About Rob

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

2013 Tour of Elk Grove, Photos and Ride Story

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Rob

Well, the Tour of Elk Grove (TOEG) professional, intermediate and entry level bike races have come and gone once again until next year. I was a little disappointed this year that, personally, I was only able to make it to one race ~ the Prologis Pro Men Road Race (Stage 2) which was held on Saturday, August 3rd.

Tour of Elk Grove, Sharp Turn off Ridge Road

For those of you who may not be familiar with this event, it is a 3 day cycling race event, In Elk Grove Village, Illinois, that includes professional riders from around the world competing for large cash prizes along with intermediate races, amateur races and even a Big Wheel Race for the kids (along with quite a few other activities). The race is held on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the beginning of August (this year’s race was August 2-4).

I have included more information on the event, plenty of photos ~ and a link to the official Tour Of Elk Grove website ~ on our main Tour of Elk Grove page here.

I was actually able to attend all 3 days of the event last year (2012) but, as I mentioned above, I was only able to make it to one race this year :-(. I did however bring my camera, of course, took quite a few photos and have selected and posted the 2013 Tour of Elk Grove Photos here.

I think that this is a really fun and interesting event for anyone into biking (not just racers) as well as people who may not even be into biking all that much (I guess there are people like that out there 🙂 ). There is a lot going on, plenty of interesting people and the races can be pretty entertaining and exciting.

The other thing that I like about the races is that they are a Great Photo Op. Lots of action and colorful scenes. Both years that I attended this event, I have met and talked with other photographers (it’s a very casual environment). In some cases, the other photographers have attended the TOEG for multiple years and have given me some very helpful photography hints.

Wide-Angle view of Tour of Elk Grove Racers

I probably shouldn’t even mention this, because I would still like people to check out the 2013 TOEG photos that I linked to above and I think some of them came out pretty well, but I actually screwed up a little on one thing this year. I used Aperture Priority for all of my photos this year instead of using Shutter Priority with a faster shutter speed (or even the pre-programmed sports mode) for the action shots.

I think I was more focused last year 🙂 and I used the faster shutter speeds for most of the shots. This year, I guess I just wasn’t using my brain cell. Like I say, I still did get some good shots so please check out the 2013 photos if you get a chance.

As for the Ride Story part of this post, one of the reasons that I was not able to attend all 3 days and more of the races, as I did last year, was because we are sharing our vehicles more this year and I was not able to use our van to drive my bike to the TOEG and leave it parked there all 3 days so I ended up riding to and from the TOEG on my bike.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I used Google Maps to help me check out my route ahead of time and it actually worked out very well. I knew that there were bike trails, sidewalks along the busier roads that I needed to take and ways to get over or under the interstates that I needed to cross. The place that I thought would be the most difficult (near Woodfield shopping mall) was the most difficult, as expected, but I still managed to find a pretty safe route past that location.

Once I past Woodfield, I took the bike trail that goes under route 53 (or Interstate 290) and right to the Busse Woods Bike Trail. I then took the bike trail through the southern part of Busse Woods (by all the lakes) and up to Arlington Heights Road where I crossed and was right at the Tour of Elk Grove.

My entire ride, to and from the TOEG and my ride at the TOEG, was only a little over 22 miles but it still takes more time to get there and get back then when you are able to drive there.

I am a little bit of a stats nerd and I just checked my mileage on the Garmin site. I see that my mileage at the Tour of Elk Grove (not counting getting there and back) was 3.4 miles. This brings up the next topic that I also wanted to mention.

I have found it to be very convenient to have my bike at the TOEG (rather than having to walk everywhere when I am there). I tried to get photos at a number of different locations this year and having my bike made it possible to get to and photograph the race in different places.

I also wanted to mention that the Tour of Elk Grove is televised locally on Comcast Sports Network (CSN Chicago) about a month later so it should be on at the beginning of September.

OK, that’s about it for now. I hope some of you who live in the area were able to make it out to the Tour this year. If not, maybe we’ll see you there next year.

Later, Rob.

Bike Trail and Route Mapping with Google Maps

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Rob

I am sure that many of you are already aware of this but I wanted to mention a very handy tool that I have been using lately for planning my bike rides ~ either on bike trails, road trips or around town.

What I am referring to is, of course, Google Maps in combination with their zoom and Street View options. Google has put a lot of resources into their mapping applications and they are really quite advanced and useful at this time, especially for bike trails and routes.

Google Street View
© 2013 Google

I still use hard copy and PDF maps to find new trails that I may want to ride and I also have my Bike GPS computer (with mapping) for reviewing where I have been (and for a little help when I am out riding) but I have been using Google Maps more and more for checking out the bike trails that I am going to ride (or have already ridden).

The reason that this subject came up again for me is because we are having some problems with our vehicles and I have been using my bike more for trips around town and may need to ride to the Tour of Elk Grove (TOEG, that I mentioned in the post below) this weekend.

I already know of a lot of good routes and connecting bike trails for trips around town but there are times that I may need to go somewhere different or a little farther (like the TOEG) and it is nice to zoom in and especially to use the Street View option to check out what the roads or trails actually look like. You also have the satellite view to check out the terrain and surroundings.

If you live in populated areas that Google has photographed then you can get the Street View for the entire trip. For bike trails and routes in less populated area you can still follow the routes and zoom in for quite a bit of detail and Google includes many major bike trails.

Anyway, for my latest situation, I was planning a ride from Palatine, Il to Elk Grove Village, Il and there are busy roads and expressways to deal with. What I found out (via Google Maps) is that I can use a combination of bike trails and sidewalks, that run alongside a few major roads, for the entire trip. I was also able to verify that there was a sidewalk over Interstate 90 (where I wanted to cross) and a way to get under route 53 in a few locations and I could see how wide the underpasses were.

I don’t like riding on major roads or highways in this area and prefer the sidewalks myself if there is no other good option. The problem on longer trips is that you often run into a gap somewhere where there is no trail or sidewalk and only a narrow road without much of a shoulder and cars zipping by at high speeds (that’s not my idea of fun (or even of good survival!)).

With Google Maps and the Street View option, I was able to Virtually Ride my entire planned route on my PC before getting out there and taking chances or risking my life on dangerous roads.

Hints for Using Google Maps and Street View for Bike Routes

For those of you who are already proficient with Google Maps you may want to skip this part although there still may be something helpful here.

The real keys to using Google Maps and Street View for your bike routes is in zooming in to the correct level and selecting Street View when you have the option and when you need to see the actual surroundings.

Step One, of course, is to go to Google Maps. For this, just go to Google and click on MAPS at the top of the page.

Step Two is to find the bike trail that you are looking for or the route that you are planning to take. This is basically just typical search queries.

For popular bike trails, you can often enter the bike trail name in the Google search box to get to the trail. For trails and routes in a specific area, just search for the town (or other more specific location) in the search box. For a route between 2 locations just select Get Directions and enter the 2 locations. This will give you driving directions on the road but it can be a good starting point for finding the best bike route.

The Final Step is to zoom in to see the local roads and bike routes. You may need to zoom in as far as you can before the bike routes appear or sometimes you can see the bike trails zoomed out a little in order to get a bigger view. For a longer ride you will probably need to zoom in and out many times as needed.

To see the Street View or Photos of a Location, you can select the little orange man (icon) that is above the zoom bar and drag it to the map area (or if you zoom in as far as you can and if there is a street view available it will also appear that way). Once you are in Street View you can navigate through your route or get a 360 degree view of the area. For those of you who are familiar with this feature, you know how cool this is!

If you are in a less populated area that does not have Street View available, you can still zoom in as far as you can and usually see the bike trails and local streets and there are often individual photos posted to view the area. To see if there are photos available select the little orange man process (described above) once again. These can give you a visual look at the area but they do not give you as much detail as the actual Street View option.

In some cases, you may need to switch to Satellite View and zoom in as far as you can to get a good look at the area. Satellite View also gives you much more detail in more populated areas but hopefully this will keep improving and maybe at some point we’ll have good satellite views and street views of the smallest country roads.

At any rate, I have found Google Maps to be extremely helpful for finding, reviewing and planning bike routes and rides and I hope that the info above may help some of you also.

For more info, photos and videos or many of the bike trails in the Chicagoland area, see our popular Bike Trails pages and as I’ve said for so many years, Enjoy the Ride(s).

le Tour Ends… The Tour to Begin Soon…

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Rob

As many of you already know, the final stage and award presentations for the le Tour de France was held yesterday (7/21/2013) which wraps up this year’s race. I watched most of the stages of this year’s race on TV and still love watching. I am disappointed that it is over but it would not be so special if it were on all the time.

le 2013 Tour de France ends

I was glad to see Chris Froom win the yellow jersey this year especially after his sacrifice in taking 2nd place in the overall standings of last year’s race. There were times it looked like he could have even won the 2012 TDF but instead put his support and effort into helping his teammate Bradley Wiggins to take the win. At any rate it’s been a very good 2 years for the Brits in the TDF.

Being from the “left side of the pond” I was hoping to see the Americans take some stages or maybe a jersey but that did not happen this year. TeJay Van Garderan (last year’s white jersey winner) looked like he had stage 18 won, and I was holding my breath at the end until he was over taken by the French rider Christophe Riblon and ended up taking 2nd place for the day. I guess our French hosts needed a win but it would have been nice for a win for us too. We also had a great showing from American rider, Andrew Talansky who took 10th place in the overall standings.

Of course, you can get all the detailed stats on a number of websites including the official www.letour.fr site but I just wanted to mention some of the results and things that I found to be interesting.

As for myself, I really love the high mountain stages, like the last few stages in the Alps this year. The scenery is beautiful, the riders really work hard getting to the top of each mountain and the descents are fast (dangerous) and exciting. The fans can also be entertaining especially towards the tops of the mountains where they all gather (some of them in costumes) and barely give the riders room to pass and often run alongside the riders. Of course, some of the fans can over do it too and I have seen many of the riders pushing fans aside to get through (which looks frustrating).

As I mentioned before “le Tour” began this year, Proform had come out with a new version of their popular indoor cycle ~ the Proform Centennial TDF Bike ~ and I noticed, through my website traffic stats, that this indoor cycle has been very popular this year.

As for the second part of this blog post title above ~ The Tour to Begin Soon ~ you probably noticed the big difference is “le Tour” (i.e. the French version) vs “The Tour” (i.e. the English version) and the Tour that I am referring to is The Tour of Elk Grove, for those of us who live in the Chicagoland area or for those who may be visiting us in the beginning of August.

The Tour of Elk Grove to Begin Soon

The Pro Races at the Tour of Elk Grove (TOEG) are actually major international bike races sponsored by Alexian Brothers Hospital and recognized by the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale, based in Switzerland) but there are also amateur races and plenty of other activities to keep you entertained (if you get bored with the races… what!).

This event will start on Friday (8/2/2013) and run through Sunday (8/4/2013). You don’t want to miss this and you can check out all the details on the official TOEG website at www.tourofelkgrove.com.

This event is also televised locally on Comcast Sports Network (CSN Chicago) usually about a month after the event is held. I will try to post the dates of the broadcast ahead of time this year as I did last year.

One of the things that I noticed on the TOEG site for this years event is that Bob Roll is scheduled to announce this years races!!! This is the famous “Bobke” (as he is called) who is one of the main Tour de France TV announcers.

I attended this event on all 3 days last year and it was a lot of fun and a great photo op for those of you into photography. You can see our photos of the 2012 TOEG on our 2012 Tour of Elk Grove pages.

YouTubed and Mobile Again

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Rob

Just a quick update to let you know about some recent improvements to this website.

The first update has to do with the Bike Trail Videos that I have posted on this website. Back in the summer of 2009 I video taped (yes, taped on 8mm tape back then) 9 bike trails, northwest of Chicago, and edited and compiled videos of the trails with descriptive titles and an original music background.

I believe that these bike trail videos are longer (usually around 12 minutes) and more complete than a lot of the other bike trail video snippets that I have seen online since I took the videos while riding the trails and I tried to get highlights of most parts of each trail that the video is about.

Unfortunately, the videos are from 4 years ago and the camcorder that I used for them was even fairly old at the time (not HD) so, although the content is very complete, the videos use an older, now fairly obsolete technology. Also, since I took most of the videos while riding they are pretty shaky too (although I did get a little better at that over time). I hope to upgrade to a helmet cam soon but these videos were done the old school way.

The good news is that I have just moved all of these videos to my new YouTube Channel, AboutBicyclesFitness, and the YouTube versions have been stabilized (to reduce the shake factor) and can easily be played on multiple devices.

I also thought that the original video soundtracks were pretty boring (the sound of the tires on crushed stone, bike noises and some birds in the background) so I added an Original Music Soundtrack to each video. I didn’t want to run into any copyright problems so I used some music that I had written and recorded myself many years ago when I was going through my songwriter phase.

The original recordings also had words and vocals but I removed that track since I just wanted background music (and my vocals and lyrics were not that good anyway 🙁 ). The songs were also recorded with older technology so they are not as good as you could get these days. Anyway, you can just mute the audio if you don’t care for the music.

I have left the bike trail videos, in their original Flash format, on this site (see our Bike Trail Videos page for the Flash versions) but have refered our visitors to the YouTube version for more versitile and better quality versions. It made more sense to keep these videos exclusively on this site so many years ago, but it makes more sense to have them on YouTube now since YouTube is the major site for videos and they have all the latest and greatest technology.

Mobile Again!

about-bicycles new responsive design format

about-bicycles new Responsive Design, Mobile Format

The next update has to do with the Mobile Friendly Version of this website. Back in August of last year, I converted this website to a liquid, mobile friendly responsive design format.

Basically, this means that when you view this website on a mobile device (such as a smart phone or tablet computer) the webpages on this site will fit that device properly and will be reduced to one column, as needed, to avoid having to pinch the screen wider and/or having to scroll from side to side to see the entire page.

If you view a page on this site (including the blog) on a regular, full sized (pc) screen then reduce the width of the browser window, you will see the text begins to wrap to fit the screen and when you hit the smart phone size you will see it convert to one column.

I believe the responsive design format to be the best technology at this time and, although many of the biggest sites on the internet still do not use this format, it is a widely accepted newer technology and many sites are moving in that direction (Wikepedia for example).

Getting back to the Mobile Version of this website, I had some traffic problems with Google right after installing the mobile version last year and backed out that update to rule out that it was not the cause of the traffic issues. The traffic problems actually had to do with the Google Panda and Penguin updates (I am still working on recovering from this update, like many other website owners and I still think that Googles search results have been degraded to some degree with these updates (see A Step Back for Google for more on this)).

So after I verified that the new mobile version of this site was not the cause of the traffic issues, I have reinstalled the new and improved mobile version of this website. For more information on the mobile, responsive design format used on this website see our About-Bicycles Has Been Mobilized post).

OK, so much for a quick update. Sorry about that. I hope I didn’t lose everyone with all the tech talk (geek speak?).

Another App Yap – Wind Direction this time.

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Rob

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about a simple riding tip on checking the Weather Radar before your rides on questionable rainy days and that I have recently been using the MyRadar App on my smartphone for this purpose. Well, I have another App to yap about this week.

Here’s the thing… What weather/ride stat is missing on your bike computer (even gps based) and on most weather apps on your smartphone? Well, I’m sure that the title of this post has given that one away. It’s Wind Direction and Wind Speed.

I love my gps based bike computer (it’s a Garmin Edge 800) and I love to monitor all sorts of stats on my rides (I’m kind of a geek that way). I check out my speed, average speed, and trip miles of course but I also keep tabs on my heart-rate, my current grade, my total uphill and downhill distances, my max speed, what direction I am heading, check my odometer occasionally and even have a window set to show the time of the sunset everyday. That’s really only some of the stuff I use but you get the idea.

The one element that was always missing though was Wind Stats (wind speeds and wind direction). Of course, I will usually have an idea about which direction the wind is coming from after riding for a while and changing directions a few times. I also watch out for the flags that I pass on my usual route.

One of the problems is that the wind is not always consistent and can be variable at times so, even though you may know that the overall wind direction is from the North (for example) it may not be as obvious if it is NNW, NW, NNE or NE. Like I say, I’m geeky that way and I just like to know exactly where the wind is coming from ~ and the speed while I’m at it.

So I did a App search recently for “wind direction” and “wind speed” apps and similar search terms but mostly just got a ton of weather apps. Well, I don’t really need another weather app (the one that comes standard on the iPhones is usually fine for my purposes (along the the MyRadar app)) but most either do not have wind stats or if they do it can be hard to find.

AccuWeather weather app with Wind Stats

So I downloaded various free weather apps and checked each one out. Most didn’t have the wind stats that I wanted so I just deleted them and moved on to the next one.

Finally, I found a weather app that displays the wind direction and wind speed very prominently on the main page when the app starts up. The app is called AccuWeather and, as you can see on the sample screen that I’ve included here, it is associated with ABC 7 and Accuweather.com. This is a free app so there is also some advertising at the top (that I removed in the sample).

The overall wind direction is prominently displayed and you also get the wind speed and wind gusts speed. I don’t always check the wind direction before my ride but as I start riding I start to wonder about it. I always have my phone with me so when I really need to know, I just pull over and check the wind speed and direction. This is also good to check on longer rides when the wind may increase, decrease or shift a little during your ride.

I would prefer this stat to be easily accessable on my bike computer but I understand why this would not typically be available on one. You would pretty much need a “Smart Bike Computer” meaning it would be able to connect to the internet via a cell signal. I still love my GPS based bike computer and it gives me almost all the stats that I need but maybe soon we will also have the option to get a “Smart” bike computer. With that said, I’m sure that they will come out very soon and this post will be obsolete. 🙂

Of course, I am aware that there are Bike Computer Apps for smart phones too, which kind of qualifies as a Smart Bike Computer but the bike computer apps that I have used (I’ve only tried the free ones) are just not as good, robust or as complete as a good GPS based bike computer (imo). Besides, I don’t really want to have my phone clipped on to my handlebars for all of my rides ~ I use it for enough other things and I would worry about it getting broken (the regular gps bike computers (Garmin models anyway) are made to be pretty rugged).

Hill Riding ~ Keep Your Momentum

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Rob

I was just thinking about a few very simple techniques on my last ride that help me to conserve energy on hilly rides and decided that I would mention them here since we are pretty much in peak riding season (at least here in the northern hemisphere).

First let me mention that when I write about a popular topic, like this one, I usually do an internet search and check out the articles ~ and videos ~ that are already out there on the subject. What I found is that there are quite a few articles on this topic as I expected. Many have to do with racing and others, have good tips but get into a little too much detail for me.

So here are my own personal tips, that I have learned from many years of riding experience, for handling hills on hilly rides (specifically I am referring to rolling hills more so than steep hills or mountains).

Keep Your Momentum

The key thing that I have found to be the most helpful is to keep your momentum, or even increase your speed a little, as you approach a hill (going up). If you are coming off of another hill (going down) then you should keep pedaling to keep up or increase your speed especially towards the bottom of the hill and start of the uphill part.

Don’t Downshift Too Low or Too Soon

One mistake that I used to make quite often, and still do on occasion if I am not paying attention, is to downshift to a much lower gear too soon before going uphill. This is really one of the key points that I wanted to make. You will want to shift to a lower gear when climbing a hill but if you gear down too soon, you can lose your cranking power, break your momentum and start to slow down much too soon making it much harder to climb the hill.

It takes a little practice to get your timing right but I have found that there is a huge difference on the energy that I spend or use depending on how well I handle the hills.

Standing vs Sitting

I found that there were quite a few articles that go into the advantages or disadvantages of standing on the pedals as you go uphill This technique can be helpful in some situations but it can also work against you if you don’t do it the right way or at the right time. I have found that standing on the pedals works best for me only on very steep hills and towards the top of the hill. If you already have some speed built up as you approach an uphill section and stand too soon… once again you break your momentum.

I’m not going to get into a lot more detail than I already have posted here. I have found that the techniques that I’ve mentioned here can make my hilly rides much easier when done right.

Other Stuff

Well, yesterday’s broadcast of the Tour de France included highlights of the initial stages of the race since it was a rest day for the riders. OK, I guess they might need a rest after so many hundreds of miles at top speeds and into the mountains. 🙂 . I actually missed some of the climbs into the Pyrenees which I like to see.

Regarding this hill riding post, I do notice the TDF riders standing at times as they climb into the mountains but it seems like they are seated on most of the climb. I’ll pay more attention as I watch tonight and see if I notice any obvious patterns.

I also keep an eye on the traffic that this site gets (via Google Analytics) and I have noticed a big increase in the interest in the Proform Tour de France Bike, which is not suprising at this time of year, with the TDF happening.

One other thing that I wanted to mention is that I am usually out riding new trails at this time of year and photographing and documenting them on this site but we have had some problems with our vehicles and I have not been able to get out to the new trails yet. I still hope to get out there soon though.

And finally, I am currently in the process of moving all of my existing Bike Trail Videos to YouTube. Originally, I kept my bike trail videos on this site exclusively, rather than posting them on YouTube since I was able to generate the Flash videos myself but I have found that there are now some very good reasons to move these videos to YouTube.

I have quite a few Bike Trail Videos, of the trails in our area, and they do a pretty good job of documenting the trails but they are a few years old now and the quality of videos have gotten so much better that I see I need to upgrade my video equipment asap. I will post more on this once I have completed the transition.

Summer Begins… and so does the 2013 Tour de France!

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Rob

One of the events that signals that summer is officially here, for me, is the opening of le Tour de France. So I just had to post a quick reminder here that the Tour de France bike race begins this Saturday, June 29th (tomorrow) and runs through Sunday, July 21st.

This is also the 100th year that cyclists have competed in le Tour de France. Yes, this is the centennial edition of this historical bike race. The first Tour de France was actually in 1903 but there were 10 years that the race was not held due to WW1 and WW2.

This years race will be 3,404 kilometers or 2,115 miles (for those of us on the west side of the pond). So this would seem like a nice little cycling vacation in Europe… except for the intense competition, the mountains and pace of the rides :-). Yea, it is incredible how intense this race is and I am always impressed by the condition of the riders that are in it.

I am not a racer myself but I think that anyone that enjoys cycling can easily get into this event. I enjoy the competition of the race but there is really a lot more to it than just that. I also really like the scenery of the race, as it winds through France, the beautiful mountain ranges and into the other bordering countries.

I am hoping that the good old USA can win some jerseys this year but now that Lance has been disqualified we have only ever had one American to win the Yellow Jersey (Greg LeMond, of course).

I am not going to get into all of the race history and details here since you can find that info on so many other websites. I just wanted to post a reminder that le Tour starts tomorrow (Saturday, June 29th). So check your local TV listings and check in on it occasionally. I know I’ll be watching and I think many of you new comers may find this race pretty interesting and exciting.

One final note, I just discovered that Proform has come out with a new version of the popular Proform TDF Indoor Cycle to coincide with the start of the 2013 Tour de France race. Proform introduced it’s original high tech TDF indoor cycle at the start of the 2011 Tour de France and has been improving on it since then. This years model is called the TDF Centennial and you can find out what is new with this bike on our Proform TDF Review page. I will be doing a little more research on this model and posting a separate blog post on it at a later date.

For now… check those TV listings and enjoy this year’s Tour de France!

Weather Radar Updates for Your Rides

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Rob

I have written about this topic each riding season for the last few years but I still find this particular Bike Riding Tip to be very helpful and it is a good reminder even for those of you who are already aware of it.

My riding tip is actually very simple… Check the Weather Radar for rain before your bike rides. OK, this is not totally necessary on a bright sunny day with a clear blue sky (although it doesn’t hurt to check) but it is especially helpful when it’s cloudy and looks like it may or may not rain.

Usually, the general weather forecast is not very accurate when it comes to rain because weather forecasters will show rain in the forecast, for the day, when there is as little as a 30% chance of rain. This also does not specify at what time it may or may not rain. In the past, I have used the hourly forecasts on the Weather Channel website for a more accurate forecast but I find that I still like to check the radar to really get a feel for what is going on up in the skies before I ride.

I was thinking of this blog post on my last ride since it looked very cloudy and the weather forecasters were predicting rain (in general for the day). Before my ride, I checked the radar and saw that it was totally clear and there was no rain heading in my direction for the time of my ride. I had a nice worry-free and dry ride and there were very few other riders out since it looked like rain.

There is always a possibility of getting a few sprinkles of rain, on a cloudy day, during your ride, even when the radar does not pick up anything but I don’t mind that. I just don’t like being surprised by a heavy rain or a downpour when I am quite a few miles out on my ride.

Where and How to Check The Weather Radar

These days there are quite a few places where you can check the Weather Radar and you mostly just need to find which service you prefer. There are many weather websites that give you a animated radar display and you could even just check the Weather Channel on TV (although I prefer checking online since you have more options and I don’t have to wait around for the Weather Channel to display the local radar).

MyRadar app screen

The Weather Channel website has a pretty good radar display and many of the local news media sites also have good radar displays. I recently got an iPhone and downloaded the free MyRadar app and this is probably my favorite service now since it is always handy, up to date and so easy to use.

The image that I have included here is from the MyRadar app. This is a free app so there is a line of advertising at the bottom which I cropped out in this case. As you can see from the attached image this is NOT a good day for a bike ride (which is why I am inside blogging 🙂 ). We are actually having major storms and flooding right now.

The color codes on the attached image are pretty common too. The lightest precipitation is usually blue and green, moderate precipition yellow and the heaviest is in red.

The way that you will usually want to check the radar is to make sure that you are looking at an animated display (not just a still display). Then note the time range for the display ~ there is usually a display of the time of the radar image that matches the animated image (usually from 1/2 hour to an hour). Then if you see precipitation heading your way you will need to make a prediction of how much time you have before it reaches you. You will want to zoom out to check a longer time frame and zoom in for more detail in your immediate ride location. You can actually get pretty good at this after a little practice.

I have found that the blue areas and even sometimes green are pretty safe to ride in. Blue may just be clouds and green could be clouds or a sprinkle of rain. Yellow is going to be a pretty good chance of rain and red means you are going to get soaked if you are out on a ride.

Another Related Tip

While I’m on the subject of rain and bike rides, I wanted to mention one other tip that may be helpful to you. These days, I always have multiple electronic devices with me on my bike rides. I always have my Edge 800 GPS Bike Computer and my iPhone and when I am out exploring and documenting new trails I usually have my camera and sometimes a camcorder. This makes me nervous when I get caught in a heavy rain (OK, it can still happen. Sometimes I don’t check the radar or I just decide to ride even if it looks like I might get caught in the rain).

My GPS Bike Computer is weather resistant but I like a little extra protection so I also carry a baggie and a rubberband to cover it when it rains. A soft, non-zip-lock baggie works best for this. For my other devices I carry some additional zip-lock baggies that are the best size for each device. I also have a bike bag and camera bag that are fairly water resistant but they do not claim to be completely waterproof so I put my electronic devices in the baggies inside the bike bag (and camera bag) for a real hard rain.

So there you have it. a few simple tips that can make your rides more fun and worry free and even give you the option to ride when everyone else thinks it is going to rain on them.

Keep in mind, these tips are also helpful for quite a few other outdoor activities. 🙂

McHenry County Prairie Trail Construction and Bridge Out

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Rob

Just a quick update to let you know about some construction on the southern end of the McHenry County Prairie Trail, just north of where it connects to the Fox River Trail (in Algonquin).

This update and the photos are from my friend and fellow cyclist Dale Kiffel (I have not been on the Fox River Trail or Prairie Trail myself yet this year).

New bridge being built 3/4 mile north of Algonquin Road.

The main obstacles on this trail right now are where the trail crosses route 31 in Algonquin (there is some major construction going on there) and where they are building a new bridge about 3/4 of a mile north of the Algonquin Road overpass.

The first photo on this page is where they are building the new bridge. The trail is closed but, as you see by the determined cyclists in the photo, it is possible to get to the other side if you are determined.

The second photo in this post is the construction at Route 31 in Algonquin. It looks like it could be difficult to get through here too but there is also a cyclist getting through this section too.

McHenry County Prairie Trail construction at Route 31 in Algonquin.

So if you are planning a trip on the northern end of the Fox River Trail and connecting to the Prairie Trail to continue north (or planning a ride the other way on the trail) be aware that you may not be able to get through or there may be some tricky obstacles or detours that you will need to take.

New Horizon Bikes on the Horizon.

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Rob

I know that we are getting into peak outdoor bike riding season and a fitness bike blog post may be a little “out of season” but, as I had mentioned in my last post, I had just visited the Johnson Healthtech headquarters recently and wanted to post an update on my visit and to let you know about the 2 New Horizon Fitness Bikes that I will be available online and in stores this fall.

Johnson Healthtech is the maker of Horizon, Livestrong, and AFG (Advanced Fitness Group) fitness bikes and other quality commercial and residential fitness equipment. I have been fortunate to have a good relationship with the people at Johnson and have been invited to see their new fitness bikes at their corporate headquarters, in Cottage Grove, Wis. (east of Madison), when new models become available.

Johnson is coming out with more new models of fitness equipment this year but since my speciality is bikes, I focus exclusively on their fitness bikes. I have always found the quality of all the brands that Johnson produces to be very high so I don’t have any problem recommending their products.

Moving right along into the 2 New Horizon Fitness Bikes that will be coming out in the fall. There will be 1 new Recumbent model and 1 new Upright model, which will be a nice addition to their line up since Horizon does not currently offer an upright exercise bike (other than the Horizon M4 which is technically an Indoor Cycle).

Both of these bikes retain the quality and popular features of the legacy Horizon bikes but have newer and more advanced designs and updated consoles. The emphasis on these bikes is to enhance the user experience from comfort to a better and more productive workout.

The New Horizon Comfort R

The Horizon Comfort R is the new recumbent bike from Horizon and what stood out most to me was how comfortable this bike is (as you would expect from the name (and from being from Horizon)) and how easy it was to adjust and to get on and off of. This bike has a complete step-though design and higher upper handlebars, which make it easier to get on and off and also give you plenty of room between your legs and the handlebars.

On top of the ergonomic design you get the new heart-rate wheel display on the console which gives you an easy to read graphic display of the of your current heart-rate workout zone.

The New Horizon Comfort U

The Horizon Comfort U is the new Upright Fitness Bike from Horizon. There are a few very unique features of this upright bike. The first thing that you notice is that the handlebars are designed like a typical flat-bar outdoor bike. If you ride a flat-bar mountain, hybrid or road bike this bike will feel very similar to your outdoor bike (only more comfortable actually). Just look at any other Upright Exercise Bike on the market now and note the difference in the handlebar designs.

The other very unique feature is the complete step-through design making this bike very easy to hop on and off of. Step-through designs are not new to fitness bikes but I do not recall ever seeing this design on an Upright Exercise Bike.

The Comfort U also has the the new heart-rate wheel display on the console with the easy to read graphic display of the of your current heart-rate workout zone and this model also has a telemetric receiver that can be used with a wireless heart-rate strap.

I will be writing up more complete reviews of these new exercise bikes from Horizon when they start to become available online and in stores.

If you like the quality and features that Horizon provides but do not want to wait until this fall to get your fitness bike then see our Horizon RC-30 Recumbent Review and/or our Horizon M4 Indoor Cycle Review.

Well that’s the latest “out of season” Fitness Bike update. I am recovering from my leg/hip injury and have been out there riding some decent miles once again so I hope to be hitting some new trails and getting some new trail updates and photo tours soon.

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