Monthly Archives: April 2011

Which Bike?

April 29, 2011   Chuck Gough   No comments

It’s been a few weeks since my last update. I have been so busy lately I have not had much time for blogging.  

I have two main bikes. I have a Redline Conquest Sport Cyclocross which I bought last year strictly so I would have a cross between a road bike and something I could also take on trails and outfit with racks and packs and use for touring. This is the bike I plan on taking on the trip. My other bike I won last fall. It is a Kona Lana Mountain Bike which had much thicker knobby tires and really more of an off road bike. 

Last night I decided to try the Lana out on a short 12 mile ride our SpinOffs group had scheduled.  I had given some though to taking the new Lana on the trip but ruled it out after the ride. With the the suspension the bike was very comfortable as far as hitting the bumps and objects on the trail, which last night were many. The trail had many sticks and junk that had been blown into it because of several days of high winds here.  The over all ride was fine.  The drive train seemed to be geared a bit different than the conquest.  It shifted smoothly and was quick to slide through the different speeds. I liked how when shifting down to a lower gear I was able to with one stroke of the thumb shift down anywhere from 1 to 4 or 5 speeds.   Shifting into a higher gears was one at a time which keeps was nice. This made it a bit easier for me to find the right gear as I hit a few of the up hill spots.

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First test ride with panniers

April 23, 2011   Tom Bilcze   No comments

Nice spring day for a ride and I headed to the Little Beaver Greenway in Leetonia. Panniers added about 35 pounds. They seem to be holding well. The ride is a little more challenging with me being in a gear lower most of the ride. I am also testing my mobile posting using Blogpress and my iPhone. This post will tell how well it works.

Tom

YouTube Video

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Casual Research or Googling…

April 22, 2011   Tom Bilcze   No comments

I’ve been doing casual research on Chuck and my journey. My definition of casual research is Googling bicycling touring, backpack camping, and bike trails. I’ve actually assembled nice list of dependable web resources that have been helping me get up to speed as a novice. I thought I would share them with folks who are considering bicycle touring.  

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Learning how to clip in the hard way

April 11, 2011   Tom Bilcze   No comments

One of the things I have wanted to do since I cycled the MS Pedal to the Point and the Hancock Horizontal Hundred last year is to switch out my caged pedals to clipless pedals. These pedals clip you to the pedal via a cleat recessed in special cycling shoes. They make you one with the bike and improve your pedaling efficiency. On the pedals we grew up with in our youth, we moved forward with every downward push. The clipless pedal moves you forward using the total circumference of your cycling motion.

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Sunday Towpath Ride

April 10, 2011   Tom Bilcze   No comments
It was a sunny Early April Sunday. We rode from Akron to Peninsula and back. it was a great ride and nice to get out in the rare sun! Jeff and his daughter joined us to Beaver Marsh where they turned back to Akron.
IMG_0104.MOV Watch on Posterous

Sent from my iPhone

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New Front Panniers and Rack

April 07, 2011   Tom Bilcze   No comments

Got the Dew Plus tuned, front rack installed and new front panniers. Getting this Dew outfitted for touring. Thanks to Andy at Blimp City for the install. the front disc brakes made his job a little harder. He has to install special brackets to get the right clearance.

Photo
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Where do we begin…

April 06, 2011   Tom Bilcze   No comments

The two basic things you need to know before you embark on any trip are where the journey starts and where the journey ends. Right now Chuck and I don’t necessarily know that; at least the detail map coordinates for our GAP and C&O ride.

I’ve spent some time researching trail sites, personal blogs and trip journals for information on trailheads and their status. An interesting thing is that this research led me back to an old dependable web resource, Yahoo Groups. I don’t use them much any more, but they are still going strong in these days of increasing social networking.

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Cycle Clinic

April 01, 2011   Chuck Gough   1 Comment

Tom emailed me about a cycling clinic where the main topic is touring. This falls right in line with one of the main reasons I got back into biking aside from the benefits of getting out.  Also since we have this trip in the planning stages I thought it will be good to go and get some extra information from folks that have been into touring for some time.  Unfortunately Tom will be in New York when the clinic is so he won’t be able to attend.

I wrote to the organizer of the clinic and asked if their may be any spots left as it is being limited to 35 places.  I also explained how a friend and myself were in the planning stages of doing a tour along the C&O Canal Way and the GAP and going from Pittsburgh to Washington DC and hopefully beyond. 

The organizer wrote back and told me that one of the speakers actually as well as himself have done the same tour only starting from DC and heading west instead of east. He also gave me a coveted spot in the clinic witch I am certainly grateful. It is pretty awesome I will get to meet and speak to a couple folks that have recently done this trip as well. I can’t think of a better clinic to have been able to attend. Looking forward to April 30th.  

Chuck

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