finally!

It's long overdue but google maps finally has bike support. You can now plan routes via bike. Thank you google!

First ride of the year

I just did my first ride of the year. My new route to work is longer this year as I moved and my commute is now longer but I feel much better at the end of the ride to/from work. I actually feel like I got a decent workout. 

And I hereby encourage all Wichita road cyclists that may stumble upon this blog to go and sign up at mapmyride.com! I use their mapmyride+ app on my iPhone and it's great! Much nicer than my cateye. Although I still use the cateye for monitoring my heart rate. But the mapmyride app does everything else including showing elevation with google maps. It's really a great app. I created a group for Wichita riders called... Wait for it... "Wichita riders". So gogogogo sign up and join the group so we can all train together and exchange rides and routes! 

Wow!

While I have no use for twitter and think it's an incredibly stupid and asinine waste of time, I was impressed by Lance Armstrong's use of it and the result!

Check out this link for his use of twitter and what happened. Very cool indeed. I am so jealous. I miss Ireland something fierce too.

Rumors of my death are GREATLY exagerated...

I realize it's been a loooong time since I posted. Life happens. I was elected master of my lodge this year so that sucked up a lot of the little free time I had. I spent my birthday and St. Patrick's day in Ireland. And my personal life has been busy lately. I always scan John's blog though every so often.
And would like to get back into joining up with John and other readers to do some rides.
My hours are horrible. I work 3pm-11pm M,T,We,F, and S. Thursday nights I have lodge at 7-9'ish.
But I would bike to lodge if people were willing to ride after I got out that late at night. :)

I am realllly needing to increase my riding. It does nothing for your figure but it's my heart I worry about. I need to keep it healthy :) So what is the current state of group rides these days?
I wish you all safe biking!! and no flats.

P.S. for those interested I have put up some of my Ireland photos if you want to take a look.
http://www.voodooland.net/~opsys/

Am I dead yet?

First I want to thank John for hosting his monthly ride. I had a really good, even if somewhat painful, time on this ride! Wind + Distance == EVIL! John is a great guy and I encourage everyone to come out and ride on future rides. I was able to see a part of wichita I had never been exposed too. I rode a route I had never been on and it was really nice scenery. I curse the Kansas wind. I curse it in every known language and even some unknown! Seriously, can we install a win break around the city? Is that really asking too much? Don't answer that. 

Thanks again John for a well spent Sunday afternoon, and a very good ride! Hopefully you handled the wind better than I did. I am pretty spent. I am too run down to move. I should make something to eat but can't get off my bed. It's so soft and cozy. I tried to get my dog to go to Walmart and get me some roast beef and bread but she just tilted her head and blinked at me. I don't think she grasps the concept of "I am dying and need sustenance". Silly dog. 

This post is a mess of rambling. I'm just wiped from the ride to and from. I will force myself to get to the store and when I get back post my stats. I forgot to start my cycle computer a few times so it didn't count a few miles but I will post those stats when I get back. 

Safety

I mentioned a few posts ago I would post an entry about bike safety and ask for opinions. I was reminded today when John posted in his entry today about averting a collision with another cyclist. Which made me remember about making my post on safety. So here are some observations of mine that you are all welcome to comment on. 

First, and I am sure it makes me look quite dorky, I have noticed I am the only cyclist I have seen in town wearing an ANSI safety vest. It's a class III mesh vest I picked up from Occulux. Made for high visibility in faster moving traffic. To me, not being seen is the #1 reason I believe cyclists are hit. That's not happening to me. I am lit up like a christmas tree with this vest. Safety Orange, 3M reflective tape stitched in, I am very visible. If you hit me, you are either blind, or staring at your floorboard looking for your dropped cellphone. In which case I am dead anyway. I realize it looks uncool zipping down the road with a bright orange safety vest on. But I am often puzzled when I see cyclist after cyclist pass me, or zip by my work wearing nothing but cycling jerseys and helmets. No one appears to be wearing safety vests. To me this seems like such a no brainer. If you don't want to get hit, BE VISIBLE. How many of you cycling have a safety vest you wear out on the road? How many of you have even thought about it? Why is something as simple and easy as wearing a lightweight mesh safety vest so unpopular? Because in my opinion it is so important to be visible and hence safer when riding.

The second thought that occurs to me is the issue of wearing earphones when biking. I admit I am guilty of jamming to my iPod when out on rides. Some have said it's ok some say it's dumb to do. My reasoning is this, if I am going to be hit by a car moving at 20 mph+ there is nothing I am going to be able to do about it. They wont honk, they will just hit me. If they saw me in time to honk they would just avoid me in the first place. If I get hit it's because they didn't see me. Which being lit up with my safety vest there are only a few cases I can see of that being the case. So I think if I am hit there will be no warning, no sound I could hear like screeching tires, I will just be plowed over. Then the driver might slam on the brakes. What say you?

Everyone have a fantastic weekend and I hope you get a chance to get out and ride!

SRAM

So I know the season has a couple of months or so left in it before I will have to put the road bike up but I was looking at new groups today. My Felt came stocked with the best parts for the money they could slap on it. However it's a mismatched pot of various components. FSA Gossamer crank, Dura Ace RD, 105 shifters etc. The group works "OK" the biggest beef I have is chain slippage more often than I would like. Uber annoying. Anyway I have been looking at SRAM since I got my bike February 14th of this year. I wanted to originally go nuts and get a Red group. But now, I just can't justify it since I am not 125 lbs and do not race for a living. The Rival group for 2009 is amazing. And I think I have decided on that group. The only change I may make is to upgrade the Rival RD to either Force or Red. I'm not sure yet. I need to do more research. If you are considering a new group for next year really look into the SRAM Rival group. It's under $1,000! And is a really nice group. Now I just need to decide on new wheels after the group and I am set. I'm thinking maybe a set of Williams Cycling 30x's. I would really like a pair of their 58's but I am too heavy for them. Maybe in a year or two.