Backwards HiWheel SF to Salt Lake Ride (begins with Eagle Training Blog)

Reaction to Martin Krieg ending his ride

2009-09-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

Here is some of the reaction I have received on Facebook not to mention the words I regularly still (as of 9-13-09) hear in person, on the phone or even in Twitter:

I was so sad and shocked to hear that you had to turn back. If you couldn’t make it this year, no one could. All my best wishes and hope for next year. You are doing a great thing to help green our transportation. - Alix

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Well it wasn't for lack of effort. You can use this experience to come back better and stronger next year..........
Greg

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Hi Martin, sorry to hear your trip is ending. I still do not understand. You made it through all those obstacles. It sounds like to stop is causing more problems than if you continued. And starting, stopping and starting to go on and finish would be more drama for the reader. But what ever you do, I support you. You have already done more than I ever could have done! Best regards
Shawn

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I am glad that you are back. From your brief report it seems like it was very hard and best choice to return. I look forward to cheering your endeavors on. I am also cheering all the work you did this year and ride.
Carla

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So sorry to hear the news - you have shown a great deal of courage and I look forward to supporting your work in the coming year.
Rick
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Martin, Glad to hear you are well, and that you are thinking clearly enough to scale back instead of trying to persist. Riding from SF to SLC on your reverse hiwheel without a SAG wagon or domestiques is an incredible feat.
Tom
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Sorry to see the ride end. Best of luck for next year! and thanks for the updates. I enjoyed following your journey!
James
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Sorry hear about the end of your ride. [....] Questions and sympathy,
Paul
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Excellent, Martin.
You did a great job and learned as we all must, by trying, giving our best efforts and reaching beyond the known.
Gail
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Martin, you are a hero! Persistence is the number one requirement of a winner! Thanks so much for your journey.
Mary Ann
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I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties you encountered, but I think you made the right choice in postponing the ride until you have all the support you will need to help you reach your goal. This was a good trial run and a great learning experience.
Lori
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We love your guts, Martin. I wouldn't ride that contraption out of the parking lot, and you got it all the way to Salt Lake City. Now to help you recruit a bunch of volunteer Sherpas -- to help out in 2010!
John Schubert
Former “Bicycling” Editor
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Awesome getting to Salt Lake City! So how many miles did you end up with?
Barry

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Martin, Congratulations on setting the modern distance record on an Eagle self contained tour! The space program did not make it to the moon on the first Mercury launch either. Time to rest up and regroup for 2010.
Tom

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You are an amazing man willing to take on amazing challenges. You r courage and spirit are truly an inspiration to all of us. Watch out in 2010!
Ron

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I'm sorry it ended in disappointment for you but I'm looking forward to seeing you back on the streets of Palo Alto soon. Safe journey home and look forward to 2010. I was in western Nevada during some of those storms.... not nice.
Karen

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Martin, I'm sorry to hear about the end of the ride. You gave it a great shot at long odds. Hope to see you back in Palo Alto sometime
Will

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Oh Martin, I am so sorry. Hang in there, what you did already is amazing, focus on the accomplishment!
Kristen

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I am sorry too. As important as your message is, I think the populace just doesn't appreciate your effort...when in actuality our lives would be better if you accomplished your goal/trip.
Bill

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Oh no! We were going to try to see you in Chicago. I'm so sorry....
Karen

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I do think about you and your epic journey everyday, Martin. You are The Man! Here's to Greenbelts all across the country. Thank you.
Mary
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GO MARTIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Georgette
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Hearty congratulations on making it to Salt Lake City! There are not many others, if any, who could have made it that far on that historic bike. Best wishes on your future endeavors.
Ellen Fletcher
Most Powerful bike activist of all time

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Martin, in true American spirit, with support from his friends and devotees, continues to ride. Hail, rain, and roads not designed for bicycle travel have not thwarted his efforts. But thunder and lightning filled skies have.[....]The lack of services and bicycle friendly paths is exactly why Martin is riding. He wants to raise awareness of the lack of inclusive design for transportation throughout our nation.[....]Martin is out there on I-80 on a HiWheel bicycle to bring attention to our lost dream. Visit his web site at www.bikeroute.com and join his efforts.

Ron Bishop - Architect- ADPSR
BishopArchitects.com
Sierra Club NAC Ex.Com.
"Energy Efficiency, Green, Sustainable"
Bicycle & Traffic Skills Instructor - LCI

2009 Eagle HiWheel Mayors' Ride Terminated

2009-06-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

As I posted to my Twitter and Facebook communities, my Eagle HiWheel ride is over, done and complete. In sum, I ran out of

* money
* weather (I lost 18 days to electric storms plus the $800 cost of doing so)
* routing (the interstates that flattened out the climbing, gave me a WIFII signal and afforded usually accessible lodging were far busier beyond Nevada and would have added many hundreds of miles to my next destination - Denver)
* support (the ride Sherpa(s) I needed to get through remote and mountainous northeastern Utah on the way to the Rockies and Denver never showed up)
* proper nourishment (without Sherpas to carry the higher grade of nutrition my bigger efforts were going to require, I knew I could not find what I would need in the smaller stores between SLC and Denver - the three days at the SLC truck stop that ran my batteries to a very weak low, showed me this)
* spokes (I had four broken spokes)

All, however, is not lost. As a trial balloon for next year, I was able to build a huge plethora of contacts as well as better define my needs. I now see and can justify every budget line item I am calling for. What some had dismissed as wild eyed luxuries, I now see as the difference between failure and success on my next run. As well, I am now able to see what part of my ride will keep the media interested and how much energy will need to be assigned to the Busycle and also to my book to help the 2010 Mayors' Ride dominate a lot of next summer’s news.

There are so many of you to thank that all can say is you know who you are and without you, this journey could not have happened. As well, I hope my ride showed all those who tuned in, how much love fills this nation. WOW - THX 4 all of U!!

Special THX to Penny Farthing Winery and all the love that holds that operation together for making most of this ride possible. If you want to honor the important part they played and keep their powerful energy interested for next year, please buy a commemorative t-shirt or a bottle or a case of their wine HERE!!

100 (gritty) Miles for Andrew Heckman to Salt Lake City

2009-06-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

Photos from Wells, NV to Wendover, UT to SLC - iPhone photos

The ride I did yesterday ranks as one of the most difficult I have ever done. And I even had to cheat - I had to call on God to get me through the head winds and some of the other gotchas that kept coming at me. But I am just on the outskirts of Salt Lake City after having been stuck in Elko, NV for ten days.

Nor do I regret not pushing the weather envelope. Not only was I able to see why conditions had to be right for me to make this run, but as I pushed today to honor all those scouts who have powered through countless obstacles on their rides for us, I thought about Andrew Heckman. About six years ago, while doing a Mayors' Ride relay for us, he got caught in a storm. Andrew, who almost died, is paralyzed now.

So the 95 pounds (with food and water) that it took me 13 hours to pedal across the Salt Flats and the Great Salt Lake basin on a 50 inch fixed gear bike are all dedicated to Andrew Heckman. In his excitement to add what he could to make our Greenway real, his life will never be the same. So that Andrew's efforts will not be lost and so that I can keep the NBG flame burning, I chose to wait until the skies were clear.............

In fact Andrew would have been the first to suggest that I sit tight like I did......

Since I am stuck in my hotel room in the middle of yet another thunderstorm which is also forecast for tomorrow, I will better qualify yesterday's ride. My breath was labored from start to finish; as though I was climbing a mountain pass the whole day. The effort sucked almost every last ounce of my gut. Literally . I pushed the pedals so hard to go a mere 6-10 mph, and I cannot coast or I will get launched from the saddle, that once I pedaled the 45 miles across the Bonneville Salt Flats and reached my first shade, an overpass, my urine was blood colored once again. It took me until the day was over and I could eat real food and cool my body down with cold drink for my pee to return to yellow. Guess drinking well over a gallon of warm Gatorade was just not enough...........

I will say, however, that without rain, I did feel reasonably safe on I80 even though cars and trucks roared past me at an average speed of probably 90 miles an hour. I especially appreciated the mile markers. They told me when to drink and eat, and they helped me chart my progress (instead of one every 40 0r 50 seconds in a car, I saw a new one every 6 to 11 minutes!). And yet there again, it. would have been suicide to be on this part of I-80 in less than perfect conditions. By waiting for them in Elko, I got a view of the Great Sslt Lake Basin that few besides Brigham Young and his early settlers have ever seen. Out there one could only wonder what lay beyond the far away distant mountains that ringed the flat lifeless lands that seemed to know no end. For me as I am sure was the case with the early settlers, it was hard not to wonder if it was easier in lands that seemed so far away.

At times I did find a way to immerse myself in the present by trying to study the Salt Flat art few people ever see. Once beyond the 40 miles of salt flats, a shoulder traveler such as myself , of which there might be a few a year to make such a trek, can be entertained by the small words and initials people have used rocks, bottles and pieces of retreaded tire to create. There must have been a few hundred peace signs, people's names and other slogans out there. One even had a US flag on it and was fashioned to look like an Iwo Jima war memorial. While that is what I took pictures of, countless others were buried under the water that covered them. Did I say it's been raining out here?

While it took me 45 miles to get my first shade, I was rewarded with a chance to rest my legs when at mile 56, a small downhill showed up!! As has been par for the course out here on I-80 my final destination was marked by the five miles of speed divots that were cut into the full width of the shoulder that preceded it. But I am here and dry and trying very hard to find things I can eat in what is one of the biggest truck stops in the western US.....

THX for all of U!!

btw: Out on the Flats, I was also getting a great cell phone signal. Also excited about all these new iPhone updates. The Recorder is going to make my life out here a lot simpler. Ditto for cut and paste and the new search feature. WOW!!

btw2: This is by far the wettest June anyone I have talked to has ever seen out here in Utah and Nevada....

Why Elko's Gold Mines #1 in US, #2 in World - Podcast

2009-06-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

While I sat tight in Elko, NV, waiting for better weather for my safety and for the welfare of this rare bike, I had the privilege of learning a lot about Elko from one of its natives, an amazing man named Greg Parker. Long gone are the days of using one's naked eye to mine for such precious metal, what comes out of the ground now are microscopic particles. So as such here is Greg on

"How they mine for Gold now"

Why I am grounded in Elko, Nevada

2009-06-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

For the very few of you (I know of at least one, while most everyone I talk to fully understands my dilemma) who think I am a pansy for not powering on, I offer this insight. I was 60 miles away from Utah when I chose to retreat back here to Elko, 120 miles from the border because of the weather. Which I will talk about now.

I have no problem riding in wet weather. In fact, as a car free cyclist, I ride year round and never let rain stop me from getting somewhere. Granted, I try not to go out in storms, I just wait until the heavy stuff lightens up and then I go out. What's more is that if you ride a bike and are afraid of rain you will ride far less than those with slightly thicker skins. Which brings me to one of the points of this discussion.

This is not regular precip I am facing. This is thunder and lightning charged rain fall I am up against. (see why it is especially unsafe to ride a Hiwheel in the desert when there is lightning) with no where to run for cover.and with the two towns that break this up spread 60 and 120 miles apart. Did I say there is nothing in between?

As well, everything has to be right for me to make the 120 miles to Salt Lake City. Since I will be on I-80 through the Bonneville Salt Flats and then past the Great Salt Lake itself, I can't be out there with 75 mph traffic in rain or other stormy conditions. Motorists need to have a good line of sight for me out there. This not to mention the fact that side wind gusts of 30 and 40 mph are notorious out there. And getting blown into the "slow" lane with not enough time for cars or trucks to react is a real game ender.

Nor would Hwy 50 have been a whole lot better. They've got the same weather mess down there. So instead of Elko, I would be stuck in Ely. And once the front does pass, I'd be up against 240 miles of mostly wilderness for which I am not prepared to get to Salt Lake City instead of the 180 I face now...........

And even then, I would be getting into a Salt Lake City and all the cities beyond and all the way into and through the Rockies into Boulder and Denver that are also being punished by these thunderstorms. And in so doing, am I not making cycling look like a hardship instead of the joy that we as cyclists know it to be?

And so, in sum, that is why I have chosen to regroup in Elko where there are services that can give this effort the longer term staying power it needs. It also gives me a chance to work with Paul Guttenberg, over in Davis, CA, in fleshing out the bicycle sculpture auction he has initiated..

THX for all of U, especially those of you who have needed this explanation from me!! Onward soon!!

Lightning Kills - Myths about it & Why I am grouunded

2009-06-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

TOP-10 MYTHS OF LIGHTNING SAFETY Source
1. MYTH: Lightning Never Strikes The Same Place Twice
TRUTH: Lightning often strikes the same place repeatedly, especially if it’s a tall pointy isolated object. The Empire State Building used to be used as a lightning laboratory, since it is hit nearly 25 times a year. Places prone to lightning are places to avoid when thunderstorms are nearby!

2. MYTH: If It’s Not Raining, Or If Clouds Aren’t Overhead, I’m Safe From Lightning
TRUTH: Lightning often strikes more than three miles from the thunderstorm, far outside the rain or even thunderstorm cloud. ‘Bolts From The Blue’, though infrequent, can strike 10-15 Miles from the thunderstorm. Anvil lightning can strike the ground over 50 Miles from the thunderstorm, under extreme conditions. Lightning in clouds has traveled over 100 miles from the thunderstorm.

3. MYTH: Rubber Tires Protect You From Lightning In A Car By Insulating You From The Ground
TRUTH: Lightning laughs at two inches of rubber! Most cars are reasonably safe from lightning. But it’s the metal roof and metal sides that protect you, not the rubber tires. Thus convertibles, motorcycles, bicycles, open shelled outdoor recreational vehicles, and cars with plastic or fiberglass shells offer no lightning protection. ikewise, farm and construction vehicles with open cockpits offer no lightning protection. But closed cockpits with metal roof and sides are safer than going outside. And don’t even ask about sneakers! ☺

5. MYTH: If Outside In A Thunderstorm, Go Under A Tree To Stay Dry
TRUTH: Being underneath trees is the second leading activity for lightning casualties – enough said?!

7. MYTH: When Playing Sports And Thunderstorms Threaten, It’s Okay To Finish The Game Before Seeking Shelter
TRUTH: Sports is the activity with the fastest rising rate of lightning casualties. No game is worth death or life-long severe injury. All people associated with sports should have a lightning safety plan and stick to it strictly. Seek proper shelter immediately when lightning threatens. Adults are responsible for the safety of children!

8. MYTH: Structures With Metal, Or Metal On The Body (Jewelry, Watches, Glasses, Backpacks, Etc.), Attract Lightning
TRUTH: Height, pointy shape, and isolation are the dominant factors controlling where a lightning bolt will strike (Read HiWheel). The presence of metal makes virtually no difference on where lightning strikes. Mountains are made of stone, but receive many strikes each year. When lightning threatens, take proper protective action immediately. Don’t aste time shedding metal off your body, or seeking shelter under inadequate structures. But while metal doesn’t attract lightning, touching or being near long metal objects (fences, railings, bleachers, vehicles, etc.) is still unsafe when thunderstorms are nearby. If lightning does happen to hit it, the metal can conduct the
electricity a long distance (even over 100 yards) and still electrocute you.

9. MYTH: If Trapped Outside And Lightning Is About To Strike, Lie Flat On The Ground
TRUTH: This advice is decades out of date. Better advice is to use the ‘Lightning Crouch’: put your feet together, squat low, tuck your head, and cover your ears. Lightning induces electric currents along the top of the ground that can be deadly over 100 Feet away. While lying flat on the ground gets you as low as possible, which is good, it increases your chance of being hit by a ground current, which is bad. The best combination of being low and touching the ground as little as possible is the ‘Lightning Crouch’. But the ‘Lightning Crouch’ should be used only as a last resort. Much better would be to plan outdoor activities around the weather to avoid thunderstorm exposure and to have proper shelter available.

10. MYTH: Go near a tall pointy isolated object when thunderstorms threaten, to be within the 45° “cone of protection”
TRUTH: The “cone of protection” is a myth! While tall pointy isolated objects are statistically more likely to be struck by lightning, it’s not nearly reliable enough to rely on for safety. Lightning can still strike you near the tall object. Besides, the lightning electricity will likely spread out along the surface of the ground and can still kill you over 100 Ft from the “protecting” object. Also, if you are close to or touching the tall object, you can be electrocuted via side flash or contact voltage. NO PLACE OUTSIDE IS SAFE NEAR A THUNDERSTORM!

In lightning safety, a “myth” is not as good as a mile ☺. Distance and proper shelter is your best protection from lightning.
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Motorcyclist/Bicyclist Safety

People have been hit by lightning while riding motorcycles and bikes. Here are just a few examples:

Virginia Beach, VA: Motorcyclist killed while traveling on Route 58.
Colorado: a 16 year old boy killed while riding a bicycle.
Tennessee: a 47 year old man killed while leaning against his motorcycle.
Virginia: a man killed riding his motorcycle.

Protect Yourself when on a bicycle, motorcycle or dirt bike. Carry a portable Weather Radio or listen to commercial radio. If you see threatening skies in the distance and you are near a safe building, pull over and wait 30 minutes after the last rumble of thunder before resuming your ride.

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Lightning Danger Source
Lightning is one of nature's most awe inspiring and dangerous phenomenon. The average lightning flash could light a 100-watt light bulb for more than 3 months! The temperature of a lightning bolt may reach 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit which is hotter than the surface of the sun!

On average, lightning kills one person in Kansas per year, and about 73 nationwide. In fact, lightning remains one of the most deadly weather phenomena in the U.S., and it can occur almost anywhere throughout the entire year. Lightning occurring during snowstorms has even killed people! Many people incur injuries or are killed due to misinformation and inappropriate behavior during thunderstorms. A few simple precautions can reduce many of the dangers posed by lightning.

Do you hear it?

Once you hear thunder, it is time to act to prevent being struck by lightning. Generally speakingonce you can see lightning or hear thunder, you're already at risk for lightning injury or death. If the time delay between seeing the flash (lightning) and hearing the bang (thunder) is less than 30 seconds, immediately seek a safer location.

Avoid being in or near

High places and open fields, isolated trees, gazebos, open sided picnic shelters, baseball dugouts, communication towers, flagpoles, light poles, bleachers (metal or wood), metal fences, convertibles, golf carts, water (ocean, lakes, swimming pools, rivers, etc.)

When inside a building AVOID:

Use of the telephone or computer, taking a shower, washing your hands, doing dishes, or any contact with conductive surfaces with exposure to the outside such as metal door or window frames, electrical wiring, telephone wiring, cable TV wiring, plumbing, etc.

If driving:

Stay in your automobile. An enclosed automobile offers reasonably good protection from lightning, as long as you don't touch metal.

Pay attention to weather warning devices such as NOAA Weather Radio and/or credible Lightning Detection systems. Noaa All Hazards Radio and local weather forecasts should be monitored prior to any outdoor event to determine if thunderstorms are in the forecast. Use good common sense if living in or traveling across Kansas this year.

More information on lightning can be found at http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/

Where's Martin by Ron Bishop

2009-06-12T11:18:00.001-07:00

Where's Martin?
Martin Krieg Bikes Across America Promoting a National Bicycle Greenway Network

Martin Krieg is riding his 1891 Eagle HiWheel bicycle across America, promoting a “National Bicycle Greenway Network” on the “Seventh Annual Mayors Ride” and collecting proclamations from mayors to build support. The trip started in San Francisco on May 3 and will arrive in Salt Lake City soon and Boston in August. There have been many bumps along the trail: his support vehicle and driver failed to materialize, sponsors cut funding, and transporting supplies is challenging. Martin, in true American spirit, with support from his friends and devotees, continues to ride. Hail, rain, and roads not designed for bicycle travel have not thwarted his efforts. But thunder and lightning filled skies have.

Martin will spend a few more days in Elko, Nevada determining how to cross the great, dry, unpopulated western desert. He has found local support in Elko, and will soon be back in the saddle and rolling westward along I-80. Research confirmed it is legal, though not pleasant, to ride the Utah part of I-80, as there are no adequate alternatives. The lack of services and bicycle friendly paths is exactly why Martin is riding. He wants to raise awareness of the lack of inclusive design for transportation throughout our nation.

Many cities have started to provide planning and funding to become more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. There are new trails sprouting that take you short distances, but there is no overarching plan for connectivity. Martin’s vision is to raise awareness and build consensus to create that connectivity. In the late 1800’s the League of American Wheelmen bicyclists, lobbied to have roads paved. They were successful in paving roads and the automobile came along and drove them off. One hundred and ten [110] years later cyclists are back and want to complete that dream of long ago to safely bicycle or walk across America from coast to coast, north to south on the "National Bicycle Greenway Network". Martin is out there on I-80 on a HiWheel bicycle to bring attention to our lost dream. Visit his web site at www.bikeroute.com and join his efforts.

When you are out on the road, look for him, invite him to bend your ear, share some bread or provide lodging. Get radio stations to provide updates, put it on your CBs, tell your friends, and follow Martin on his quest. This can become a shovel ready project and collect stimulus money to actually build a greenway, not another freeway, across America. Give your representatives, radio talk shows, and friends a call to support the National Bicycle Greenway Network.

“Where’s Martin”, not Waldo, should build quite a buzz. Keep track of the progress and answer the question, “Where’s Martin”. Help him bring the dream to reality for a better, greener America.

Sincerely,

Ron Bishop - Architect- ADPSR
BishopArchitects.com
Sierra Club NAC Ex.Com.
"Energy Efficiency, Green, Sustainable"
Bicycle & Traffic Skills Instructor - LCI
[510] 652-4667

6/14 SLC Bound Eagle HiWheel Needs Gear Carriers (Sherpas)

2009-06-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

At left is the parking lot in Elko where train tracks used to stand

Now that the weather is starting to climb into the low 60's, even though thunder and lightning are still in the forecast, I have a ride planned back into Wells, NV for tomorrow, Friday, so I can start riding to Boston once again. Between myself and the Utah border stands the Pequop Mtn Range. While they climb to 9200 feet, I will summit them at 6900.

And just as the California/Nevada state line is made up of casinos and other gambling operations, the Nevada/Utah border at Wendover, also is made up of gaming businesses. Of interest is the fact that it was from Wendover that the Enola Gay began its flight to drop the atomic bomb that decmimated Hisroshima and pretty much ended World War II.

During my regroup here in Elko, while recycling and water conservation are foreign words and plastic bags are issued with reckless abandon, I have grown to really like this place. This is so especailly as I learn more about it. I spent a good deal of time yesterday taking to Ross Andreson, the photographer from the Elko Daily who came out to take pictures of me and the bike. A California transplant, Pacifc Grove no less, the city I used to ride to near Monterey when I was training for my 1986 TrasnCon, he told Lynette, Greg and I why there is an 'E' on the hills outside of town.

The 'E' was used for airmail drops as a way for pilots to be able to recognize the stops they needed to make along their way. I had always thought that the town fathers had initialized their mountain sides in an act of civic bravado. We laughed about the 'BM' for nearby Battle Mountain.

I also learned that since Nevada was a so called swing state during the last presidential election, Barack Obama made three visits to this city of 20,000 people during his presidential campaign. Also of note for Palo Altans, is

the fact that Elko was the first city to move its railroad tracks from its downtown where a number of fatalities had occurred to less than a quarter of a mile away where there was open space which ended up being along the Humboldt River. And they did so with federal funding. Where the 8 to 12 freight trains that came through once made life complicated for locals with crossing guards and the like, now sits a huge parking lot in what is now a revitalized and peaceful downtown. While not far away one can see the 4 new overpasses that carry cars over both the waterway and the railroad line.

With its at least 50 or more high speed trains roaring through its busy streets, why can not Palo Alto relocate its rail to its nearby baylands? Something worth studying in the face of all the other alternatives.....

Back to my ride, I plan to leave Wendover very early and without gear the whole way to 30 miles outside of Salt Lake where I have reserved a room. Because of a change in plans, Lynette won't be able to ride with me after

all since she has to be in Denver sooner than she had expected. But she will be taking my gear to the Oquirrh Motor Lodge which is along her way!! 90 mostly flat miles without gear await for me, yahoo (this never happened either as you will see in a later post)!!

Which brings me to a point. I need a SHERPA(S)!! So that we don't have to involve fossil fuel, who wants to have the ride adventure of their life as we visit Mayors and other luminaries while carrying my gear and food (20 to 25 lbs) for me. An easy task on a regular bike, it means almost a 50% increase in speed for me from 7 to over 10 mph........

Also, if you are a Salt Lake City cyclist, who can come out to Lake Point in Tooele to help me get into your downtown? It would be truly awesome if there were a small brigade of such pedalers to help me carry gear and to navigate accordingly. Lou Mellini has outfitted me with directions, but I will have a lot on my plate as I try to document my arrival with pictures and the like. My email is hiwheeler at gmail.com my cell is 415-606-5043

THX 4 all of U!!

Martin Krieg "Awake Again" Author

http://www.BikeRoute.com/MKRIEG.HTML

'79 & '86 TransAmerica Bike Rides

2009 w/"How America Can Bike & Grow Rich"

Coma, Paralysis, Clinical Death Survivor

NBG Founding Director, HiWheel Cyclist

Holed up in Elko, NV - Sherpa(s) Needed

2009-06-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Out here in the Nevada desert, I am holed up at the American Inn on Idaho St in the small city of Elko. I back tracked to here, 110 miles from the Utah border, so I could rebuild my ride at $32 a night. And be in a place where I could have access to all the provisions I am goijg to need in order to continue in earnest.

If you've been following this blog, you have seen that this is not the ride I expected to be on six years ago when I first began planning it. Or for that matter up until May when I was still holding out for a support vehcile so I wouldn't have to be a 90 pound fixed gear going over mountain ranges. And it wasn't until I got halfway across Nevada when Manny Garcia started carrying my gear for two days that I realized that in between peeing blood and only going 7 MPH that continuing without support was as much asking for trouble as it gave no dignity to my mission.

Passers by in cars don't take inspiration from what I am doing beccause they do not know.Instead they feel sorry for me out here on this machine that deserves as much to be honored as does the reason I am riding it. And yet there again, h9w can anyone be expected to know what I am up to if I am a party of one?

Once people figure out what my ride is all about, they open up their hearts and their homes. Here in Elko for example, Greg and Lynette Park, two state of the art trike riders who saw me and my bike at a local grocery store, have already offered to drive me back to Wells, NV so I can continue from where I left off. The next day, Lynette is going to carry my gear across the Bonneville Salt Flats, a distance of 50 miles! At least that is what she is hopiing she can do as Greg follows in their truck.

I hate involving cars but in these bike inhospitable lands, that is the best I can do. We will leave at 4 AM so we can get a jump on the afternoon thunderstorms that are predicted and have been taking place out here for the last few weeks. Because I left without rain gear or warm clothes and n9w have this computer to worry about, I have been at the mercy of weather none of the locals have seen be this bad for so long.

A Saturday salt flats ride is the best we can do for another reason. Because there is literally no where out there one can pitch a tent, even if I carried one, the closest lodging is 90 miles. And since there is a big convention taking place at the Oquirrh Motor Inn in Lake Point, they do not have any rooms until Saturday nite.

And just because motorists have for the most part only seen me hard at work carrying my ow gear, does not mean that I have not had a ton of help behind the scenes. Mr Bike Oakland Ron Bishop has spent countless hours trying to figure out a way for me to bike into Salt Lake. Between plotting out routes at our site, and calling and talking to bike people all over the greater Salt Lake City area, he has pumped a ton of time into this effort. As has his friend, Gail Robinson who has gotten me into dialoque with her friends Carol and Rob who are now just waiting for me to get there.

And then there are the beautiful bike sculptures that Paul Guttenberg over in Davis is trying to auction off as a benedit for my ride. Toward that end, he is working with Lori Yung in Sacto and once they get better ph9tos, all of this will go into fast forward. Here is what they have on line at present.

And so while I also wait for the better weather that will help my ride once I do get beyond Salt Lake, I am getting caught up on photos. But before I share the ones from the East Bay to Sacto that were stuck on my iPhone, HERE is what Elko has looked like for the last few days. And before Greg and Lynette bought me dinner last nite, as the rare Rennaissance Man that he is out here, he did some tweaks to make Peter Wagner's rack even more functional, plastic welded my sunglasses back together once again and even gave me this really cool little knife I had gotten excited about that he was using! Too much wow!

Here are those phtotos I just got out of my iPhone when I became settled log enough to install Itunes on this Windows machine.

PA to Oakland/Berkeley

Berkeley to Napa

Napa to Davis

In closing, if you want to come out here and ride with me for a few days, I could sure use your (sherpa) help carrying my food and gear (25 to 30 lbs). Do please advise at hiwheeler@gmail.com

THX 4 all of U!!

btw;While writing this, I set up with the Ross Adreson of the Elko Free Press and Lori Giobert,, of KENV-TV, to do some interviews here at 2PM today. This as I just head another very loud boom from the thunder that has kept me on guard for the last all too many days

Rest Day for 50 degree desert with Lightning, hail, .....

2009-06-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

Today in Pix
More Pix

The day we took off to stabilize my water poisining setback was a very productive one for me. At long last, I was able to get in to my on line banking! Now I know exactly how low my funds are but I did also get into my Pay Pal account for the first time on the road as well. And Don Loomis, our 2004 TransCon scout was there waiting for me with the gift of a one hundred dollar day on the road. As was Ed Cox, the man who, as the Sacramento bike coordinator, wears a plethora of other hats in turning his city into a qaulity of life jewel. He bought two days!!

Buoyed by those two shows of support, I kept stacking up the off the road successes. Also of note is the fact that I finally got my iPhone data offloaded and saved! Toward that end, you may soon be seeing more photos the limits of my connection speed have kept my iPhone from letting you see...

Manny and I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in downtown Elko. And going to and from the eatery, we saw a town that looked vibrant and alive. Elko has its own airport, TV station, college (Great Basin), and every big box store and restaurant chain one can name. A town that stakes it fortune on the mining of gold, the forboding Mt Ruby, snowcapped at 12,000 feet looks down upon the 20,000 people who call Elko their home.

We even met a happy road construction worker named John, who at 63 remembers when it ws less than 5,000 inhabitants. His grandfather, he recalled, owned the first electric skil saw for miles around.

Our hotel room was across the parking lot from a Raleys supermarket where after a few trips there we also got to know some of the workers there. At out hotel, we were the star guests because of my bike and everyone wanted to talk to us. Elko was fun.

It was good that it was because after we left it at 8AM for what was supposed to be an easy 50 mile day to Wells, NV, I almost wished I had listended to my doctor friend and stayed another day.

We were loving life as we rolled along at an easy ten miles an hour (Many was carrying all but my sleeping bag. with gear myrod speed is 7mph) in the cool 50 degree morning. However, as we would 20 miles later find out, we were being cruelly teased. In factit never warmed up and the lightning strikes we could see far off in the distance became a part of our reality as we thought we were out racing the wet clouds behind us.

At twenty miles from our destiantion, lightning strikes danced on the mountain tops on both sides of us when soon it was our turn to incur their wrath. The wind grew and the skies opened up with 1/2 inch sized hail pellets. With nowhere to duck for cover, all we could do was ride. After about two miles, Manny found a bridge. Used by local farmers, it did not rise above the freeway, but stayed at its level so it was hard for me to see when I saw him disapear around the guard rail that also shielded it from view.

I ran across dirt qucikly becoming mud to find him signaling for me how to get over the barbed wire fence. All I had on was a t-shirt as I leaned my bike against the guard rail and pulled the sleeping bag off of my bike as I ran for cover.

The spot Manny had staked out looked like a swallow's den As the storm raged outside, the little birds were flying all around and in and out of the little mud homes they had built under the freeway's road bed.

The storm lasted another 20 or 30 minutes before we got back on our bikes and started to head for Wells once again. To add insult to injury, the rumble divots began again. What could be worse, I wondered. It almost seemed par for today's course that it would soon get so cold that I couldn't feel my hands. This meant no eating or drinking, photos or notes recorded until we reached the first hotel closest to 80. the Rest Inn Suites, where according to the manager, 50 degrees below zero was once a winter time reality and it rained every day there last May.

He also told us that at 6300 feet, they are higher than Denver. We climb to over 7500 feet tomorrow. I feel grateful to all of you who have made this warm room possible.

THX 4 all of U!!

Battle Mtn to Elko, NV 72 miles

2009-06-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

Today in Pix

Probably 15 K feet climbing. - more soon!!

Winnemucca to Battle Mtn with Manny

2009-06-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

Today in PIX

I left my motel room at 6 this AM, with Manny Garcia, the manager of Cardinal Bike Shop in Palo Alto. He came up here on his vacation to ride with me because, in his words, "he wants to learn from the best". I made sure to remind him he would be learning from someone who is the best at being crazy.

And crazy we were. The ride started out with the cool and very big skies of the sage brush filled desert. On a delicious shoulder (the speed divots went away by the time we had rejoined the interstate) along the lightly traveled 180. Of which I commented that back home, some of the roads cyclists use are far more heavily traveled than what were were riding. with better sight lines for the drivers out here. And if you get hit by steel at 40 mph, it is not a lot different than being taken out by a 75 mile an hour truck locomotive.

It was fun watching Manny as he barely pedaled while taking lots of photos of me. And the Penny Farthing Winery people will be happy as I had their handsome T-shirt on that you can buy to help keep me on the road, hint, hint.

At about mile 25, we looked out on a road that winded up the mountain ahead. Roads always look steeper until you are actually on them. Nor did I think this ascent applied to us because i80 generally made the same wide s2weeping turns that the rail line did to get across these lands. However, it was a climb that I would have to make. To 5200 feet, I was probably out of the saddle for at least a solid mile and maybe two. I did stop a hundred feet from what looked like the top because it appeared as though either the summit was at hand or more climbing was in store for us. And I wanted to be fresh in the event that the latter was true. And it was.

Manny said that on the steepest part, I was going 8 miles an hour!! And he said that even he felt it on his multi speed, state of the art touring bike.

The downhill, however was not that fast and it wasn't long after we were off of it that the freeway was being resurfaced. And as such, the shoulder which we had grown to love was now the lane of travel for all the cars and trucks and motor homes. Manny didn't notice the pounding on his bike, I did. For five long, bone jarring miles. Ugh ............

And then a few miles later for another eight miles, the stamped concrete speed divots, IN and across the full width of the shoulder returned. All this just as I was beginning to think that Nevada's I80 could very well become the National Bicycle Greenway route across this state.

Heck there is enough of a right of way that a bike lane could be laid next to the shoulder and separated by a jersey wall. As well, there is so much history out here.. And on a bike, it is a pleasant part of the country through which to ride.

Guess I just have to make sure the Nevada state bike coordinator, Bill Story, know what we need out there. Now and in the future. So many possibilities!!

THX for all of U!!

Tough 72 to Winnemucca with rumble divot trauma............

2009-06-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

Today in Pictures

Up at 4Am. On the road at 515 after I tended to a pedal that had gotten loose. And I didn’t stop pumping this 85+ pound fixed gear until almost 3PM. Big gut suck. And I was hammering so hard that I drank all the water I had aboard with 35 miles left to go. And ate all the food I brought along save one energy bar………….

And as I said in my Facebook post, I need hotel lodging to clean up, and recover. The reason I am getting so beat up is because I am either pedaling a 2 or 3 % uphill grade and sometimes more. Or I am going down the same graded descent and I have to pedal it since the downhill stuff is not steep enough to rest my legs by coasting. And it’s hot out here. High 80’s all day………..

The above said, my $ are rapidly dwindling. My food and drink needs have soared and along with the hotel expense, my per diem is now easily $100 a day,.Ugh. At this rate, my ride is gonna end pretty soon ( Unless there is $ help ………….

On the road today, tho I didn’t stop for him, one guy kneeled down in the middle of I80 to get a series of shots of me going by . It was uphill so all I could do was drop my business card for him.

A while later, just as my 100 ounce Camelbak started to go dry, a guy in a red pick up with a bike in back pulled over well ahead of me and waited. Since he was at mile marker 150 and I took a short break at every 10th mile, I stopped and talked to him.

When I told David Weidinger I was dangerously low on water, he filled up everything I had and even threw in a couple of vitamin waters! An engineer doing field work out here, he showed me a leech mountain that he patrols among his many other duties. He explained that they way they mine for gold now is by pouring a solution over rocks that have been left in a pile on such leech fields and letting that bond with the silver or gold or whatevver they are looking for as the chemical then extracts it. Wow!

10 minutes later I was back pumping the pedals when a few hours later and maybe 90 minutes from Winnemucca where I now am, another guy took to the pavement for a shot. Only this was not just another photographer. I found out who he was because Dale just so happned to be at at one of my ten mile rest stops. Besides the fact that he did professional work for a number of well known magazines, he went around the world on a bicycle from 1990 to 1992. Whle doing so he saw well over 50 different countries and was even joined by his wife, who is now a doctor, for a large percentage of the journey.

He invited me to come stay with him in S Lake Tahoe if I ever get there again. And we had so much in common, that I know we'll be doing a lot of work together going forward when my trip is done......

It wasn't long after I left him that the rumble divots that cursed the beginning of I80 for me in Reno, now fill the entire bike lane every 20 feet. And this has been the case for the last ten miles. Too wretched ( As in what could be worse.....

THX for all of U!!

Fernely to Lovelock NV

2009-05-31T16:54:00.000-07:00

Here is what it looked like

The ride from Fernley worked me pretty good today On interstate 80, the road way itself was excellent. Up at 5AM, I left the hotel I stayed in at 6 AM and enjoyed a peaceful desert freeway and the lands around it made cool by the huge thunderstorm I missed being indoors last nite….

I mean it was ferocious that I saw puddles everywhere. And to give you an idea how serious the speed divots are that warn errant drivers should they cross the fog line, several inches of water still stood inside them for many miles as I pedaled away.

And I pedaled and I pedaled. And as always, the same gear the whole way. Since there was little to distract me from my pedaling effort out here, at times when I didn’t focus my mental energy on other thoughts, turning the pedals at times became laborious. But usually not for long.

I found great humor in all the bungie cord wealth out here. If it wasn’t so hard to stop and then start my loaded bike, I’d probably have 50 0r 50 of these load strapping devices to try to figure out what to do with. I did however stop for a stainless steel spoon. I’’ve been using the plastic one I got from Marily6n and Sue back in Placerville. I also stopped for a pair of mini channel locks! Just what I wanted, I added them to the 8” quality crescent wrench I found yesterday.

Nor is this desert as difficult as the one I rode through Eastern Oregon or Southern Idaho. Or for that matter, through Southern California or Arizona on my second ride. The road itself is very nice to ride on. And there is a lot more life out here. I even heard birds chirping away before the cars took over.

As for the Truckee River, I don’t see it any more. The train line and telephone/telegraph poles I talked about yesterday disappeared from view until the last third of the day. They, as does I-80 follow the contour of the mountains that dominate the landscape of this the most mountainous state in the union. And in doing so, the wide sweeping turns they take send them through the valleys that ancient rivers carved through the mammoth hills that rise everywhere one looks.

Staying at the Lovelock Inn, in Lovelock, NV. Feeling blessed for WIFI as I recharge my batteries in the full knowing that I need a Bigger Power to keep all this going………

THX 4 all of U

Reno to Farley, NV

2009-05-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

Up at 6 at Mike’s house, I did an unusual shower to kick off my ride day. Soon, Mike and I were sharing the eggs with tofu charisso (sp?) that he whipped up for us. And at about the same time, the famous Tim Healion, promoter of the Tour de Nez bike race series here in Reno. Too much wow as he and I had talked a lot over the years (6) but never met.

Soon the three of were riding to the downtown Reno Truckee River bike trail. Along then way, we stopped at Tim’s brother’s house. He had just moved to Reno with Panamanian wide Ana and her two kids, Joana and Jose. He used to surf professionally.

He felt the magic of this ride and kept asking me if there was anything I needed. Jokingly, I told him I needed shoes with a 3.5” sole. In size 10. He had a pair! And he insisted that I take them…….

WOW. I rode with his good mojo on my feet the rest of the 56 miles I logged today. Mike left from Jeffrey’s house and Tim guided me out the river path for a mile or so past its downtown beginning.From there on out I Ws on my own on a green lined river within which the trail sat for the next 7 miles.

It ws a good wayto leave Reno because next up for me was an Instersrtate 80 that began with rumble strips right where the bike traveler needs to be. I almost turned around and began to set out for US 50. More mountain passses and less water services were better than this.

As I thought about quitting this road, I thought about Steve Stevens. Why would he recommend it and why would Nev State bike coordinator, Bile Story, tell me the rumble strips had been fixed?

I soldiered on. Finally seven miles later the pavement divots moved deeper and narrower next to the fog line! Yahoo, I could relax a little bit. I began to notice the history that this path cut.
Below me, I could see the rail line that Thomas Stevens used when he became the first man, in 1884, to cycle across America. However, I could not see any dirt path where he was supposed to have ridden. All I saw were rocks and sheer drops from the rail bed hat formed the first transcontinental railroad.

I also saw the telephone poles that made up the first transcontinental phone line. While all the while the Truckee River blessed all of this with a small ribbon of green. And this has been my view all the way to Greenly where I am staying in a Super 8 motel so I can get work done. Here for example is the map for today’s travels http://www.bikeroute.com/BRdC/routeViewer.php?routeid=207

But unless I start getting some cash flow coming in once again, I will soon run out of money. I spent $95 on food and a room with internet today. I might be able to get through Nevada, where friends of friends do not exist, at that rate, but after that I mayhave to call it a ride.

I cannot do the work that needs to be done from city parks or under bridge hollows. That is not what this ride is all about. I’ve done the adventure style ride before. This one has the express intent of collecting data for a SF to Boston bikeway as I meet and exchange with the city leaders and bicycle shakers and movers from each of the areas through which it passses..

If you can help with a donation:
Cycle America
POB 60355
Palo Alto Ca 94306
THX for all of U!!

Btw Do get to the Mayors’ Ride Schedule. Lori Yung has posted a lot of the pictures I have been taking there………..

Big Breskthrough in Reno

2009-05-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

The black skyscraper in the middle is Reno City Hall, the Mayor and Council are on the 15th floor!

A major breakthrough for the ride took place today!! I got Firefox to run on my little two pound Netbook (an Acer Aspire One). Not only is my line life going to be infinitely easier, this also allows me to run our NBG maps at http//bikeroute.com/brdc (they do not run on IE)!! And as such instead of blowing out of Reno at 6AM, I was busy tracking my travels from South Lake Tahoe to here.

Toward that end, I had maps and notes spread all over the bedroom here at Mike Damon’s house and nearly five hours later I had this result । Wow, what a braktrhough. Wow, what that means for this ride that I am pulling out of the ashes of the bus and crew that once was going to support it!!

My next job was to make sure it was acceptable to the Nevada state Bike Coordinator, Bill Story, who I met yeas ago at Interbike। He had already sent me email to tell me about water availability out on 1-80 as Jeff Moser from BikeCarsson।com had told him I was coming through……॥

But not before I made sure it ws OK with Mike Damon who had a work party to go this eve and would not be around until 6PM. He said yes with the only condition being that I get his kids on top of my Eagle for a picture tomorrow morning!!! As I was speaking with Bill, I asked him a bunch more questions about 1-80. And he knew the answer to everyone of them. From the shoulder width, mostly generous, to hotel cost, $30 to 90, to the total amount of miles, almost 400, to the road grade for the three passes that are out there, less than 6%, etc, etc, he knew the road very very well!!

Then I went by phone to my Internet guru, Lori Yung। She told me how to get a around on this Windows machine a little better so I could access my files. She also tracked down some html editing software that we are hoping will let me see my files a WYSIWYG if that means anything to you.

I also spent some time at REI’s site. In lieu of all the money I am going to spend on hotels out there on 1-80, I had thought I could camp. Having a tent to do so would also give me needed privacy and a place to meditate at mid day. However, it looked like a five pound penalty for Peter Wagner’s rack. And at 7 x 23 folded down, size is also a concern. Might there be anyone out there with a 2 or 3 lb tent I could borrow for a few months that they are not using? Send me an E at hiwheeler@gmail.com

Thx 4 all of U!!~

Mike Damon's Reno

2009-05-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

At left is Mayor Bob Cashell, who has ridden the Busycle before along with his scheduler Marcia Morse, who I have talked with for years and bike favorable councillor, Dave Aizzi, in their office 15 floors above the city.

Today began at the usual 6AM but not on the road. Mike and his wife Semi, fixed me a batch of banana pancakes that were ready for me to eat after I took a delicious shower and answered a few emails. His twin 9 year olds, Timmy and Johnny, were up and excited that they were going to be riding their bikes down the hill two miles away to school. Tho Mike was instrumental in getting the road to their school restriped with bike laqnes, he is a wee bit nervous about letting them do the two mile distance by themselves just yet.

He plans to document how our Mayors’ Rides made what was once a 4 lane speedway into a tame two lane bikeway that the community loves, but until he does, I will just say that the alliance he formed with Mayor Bob Cashell and Councillor Dave Aizzi, saved what was going to be certain hell for cyclists from becoming a reality. The transformation that is now taking place on Mayberry Dr has everyone excited, both cyclists and non cyclists.

Soon we were visiting cyclist, Mark Trujillo at his coffee shop, Waldens, where he comped me a fruit smoothie while we waited for the kids school to be ready for me. Soon, I gave three presentations to three different classrooms. In 15 to 20 minutes time, I told the kids what I was doing and why. I also planted the car free seed for them to consider. When I opened things up to questions, they were non stop.. So much so that Mike had to step in say he had to get to work where he had a lot of fires that were already there to fight as soon as he arrived.

Mike went to work and rode to downtown five miles away where I wrestled with the Evil Microsft Empire that governs this precious Acer Netbook. I plan for this to be my one internet accomplishment for the day here att Dreamers Coffee shop overlooking the Truckee River and City Hall. However, I did try to download an FTP utility for this machine so I could keep BikeRoute.com current. I tried three different apps, and could not hit a home run with any of them. Several hours later, nothing.

While I waited for downloads to be complete, I tried to clean up my blog writing. More DOS frustration as the Blogger.com program started changed my text into illegible Hindi characters. Ugh……….

Hmm, maybe this is pay back for my being a traitor to my not being on the Mac platform, which is all I’ve known, and as a power user, for two decades now……….

More later if I get time, but tomorrow is I80 into Salt Lake..

Thx FOR ALL OF U!!

Over the Sierras ito Tahoe

2009-05-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

The riding work of Sunday and Monday left me with little energy or really ability to document a lot of what took place. While it was good that I chose US 50 in the interest of getting some traction for my efforts, because it was a holiday weekend, the incessant car herds made it very hard for me to take my hands off the bars a lot of the time. After I left Alder Creek campground along 50 with a 6AM start, my hands were so cold, I couldn't feel them. So that approach did not work either.

It did get me over a pretty large ascent into the small town of Strawberry before I then took on 7500 foot Echo Summit. Both passes required a tremendous amount of effort. I pretended like I was doing a gym workout where I would push for 40 or so minutes and then start looking for a turnout where I could stop and rest.

I stopped where these widened spots in the road began. -walked me and my bike to their top most end and sat down. I drank water and ate an energy bar or two as I caught my breath. 10 sometimes 15 minutes later, I would use the turnout to remount as I could not do on the uphill and ride to where वेयर I had gotten off and turned around back up the hill for more.

In all, on each long 6% grade, I must have made five or six stops during the day. I also used these stops to take photos and talk ideas into my recorder. of which i realized that not a lot needs to be done to make US 50 bike worthy indeed.

Before I CLIMBED ECHO, i STOPPED IN STRAWBERRY AND TALKED to Jim, the only store proprietor. He said his business is down by a third and that what scares him is all the people paying for 3 and 4 dollar items with credit cards. He said he sees one or tow bike riders a week u here and yet I am sure he would more than happily welcome all the bike riders that would come his way if the biking were better o this stretch. In fact, there are a lot of little hotels and other purveyors who would be much benefitted with more such bike traffic!

From Echo Summit इ looked down on the south end of the Lake Tahoe valley toa fast downhill that went down forever I took the whole lane and prayed as Ii powered along with my legs crossed in front of the steer tube. Holiday cars were backed up coming from Tahoe as I scorched past them. And I was moving as I thought a bout all the people and reasons I needed for this descent to have no errors.

The uphill traffic was no doubt astounded but I did not dare to let myself be distracted by looking. I couldn't help but notice the grey rock wall adjacent to them. or in other words, how to get a bike lane in there was a big hmmmmmmmmmmm. But I did make it to the bottom safe, sound and relieved. as well as grateful to all of you for your prayers and support.

Soon I made contact with Chuck Harrison, an employee of Lynn LePage's back in Folsom. Chuck, an 86 TransCon vet, was at the beach but told me to come to his caBIN WHENEVER I WAS READY. f\He had wifi and power that I could use! However since he was five miles away, I decided to work on line at a deli until later in the afternoon. However their wif went down after a few hours and I head up S Lake Tahoe Blvd to हिस house.

I got there without my precious computer though and had to go back. A ten mile detour that must have me famous as I traveled back and forth on Lake Tahoe Blvd, aka US 50 the Lincoln Highway. It was also a mistake that did not leave me much time to visit with Chuck............

The next day I ride to Carson City over yet another pass made worse by some huge climbing around the lake. More on that next blog.........

THX 4 all of U!!

Nevada Stateline

2009-05-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

I am in S Lake Tahioe without wifi yet again. It's 37 degrees so I will wait 4 warmer I have a lot written on my laptop that I am anxious 4 u to read. My TwitteR and Facebook followers (with pix) know I got my 80 pound 1891 one speed pedaled up and over 8k foot Echo Summit Bexome my friend at Facebook. Follow me at Twitter. There I am @hiwheelmartin. This post is from my iPhone

Placerville Love Continues and Big Change in ride 5/24

2009-05-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

A couple of pretty big developments took place today after I left the love Marilyn Ferguson and her daughter Sue Hayes blessed this ride with. I will tell U about that in a bit. But before I do I gotta tell you about big change that took place and why.

First of all, I stopped riding at noon today on US 50. Second of all I am on US 50. Why this is notable is because I had fully planned to be either on or at the base of Mormon Immigrant Pass today at this time but I am here at a campground right on the old Lincoln Hwy where just as I was developing this thought, Greg from the campground next to me just walked up and handed me a plate full of salmon covered crackers. He invited me to dinner at his and Liz’s camp site later when they eat and then he excused himself so I could get back to this!!

He had earlier come over to ask me about my bike। Whereupon I found out he is a classical guitarist from Sacramento. They are up here next to the fast flowing American River for a couple of days doing some r&r.

Coming back to 50 and here and the importance of why all this is so, let me begin by telling you about the pass I have elected not too ride। It became clear to me when I left this AM and had ridden for well over an hour and had made little progresss and had been forced off the bike by a few uphill surprises that surprised me as I entered a couple of turns, that I was going to have to return to the formula that worked for me in 1986.

Then, I pedaled a 13 foot long rig that weighed in at over 150 pounds। I quickly realized that the roads cyclists like to train on or use for recreation were not going to work for me if I WAS going to stay on the public speaking schedule I had set up with the National Head Injury Foundation, if I was going to spend my day going up and up and up down over all the hills that our US Hwy System graded so that you went either up or down for a long period of time at per cent grade that was manageable and did not destroy me or the bike. When I crossed over Hwy 50, I remembered all this.

Where I got on, I also saw a delicious shoulder and a smooth road surface। The turf from I had just left offered neither, so I left the 6 years I had built up for Mormon Immigrant Pass behind , all in one left turn. And as I rode I continued to rationalize. The Mormon ascent I had had in my mind was not on a bike that was loaded down with gear but the sporty, lively machine that the Eagle is , was when it is not asked to carry all the stuff I have on it॥

I began to realize that even though I wrote about Mormon Immigrant and the soon ahead Loneliest Highway that I had researched for my book, I had visualized a journey that would be a supported one। That said I am going to take Steve Stevens sage advice and pedal I-80 across Nevada and am now headed for Lake Tahoe where as a bonus I might be joined for a while by Ron Bishop’s cycle zealot daughter, Camille. I also already hear back from Mike Damon and I can stay in Reno on Tuesday and will also get to meet Reno Mayor Bob Cashell on Wednesday.

My camera and voice recorder also returned on US 50। I had been working so hard on all the hilly roads that parralleled it that I could barely take my hands off the bars long enough to do anything more that keep the front wheel going straight॥ And besides, there is not a lot of difference from being hit by a car going 45 on a winding road than there is in being hit by one traveling at highway speed. And at least on the fast roads there are far greater sight lines for the cars to see you….

Even though the riding conditions were much improved once I hit what was once the first coast to coast highway in the US, I did have to call I a day at noon। Being a holidday weekend, the number of cars passing grew and grew until I chose a noisy river over noisy cars. I also want to be fresh and alert for the 8000 foot pass that separates me from Lake Tahoe.

In the case of Marilyn and Sue last night and even this morning, the wow is just more than I can adequately describe। Before I knocked off on her outside deck, Marilyn washed my clothes as her high energy daughter, a talented wildlife artist, who was about my age, was busy cooking me a delicious and huge mountain of spaghetti। And before Sue did that, she had gone to the store and bought back a bag of groceries based on the kinds of things I had told her I like to eat!! That both surprised and astounded me.

And if that was not enough, there was more। She got up at 4 AM the next morning and cut a fresh supply of the business cards Ron Bishop had created for me on her paper cutter. Artistic wonder that she is, she painted the white letters that had fallen off my butt pack and handlebar bag. The handelbar bag that I use to carry my Camelbak had holes in it that were getting bigger and bigger॥ She sewed them It together.

As I was packing things they kept giving me things. From matches to bungie cords, I could not believe how much they wanted me to do well. Marilyn, the docent for the Placerville History museum from whom I learned a lot, even told me from where he city got its name. Placer, is a type of gold, a gold that is found by washing it away from the other sediments within which it is mixed.
She also told me that the beautiful two story house that she, Sue and her friendly husband Wesley live in was built not long after the discovery of gold in 1849 । Marilyn and her husband who has since passed on, bought this dwelling in 1964 at a time when US 50 below her was almost a quiet road that they could usually walk across into town with hardly a problem॥ Now there is a signal and a pedestrian overpass under construction.

The hills got bigger and the shoulder became less consistent…

… More soon॥

THX 4 all of U!!

lynn LePge's Folsom to Placerville 5/23 (wifi finally)

2009-05-26T16:41:00.000-07:00

The magic of this ride powered me into the early evening here in Placerville, CA. It began for me at a little before 6 when I awakened in Folsom. I went into the kitchen and Lynn LePage (at right), the recreation manager for the city of Folsom, was busy preparing a morning breakfast for me and my ride. There was oatmeal and hard boiled eggs. and even six or so different toast options ready for me to try. along with a pile of cut up fruit and several different bottles of juice.

As he exhorted me to fill up, we overviewed the ride ahead for me yet again and 50 minutes later we were off. He got on his Mountain bike with no more than a small water bottle and wearing a t-shirt, baggie shorts and tennis shoes. From there a profound lesson in politics and area history began for almost the whole rest of the way. But not before Will Kempton , a friend of Lynn's and the #1 man at Cal Trans who I had met the day before in Sacramento, slowed his car down to say hi, near the small town of Rescue, maybe 10 miles into the ride. He was on his way to play golf.

And indeed, Lynn is well connected. And indeed I was actually making real the ride I have dreamed about for 6 years. I was pedaling my way over the Sierras! Of which I pedaled all but less than a 100 feet of it today! If I hadn't had such a load or maybe if I was more famiilar with the new rack Peter Wagner made for me, the 14 % grades that knocked me off might have been doable. While it was hard on the bike, and did make the riding more labored, the old rack mount did seem not to bother my hill climbing. In fact the weight of the bars as they slung back and forth did seem to create a momentum that I lost when we improved my gear carrying abilities.. But how well the original design that got me on the road would have played out on those two short ascents that beat me, will always remain a welcome mystery. I'm loving the way the bike rides now!!

We covered the 35 miles in about 4 hours. And I was in Placerville well before noon. We stopped at a place called the Cozmic Cafe (cozmicafe.com) where they have a great vibe and Wifi. Even though he had a long ride back home ahead of him, Lynn went to the Farmers Market across the street and returned with a pile of fruit for me. And he then came back from inside the Cafe with the two iced teas he bought and the two muffins they wanted me to have. With a table full of food we sat down for the next few hours and watched the Placerville world go by as we also talked with some of those who walked past..

No discussion of this amazing today could ever be complete without telling your about some of the things I remember that Lynn told me. Because I was working so hard, I couldn’t take my hands off the bars to record them, so here is a partial list

- Folsom used to be called Granite City
- The Foslom power plant, the first long distance power plant, was formed by the Livermore brothers from whom the Contra Costa County city takes its name. It was from this spot also that the mammoth Pacific Gas and Electric, PG&E, began.
- Folsom prison began as a way for the power plant people to get cheap labor to build the dam that would drive its turbines
- The Olympic pool that Lynn championed, was passed by one council but almost went down in flames with a new one until Andy Morin got involved. The success Andy enjoyed here then got him interested in Folsom politics.
- Lynn grew up in Folsom and graduated from Sac State
- During his 23 year career as the Folsom Recreartion manager the city has grown from 2 parks to 28, including a world class sports complex
- Lynn even knew why his city went from 7 to 70 thousand people, most of whom came during the Folsom building boom of the 80’s. A second little heralded gold rush took place during that time. Th city contracted with developers who offered to create homes and schools on land that could be cleared by crushing the giant rock mounds that covered it and using that for fill. Well, what is little known, is that while doing so, they utilized a process that extricated the gold that was still inside the rocks and boulders. And word has it that they did quite well in so doing.

As a postscript, as Lynn and I talked and got to know each other, it made me happy to know that he knew he was blessed to have such a great wife, Jenna, and three high achieving, student athlete teen age boys. Lynn learned to appreciate at a very young age. Born with a deformed left hand, he spent enough of his youth in hospitals surrounded by kids with problems far worse than his to feel grateful for just the miracle of life. So much so that he gives no power to limits. While getting Folsom its 50 meter pool is a more recent example, in high school and junior college he shot well enough with both his bad hand and his good hand to make him a varsity level basketball player starter who also cranked top grades. And if he has his way, it won’t be long before the rail right of way that Folsom bought all the way to Placervillve will soon become a recreation highway that will grow to connect Lake Tahoe with Placerville, Folsom and Sacramento as per what Lynn sees in his crystal ball.

Nor was Lynn finished when he left at 3Pm to ride home. Before he did, he went down to the Historical Society down the street and told the docent there that I was in town. Marilyn Feruson got on the phone right away and called the newspaper and Mayor. Being a holiday weekend, no one was home. But this 78 year old power house took care of me in grand style as I will show you in my next report…………

THX 4 all of u!!

American River Trail Heaven - Sac to Folsom!!

2009-05-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

Rode an amazing 30 miles along the Jeddidiah Smith River Trail that follows the American River from Sacramento to Folsom today. After Ed Cox escorted me to the trail head, I was blessing Peter Wagner, the Mr Bicycle of Davis, the whole way. Peter took the idea that Jacques Graber had of getting the weight of my load off of the steer tube to a whole another level. As I rode, I thought about how he had melded the discarded items of the modern day world into that which lived at the cutting edge of 19th century technology , the Eagle, in a way that added a whole new level of killer performance to this machine. Outfitted now with the hack sawed off back end of a dead mountain bike, this farthing penny (not a penny farthing where the wheel configuration takes its name from the English denomination of coins where the penny was the much bigger of the two ) rides now almost as good as it ever did!!

And this trail that they people up here get to enjoy is so fully wired in, that it does a great job of emulating the highest art form of the SF to Boston greenway I have long foreseen. Aware of the fact that most cities cannot achieve what has taken place with this corridor, and while this is the model, I still maintain that we can start to move in this direction with an inter connected network of bikeable roads and paths that connect the coasts .

To give you an idea why the Jedidiah is 21st Century bikepath perfection, I will try to run you through some of what I saw. To begin, there are signs stencilled into the the beautifully paved, smooth asphalt that tell people on foot that they are to move against trail traffic on the dirt that lines its edges. This did not seem to be a problem for the peds as they all appeared to be content to move along at their slower speeds.

Every mile or so there are tastefully designed signs that read"Adopt the Parkway" . A box at the top tells you who has volunteered to keep each section orderly while another box below it tells you who the paying sponsors are. The trail als0 looks out on the river on one side and fields and rolling hills on the other. it passes through a few beautiful parks with sprawling lawns and as I've written in year's past, it does not let you know there are busy cities and freeways over the ridges beyond. ll signs of humanity are hidden from view.

Wow!!

This is what I enjoyed as I "speeded" along until almost the end where John Holmes slowed down to ask me a few questions.. It wasn't long before he took me to Karen's Bakery and he bought me an ice tea and a fruit cup. We talked for a while and he rode back to his afternoon work as a family therapist.

This as I stayed around and enjoyed their a/c power to recharge my iPhone and this computer as I also created this blog post. Soon, I will be joining my host Lynn LePage the recreation manager for the city of Folsom to enjoy a cover bridges exhibit near City Hall where he works.
ore later.

But right now WoW WoW!!

As a postscript, as I was heading to City Hall to meet Lynn, one of my very good friends from 30 years called out to me from his car. It was Greg Roseblum! Whoaaa, we played whiffle ball, table tennis and basketball together. And both studied accounting at Cal State Hayward. He still works as an accountant and lives now in Folsom. Too wild!!

New! Photo gallery from today

Sacramento Rox my Ride & Kicks Bike Butt!!

2009-05-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

At left is Will Kempton, the director of all of Cal Trans!

News Flash These photos just in from Paul Guttenberg of Davis!

What another incredible day filled with even more magic!! But before I get there let me continue from where I left off last nite. Yesterday, Ed Cox drove me over to Costco where I took a leap of faith and plopped down $350 for this, an Acer Computer, that weighs 2.8 pounds, is small and has not ony big power but a a big enough keyboard that I CAN BETTER TELL YOU HOW MUCH LOVE THERE IS IN OUR WORLD. I ALSO PLUNKED DOWN AN9THER $99 for an Olympus digital camera , the FE 20, that I discovered I can offload its pictures to the web through my new little Acer .

I was up tillll probably one or two in the cool little 120 square foot studio Ed built in h8s backyard , configuring these two little devices so I could use them today. Four hours later I was up with batteries थेंcharged getting more configuring done. Ed was chomping at the bit to get his very big day started and he and I left to go meet a bunch of lawmakers, including state assemlblymen Tom Torlikson and Wes Chesbro (sp?), who were riding their bikes in from 30 or so miles away

A few state senators and even Adny Morin and Steve Miklos the two Folsom ELECTED officials who have recieved our NBG in the past were part of the group that stopped at the Tower St Bridge that led to the capitol. We rode with them to the State House.

It wasn’t long bfore the Capitol itself became a hub bub of activity as bikes and club rides and vendors streamed in for a gala event , called Bike Fest, that ran from 11-1. The bike giants were everywhere. I met the and joyfully echanged with the number one and numer two people at Cal Trans Will Kempton and Ken McGuire, the head of the bike facilities unit and a sports coach who I had fun talking to . They were even very knowledeable about the Yolo Causeway and explained why it is what it is.............

Don Saylor, the mayor Pro Tem of Davis was there. As was Folsom Recreation Manager,, Lynn LePage, who offered to put me up at his home in Folsom tommorw and then get a posse together with Daryl who also rode in from Folsom to help me get over the Sierras.

Jacques Graber came by from his nearby office to see how I was doing. And told me in no uncertain terms that the rack mount I HAD was not acceptable. He sketched out a design that the amazing Peter Wagner, who was there demoing his zany bikes, not only approved but even more embellished. And he is going to throw something together tonite and bring it by on his way back to the hospital where his son Sam is getting some surgery work down.

This after Lynn, and his friend Daryl had already offered to deputize one of their friends to do the work. once I got to Folsom and yet since it is a bit uphill to Folsom and Petter Wagner is aqvailable, i CHOSE TO GO WITH THE BEST.

LEDGENDAY HiWheel cyclist, Robert Howe CAME BY to bless my ride abd then I saw Lori Yung. For the first time in 14 ywears. Lori helped me learn html years ago and she offered to help me keep Bikeroute.com current while i AM OUT HERE ON /THE ROAD. And lORI IS OVER THE TOP, BEYOND MAGIC WHERE PUSHING PIXELS Is CONCERNED. HOW EXCITING!!

At the event, Ed Cox was honored with a beautuful framed picture for his role in elevating bicycling in the Sacrmento area to the new exciting level it now enjoys. I asked for the Mic and told the crowd, how Ed was a founding member of SABA, their bike colation as well as the California Bike Coaltion, which bird dogs all legisltion that affects cyclists at the state level. I told them that it was becasue of his tirless efforts, the fruits of his labors are not more buildings, he is a trained architect, but many of the beautiful bikeways they get to enjoy.

Oh and I forgot to tell you about the Mexcian dinner he bought me last nite.. When we left, Ernesto's, the whole restaurant was out on the sidewalk cheering as I prepared to ride off on the Eagle. His dowtown Sacramento neighborhood is filled with cool people and bikes and even has its own Bike Kitchen, a bike coop where many of thpse on two wheels hang out. WoW!!!

And I go to bed tonight with what feels like new wheels. Peter Wagner went home after the Bike Fest and concocted an amazing bike rack made up of the rear end of a mountsin bike, some buts and bolts and plumbers tape. Ed and I met him at UC Davis hospital where his little Sammy was getting his head reshaped, and in less than an hour later, I had what felt like a new bike.

No longer do I have to turn the 20 pound load I carry when I steer. As well, my arms won't be having to make all of the kmicro adjustments they do when hill work is required of me. Or in sum, I will be riding a much safer machine in the rest of the US ahead. Hail to Peter Wagner, one of the many patron saints that keep blessing this ride with their talents and love!!

Folsom tomorrow!! Yahoo!!!

THX for all of U (with a little bit extra for Peter, his wife Jeri and little Sammy who all gave to this historical ride)

Davis to Sacto - Michael Washington appears!

2009-05-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

After a needed day of rest and regrouping at Paul Guttenberg's house, the two of us did a casual ride to Central Park in Davis for their Bike to Work day. And indeed it was a propitious use of my time away from bagging the miles. For me, the highlight of the morning event was seeing Michael Washington there! And this guy is the real deal and then a whole bunch more. So much so that in 2003, the last time I sAw him, I created a web page for him: http://BikeRoute.com/michaelwashington .

Car free since 1958, he has over a million miles in his legs. He has biked from coast to coast across every continent sans the North Pole. His north to south crossing of Austrailia.is the only one ever mAde by anyone on foot or bicycle. In addition, he invents and makes many of the bike parts he uses. And on and on and on.

So when cycling champion Mayor Ruth Asmundson, Michael, Paul and I posed for a group photo, there was arguably more bicycle horsepower assembled in the form of four people than anywhere ever. While the city of Davis has remained a bicycle leAder in large part because of Ruth, Paul has also been busy rolling the miles. Paul rode a 4000 mile transco in 30 days. He's pedaled Davis to LA well over 50 times in under three days time. He works innumerAble bike events and regularly hosts long distance bike tracelers in his beautiful home.

In Michael W's rarified air sits Paul Guttenberg, who I also want to do a web page for as well, next fall.

More soon!

Napa to Davis Death Riide

2009-05-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

After my late night and long day in the Napa heat on Sunday, I made the crucial mistake of not asking Sandy and Rich what their plans were for Monday. I was just too tired and I couldn't summon the energy to ask them if I could regroup at their house on Monday. I mean Sandy had already given up her whole Sunday afternoon to attend to the needs of my Napa City Hall arrival. And then figured out a bullet proof fix with Rich for my rack until late late Sunday nite, so I figured I'd give it a day before I asked.

Well 6AM came and I took a chance. Instead of leaving I got to work on this blog and on uploading pictures from my iPhone to the photo galleries I have set up at our Mayor's Ride Schedule at Bikeroute.com. I got so carried away that it was 10AM before I let Sandy know what I had in mind. And instead of troubling her to find other Napa lodging as she had offered. I decided to take John Young up on his offer to use his escort services whenever I was ready.

Rich graciously rode me the 6 or 7 miles to meet John Young on his Easy Racer recumbent, near Napa junior college. By the time John and I had detoured back into town to get me energy bars and water for the ride to Davis, it was close to noon. And hot. It would get up to 98 degrees in some parts of busy Jamison Canyon ahead. Ugh.............

This was a connection I long had dreaded. And yet it wasn't as bad as I had envisioned. Until we hit Winters. From there the miles ahead leave one with no real goal in sight. Now that's what I call genuine ugh............

And yet for all the years I've sat in a car on the freeways that look out on the Napa to Davis stretch and have felt sorry for the people who live out there, yesterday it was the cars I felt sorry for. Up until agriculture then tamed these lands in Winters, this stretch was all fairly pretty country.

As a cyclist, I do have to admit it was made prettier by the delicious tail wind that blew John and I out of Napa. But for the most part the shoulder was adequate and with the exception of busy Hwy 12, passing cars were not a problem.

And John was awesome. On arguably the world's fastest production bike, an Easy Racer recumbent, he waited for me whenever the road curved or turned and I could not see him. A 64 year old grandfather of three, he is leaving for his own TransCon ride on June 23. So for him, this was hardly even a training ride. Just a helping hand from a gentle man, with a great laugh who is a retired school teacher.

And yet since he does this ride all the time, he before had not been interested in any of the short cuts that would have made the ride shorter. And yet there again ultra marathon cyclist Paul Guttenberg, from whose computer I am writing this, did say that that not many people, even in Davis, know some of the short cuts that exist.

It was 7:30 PM when Paul finally met up with us and rode us the rest of the way into town. John and I said good bye near B&L Bike Shop where he rode off to his daughter's house. Paul, an airline pilot, who knows distance cycling took me to his house where he fed me bowl after bowl of miso soup and other plentiful food and drink. I mean this guy knows how hungry the road can make you.

It wasn't long ago that he rode across the US. His TransCon was a 4000 mile journey that he did for his pilot and flight attendant friends who died in the 911 disaster. He did so in an astonishing 30 days!! As well, he regularly rides Davis to LA in 3 days time. That's 600 miles one way!!

This guy is an animal and I feel like he has taken me under his wing to help me regroup for the many miles ahead!!

THX 4 all of U!!

Pictures at: http://gallery.me.com/hiwheel#100061
When I am not near a desktop, you can always click on photos in each of the city relays at the Mayor's Ride schedule at http://bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide2009

btw:I rode over 70 miles today and yet I cannot be any more exact. I am also too wasted to load the roads I used to our maps at bikeroute.com/brdc . Anyone out there with a Garmin Edge they are not using that I can borrow for a few months?

btw2: I also saw a guy using an Acer Aspire 1 computer that fits easily into a small back pack. Anyone want to donate such a device so I can give more complete reports instead of my having to use the iPhone for this work?

Berkeley to Napa - everyone loving and giving to this ride!

2009-05-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

Last nite a call came in while Tom and I were busytalking away that I did not take. It was Shawn Raymond. He had already seen the blog I put up about my brake issue. I replied early this am with a text that he followed with a phone call. An hour and a half later he was in front of Berkeley city hall with a hack saw and my shoes that long had proven to work with the Eagle. Wow.

Soon he was busy grinding and tweaking as Ron Bishop was also hArd at work cutting the business. cards he had made for my ride! The magic had already begin. This and more after Tom & Licy had already filled me up with pancakes and Tom had escorted me from their beautiful home high atop the Berkeley hills In fact, as Tom played guitar on his deck as we sipped the freshly aqueeEd OJ his wife made for us while looking out on his "backyard", miles of watersed and open space, Wildcat Canyon, I knew the ride ahead would be filled with all the love and miracles that reaurrected it in Palo Alto.

Shawn worked my rack some more after the brake fix and we rolled into a day that would reach 99 degrees at 9am iatead of 8. Ron, Tom and I were joined by john young and Diane Lee, both strong pedalers. After Tom and Ron guided us thru the Ohlons trail network, much of which traveled under the elevated BART tracks, strong legs would be needed for the giant rolling hill of the I80 bieway ahead. Pleasant and lighjtly trafficked, the route to the did require some navigation but we made it to the vista overlook feeling excited to ride over this northern finger of the SF bay.

The Vallejo side started out in heavenly fashion. Tame wide roads with newly striped bike lanes, the path to the wine country looked like it would be a golden one. Then we hit Hwy 29 at a point where we had to mAke 13 miles in an hour in the hottest part of the day. with stoplights and hundreds of cars passing us.

This was big challenge for me because holding 14 to 15 mph in these conditions demanded a lot from me. But we mad our spot with Napa vice mayor Juliana Inman on time!! Her husband, John, a cyclist, was there. He took a lot of pictures Soon Clark Smith, of Penny FArthing Wines showed up with his wife, Sue. And then Rpm Bishop and diane lee. In a pick up triuck. Diane had flatter

We assembled for group photos then adjourned to the nearby Ace Hardware where Ron had an idea for how to rig me a new rack. Well a few hours came and went. Several of the employees got involved, as did Clark. We missed the chance for a group meal and they kept sawing and measuring when Sandy realied the last bus to Berkeley was about to leave.

The project ended. Everyone said good bye and soon I was biking to Sanfu"a house about 5 miles away. There her bicycle crAzy husband, Rich, felt the challenge. He pondered and pondered. Then he sprung into action. With Sandy's capable help, they concocted a mounting system that seems bullet proof! All with the nuts and bolts and other fasteners they had on hand! They were at it tiill 11pm!!

Of douse, there again, in all my 5 decades I've never met a couple more bike centric. There are bikes and bike posters and bike gear tastefully positioned evrrwhere you lookk here. Too exciting. Wow!!

Car free restart - Palo Alto to Berkeley

2009-05-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

Left Palo Alto those am not at 5 like I had been threatening butt at 6:20.. I rolled toward the Dumbarton Br in cool morning air with a brake that rubbed. And rubbed. And rubbed. A genuine slow down to my travels I thought it would go away after a few miles. Not so. Or after an overpass downhill. Nope. Or the back side of the bridge. No siree. Not even after I pedaled while holding it's lever.

20 miles later, in San Lorenzo, Ca, I broke down and used my crescent wrench to turn the edges of the spoon that presses against the top of the tire up. It worked. Until I bought 2 liters of water for the camelbak that I wear around my waist in my buttpak. The binding grew worse and worse as the sun got the road hotter and hotter. All the way to Berkeley.

Where I sit now at a Whole Foods charging my phone as I write this. Seems my solar charger is not strong enough to also let me do work....

Btw- pictures at BikeRoute.com in the mayors ride schedule in the Palo Alto to SF Photos

The ride hath begin!!

Blogger.com returns from NationalBicycleGreenway.com

2009-05-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

From here forward,

all posting activity for our 7th annual National Mayors' Ride

will take place here until we locate staff so we can send it back to

NationalBicycleGreenway.com !!

Here now in the absence of a vehicle and major sponsor support, I am running Car Free and lean and hopefully not mean :)

Blogger.com yields to NationalBicycleGreenway.com

2009-04-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

From here forward,

all posting activity for our 7th annual National Mayors' Ride

will take place at our National Bicycle Greenway site.

See it

HERE !!

Eagle worthy 15 as 40% hill work 4-13-09

2009-04-13T20:25:00.000-07:00

In the picture at left, if I would have gutted it out to the top, my reward would have been a view of the freeway and all its noise. For the day, however, I did do a worthy amount of hill work, enough to make up for the fact that I didn't get 5 or 10 more miles today.

I am riding more for miles than for skill, so before I got to the hills, I was pleased when I did a 3 step mount on the sidewalk in front of the Post Office. With only ten feet to make the move, flanked by mail boxes and headed for a parking lot driveway that fed a parking lot blinded by the building, I got up and on!! Yahoo!!

My spirits were lifted about an hour later when, a good ways into the Los Altos Hills rollers, a woman walking called out to me as I biked past, "Have a safe journey". While earlier, a couple that watched me navigate down a little path that led to nowhere I wanted to go, said, "Well, there's that famous bicycle!" WoW, I'll bet Jay over at the Palo Alto Weekly would be happy to know that his newspaper has such a huge reach that people are still coming out of the woodwork to offer blessings for my ride!!

I spent a lot of today trying to figure out how I am going to make my ride real now that I lost my main sponsor. If you missed the 2 posts I drew up about it, go HERE.....

Above is the beautiful

Los Altos Hill Town Hall

THX 4 all of U!!

Route

Start 0ft
1 3.08mi Hanover - always formidable but getting easier every time
2 3.91mi Tried unclipping saddle as stayed seated - hill too steep - had to turn around to reclip as I rode
3 4.81mi Enter rolling hills of peaceful Los Altos Hills
4 5.10mi Go down little path here
5 6.09mi It only went up from here
6 6.86mi Got very steep here at the end. I was wanting to turn around before as I could hear the freeway getting louder and louder - so I did not suck it up and turned around ..
7 7.86mi Wanted to see where this road went. It was not flat ....
8 9.09mi Not a very interesting place to end but now I know another way to get into the hills of Los ALtos Hills
9 13.37mi Get on sidewalk here
10 13.54mi Whole Foods buy too much weight in groceries to keep looking for road work. Also met a kombucha purveyor who might sponsor my ride with product....
End 15.41mi

Eagle Atherton | find bike bridge short cut | Sprint home 4-12-09

2009-04-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

Since Easter is a time of renewal and a time of new beginnings, I used it to line out the next three weeks before I take off. Of which there is a ton of planning work and loose details that much needed to be attended to. While I cleaned and reorganized the garage in between the 36 miles worth of two rides I did yesterday, I didn't get into Easter Sunday until 3:30 in the PM today.

All flat miles, I did end the day with a few miles of solid sprinting. I also discovered a "short cut" to the bike bridge to Menlo Park (Allied Arts neighborhood) - if not shorteer, it is at least far more pleasant.......

THX 4 all of U!!

The picture above is of the talisman Ines Brunn brought over from China for me to have with me on my ride. It petitions for safe travel! I feel so blessed that a woman, many see as a bicycle god herself, wants to make sure my journey is protected!!

Here is the route I took today

Route

and here are the notes you will find there

Start 0ft
1 3.34mi Bike bridge over San Francisquito creek
2 8.80mi Bike bridge over San Francisquito creek
3 8.98mi Quiet service road
4 9.29mi Short cut to bike bridge to Menlo Park (Allied Arts neighborhood) -f not shorteer, at least far more pleasant
5 10.49mi Bike tunnel
6 11.11mi Curb hardly even noticeable , the faster I go off of it
7 11.82mi Molly Stones for bread
8 11.89mi Bike tunnel
9 11.91mi Re-mount and don;t miss start one again - very few missed starts today as I an learning how many steps based on which pedal position and the degree of road slop
10 12.00mi Got call rom Faye Saunders who wanted to take some photos of my shadow. So I had to race to El Camrello school to meeet jher
11 12.21mi A trike was waiting at light and it turned green just as I got theere - no rest from my sprint
12 12.48mi Must have been holding a 17 mph pace (with a 50 inch wheel!!)
13 12.71mi Bike Bridge = I use almost daily - it was here in 2007 that I did a face plant when a chunk of tire got caught between the rim anf fork. Scared the crap out of me. Lucky I did not break any teeth - huge swollen mouth, grew a mustache to cover shredded skin
14 12.84mi Faye not at school so keep racing as she said if not infront of school she's be walking Bryabn looking for shadows to photograph
15 13.19mi Call Faye to find out where she is = S ourt
End 14.14mi

Eagle Conquers Dumbarton Br 4-11-09

2009-04-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

On the road at 7AM, I got the Eagle over the San Francisco Bay on the Dumbarton Bridge. Up until a few weeks ago, I was intimidated by this, what I saw as an obstruction to west to east travel. In Feb when I got the Eagle, and could barely get it going on flat land, let alone try to do any kind of uphill work, it scared me to think about ascending a bridge path walled in by noise, barricades, wind and noisy 65 mph traffic. But I did it! And easily! I even took pictures which you can see here. Yahoo!!

What challenged me was not the bridge but the atrocious condition of the frontage road that leads off of it into Fremont. I did discover that the side closest to the water is a wee bit smoother as water may drain off of it easier. It was bad for me on the Eagle, tho not nearly as bad when I came though here on my Ordinaries. As I say at the map I drew up for today's ride, the wretched asphalt is a real detriment to cyclists wanting to explore this area or either side of the Bay.

It almost seems as though CalTrans doesn't want cyclists to use this bridge for transportation because once you then survive this horrid 3 mile road (pictured at left as it leads away from the freeway while you cannot see the little rocks poking out where the rain has washed away the asphalt that makes it all smooth - with more of it before you reach Thornton Rd), instead of being able to go over the toll plaza where there is a bridge fed by a path, you cannot access the road (Quarry Rd) that takes you up to Paseo Padre because they have it all fenced off.

On the way back, a guy in an 18-wheeler did lift my spirits when he gave me a couple toots and a thumbs up sign.

Remember these? This phone booth was in the parking lot at the Don Edwards Natl Wildlife Refuge. And it looked like it was still usable!

This is what the salt ponds look like if the horrible road does not distract you to much.

On the way back, the traffic is coming right at you......

The land mass south of the rail bridge is San Jose. The gap you see on the hills leads to Santa Cruz and the Monterey Bay Area

Well below the present Dumbarton lies the original bridge that was the first to cross the Bay in 1928.

25 miles in all, what a confidence builder this ride was. I think the Eagle and I are just about ready!!

btw: I added twelve more miles this evening with a few warm down errands. At this Route. you ca see some of the amazing, almost rural, bike paths I get to use here in Palo Alto.....

This is the string of bike paths I used:

Hanover Hill to Bol Park Bike Path secret - Photos !!

Barron Park Bike Path - Photos !!

Los Alto Bike Path - Photos !!

THX 4 all of U!!

Route

Start 0ft
1 2.99mi It was here in 2008 that we got the Buscycle up to 21 mph!
2 3.42mi Nice baseball park complex to the left here
3 3.57mi Enter bike path on dike
4 4.07mi Cross Slough here
5 4.72mi Dirt path begins here
6 6.57mi Enter bike path - I was here in 35 mins! (trail at 84 and University)
7 7.70mi Enter bridge bike path - concrete walls ~ 4 feet tall on both sides - noise is astounding - ear plugs advisable during rush hour
8 8.28mi Take picture here on way back of rail bridge that you can see in the bay just south of here - this could make for an excellent bike crossing of the Bay and could become a recreational feature of this region that would also encourage family use...
9 8.95mi Enter frontage road - wretched asphalt, a real detriment to cyclists wanting to explore this area or either side of the Bay. As on bike path leading up to it from the Peninsula side, at least the noise of the freeway is less here as it is not walled in by the concrete barricades
10 11.42mi Small hill here
11 11.72mi A left turn here take you on a path that goes over the top of the toll plaza for the bridge. But if you are using this route for transportation you may as well give up. The only alternative is to use slow, out of the way dirt trails to ultimately get to Paseo Padre. TO REMEDY THIS, A GATE SHOULD BE PUT IN THAT CYCLISTS WITH A CARD CAN OPEN SO THEY CA GET ON QUARRY RD AND THEN TO PASEO PADRE SAVING THEM EASILY HALD AN HOUR OF TRAVEL IS GOING TO HAYWARD, OAKLAND OR BERKELEY, ETC
12 11.96mi Parking lot for Don Edwards Natl Wildlife Refuge
13 15.14mi Remembering that I actually saw about 5 cyclists on the bridge today. 2 coming toward me and three that passed as I was taking pictures!
14 17.98mi Horrible asphalt for a few blocks here
15 19.06mi Timed the light just right so I could hit the overpass from a green light
16 19.68mi This left is a first for me. I usually take University all the way into downtown cuz I like seeing all the mansions on the way
17 20.14mi I should have turned left to Melville - next tme.....
18 22.18mi Post Office Box
19 22.23mi Molly Stones - buy brown rice
End 24.00mi

Eagle 21 with good mix of conditions 4-10-09

2009-04-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

At left is a picture of the real Hillview hill that some of you thought I was referring to when I really meant Hanover which is more formidable and much steeper. This is the part of Hillview, a little over a mile from my house, where Xerox has its research lab named PARC where the mouse was invented and other important computer innovations were concocted. Nestled here in the foothills behind Palo Alto, all of the office buildings out here are in a wooded setting with many walking paths, horse trails and nearby pasture lands where wide open thinking is readily encouraged.

As I passed through this area, a guy called out from a car window, "Good luck on your ride - I read about you!!" I said thanks! It also made me feel good as I could tell he was happy to have spotted me.

After reaching Arastradero, I kept going straight, instead of turning left and gave myself some more hill work in Los Altos Hills, where as I've said in other posts there is not much in the way of cars speeding by on narrow roads. And since the Eagle encourages me to explore, I took a little road that was introduced by a hill. Not what I was looking for, it ended up being a short cut to downtown but I did notice something about climbing on turning ascents. I just have to be pay more attention to using my arms to jockey the bike back on forth...

After working my way back into the quaint shopping village of Los Altos, another man called out to me as rolled by him. He was on foot. He exclaimed, "You should roll into a bar and tell everyone, the hi-balls are on me". I expressed my pleasure at his originality.

From there I stopped at Whole Foods in Los Altos for an energy bar, then rode a busy but tolerable El Camino for a ways to El Monte Road which soon turned into Springer (at right). What a pleasure these two roads were! With bike lanes so wide in some places that there is a sign that says it is illegal to pass in them, I much enjoyed this east west run across this part of the Silicon Valley. The speed limit is 30, the three widely spaced stop signs still kept the cars moving well within the posted 30 MPH speed limit and after this road nurtured me for just under two miles I was ready for the little more aggressive Foothill Epwy which I rode to Homestead and back.

On Foothill on the way back, I stayed in the saddle for the underpass (pictured at left) at Loyola Corners Indeed I have come a long way. It used to be hard to keep the front end on the ground even when standing on the pedals because I was afraid to throw myself too far over the handlebars. And now, in a month I will be doing this kind of road grade for 40 miles when I undertake Mormon Immigrant Pass in the Sierras!!

I was taking a picture of the cars passing me on San Antonio Rd, when the huge truck at right showed up in my view finder.....

THX 4 all of U!!

Route

Start 0ft
1 1.50mi Enter sweet little tree covered bike path - half of which is bordered by ivy covered tall cinder block walls ! Always look forward to this little escape - it ends at Hanover
2 1.78mi Hanover ascent - not a problem
3 2.00mi Hanover descent still fun!
4 2.60mi Hillview ascent begins
5 3.05mi Begin descent that I have to control c-o stop sign at bottom
6 3.38mi Enter rolling hills of Los Altos Hills
7 5.28mi Enter road that would be easy to miss in a car. I took a chance on it because hills don't scare me anymore on the Eagle
8 5.38mi And it put me right here - close to the light that crosses Foothill Expwy into the quaint Los Alto s shopping village
9 5.73mi Here a man called out that I should roll into a bar and tell everyone that the hi-balls are on me!
10 7.31mi - $ Whole Foods energy bar
11 7.37mi El Camino Real was busy but I did not feel endangered
12 8.29mi Enter wide bike laned road with nice asphalt
13 8.69mi Straight ahead of me was more pleasant riding with wide bike lanes, a few churches and only 3 stop signs the whole way that I was able to roll right up to in the bike lane
14 13.28mi I sprinted for this light and got it then had enough brake to slow down and make a U-turn!
15 14.67mi at underpass here I stayed in the saddle both down and then up. I will have 40 non stop miles of this when I do Mormon Immigrant Pass soon here in the Sierras
16 14.81mi end underpass
17 19.63mi Enter Wilkie Way bike bridge
18 19.74mi Exit bike bridge
End 20.80mi

Eagle 16 Drizzle miles - Buy a Day on the Eagle Road - 4-9-09

2009-04-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

Didn't head too far into the hills today because the skies pelted me with inadvertent rain drops the whole day long. I didn't want to have to ride a long ways back home in the wet, so I did just 16 not too distant miles. By the time the day was done, I did spend the last three miles in a light rain. At left is Stanford Ave. At right, which you cannot see, is the massive Stanford Campus.

Because I now have a camera that is easy to use to

take good quality pictures with, I am able to use it to show you what the trees that cover the Junipero Serra (Foothill Expwy) bike lane look like as I pedal into them.

While I'm showing you the bike lane, at left is what I see over the tops of six foot fences.....

At right is a photo you have seen before of the Eagle at the Stanford Campus. It is a lot clearer with this new camera!!

At left is Valapraiso Ave., a well paved road with wide bike lanes and well mannered cars that runs east to west from the base of the foothills to El Camino Real and Middlefield Roads

Besides debuting my new camera, I also collected my first, on the street, Buy a Day on the Eagle Road to Boston space reservation. Marty Reininger who once was able to gauge my progress by the degree of red in the urine bag that sat at the end of my bed when my kidney got ruptured by an errant knee when playing football two years ago, gave me a hundred dollar bill! He had asked how my ride was coming along and when I told him I was going to ask people to buy a day on the road as a way to get around the sponsors I keep losing, he bought a 24 hour period on the spot! 71 to go as a way to pay for motor home rental, gas and food while we (crew soon to be identified) are out there beating the NBG drum. Do see how you too can be a part of the ride by visiting our 7th Annual 2009 National Mayors' Ride ..... Yahooo!!!!

Route

Start 0ff
1 1.66mi Post Office
2 4.05mi Cut thru grounds for student housing dorms
3 7.54mi Fun Looking hill
4 7.73mi Stopped being fun when got too steep
5 10.94mi Trader Joes
6 12.22mi Path thru El Camino Park
7 13.52mi Go Off curb here
8 14.19mi Cardinal Bike Shop stuff
9 14.68mi Molly Stones
End 16.26mi

THX 4 all of U!!

Note: This ride is not about me but it is a celebration of all the people who have helped me get back to wholeness physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially. This as I stand on the shoulders of giants to enjoy the privilege of riding this bike, the only Eagle in active use in all of the Western Hemisphere ...

Eagle errands | New Camera!! And....... 4-08-09

2009-04-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

Full Non-stop day:

- Reformatted home page for my ride and devised a system to pay for it now that I've lost my Main Sponsor (I will explain that in a subsequent post) I plan now to ask those of you tuned into to it to pay for a day on the road at $100 a day - see the 2009 Mayors' Ride page

- Mounted a video camera to my handlebars. Shown below, it helped me see how much vibration I just take for granted when I ride this thing.....

- Bought a Casio EX-z150 point and shoot camera at Costco for $130 with tax (charging the battery now). It is going to make for a huge difference in here. For example, Bob Sims, who I saw there is pictured below with the Peugeot I sold him. My new photo taking device will let you see the amazing restoration job that Bob did....

- Jeff Kitstler stopped by to install a new cotter pin that his friend Jim Thomson (pictured with me below) machined for me out of stainless steel. Works perfect!!

- Rode 20 miles as per this R oute

Notes: Start 0ff:

1 1.29mi thru nursery pkg lot
2 1.44mi hop median - 5 inch curbs
3 2.02mi Costco buy $119 camera!
4 2.14mi go down 10 inch curb here to get around backed up cars
5 3.07mi cut thru shopping center
6 4.05mi Offload camera packaging
7 5.71mi Post Office
8 6.85mi Enter beautiful tree covered foot path here

9 7.26mi Steep bump fools me - I dismount and try again - of which I succeeded
10 7.69mi End foot path
11 7.86mi Stanford dish walking trail straight ahead - everyone parks along Stanford Ave here
12 8.10mi I stayed in saddle to and from Alpine road
13 12.21mi ~50 cyclists waiting at light make left on to Old Page Mill
14 12.86mi Worthy hill
15 13.27mi downhill
16 17.60mi Whole Foods
End 19.76mi

THX 4 all of U!!

Consumed by Ines Brunn - Train Again!!

2009-04-07T16:40:00.000-07:00

I am just now digging out from Ines Brunn's stellar performance here in Palo Alto last Saturday April 4. Right now I am up against rain but am chomping at the bit to get out and roll the miles. In the interim, I am still doing post event work such as getting this amazing feature on line (it all had to be scanned) that the Palo Alto Weekly did for Ines!!

Don Loomis, who showed the excellent video he did of his 2004 coast to coast Mayors' Ride run for the NBG, shot film of Ines' exhibition. As soon as I upgrade to the newest iPhoto, I will get that on line. Nor can I say enough THX to Faye Saunders the show producer or to JohnE Cabrera, his dad, his friend, Ron, Silvie Pierce and all the other people who pitched in to help make this event happen in a memorable way!!

The drizzling finally stopped at 5 PM and I went out and got some miles. In order to beat the rush hour traffic, the hills I headed for were the Los Altos Hills. In all, I got 13 miles and here is the ROUTE I took....

THX 4 all of U!!

Ines Brunn Arrives in Palol Alto!!

2009-04-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

Ines and I pose with the beautiful full page and a half feature in the Palo Alto Weekly about her performance tomorrow! We are at Cardinal Bike Shop .....

At right, you can see the Cardinal principals.

Manny, Greg and Jeff with Ines

Here Iness is with Chris Llewellyn who will be juggling as he unicycles tommorrow

At right, is his version of legs over the bars.....

Manny with Ines and the Raliegh Cruiser his shop donated for tomorrow's raffle!

Rest Day - Worthy Video

2009-04-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

Below please find a pretty decent video representation of me getting on and off of the Eagle. You may have seen it before as this is what the Palo Alto Weekly had running on their page. However, it is a lot clearer, and to get it, I had to go to its actual source, Youtube:

As for my training, it is a little bit in rest day mode as Ines is here and we are getting ready for her show this w/e.........

THX 4 all of U!!

Ines Brunn postering and Missing the Birds 3-31-09

2009-03-31T20:06:00.000-07:00

Went on a 17 mile late afternoon/early evening ride today to get a few more posters circulated for the Ines event this Saturday. Having headed south, it is always refreshing for me to move along the Mountain View (MTV) streets where the novelty of HiWheel cycling has not worn off. And yet there again, I have to ask myself if it was ever appreciated as much in Palo Alto.

The girls shrieking and the kids calling out to me as I go by are coupled with innumerable "Nice bike" and "Thank You" compliments from people my own age and older in many different locations in Mountain View. Or is it just that MTV has a younger, less conservative population? Intellectual sophistication, where people more educated tend to have had a broader range of life experience and exposure to a wider array of possibilities, is likely not a factor. While MTV does not have Stanford, it is the home of Google and great number of high tech firms that employ quite a few members of the local citizenry.

To further illustrate the kind of reception I get in Mountain View, as I was looking for a bike shop I had remembered seeing on Castro Street, I asked a kid in his late teens if knew where there was a bike shop. He exclaimed, "Why would you need one? That is such an awesome bike!"

If you want to get a better feel for what the roads were like that I traveled on, scroll down. I copied the ride notes that I load with the maps that I plot for each of the rides I do (I exhort you to load your own routes. You don't need fancy hardware or special skills. It is easy to figure out and there is even an instructional video there that U can use to learn how to create your own maps. The way it looks now, I will be loading my entire San Francisco to Boston route on to the maps you can access below and at bikeroute.com). So, in future blogs, when I cite the Route, you can always get more detail about my ride at our maps.

You can even see, at my maps, where I am jumping curbs and where many of the local bike path secrets can be found. You won't see me discussing many of my impressions there though. You will have to come here to learn how riding through spring makes me feel. And indeed, it is a delight to see all the white blossoms that sometimes sprinkle the road and sidewalks. This as their smell often treats my nose brain to a feeling of wonder.

Can't hear the birds though. If they are there, their sound is drowned out by the roar of distant freeways and trains, airports and just people making things and on the move. The soothing nature of bird song will have to wait until I can ride early AMs on weekends and again during the week once my ride begins in May!!

THX 4 all of U!!

ROUTE

Start 0ft
1 1.93mi Go off curb with Eagle here giving me straight shot to Latham. Closest curb cut was another 150 feet away forcing a back track to Latham (the DMV is located at the opposite corner and it is where truck licensing appears to be done now)
2 4.46mi Was Looking for bike shop that I had once seem on this street lined on both sides with businesses
3 5.99mi Because U never know on a bike, I thought there might be a bike path along 85 here
4 6.43mi Enter El Camino Real. Horrible at 5 PM when I rode it. No bike lane. Even rode some side walk. Thought I had seen a bike shop on this stretch when I rode it a few weeks ago on an early and quiet Sunday AM
5 7.76mi Relief!! Begin Bernardo, a true joy to ride with wide bike lanes, few stops and slow cars!!
6 9.27mi Before Fremont St becomes pleasant and tree canopied, one has to deal with this ugly intersection for a couple of blocks
7 10.89mi Leave two Ines Flyers with Scott at Bicycle Outfitter
8 14.81mi Whole Foods pit stop
9 15.23mi U turn c.o some kind of police action ahead with lots of squad cars

Note: This ride is not about me but it is a celebration of all the people who have helped me get back to wholeness physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially. This as I stand on the shoulders of giants to enjoy the privilege of riding this bike, the only Eagle in active use in all of the Western Hemisphere ...

22 "Errand" Miles & PA Weekly on lines me with Video!

2009-03-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

Got almost 22 miles today, half of which was just doing errands for the Ines Brunn performance this Saturday 4/4. You can see who I visited at today's Route. And as I rolled all about Palo Alto, just like yesterday when Faye, Alison and I were out, I heard, "Good luck on your trip". Though there were less people out today, I heard it more times than on Sunday!

Seems more people are reading about my trip now because a photo of me is what opens the PA Weekly on line edition! They even embellished the original story with two photos, one of which you see at the right! There is also a cool little video!! WoW!!

On my trip today which traveled from Menlo Park to Los Altos and Mountain View, I enjoyed a warm late afternoon ride. On my way out of town I saw something new for me. There were kids on the football field doing wind sprints as they towed a small parachute. What a great idea!!

I also am now finding myself looking for higher and higher curbs to roll down. Fun. Who knows, would that not be a gas if I was able to do stairs? And to top it off get an opportunity to ride down the DC Capitol steps when I get there on July 21 !!

And as my confidence soars and I keep dreaming about the privilege I have of riding this bike, would it no be insane if I were to become the first person to actually pedal (and not walk) a HiWheel both up as well as down the Rockies?? I know the old guys could not have done it, because roads did not exist for them to have done so until the 1920's at the earliest. And by that time, HiWheel bikes had long been replaced by the diamond frame upright safety that we know today, not to mention cars.... And the only Eagle coast to coast crossings (one for sure) were done well before the turn of the last century....

I realized today when I was out riding that an easy way to describe how this bike rides differently from the Ordinary HiWheel that most people know is just to say that a face plants is impossible from the seat of an Eagle HiWheel!!

THX 4 all of U!!

Video of Me Eagling Hanover (aka Hillview)

2009-03-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

Here I am climbing and then descending the respected Hanover (aka Hillview) hill. It was filmed by Faye Saunders with support from Alison Chaiken, PhD. I went up down this hill four times to get this footage. It was part of a ride the three of us did to introduce Alison to recumbent cycling.

Here is the fun 15 mile ROUTE we enjoyed yesterday.

THX 4 all of U!!

Eagle Portola Loop - 31 miles - longest to date 3-28-09

2009-03-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

In the picture at left, I want to call attention to the shadow in the foreground. That is me. On the Eagle!! I took it as I photographed a small cluster of cyclists in the parking lot across the street from the Woodside Store .

I got out and on the street this morning at 6:45. What an absolutely glorious time to be on the road! Everything is crisp, fresh and alive. The air is filled with bird song! Every inhalation is filled with the aroma of flowers. WoW!

This is how I want to see America. And this can be be the US of A I bear witness to if I am on the road at daybreak. I want to know this land of ours as filled with possibilities; one that is crisp, fresh and alive. And yet this can change to a view that reflects back a hot, tired, ragged and worn country if I take my time getting out and into it.

This is one of the reasons why I am trying to get myself used to not splashing cold water on my face when I take off in the AM. And there is another price I must be willing to pay to be able to move at sun up. I must be willing to tone down my previous evening's activity. While I did what amounted to almost 40 miles today, on less than six hours sleep, I was able to do so because I did not have a 50 or 60 mile day filled with unknowns.

In terms of what it cost me last night, I missed spending more time at what looked a great get together filled with networking possibilities. My neighbor Amacker Bullwikle threw a party for her house mate whose birthday it was. And there were many brilliant people from some of the more well known local high tech firms. I did stay half an hour to honor Amcker, the creative genius who drew up the mock for the cover of my book, “How America can Bike and Grow Rich, The National Bicycle Greenway Manifesto”. In fact it might have been more fun to stick around longer so I could parlay how Amacker was introducing me to her friends. She said I am a local hero........

Well I rolled across a still sleeping Palo Alto to Sand Hill Road which I climbed all the way to the freeway without getting out of the saddle. I need to build strength in my legs for this kind of pedaling because I am not going to be able to ride the long mountain passes ahead by standing up the whole time. I may need to stand to rest my crotch from time to time, but I know I cannot climb for miles and miles in a manner such as this,

I talked yesterday about the importance of doing my training rides with myself so I can really listen to my bike and the needs I have as the two of us dance together. Well today, I became aware of the slight burn I am starting to feel just above my knees on the outside of my legs. Having learned how to listen to my body from all my years in the gym, I know that In order to build that part of my lower extremities, I have to strategically rest them. And one of the ways I can do that is by standing out of the seat judiciously.

So when I was climbing the steeper part of Sand Hill on the other side of the freeway, I stayed seated for maybe 2/3 of it. This was so until knowing rest was required, I also got tired of watching a jogger who wasn't moving all that fast widen the distance between us. By standing into the pedal strokes, I almost caught him at the top.

From there I pedaled up Whiskey Hill from bottom to top while still seated on my way to the Woodside Store (aka Roberts Market). Manzanita Road was next. It branched off of Mt Home Road and let me see some of the affluent Woodside homes that few car drivers see. The road narrowed and the homes became large estates. Trees formed a canopy over the road.

All of this beauty led me back to a right turn on Sand Hill Rd that was instant climbing. Nor could I let my guard down for what was a mild surprise given how Manzanita had lulled me into easy coasting mode. Upon cresting the hill I entered the bicycle heaven of the Portola Valley. There were less bikes out than either of the two previous Saturdays but they were there and I was on this road the earliest I have been on it yet.

Continuing on to Arastradero, I barrelled up the small hill with gusto. And while seated in the saddle. The downhill I fully let loose on. Placing my trust in God and letting Him send a charge through my body to keep all my welds and bolts and wires tight and right, I was moving over 30 mph!

A short ways from where it ended at Page Mill at mile 20, I chose to do the climb over Page Mill instead of taking Old Page Mill Road which is more rural and has almost no cars. And I stayed in saddle for the whole way!

As a reward, I let myself have my first drink of water from my water bottle. Six miles later I let myself eat the energy bar I'd been saving in my buttpak for emergencies. Happy with myself for the previous pretty focused 26 miles I also drank my water bottle all the way down at the quaint little shopping village at Foothill Expwy and Magdalena.

By the time I got home five miles later, I had one the biggest rides the Eagle and I have done to date. 31 miles! Add the almost 7 Faye Saunders and I did later in the day when we went out and got flyers for the Ines Brunn show next Saturday posted and I ended up with a 38 mile day on the Eagle. To see who we visited, who we met along the way and the raffle prizes we accumulated almost by default go to the second route link below

THX 4 all of U!!

ROUTE

Ines Brunn Flyer Distribution Route

Ellen Fletcher and Out of the Saddle or no 3-28-09

2009-03-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

Pretty close to where I started my ride, I saw one of America's first and easily one of its most powerful bike activists out for a ride herself today. On this perfect day for cycling, not too hot or not too cool, Ellen Fletcher (here is the Podcast she ands I did together in '05) was out biking on one of the many roads she helped to make friendly for cyclists, Back when Ellen was placing fire at the heels of local decision makers, green was not a popular way to be and people thought you were odd if you did not drive a car. As recent as 20 years ago, a great preponderance of people thought of the bicycle as no more than a toy. children used until they were enough to drive, In the 70's when Ellen first started campaigning for safer streets for bicycles, the needs of the motorist far outweighed any other user of the road.

Ellen was courageous then. And she is courageous now. I didn't stop and talk with her because I know how hard it is for her to get enough wind to speak, let alone ride a bike! Just a few short months ago, she had a large portion of her lung removed and yet that is a fact that few people even know. If Ellen wants to talk about anything, it's about biking and what we can do to make it safer! And all this from an 80 year old woman!!

Today I rode to the southern edge of Mountain View and back through Palo Alto to the edge of Menlo Park on the rollers at the base of the Coast Range. Most of the 21 miles I got today were pretty focused. What I mean by that is that I drove it pretty hard and kept a pretty steady cadence until I got to downtown Palo Alto. The roads I chose for this effort helped a lot. Miramonte Road from El Camino west across the valley was fast for bike travel with hardly any stop signs or lights and its wide bike lanes and soothing fresh blacktop. Nor do the cars travel fast on it. This as Foothill Expwy that it connects to is always an excellent place to roll some strong miles!

I was also a lot more attentive to how the bike and I related to each other. This was so because when there are lot of cars around, and less of the right of way to work with, I have to be mindful of the interplay that is taking place when we share the road together. This is also true when I ride with other cyclists or there are a lot of people asking me questions. Instead of thinking about what the bike and I need from each other, I am trying to be engaged in the needs of those with whom I am sharing my travels.

For example I made it up a very steep hill in the homes behind Stanford, If I would have been riding with others I may have made it up for bragging rights or so as not to compromise my pride and never really known exactly why. Well today I made the grade and I know why. I threw my upper body in front of the handelebars as far as I could. So much so, in fact. I felt like I was pedaling backwards. Whoaaa..

And yet as I go within as I ride, I now realize that unless the hill is really a steep one, I have got to stay in the saddle. This is so because I need to strengthen my legs for the new pedaling position the Eagle puts me in. I also know that as my legs get stronger and stronger, the only time I will need to get up and off of the seat is when I need to rest my crotch or the ascent itself is a genuinely steep one.

Because what goes up must come down, the hill on the other side of the short steep one I was proud to have climbed was probably twice as long and much steeper as well. Like a San Francisco hill, it easily approaches a 20% grade. I still don't know how but I have climbed up it very slowly, inch by inch, and pedal stroke by pedal stroke with all my might on an Ordinary HiWheel. And yet today I almost didn't even go down it because I was remotely afraid that my brakes would not do the job. To help them, I backpedaled the whole painful way down. I felt so relieved to be safely at the bottom.

Gotta wrap up today because in seven hours, I want to be on the road enjoying the hills with all the other Palo Alto and peninsula cyclists that I know will be out there!!

ROUTE

THX 4 all of U!!

Eagle Curb Taming 3-26-09

2009-03-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

Today's ride was an easy 15 miles and as I looked ahead to the Coast Range that separates the San Francisco Bay Area from the Pacific Ocean, I thought about how, soon I would be disappearing for many days at a time into lands far more remote than how our local mountains appear. At least now, my rides are short and I always have a refrigerator, shower and a bathroom I can return to. In the pretty near future, I am going to have to prepare my mind for the nomad like existence that I will be forced to adopt.

I will also have to prepare my mind for the slow down in time where clocks and calendars will often be hard to locate. Nor will water, mirrors and my favorite foods be things I can expect to be readily accessible. Many of the things we take for granted for a productive life, such as electricity, and signals for telephone and internet access will also often not exist. This as the monotony of miles that I can look forward to pedaling is going to require I have something to keep my mind occupied. Soon, I will have to start thinking about new thoughts I can play with or cogitate upon for the desolate circumstance I know is before me.

Now that I am feeling a lot more solid on the Eagle and have been turning my attention to the Ines Brunn show on 4/4 (SOON!), we now even have an event poster we can begin circulating. Soon I will have it at the WEB we have created for this amazing performance so you can run your own copies and circulate accordingly. THX to Faye Saunders (pictured above), for not only creating the handsome poster but for taking over the management of the Ines event so I can more fully tame this Eagle.

As you can see from my route noted below, I did a light dose of hills, they are actually becoming fun, before I returned to town to run a few errands. I stopped in at the Palo Alto Weekly's downtown offices, but Jay Thorwaldson, their managing editor, was not there. Jay appreciates what I have before me, because he too lives a life of adventure. He commutes to work on a beautiful and huge motorcycle complete with fairing and floorboards. Every weekend he runs off to the Sierras on it so he can spend time with his girlfriend who lives there. Some of the escapades he has shared with me over the years remind me of the journeys I used to do all over the western US and Canada back when I was in college using motors instead of my legs to get places.

Since Jay wasn't there, I used that time to call upon Marisella at my favorite Mexican restaurant in all of the San Francisco peninsula, La Morenita. Located across from the Palo Alto Whole Foods at Homer and Emerson, it not only offers a wonderful ambiance, but the food there is great. Many a business deal has been conducted over the meals that Marisella and her aunt and sometimes her uncle can often be found serving.

A beautiful woman, like her mother who owns the restaurant, Marisella is driven to succeed and also has a sharp business mind. So much so that her mother entrusts a lot of the local promotion efforts to Marisella. Toward that end, when I asked her to support my ride and the Ines Event with a donation for our raffle, she almost immediately produced a gift certificate for $45 worth of dining at her eatery.

And all of you just might get to meet Marisella. I am trying to get her and her boyfriend to ride up with us to San Francisco City Hall when the ex mayor of Palo Alto, Yoriko Kishimoto, helps me kick my ride off on May 3 as per this INVITATION that I am extending to all of you as well.

On my way back home I spotted a woman hauling a trailer ahead of me on Park Ave. And I raced to catch her because the pace she was keeping looked like a familiar one. She seemed to be comfortably moving along at about the same speed I did when I crossed America in 1986 on what amounted to a 13 foot long rig. By the time I caught her, I knew I had come a long way on the HiWheel bike.

When I first started riding Penny Farthings in 2001, the only people I passed were pedestrians on the sidewalk. Even the slowest jogger was hard for me to keep up with. I kept riding and over the years I keep getting stronger and stronger. And now, if I make my mind up, I can actually catch a slow moving cyclist once in a while, like I just did. And Wow, what a confidence builder to know I can move as fast as I did in 1986 because after I caught this young mother and rode with her for another half of a mile, hers was an easy pace for me to keep!!

At right is a photo of a small curb that feeds an alley way here in Palo Alto. I show it because I rode down it on today's ride. Painlessly! And in fact, I look forward to bigger curbs to go down (and, in time, up them) because neither I nor the bike seemed to feel it very much at all. How different this was for me!

On the Ordinary Hiwheel, the way to go safely down any size curb is to place great strain on the pedals to do so. On the Eagle the opposite is true. The Eagle center of gravity is so rearward oriented that if I were to pedal hard while going down a large ledge it might just pull the front wheel off the ground after the jump was complete. Nor was I willing to find out. By keeping a light amount of pressure on the pedals, I executed the maneuver just fine!! WoW!!

So much Yahoo!!

THX 4 all of U!!

Route

Anatomy of a Media Firestorm 3-25-09

2009-03-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (I am writing this on 3/26) was more about ride administration than rolling the miles on the Eagle. And yet I did collect some sobering insight about the amazing machine I am riding. So please bear with me, as before I got to my bike and riding it, I had other fires to stoke. With my '86 ride as a blueprint, I am assigning attention to those parts of my ride that I feel will bear the most fruit to make it the media sensation I know it can become.

I found Ines Brunn and Rebecca Wallace in my inbox when the day began. Rebecca was trying to get a feature together about the Ines Brunn SHOW (link) in time for her Arts and Entertainment part of this Friday's (tomorrow!) Palo Alto Weekly. A very popular and widely read newspaper, it has a very big on line and print presence up and down the San Francisco peninsula here. And since what they write in any of their sections often finds its way into papers throughout the Bay Area, I knew that what she was trying to do was huge.

So I contracted Ines, who drives for bicycles very hard over there in China. She was still up and I got her and Rebecca in dialogue. No easy feat when you consider that Ines is 13 hours ahead of us. And within the context of their exchange, some of which I was cc'd, I acquired a fairly complete bio for Ines that she doesn't much circulate. I rewrote it for our show. See it HERE

The postscript to that effort was that Rebecca got all the camera ready (and not lower resoluton web ready) photos she needed and even has an on line interview scheduled for the two of them today!!

I then went about the work of getting the bio I rewrote for Ines out to my mail lists and on to Facebook and Twitter before I then tried to adjust my brakes which have gotten loose with all the downhills I've been doing. What Jeff and I had thought would be a simple fix with a washer ended up being a non fix because I ran out of time. Casey Scheid and Whitney Dafoe from the Palo Alto Weekly arrived before I could attempt a work around to the fact that I could not just insert a washer because there would be no way for me to hold a needed cotter pin in place.....

Nor was this like any of the hundreds of interviews I have ever done. I was on film the whole time! That's right, as Casey asked me questions, he also had a small video capturing device trained on me as I answered him. This as Whitney was busy taking photo after photo of me and all that which I am surrounded by out here in the garage. In and amongst all the bikes and tools and nuts and bolts, computers, hard drives and scanners, etc, his viewers will have a lot to look at!

Of note is the fact that Whitney got here on an old beater Peugeot, the kind of bike I told Casey it makes me happy me to see people on. When Casey asked me who inspired me, I told him it was not racers but the guy who uses his bike for transportation, many of whom are unsung heroes who travel sometimes great distances to heal the planet, and their own bodes, minds and spirits

Next we went out to the street where there was more video and tons more pictures taken as I showed them what it was like to mount, ride and dismount the amazing Eagle! When we were all done, it was time for me to finally get some riding in!! And some dancing.

In Rewood City, ten miles away, starting at 7 PM, there is a weekly blues jam that I try to get to so I can squeeze in some jump swing to live music. The ten miles there were flat but I rode them hard. In doing so, I finally understood what Jacques Graber meant when he said that his 56" G&J Ordinary HiWheel was faster than the Eagle that he handed over to me for my ride. As hard as I pushed in getting to the dance club, I didn't arrive any sooner than when I was on my regular HiWheel. On the one hand, I felt a small measure of disappointment, while on the other I knew the amount of flat riding like what I had just ridden was not commonplace in a bike trek across America. On a cross country cycle journey there is a ton of up and down pedaling to be done. And I want to ride that stuff and not walk it.....

Home at 10:30, there was a lot of email to address and just before I was getting ready to do the yoga that keeps me from being an invalid from riding these HiWheel bikes, I got a email from Jay Thorwaldson, the editor of the Palo Alto Weekly. He knew I stayed up late and got up early. He asked me in his email if I could flesh out the interview I had done with Casey with about a dozen questions he had. I climbed into my sleeping bag at 2:30 AM instead of 12:30 or 1..........

And yet the long day that yesterday was pales in comparison to what some of the dog days of my ride ahead are going to be like. I take inspiration from some of the scouts that went before me in our six previous Mayors' Rides. From Andrew Heckman, who was paralyzed when he was hit by a car while doing a relay leg for us to Andrew Morton who rode the entire west coast in honor of Heckman to all to all the rain that Gil Gilmore and Dave Rabinowitiz suffered through to the courage of Don Loomis, to Skot Paschal, who lived for our annual Mayors' Ride and recently died of cancer to Scott Campbell and Pam Slocum who were such a perfect coast to coast NBG ambassador team to Faye Saunders who gives ad gives to the NBG effort to Mayor Bob from Arcata who put his city of Arcata on hold to ride for us, the list goes on and on of all the people upon whose shoulders I stand.

What a day! I look forward to the ride I will soon be doing on the Eagle today!!!

THX 4 all of U!!

Hanover not Hillview & Jeff Kistler to Rescue (3-24-09)

2009-03-24T19:38:00.000-07:00

Before I talk about the events of today, I need to correct the name of a road I have been making such a big deal about. The ascent that makes me so proud of the Eagle and its ability to get me up a pretty challenging climb is not called Hillview after all. While there is one small hill on that road, the road that **used** to scare me is actually called **HANOVER**.

Nor did I ride up it today. I came up its less steep back side because I chose to ride the Baron Park bike path to the back of Gunn HS and Charleston where I got on Foothill Expwy. Before any of that happened however, I had to make sure that a small two inch piece of metal was properly seated. Because if it was not, besides my crank arm skipping, I would have run the risk of doing damage to the wheel's axle. And they way this bike was built in 1891, if your axle went bad you couldn't just slip a new one in its place, a whole new hub had to be laced into the wheel.

So Jeff and I discussed all the different approaches we could take to solving the problem and it all came back to fix I had tried yesterday. Only this time, after Jeff cut another strip of shim stock so that it was more square instead of pointed, we ended up piggybacking the two strips together for a winning result!

The delay put me into a 3PM ride start. On my way to Gunn, as I talked about above, I rode for a short ways with a guy who jokingly said I overinflated my tires. He got a good laugh out of me as riding HiWheels for eight years now, I have heard a lot of jokes none as original as his.

I rode Foothill all the way to Homestead pretty close to where Foothill ends and took a short break with some snack food at the Trader Joes that was there. As I rode back, feeling stronger and a lot less bothered in my genitalia because of this new seat, I began to think about the newspaper interview I have tomorrow. On Wednesday, the Palo Alto Weekly is doing a feature about international bike celebrity, Ines Brunn, who is coming to Palo Alto on April 4th to do the show you see HERE!

I plan to tell the reporter that while there are reports of a successful coast to coast crossing by a backwards HiWheel in the 19th Century, whoever that rider was had to have walked as much as he rode. This is so because roads west of the Mississippi did not exist until well after Carl Fisher drove a car, with much peril, from Indianapolis to San Francisco in 1912. In doing, he was laying out the route for the Lincoln Hwy, America's first coast to coast "highway", HERE is the story of the Lincoln Hwy from my book “How America can Bike and Grow Rich,

The National Bicycle Greenway Manifesto”. It is also a well known fact that when Thomas Stvens biked across the US in 1884, he walked well over a third of the route because of the absence of roads.

It is for this reason that I all the more salute Jimmy Spillane for having enough confidence in his engineering abilities to know that the reproduction he has created is up to the task. His work is so exact that any part on the 100 year anniversary edition I am riding can be swapped with that which can be found on an 1891 Original. And this includes one item we now know to build differently. The spoke nipples. They did not accept a standard spoke wrench in 1891 and they don't accept one on the replica I am riding. They can only be tightened or loosened from the tire side of the rim with a 5/16 thin walled socket wrench.........

What Jimmy and his now retired dad created is a machine that is probably the most photographed bicycle in the world and a machine that creates an almost non stop wall of happiness and smiles!! WoW!!

Route

Cotter Pin Shim for 23 Mar 23, 09

2009-03-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

(at left, Foothill Expwy above Stanford)

My plan to roll across Palo Alto and pick up Portola Rd off of Sand Hill got aborted when the cotter pin Jimmy Spillane had sent me didn't seat properly. When we talked earlier, he had intimated that it might be so far gone, I might have to shim it. Well, his hunch was right and yet the thin strip of steel I had used (no not aluminum cut from a soda can) to solve this problem was not adequate. Back to the drawing board. I cut a bigger piece, hammered the pin in place and it got me to the other side of Los Altos Hilld before I had to tighten the screw that held it all in place.

I ran out of time to beat the school traffic so that is why I headed for Los Altos. I am going to have to spend more time with the fix that is needed on my cotter, but I did squeeze 23 miles out of the day. The more time I can get in the saddle, the more my ride to Boston will be made easier. Hopefully my ride across America will feel like a drill, a day in day out feeling as though I am just doing another day of practice by the time I am done!!

Not much to report today which is probably good. It must mean that I am learning this bike and the roads upon which I am placing it. Hmmmm, I guess I am getting good enough to take it over the San Francisco Bay on the very first bridge that crossed it in 1927, the Dumbarton Br. Though it's been rebuilt and outfitted with a bike path, there is a lot of wind out there. Do I feel rock solid for such blowing gusts like I do on my other HiWheels?

And yet like all challenges I've ever faced down, the hardest part was just thinking about it......

THX 4 all of U!!

Power Failure for 16 3-22-09

2009-03-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

Ran 16 miles worth of errands on the Eagle today in three separate trio as per this ROUTE . When it then came time to document the day, the power went out. So that other items could be attended to, I did not post a report. Only the route above.........

THX for your attention.........

Eagle Climbs Strong | Running Energy Makes Safe 3-21-09

2009-03-21T12:35:00.001-07:00

Rode for 23 miles on the the Portola Valley loop this morning with a woman who was supposed to be the ride photographer. Our start was delayed by a cotter pin I had to go back and better secure. And because when I ride with with Faye Saunders, she normally wears flip flops and spends more time braking than she does pedaling, I assumed I was going to have to work to keep up with her when I rode today.

The first sign that this would not be the case was when we did the the very long climb up Sand Hill Road. I was going what has become my normal pace when I got close to the top and she was nowhere in sight. At a driveway entrance to a condominium complex, I must have made ten or so large circles before she finally got with earshot. At which point she said, "I've been off the bike for months, but you hammered up the hill on that thing".

I told her I wasn't trying to show her up, that that was my regular pace when I said, "you're going to kill me on the downhills any way!"

And sure enough, every time there was a down hill, she blasted by me. However, on today's ride, that was not going to be enough. Every time the road rolled up, I was passing her. Nor was that my intent. I just wanted a workout.

Well what ended up happening because she could not roll far ahead of me and wait for me to come by was that, even tough she had her top of the line Canon with her, she didn't take one picture today :(

All of which I guess was good for my confidence. It's been decades since I've been faster than most anyone on an uphill, grade. Just as it's been decades since I've been able to climb out of the saddle for hill work. This is so, because I used to be more than content to let a fast rider eat me up on an ascent knowing that I would gobble him or her up on the downhill and then the flats on my recumbent. The HiWheels which I have been riding since 2001 have made me slow on either side of a summit. So much so, that I just resigned myself to accepting hills as a places where I would be passed and passed and passed.

Not today. I even passed a couple of other cyclists beside Faye. WoW

Another breakthrough today was the welding torch I learned to become. After all my years working with alternative healers in Santa Cruz, I became pretty good at what is called 'running energy'. It is here that a person brings an electric charge down through the top of one's head (the crown chakra) and uses his or her breath to send the resulting energy down the arms, the spinal cord and the legs and into the planet as a way to flush toxins or other impurities as one way to use this energy. One can also send it to a damaged organ or appendage, etc and work with it from there.

I've used this power source to heal broken bones and other ailments I have created for myself so I know first hand, it is real. So I figured out a way to make my bike safer to ride. instead of sending these currents into the earth, I visualized the handlebars I held on to as though they were electrical clamping posts. I saw them receiving my energy and sending it out through the frame of the bicycle as though we were one giant arc welder that was held together by a lighting bolt of energy.

My mind's eye sent that bolt through all the welds on the bike including those that held my brakes together as well as the inner wires that held my tires on to the rims. It fused all of them together as one. It was from then on that I rode knowing as long as I stayed connected to God's infinite energy that the bike would never fail me.

Such an exciting revelation. If this sounds too far out there for you, all I can say is that you have not walked in my shoes. You have not been dead nor do you know the energy build up I had to summon to reverse paralysis . Nor do I want anyone to have to go through any of that. Please let me be your Guinea pig and try to learn from some of what I have earned .

THX 4 all of U!!

Route

Eagle Heads for the Hills - Los Alto Hill that is! 3-19-09

2009-03-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

Got out the door today at 2 PM with a ride through neighborhood streets to Churchill which led me for a few more blocks to to the massive Stanford University Campus which sits at the base of the hills. On today's 21-miler, I did what could be called a loop ride as I went up Alpine to Arastradero and back. However at Purisima Rd, hoping for some measure of peace and escape, I turned right into Los Altos Hills. And luckily I got it!!

Up until this point, there had been so many cars on the "back country" roads that it almost seemed sacrilegious. I mean I got passed by a steady wall of cars and trucks and buses from the time I got on Alpine Road till I turned left on Arastradero. I was almost wondering why we as a society have never thought to devise a system that would charge non resident drivers for befouling those roads that are not a part of where they live or work.

And these are cars that are moving pretty quickly. Or is is just such that there are really that many people living in the hills any more? By the time I did hit Arastradero, there was not a procession of cars passing me, But there were still cars. What are they doing out here? And where are they going? Hmmmm.....

Los Altos Hills was a treat! Now that the Eagle is making it possible for me to do hills again, I found great pleasure in riding the up and down, rolling terrain. Filled with beautiful homes and large yards, many big enough for horses, I started wondering if maybe this is where I could be doing more of my riding. I didn't see many road riders out here probably because there were no straight aways to let it all hang out, Only hills. With the reward for getting to the top not a view of anyting more than more rolling lands.

But that's maybe just what I need for my fitness . Instead of waiting at lights to get to worthy riding turf, Los Altos Hills can be accessed from my house with just one signal controlled intersection. And maybe I am on to something. I saw three bike riders. Two of them were John and Ann.

I saw them just as I was leaving Los Altos Hills behind and entering the business district of Los Altos. Because John Porcella (sp?) grew up in Palo Alto he was showing his new wife who he met in Cincinnati while he lived there for a few years, where the good riding turf was. A passenger plane pilot, he and Ann bot had been members of the Cincinnati Cycle Club (CCC) and knew a lot of the people who will be receiving us when we get to that city on 7/6 this summer.

They knew the Reser Bros, and Jen Clippard, prez of the CCC as well as a lot of people they thought I should know to make our reception there a lot more powerful. And since we were dropping names, I came to find out that while John used to race here, he knew Jobst Brandt very well and even used to patch sew up tires with him and all the other Palo Alto riders at Jobst's house every Thursday night. What's more is that John was riding the same bike that another famous cycling local, Tom Ritchey, built for him 30 years ago. And it still looked beautiful! We must have non stop talked for 45 minutes and I even got home to a Facebook friend request from Ann so we can keep in touch.

Ann remarked that it is really a small world we live in. At which point I noted that that is especially true for those of us who have been pedaling the miles for many years! WoW!!!

Tomorrow it's the Portola Valley loop early. With Faye Saunders! She wants to do more picture taking practice with her amazing camera . Yahoo!!

THX 4 all of U!!

Route

Eagle beaten twice today :(

2009-03-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

Left after an excellent meditation, at a little before 2PM today in almost perfect t-shirt weather. Gone for 3 hours, I ended up getting 24 miles with a lot of hill work. Also discovering the limits of this machine as the Eagle got beat in two place by Arastradeo Rd.

The first steep ascent, right by the freeway, took us out for two reasons. The road really starts climbing at the same time that it curves to the right. Right as this was happening, probably four cars made it imperative that I keep a straight line. I could not. I jumped off.

We got beat again on a really steep part of the same road between Page Mill and Alpine Roads. Once again the road was curving where I bailed. In both cases, I had Steve Stevens voice in my head. Don't break the bike.

A game of finesse, I can't just muscle through stuff like I could on my Ordinary (regular HiWheel). In reality, riding this bike is almost like dance where you don't want to overpower your partner but you must be firm. And yet I am not going to give in on these two ascents because I think there is a proper technique for these two uphill sections that I just have yet to learn. I think that if I hit them just right, the Eagle will cooperate....

At right , just above, you can see the twisty, turny stuff of Arastradero where I got beat. Above, at the top, is the second summit of the same road that took me out......

From here on out, lots of cars passed me. I took Portola to Sand Hill. From there I went Whiskey Hill to the Woodside store and Woodside Road back down to Redwood City, Menlo Park and Palo Alto. The Woodside Road shoulder was very poor quality and as I rode it with my feet over the steer tube, I chanted harder than normal for wire and weld strength. I am always praying that the metal that holds my tire on to the rim is strong and tight but today I added some extra fire to that request.

Heard also from Ines Brunn today! And as I think about it, she is really Dr. Ines Brunn, a physicist. WoW !! She got her itinerary for her time here and I am excited. Nor do you want to miss the exhibition she is doing for our ride to Boston on Sat April 4.

As I sign off, my next chore is the 40 minutes of yoga I do every night. There is no way I could ride this bike if that were not a part of my daily regimen. I do mostly floor work as I also study the "Course in Miracles'. And that is what I feel like has just taken place every time I roll this amazing Eagle safely into its roost.........

Route

Eagle Easy 16

2009-03-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

Rolled only 16 today for three different reasons. First of all, I got a late start as I was working the Ines Brunn exhibition. Second I wanted to use the afternoon sun and warmth to wrench on the Eagle. And third, I got carried away sending chapter PDFs to those people who are in my book. So by the time I did get going, it was the warmest the Eagle has ever experienced the local roads here with me to date, and yet there was a different level of traffic I had overlooked. The schools.

One more gotcha. Hmm, I can't leave early to beat traffic because there isn't any light as yet. The morning commute goes until 9 am. My prime time to work the administration of this ride runs from 9-12. Then there is the lunch crowds that occupy the roads from 11:30 to 1:30, So the only window I have to escape the local traffic is between 1:30 and 2:15 or so because it takes me half an hour to get free of the the city. And yet there again, I am not free upon my return because a couple hours worth of riding puts me in the afternoon commute. More hmmm ......

On my way to the foothills, another Eagle advantage came into play. I was able to climb out of the saddle and sprint fast enough to catch the tail end of a green light. I had never been able to catch the light at Alma after a train had made it green unless I was pretty close to it. Today, I caught it from a block and half away no problem. While on a tall HiWheel, many Ordinaries run 54 and 56 inches tall giving the rider a higher speed potential, on the Eagle, mine is only 50 inches, a rider can climb out of hole and accelerate much quicker. Yahoo!!

I talk about Hillview a lot in here. For me it is the doorway to the foothills and that is why I am so excited I can get up it now so well. Today a bus passed me as I ascended. It was then that I knew I was making genuine progress. Because I am now able to make a beeline straight up the hill, he only gave me a few feet when going by!

Rode Foothill Expwy until it changed to Alamdea de las Pulgas, The traffic got thicker and thicker. Once again, I turned on Atherton Road and took it all the way to El Camino Real. Kind of a boring thoroughfare now that I've been on it a few times, it is still one of the longest roads anywhere around where there are almost no stoplights or stop signs. I think there is one for all of the entire two miles it runs . There are no bike lanes but they don't seem too crucial as the cars move pretty slow on this road .

I also practiced some no hands riding, a handy skill to posses if you want to take off a jacket and wrap it around your waist or even just fasten your helmet buckle. I must admit, I am not making much progress with this as yet, but I will. I just have to focus on that ability instead of on rolling the miles.

As you can see from my route noted below, I wrapped up my ride on California Ave where I did a few errands. And that is where Palo Alto Eyeworks that opens this blog is located. An NBG sponsor, their two two principals are what cycling should be all about. They both ride to work on performance road bikes. Unsung heroes, they, respectively, ride eight and 20 miles to and eight and 20 miles from each and every work day of the week. Rain or shine!! Indeed, if you support cycling and have any eye wear needs, they deserve your support..

Once I got home, I went to tighten spokes that have become loose and found out from Jim Spillane that the nipples do not fit a spoke wrench; that I have to go under the tire and tighten them with a socket wrench. And not just any socket wrench, he told me. It has to be a 5/16 high quality Snap On tool. Well I did, at least, get one of the cotter pins replaced. However, the other side looks about ready to go too. Ugfh.......

Good ride. Only 45 days until our ride Kick OFF - who else is going to join in?

THX 4 all of U!!

Route

Eagle Flies Hillview to Homestead

2009-03-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

As my 27 mile ride was wrapping up. I saw Lanthony and his massive pit bull, a love bug named Puppy. The picture you see was taken as I rode by. It should give you somewhat of a feel for what my world is like up there.

I took on Hillview again today and the Eagle flew up it! With increased confidence. I can use my arms to jockey the bike back and forth. Yahoo!!

I then rode on the Foothill Epwy to Homestead. The nine miles there were strong. I doubled back and turned right on Grant Rd which runs on a diagonal to make for a short cut back to Mountain View, the next town over from Palo Alto when headed south. Grant is a pleasant road, not as fast as Foothill and more enjoyable with a bike lane.

Back in the more city like riding of the Silicon Valley, there was more cars and a lot more attention coming my way. One guy for example was clapping his hands and saying 'bravo, bravo' as I rolled by. Then there was a bus full of screaming teenage girls. There was even more than one car load of cheering fans. This bike truly gets the attention.

I also suspect that people like it because I look like I am working to ride it. The forward leaning, almost aggressive pose I strike is a world of difference from the way I look on an Ordinary HiWheel where I almost look like I am floating about. Perhaps as they they struggle with lights and other drivers, they take comfort in the fact that I am someone who has it worse than they do.

Nor are many of the aware of the fact that I cannot coast. I can never stop pedaling less catastrophe would result. Not to mention the focus and the intensity I must equip myself with at all times. I can never let my guard down. Should I let my mind wander, God forbid, my front wheel could hit a rock or something else in the road and pop off the ground. Unprepared for such a shock I could easily lose contrail

It is also not a good idea to try to push through a tired body like you can on a regular bike. I have found that my arms and upper anatomy have to be fresh and alert especially if I am around cars, people and/or tight maneuvering. This is also why each picture I take is a work of art. Not the picture quality mind you, but the art form of being able to get a picture taken to begin with....

As an aside, I know I have a healthy respect for this machine because even as I am looking at it right now, sometimes I cannot believe I can even ride it; that man has learned how to tame this amazing piece of engineering excellence.

ROUTE

WoW

THX 4 all of U!!

Eagle Summits Hillview!!

2009-03-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

I got up and over an ascent that I have feared ever since I started learning how to tame this Eagle. Maybe four years ago, after having muscled through each pedal stroke to get my conventional Hi Wheel bike up to the top, I had felt like I was back to powerlifting. I mean it took so much out of me, I felt like I was still in the gym doing monster dead lifts. While it did get easier, especially as my bikes improved, it was still a much to be respected uphill climb. Toward that end, I think most any lightweight fixie rider would feel challenged by Hillview, with the view ahead pictured at left and the view from the top at right below.

Well the Eagle went right up Hillview!! It did quicken my breathing a little but I'd say I got up it three times as fast as when I beat the stuffing out of myself and my HiWheel not so very long ago. How exciting!! Yet another breakthrough!! As far as hills, I guess the only one that is left to conquer is the Arastradero wall right by the freeway.

As a reward for today's victory, I gave myself an easy day of only 15 miles. From Hillview I crossed over Foothill Epwy and explored the hilly Los Altos neighborhoods between Foothill and I-280. On my regular HiWheel this would have been a cruel exercise and it is why I have little ventured into this riding turf in the past. Today, I wasn't preparing my mind for either side of a hill, I was enjoying the beautiful homes and yards that make up this not so very far away part of where I live. I guess one could say that this is Breakthrough #2: On the Eagle, I can really explore without the fear of ascending and descending !! Yahooo!!

The only draw back for you the reader is the absence of photos. I can't take many when I am doing hill work. Maybe after the Ines Brunn exhibition, on 4/4, I'll have enough for a thin, lightweight point and shoot camera with a few more mega pixels....

Of note, at least for me, is the fact that I successfully navigated the steep rounded curbs on the Los Alto Trail. I took 'em straight on with a healthy handful of brake! And I was up and down over them with no problem! I had been afraid to tackle them in this way, until today.

I'm getting more and more ready! SF to Boston - only 47 days!

btw: The strap holding my shoe together broke when I was putting it on. The fix? Note the toe strap in the photo at the right!!

THX 4 all of U!!

Route

Eagle Visits the Woodside Store

2009-03-15T12:31:00.001-07:00

Up and on the road at 8AM for 26 hilly miles today. I rode to the locally famed Woodside Store on Hwy 84 that goes over the Coast Range to Half Moon Bay. Here is the ROUTE that I, once again, had fun recreating. Took 20 minutes to draw up.

As I was going up Sand Hill Rd., as three road cyclists passed me, one of them called, "hey , do you know Jim Langley?"

"Sure do. I replied, "he's even one of my Facebook friends!"

He then went on to quickly tell me that Jim was going to enter his HiWeel bike in some kind of short race that was coming up pretty soon, And that he was doing so on a dare with some guy who is going to wear some kind of chicken suit. Jim, for those of you who don't know is the former esteemed tech editor for "Bicycling" magazine and now has a very informative bicycle web site called JimLangley.net.

Jim is also developing quite a reputation as a racer. According to this guy, whose name I didn't quite get, Jim is headed for Category 1 racing level status . Not bad for a former recumbent zealot. In fact, the first recumbent I bought in 1982 ended up being one that Jim had made back when he lived in the Northeast. Hmmm , maybe all that 'bent riding is keeping us older riders pushing the two wheel envelope as we've watched so many upright cyclists fall by the wayside over the years.

The uphill ride to the popular Woodside Store was a pretty easy one. With this new seat and pedal connection, my confidence is beginning to soar. And yet, I know I have to keep the hammer down. If I am going to be able to accomplish in a little over two months what takes most people a year, mastering the Eagle, I have to keep pushing the envelope here.

From the store where I stopped for a few minutes, I went out its back on Mountain Home Rd (pictured above). A narrow two lane road, it rolled up and down back over to Sand Hill. It was covered with trees that reached high into the sky. Instead of the sounds of a city or the cars that were a constant companion to most all of my riding, the sound of blue jays could be heard echoing throughout the forest.

Once I got on Portola Rd (pictured at right as it ends at Alpine Rd), after first making a wrong turn on it, I started seeing lots of cyclists again. Nor do they pass me like I am standing still. Especially on the uphills where I watch them slowly fade out of view. And even though it was drizzling and the roads were wet, I still saw several hundred people riding their bikes while I was out today.

As I wrap this up, I am loving this endorphin rush that has me feeling so so mellow.

THX 4 all of U!!

Backwards HiWheel SF to Salt Lake Ride (begins with Eagle Training Blog)

Reaction to Martin Krieg ending his ride

2009 Eagle HiWheel Mayors' Ride Terminated

100 (gritty) Miles for Andrew Heckman to Salt Lake City

Why Elko's Gold Mines #1 in US, #2 in World - Podcast

Why I am grounded in Elko, Nevada

Lightning Kills - Myths about it & Why I am grouunded

Where's Martin by Ron Bishop

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Holed up in Elko, NV - Sherpa(s) Needed

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Tough 72 to Winnemucca with rumble divot trauma............

Fernely to Lovelock NV

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lynn LePge's Folsom to Placerville 5/23 (wifi finally)

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Sacramento Rox my Ride & Kicks Bike Butt!!

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Blogger.com yields to NationalBicycleGreenway.com

Eagle worthy 15 as 40% hill work 4-13-09

Eagle Atherton | find bike bridge short cut | Sprint home 4-12-09

Eagle Conquers Dumbarton Br 4-11-09

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Eagle 16 Drizzle miles - Buy a Day on the Eagle Road - 4-9-09

Eagle errands | New Camera!! And....... 4-08-09

Consumed by Ines Brunn - Train Again!!

Ines Brunn Arrives in Palol Alto!!

Rest Day - Worthy Video

Ines Brunn postering and Missing the Birds 3-31-09

22 "Errand" Miles & PA Weekly on lines me with *Video*!

Video of Me Eagling Hanover (aka Hillview)

Eagle Portola Loop - 31 miles - longest to date 3-28-09

Ellen Fletcher and Out of the Saddle or no 3-28-09

Eagle Curb Taming 3-26-09

Anatomy of a Media Firestorm 3-25-09

Hanover not Hillview & Jeff Kistler to Rescue (3-24-09)

Cotter Pin Shim for 23 Mar 23, 09

Power Failure for 16 3-22-09

Eagle Climbs Strong | Running Energy Makes Safe 3-21-09

Eagle Heads for the Hills - Los Alto Hill that is! 3-19-09

Eagle beaten twice today :(

Eagle Easy 16

Eagle Flies Hillview to Homestead

Eagle Summits Hillview!!

Eagle Visits the Woodside Store

22 "Errand" Miles & PA Weekly on lines me with Video!