Shore Fire Century

65.5 miles through Delaware today on the White Clay Bicycle Club's Shore Fire Century (or, Metric Century). An excellent ride !! Almost no traffic, well-marked route, only adult riders, wide shoulders. I rode this one in 2004, and the heat almost killed me - the weather was perfect today, too.

An Amazon Kindle !

Wow ! A Kindle ! I've been looking for an e-book device for years, so I was very excited when the Kindle was announced. What can I say about it ? A lot, after testing it for a few weeks.

My basic requirements for an e-book device are simple, since I want to use it while traveling:

1. It has to read like a book. I want to be able to read at the same speed as when using a printed book. I don't want to have to turn it to avoid glare, or turn the page more frequently because it doesn't fit a whole page in a display screen.

2. I want to be able to make, use, and remove bookmarks. It should be easy to mark where I've stopped reading, and pick up from exactly the same place.

3. Add to it. How hard is it to add books to the device ? Does it handle all kind of formats (PDF, TXT, Word, etc.) ?

4. Annotations. Can I make "notes" in the margin ? Can I customize their appearance (different colors, markers vs pens)?

5. Battery Life. I don't want something that doesn't last as long as train or plane ride + wait time. So, it has to last for at least 8 hours.

The results:1. Yes - for the most part, it's as easy to read as a paperback. The page turning is slower than I would like, and you can't really 'flip' to a section. So, if you want to bypass the Table of Contents you have to turn the pages really fast. There is a 'go to' feature, but you have to know your destination page or section. It would be really nice if it has a "go to next section" function.

2. Bookmarks are easy to set, flip through, and delete. It's really a box around the text. Unfotunately, you can't set styles for the bookmarks (different dotted lines, etc.)

3. It's easy to transfer files from your PC to the Kindle. I transferred TXT files from Project Gutenberg and also transferred an audio book from Audible.com.

4. You can add notes, but, like the booksmarks, you do not have any control over the style.

5. Battery Life. I didn't wear it down. Apparently, the battery is not used while you're just reading. It's supposed to have an 18 hour battery.

Extras:
1. It plays audio books. The best part is that it shows the sections, which is something my iPod doesn't do.

2. SD memory card. This is great because it doesn't come with a lot of storage space, and the audio books are huge.

3. Search and Find Text- very easy. It also links to Google so you can run a search on-line. It's not great for web browsing - the pages are squished.

Summary:
I'm going to wait for the price to come down, or for other products to use the same technology at a lower cost. If I traveled regularly, it might be worth the $300+ (US).

I wouldn't use it for serious academic work - the lack of styles for annotations would be a serious problem.

500 miles in July !

Actually, it was 495 miles. If I had known the total mileage for the month yesterday, I would have added the last 5 miles, instead of quitting at 34.1 miles. But, it's close enough. I rode on 15 days, for an average of 33+ miles per ride. Not too bad.

1,000 Miles and River to River Ride

As of yesterday, I have logged 702 miles on my Haluzak recumbent, and more than 300 miles on my SUN EZ-1 since April 17, when the odometer on the Haluzak hit 5,000 miles (a seperate blog).

Rode the River to River Ride through Bucks County (PA) on Saturday. 54 miles. Thoroughly delightful. Masochistically hilly. No - it really was thoruoghly delightful. AND masochistically hilly. Or, thoroughly hilly and mastochistically delightful ! Will I do it again next year ? Probably.

What to do when you have insomnia ?

It's not a cure, but it's better than trying to sleep. The answer is "check out the web cams on the other side of the planet". Even if everyone in your world is out like a light, and the streets are empty and silent, you can watch dawn in Amsterdam, or noon in Nairobi, etc. Or, just watch the streets in your own city from the safety of your PC.

Check out Earth Cam - http://www.earthcam.com/

Cool Bike Tool !

Sometimes the little tools save you a lot of time. I got this tool for my birthday this week.

It measures the amount of wear on your chain, and indicates .75% and .1% wear - which is generally when you should replace a chain. I usually try to replace the chain after 1,000 miles, but this is more accurate than waiting for the chain to slip, or doing the 'how much light shows between the chain and the cogs in the chainring ?' approach.

Park and Spin Doctor have their own versions. The Spin Doctor model is around $4.00. Next to a pedal wrench, I think these are the most useful of the very very specialized bike tools that I have.

My worst bike day - EVER !

Yesterday was my worst bike day - ever. The only day that might have been worse was getting a saddle sore in the middle of a week-long ride in Lancaster County.

Yesterday started off with a flat 0.3 miles from the start - going over railroad tracks. So, 15 minutes lost while I walked back to the car, because I have a floor pump there. Another 15 minutes to get out the patch kit and change the tube. That part was probably a good thing, because I found that the tube was filled with Slime (I bought the bike used 2 years ago). So, the rear tire is now a LOT lighter after getting rid of the Slime-filled tube. Then, I had a LOT of problems getting the wheel back on the bike, but, after another 5 minutes, I got it on. So, after losing a 1/2 hour, I was back on the trail.

After a few minutes, I realized that I had lost the use of about 1/2 of my gears. Instead of moving across each cog, the rear deraileur only moved on every other cog...But, after the trouble I had getting the wheel back on, I wasn't going to stop and play with it again.

So, after 25 miles of mostly unpaved loose gravel, and only having 1/2 of my gears, I had enough fun. So, I turned around and rode home. Total ride - 50.22 miles.

Put the bike on the rack (which is a trailer-hitch type), and headed home. Going up a hill on a narrow turning back road, I heard a HORRIBLE CRASH, and looked up to see my bike and my bike rack skidding down the road behind me, and the cars swerving to avoid hitting it. Stopped car, threw rack and bike into car, and went home.

Final damage: rear wheel has some problems, which I hope a good bike mechanic can fix. Dealing with the internals of bike wheels is outside of my comfort level.

Biking Rants

50+ miles today with a a headache, so I'm cranky.

1. RUDE RIDERS - TYPE A. A recumbent is a bicycle, too. Most of the time, I'm glad to answer questions, and I usually just smile when someone asks if I have a can of beer on the "lounge chair"... but the A/B riders in a pack who feel entitled to cut me off and then call it a "beach chair" are just rude.

2. RUDE RIDERS - TYPE B. On the same lines - even if your name is Lance, or even Lancetta, which I doubt, you do not have a RIGHT to ride your bike at your preferred speed, if it means that everyone else on the path has to accomodate YOU ! A "good" biker knows how to ride in traffic, and this includes other bikers, children, and pedestrians.

3. DOGS OFF LEASHES. If you have a dog and you take him or her on a public path, PUT THE DOG ON A LEASH. I don't care how well behaved or how much of an alpha dog you think you are. Your dog is a potential danger to him/ herself, riders, and others. It's not just a good idea - IT'S THE LAW.

4. CHILDREN ON BIKES. I'm delighted that your whole family, including children, is out riding. Good for you ! Please teach the small ones to RIDE ON THE RIGHT, and to LOOK AHEAD of them. Like cars, bikes tend to follow the rider's eyes. If you look at something on the left, you're going to drift in that direction.

5. BE ALERT. I have a bell. I use it. Why do poeple IGNORE IT ? Do they think it's NOT FOR THEM ? IT IS.

Thanks for reading my bike rant. Unfortunately, I'm sure the people who most need to read these simple rules will not read it - either here or other places.

60,000 miles on the car

The bike-mobile hit 60,000 miles on Friday. I've had it for 5 years and two months, so that's slightly leass than 12,00 miles per year (average). The gas mileage ranges from 22 to 27 MPG, so that means I've used 2,400 gallons of gas in slightly more than 5 years -- 480 gallons of gas per year (average). At $4/ gallon, that's $1920 per year on gas.
Lots of numbers - but not sure what it all means, except that I obviously am not riding my bike enough. Time to get a Vespa for the daily 12-mile commute to work ?

Ice Wax - Still Works

2 Weeks into the Ice Wax experiment, on two bikes, and it's still working. 40 miles yesterday, including an hour or so in drizzle on packed dirt trail. I expected the chain to start squeaking after 20 miles, but it held up for the whole ride. Now that I'm always listening for squeaks, I notice how many people are riding with squeaky chains. I don't know how they do it - isn't it harder to pedal, and isn't shifting harder ?
So, I'm going to try for 60 miles tomorrow, and see how the Ice Wax holds up. The only drawback is that I have to clean and then re-wax 9 feet of chain on each bike, which uses up a LOT of wax.... At least Dick's sells it for $7.99 for the large spray can, which is a lot less than REI and Performance charge.