For my ride yesterday, I wanted to ride some place, have breakfast and ride home. I wanted to ride about 40 miles total. I didn’t want anything with lots of killer hills, but not flat either. So I started playing with Google Maps, and found the town of Newark was about 19 miles away. I knew there was a McDonalds and a BK there. I knew the roads, so I knew the terrain wasn’t too killer, but would still give me a good workout. I used Toporoute.com to doublecheck the terrain, just to make sure there were no major surprises. The hardest hill is always going to be coming back to my house. I live on a hill, so no matter what direction I ride, I will have a steep 225-250 foot climb at the end of my ride.
Now that I am trying to increase my time and mileage on the bike, I will probably be playing with google maps and other tools a lot to find interesting bike routes. I would like to be doing 50 plus mile rides every Sunday morning. I think that would be doable, and add to my conditioning.
I have been searching on info about aero bottles, or where to mount regular bottles. There is a ton of information out there. They have done various wind tunnel tests, and the results are very surprising. One of the best pages I found was here:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/techctr/waterbottles.html
I was amazed to learn that having one bottle mounted on the down tube was more aerodynamic than having no bottles. But having a bottle mounted on the seat tube was less efficient. And having a bottle on both the down tube and seat tube was much worse!
I was also surprised to see that having those behind the seat bottles that you see on tri-bikes was also aerodynamically worse. Apparently the air flows over the riders back and hits the bottles.
Having a single earo water bottle such as the Profile Design Aerodrink System. This seemed to be the most aerodynamic, and actually improved the bikes aerodynamic properties. And the bottle holds 32oz of water. It looks like the bottle will work by itself with certain Profile Design aero bars. But will need an adaptor to work with other styles. The bottle with bracket costs about $25.
Another style of aero bottles that I have seen are the Profile Design Razor Bottle System/Bontrager Speed Bottle and Cage/Arundel Chrono Aero Carbon Cage and Bottle. These are all similar. I have read they improve the aerodynamics of the bike. But as much or more than the single round bottle mounted on the downtube? I haven’t been able to find wind tunnel tests of this yet. These also only hold about 20-22oz of water. They are also kind of expensive at around $50-$60. But would it be better than a 32oz round bottle on the downtube? A round bottle cage costs like $5, and I have gotten the bottles for free at races.
I haven’t decided anything. I will probably stick with my round bottle, and mount it on the down tube. I may look into the Profile Design Aerodrink System too. Of course, I found a review where a guy trashes this system too:
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=975
Who knows!
I am selling my recumbent. It just really wasn’t for me. I did a Sunday morning recumbent ride with the local club. The guys were kind of wierd. Nice, but wierd. I just couldn’t see myself hanging out with them. And I guess, I enjoying riding an upright race style bike more. I ordered my triathlon bike, and am still waiting for it to be shipped. Anyway, I have my recumbent listed on craigslist.
Here is the ad description:
This is a great short wheel base recumbent bike made by Lightning Bikes in Lampoc, California. Lightning recumbents are known as being fast, and also being excellent climbers. The Stealth model is still built, but now under the name “Phantom”.
I enjoyed riding this bike. It was fast and comfortable. But I already have a bunch of bikes, and am more interested in riding a triathlon style bike.
This would make an excellent touring bike, but would also be fun just to ride around. As I said, it is fast and comfortable.
Specifications:
Year: Late 1996.
Color: Sky blue.
Size: Adjustable for rider height - 5′2″ to 6′8″.
Frame Tubing Material: 4130 chromoly.
Shift Levers: Grip Shift.
Crank Set: Sachs 28/38/48 teeth.
Rear Cogs: 7 speed, 11-28 teeth.
Saddle: Lightning Ergofit aluminum rails (padded seat with mesh back).
Handlebars: Lightning welded aluminum.
16″ front wheel.
26″ rear wheel.
Someone wanted to come over this weekend and look at it.
******
Added 5/9/08
SOLD!
A guy came over last night to look at it. He rode it up and down the road a bunch of times. I was asking $700, but he offered $600, and I took it. He kept asking why I was selling it. I kept telling him that the recumbent just didn’t fit my personality. That was the truth. A race type bike just fits me better. I want to do an Ironman next year. So I bought a tri-bike. That is more my speed. The recumbent was just taking up space. I hope he enjoys the bike. I am guessing he will.
My current road bike is a 1990 Trek 1000. I use it for all my training rides and for spinning on my wind trainer. But the bike is almost 20 years old. It has been upgraded some, but the components are still old. The wheels are basic non-aero profile wheels. with lots of round wind beating spokes.
I am looking at trying a triathlon, possibly even an Ironman… I wanted a newer bike, preferably a tri bike. I have friends with expensive tri-bikes. I didn’t want to spend $3000-$6000 for a bike though.
I started searching for an entry level tri-bike. I was intially looking at some bikes made by Felt and Jamis.
I found one place selling a 2006 Jamis Trilogy Early Intro tri bike for a little over $1100. The regular Jamis Trilogy (non early intro) was going for a little more.
I kept searching, and found a 2006 Jamis Comet as a closeout for $739 JensonUSA. It is more of a base model than the Trilogy. The Trilogy has Ultegra derailuers, and the Comet has 105 derailuers. The MSRP for the Trilogy is about $2000, and the Comet has a MSRP of $1375. The frame on the Comet is aero, just not as aero as the Trilogy. But overall it looks like a good bike, much better than my old Trek. I mean, the newer 105 stuff is probably better than 20 year old Dura-Ace stuff, much less the 105 and Suntour stuff that is on my old Trek. The Jamis has a 10 speed freewheel compared to the 7 speed freewheel on my old Trek.
I think it will be fun. I am hoping it comes before my 100 mile ride at the end of the month! That would be cool! 
I have never ridden a century before. The longest ride I have done was a 50 miler that was actually about 55 miles. That was a tough hilly ride. Then this last weekend I did a 30 mile mountain bike race that was very tough terrain.
I saw a Tour De Cure (American Diabetes Association) was going to take place here in Rochester, but it was on a weekend that I already had commitments. It sounded like it might be a challenging course. But I looked and saw that there was another Tour De Cure taking place in Buffalo a week earlier. I found the directions for the course, and worked them up in TopoRoute.
Here is the route (there is a one short goof in there though):
http://www.toporoute.com/cgi-bin/getSavedRoute.cgi?routeKey=BGPRIROSMDMVXYS
I checked the elevation, and saw the course seems to be relatively flat. I saw relatively. It looks like there might be alot of shallow rolling hills. There is a climb around mile 45 to mile 62. But that is about 400 feet. Thats 400 feet over 17 miles. I may not even notice it! I plan on taking it easy and having a nice relaxing ride. It’s not a race! Still 100 miles is 100 miles!
I am hoping to get out this weekend for a 50 mile training ride.
Please consider sponsoring me here:
http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=4997&px=4159101