too hot to handle

I'm still hiding from the rampaging Mules, going out every Saturday morning with the Bicycle World no-drop group. Yesterday I took the fixie and did the full 30+ miles for the first time (my previous outing was cut short by flooding). Each week there's a group that rides a bit faster than the rest, and there were two of the speedsters at the start, so I knew I'd get a workout.

It was definitely a stretch for me but I kept the pace up all the way out. At one point a rider in the group who I hadn't seen before told me he'd never seen anyone go so fast on a fixie! He needs to get out more, I can hit 20, maybe a little more, but that's about it.

After the break at the turn, I held back and let the fast group start first. I pushed pretty hard all the way back to the Constable Station (where we regroup for the last time) and arrived a few minutes behind, blowing hard and feeling pretty much done for the day. But I had one last surge in my legs - we set out in a pace line and with about a mile to go I kicked and roared past, giving the leader a cowboy yell as I went. Denis had latched on to my wheel and once I cleared the line, he popped a cog and left me for dead. That must be how the pro sprinters feel when Cavendish drops them like a bad habit in the last 200m of a race.

After those heroics I was pretty much done for the day, but Denis (bless his cotton cycling socks) hung back at the bridge and paced me in. We made it back to Bicycle World in time to watch the Tour time trial - a foregone conclusion of course, but I think that history will treat Contador badly after his display of poor sportsmanship in the Pyrenees. Off home for lunch and a nap before heading to The Woodlands to see Robert Plant.

Fixin' to ride

Down here they have a very useful construction - "fixin'". It's shorthand for getting ready to do something, so if you're getting your junk together to go shopping (let's say), you're fixin' to go. I always wonder how you would say that you're preparing to fix something, but it never seems to occur. Anyway, this Independence Day morning I decided to pull up my big girl pants and take the fixie out for a longer run than the neighbourhood spins I've done so far - so I was fixin' to ride my fixie.

I opted to ride the route that the Saturday Morning group follows, mainly because there are no hills at all - I didn't fancy climbing in only one, fairly tough gear. So off I went, muttering "fixie, fixie" under my breath to remind myself that I wasn't on board a standard bike.

It was a fairly uneventful ride all the way out, although I had to force myself to keep pedaling a couple of times when my legs wanted to coast through some tight spots and turns. The Park trail ends at the Addicks Dam, and the Corps of Engineers was letting a lot of water out into Buffalo Bayou following all the rain we've had from Hurricane Alex - quite a sight. In fact the tunnel under Route 6 looked like it had been almost completely submerged at some point, with debris high on the structure.

Over the bridge and on to the Dam access road, where I stretched my legs a bit. I was told that riding a fixie is a great work-out, and they weren't lying, but I got a good cadence going and felt more comfortable. There was another rider on a standard bike ahead, so I tried to catch him and got pretty close before having to slow down for the gate by the Constable Station.

The next leg goes through the reservoir that's held back by the dam. It's normally dry but I had an inkling that today would be different, and sure enough, the trail was flooded out about 1/2 mile down. Time to turn around and crank her up again. The wind seemed to have picked up a bit and I found myself wishing I had a few gears to play with.

Back in the Park and then home before it got too hot. I managed 28 miles on the fixie and didn't fall off once. It's definitely a different way to ride and I think it's fun, but I'm not sure. Anyway it's certainly great exercise and promotes good pedaling, so I'll keep at it.

If it ain't fixed, it's broke

Every other bike we saw in Seattle was a fixie, and many of them didn't have brakes, quite amazing given the hilly terrain. I went into a bike shop and they had a whole rack of fixies, all singing a siren song to me.

So once back in Houston I took my lovely Italian roadster to my LBS and asked them to convert it from 12 gears to one (and no freewheel, thanks). They called me a few days later with bad news - they didn't want to do it because the bike wouldn't be safe (rear dropouts pointing forward and too much space between the chain stays). However, they would be happy to sell me a very nice Bianchi model for $700.

Enter Ebay, and a bike retailer offering a new Dawes fixie for $220 (MRP: $700). This seemed too good to be true, so I did a little research and found out about BikesDirect, a manufacturer of low-spec bikes sold exclusively on-line. The cheap fixie was undoubtedly one of their offerings. On-line opinion of the quality of BD products varied dramatically. Some people were very dismissive, others had better experiences. Since the failed Italian conversion would have cost me about $200, I didn't have much to lose and decided to take a chance on SportyMama (the Ebay e-tailer).

The bike arrived very promptly and I opted to assemble it myself (no gears, so no serious adjustments needed). It has been christened "The Gold Standard" for obvious reasons and I've taken it out for a few casual spins around the neighbourhood. Riding a fixie is definitely different! No more coasting through corners, or after standing on the pedals - the bike tells you quite firmly that this is not allowed. A bit more practice and I'll take it on one of the Saturday morning runs (see previous post), although I won't be leading the group.

Sadly, the acquisition of another bike means I have to dispose of the Italian job. I put it on Craig's List and got a lot of responses - perhaps the price was too low. Anyway, we'll see how serious they are.

Slowing the pace

Back home after two weeks on vacation, mostly out of town, and my buttocks didn't see a saddle for the whole time we were away. There was a nice trail in Victoria (The Galloping Goose!) but the weather wasn't very conducive to leisure riding.

I wanted to get back into the swing of riding and exercising, so I hit the gym yesterday (30 minutes stationary bike, 15 minutes rowing machine) and planned a ride today. The Mules were going out from Zube, but I'm sure they are all in very good shape right now (training for the Hotter-than-Hell) and I didn't fancy the punishment of trailing after them for 40 miles in the summer heat. Looking around the web, I saw that my local bike shop, Bicycle World and Fitness, does an easy-paced, no-drop ride every Saturday morning - just the ticket for a rider trying to get it back together. Also, it's barely 10 minutes ride from the house, so no need to load up the car.

So at 7.00am today I pulled up outside the shop and joined a smallish group (maybe 20), mostly older people, nobody looking like a very serious rider. We headed out for Terry Hershey at a fairly sedate pace, and kept it there all the way through to Route 6. Just as I began to wonder if I had set my sights too low, one or two riders broke from the pack and took off at a better pace. I jumped on and pretty soon there were just two of us, going pretty quick.

The ride leader wanted us to regroup at the Constable's station, and my buddy and I got there well ahead of the pack. We chatted for a while - he's a lot younger than me and training for a couple of triathlons later in the year. We regrouped and headed out - once again, the two of us broke clear pretty quickly. I took the lead halfway down Barker-Clodine and tried to keep the pace up for the other guy - but I made it too hot, and dropped him (totally unintentionally!). I eased off and he got back on. It turned out that he didn't really know how to draft, so was having to work too hard when he should have been taking it easy.

On into George Bush Park, riding together this time. We reached Fry road and waited for the pack, chatting some more. The group gathered and our leader, Manny from the bike shop, gave us an impromptu lecture on nutrition. Turns out he's the official nutritionist for a Pro team, Team Type-1, who are riding the RAAM (Race Across America, Anaheim CA to Annapolis MD) this month, so he has chops for sure. He passed on some very interesting info, mostly in complete contradiction to my own limited ideas about cycling nutrition. I may have to change up a few things.

Back on the road and once again Kenzie and I take the lead. Another stop at the Constable's station, then a pretty hot sprint back to Route 6 where I drop my new buddy again. Once in Terry Hershey we regroup and take it easy - too much foot and bike traffic to race anyway. Then it's back to the bike store for a chat with the mechanics about converting my old 12-speed into a fixed-gear bike. It's a short but sweaty ride home from there.

Swallows and Amazons

Swallows and Amazons was the first book in a series of children's novels written in the 30's by Arthur Ransome, about the adventures of a group of kids learning to sail in the Lake District. I was reminded of the stories and their setting while standing by Beaver Lake, in Victoria BC where we were just recently on holiday. It's very picturesque - the lake is beautiful, there are trees all around, lots of Canada geese (as James says, in Canada they are just called "geese") and mallards - and on the day we visited, there were rowing boats (coxless fours no less) out training, mostly apparently crewed by women. As there were also a number of swallows doing aerobatics just above the water, you can see why Ransome's tales came to mind. Wikipedia just reminded me that one of the crew of the Swallow was called "Titty", a source of amusement for generations of kids, and changed to "Kitty" for the movie version.

Jason the Camaronaut

This week's featured rider is - Jason Flockton! This diminutive Antipodean powerhouse is probably the best sprinter in the group (sorry Mike, he left you for dead today), and is also known for taking on more than his fair share of time at the head of the peloton.

Jason and Mike showed up for today's weekly thrash around Hempstead, bad news for me as they're both very strong at present. After all the rain yesterday it was pretty foggy this morning and it stayed that way for most of the ride, making it very sticky and uncomfortable. Mike and Jason set a cracking pace but let me sit at second wheel for most of the way. There was a head wind all the way out (huh? How can it be foggy and windy at the same time?), but despite Mike's gloomy prognostications, it didn't switch direction on us at the gas station and we had a tail wind all the way in.

Back at Zube we took a close look at Jason's new car, a bright yellow Camaro. Its miniscule trunk

makes it the perfect choice for a travelling cyclist (sarcasm/jealousy alert here). The kids at school think it looks like a bumble bee - I leave you to form your own opinion.

Hogan's a Hero

Mike Hogan, that is, 50-something Category 5 road racer and one of our senior safety people. He's also the only other person to show up at Zube this morning, despite Paddy emailing me that he would definitely be there. Mike's act of heroism today was to drag me round the 40 mile circuit under difficult wind conditions and not roll his eyes too much when he had to wait at the top of all the climbs.

It was a beautiful morning when we started, cool and not at all humid, but with a stiffish breeze coming out of the north-west. Since the route heads mostly north and west until we get to the gas station and turn around, we spent a lot of time fighting a screaming head or cross wind. We joked that with our luck the wind would have shifted into our face again by the time we headed back. I think we tempted fate -

Mike kept up a pretty good pace but I was able to keep with him, although I spent a lot of time drafting. While riding side-to-side we had a good chat about the industry (and the Deepwater Horizon disaster) road-racing and our Missing-in-Action riding buddies (which included Gregor, who was supposed to show but didn't, and left his phone off to boot).

Back at Zube I took a shot of Mike and his sexy time-trial bike that he brought today (instead of his highly-sexy Pinarello). Here he is, your hero and mine -