Spring?

Well, it is spring. Cold, but spring. Generally 50 degrees is about the coldest that I will bike. The sun makes a big difference, of course. So far the temperatures have been just about 5 degrees too cold to ride and enjoy it. It was a little too cold (and a little too windy) to ride the two Tuesdays after St. Patrick's Day. I did get to ride last Saturday though. There was a peek-a-boo sun and wind. I was able to ride against the wind going out (averaging a sprightly 9.9 mph) and with the wind coming back (total ride average: 11.7). I'm revisiting my old routes one at a time. There is still a lot of debris left over from the snow melt here. There is supposed to be a cleanup for the Final Four but it hasn't reached my neighborhood yet.

I'm up to rider 625 as far as processing PALM applications. We've hit a snag though. Vickie, who does the intial processing (correcting all the errors, filling out all the sheets for the accountant, etc.), tripped and broke a bone in her right hand. Her job entails writing. She and the applications were down in Florida then, but she's back in Michigan now. At first she was going to let Ellie take over, but she thinks that she can still do it, cast and all. I won't get any more applications until the PALM meeting on Sunday (Palm Sunday!) In the meantime, Vickie's sent emails to everyone whose application she has (and who gave us an email address) to calm people's jitters.

The Garden Resource program's seed distribution took place on Monday. I got 13 packets of seeds, more than I can possibly plant. It seems a little early to think about actually planting. I just got the seeds as an act of faith. I haven't even thought about raking up the leaves that I'm using as mulch and clearing out the dead flowers that I left for the birds in the garden, let alone preparing it for planting. I'm supposed to get plants in two weeks. We'll have to see about that. But I'm starting to see rabbits so we must be closer than I think.

St. Patrick's Day

Although you may not be able to tell it, I am plodding thru the applications. I'm up to 515, about 2/3 of the way thru. We still are getting applications from all over: Washington, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma in this last batch. More families are registering and a few more people who weren't on the PALM mailing list (and so didn't get an application mailed to them). But there are people who I know have registered that I have not seen yet.

Tuesday was in the 50's and, since we have daylight savings time in effect and have plenty of daylight, we did our normal Tuesday night bike ride downtown. It was St Patrick's Day so we were a little worried about biking after work. We did go by Nancy Whiskey's by Tiger Stadium. It's on the other side of I-94 as far as Corktown is concerned, but it must be an Irish bar: there were 3 buses there and the parking was so dense we could hardly get our bikes thru. We pass goats on our route and they are still there. They have been joined by a pig. I wonder how that's going to work out.

The most surprising thing was the traffic on Belle Isle: there were two full lanes of traffic going over the bridge to Belle Isle and they were moving. Generally if your going to Belle Isle at 5:30 you're there to see and be seen. You're not going fast and you're stopping a lot. If you are on Belle Isle, you're not going anywhere. Not so on St. Patrick's Day. It was like rush hour.

One thing I learned on Tuesday: don't expect to do the same rides that you did at the end of the summer when you are first starting out in the spring. Like I said, we did our normal 24 mile ride at an easy pace. We started out well, but we were crawling at the end and biking wasn't fun. Even if you are in shape, you use different muscles biking. My back was hurting by the end. I should have done a shorter route so that we could have finished comfortably and felt good about our ride. Don't make my mistake. But if you do (or did), don't be discouraged. It's not spring yet.

Badger suggestions

Toe Clips

For those less experienced riders, hybrid riders, and mountain bike riders there is a strapless toe clip.  I found four different brands that could be ordered through Emery's where I work and I am sure these and probably others are available through any good bike shop.  These clips position your foot properly on the pedal, give you a little bit of pull up ability and do not trap your foot at all.  See if you can find these at your local bike shop or at least have them look in their catalogs so you can see what they look like.

Prices are approximate.

1. Zefal half toe clips, sizes S, M, L, XL $12.These are probably the best because they match to the shoe size of the rider and result in the best foot position on the pedal.
2. Delta strapless $8
3. Cyclist mini toe clip $6
4. Winwood mini-clips $6
   

Anybody riding with platform pedals would benefit from using this type of toe clip.


Towels

Here is a trick we have found and use whenever we travel or camp out to save space and we never have to dry a towel from day to day or pack a damp towel in with our dry clothes.  All riders could use this idea.

Go to Ace Hardware in the auto department and buy an absorber towel for about $14.  It comes in a plastic storage tube.  Get it soaking wet, fold, roll and wring it out and it is ready for use.  At the end of my shower I get it wet, just before I turn off the water.  I do the fold, roll and wring routine and the towel will dry my whole body better than any cotton towel around.  When I am dry, I do the fold, roll, and wring routine and put the towel in the storage tube until my next shower.  After a trip we wash our absorbers with our regular clothes but do not dry them, we just fold, roll and put them in their tubes.  If a long time passes between uses and they dry out, we soak the towel in water for about 10 minutes and they are just like new and ready to go.  They are very durable as well, ours are in about their 5th year.

See, something good does come out of Wisconsin.

--the Big Kahuna

Spring is Closer

It's getting close to biking weather. The temperatures are popping above 50 every once in a while and, at least in SE Michigan, there is no snow. After this week's heavy rains there is ice, but no snow cover. With the time change, it's still light when I leave work. I could bike after work, not for long, but I could bike. I try to ride every month. So far I've gotten rides in January and February (and in Michigan), now I need to check March off the list. Our bikes are tuned up and ready to go. Any day now.

I got a new batch of applications to enter and my application was among them: 396 and 397. Not a very low number for somebody who is actually working on registration. The bike shops that travel with us, D&K bikes and Diane Ruggles, have registered and some SAGs. Out of 47 riders, I only had to add the full address for one. The rest of the people were already on the mailing list (and so I could enter them quicker). That should change as I get to the later applications. I'm beginning to see people who emailed us asking if we've gotten their applications. And we've gotten our first 90 year old rider.

PALM is for everyone. It's one of the things that I like about PALM. The daily mileages are such that you don't have to be an athlete to ride PALM, just be in shape. You don't have to worry that you'll stand out if you are older. There are lots of us on the ride. You don't have to worry if you're a woman: it's about 50/50, men and women. You don't have to worry about bringing your kids. There are plenty of kids. You don't have to worry that you'll be too slow: we have people who ride with one kid on a tagalong towing another kid in a bugger. You don't have to worry that you've never done this before: about 1/3 of our riders have never ridden PALM and most of them have never done a week long bike trip before. And you should see the assortment of bikes that people ride! Everything from 30 year old Schwinns to tandems where the riders are facing different directions. We do offer longer optional routes each day but the last and I suppose you could go fast, but what's the point? Why miss your chance to see the things that you go by? If something looks interesting, why not stop?

Bike Feast

We had a weather pattern here: start off the week with mornings in the single digits and end it on Friday with a day in the 50's. (Last Friday it set a record for the date at 67.) But now it's decided that rain is the new pattern. We've gotten inches of rain. If it freezes, we are in trouble.

Saturday I got my bike back from shop already for the summer. It was a day late: the rain had already started. But Saturday night was the Bike Feast. This event was started 23 years ago by the Downriver Cycle Club and three other local bike clubs. It takes place about a month before biking season starts (and after about 3 months of winter) and gives a chance for bicyclists who haven't been able to bike for months to talk about biking. This year it was sponsored by LMB. In past years you had to bring a dish to pass. This year we ate off china and used real silverware. I don't remember ever using real silverware as a bicyclist. There was a drawing for free registations to upcoming rides and I won one for the Farm Lakes tour. A woman presented a slide show of a tour of Utah. The views were spectacular, but I noticed that she always took pictures at the top of the climbs. There were lots of signs warning of 6%, 10% grades. She said that the climbs were gradual but the descents were steep. She zoomed by any pictures of herself: helmet hair.

Since LMB sponsored the dinner, they passed out copies of the 2009 ride calendar and the current LMB Quarterly magazine. And who was featured in a long article: Kevin Degen who was with us at the Feast. It was great spending a couple of hours talking about biking. Afterwards we had to go home in a cold, hard rain. But did I mention that I saw the first robins in my neighborhood yesterday?

PALM Meeting

We had a PALM meeting last Sunday. I was hoping that we would have almost all the applications entered except maybe for some late staff by the meeting, but such no luck. We have completely processed 389 riders so far, about half. As I've mentioned before, all applications that didn't make the cutoff date of Feb 3 were mailed back on Feb 13. If you mailed in your application before Feb 3 and didn't receive your application back, you are on the ride. Until Vickie processes your application she won't cash your check, so don't be worried if your check hasn't been cashed. If you're still worried, email us. Vickie has alphabetized all the applications that she is processing so she can check to see if you're there.

We got a report on all the sites at the meeting. Things there are going well. Meal menus are pretty set. Entertainment has been arranged. The Stanton site co-ordinator said that the only food outlets in town are McDonalds and Subway. The downturn in the auto industry has caused the three downtown restaurants to close. Monday night might be a good night to pay for a PALM dinner. We got a look at this year's t shirt. If you thought last year's shirt was bright, wait until you see this year's shirt. The staff wanted to be sure that if you wore the PALM shirt while biking that you would be seen. They succeeded. I can't wait until this year's PALM parade. All the spectators will be squinting.

I've taken a look at the breakdown at the PALM riders so far. I would expect that the first applications received would be from former PALM riders. I remember adding only a handful of complete addresses when I was entering the applications. From this perspective, there should be only a handful of new riders. In fact 103 of the 389 riders that I've registered so far are first timers: 26%. Since I only entered a few addresses, this means that the first time riders were all on the mailing list. This shows that if you want to ride PALM and you've never ridden PALM before, you've got to get on the mailing list. (Former PALM riders are automatically on the mailing list.)

We already have 32 riders in their 70's and 7 riders in their 80's registered. Typically the 10 thru 19 year old age bracket is one of the two top age brackets. So far there are 49 riders in this age bracket as compared to 93 riders in their 50's and 101 riders in their 60's. This is low. I've found that families register later than individuals. With this year's Feb 3 cutoff date, I hope that they had enough time.

More Applications

Now this is winter in Michigan. When I ran on Friday it was 52 degrees, today it is 10 degrees, and last Tuesday it was 8 degrees. This is what I expect, not 6 weeks where it doesn't get above freezing. Even though it is cold, all the snow and ice are gone in SE Michigan. You can see the debris that's gathered over 2 months but you can't do anything about it: it's all frozen in the ground. I once tripped on a piece of cloth on a sidewalk that was frozen solid. At least there is baseball being played in Florida and articles on the Tigers in the paper. I followed my own advice and took the bikes in to have them tuned up for the summer. I may not have to pick them up for a while though.

I got more applications to process. We are now up to 389 riders registered so we are about half way. There were a lot of the staff in this batch, but not mine. If you got a email/call from Vickie about a mistake/omission you made on your application, you are not alone. I made a mistake in the money and had to send her a new check. My number could be in the 500's. PALM riders do come from all over. In this last batch we had riders from North Carolina, Colorado, New York, and Kansas. The great majority of the riders are from Michigan but from all over Michigan. Lots of small towns.