Progress Report

It's been two months now since my gastric sleeve surgery and I am down 38 pounds and two pants sizes as of this morning. The weight is just melting away. I've had immediate benefits in my cycling as well. Aimee and I took the Seavo out a week or so ago. We hadn't ridden it since my surgery. When we rode it this spring I actually thought about selling it because it just wasn't comfortable any more. Although I was loath to admit it, the trouble was that my stomach had grown so big that my thighs were hitting it when I pedalled. Riding the bike since my weight loss was a revelation. With my stomach gone (literally) pedalling the Seavo was the way it used to be: easy and comfortable. Our speed picked up as well. I'm glad I didn't sell the Seavo. Aimee and I will be using it for the Bike Around the Bay this coming weekend.

This morning I met Jim and David for the maiden run of my new Mocon low racer. I spent last night with the final details of getting it set up and practising getting on and off. This another example of the benefits of my weight loss. Frankly, I doubt I would have been able to mount and dismount this bike, much less ride it.

We found a quiet country road for this test. I didn't want to have to worry about traffic as well as trying to ride this beautiful bike. My first challenge was starting the bike. The machine gun handle bars make for poor handling at low speeds so it's fairly important to get up some speed right off the bat. While puzzling how I was going to get both feet up on the pedals as I pushed off, I realized that I could put both feet on the pedals with the bike standing still. All I had to do was steady the bike with my hand on the pavement (yes, the bike is that low). After 5 or 6 tries I did get the bike started. It accelerates quickly and handling improves with speed. Nevertheless, it took 15-20 miles before I could take turns with confidence. I easily moved up to 20 mph with a couple of gears left unused. I decided, though, to save a speed run for another day when I had a little more experience on the bike.

By the end of today's 30 mile ride I felt at home on the bike. I have a little tinkering to do before the next time I ride it. I couldn't get my computer to work properly. It's new and suspect it may be batteries. I might get a new seat pad and perhaps trim the chain stays a bit to fit my shoulders. I'd also like to mount a red light on the back of the bike since it's ultra-low and easy for drivers to miss.

Fortunately, I am exactly the same height as John, who made the bike for himself, so no BB adjustment was needed. The bike is very comfortable and after 30 miles I had no recumbent butt or foot numbness. I can't wait for the next ride.

Hotter N' Hell Hundred 2009

Aimee and Jim and I headed north last week for the 2009 Hotter N' Hell Hundred. It was just a month since my gastric surgery so we opted for the 50 mile route, even though the weather promised to be mild.

The first few years I did this ride we stayed in Duncan, Oklahoma. It's just 60 miles from the ride and hotel rooms are plentiful and cheap. Of course It does require getting up an hour earlier and driving back to Wichita Falls in the dark. Last year we had a chance to stay in WF and loved the convenience so I don't think we'll being staying in Duncan in the future.

In previous years we've either ridden singles or the Rans Seavo on this ride. This year Aimee chose the Barcroft California back to back for the ride. I had some misgivings about bringing the California to the HHH, primarily because we transport the bike on a trailer. That means everywhere we park in crowded Wichita Falls we would need two spaces. It all worked out though. We found a good spot at the hotel and arrived early at the ride on Friday morning to find a perfect spot on the street. The bike even fit in our hotel room.

This bike is alot of fun, of course, everywhere we ride it and the HHH was no exception. We were chased by several photographers at the start line who wanted info on the bike. Almost everyone who passed us asked us the usual questions:

"Did you build that?

"Don't you get car sick?"

"Does it go both ways?"

At every rest stop we would get water and refreshment and return to find our bike surrounded by admirers. This bike is a good will ambassador!

The last 5 or 6 times I've done this ride, it's been on a recumbent and usually a tandem. We were always started in the front at the start line. This year tandems and recumbents were started with their mileage groups. I didn't like this much when I heard about it since the California is a little twitchy at low speeds. It turned out to be an improvement. We started at the back of the 100k pack. Since we were in back we were not surrounded by bikes and were able to maneauver freely. We crossed the start line by 7:20 or so.

The first ten miles of the ride, although flat, are my least favorite. The road surface is chip seal. It's rough and slows the bike down. This road makes regular asphalt seem like glass.



The California affords the stoker an excellent platform for photography.

Turnout this year was 14,205 riders according to the HHH websire. It showed at the erst stops where, for the first time, I saw long lines for food and water.

Like most recumbents, the California is fast on flats and descents, but slow to climb. It's definitely not a hill bike, at least for me.

This is probably the easiest HHH I've ever ridden. The high was 88 when we finished compared to the 103 we endured a few years ago. Winds were light and favorable. Sag and rests top support was, as usual, simply awesome. I'm looking forward to next years HHH.

Since my weight loss surgery on July 28, my biking has been getting easier by the day. I've now lost 30 pounds as of this morning. Who knows what I'll weigh then? My plan is to do the century on a new low racer.

Saving Weight

How many times have you heard someone say, "If I really wanted to save weight on this bike I'd lose some weight"?

I've said that to my riding friends many times. My weight has been steadily rising over the years, taking me from a sleek 166 when I got out of the Marine Corps all the way up to 282 this July. Things were getting to the point that there were several bikes I just couldn't ride because I was over the weight limit. I've tried many diets and found that i could lose the weight, but I just couldn't keep it off. Exercise wasn't the answer either. I consider myself an active person and I love being on the bike, but the more I exercised, the fatter I got.

So, on July 28 I had a sleeve gastrectomy here in Houston.

The surgery was laproscopic. I had it on a Tuesday, was home on Wednesday and back at work on Monday. I was riding again about 10 days after the surgery.

80% of my stomach has been permanently removed. What remains is the size and shape of a banana. I feel stuffed after eating only 4 ounces of food. So far I've lost 27 pounds in the last 4 weeks. I look forward to dropping another 70 pounds or so. I feel great and only wish I had done it sooner.

My stoker and I will be heading up to Wichita Falls on Friday for the Hotter N' hell 100. I can't wait.

Gearing Up

I had a little minor surgery in July so I've been away from this blog for a while. I'm recovering nicely and was able to get in a short ride on the Oregon over the weekend. It felt good, but i don't have all my strength back yet. During my hiatus, it occurred to me that this would be a good time to make a change on the back-to-back that I've been thinking about for the last few weeks.

The bike has 3 speed Sachs hubs on both ends. My stoker and I have noticed that we typically spend all our riding time in 3rd gear unless we're climbing. Then we drop down to 2. Neither of us have ever used 1. When the bike is going downhill, we can't keep up with it and are unable to apply power, even in top gear. On flats our speed is limited not by leg power, but by our ability to spin fast enough to keep up with the bike. In short, the bike is geared too low for us. The other problem we've noticed is that in top gear, my stoker is always spinning a little faster than I am. No, I can't see her back there, but at times, I can see her shadow on the side of the road and observe her cadence.

So I decided to run the bike over to Danny, the Cycle Genius, to see if he could up gear the bike for us.

As usual, Danny came up with a solution. He removed the old drive chain rings above the derailleurs and replaced them with larger ones. This isn't as simple as it sounds. The old chain rings were 48 teeth in the front and 46 teeth in the rear. This explains why the stoker spins faster. Both chain rings are now 54 teeth. As a practical matter it may be necessary to fit a floating idler on the front (ala my Oregon)to be sure the chain aligns properly in all gears.

In back it was necessary to raise the rear idler so that the chain would clear the new, larger chain ring. This meant taking the idler off of it's frame mount and moving it up to the rear handlebar stem. The height has to be adjusted carefully since these are flip-it handlebars.

This new configuration should provide better utilization of the gearing rage of the bike. It should also allow for better speed. I can't wait to get the bike back out on the road, but that will be at least a couple of weeks.

Tour De Braz 2009

I wasn't planning on doing this ride this year, but David told me he was doing it few weeks ago and asked if Liz and I were riding it. David hasn't ridden much with us this year, so what could I say? That, plus Liz loves organized rides when she can sit on the back of a back to back tandem and talk to riders as we pass them.

I wasn't sure Liz would be okay with getting up at 5am and leaving the house by 5:30, but she didn't bat an eye. So we saddled up and headed to Alvin.

We planned to register at the ride, but I am usually able to print off a registration sheet the night before and fill it out ahead of time. I couldn't do that with this ride since I was unable to access the forms once online and mail in registration closed. That ought to be changed.

The crowd at the start looked to me to be about the same as last year: 400-500 riders. We parked in a satellite lot and set the bike up for the start a little ahead of the start line. I did notice that there were no ride photographers on the route as there were last year.

I sold the Flevo a month ago so we were on the Barcroft this year. Weather conditions were about the same as last year...windy. The Flevo was an excellent bike in wind and the Barcroft is as well. The routine is pretty much the same. In downwind or crosswind legs of the ride we can hold our own and pass many DF's. On the upwind legs, however, we are able to pass most DF's without really trying. The ride was upwind for the first half and basically crosswind and tailwind for the last half. That's a perfect setup!

There were a couple of glitches with the route, but for the most part, it was well marked. There was certainly plenty of sag support and I don't think we went more than 15 minutes without being passed by a sag wagon or a ride official on a motorcycle. Just as last year, ride registration bought you lunch of Sloppy Joe's, chips, drinks, and Popsicles.

We completed 47.4 miles and crossed the finish line around 10:30 before it got really hot. We enjoyed this ride and will probably make it a regular part of our season.

Nocom

It's been a few weeks since my last post. The Flevo is gone and I'm down to just two tandems now. I had been looking at the Longbikes Jetstream to replace the Flevo, but decided that the high price tag of the bike, though perhaps justified by the quality of the bike, was not worth it to me since it would not result in a significant improvement in performance over the Seavo. The fact is that I love speed. That's the real reason I sold the Screamer, the V2, and the V2 Formula 26. Each bike I've purchased has been faster than the last. That's not an uncommon evolution for cyclists. So, I'm not going to buy a Jetstream.

That brings me to the Nocom.

I didn't know much about this bike until I saw a "for sale" posting for one on BentRiderOnline. I was taken by it's beauty and the feeling the bike was in motion when it was standing still. The price was excellent, but I was about an inch too short to fit the bike. Having done a little research, however, I was hooked. Now I just have to find the cash to get one.

Sold

My beloved Flevo is going to a new home this month. I'd been edging towards selling it ever since I got the Barcroft back to back and I guess Liz breaking her hip and feeling nervous about getting on the Flevo was the last straw. It's going to a good home, but I'll miss it.

With this infusion of cash it's time to do what comes naturally: buy a new bike. I'm looking at a Longbikes Jetstream. It's a stylish looking thing, but I know going in it's not going to be as fast as my back to back or my Seavo. I've had some trouble finding out how much the bike weighs. The manfacturers website does not list the weight in the specifications. I need to do more research.