Gear Appeal

I'll be cleaning my brake surfaces on my dad's wheels. After reading an article on brake maintenance, this seems important to me. I just hope that there is not too much grime from not washing the braking surface for so long. I don't think it matters too much. No one yelled that there are dire consequences in not washing your breaking surfaces.
Carbon wheels, according to the people who make money on them, need to be cleaned often with S

imple Green type cleaner and only their pads will work. I think there is some truth to this, but time will tell if similar brake pads can be applied to all types of carbon wheels. I think this cork break pad idea will dissolve just like cork will dissolve. The article was in Road Bike Action, December 2010.

Yesterday (Christmas) I rode 22 miles to Barefoot Landing and beyond, back by Watertower Road where the scenery gets primordial and the road is really smooth. I'll go even further back into Waterplace road next time. Thanks Myrtle Beach Bike Bandits for showing me this route. Here's a map of the route.

Looking into gear ratios, there are apps for Iphone and Android that calculate gear-inches and probably spoke ratios.

Santa Envy

I miss the days of riding my bike to deliver turkeys or caviar. I delivered a turkey to the,"Pacific Mission" on Dearborn and Congress in Chicago. I probably delivered Christmas presents too. Thanks to Billy Dwyer at Accurate recruiting for hiring me to deliver Christmas peanut brittle to offices around Chicago. That was another chapter. Funnnnn! We teamed up at the velodrome in Northbrook, IL as well.

These jobs gave me rosy Santa cheeks.

I'll figure out how to do Christmassy things by bike now. Yesterday I rode 5 miles north to Books=A-Million to buy Christmas cards. Maybe I could deliver bribes to potential employers.

I bought a spoke wrench (black) to save money on trueing my wheels. There's nothing more annoying than knowing you're doing a number on your wheels because they're too much out of true. Anyone in Myrtle Beach need their wheels trued? $6 each wheel. No joke.

Money's ever tighter. Here's hoping Toys 'R Us will hire me. Maybe I can deliver something on bike with a santa costume.

Did 19 miles. Moderately windy. My speed went 24 mph for a stretch or two. Ran into Fleet. He had alot to say.

I'll be heading out on a short 20 mile bike ride the usual route. Robert Grissom to George Bishop to River Oaks. A circle to the right.
Bike = Tomossao ???
Long underwear = Chilis bottom and craft top.

Should be pretty cold but not as bad as the past couple days. 32 degrees.

My first new messenger bike was a Specialized Crossroads with a candy apple chrome red finish and a cruiser body. - memory

I want a fixed gear cycling touring bike. - new thing

Past and Future is tense

Memories will go in this section.

New Things will go in this section.

Frosty Brew/Brow or Frosty guerilla-look.

Compare this with the 2-ply fleece ones I make with artwork patterns:
But I like the ones I make better.
These cost around 2$ to make. Though there is alot of blood sweat and tears in these. I rode around Chicago and found metal objects to do rubbings of and translated them to silk screens. In some cases there was no photography or computerating involved. Ask me how. Check the "tell me more box" if you're interested.

---

Not fogetting you Critical Mass and Willow.Unfortunately, the screens and objects and balaclavas are back in Chicago. I can't get them to send them to anyone interested. Am working on it though. Check back.

Today it was cold. In Chicago it was in single digits, but here in South Carolina it was 28 degrees at the start of my ride with 11 windchill. Here's my great new balaclava.

The Balaclavas I make are 2-ply and have art made from metal objects ground into the pavement on the streets of Chicago. The larger image on the Balaclavas are a squished can found on Logan Boulevard and Sacramento. (Yeah, it's a bus stop at the Starbucks.)

Toys ('R Us) for the unemployed.

It's been record low temperatures here in Myrtle Beach. I guess the Maiers brought the cold weather.

I've ordered a balaclava, though I could have made a perfectly good one out of fleece myself. Duh. I left all my cold weather gear in Chicago... as well as my artwork that I hope to submit to a gallery or show here in Myrtle Beach.

I bought gloves for $6 at Lowe's. They're the ones dipped in PVC liquid with a ~cotton glove. They've been good today.

The latest gpx is to the unemployment office. Today I applied at Toys 'R Us as a bike assembler. (bike builder is a better term.) They want me to build bikes in 15 to 25 minutes. Wow.

Nothing to sneeze at.

So I found "Cyclopedia," in Pawley's Island. I talked for about 20 minutes with Aaron and Tom. They have some good moderately priced bike shorts.

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Another 23 miles today going north.

I have orginated an art from that involves biking. I find manhole covers and other intricate metal work to do rubbings on paper of. I am also working on doing molds of objects. They can either be direct rubbings, which just show the quality of the object, or they can be worn down objects, or they can be pieces of objects put together on the same page. The worn down object can sometimes be captured. It can have a great effect, such as this one. This is a manhole cover in Chicago that from about the 1890s and it is very worn down. Notice the star in the middle.
It is on the sidewalk. In the future, I can make a gps file with the manhole covers on them. This one is a can that is permanently squashed into the pavement.

Pleasure Cruises

Just logging two rides, both about 25 miles. Yesterday's ride was, for some reason, a flood of memories as I made it to the Starbucks on 72nd and Ocean Blvd. I was having major recall of my time as a messenger in Chicago. Almost every morning it seemed, I'd end up at Starbucks (or Intelligensia or another local cafe) waiting for a job. I'd be gambling with how much time I had. During the last couple years of messengering, this was possible because work was so slow with "standby."

Not ME!!

I also found a web site by a person doing a ride for mental illness awareness. Instead of Chicago to Washington DC, he is going around the world east to west and north to south. Here it is.

Also, I created a script and python plugin for my desktop so now I can get forecasts to plan rides.

It involves "wminfo" a dockapp, and python's script "pywapi" which is available on ohlo.

p
{
background-color:yellow;
}

I rode to the barn again, another 26 miles. I didn't mention how nice the roads are here. The pavement is smooth with little or no cracks with the exception of Depot Road in the Lowland.

The road well traveled.

27 miles to the barn. Same goal for tomorrow. Over

Return to biking

Okay, so tomorrow is back to bike. Tomorrow (11/27) should be interesting. It'll probably be a blast. 28 miles.

Time to start the training for my next tour. I want it to be about 1200 miles north to Massachusetts. I would really like to have a cause to ride for and a group to ride with. Possible causes are: Services and housing for mental illness, legislation for mental illness, better food for schools, legislation against food deserts, sustainable farming.

I plan to leave April 20th. By the time I get further north it should be warm enough there to camp out. I'll have a gps track and solar chargers ideally. They can also be charged by a regular outlet.

I'll have to start doing 40 miles a day for a while leading up to the tour. Thank you Al and Mary Lou for setting an example.

Memory Lanes

I haven't' been riding because of my unofficial short break (two weeks.) so I thought I'd post some description of past riding. Call this "memory blogging," with my most recent memory first.

My most recent significant ride was my, "Housing Task Force" Ride from the suburb of Chicago, "Arlington Heights," where the housing was proposed to Washington D.C. where we advocated for housing such as the housing we are proposing locally.

The housing we are proposing is to give people with mental illness who are living in damaging situations more independence and resources to live fuller lives. The housing has been proven to lead to more independence and more recovery. This is explained here at the Housing Task Force's Web site.
May are either homeless, or in damaging housing situations. Many people with mental illness live with their parents who might not be able to help their child anymore or in the near future. Another near epidemic is the housing of people with mental illness in nursing homes. Their is nowhere near enough housing such as what we are proposing. This will go towards creating more of a precedence for this needed treatment.

So, we rode from Arlington Heights starting May 1st until we got to Washington D.C. on May 20th. We did about 50 miles each day, one day at 25 and one day at 75. The weather cooperated and it was very windy the wrong way for the first six or seven days.



I'll be writing more about this later.
Thanks for reading,
Nate

My ideal new bike.

It's been about 5 years since I've bought a new bike. My last purchase was a Fuji Professional with carbon fork and seat stays and Dura Ace gears and such. It was a great bike. It was run over by someone who didn't like that I wove my way through the traffic stopped at the light, I'm pretty sure it was partly intentinonal. He said he didn't see me crossing right in front of his car though he knew that I had come to the light in the middle of traffic.

The bike that I've used the most is my aluminum touring bike. I've used it on about 5 shorter tours and one 1000 mile tour.

My ideal bike!
I would like a fixed gear touring bike. I'm not sure of any companies that make a fixed-gear touring bike, "out of the box." Possibly Surly or Salsa. Maybe the, "Steamroller," is an option. I need to get a little extra money for this to happen.

"Unofficial Break"

Well, I got all excited to do a blog for biking and then found that I was losing energy to ride, and the desire somewhat.

This isn't a permanent thing, but maybe about 2 weeks off the bike will give me time to recalibrate.

I have just undertaken a Vegan diet after being vegetarian for 3 years. It's been two weeks. I feel healthier, but I think I am spending so much energy learning this new paradigm, that I don't have the energy or concentration to ride. I also feel calmer.

This lack of riding will no doubt change. I did work out today for and hour and a half. I'm using body weight instead of machines with an exercise ball too.

Sincerely,
Nate

30 miles, mobile advertising.

I rode to the barn again, this time it was 30 miles trying to find another route. International road may be bikable with a good touring bike or mountain bike, but I didn't want to experiment with my dad's road bike.

Pedal Power

I found this company on Facebook and I'm trying to get in touch with them. Wish me luck.
Pedal Power

A day in the saddle.

Didn't think I'd go two days in a row? Haha. Two days of 20 miles.

Got goin' at 9:20 (about.)

Here's for day # 3.
Just for kicks, here's a gpx trace, though it's not actually a gpx file. The ride went north from VIlla Marbella (my loco) to Barefoot Landing and back.
Here's the link.
Here's the 2ndlink.

Letter in the Mail part duh.

Received a letter from Rails to Trails today. They're offering me an $18 membership with magazine and guidebook. Anyone not know what rails to trails is? I think it's a good cause. I might do it. They have 19,000 miles claimed, and have been around since 1986. Rails-to-trails Conservancy.

They also have a new website. TrailLink.com It's got a database for linking trails, duh. And google maps with landmarks and facilities on the map.

Barefoot Landing

Today I got goin' at 8:30 (really 9:30 because of the time change.) I rode 22 miles for almost 2 hours. This begs the question, "how will my riding fit in while I have a job?"

I rode to Barefoot Landing which is north out of Grande Dunes.

I'll try to do 20 miles tomorrow and the next day and then do the group ride on Sat. morning.

Riding partner for Eastern Seaboard

Hi,
I am looking for a riding partner to go from Myrtle Beach/Charleston SC, up to Massachusets. I think it's about 1200 miles. I'll be going one way. I'll be leaving on May 1st and taking probably 20 days.

BTW, I'll have to turn this into a fundraising campaign for mental illness.

Letter in the mail.

No riding today. :( Tomorrow I'll try route B to the barn in Conway. I'm concerned that the road will turn to dirt road, however today I saw that at least part of it is paved.

The letter of which I speak, is from Active Transportion Alliance in Chicago. They want me to renew my membership to their walking, biking, mass trans, "active transportation," organization. It's a great organization, though I don't know if they are too large. I like their advocacy approach.

Looking at routes for biking, as I said, I found two routes to Conway. The first one had you riding on 501. I sent a message to google about this route. 501 is not rideable because of traffic. I still have to ride on about 200 yards of it after serpentining through a covenant retirement community.

I broke my dad's wrench. One allen wrench broke off the tip on the seat. I was on primordial, "Depot Road," and I gave the wrench an extra umph and SnaP! (Spin Doctor's wrench.)

So even though not much happens on the road, there's still plenty of bike-related stuff to keep up with.
__Nate__

First round trip.

So today I felt I could make the trip there and back to the barn after making a couple one-ways. It turned out to be 54 miles total. That's the most I've done in a while. Right now I seem to be in good spirits, though at the end of the ride I was exhausted. A little embarrasing considering the mileage during the trip last summer.

I'm still not totally used to riding on these roads in Myrtle beach but hopefully time will help. According to a friend, the car/rider relations have really improved over the last 15 years.

I rode to the horse show where I watched some great riders. I missed my friend's round where she got !st. Maybe next time I'll leave earlier.

Happy trails with Paul and Jerry

Today I set out and happened to meet up with two fellow riders, Jerry and Paul. They showed me Myrtle Beach's oldest golf club, "Pine Oaks." I learned that the Texas Rangers will now run the farm team on Robert Grissom Pkwy.

We rode down R.G.P and I turned right to go on my way. Jerry (name?) told me that once you get to Conway you can ride a good 70 miles. Also, it's a 100 mile trip to Charleston, so maybe a ride to spend a night there would be good to give a try. I rode 25 miles.

I'll see if I can post GPX files on here somehow.
-Nate

Ride for supportive housing.

In the summer of '10 I did a ride to Washington D.C. to promote and educate about mental illness and "the Housing Task Force," in the CHicago area. They are proposing a housing facility needed (hopefully the first step in addressing a looming problem of housing for people with mental illness) in the northwest suburbs. Msg me with any questions, please. Also, their website is here. The blog for the trip ishere.

Pumping iron

Today I worked out. The goal is to put on a little bulk to give me a little more sprinting power. I idolize the European sprinters who seem to be able to round out their overall ability somewhat better than American sprinters. Think Robbie McEwan(Aussie) and Mark Cavendish(english), Stuart O'Grady and others.

11-01 Errand Runs

Having a mission and destination makes it easier to hop on the bike some time. Going to the post office and then taking recycling to recycling center. Maybe do GPS track to recycling center.

Trying to put rss feed on here

Trying to put rss feed on here. Maybe post rides.
Tomorrow 7:30 am I will be riding north to north Myrtle BEach and Barefoot landing to water tower road.

New Blog Entries

Hello world.
This blog is going to contain my training notes from now on. I'll just keep a journal of what, what, when, where, why from training.

Current situation:
I have gained weight, but am not obese. I have ridden a bike seriously for exercise, and oh yeah, work for about 10 years. Currently I am living in South Carolina and am able to ride all year. I did ride all year in Chicago, but that's a little different.

I always keep in the back of my mind that I am training for bike tours. That's what I'm doing.

Ride to Washington DC for Mental Illness Awareness

Time to knock on legislators' doors in Washington DC.

Me and two other people will be riding 50-60 miles a day sowing the seeds of mental illness awareness. Once we get to Washington DC we will talk with legislators about funding for mental illness housing.

Our route is at google maps. Search for Illinois to Washington DC Task Force and you should get the map.