Author Archives: Rob

About Rob

Bike trail and long distance cyclist and publisher of about-bicycles.com

Cycling, Health and Chiropractors

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It has been so nice to be able to get out on the bike trails again and I just wanted to mention how important it is to stay healthy ~ for cycling and everything else really ~ and how I managed to get back on the bike trails again this year after a recurring leg injury.

I injured my leg last fall and although I was still able to ride, I had to cut back on how often I rode and really take it easy or the pain would get much worse and I would not be able to ride at all.

This was not too much of a problem since it was very late in the riding season. When the weather started getting colder (and the days shorter) I eventually put my bike away for the year and got into my winter exercise routine (usually walking and running, mostly outdoors) and although there was still a little pain, it was not all that bad.

Unfortunately, my leg had never completely gotten back to normal and when the weather got warmer this year (very early this year, actually) and I started cycling again, I took a couple of long and fast rides and re-injured it once again. 🙁

At first I just stopped riding for a while and tried to give it enough time to heal on its own. Well, that was taking forever and driving me crazy that the weather was beautiful and I was not able to get out and ride.

Touch of Health, Buffalo Grove, Il

Touch of Health in Buffalo Grove

This is when I decided to take action and see my Chiropractor. I had had back issues in the past and had seen Dr. Steven Ciolino at Touch of Health in Buffalo Grove. It took multiple visits and adjustments for my back problems (which I have had all my life) but after my chiropractic treatments my back has been much better and I rarely ever have any back pain.

I really believe that chiropractic therapy plays an important role in health care and is often overlooked by people that like to see their regular internal medicine doctor for any and all of their health care issues.

This is not to say that chiropractors  can do everything and that we do not need regular (internal medicine) doctors also. It’s just that there are certain kinds of health issues and injuries that are just much better off when treated by chiropractic methods rather than by taking a pill (or worse yet, having surgery without considering alternative therapies).

So getting back to my leg injury, after waiting for my leg to heal on its own for weeks ~ and missing out on a lot of great riding days ~ I finally saw my chiropractor. It did take about 3 or 4 visits but gradually my leg got much better and it is now almost 100% and I am back on the trails again!

When you have health issues or injuries and then get better you really appreciate how valuable being healthy is. I try to keep this in mind and never take my good health for granted.

Cycling is, of course, an excellent way to stay in shape and stay healthy but you also have to be careful not to push yourself too hard and/or injure yourself and loose the benefits of  the workout.

Even when you are very careful you still may end up with an injury of one sort or another. If this happens you may want to look into chiropractic care. I have certainly have found it to be very beneficial.

Stay healthy and enjoy the ride!

Millennium Trail ~ Ride Report and Photos

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Last week I added the Millennium Trail to the list of bike trails that I’ve ridden in the Chicagoland area. I brought my camera with me, of course, so I could photograph the trail and post the ride report and photos of this trail on this website.

The Millennium Bike Trail

A scenic and wooded part of the Millennium Trail

I actually ended up riding this trail 2 times due to a camera problem. On my first ride I discovered that my lens filter (that I use to protect the camera lens) was broken. I have no idea how that happened but I did not want to ride this crushed stone trail without a lens filter so I just left the camera in my car.

For my first ride I parked in a subdivision near the south-east end of the trail just west of Mundelein. There is actually a section of the trail that extends into Mundelein but it just runs right along Route 176, Hawley Street and is straight and not very scenic so I skipped that part of the trail (although it is clearly visible from the road). I rode just over 12 miles (both ways) on my first ride and I got a good feel for the trail.

For my second ride ~ when I took the photos ~ I parked at the Lakewood Forest Preserve parking lot off of Fairfield Road ~ which is right on the trail and has easy access ~ and rode to the south-east end of the trail (where I started the day before) then headed north and west and rode the entire trail.

The Millennium Trail is actually a really nice trail in Lake County. It’s very  hilly in some parts and almost all crushed stone (except for the far northern section and the part that goes into Mundelein). There are some places where the crushed stone is a little thick and loose so you need to be aware of these parts if you have a road bike (like I do) or if you are going fairly fast.

I had my Garmin Edge 800 GPS bike computer with me too (of course) so I was able to upload and post a link to the map for this trail also.  One note on the trail map that I posted is that I accidentally pressed the wrong button on the northern end of the trail (I meant to hit the lap button but hit the start/stop button) and, after I discovered my mistake (just south of Singing Hills Forest Preserve), and turned it back on it added a straight line to the top of the map after I posted it online (sorry about that).

If you are interested in riding this trail and would like to see the map and some photos of the trail to see what it is like, I have posted my report, map and photos of the trail here at the Millennium Trail Photos and Ride Report.

 

Skokie Valley Bike Path Ride

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This past Sunday I selected a bike trail  in our area ~ from my master bike trail map ~ that I had not yet ridden. Although I have ridden bike trails that connect to this bike path and very close to it, I had never ridden the Skokie Valley Bike Path (until now).

Yellow Tunnel on Skokie Valley Bike Path

The yellowish tunnel on the Skokie Valley Bike Path

This bike trail is in a nice area (Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Highland Park) but it is really not a scenic trail at all. It runs under a row of power lines, along a major highway (Skokie Highway, Route 41) and through some industrial and commercial areas. I had my camera and my bike GPS computer with me so I have written a trail page article on it and have photographed the trail and posted the pictures.

You can find the Skokie Valley Bike Path Article here.

Keep in mind that, although this bike path runs along the Skokie Hwy it does not go to or through the city of Skokie.

Although this bike path is not very scenic it does still have some good features.  First of all it provides a good connection between the North Shore Bike Trail near Lake Bluff to Highland Park and to the Botanic Gardens, a little past the southern end of the Skokie Valley trail.

Since this bike trail is paved, straight, mostly flat and does not have many intersections that you need to cross, it is also good for speed and a good workout.

I ran out of time on my ride but I wish that I would have had the opportunity to ride through the Botanic Gardens after I reached the southern end of the SV Bike Path (at Lake Cook Road in Highland Park). You can also connect to the North Branch Trail(s) from the Botanic Gardens and continue south from there if you like.

Well this is the time of year to get out and explore new bike paths and I already have my next one selected for later this afternoon. So stay tuned (stop back soon), I will be posting more bike trail ride reports and photos soon!

2012 Bike the Drive Ride Report and Photos

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Last Sunday I did the Bike the Drive ride in Chicago for the first time. They close down 30 miles of Lake Shore Drive (Route 41) to automotive traffic for this event and the road is only open to bike riders for about 5 hours.

2012 Bike the Drive, Chicago

2012 Bike the Drive on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago

According to Wikipedia this even has been going on since 2002 so I guess this was the 10th annual Bike the Drive. The main reason that I had not participated in the ride until this year was because the event is so early in the morning. It starts at about 5:30am so for me to get up, get ready and be downtown by that time (I did not want to be late and miss any of the riding time) I had to get up at 2:30am!

OK, aside from the start time, this was an excellent ride and really a lot of fun! I wish they would do this more often (and later in the day 🙂 )

As I had mentioned in one of my previous posts, I just got a new DSLR Camera and I have been chomping at the bit for a good event, like this, to get out and get some good photos. Well, I finally got my chance and I got quite a few good photos at this event. Unfortunately, it was an overcast and cloudy day, which caused some problems, but I was still able to get quite a few good shots. I am still learning how to use this camera so I messed up a lot of the photos too (even though I have uploaded many that were not technically that great).

I wanted to get my Ride Report and the Photos posted on the internet much sooner but it took some time to sort through all the photos, select the good ones that captured the feel of the ride and format and post the photos and report. Since this was such a fun event I wanted to do it right rather than just blasting out a ton of photos as quickly as possible.

Anyway, you can now see the 2012 Bike the Drive Photo Tour and Ride Report here.  I also had my Garmin Edge 800 GPS bike computer on the ride (of course) and I posted the route that we rode also. If you look closely at the map you will see where we branched out off of LSD a little. This was from after the ride when we rode out to the Shedd Aquarium and the planetarium.

Tour of California, Proform TDF and REI Sale

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I just have a couple of updates that I thought were important to post today. First, Today is the final stage of the Tour of California bike race ~ from Beverly Hills to LA which is on NBC at noon (at least here in the Chicago area). It’s not le Tour de France, of course, but this is a major bike race with plenty of professional riders (some that have been or will be in the TDF) and it is a lot of fun to watch.

I also noticed that they ran a Proform TDF Spin Bike commercial a few times throughout the broadcast of yesterdays race and that Proform is offering Free Shipping (which is a good deal but not something that they did not have before) and I believe that they may have been offering Free Rush Shipping also (which would be nice but I was not able to confirm that just yet). I will check this out today and update this post if I can confirm this.

The other important news is that this is the time of year when the REI Anniversary Sale is going on. If you familiar with REI then you know that their sales are actually legit and are really good on a lot of their products. This particular sale also applies to many of the Bikes on Sale at REI and you can get up to 15% off on some of their bikes (and they actually carry a lot of great bikes online).

See our May Deals and Discounts page for more of the details and the details on the Performance Bike Sale that is going on now too.

This is the time of year that a lot of stores are doing their Memorial Day and Beginning of Summer Sales so if you’re looking for Bikes or Cycling Products (or actually any outdoor gear) then this is a good time to get what you need.

 

 

New Camera for Better Bike Trail Photos

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If you have been to the Bike Trail Pages on the about-bicycles.com website then you know that I have ridden, taken photos (and sometimes videos) and written trail articles on  quite a few bike trails (in the Chicagoland area and in Wisconsin).

New Camera for Bike Trail Photos

New Nikon D5100 for Better Bike Trail Photos

Well, I’ve been using my same old 5MP digital camera since 2005 and it was time for an upgrade so I just purchased a new Nikon DSLR!

I have actually been wanting an SLR camera for much of my adult life (and especially since Digital SLRs became popular) and since I am planning to get out on a lot of new bike trails soon, and there are also some bike events coming up soon ~ and also since the prices on these fantastic and powerful cameras how come down quite a bit now ~ the timing was right and I pulled the trigger on the purchase.

One of the reasons that selected this particular model is because it is a little bit smaller than the full size DSLRs, They classify this camera as a “compact DSLR” although it is still big compared to a point-and-shoot or even one of the new Superzoom cameras (which I was also looking into).

I know from lugging other cameras (and camcorders) out on the bike trails that the smaller sizes are a big plus. This camera is going to be a little more work to lug around (due to the larger size) but I have gotten used to carrying around  photo equipment on my bike and I think I should be able to adjust to it.

The photo above is a front and rear view of the camera that I just bought (of course). OK, so I photoshopped the daisy bike trail picture into the viewfinder. 🙂 I wanted to have a photo of the fully articulating LCD (the flip out view finder screen) so I included both views of the camera.

For my purposes I got this camera with a 18-200mm lens, which is a good multipurpose lens that can be used for close-ups as well as telephoto pics.

I suppose this might look like over-kill for bike trail photos that are mostly going to be viewed on the internet but there are a few good reasons why I upgraded to a high quality DSLR.

First, there have been a handful of times when people who write articles for magazines and hardcopy publications (see this blog post for details) have asked me if they could use photos from this site for their articles. Most of the time the only full size photos that have to send them are from my 5MP camera and often they do not meet the necessary requirements for hard-copy publications.

One of the other reasons for such a major upgrade is just the photo quality. Even if the photos are primarily viewed on the internet, photos from DSLRs are generally just much better quality (even though I do not claim to be a pro photographer (or even close to one) and I can use all the help I can get).

Aside from bike trails, I am also planning to get out to some major bike events this year and wanted to be able to get some quality photos. For example the Bike The Ride event is coming up next weekend (I hope I have the camera by then ~ I ordered through Amazon and just took the free shipping option) if I can get up early enough for this event (and if it’s a nice day).

Also I am really looking forward to the Tour of Elk Grove which is coming up in August. You can find more details on these events at our Special Cycling Events Page.

Anyway, once the new camera arrives and I am able to get out on the bike trails (which will be real soon and I have a large list of trails for this year) and out to the various cycling events, you should start to see some better photos out here!

Salsa Fargo Hybrid Bike Review

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I just completed my review of the Salsa Fargo and this is really quite an interesting ~ and fairly unusual ~ bike. Generally, this bike is usually classified as a hardtail mountain bike but I had a hard time deciding exactly how to classify it on this website since, IMO, it is technically a Hybrid bike by definition.

After all, how many mountain bikes do you see with drop down handlebars? This bike is really designed for multipurpose use. The 29 inch wheels qualify this bike as a 29er as opposed to the 700c wheels that you see on most traditional hybrids. The Fargo is not only a hardtail, there is also no front suspension (once again, a little more hybrid like).

Salsa Fargo 2 Hardtail/Hybrid

Salsa Fargo 2 Hardtail/Hybrid

So, due to this bikes unique design, I have listed the Fargo Salsa on this website under both the Hardtail MTB category and the Hybrid Category. You can see the actual bike review at Salsa Fargo Bike Review.

Salsa calls this bike a drop-bar, off-road adventure bike for off-road touring and bikepacking and I have seen a number of customer reviews where people also use this bike for commuting and utility rides.

Actually, the term bikepacking was new to me but it fits perfectly and the meaning is obvious right away.

In addition to the technical review (the link above) I have read numerous customer reviews on this bike which were overwhelmingly positive ~ which doesn’t surprise me based on the other Salsa bikes that I have reviewed.

 

Mother’s Day Exercise Bike Sales

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I’ve been receiving some updates from the fitness places that I work with that there are some Mother’s Day Sales going on right now on exercise bikes, stationary bikes, and spin bikes ~ since Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday, May 13th.

Lifecore 850RBS Recumbent Exercise Bike

Lifecore 850RBS Recumbent Exercise Bike for 10% off

I wanted to pass on this information to anyone who is considering fitness equipment ~ specifically exercise bikes or spin bikes ~ for their mother, or their kid’s mother 🙂  ~ for Mother’s Day. If you are going to order fitness equipment online, you’ll need to place your order soon (see the details from each merchant for their specific delivery date deadlines).

Here are some of the sales that are currently going on:

Lifecore Fitness is offering 10% off on all of their exercise bikes. These are very good quality exercise bikes and the 10% off is a good deal since they do not normally have a lot of sales through out the year.

NordicTrack is also having a Mother’s Day sale going on now and they have some pretty good prices right now on their exercise bikes (and other fitness equipment).

See our Exercise Bike Specials, Sales and Discounts Page (here) for the details on these sales. Note: you will need the coupon code on the page that I just referenced for the 10% off on the Lifecore bikes.

 

Salsa Spearfish XC MTB Review

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As I mentioned in my last post, I am still on the DL with a leg injury which has disrupted my bike trail blog articles here but fortunately, I am still able to get some bike reviews done (technical reviews that is).

Salsa Spearfish 3 FS XC MTB

2012 Salsa Spearfish 3 FS XC MTB

One of the bike review that I just completed is on the Full Suspension, Endurance XC Salsa Spearfish. The high-end full suspension MTBs can get very expensive but this one actually sells at a very reasonable price online (even the 2012 model).

If you have read some of my other blog entries you will know that I am not really a mountain biker ~ although I have ridden MTBs,  MTB trails and also spent countless hours on dirt bikes (the motorized MTBs) when I was younger ~ but I have always been a little envious of MTB riders that live out west or where there is access to real mountains (unlike Illinois and most of Wisconsin).

I also think that the new full suspension mountain bikes are really cool even though they can get expensive, which is one argument for getting a hardtail MTB for cross country rides.

Anyway, you can see my full review at 2012 Salsa Spearfish Review. I have also looked up and read numerous customer reviews on this bike on some of the popular bike review sites and I have found most Salsa bikes to be rated very highly by their owners.

One little piece of info that I thought was interesting was that the Salsa Spearfish bike is named after the town of Spearfish, South Dakota ~which I just looked up and I see that it is in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. I have been there (although not on a MTB) and it is a really scenic area. I can see how the hundreds of miles of single track trails out there would be a real lot of fun!

Cycling Events and Bike Trail Articles Delay – Leg Injury

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This is the time of year when I am usually out blazing new bike trails and taking photos (and even videos sometimes) but if you are wondering why I haven’t been posting new trail pages and photos recently it is because I am currently on the Disabled List. 🙁

I have had leg injury that I have had for months now but seemed to be in remission. Well, it acted up again and I have been unable to ride (and even having a hard time walking) for the last few weeks now (since just after Easter weekend). It is driving me crazy to be missing out on all this good riding weather! Actually April has been a little chilly (March was better this year) but it is still quite acceptable riding weather.

Anyway, as for the injury, I am off to the chiropractor this afternoon. I am hoping that he can perform some of his voodoo and speed up the recovery time a little.

Door County Dentury Ride

Door County Century Ride

The other thing that I wanted to mention today is that I just updated my Cycling Events Calendar Page with a new ride that I just heard about from a contact that I have at Livestrong who I just discovered is also a pretty major cyclist.

The ride that I just heard about is the Door County Century Ride which takes place this year on 9/9/12. Although, I am not really into a lot of organized rides myself, this one sounds very interesting to me. I like that there is no formal start time (they suggest between 6:30am and 10am) and you can do the full Century or they have routes for 28.5, 50 and 70 mile rides. The ride is not until September but registration is open and there is a link to the website on the Cycling Events Calendar page.

I have also rearranged the Cycling Events Calendar page so that the events that are coming up first are at the top of the page. Initially I did not have many events or rides out on this page so it really didn’t matter but as I add more this makes a lot more sense.

As I was rearranging this page I noticed that the Bike The Drive event is coming up next. This is the ride where they close down Lake Shore Drive in Chicago to cars and trucks and open it up for cyclist for a few hours in the morning. So if you are considering doing this ride this year it is coming up soon!

I have always wanted to do this ride myself but it is always so early in the morning (yawn) that that kind of discouraged me. Maybe this year… Just maybe ~ well, I have to get my leg back first anyway.