Bike Trails, Bike Stories and Articles - Archive 3
10/17/2004 - 3/6/2005

This page is dedicated to bike trail information, cycling articles and casual bike stories, comments and articles...

3/6/2005 - Bike Odometer Settings (continued...)

OK I am satisfied with my bike odometer settings (and I actually did a regular bike ride Saturday), but I did discover that Car Odometers are not 100% accurate. How did I come to this conclusion? Well, I did some extensive testing with Daras car and my van (both Hondas) and the 2 cars are off by about 50 feet at the mile marker! Why is this valuable? Well, whos car is actually right? When you think you are going a mile, you could be going a mile and 10
or 20 or 50 feet or less than a mile, etc... The odometer settings, when you buy a car are probably not exactly right and I believe that if the odometers are off then it is very likely that your speedometer is off too!!! When you are going 55 (like most of us do in the posted 55 mph zones) you could be going 56 or 54 or who knows what speed!!! So what you need to do is to print this page and the next time you get pulled over for speeding, just whip this out
and explain the discrepancies... I'm sure that this will will work very well... :-) (I am not an attorney, please see your legal professionals before attempting this in the real world)

2/26/2005 - First Ride! Car odometers

Yep you got that right... Did you see the single digit bike mileage for 2005 above? Actually I did not intentionally plan to take a leisurely February bike ride, but I ended up doing 7 miles today anyway. I just installed my new bike speedometer and I was checking the calibration and also how far I ran today (I'm still not sure exactly but I think it was about 3/4 mile or so). My first check was off because I used the wrong setting.

Now I have it pretty close (to the van) but it is still off by a few yards or so... I was clocking the 1/2 mile and 1 mile marks with my van and comparing it to the bike... Like I said it is off by a few yards... So now the question is which one is right? Are Car odometers actually that accurate (to the foot or yard) or could the bike one be more accurate? Does
anyone out there know?

2/19/2005 - New Speedo

I just got my New Speedo in the mail today! OK, don't freak out! It's not a swimming suit! I am talking about my new bike speedometer... Well, obviously it's more than just a speedometer... I just read up about all the crap that it has on it and how to install it, sot that's on my list for tomorrow... then I'll be totally ready for riding season!

2/13/2005 - Better Weather means New Cycle Confuser!

As I was out strolling yesterday (my exercise walk/run that is), I noticed that a few bike riders were out! It was a beautiful day and almost even dry enough for me to get out the old bike and do some riding... There is one problem though... As you know, I like to keep a running total of my bike miles for each season and the batteries in my old faithful cycle computer (also called bike speedometer, bike odometer, bike computer, cyclocomputer, etc) were dead...

The problem here is that my old faithful cycle confuser (a Vetta that Jeff gave me for my birthday about 15 years or so ago) doesn't fit the fork of my new bike (The sizes must have changed over the years...) and I had it strapped and taped on (as a temporary solution). Well, this means it's time for an upgrade...

There are so many cool bike computer options out there now that it took me quite a while and quite a bit of research to decide... The options include wired vs. wireless, models with altimeters, heart rate monitors, cadence options, temperature options, downloadable options... (so many options... so little time...)

Well I ordered online from one of my own sites (of course)!!! This really was a good item for online shopping... You could really read up on and compare all of the different options and models... I ended up with another Vetta brand, wireless with a cadence option (the pedal RPM that is). After much consideration, I thought that was was the best option for my own needs...

Well I didn't want all of that cycle computer research and work to go to waste, so I wrote a pretty informative page for my bike site on the subject... Check out: Cycle Computer Features and Comparisons.

12/04/2004 - I&M Trail History

I was just studying up on the I&M canal for a potential book deal that I was offered (then later turned down due to the time involved and a heavy schedule right now) to author a book on bike trails in Illinois. The publisher asked for 2 bike trail articles to review my writing. I wasn't real sure, at the time, about how committed I wanted to be anyway, and wasn't sure if I was going to send in the articles...

Regardless, I decided that if I did do the articles, the I&M trail would be a good choice and it has a lot of history... Then I actually got interested in it myself anyway (picked up a book at the library)... If you study up on Illinois and Chicago history, you find out that the I&M canal pretty much made Chicago into the city that it is today... Then I checked Google for some more info and typed in "I&M canal" (no reference to bike trails even) and found that the about-bicycles site comes up on page 2... and if you do the "images" search I have the number 1 and 2 pictures for the I&M canal in Google! So the about-bicycles I&M trail pictures take their place in history! I think that is pretty cool...

I also just did a little update to the I&M Canal Bike Trail page to include a little bit of the history that I have been learning about. I actually wanted to write more on the historical significance of the I&M canal, but since these pages were more related to the bike trail, I kept it brief.

11/23/2004 - Watch that Left Brake!

Wow, it's really been a long time since I've done any updates here, but I really do have a lot of casual bike info that I have been wanting to get posted (here). For starters I have been meaning to put in some real common sense comments about the "Left" or Front Brake on mountain trails... OK, I am using the term "mountain trails" to distinguish the trails that I am referring to from the regular paved, dirt or crushed limestone (easy) trails. I live in Northern Illinois, so these are not really "mountain trails" in any way! But you can find some very rugged trails around here if you look hard enough...

Anyway, the point is I have been thrown a few time recently and it can be dangerous as well as very embarrassing (especially when you have ridden thousands of miles and make a dumb mistake and look like a total beginner! :-) ) when you use the front brake at the wrong times! Part of my problem is the fact that I just got a new bike with very tight brakes and I have been used to an old beater bike that would barely stop when you laid on both brakes!

Well, after a while, I just decided that it just seems more practical to just keep your hands off that left brake out on these kinds of trails. Sure, if you are very experienced and are paying close attention, I'm sure it can be done right, but in my opinion, it is really a lot safer out in the back woods trails to just stick to the back break...

I welcome any other opinions... (but then again, since this page hasn't been real active for a while, I may not have many readers out there at the moment... :-) ). Well, drop a line if you like and stop back soon...

10/17/2004 - Deer Grove Trail Pages... My New Book!

I've done a lot of work on my Deer Grove Mountain Bike trail pages this week and last... and they are finally up on the internet... The original Deer Grove pages were the very first "trail pages" that I wrote... I went back and added the "off the road" "unpaved" "mountain trail" sections and I guess I am doing better than before and am putting in more text on the newer pages. I have update the Deer Grove Main Page, but the real photo tour starts here with the Deer Grove Mountain Bike Trail Page Photos . Check them out... These are some great rugged paths (for the Chicagoland area).

In a related story, I have been asked if I want to write a book on Illinois bike trails from a book publisher who visited my bike site and liked my bike trail pages! I am considering taking on the project... It would require quite a bit of time and effort and, from what I understand, the actual proceeds from the book may not be that much (I don't actually have the details on that yet), but the PR from being a published writer could have some benefits... I don't know, I'm still undecided... The "fun" part of it would be that I would need to travel around Illinois and do about 60 or 70 bike trails in the state and write about them and take photos... (like I do for my bike site articles...)... Nice work... just don't know about the ROI...

Bike Trails, Bike Stories and Articles - Archive 3 10/17/2004 - 3/6/2005

Bike Trails, Bike Stories and Articles - Archive 3
10/17/2004 - 3/6/2005