Archive for the ‘Recumbent Community’ Category
General Bicycling Posts Moving to FOBB
Visit The Recumbent Blog to keep updated on Recumbent cycling, it’s an excellent blog and beautifully done.
FOBB will be the new home for my posts that are not recumbent specific. I’ll still be talking mostly about touring gear and touring but if the post isn’t just for Recumbent Riders it will be on FOBB. I will still be doing some Recumbent Posts but I expect FOBB to be busier this summer than eBent.
This first FOBB post, Hello World, explains what I will be doing with FOBB. FOBB reflects my evolution as a rider. At 65 I am riding more in areas I know and integrating cycling more into my life.
It is a bitter sweet thing to embrace change but for now, my Ryan and Slipstream are hanging in the garage. I am getting rid of my other recumbents, BikeE and Sat-R Day, the giant shipping case for the Slipstream, and the 2 recumbent bike rack. However, this year I am planning more tours and revisiting some of my first tours.
My body will tell me when it is time to go back to a recumbent or maybe get a Trike. But for now my new LHT has brought the fun back to cycling for me.
Where has eBent Been?
The good news is that eBent/Roland is doing really well. He’s lost 50 pounds and is cycling more than ever. The bad news is that after losing 50 pounds he’s gone back to the dark side and is riding a diamond frame again and loving it.
I was burnt out on recumbent cycling and riding the diamond frame has reignited my interest. Riding is fun again. We all need change to keep the fun in cycling alive. I purchased a Surly Long Haul Trucker and am planning Spring and Summer tours now.
Hope everyone had a great Holliday and is looking forward to spring riding. Right now I am on the elliptical machine at the gym and trying to stay in shape.
I am in a bit of a quandary on what to do with eBent. I want to keep talking about touring and bicycling but don’t feel comfortable talking about recumbent cycling if I am not riding a recumbent. I do have over 10 years of recumbent touring experience that I enjoy sharing but it feels less fresh every day. I am thinking of taking eBent in a more general Touring direction. I still have 5 recumbent bicycle 2 Ryan Vanguards, a Longbikes Slipstream, a Bike Friday Sat-R Day and a BikeE Fx and expect to keep some but not all of them. So Recumbent cycling still has a special place in my heart.
Seacoast Tour de Forts
Seacoast Tour de Forts
Sunday, October 04, 2009 @ 9:00 AM local time
Great Island Common
301 Wentworth Road (Rt. 1-B) New Castle, NH
Address
Great Island Common
301 Wentworth Road (Rt. 1-B)
Fees
25.00
Brief Description
Do you wish to pedal less, see more, and learn a lot about the waterfront? How about a leisurely and supported 18 mile bike ride with time to walk around inside the forts and have someone explain some interesting history of the Portsmouth Harbor area? Check-in and bike checks stars at 9:00 AM; tour leaves the Common at 10:00 AM.
Directions
From the Portsmouth NH area, take Route 1-B to New Castle Island. Great Island Common is on the waterfront, north of Wentworth by the Sea and south of Fort Constitution.
Additional Information
The route goes from New Castle Island NH to Gerrish Island ME and back. It is planned to be easy for families and casual cyclists. We will bike from fort to fort with time to walk and explore each location. Several “history buffs” will present some fascinating facts along the way. Valet bike parking service will guard your bikes while touring the forts. Water and snack items will be provided and emergency bicycle repair service will be rendered by Bicycle Bob’s Bike Shop of Portsmouth.
More Information
Bicycling and Weight Loss Part III – Gaining Control
Lose It - Free iPhone App
continued from Bicycling and Weight Loss Part II – Understanding
I knew I had a problem with eating but didn’t know what to do. Diets didn’t seem to help. I just felt out of control and helpless. I seemed to eat just like everyone else I know.
Lose It Weight Graph
My Doctor suggested a Food Diary. “Just write down everything you eat and all will become obvious” he said. I did and everything didn’t seem obvious because I still had no easy way to covert what I ate to calories and compare that to what I should be eating. My food diary was a chore not a tool and quickly fell into disuse.
Road Id
Road Id Elite
If you watched the Tour de France this year you saw all of the announcers wearing the new Road Id Elite bracelets. I thought they looked great. I have always liked the idea of wearing something with contact information in case of an accident. But just didn’t like the looks of the original Road Id so I put an orange tag on my bike with contact information.
My wife gave me a new yellow Road Id Elite for my birthday and I love it.
Bicycling and Weight Loss Part II – Understanding
continued from: Bicycling and Weight Loss Part I – Overview
Last January my weight was up, my blood pressure was too high, and my hip hurt a lot. I later found out that the hip problem I’d been chasing for 2 years was really a back problem. I realized it was no coincidence I had all of these problems, I was too fat and my body was doing the best it could to compensate and tell me it was time to change.
I knew I was eating too much but dieting had never really worked for me. I tried the South Beach Diet several times, my wife’s favorite, but never really had much success. I’d lose 10 or 20 pounds but would have them back as soon as I stopped. There was always a stop because I got tired of feeling deprived.
I was dieting but not learning anything about why my weight out of control. All I knew was if I dieted I lost weight and when I stopped I got the weight back plus some. My Doctor suggested a Food Diary. That made sense and I started just writing down what I was eating.
One thing became immediately obvious, my portion sizes were way too large. Since I cook that was easy to fix. But cutting back on portion size left me unsatisfied. I was used to eating until I felt full.
Discovery 1: Eat more slowly and stop when you are no longer hungry. Don’t keep eating until you feel full.
When I ran across this thought it seemed so obvious. Why had I never realized that I didn’t have to eat everything and leave the table feeling stuffed? I know I can blame my poor Mother but really thoughtless behavior is all my fault but I can do better. A Dutch track coach I met cycling said it very well, “Don’t eat like a pig; eat like a person”. What he meant I am sure is stop eating when you stop feeling hungry.
Ok, I cut back portion sizes and stopped when I no longer felt hungry. But I didn’t feel satisfied with my food. I’d bicycled a bit in Europe and remembered how I felt after meals in France and Italy. The serving sizes had been small by American standards but they were so full of flavor that I left the table feeling satisfied. I’d been searching for quite a while on how to replicate that experience at home. But I found French techniques way to complicated for my schedule and the fresh ingredients hard to get.
Somewhere in my reading I ran across a theory that might explain why I felt so unsatisfied with my cooking and most restaurant food. The premise I kept finding is that American food flavoring is based around a powerful combination of fat, sugar and salt that is almost addictive. That food triad stimulates us in a way that makes us eat more while hiding the true flavor of food with a flavor that is powerful and seductive but not healthy in excess. I don’t know if the triad of sugar, fat, and salt really changes our brain chemistry as some claim but I do know I was addicted. I needed lots of salt, sugar, and fat in my food to enjoy it.
I knew I had to stop adding salt to my food, but did not want to start using sugar substitutes again. They just seemed to make me hungry.
continued Bicycling and Weight Loss Part III – Gaining Control
Bicycling and Weight Loss Part I – Overview
It is coming to the end of Bicycle Touring season in New Hampshire. The nights are cold and it time to be thinking of great day rides with crystal clear skies, low humidity, no bugs, and soon colorful leaves. It is also a good time to reflect on this year’s cycling.
My major accomplishment this year was losing 45 pounds without dieting. It is an an accomplishment that I am very proud of and that has made my life better.
I have been riding high milage for years but this was the first year I lost much weight. The weight loss didn’t happen with no changes. In the next few posts I’ll take your through what I did differently this year that I believe has made me healthier and stronger and made those changes sustainable. I claim no expertise so please fill free to jump in and straighten me out when I go astray. I also believe in few things but I am strong believer in the “The Laws of Thermodynamics” and the use of “feedback” in control systems.
The things I did differently that helped me lose weight:
1. I did not diet
2. I did watch my intake and use of energy
3. I changed the way I eat
4. Oolong Tea [Please don't jump to those crazy Oolong weight loss ads on the net and spend a lot of money]
I’ll explain each of these in future posts. There isn’t much new or different here, maybe one thing, but some simple changes have helped me changed my life. I want to share them with you because often the simplest lessons are the hardest to learn and the ones we have to keep relearning.
Posting fron the Road
Checking out the new Word Press iPhone / iPod Touch app. This is my first on the road post from my iPod Touch.
I carried a laptop a few times on tours and hated it. In Croatia I tried posting at Internet Cafes but the different keyboard set up drove me crazy.
Posting from the iPod Touch isn’t as easy as my iMac but a lot nicer than carrying a laptop. This is hard to beat for bike tours, a lot nicer than a netbook if you can find a WiFi connection. I love my iPod Touch my all time favorite computer.
In Boston maybe the worst bicycling city in the USA
Longbikes Customer Service … Outstanding!!!
Wow … I am impressed. I called last night because I need new idler mounting hardware after stripping off the TerraCycle Idlers. Greg Peek answered the phone and was so helpful … it was amazing. He is putting together a package of parts and shipping to me. This is outstanding support.
Most bike manufacturers are just interested in building and selling new bikes but Greg is addicted to excellence. He really takes the time to support existing customers. Kudos Greg!!!
LCI Certification – Teach Cycling
Cycling Instructor Training
My belief is that the best thing we can do to make the roads safer is to get more folks out cycling so drivers get used to looking for cyclists. Data shows that as the number of cyclists and pedestrians increase the accident rate decreases. Here’s a way to help, Teach Cycling.
The week before the Maine Bike Festival the League of American Cyclist will be conduct and CI Certification Course in Fryeburg. These don’t happen very often in Northern New England so if you would like to participate sign up right away.
Here are the details:
| Jul 8 Seminar |
Fryberg, ME Wed-Fri, Jul 8-10, 2009 Contact: Charley LaFlamme, 207-646-0635 Seminar signup |
Course Description
Becoming a League Cycling Instructor (LCI) certified to teach BikeEd is a great way to help cyclists in your community. Certified instructors can teach BikeEd classes to children as well as adults. Help bring the joy of safe cycling to others. If you are an experienced cyclist and would like to teach others please consider taking the next step towards certification. Road I is a prerequisite for a certification seminar. Instructors are trained at seminars held periodically throughout the year.
