RecumBum

Biking Across Kansas (BAK) is an annual bicycle tour across the state of Kansas. The ride takes place each June, starting at the Colorado border and traveling east to the Missouri border. Each year uses a different route, this time across the norther tier of the state, starting in Saint Francis and ending in Atchison a week later:

BAK 2008 Route Map

I rode BAK in 2006, but didn’t get a chance to complete the journey, due to illness. So for me, BAK 2008 is a chance to take care of some unfinished business, as well as to see a part of the state I’ve never had a chance to visit before.

Here’s a quick summary of the stuff I’m taking with me:

Bike & Gear:

• 1 Burley Django recumbent bicycle (w/accessories attached)
• 1 helmet
• 1 eyeglass mirror
• 1 spare 20″ tire
• 1 spare 20″ tube
• 1 spare 26″ tire
• 1 spare 26″ tube
• 1 tube patch kit
• 1 multitool
• 2 water bottles
• 1 tail light (Planet Bike Superflash)
• trunk bag

This is basically the same as in prior trips, except that I’m bringing along spare tires. I took my bike to be checked out by a local shop, and they pronounced the tires fit for the trip, but they have about 3000 miles on them, so they’re likely on the last half of their life. The spares are not exactly new either, being the Django’s original tires. But they’ll do in a pinch, and don’t add any significant weight or bulk.

Camping Gear:

• Tent (Eureka Pinnacle Pass 2XTA)
• Sleeping pad (Cabella’s XPG Ultralight Sleeping Pad, Regular).
• Sleeping bag (Northeast Outfitters Trailhead Mummy)
• Microbead travel pillow.
• Alarm clock (Timex travel)
• GCI Outdoor Trail-Sling Ultralight Chair

The only new item here is the chair. I’m still not sure about it, but it’s reasonably small and light, so it’s worth a try. I may review it later, after I’ve had a chance to give it a field test.

Clothing & Personal:

• 3 cycling shorts
• 3 cycling jerseys
• 2 pairs socks
• 1 pair riding gloves
• 1 pair riding sandals (Lake SPD)
• 1 pair off-bike sandals
• 1 pair off-bike shirt
• 1 pair zip-off-pants (World Wide Sportsman Pro IV Zip-Off Pants)
• 2 pair underwear
• 1 rain jacket (O2 Rainwear hooded jacket)
• 1 MSR Packtowl UltraLite, large
• 1 set earplugs
• 1 pair sunglasses
• 1 bottle ibuprofen
• 1 lip balm
• 1 MP3 player w/earbuds
• 1 small notebook w/pen
• 1 travel wallet w/credit card, ID, insurance card, cash
• Toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, shampoo, etc.)
• Misc energy bars & gels
• 1 fanny pack
• 1 cell phone
• 1 camera
• 1 duffle bag

The only addition here is the zip-off-pants. I’m thinking I can use that as pants if the evening weather in western Kansas is cool, or ad off-bike shorts if it’s warm. Since the fabric is also supposed to be water-resistant, if could also potentially be used as rain pants on the bike.

Total: About 32 pounds, including everything except the bike itself.

Another month, another high-water mark. This time, it’s 722 miles in the books, split between the Django (444) and the mountain bike (278).

Year-to-date, I’m at 2290 miles, well over my target goal of 1550 miles.

Highlights from the month:

• A good long country ride with Dave and Reed
• One day of singletrack, checking out the trails at Shawnee Mission Park
• A 70-miler with Reed, on a windy day, at a 15 MPH pace
• A 44-miler the next day, at a 16 MPH pace
• A few nice, gentle gravel road rides on the mountain bike
• A 50-miler on the mountain bike with 9Toes, at a 13.7 MPH pace
• A mountain bike adventure on minimum maintenance roads

Where’s all this riding leading me? Biking Across Kansas, starting June 7th!

Google Maps is a great online mapping site, providing road maps of the entire US (and much of the rest of the world), as well as satellite views and the innovative “Street View” for selected cities.

But you can’t always trust what it tells you.

I’ve noticed this a few times just recently. I’d map out a route, go to ride it, then midway through the route, come upon a missing road. In most cases, it’s looked like the road has been gone for years, yet Google still shows it as an active road. How old is Google’s data, anyway?

In the latest example, I mapped a route starting in the town of Hillsdale, taking gravel roads south of the lake, and wrapping around back to the starting point. On gravel routes, I often try to find “crooked” roads, as these often indicate especially interesting terrain, as the roads have to detour from their normal north-south grid to accommodate lakes, rivers, creeks, hills, or whatever.

This time, there was an intriguing ripple just 5 miles or so into the ride (see the map on the right, between Harmony Road and 271st Street).

My first hint that something was wrong was this sign at the junction of 265th and Harmony Road. (And yes, that’s a broken concrete bridge in the background, with some missing rails.) The sign directs me to the right, so naturally, I turned left.

After a few hundred yards, the gravel starts to thin out, and I see this sign, knocked off kilter and partially hidden by trees. It says “Minimum Maintenance Travel At Your Own Risk”. OK, fine. I have a mountain bike, I can handle a rough road. At least it doesn’t say “Road Closed” or “Dead End”.

Another few hundred yards down the road, I come to a muddy section, muddy but passable. I continue, and pretty soon bare dirt gives way to grass and weeds, I start to wonder if this is still a road, or if I’m now trespassing in a farmer’s field. But I press on, with the two wheel-tracks visible off and on through the weeds.

Eventually I come to this. The road goes off over an embankment and across a creek. I stop on the shoreline. The creek is perhaps 50 feet across, but it appears shallow, all rock, no mud. The road continues on the other side, and disappears around a corner. OK, I think, I’ve come this far. It doesn’t look that bad. I decide to give it a go. Before I take off, I put my cell phone and camera in a plastic baggie, as a precaution. I mount up and slowly begin pedaling into the water. All’s well for a few feet, then the wheels slide out from under me and I go down, kind of half-falling, one foot and one hand in the water, the other foot still on the pedal, the other hand holding the bike. Only a few inches of handlebar get wet. I stand up, try to push forward and mount up again, but soon give up on that and dismount, both feet in the water up to my ankles. I consider turning back, but begin to push the bike across the remainder of the ford. The creek bottom is covered in green algae, slick as snot. But I struggle across. Except for a short bit where the water runs faster, the creek never gets deeper, and I maintain my footing.

I’m across. Here’s the view looking back the way I came. I continue on up the road a bit, but it dead-ends at a closed gate. I could have opened it, I suppose. This was supposed to be a public road. But at this point it wasn’t much of a road any more. Beyond the gate, all I could see was grass — no road.

So I decided to turn back. I waded across the creek and made it back to the other side without incident. Of course, now I have seriously soggy socks. Good thing they’re not cotton. And the sandals, aside from retaining a bit of water in the footbed, are no worse for wear. I return the way I came.

Of course now, with my planned route obstructed, I have to figure out another way around. Rather than doing that, I decided to take some time to explore the area around the Hillsdale Lake dam and state park. Which I did, for quite some time.

By the time I made it back to the truck, I’d covered over 23 miles, at the blistering pace of 9.35 MPH. Oh well, it wasn’t about the speed on this day, it was just about the joy of riding, exploring, getting wet, and learning the limits of Google Maps. To be fair, Yahoo Maps, which seems to have newer data, and better satellite images, shows the road as connecting as well. Later, I checked with the State Park maps, and they show it as a “seasonal road”. Even that, it seems, is stretching the truth…

It’s been a pretty solid week of riding, with a few really tough excursions.

The week started with two take-it-easy type of days, Sunday and Monday, totaling about 55 miles at a very moderate pace on gravel roads on the mountain bike.

Tuesday, a friend and I did a 70-miler, with me on the Django, fighting a strong and gusty wind for much of the ride with varying degrees of headwind and crosswind. Then, when we finally felt the wind at our backs, we really picked up the pace. For awhile, I was in the big chainring exclusively, just jamming it as hard as I could for as long as I could. It seemed like every time I looked down at the computer, the speed was above 20 MPH. I ended up with a 15.00 MPH average, on the dot, and I was completely spent. I think that was the longest period of time I had ever kept up that kind of pace.

The next day was the regular Wednesday group ride, and I thought about bailing on it. But since this ride is usually a fairly relaxed 30-miler, I decided to go, and just take it easy. Of course, the ride leader happened to have other ideas. We ended up doing 44 miles at a 16.04 MPH average. So much for my easy recovery day. Luckily, the wind was mild on this day. Still, it was another personal best — my longest 16+ MPH ride ever.

Thursday, I decided to take a rest day. I’d ridden for 10 days straight, so I was due. Even so, with the sun coming out in the afternoon, after morning showers, I was starting to feel temptation. But I held firm.

Friday started off rainy again, so I resigned myself to another rest day. But in the afternoon, under cloudy skies, I did a quick grocery run on the mountain bike, trying out the new bar ends I’d purchased on Wednesday, as well as a new seatpost rack. Both performed well.

Saturday was another big ride. I have a friend who’s training for an endurance mountain bike ride (the Dirty Kanza — 200 miles through the Flint Hills of east-central Kansas), and he wanted to get in some relatively fast gravel miles. I wasn’t sure how many I could handle on the mountain bike, since I’m still kind of getting acclimated to that rig, but I was game to try.

The day dawned with thunderstorms, but by the time we started out at mid-morning, the rain had mostly cleared out. I’d mapped out a 50-mile route down to Louisburg, sticking mostly to gravel. The roads were in decent shape for the most part, wet but not too tacky or muddy. The ride southward was partially into the wind, but we still made pretty good time. By the time we reached Louisburg, we were averaging 13.5 MPH.

The way back, though we had a tailwind, and the roads were flatter, turned into a bit of a slog for me. This was my longest, fastest ride on the mountain bike, and I was wearing down. It didn’t help that we hit a very muddy section of road about halfway back, but it did help a great deal when we hit pavement a few miles from my house. By the time I got back, I was pretty well beat, with sore legs and sore hands. My tail end, which I’d been most worried about, was actually doing pretty well.

Of course, with all the gravel and mud, the bike and I were a mess. After getting myself cleaned up with a quick shower, it took a half hour or so to rinse off and wipe down the bike, re-lube the chain, clean up the muddy gear, and throw the dirty clothes in the washer.

Still, even with the mud and fatigue, it was a heck of a fun ride, and not a bad pace, either — 13.7 MPH. As a bonus, much of the route was new to me, and it’s always a treat to ride on unfamiliar rural roads.

I’m a bit slow on the draw with this, but I’d like to introduce you to the newest steed in my stable:

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you — it’s not a recumbent.

And no, I’m not planning to give up recumbents or anything. I still love my Burley Django, and it’s still my main steed. For riding on roads in reasonable comfort and efficiency, I’ve found nothing better.

But there’s some things it can’t do, and other things it doesn’t do particularly well.

You might recall that last autumn I switched the Django over to fat tires and rode some gravel roads. I even tried using the fat-tired recumbent as a mountain bike. Riding the recumbent on gravel worked well enough, but the singletrack experiment did not work at all.

So this winter I’ve been watching the local Craingslist for used mountain bikes, but the pickings have been pretty slim. I was looking for a basic mountain bike, nothing fancy or complicated, mid-range in price, no more than $300. It seemed like all the mountain bikes coming up for sale were either department store bike-shaped objects or high-end rigs costing over $1000. I was just looking for a solid, quality bike, something that I could experiment with without sinking a bunch of money into it, but something that I could build on if I decided I liked it.

Eventually, I gave up on Craigslist, and took a drive over to Lawrence to check out The Re-Cyclery, a bike shop that sells reconditioned used bikes. At the shop, I told them what I was after, and they pointed me to a bike that, quite frankly, didn’t look like much.

The bike had no paint, no labels, no identifying markings of any kind. The frame was just bare aluminum. I was told that the frame was made by Balance, probably in the mid-1990′s. The name didn’t mean anything to me, but I took a closer look, and saw that the old frame was surrounded by mostly new components — new brakes, new derailleurs, new chainrings, new cassette, new cables, new tires. There were a few old parts — the front fork, the saddle, the rims — but everything seemed pretty solid. The frame appeared to be in really good shape, with no visible damage, and very nice-looking welds.

I took it for a test-ride, and wow, I was impressed immediately. It just felt right — very natural. Took the bike back in the shop, looked at a few other possibilities, but came back to the Balance. The price was $275, including tax. I was told I could bring it back and they’d swap out anything I didn’t like. Sold.

Once home, I did some research, and found that Balance was in business from approximately 1993 to 1998. I found a scan of their 1995 brochure, and could definitely recognize the frame, though some of the details were different. So it’s not a ’95 model, and I found pictures of the ’98 models, and it doesn’t quite match that, either. So I suspect that it’s a 1993 or 1994 frame, and I never could quite nail down which exact model it was.

I ended up dubbing it the “Tabula“. The name’s a bit of an inside joke, but think of the phrase “tabula rasa” — Latin for “blank slate” — and perhaps you’ll see the appropriateness of the name.

I bought the bike at the end of March, and in almost two months, I’ve put a little over 300 miles on it. That includes some singletrack, some pavement, and a lot of gravel road riding. I’ve added a seat bag, pump, and water bottle cage.

I find the bike comfortable to ride, for the most part, though I’m still trying to work through some saddle issues. Coming from a cushy recumbent seat, any upright saddle would be a big change, and that’s where I’ve run into most of my problems.

My longest ride has been about three hours, and I was definitely happy to be done with it on that day. Even with padded shorts, I was experiencing some discomfort. I’m still not sure whether I need to experiment with new saddles, or just get acclimated to the saddle I have. Time will tell, I guess.

I do love the feel of the bike on gravel. Compared to the recumbent, the higher center of gravity of the mountain bike feels way more stable, particularly on loose rock or a soft surface. I don’t think I’m any faster than I was on the bent, but I’m much more confident.

Wish me luck — it’s a new adventure!

Well, April turned out to be a heckuva month for me, cycling-wise, with 650 miles in the saddle, bringing me to over 1500 for the year, way ahead of goal.

In fact, April was my biggest month ever, which I find incredible, since the weather was intermittently crappy, with wind, rain, and cold all being factors.

But I managed to ride 21 times in April. Here are a few highlights:

• On April 2nd, I rode twice in one day, first on a group ride in the morning, then a solo ride in the afternoon, for about 54 miles.

• On what felt like the First Day of Spring, a rare day that was both sunny and calm (but still rather chilly), I rode from my house to meet a friend, we did a 40-mile ride together, then I rode home, giving me 63 miles for the day.

• I rode a circuit around Hillsdale Lake with a friend on April 5th, at what was for me, a very fast clip — 15.2 MPH over 55 miles, my fastest ride ever at that distance.

• On April 19th I rode the long route of the local bike club’s Spring Classic, getting in 72 miles, and finishing strong on a cool and blustery day.

• I rode a number of short gravel road rides on my new mountain bike, and even a bit of singletrack. (No, I haven’t written about this new bike yet, but I will.) Suffice to say for now that I’m still getting acclimated to it, and 30 or so s-l-o-w miles is about my limit at this point.

I don’t expect May to be quite as heavy as April, but I didn’t expect April to be as big as it turned out to be, so you never know!

I don’t care what the calendar says, yesterday was the first day I really felt that Spring had arrived.

Oh, there have been days that have hinted at Spring, days that have teased and flirted with Spring, and days that have promised but not quite delivered.

Yesterday delivered. Sure, with temperatures topping out in the low 50′s, it was rather cool, but with a sunny, cloudless sky, and mild wind, it was a good day for a bike ride.

And ride I did.

I rode over to a friend’s house, and we took off for a three-hour spin, heading west on 127th from his place in Overland Park, crossing over I-35 and taking advantage of a few miles of bike lanes before heading north on Parker. At College Blvd we aimed the wheels westward for a few more miles, looping around the giant Honeywell plant at the K-7/K-10 interchange, eventually hitting the convenience store at Cedar Creek.

After a short break, we set off again, rerouting on the fly to get around some road construction, and ended up east-bound on Prairie Start Parkway. We took that as far as Woodland, then Woodland north to Johnson Drive. There was one big downhill on Woodland, followed by some minor hills before we settled into the largely flat roads along Mill Creek.

At Johnson Drive we headed east again, crossing the creek and taking a short break at the ballfields before tackling the two big hills on Johnson Drive. This was only my second time on these hills, but they didn’t seem as imposing as the first time I rode them, and soon enough they were done, and we’d turned south on Renner.

Renner has some good-sized rollers, and one long curving hill as it passes over I-435, where I looked down at my odometer and found I’d done 45 miles, and was still feeling fine.

After another five miles of Renner rollers, we took a short jaunt on Kansas City Road before finding ourselves back on 127th. I split off from my friend at Pflumm, and headed south with the early rush-hour traffic. There were a few places where traffic got a little hectic, but everyone was pretty well-behaved, and I was soon back in the country.

At Heritage Park I took a short break and did one of my favorite things, just sitting quietly and listening to the near silence, watching some birds playing in a nearby tree. The peace was short-lived, as cars on the road soon disturbed the moment, and so I continued on, southward for a few more miles, then westward and home.

I ended up with just over 63 miles — a nice little metric century!

And today, of course, the weather has changed again. We have the warmth, and we have the sun, but today (and tomorrow) bring strong and gusty winds. I’ll probably still go out for at least a short ride, but it’ll be hard to beat yesterday’s almost perfect ride.

At least until this weekend, when the annual Spring Classic takes place, hopefully with cooperative weather!

The day started out very cool, with temperatures in the upper 30s with a brisk easterly wind. I had a group ride scheduled for 10am, and briefly considered bailing on it, but instead doubled up with two pairs of socks and two shirts, as well as the normal selection of shorts, tights, vest, etc.

The ride leader selected a westerly route, thinking that we’d warm ourselves up pedaling with the wind, and could then deal with a headwind once the temperature moderated. With steady sunshine, that plan worked to perfection.

We ended up getting in nearly 32 miles on this route, at a moderate 13.5 MPH pace. By the end of the ride, the temperature had reached the mid-50s, and with the glorious sunshine, it felt nearly perfect, even with the wind.

Arriving home, I grabbed a quick lunch, but couldn’t quite bring myself to take off the cycling gear. The weather was just too nice, and I was still feeling strong. Checking the forecast, which calls for clouds and rain tomorrow, sealed the deal, and I headed back out on the road, looking to get the day’s mileage above 50.

This time I headed east, knowing how good the tailwind would feel at the end, but even so, I was setting a pretty good pace. Riding east on 175th, with the gentle rollers and wide shoulders, I saw an astonishing sight — a recumbent. Seeing cyclists on this road is no surprise, but another ‘bent is a rare occurrence.

I closed the gap quickly, and it turned out to be a woman on a bright pink EZ-1, just cruising on this beautiful day. We talked as we rode along together for a mile or so. Turns out she lives nearby and rides regularly. It’s amazing we haven’t come across each other before.

As I made my turn onto Antioch, she turned around to head back home, and we bid each other farewell. After another 2.5 miles into the wind (which by now was coming from the southeast), I turned west on 199th and just crushed it towards home (well, as much as I can crush it anyway).

I ended up with nearly 22 miles at a 15.3 MPH clip, which wasn’t too bad, considering. All told, I ened up with just under 54 miles for the day. Sweet!

The only downer for the day was that I neglected to apply sunscreen, so now I have a red face, except for the whiteness beneath my sunglasses, giving me that oh-so-classy reverse raccoon look. Oh well.

March is known for its winds, and this year it ran true to form. For me, March began with a terribly windy ride on the first, and ended with an only slightly-less-windy ride on the 31st, with plenty of gusty days in between.

I ended up with 388 miles for the month, and 910 miles year-to-date, both numbers over my goal.

I rode 16 times, with the longest ride being about 45 miles. The coldest ride was 36 degrees, and the warmest was about 65.

All in all, my cycling year is coming together quite nicely. I had a bit of knee pain mid-month, but I’m optimistic that a cleat adjustment will bring that under control. I expect April to see another modest bump in mileage, ramping up towards 500-600 miles-per-month by mid-year. I also expect wind to remain a factor for awhile, and hopefully the temperatures will continue to moderate as well. And one of these days, I’ll actually see green return to the land!

My next scheduled group ride is April 29, when the Johnson County Bike Club’s Spring Classic rolls out from Lenexa with 26, 46, and 70 mile options. Assuming the weather is reasonable on that day, I’ll probably try the longest route.

For the first time this year, I’ve been able to ride the bike four days in a row. The weather wasn’t great, but it was good enough. We had one really nice day, two decent days, and one iffy day. I ended up getting rained on a bit on the iffy day, but it was still a good day to ride.

Today started off with a rain/snow mixture, and the forecast is calling for more cool temperatures, clouds, and rain for the next four days, so it may be mid-week before I get on the bike again.

So I’m glad I was able to ride this week. The mileage wasn’t huge — 114 miles, and the pace was pretty pokey, but by the end of the week, I could certainly tell I’d ridden. It may be awhile before I’m built up again to the 500-600 miles-a-month level I expect by mid-year, but I’ll get there.

Compared to last year, I’m feeling pretty strong, having done quite a bit of hill work already. On March 1st, I did a short but very tough ride, heavy on the hills and wind. That was painful, but it seems to have served me well. All part of the process…