About Rob

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

Wisconsin Bike Trails, Gazelle, Divvy Bikes and a Beautiful Day

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Rob

I got a little behind on my blog posts so I decided to cover a variety of topics that I really wanted to talk about in this post.

First off, I went up to Sparta and Cashton Wisconsin last week to visit my family and I also packed up my bike to try to hit a few bike trails while I was there. I was most interested in riding the 2 trails that connect to the Elroy-Sparta Trail to the west ~ the Lacrosse River Trail and the Great River Trail,

This turned out to be a total bust for 2 reasons. First it was cold and snowed while I was there but I also wanted to mention that, after I got there, I called Speed’s Bike Shop, which is right on the Elroy-Sparta trail to get the trail conditions and discovered that these crushed stone bike trails do not open until some time in May. The trails are still soft and moist and they try to keep them in better condition by keeping bikes off of them so early in the year. So the lesson that I learned here was that if you are planning a bike trip in Wisconsin in early spring you should call first.

The Gazelle: The next topic seemed appropriate for the cold, snowy weather on my Wisconsin trip but a little out of season based on the weather that we had yesterday (Easter Sunday). Since I have ridden and reviewed so many exercise bikes for this site and have also used and reviewed a number of treadmills on my new treadmilll website, www.treadmillereviews.com I am always interested in the various aerobic fitness equipment that I am able to check out.

It turns out that my brother got a Gazelle workout machine recently and I saw it parked in the corner and decided to check it out.

These workout machines are very economical ~ they usually only cost about $130, new, for a basic model ~ and you can get a pretty good aerobic workout on them.

I only did about a 10 minute workout and, since I had my bike computer and heart-rate transmitter, I checked out my HR and saw that I got it up to about 80% of my max HR in that 10 min workout. What I noticed the next day is that my calves were sore so it seems like this machine gives your calves a pretty good workout.

The main downside to this machine, like almost any indoor fitness equipment, is the repetitive motion and that it can get pretty boring if you do not have anything to keep you entertained. My brother had some music playing on his PC so that helped and I usually like to have a tv around to help with the boredom factor too.

Although most indoor aerobic fitness equipment has pretty repetitive motion, I think that I like the motion of exercise bikes, treadmills and elliptical trainers a little better than the motion of the Gazelle (which seems a little like cross country skiing). The advantage that the Gazelle has is that it is so economical and it does not take up much space when it is setup for use and even less space when folded up and moved out of the way.

Divvy Bike in Chicago (and our car in the background)

Divvy Bikes in Chicago: My final topic for today has to do with those light blue Divvy bikes that you can rent in Chicago. As I mentioned earlier in this post it was a Beautiful Day yesterday here in Chicagoland and my wife was in the city, rented a Divvy bike (for a 24 hour period) and took quite a few trips around the city for just $7!!!

The Divvy bike rental system is really designed to be used for commuting and quick trips around the city but if you know how to work the system (as my wife discovered) they can also be used for some economical touring and site seeing.

If you do not have an annual membership then the minimum time that you can get a pass for is 24 hours. This costs $7.00 as I mentioned above. The problem is that you must return the bike to one of the many docking stations within 1/2 hour or pay an additional fee ($2 for 60 min, $6 for 90 min). The additional fee is not even all that bad but the costs could add up if you kept the bike out of the docking stations for too long.

Chicago Lakefront Trail downtown

The 30 minute time limit for the docking stations can be a hassle but since there are so many docking stations it is possible to check in to a docking station after 30 minutes then just check the same bike back out again and move on to the next station.

My wife even took a little ride on the popular Chicago Lakefront Trail. I am not sure, however, if you would be able to cover a lot of ground on this trail using a Divvy bike.

Overall, the Divvy Bike System seems like it can be a pretty cool option to have when you are downtown and if it meets your needs at the time.

Well, that’s it for my blog topics for today. Sorry for the blog backup and long combination topic post. I’ll try to keep these posts coming more regularly ~ especially now that we are fully in outdoor riding season!

First Rides, Trail Signals and Trail Conditions

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Rob

Yep, riding season has arrived here in Chicagoland! I normally get my first rides of the season in a little sooner than I did this year but I finally got my first ride of the year last week. I was still doing my walking and running routine when the weather first started improving this year.

I usually consider riding season to start and stop pretty close to daylight savings time but this year I think there was still snow on the trails when we started daylight savings time. Anyway, it really felt good to get back in the saddle and out on the trails again.

One thing that I noticed as being very helpful this year as a walker/runner and bike rider is to not only signal your intentions ~ like letting other people on the trail know that you are coming up behind them and passing ~ but also to acknowledge that you heard the rider that is about to pass you.

For example: When a rider comes up behind me ~ when I am walking or jogging ~ and either says the old standard “on your left” or has a bell or horn or something (I prefer and have a bell myself) is to just give a thumbs up, as you continue walking or whatever, or even to just say OK or something similar just to let them know that you heard them.

I find this really helpful as a rider because I know that the person or people ahead of me heard me. I usually thank them for that simple gesture and I have found other people usually thank me when I acknowledge their passing intentions too.

Of course there are always the riders that are completely silent and stealthy and speed up behind you and scare the sh** out of you when they are right next to you and passing but then there will always be all kinds of riders out there. I think a little common sense and courtesy goes a long way to make the trails safer and more fun for everyone.

Paul Douglas Trail along Huntington, Freeman

Regarding the Trail Conditions. My first few rides were on the bike trail that goes around Paul Douglas Forest Preserve in Hoffman Estates. Even though this is a very specific trail, I think that many of the trails in the Chicagoland area ~ and maybe even in Northern Illinois ~ may have similar conditions due to the long, hard winter that we have had this year.

I rode the trail around the entire Paul Douglas forest preserve and there were no detours or obstructions.

What I did find, however, is that any place where the trail was very close to a road, the trail was covered with stones and small pieces of asphalt. I assume that this is from the snowplows pushing snow off of the roads and on to the trails throughout this long winter.

I have never seen this situation quite as bad as it is this year. It is all passable but it looks like it would be easy to get a flat in these places or even slip on the loose stones and stuff. I’d like to see the people that maintain these trails to just get out there and clean this up a little. I don’t think it would take that much effort.

Anyway, once again, it is still great to get out and ride again. I will try to keep the updates coming a little more regularly now.

Later, Rob.

NordicTrack GX2.7 Upright Fitness Bike, Customer Review

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Rob

Well we had a little touch of warmer weather for a few days here in Chicagoland but it didn’t last so I guess it is still Indoor Bike Riding Season and my latest fitness bike review is still pretty timely.

NordicTrack FX2.7 Upright

I have not had a chance to do many fitness bike reviews on this website lately ~ due to the work that I have been doing on my new treadmill website (more on that in a later post) ~ and I have been concerned that I need to get more than just the latest sales and prices updated.

Well, I received an email this week with a really detailed and valuable Customer Review on one of the newer NordicTrack Exercise Bikes, the NordicTrack GX2.7 Upright which motivated me to do my review of the GX2.7 so I could also post the customer review of this bike.

The reason that I found the customer review of this fitness bike so valuable and helpful is because:

It is very detailed (over 700 words ~ OK, so I use MS Word to track things like that 🙂 )
It was written 2 1/2 months after the bike was purchased so the bike has had a fair amount of use and it wouldn’t be one of those “it’s brand new and I just love it because it’s new” reviews.
The author has owned a similar upright exercise bike from another brand ~ Schwinn ~ so he has ridden and had pretty good experience with the 2 brands and could make a good comparison.
It was unbiased and included both the negative and positive aspects of both exercise bikes.
It is difficult to find good, unbiased customer reviews of NordicTrack exercise bikes ~ especially the newer models ~ since they are only sold online directly by NordicTrack and at Sears stores.

The NordicTrack GX2.7 is this year’s upgrade to the GX2.5 which has been a very popular low cost Upright Exercise Bike. I know this because I have seen the volume of sales that the GX2.5 (and more recently the GX2.7) has generated from the referrals from this website to NordicTrack.

Rather than getting into any of the details of the GX2.7 here in this blog post, I’ll refer you to my latest fitness bike review of the NordicTrack GX2.7 Upright here. I have included part of the customer review and a link to the full review on our review page and you can also go directly to the Full Customer Review here.

The End of an Era ~ Livestrong Nostalgia

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Rob

Here’s a little nostalgic fitness bike story for New Year’s Eve although I wish it had a better ending.

As I was checking the latest prices on the fitness bikes reviewed on this website this week I discovered that almost all of the Livestrong bikes on the Livestrong website now say that they are “Sold in Canada Only” and most of the Livestrong bikes at Amazon are out of stock or no longer available.

When I looked into this further I found out that Johnson Fitness (the maker of Livestrong Fitness products) will no longer be coming out any new Livestrong products and once the existing stock of these products online and in stores are sold out they will no longer be available.

This is, of course, all due to the Lance Armstrong disaster that happened earlier this year. Although the Livestrong Foundation and Livestrong Fitness has cut all ties to Lance Armstrong the brand has been seriously hurt by his situation and consequently Livestrong Fitness products will no longer be produced.

This is a sad situation for the brand since the Livestrong Fitness Bikes were (and still are if you can find them) very good products and Johnson Fitness also made significant contributions to the Livestrong Foundation from the sale of these products.

We have had a number of Livestrong Bikes on our “Best Buy” page over the years but I have had to remove the latest models due to the limited (and sporadic) availability. The most recent Livestrong Best Buys on this site were the Livestrong LS6.0R Recumbent and Livestrong LS5.0U Upright. At the time of this blog post these 2 bikes are available on Amazon at a reduced price but they were unavailable yesterday so their availability seems to be quite sporadic.

Johnson Fitness will, of course, still honor their warranties on all Livestrong fitness products for the full term of the warranties (Johnson Health Tech, the parent company for Livestrong fitness products, is a very reputable company and they are not going away (just the Livestrong brand)).

One of the contacts that I have at Livestrong told me that the Livestrong brand still sells well in Canada which is why they are still selling them there. I guess that the Canadians were not let down with the Lance Armstrong doping scandal as much as those of us in the USA were.

Livestrong LS28IC Lance Armstrong tribute bike.

It was so cool for us to have a 7 time Tour de France winner here in the US until we were all let down by Lance Armstrong finally telling the truth about his drug use during his yellow jersey, TDF winning days.

As a matter of fact, back when Lance was still a hero, Livestrong even produced a high-end, limited edition indoor cycle, the LS28IC Indoor Cycle that was all about Lance and his 7 TDF victories. This was a very well made, commercial quality indoor cycle with drop down handlebars that was very popular with the visitors on this website. The people that purchased this indoor cycle got a very good bike and I suppose it might even be some kind of collector’s item at this point.

Although Johnson Fitness (officially Johnson Health Tech) will not be coming out with new Livestrong fitness products they still continue to produce other commercial and in-home fitness products. The high-quality in-home brands that are still made by JHT include AFG and Horizon.

I was fortunate to be able to review and ride the latest Horizon Fitness Bikes at Johnson Fitness’s headquarters in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin on my last visit there this past summer. I was very impressed with their latest Upright Bike, the Horizon Comfort-U and their latest Recumbent bike the Horizon Comfort-R. Both of these bikes are now available online and at a 10% discount on the Horizon website if you use the discount code “about10” available only from this website.

Another nice thing about the Horizon website is that they just revised the site to use a responsive, mobile friendly design ~ like this website 🙂 ~ so those of you that use your phones and tablet computers to surf the internet will find these sites easy to read and navigate without having to resize the screen or scroll back and forth ~ I am still amazed at how many other sites are still not mobile ready.

So there you have our last blog post and news story for 2013. Here’s to hoping you all have a safe, healthy and Happy New Year!!! Cheers!

Not Another Black Friday, Cyber Monday Sale

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Rob

Yep, the holidays are on their way and if you are like me you may already be getting tired of some of the commercials and of the tons of Black Friday Sales that are going on now ~ or on Friday.

On the other hand if you are looking for some good deals online this may be exactly what you are looking for (at least for the moment). Therefore, since I was just updating this website with all the latest prices, “deals and discounts” on fitness bikes, I decided that I would post a quick update.

The most significant Black Friday deals that I have found so far are on Fitness Bikes. NordicTrack has started an Early Black Friday sale already. Livestrong will be cutting the prices on their current line-up of Fitness Bikes by $100 to $200 off starting tomorrow (Wednesday 12/27 through Sunday 12/1). And we have a 10% Off Black Friday Coupon available on this site for Horizon Bikes.

For the specific details and more the information on these sales see our 2013 Black Friday, Cyber Monday Deals and Discounts page.

I will be monitoring these sales along with the latest fitness bike prices all season so check out the latest updates all week and weekend.

New Proform GT Exercise Bike Review

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Rob

Recently I discovered that Proform has just come out with a new fitness bike that they have added to their Tour de France category on the Proform website. This got my attention right away since I know how popular the Proform Tour de France (TDF) bike has been and since it is in a unique fitness bike category.

New Proform GT

The new fitness bike, the Proform GT Training Bike, has some (but not all) of the features of the Proform TDF but sells for less than 1/2 the price. This is great news for anyone who has been interested in the Proform TDF but did not want to fork out the $2,000 that this year’s TDF model sells for. It has taken some time to research this product but I have found quite a bit of information on the Proform GT and have completed the review for this website. Our review also includes quite a few comparisons to the Proform TDF models since Proform has placed this bike in the TDF category.

One thing that I wanted to mention before I post the link to our new review on this bike is that I have used a few different “exercise bike” terms when describing this bike. Most exercise bikes fall into the categories of Upright, Recumbent, Indoor Cycle (or less accurately as SPIN® bikes although SPIN® is a registered trademark of Mad Dogg Athletics and should only be used when referring to their indoor cycling products) and Fan Bikes.

The Proform GT (like the Proform TDF) falls best into the Indoor Cycle category although traditional Indoor Cycling bikes are mostly mechanical and have a friction based resistance where the Proform GT has a magnetic resistance. This is why I also refer to this bike as a Fitness Bike (general term), Indoor Cycle or Training Bike. It is really in a fairly unique category so take your pick…

Our full review can be found on our new Proform GT Exercise Bike Review page.

Virgil Gilman Trail Ride

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Rob

Last week a friend and I packed up our bikes and cameras and made it out to another bike trail that neither one of us had ridden before. This was the Virgil Gilman Trail (VGT) that runs northeast from Aurora to Waubonsee College in Sugar Grove.

The Bridge over Galena Avenue on the Virgil Gilman Trail

I had ridden past this trail a few other times when I was on the southern end of the Fox River Trail (FRT) but never had a chance to check out the entire trail. For this trip we actually started on the Fox River Trail in Oswego then headed north to the Virgil Gilman Trail which is about 5 miles from Oswego on the trail. This gave us a little less than a 40 mile ride ~ round trip ~ which is pretty good for these shorter days.

I was hoping to catch some good fall colors out on this trail, since it has some nice wooded areas, but the trees had not really started to show their colors yet this year ~ in this location anyway. Even without the full fall colors we were still able to find enough nice scenery and photo ops for a good photo tour of this trail.

See: The Virgil Gilman Trail ride report and photo tour for more information on the trail and for the photos from this ride.

I liked the northwestern part of this trail the best (west of Aurora). This part of the trail was very wooded with tall trees in some parts and also had some interesting looking bridges I thought.

The northwestern end of the trail is at Waubonsee Community College which was a nice place for a break before we turned around and headed back. On a lot of the other trails that I have been on the best place for a break is sometimes an opening in the woods or if you are lucky you can find a bench or picnic table.

It would have been nice to ride the Fox River Trail north of Aurora on this ride too but there is only so much daylight these days and you need to get through Aurora to hook up with the northern part of the FRT.

I have included a lot more information on this trail on the VGT trail page on this website and in the photo pages so check out the Virgil Gilman Trail Pages here when you get a chance.

Badger State Trail Ride and Photos

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Rob

I had planned to ride the Badger State Trail in Wisconsin since spring of this year but was unable to get out to this trail until last week. Well, I finally rode the trail from Monroe, Wisconsin, through the tunnel and into Belleville.

Badger State Trail, Rock wall and bridge

Rock Wall and Bridge on the Badger State Trail

I had originally ridden the southern part of this trail a few years back when a friend and I rode the Jane Addams Trail which runs from Freeport to the Illinois/Wisconsin border and then connects to the Badger State Trail. We rode the JAT from Freeport, Il to Monroe, Wi on that trip so I continued my ride this year heading north from Monroe, Wi.

The Badger State Trail (BST) is a nice, scenic, rural Wisconsin trail but the highlight of this trail is definitely the 1/4 Mile Long Tunnel which is located about 4 miles south of Belleville.

Looking out of the southern entrance of the tunnel.

I took quite a few photos, as usual, to document the trail and give you a feel for what it is like, but I probably took more photos of the tunnel since that is the more unique features of this trail.

The only other trail that I have ridden with tunnels like this is the Elroy-Sparta Trail, which has 3 tunnels. The Tunnel on the BST is more like Tunnel #3 on the EST (which is the one that is closest to Sparta) since both of these tunnels are fairly long and you can’t see the exits at either end when you are in the middle of either tunnel.

You will need a light with you to pass through the tunnel (or at least a stick like a blind person would use, but I would recommend a light). I had a bike light with me although I did not have the handlebar clip attached so I had to hold it as I rode.

When I passed through the tunnel there was a young family passing through also and they all had helmet lights on (like coal miners on bikes!). Later on there was a guy that came through the tunnel using the flashlight app on his iPhone. I tried that on my way back but it was not a good as my bike light.

I actually ended up taking more photos from inside the tunnel, looking out, rather than outside the tunnel. This can be a little tricky due to the light (or lack of light) but it can also produce some fairly unique situations and photos.

Of course, I have uploaded a batch of the photos that I took on my ride and have documented the trail and my specific ride on the Badger State Trail.

Check out The Badger State Trail Photos and Ride Report HERE.

I have also included the GPS Map and data from my bike computer on these pages.

Checking Wind Direction

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Rob

Knowing where the wind is coming from can sometimes be a little tricky. I have been on rides where I have ridden all directions (N,S,E, and W) and it felt like I was riding against the wind no matter which way I went! 🙂

Actually, most of the time you can tell the overall wind direction pretty well but it can be hard to tell exactly where it is coming from. Like you may know that the wind is mostly from the west but is it a little NW or SSW?

Some of you may recall that I wrote about wind direction and the app that I got for my iphone back on July 11th. I still use my iPhone app (it’s called AccuWeather) but wind direction can be variable and although the app does a fairly good job, it is not always perfect. I still check this big flag that I ride by on my usual rides to see where the wind is coming from.

Checking wind direction (no wind here)

Well today I discovered another handy trick for checking wind direction out on my ride and just wanted to pass my latest idea on in this blog.

I always carry a handkerchief in my bike bag (which I have used for a number of different things) and once in a while, if I was curious about wind direction I would take it out, hold it over my head and check which way it was blowing.

This worked pretty well although I’m sure that I looked pretty goofy to anyone nearby that might have been watching me (not that I mind looking goofy all that much but I don’t always want to advertise my weirdness).

Anyway, on my ride today I decided to tie my handkerchief on to a low hanging branch on a nearby tree (there is almost always one of those handy on bike rides). I was in an open area with a lot of unobstructed wind (unlike the photo that I included above where there was no wind). This worked really well since I could just take my break and watch the way the thing was blowing without holding it over my head or to the side the whole time.

In this case, although my weather app said that the wind was directly from the east, I discovered that in my specific location it was also a little north so it was more like ENE.

If you are going to check the wind this way it is important to find a good location where there is no interference with the wind. When I was taking flying lessons wind interference caused by obstructions was referred to as mechanical interference. Like you can get bad wind speed and direction readings near the corner of a building or between 2 buildings or other obstructions.

OK, so that’s probably more than enough for this simple tip. Just remember to tie a handkerchief from a low hanging branch in an unobstructed location for a quick wind check.

Exercise Bike from the Eighties

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Rob

This past weekend I did some traveling to Ohio, to drop my daughter off at college, and then on to Tennessee to see a good friend of mine. My friend has really been getting into scuba diving and since I was asking about diving and the equipment that he has we went downstairs to check out some of his scuba gear that he has in storage.

Aquarius 2000 from the 1980s

I learned quite a bit about scuba diving but if you are wondering how all of this relates to this Bike Blog it is because I saw this ancient, exercise bike ~ or probably more accurately Indoor Cycle, in his storage area that he has had since the eighties.This immediately caught my attention since I have reviewed so many modern Exercise Bikes and Indoor Cycles and this bike was obviously from another century.

The bike frame looked a little like the frame on the ironing board that was nearby, it had some rust and the fancy 1980s gauges did not work anymore but this bike had a very heavy flywheel which gave it a smooth resistance and it still worked!

This bike would fall into the Indoor Cycle category these days since it is mechanical and has a friction based resistance (rather than magnetic). The gauges included a color coded meter for RPM with a mechanical odometer at the bottom and a gauge for Watts and some kind of MPH calculation. The wheel cover says Ergometer which I’m not sure if that is a model name, some kind of feature or just one of the ways that they marketed the bike.

At any rate, it was kind of funny to see (and interesting to me) and amazing that the primary function of this piece of fitness equipment still worked after all these years. I think that modern Indoor cycles have improved a lot and have come a long way but who knows if today’s bikes will last for 25 years or more as this one did!

Many of today’s higher quality Exercise Bikes and Indoor Cycles have Lifetime Warranties on the Frames and pretty good warranties on the mechanical and electronic parts. See our Exercise Bike Warranties page for a comparison of the warranties on most major brands.

Regardless of the warranties, I think that you will probably feel like you got your money’s worth from your fitness bike if it lasts 25 years or more like this old Aquarius 2000 has!

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