Test Ride

Today is just one week till I fly out, so I packed up pretty much everything that I’ll take away and loaded up the trike for a bit of a test ride.  Here’s what it looked like.

Yes, it was a bit cool this morning, so I rugged up somewhat, but the important thing was to check that everything worked well.

The big thing about loading up the trike is the fact that the weight is well towards the rear, and that makes a noticeable difference to the handling.  You can see the baggage right back over the rear wheel here.

What this means it that it’s very easy to lift the inside front wheel in a corner, which might be fun, but it’s also very easy to roll over, which wouldn’t be fun at all.  I’ll need to be a little more tentative in the corners until I get a better idea of what this feels like, and how to position myself in the seat to make the trike a little more stable.

I took a shot of the rear view as well, to get an idea of what the European traffic will see of me.  It looks good, I reckon.

The Wonders (and Mysteries) of Technology

I have encountered an absolute mystery of technology today!

Bizarre is the only word for it!

As you know (if you’ve read my earlier posts), I recently bought a Garmin GPS cycle computer to be able to track my journey through Europe.  One of the things that I wanted to be sure of before I invested my hard earned cash was that it included an odometer.  That is the thing that keeps a record of the overall total distance travelled.  You’ve got one built into the speedo of your car.  Anyway, the Garmin Edge 800 has an odometer, so that helped in the decision to buy one.

Up till now, I’ve used a little cycle computer that includes an odometer, and it shows that I have now travelled 50,938km since I bought the trike in February 2005.  I enjoy being able to quote a number like that – there’s a sense of achievement in it, and I wanted to maintain that with the new gadget.

So, I bought it, and went to enter the total so far of my travelling, and when I did, it kept on showing a total of 42,950km.  And when I went for a ride, it wouldn’t go any further.  That was it.  Actually, when I went to change it again, it showed 42,949.7km.  Not a centimeter further.

I did a re-set.  Odometer showed 0km.  Entered 50,000+ – whatever it was at the time.  It pretended to accept the new value, and then said, “No, I prefer 42,949.7.”

And stayed put at that point.

So, an odd thought occurred to me.  What would happen if I entered a smaller number?  So, I took 40,000km off the total this morning and entered 10,901km, and rode to work.  And when I got there it showed 10,915!  And when I got home it showed 10,938.

How bizarre is that!

Apparently some clown in a Garmin office somewhere has decided that no-one will ever ride more than 42,949.7km, so that is the maximum that their gadget will allow!  What the…?!

As I said, the mysteries of technology!

Still, the gadget gives some useful / interesting information.  Apart from maps like to one of the Bulli to Unanderra ride, the Garmin website gives some graphs of various features of a ride.  My trip home today was rather fun – I went a bit of a longer way home that involved going part of the way around Lake Burley Griffin, and then up the hill to Aranda before heading down to North Canberra.  Here are three graphs of aspects of that ride.

First up is Speed.

Then Elevation

And we can add Heart Rate as well

How cool is that?  My average Heart Rate was 130bpm and my average speed was about 21.4kph.  And I can compare my speed against the elevation and heart rate at any point.  Going uphill, the speed drops and the heart rate goes up – not surprising, but the interesting thing for me is how much the speed drops or the heart rate goes up.  How fit does this tell me I am, and am I getting fitter over time?

Is it a trifle narcisstic?  Probably.  Is that a problem?  Not really.  Is it fun? Absolutely!!

Trike Service

I put the trike in to get a few parts replaced yesterday.  It needed a new chain, cluster and big chain ring, and new brake and derailleur cables.  The cluster is the set of cogs or gears on the back wheel and the chain rings are the gears at the front.  I usually replace a chain and cluster every 10,000km and the chain rings when they are worn.  On the trike there are nine cogs on the cluster and three chain rings, giving a total of 27 gear ratios available.

Usually, non-cyclists are taken aback by having that many gears, because we are used to having five gears available in our cars these days, and that is quite adequate for the car.  The difference, though is in the “motor” that is driving the vehicle.  In a car, there is usually a petrol engine, and one of the things about petrol engines is that they can operate efficiently across a wide rev range.  I can drive my car from 1,000rpm to 6,000rpm, so in each gear I can drive at a slow speed through to quite a high speed.

For a cyclist, the “motor” is the human body, and the human body cannot operate efficiently across a wide range of pedalling rpm (or cadence in cycling-speak).  For each cyclist, there is a cadence which is the most efficient.  It’s like a rhythm in the pedalling motion which gets the best out of the action of pedalling.  If the cyclist tries to pedal faster or slower, the efficiency drops off quite quickly.  By changing gears, the cyclist can maintain the most efficient cadence, and allow the machine to go a bit faster (usually on a downhill section of road) or slower (on an uphill section) as required.

On the trike, I can maintain my efficient cadence in the lowest gear and travel at about 6kph on a steep uphill pinch, or I can use the same cadence and use my energy just as efficiently in the highest gear and travel at 50kph to 60kph on a lovely downhill sweep of road.  After 60kph I just stop pedalling and let the trike freewheel.  I’ve seen 79kph coming down Mt Ainslie in Canberra.  It would be nice to find a hill in Europe somewhere that will allow me to go faster!

Anyway, the chain and the cogs gradually get worn over time and need to be replaced.  With new parts, the gear changes are a little crisper and more precise, and the energy of pedalling is converted into forward progress a little more cleanly.  It’s a nice feeling.

In the next few days I will put new tyres and tubes on as well, and then give the trike a thorough clean.  It will need to be clean on the plane, so that it doesn’t mess up other people’s luggage in the hold.  I’ll cover the chain with bubble-wrap as well, and pull the mirrors off so they don’t get broken.  Otherwise, it will travel ‘as is’.

I’m looking forward to arriving in Rome on 8 May.  I want to ride from the airport down to the coast (It’s only a couple of km) and have a coffee overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, and then follow the Tiber upstream to Rome itself and find my accommodation.  There is a cycle path most of the way beside the River, or I might try my hand in Roman traffic along the Via Portuense.  Look on Google Maps and tell me what you think, cycle path or the road?

Auto Italia 2012

Today was AutoItalia in Canberra.  Of course, I had to go and check it out!  How could I not?

And that gave me the chance to experiment with adding photos to my blog.  So, how about me and a Ferrari?

Well, it looks like that was pretty easy.  So here’s the trike and a red Ferrari!

Actually, this is ridiculously straightforward.  There’ll be lots of photos on here as time goes on!

For now, though, I’ll just enjoy my memories of the day.

Bulli to Unanderra

This is something of an experiment.  I’m working on being able to add maps to my blog to show some of the interesting places I will go while I’m touring across Europe.  This is a ride I did on Easter Sunday while I was visiting Wollongong – actually it is the return half of that ride.  The route is recorded by my GPS based cycle computer, and I then use that to create this map to insert in the blog.

I don’t know why the black dots appear in the first part of the route, but I hope I can work out how to delete them!  For now, though, this is a useful start. Actually, I’ve revised this and I think (hope) that I’ve fixed the dots. It involved playing around with the tags in the kml file! You live and learn, as they say.

Bulli to Unanderra

The Trike

Riding from Rome to Paris isn’t just about pushing pedals, it’s about choosing which pedals to push. For me, there is only one option – a recumbent trike.

“Recumbent” refers to the rider’s position on the machine, reclining on a comfortable seat that resembles a lounge chair.

“Trike” refers to the fact that the machine has three wheels – two at the front and one at the rear.

The pedals out the front transmit drive to the rear wheel. Steering and braking are handled through the front wheels. My trike is a Greenspeed GT3, which I bought in in 2005, and which I have now ridden over 50,000km. There’s lots of details available at the Greenspeed website at www.greenspeed.com.au

I tend to get quite enthusiastic when I’m talking about the trike, but I’ll restrain myself at the moment. I’m sure there’ll be more comments about it as the trip goes on. For now I’ll simply say that it is comfortable, despite the fact that most people wonder about that when they first see it, and that I have never had a problem with not being seen when I’m riding on the road.

If you ever get a chance to try one, don’t hesitate. There’s a whole new world of possibilities out there for you.

The Start

Lac Annecy, France.  Stage 18 of the 2009 Tour de France, individual time trial, 40km, won by Alberto Contador.  A circuit of the Lake, and I noticed it is about the same distance as a circuit of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, where I live.  That’s a ride that I often enjoy, and the idea of riding round Lac Annecy began to rattle around my head.

Things have grown from those small roots.  I’m now about four weeks away from hopping on a plane to fly to Rome, with a return ticket leaving from Paris later in the year.  The plan is to cycle from Rome to Paris, with a circuit of Lac Annecy to happen somewhere along the way.

What else might happen?  Well, that is part of the beauty of this – I’ll find out what might happen when it happens!  And I’m happy if some folk want to follow along and find out as well.

I’ll be telling some of the story of planning and preparation over the next couple of weeks, and working out how this blog process works as well.  I’m looking forward to the whole process.