JP Bike Research

After the appendectomy, I wasn’t supposed to ride for 2-3 weeks.  A of yesterday it was 2 weeks and 3 days.

Well, I did my commute yesterday for the first time since the surgery and I had really been missing it.  Here’s how it goes:  I get up at 5:30, rush to get dressed and ready, eat a little bit of food, then hop on the bike by 5:55am.  I ride the gorgeous green path down to the Charles River.  It’s pretty dark that early in the morning, but I just got some Sigma Karma lights (more on those later) super powered bike lights, so I can see anything and everything now.  Riding along the river, I used to be able to see the sunset, but now that fall is here, it’s just the smoldering glow of the pre-dawn.  Seven miles from home, I arrive at North Station, where I hop on a train that will take me north through the worst part of the commute, while conveniently shaving 12 miles off the commute.

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(this is only an approximation, since Google Maps doesn’t show shortcuts!)

I arrive and start riding through the suburban industrial center which slowly changes to true backroads suburbia.  It’s not the greatest biking, but it works, and I’ve gotten used to it.  There aren’t that many cars, and that early, they seem to still be courteous.  That’s about another 12 miles or so to work.

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I was able to take it pretty easy, go slowly up the hills, and arrive in a very comfortable state.  Man, it’s good to be out again! Next week, I’ll take a bunch of pictures. This time it was way too cloudy.

In my last post, I was talking about how crazy the camping was this year.  well, the craziness didn’t stop.

We got all the bikes packed up with all of our gear — we were able to bring EVERYTHING for our family minus the food and cooking equipment thanks to the trailer and xtracycle combo which worked out wonderfully!  We met everyone along one of the major bike trails in Boston and got everyone together.

Here's a nice long view of some of our gang.

We had an adventurous 8 mile ride with 10 bikes and almost as many trailers going through downtown Boston during rush hour traffic.  We just took the lane and held steady and made it without incident to the Ferry Terminal.  The folks on the ferry were very accomodating to our large amount of stuff and people and made us feel very welcome.

Upon arriving in Provincetown, we got some lunch and then proceeded to ride to the campground.  The road is fairly flat with rolling hills, and even though I was carrying much more weight that I had in previous years, I felt totally comfortable and was in the lead group the whole time.  We set up camp, went to the beach and enjoyed the absolutely perfect weather.

Saturday is usally the day where we pack up again and go on a longer bike ride through some pretty hilly terrain down to a beach on the bayside fo the Cape, where the water is a bit calmer and warmer.  I woke up with some intense stomach cramps, so I ended up not going, which got me pretty depressed.  I slept and tried to chill out all day, but by the time the friends came back, the pain was worse.  We finally opted to borrow one of the cars of the people who had driven and go to the hospital 1 hour away.  (Even though I was a bike camping purist, I’m now grateful that there were cars there!!). Long story short: I had appendicitis and this was the end of my bike trip!  My wife came down after putting the girls to bed and stayed with me the rest of the night and day while I recovered from surgery.  Our neighbor from Boston drove 2 hours out to come pick me up and take me home — what a life saver.  This also meant, much to my enjoyment, that the wife and kids got to continue their camping/biking fun.  The biggest worry was who was going to ride my extra-sized xtra-cycle.  It’s a 25″ frame, which fortunately one of the guys with us could fit on a ride home.  When he pulled up on monday evening he said, “wow, that’s a lot more comfortable to ride than I thought i would be!”  Damn straight.

I think we’ll try one more bike camping trip in October whne the wife is away in Florida, but for now, there’s no biking for me for another few weeks.  sigh…

This is what my steed looked like this year.

In addition to the insanely huge RSS feed of bicycle links that I go through each day, I also like to read printed matter as well!

Bicycle Times Issue #2, I just have #3

I heard about the magazine Bicycle Times from Russ over at Epicurean Cyclist, and recently subscribed.  I got the recently got an issue of Bicycle Times and have to say that I love it.  I’ve never been one to get BICYCLING magazine, since I’m not so much into the racing thing.  I’ve been a longtime subscriber to Bicycle Quarterly and Adventure Cyclist.  I occasionally pick up an issue of Momentum at the LBS, but I have to say that Bicycle Times is a great new discovery.  Go check it out!

The summer of 2009 was not the “great summer of camping” I was hoping it was going to be. I had such high hopes!

We went on a Memorial Day camping trip pretty close by in a park with miles upon miles of wonderful bike trails. That turned out to be a lot of fun and met some new people, but we also had to deal with a downpour of such an extreme that it broke our tarps with the weight of the water. Fun, but wet.

I had hoped to sneak away, just me and the girls for some bike camping at a campsite about 12 miles outside of Boston. We had gone there last year and it was fantastic. I had a smaller backpacking tent that would keep things light and we’d cook dinner together and it’d be fantastic.  It rained the two open weekends we had available, so scratch that.

July 4th, we hauled our asses up to northern Vermont to camp near Lake Carmi and ride on the Missiquoi Bike Path (pdf). We had tons of people with us and it rained the entire weekend. Everything was drenched, and if it weren’t for the wonderful company and the one short and one long bike ride we got it, it would have been frustrating.

We also flew out to California (where I’m from) to visit family and go camping in Yosemite for two nights. That was fantastic! And as I’m writing this, I’m realizing that we actually have done quite a bit of camping, but our two big trips were just so wet.

So, here we are on the eve of our annual Cape Cod Bike Trip and the weather looks as if it’ll be fantastic. The wife will have 4 panniers, and I’ll be loading down the Xtracycle and pulling the kids in the trailer. Very exciting.

Wish me luck!

My light Lemond commuter was used on our first trip, where we drove with all of our stuff.

Last year, we were able to carry all of our stuff, and the kids were a little older. For that I brought my Panasonic city bike with front panniers.