for!

:O

I do it hiking too - monkeyboy once told me that was a very "masculine" thing to do...
%]”

“I ride alone almost all the time so I never really gave much thought to this, but next time I'm on a group ride, I'll be sure I'm not within firing range of anyone.”

“I thought this was a gimme.


How else would you do it?



Its tough with the group i ride with early i the morning.

You never know what side its coming from .. . .let alone the other bodily emmissions.


One guy has a mustached and beard . . . .on cold spring mornings (35 degrees or so) everything hangs and drips and whatnot .. ..it is a mess.”

“I thought this was a gimme.
lee
9:53:49 AM
7/29/05

me too!
:)”

“on one of my last rides in the fall last year I was puking off my bike.


I had a drip of some sort going on ,. . .like allergies.

Westopped at 35 miles .. .and the coughing got the best of me all of a sudden . .right in the parking lot . .. whoooops.



Well .. then we got under way and passed two guys who tried to hang with us.


In the effort to out pace them . .. my breathng picked up .. .the coughing started up again .. .


and I let fly over my right shoulder .. . .


those guys let go of my wheel pretty quickly . ..nothing like projectile vomit at 20 mph.



We pulled over about 10 miles up the road or so . .. .I was still unsettled .. ..and just puked and puked and puked behind and HVAC unit at this building we had stopped next to.

The other guys caught up to us .. . .andgave us the hariy eyeball as thy passed by.


Afte that I was fine .. . .but had exhausted all of my fuel.”

“Had a good week. Got in all of my workouts including 33 miles yesterday.

WEEK TOTALS
Road Cycling: 87.6 miles
Time: 7h 45m 00s
Avg. Pace: 4:58/mile

Hiking: 4.0 miles
Time: 1h 00m 00s
Avg. Pace: 15:00/mile”

“From last Sunday to this Sunday

Bike = ~74.75 miles”

“not bad for a youngin' ;-)

My ride yesterday

”

“ha!

I only just started you know!

I need to get some gear though...a mile tracker do-dad, some clothes, a bottle holder, knowledge as to how to change a bike tire...etc..

Oh dear, a new habit involving gear.”

“Twinky, If someone saw you with a flat tire I am sure they would stop and help.”

“When I pass a disabled rider, I always ask if they have what they need.

Bicycling Source”

“mechanically disabled, that is.”

“I have a 25 mile loop that I do to keep in shape. If the weather agrees, I hope to pull off a century tomorrow. Last time I tried that, I blew a tire and that ended the adventure.”

“changing a tire is essential knowledge if you have a road bike - and carry the tools and spare tube(s) with you!

Some weirdo tried to pick up a friend of mine (a guy) when he had a flat. He can change a tire but didn't have his stuff with him.”

“I went for a ride the other day and right as I was pulling out of my house I noticed my seat bag wasn't on my bike (on my mtb) and I had forgotten my cellphone. Wouldn't you know it... I got a flat. Ended up walking my bike about 2 miles before a nice lady picked me up and drove me the remaining 2 miles to my house. Walking in biking shoes with clipless cleats 2 miles is hard to do.”

“I dread that DeoreDx. I carry a Road Morph pump,two slime tubes and a patch kit.”

“It's already raining on my parade. I gotta go in to work at three tomorrow. I could do the ride, but I would be totally wasted at the job.”

“I could do the ride, but I would be totally wasted at the job

I see no downside of this scenario.”