More the merrier!

Looks like there may be some extended family joining Donna and I for the Mackinaw MI to Hayward WI leg of our TrikeTrek ’12.  The emails are flying and we’re trying to figure when we could make it to Mackinaw. We don’t have internet at my mothers or a mapping program on the MacBook so it’s Old School using maps and adding up section mileage.
It looks like if I could ride straight through it would take about 23 days. Naturally I need rest days and weather related days, but how many is a huge question. So we hemmed and hawed and added 7 days to this section. Then we did the same math to get us to Anacortes WA and to a wedding we’re attending in Portland OR on Aug 4th, that resulted in moving the start day back to at least May 1st, 2012.

New GPS

Decided that the Garmin eTrex 20 will serve my needs. This came about when I decide to install a fairing on my trike which will give many more locations for gadget attachment. I decided that on a trip like this cadence is not needed, i.e. I know when to spin faster. I have a Cateye heart rate monitor already, and Cateye Mitty 8 bike computer with basic speed/distance functions. Now that I’ll have the fairing the only things missing that the Garmin Edge 800 would supply is the power meter display which I never intended to use, and the “Virtual Partner” which is very cool but not worth the $364 extra dollars that can go towards the fairing.

GPS on a bicycle, isn’t technology great!

A GPS on my trike for my cross country ride certainly can’t be counted in the “Need” category. But I’ve been using GPS units motorcycle since the Garmin III+ was bleeding edge tech circa 1998. So I think it’s natural to what to use a GPS on a long bike ride.

After a few hours of research I’m going to get either a Garmin Edge 800 or Garmin eTrex 20. The Edge is best described as a bicycle computer that is GPS enabled, while the eTrex is aimed at Hikers. Both are very small and light weight, under 5oz. So either would easily fit a bicycle handlebar.  So which so I get?

Here are the pros/cons as I see them.
Garmin Edge 800
Pro:
Integrated Heart Rate monitor.
Integrated Cadence count.
Cool “Virtual Partner” icon to race with.
Comes with handle bar attachment bracket.
Less clutter in the cockpit with integrated functions.
It’s a Garmin and I’ve always had good luck with them.

Cons:
Expensive!!! $450 for unit, $79 for maps, $44 for HR strap, $35 for Cadence sensor, $50  for mobil charger for s total of about $658.
Internal battery that can’t be swapped for fresh, instead must be recharged each night.
It appears to be a more limited market so updates to firmware probably are not as timely.
Integrated functions means single point of failure.

Garmin eTrex 20
Pro:
Uses AA batteries, already own a boat load of rechargeable AAs.
Relatively cheap: $185 for unit, $79 for maps, $30 for handle bar bracket. Total about  $294, this is less than I paid for that III+ 14 years ago.
Segregated function so less single points of failure.
It’s a Garmin and I’ve always had good luck with them.

Cons:
More cockpit clutter since I really would like to have HR and Cadence
No “Virtual Partner”

First Cold Weather Ride!

How absurd is it that for someone who currently lives in Maine, and has lived in Maryland for many years that my coldest biking and camping has occurred in Florida! A few years ago we camped near Pensacola and had night time temps under 32degs. Today i tried my cold weather biking preparations in a balmy 25degs. A 20 minute ride revealed that my cold defense has some holes. I recently added a balaclava and cold weather running pants and they both worked great! But toes and fingers didn’t fair so well. I think some kind of rain over glove will help the fingers by keeping the wind from penetrating the glove. Not sure what to do about toes other than wearing boots. But the fairing I’m installing may make bike shoes acceptable.

In a different world:(

Last night I got it again, that compete lack of understanding when someone learned that I intend bike across country. The phrase is usually “insane”, but I actually forget what it was this particular time and it doesn't matter. This time I did realize that I’d might as well be talking to the dog. I don’t mean to be insulting this person or anybody else, it’s just that for all of us there are somethings so outside our experience that at first blush it seems...well...insane. For me that would be something along the line of paying to see Charlie Sheen rant, or going to a mall and shopping for “enjoyment”.


"Any coward can sit in his home and criticize a pilot for flying into a mountain in fog.
But I would rather, by far, die on a mountainside than in bed.
What kind of man would live where there is no daring? And is life so dear that we should blame men for dying in adventure. Is there a better way to die? "
Charles Lindbergh, Jr. (1902-1974) First flight across the Atlantic.  

Received the ACA Maps!!!!

Our "TrikeTrek '12" cross country trip is just a little more real yesterday after receiving most of the maps needed to follow the ACA Northern Tier Route from Maine to Washington. The only back ordered maps were for the area around Minot ND and Cut Bank MT. These two are being rerouted due to the increased traffic caused by the oil and gas exploration up there. I also picked up a couple maps for Florida since we'll be down there for a couple months I thought I might ride a section or two just to get used to using the maps in the real world.

Training Indoors SUCKS!

I may be something of a wimp but the weather just isn't to my liking. So I've been spinning almost daily on my trike using the indoor trainer. After 45 minutes I'm bored senseless even listening to interesting pod casts. So since I built flight simulators for the Navy I thought surely someone has built a bike simulator. So a quick Google search and I found Computrainer and a great review at DCRainMaker. It sounds like just the ticket but I have much better ways to spend $1700.

We're back in Annapolis and the gym is now my primary training but I hope to get on the trike on nice days. There is one exercise I think the gym offers that really applies to riding a trike, the leg press. It's virtually the same position and motion as riding a recumbent trike, except that obviously on the tike only one leg is pushing at a time. I think that alternate days on the leg press will be very helpful.  The gym also has a Cybex recumbent bike that I plan to ride daily if not riding my trike. The Cybex 750R is horribly optimistic on it's speed and distance however. On my trike trainer using the Cateye bike computer attached to the rear wheel I cruise at about 12-13 mph which pretty much matches up to real world. With about the same effort the Cybex shows something like 22-26mph! That would be awesome but I don't think I've jumped in capacity that much due to driving 800 miles south.