Lucinda Means Advocacy Day

Today Cindy and I participated in the League of Michigan Bicyclists annual bicycling advocacy ride and parade. Check it out here. This was the third year of the event commemorating Lucinda Means, the Executive Director of the LMB from 1997 to 2005. Her passing in 2005 is clearly considered a great loss to the Michigan bicycling community. She was said to be a tireless advocate of all forms of bicycling in Michigan, and her efforts with LMB made a tremendous difference to bicyclist in this automobile-centered state. Obviously, Cindy and I didn't arrive in Michigan soon enough to meet her.

The ride started in the morning at MSU Bikes, an important center for local bicycling and bicycle commuting activities. It's a new and, I think, still developing bike shop on the MSU campus, with a focus on rebuilding and restoring used bikes for use as every day commuters. You can bring your bike in and they'll help you repair it yourself, too.

The ride started in the morning with 20-mile ride through the rural roads south of MSU and into the areas south of Lansing where we often ride on our weekend ice cream runs. After the fun ride, there was an organized parade from MSU to the Capitol Building in Lansing, where we had lunch under a tent on the Capitol Grounds. Following lunch and a couple of short speaches and some instructions, we divided into about 10 teams and headed off to deliver LMB materials to the Legislators' offices. It was like nothing we'd done before.

To participate in the event, I took a day of vacation and we left Quinn in pre-school for a full day. We pulled the child stoker kit off the big blue Burley, and set it up so Cindy could ride in the stoker position. This was actually pretty easy. Within half an hour Tuesday night we had the bike ready for Cindy. Quinn didn't seem to mind. Aside from a couple of short test rides, it was really the first time Cindy and I had ever gotten out for a tandem ride together as captain and stoker on the same machine. In order to be sure we made the most of the opportunity, we logged more than 50 miles today on the big blue Burley.

It took me a few days to come back and add the photos from this day. We've been busy.



Cindy snapped this tractor shot on our speedy 20-mile tour south of East Lansing. This is Michigan. One thing we learned riding together is that having two adults on one bike doesn't make us any more likely to stay on course. In this short ride, we took two wrong turns, despite painted route markers on the road and a map in my jersey pocket. I think we just felt so care-free, out cranking along by ourselves, that we just forgot to think about following the route. We were also riding roads very familiar to us, so we weren't the least bit worried about losing our way.

Another interesting thing we learned was that Cindy is not comfortable with a cadence as fast as I often prefer. When we're captaining separate tandems, and riding at the same pace, I often bug Cindy (I'm sure she appreciates this) to try using a faster cadence. My reasoning is that the faster cadence seems to require less muscle effort and saves leg strength over the course of a long ride. But riding together on the Burley (with captain and stoker crank lengths of 175 and 170 mm) she didn't like my fast cadence at all! I suspect it has to do with the relative length our legs to our crank lengths. This is what I've read, and perhaps it's true. Imagine how Quinn must feel when he's back there. His cranks are shorter than the adult cranks, I think they're 125 mm, but his legs are much, much shorter than our legs. If it were an option (it's not) I'd like to try 160 mm cranks on Cindy's bike. I should measure the effective crank length on Abbey's shortened-cranks. Enough of this cranky discussion for now. Back to the ride...



After the ride, we had to wait for a while before the parade begain. We hung around at the MSU Bikes shop along the path by the river. The canoe rental has been around longer than the bike shop. That's our Burley tandem in the rack. Right in front of it is the big League of Michigan Bicyclists billboard trailer that led the Parage. "Same Roads. Same Rights. Same Rules."



Here's another nice picture of the back of my head. It's good that Cindy was taking pictures, because if it had been Quinn back there, instead of my head, the pictures would probably have focused on my butt. The ride started out on the Lansing River Trail, which is a pretty old trail that follows the river through East Lansing, through some of Lansing's industrial areas, and into downtown. We were supposed to ride two abreast, but at times that was difficult. Much of the time we rode beside the recumbent you can see in the picture above.




There were about 85 cyclists in the ride, and they were a very mixed group on all sorts of different vehicles. There were two Wiz Wheelz trikes, several recumbents, a bunch of old cruisers, new and old mountain, road, and touring bikes. Lots of commuter rigs. The thing that was missing, I think, was the classic fixed-gear or single-speed messenger bike. Lots of law enforcment bicycles from MSU and the cities. The bottom picture above is interesting also because you can see the Capitol Building, our destination, in the background. Note also that Tim, the manager of MSU Bikes, is on top of the concrete barricade taking pictures of the parade.



We had lunch on the Capitol Grounds, and they even had veggie sandwiches for us!

After the event was over, we rode back to MSU on the River Trail. The trail is really interesting because some sections are entirely made of wood, and are built out over the river as they skirt along big, old brick buildings. It's very nice, and some of sections along the river a quite pretty. However, the trail is old, and some of the wood sections are very rough. The asphalt is badly buckled in places, making sharply effective speed bumps on short intervals. It's not a path you can ride at high speed and it made us which we were riding a dual suspension mountain tandem at times.




We had left the Capitol at about 2 p.m. with our mileage at about 40. We'd skipped out on the last scheduled activity for the Event, which was to meet at 3 p.m at the Nuthouse, whatever and wherever that might be, but we needed to get Quinn at pre-school by 3:15 and Abbey at school at 3:30. Since there was road construction near the Capitol, we ended up walking the tandem for about 3 blocks between the Capitol and the River Trail, and our pace on the trail was pretty slow, so it was past 2:30 by the time we reached MSU, and we were still a long way from the pre-school. I had hoped we might have time to stop for a drink and a snack before we got Quinn, but with road construction, traffic and winding roads through the campus, and a stop for a train, we didn't reach Quinn until 3:15. We hooked up the trailer (we'd left it there when we dropped him off in the morning) and pedaled the final miles to Abbey's school. Right on time there, too, and just over 50 miles.

When we got home, we had Abbey take our picture...

Allegan Lions Pride Ride

Someone checking out Quinn's child stoker setup asked how long we could go before the kids started whining. "Oh, about 30 feet," I replied.

Because the ride started at Allegan High School at 8 a.m., about 111 miles southwest of Okemos, we got up early. Cindy got us mostly packed up during the day on Friday, so all we had to do Saturday morning was eat a quick breakfast, make some coffee for the road, load up the bikes, and leave. We were on the road by 5:45 a.m. Not bad, I thought. Quinn really needed the coffee.

Sponsored by the Allegan Lion's Club, this ride included a marked routed, monitored crossings of busy intersections, and a few rest stops with water and some snacks. There were three routes to choose from, a 25k, a 50k, and 100k. We did the 50k.

As with last weekend's ride, this route was a tour of some of Michigan's hillier, wooded terrain; this time in the Kalamazoo River drainage. It was really nice. The roads were wide and smooth with limited traffic - most of them, anyway. However the route was not laid with much consideration for bathroom stops. Unlike the big club rides we've done before, there were not port-a-potties at the rest stops, and the rest stops weren't located near parks or convenience stores. Aside from the first stop at mile 12, there was nowhere to pee but in someone's yard or field. And the second "rest stop" amounted to a guy pulled off to the side of the road with the trunk of his car open offering water to the riders. Despite having a lesser budget than the bigger rides, it was enjoyable, and the assistance at the major road crossings was much appreciated.

We didn't really get started riding until about 8:30 a.m., and it was a bit chilly with moderate west wind. I wore just a short-sleeved jersey - and shorts, of course. Abbey, however, was dressed for a chilly ride this time. On top, she wore a snug-fit long-sleeved t-shirt, a long-sleeved athletic shirt, a fleece jacket, and a nylon shell. On the bottom, she had her bike shorts, tights, and yoga pants. She was comfortably warm.

Early in the ride we rode around Allegan Lake. Abbey photographed some other riders crossing the dam. They were some of the few riders on mountain bikes.



Here's a shot of Abbey and Cindy sailing along with a favorable wind.





I'd like to get a camera mount for my front fork. Maybe even a video camera. Remember shows like the Dukes of Hazzard when they would mount the camera right behind the front wheel during a car chase?





No ice cream shops on this ride. No playgrounds either. Here we took a little off-to-the-side-of-the-road water and snack break. I think we need more frequent stops than all-adult cycling teams. More frequent in terms of distance, anyway, since it takes us so long to get from here to there.



Our route had initially taken us west of the city of Allegan on the south side of Lake Allegan, we had turned north to loop around the lake, and then come back east with wind, eventually ending up south and east of the city. As the day warmed and the clouds burned away, the westerly wind increased. Somewhere between miles 25 and 30, we were heading back towards Allegan, now to our west, and we were really struggling into the wind. Speeds were dropping into single digit miles-per-hour. Bugs and dust were getting in our eyes, and we were getting tired. We hadn't had play time off the bikes since there hadn't been any good place to stop, so the kids were showing real signs of wear. By mile 30, Abbey started getting desperate for a pee break. We had to climb a big, long hill, and the wind just kept blowing. Perhaps this was sort of the climax of the ride. Quinn had bugs in his eyes. It seemed we were nearing the breaking point. Quinn began to cry. Not sure quite what to do, we stopped again for a roadside break once we reached the crest of the hill. We finished our snacks, made some jokes, tried to be silly, and Quinn settled down. Maybe he just needed more coffee.



After the last stop, the ride was mostly downhill and fast as we returned to Allegan. We all cheered up quickly as we rode downhill, no longer directly into the wind, and the fields and pastures became neighborhoods and yards.

Until Quinn lost his shoe. We still haven't figured out how it happened. Sometimes, just for fun, Quinn likes to try to stop our pedals. I'm not quite sure how he does it, and he's not strong enough to completely stop my legs. But since our cranksets are directly linked by our timing chains, if he tries to stop the pedals, I can feel it. It's just his way of having some fun, tormenting his dad. Anyway, we were traveling along just fine when suddenly he yelled and began to cry. He yelled, "My shoe, my shoe, my shoe...!!" Sure enough, I looked back and there was no shoe on his right foot. Cindy and Abbey saw his shoe fly off and stopped to pick it up. If it had been his left shoe, I would assume that somehow it had been caught in the chain and pulled off of his foot. But it was his right shoe, which cannot get anywhere near a chain. And his shoes don't have laces. He must somehow have pulled backward on his foot and lost his shoe. He had a big grease spot on his sock, but I think the grease spot must have gotten there after we stopped and his foot reached further down, below his pedals, to the drive chain on the right side. He was pretty shaken up, and had trouble getting his crying to stop. He was very tired. But eventually he pulled together and we finished up the final mile of the ride.



We finished the ride at 12:30. We traveled 36 miles in 4 hours. Our actual riding pace was almost 12 mph, but including stops, only nine. However, our day had just begun. We stopped at Wendy's for am oily, high-calorie lunch and drove back towards Lansing. Before going home, we dropped Abbey and Cindy off at Birchfield Park for an all-day Brownie event. Abbey was about an hour late, but it lasted until 10 p.m. Quinn and I went to home to unload the bikes and gear, and then find some fresh algae and micro-organisms to feed Abbey's tadpoles. Then we cleaned up, ate a quick dinner, and went to Mrs. Black's for a piano recital. Mrs. Black, Abbey's piano teacher, had invited us over for an evening of music and desserts. I mistook it for something informal. My mistake, apparently. It was very nice, semi-formal (semi- because Quinn and I were there) and we were treated to three pieces written for two pianos (Mrs Black has two full-size grands in here living room), and one solo by Mrs. Black's long-time friend and pianist. Several local musicians as well as Mrs. Black's family and friend were there. It was wonderful. I wish Cindy and Abbey could have been there. Mrs. Black and her friend are outstanding pianists.

By the time Cindy and Abbey got home at 10 p.m., we were all beat. Well, Quinn was actually asleep by 9:45. It was a long Saturday.

Mother's Day: The Battle of Waterloo at Chelsea

The last couple of weeks we've been keeping busy with school-work, work-work, piano practice, neighborhood bike rides, whatever; trying our best to get around without the use of an engine when possible. Sometimes we use our tandems, sometimes we all ride our singles, sometimes someone runs and someone rides. Quinn's getting better at starting and stopping on his single.

By the way, a "single" is a bike with just one seat. We either go for rides on the tandems or on our singles. Makes sense to us. Quinn and Abbey and Cindy go to school on their singles. Sometimes Quinn rides in the trailer behind Cindy's single. Quinn and I took the singles to the grocery store the other night, but we almost bought too much stuff to squeeze into my pannier. I should have taken two - or the trailer. Quinn crashed twice on the way home. It was late. He was tired. He's just a little guy. At eight, Abbey is quite adept at handling her own bike. She could use one a little larger, but this one's so pretty (and new bikes cost money) that we'll just keep raising the seat. We had to get a longer seat post last year.

Back to my story - On the tandems, we've made some of the usual loops to Lake Lansing, including a couple of new extension on that route. Two weeks ago we made another run to Mason for ice cream. As a team, a group, a family, a spectacle perhaps, we are getting faster and stronger. That's important to some of us. Others are just in it for the ice cream.

Saturday, May 12, 2007. Now we're up to yesterday. We spent Saturday morning completing the installation of countertop on cast-off oak cabinets I got from work. Then we took a nice ride to Lake Lansing on the tandems. It was after that, I think, that Quinn and I took the singles to the grocery store. Abbey had gone over to Rachel's for dinner and a possible sleep over. She had a fun time at Rachel's, but decided some time late that night that she'd prefer to sleep at home. This was fine, we even kind of expected it, but it was late and she often has trouble getting to sleep, even when she's at home.

Mother's Day: The Battle of Waterloo at Chelsea. Sunday, May 13, 2007.

The plan: Ride route number 35, Chelsea Ramble, in Cari Noga's book, Road Biking Michigan. The ride starts in Chelsea, home of Jiffy Mix, and makes a hilly loop to the west through the Waterloo State Recreation Area. It looked like a nice ride on winding rolling roads through a mix of lakes, ponds, forests, and fields. Chelsea is about 40 miles southeast of Okemos. Our plan was to leave home around 9 a.m., arrive in Chelsea around 10 a.m., maybe walk around the town a little while if the temperature was still cool (it was 35 degrees this morning), leave Chelsea on the tandems by 11 a.m., finish the loop by 2 p.m. (no ice cream shops on the loop), eat lunch in Chelsea, and drive home. Simple.

Despite not getting to sleep before midnight, Abbey got up extra early so she and Quinn could fix breakfast for Cindy. They are so sweet and usually have such good intentions. I got up with them and we wrapped the gift they'd selected for Cindy. But Abbey was going on not more than six hours of sleep and we could tell she was tired and on edge.

With the kids getting up before six, it wasn't hard to get the early start we'd planned, even with a little time for the Mother's Day gift. What's an early start? It's relative, I suppose. It takes us a while to gather up all of gear, get the bikes loaded onto the van, argue a little, dish out some punishments, etc. But we did well, and left at 9 a.m., just as planned.

Too bad I forgot my biking shoes. Yup, that's right. We were 12.7 miles into the drive to Chelsea, when it occurred to me that my shoes hadn't been in my bike box, and they certainly weren't in the car. We each have a labeled box (Abbey labeled mine "the bike king") on our bike shelf in the garage in which we keep our helmets, gloves, sunglasses, shoes, and any other miscellaneous gear. In the morning, I checked the contents of each box against the list in my head as I loaded the boxes into the van. But my feet are too big. My shoes don't really fit in my box. I knew that, and even thought about it. My shoes were in the closet by the back door.

I was wearing my sandals in the morning while I loaded up the gear, and kept them on for the drive to Chelsea. I knew my shoes weren't in the box. I just needed to get them out of closet. But I didn't. At 12.7 miles, what are the options? Continue to Chelsea and do the ride in my sandals? Maybe if my bike had some kind of pedals that I could actually stand on. But Shimano SPD pedals just don't work well at all if you're not wearing shoes that clip to them. Maybe for a block or two, but not 25 miles. "Clipless" pedals clip to special cleats on bike shoes. Seems an odd name. There's an explanation, but that's one tangent on which I won't run off right now. We all use clipless pedals, except Quinn. We like them very much because you can push down and pull up on the pedals, greatly improving pedaling efficiency. Unless you forget your shoes.

I was unhappy about this oversight. I slammed on the brakes in the van, cranked the wheel to the left and skidded the van around 180 degrees at 80 mph on the M-52. I popped the clutch, punched the skinny pedal to the floor, and within seconds, we were headed back north. No, not really. It's an automatic. And if I drove like that, the bikes might come off the rack. Most people in this state do drive like that. Most people think I drive too slow.



About 26 miles and nearly an hour later, we were in exactly the same spot, heading south on M-52, but this time my bike shoes were on the floor of the van. And this time Abbey was sound asleep in her seat. Poor girl had a rough night.

We made it to Chelsea sometime around 11 a.m. We wound around the downtown area trying to figure out how to get to the village parking without turning left. Lots of no left turn signs. We found a spot, parked, and walked. It was nice. I should have taken a photo of this: cycling is so popular in this area that they have big bicycle racks right along one of the downtown streets underneath a huge map - painted on the side of a building - of the Waterloo State Recreation Area. We could read the map from across the street at the pastry shop. It was very bicycle friendly. Cyclists were everywere.

As we were getting the bikes down from the car, we could tell Abbey was still very tired, and that we were pushing our luck to attempt this ride. But the air was warming and the sun was shining. Off we went.

We had a little trouble catching the right road out of Chelsea, but we knew our road would run west and parallel to the railroad tracks once we were out of town. We just followed the tracks, crossing them, carefully, twice. The road was nice, once we were on it. A little narrow, but it was in good shape and traffic was light. As promised, the terrain was nicely rolling and the scenery was pleasant. I find rolling terrain much more enjoyable than pedaling the ruler-flat roads around lansing. We passed forests, fields, lakes, ponds, wetlands, cattails, redwinged blackbirds, hawks, and plenty of road-kill.

I started out in shorts, a short-sleeve bike jersey, and light jacket. I was immediately too hot. I took off my jacket and Abbey put it on. She gets so cold when we ride.

Unexpected park along the south edge of Cavannaugh Lake! Since it was likely the only playground we'd see, we had to stop. I'm very glad we did.







Our arrival at the lake coincided with huge mayfly hatch. They were everywhere, covering the ground, the play equipment, and us. It was wonderful! Once they figured out how harmless mayflies are, the kids liked them too. This one found Quinn's helmet.



A dragonfly found Cindy's ankle. Its wings were wrinkled - I'm not sure if it had been damaged or if it was just very newly emerged, having wings that were still hardening. I suspect the latter. We moved it to the presumed safety of a large tree. I should have known what kind it was, but often I forget some of the more import things I've learned.





After the park, we moved a little more smoothly down the road. Abbey was comfortable wearing my jacket over hers. Nonetheless, I had noticed that the 25 mile loop had an option for shortening it to a 17 mile loop, and I mentioned this to the team. To my poorly disguised dismay, they chose the short-cut. A little disgruntled, I led the way. We rode steadily with only a few stops to regroup, take in some water, and check the map. The terrain continued to roll, with some nice fast downhills. Quinn and I practiced riding in the drops with a low profile to the wind to see how fast we could go without pedaling. The hills were small and we only broke 30 mph once. Sometime around mile 13 or 14, Abbey began to perk up, and the girls started catching us on some of the climbs. The hills were fun.

I usually keep the camera in the bag on Quinn's handlbars, so it's not easy for me to get it out on the fly. Here I tried it - taking shots over my head to the rear.



This is us. Whoa... it's no wonder people gawk at us.



We had to do a little time on M-52 on the way back into Chelsea. The traffic was fast and it was a little scary, but for most of it the shoulder was the width of a full lane. As we crossed the railroad tracks coming into town we could hear a train coming. The gates started going down just as we crossed - it's good that none of our wheels got stuck!

It was an Amtrak with passengers all aboard. We pulled of into a parking lot beside the tracks to watch.



Chelsea has big clock tower.



And Jiffy.



Back in Chelsea, we wandered around again, looking for lunch. We should have tried Zou zou's, but it was mostly a coffee shop and we were hungry. The Common Grill looked a little pricey and fancy for us. So we packed up the van and headed back to Okemos.

The day went pretty well, all thing considered. We need to work on Abbey's clothing - should have had her wear her rain jacket today. Her range of temperature tolerance is quite narrow, and the wind really gets through her favorite sweater. She'd probably like wearing tights more than her yoga pants because they'd be a better wind barrier, but I'm not sure we could get her to try them. Mostly, however, she needs to get enough sleep the night before we ride.

Poor Quinn. When we pulled into the driveway at home, he tripped while getting out of the van. He banged his head on the concrete, and it shows. It doesn't show quite so much in this picture, but his eyelid and cheek are quite bruised, too.



Next weekend: Our first club ride of the season! It's already complicated with an almost conflicting girl scout outing in the afternoon that runs into the evening, as well as a casual performance/recital/party that Abbey's piano teacher is giving in the evening. We'll see how it works out.