Discovering new places to ride

It's been a day off- and some time to ride in Fosston, MN. I discovered an ATV/snowmobile route not far from my mother-in-law's house. There are lots of nice ATV trails in this part of Minnesota that seem like undiscovered territory for mountain bikes. Riding a bicycle seems to have little or no impact on the trails themselves.

I like being able to explore without really knowing where I am going. I use a Garmin bicycle GPS that leaves a nice little trail of breadcrumbs. This allows me to impulsively makes twists and turns without much fear of getting lost.

I'm feeling grateful for living in an area with so much open country to explore. While it is relatively flat in Thief River Falls and Crookston, I don't have to go very far to discover something new.

Movement and Two wheels, discipliine of blogging.

I'm just back from a week at the lake. I commuted to our cabin on my motorcycle. It's about a 6 hour ride, so it gives me a lot of time to focus on movement. On my return trip, I saw lots of motorcycles going the other way. Some of them were motorcycles that have been converted to trikes.

One of the aspects of spending time on two wheels is that you have to keep moving. An 850 pound motorcycle is an ungainly beast when it is at rest. But when you induce the slightest forward momentum, it becomes easy to handle.

It's obviously a metaphor, but I think this is also true about life, or at least one's perception of it. Life is in a constant state of movement-- and it can seem like an ungainly beast when we start to act as if it is frozen in time. Each of us leaves behind an ephemeral trail of breadcrumbs; when we start to act as if those breadcrumbs are life itself, we truly are lost.

For a variety of reasons, I'm trying to establish a discipline for blogging. Feel free to comment if any of what I have to share has any resonance with you. I'll try to keep my postings brief, but regular.

Gravel Grinding and solitude.

It's been quite a while since I made an entry. This summer I've become more interested in riding on gravel. I enjoy the solitude and lack of traffic. Occasionally, I'm eating dust from a passing vehicle, but this seldom happens. The people I've met on gravel roads are very polite. No one seems to be in too big of a hurry, and this seems like a good match for the slow solitude of riding a bicycle.

The bike I rode today is a Salsa Spearfish 3. It's really overkill for riding on gravel-- but the big 29er tires combined with dual suspension, give it a nice floaty feel. I've had more fun with this bike on singletrack, but I like it for gravel as well.

In Thief River Falls, I have my old loaded touring bike set up with Kenda cyclocross tires. This is actually pretty good-- quite speedy, actually. It's not as comfortable, but the 27 x 1 3/8 tires are just fine for providing enough floatation. I only get bogged down in the really loose stuff.

Gravel Grinding has become a sport-- but the only internet discussions of it have been about long distances or competition. For me, it seems to be the kind of uncharted territory I like to explore. I'm not in a hurry, and it really doesn't matter how fast I go. I've got nothing to prove-- so the time I spend riding is pure enjoyment.

Last winter, I really missed riding a bicycle. I have a Surly Mukluk on order so that I will be able to have some adventure this winter. Mostly, I'm interested in travelling on the rivers around here. In the winter, you don't have to travel very far to have a great deal of solitude. If I ride five miles from my home in Thief River Falls, I'm pretty much in the middle of nowhere. 

Much of my work as a pastor involves working with people. Yet in order for me to find my centre with God, I need to have periods of solitude. This is part of why living in north-western Minnesota is a blessing for introverted clergy.

followup: Vision 40 recumbent bicycle tires

I went out for a ride on my Vision 40 recumbent bicycle. As I thought, the wider tires are wonderful! I'm not sure what ever started the trend towards narrower tires in the late 70s, but for most bicyclists, I think wider is better.

I've been reading the book Just Ride by Grant Peterson. In the book, he covers many developments in bicycle technology that had been driven by elite racing. Grant asserts that many of these developments have not been helpful for motorcyclists. Lower handlebars, narrow tires, and carbon fiber frames have done little to encourage average cyclists enjoy the activity more. While I believe it is true, I still slip into thinking of old racing standards when setting up my bicycles.

I've just about eliminated my use of clip-less pedals. Since I stopped using them, I no longer have need pain following long rides. Flat pedals have enabled me to stand while climbing a hill for the first time in many years. The only place I use clip-less pedals is with my recumbent. I'm debating a switch to flat pedals for this bike as well.

changing seasons, changing tires

It's fall in northern Minnesota. I've started to shuffle the bicycles around, and I'm almost ready to think about mounting studded tires for winter. This afternoon, I'm going out for a ride on my recumbent. It should be a beautiful day -- temperatures in the lower 60s.

the recumbent got a new set of tires about a month ago. They're quite a bit wider than the old ones. I've only been out a couple of times since changing them. So here's my theory: anything lost in terms of performance is minimal compared to the comfort gained through cushy wide tires. I will make a ride report later.

Watch out! slow traffic ahead.

This is my first blog entry using the Raspberry Pi. Why bother, you might ask? Maybe its been about the challenge of making a $35 computer into a useable tool. I'm not sure how practical this is. However, the RPi is evolving, and it will be interesting to see how well the equivalent of a Volkswagen Beetle (original 36 HP) will do navigating the internet.

It might be a little like my experience of travelling between Crookston and Thief River Falls today. I was on my Vision recumbent. It was 43 miles, not much traffic, and a very pleasant ride. I also got buzzed in close proximity by a full size van that didn't seem to care about the speed limit in town. This was the kind of thing I was used to when I lived in the Twin Cities, but is a rare occurance for me now. *Sigh*

... And now, for something not so different.

It's been a while since I spent time with this blog-- despite my best intentions. Church life became more complex-- and what time I've had for recreation-- well, let's just say I would rather be out on two wheels, than writing about it.

I've had a curious sequence of events on the two-wheeled front. I sold my 1982 Yamaha Seca 650 to a friend. I've still got my 1989 Yamaha Venture. One motorcycle is more than enough for me. Besides, my passion and interest seem to have moved back towards bicycles.

It was somewhere during my last vacation that I wanted to get back to riding a mountain bike. I have an old one at the cabin-- and on one of our visits, I mounted new tires and had a great time riding it on fire roads. This lead to the purchase of a Salsa Spearfish 3. It's a wonderful bicycle-- full suspension 29'er... It walks over the stuff that used to bounce me around on my old GT Karakoram. I'm thinking of new adventures-- Perhaps the Maah Da Hey trail in North Dakota.

On another front-- I've been playing around with my Raspberry Pi. How is this connected to the two wheel front? It's interesting how much you can discover by having less. the Pi is much like stepping down from a motorcycle to a bicycle. While it seems to be able to do less, it tends to cause you to have more focus on what you are doing. I haven't really decided how to best use it-- but I'll keep you posted.