Last bike ride of 2009

just had to be on my brand new Giant Advanced TCR road bike. The weather has not been good for road bike riding, so on New Years Eve afternoon I decided to just do it. The temps at ride time was 30, as per my new cycling computer with a temp function, something else to keep track of. The bike is really nice. I got in a whole 9 miles, riding down to Heartland Cycle just to see if Byron was in, but the shop was closed for the New Year's. I did have to dodge some ice on the roads, but they were actually not too bad. The road salt does concern me some riding on the racing wheels with the thin tires, but no flat today.

Tomorrow the plan is to do a road ride with some of the friends that ride in the summer, Ronnie I know wants to ride. Everyone have a safe New Year's eve, until next year...

Sedgwick County Park

is a good place to ride that is, close to home, easy to get to, and usually is a place where you can many times find other cyclist riding. I need about 35 more miles on the Roadie to get to my year mileage goad of 2,500 miles on the faithful steel framed road bike. Christmas eve this year brought about 2" of snow this year, but with today's temperatures of over 45, it melted most of it away. With the paved path around the park it is a good place to ride any type of bicycle. There are usually walkers and their dogs on the trail, so it pays to pay attention to the traffic on the path. As the sun started to set, the temps started to drop, and by the time I got home it was in the 30's. Someplace along the way, my chain picked up something and there was a jump whenever the chain went through the rear derailluer. Byron at Heartland Cycle cleaned the chain, removed the problem link and got me going. One more ride and I should have my 2,500 miles on the bike for the year.

Wichitians that live East

don't like to go West, West siders sometimes will cross the tracks to go east - to work. It is not as bad as it used to be, but the way the town was layed out, that is how it seemed to be. Several our city fathers decided that elevating the RR tracks that seemed to divide the city would help eleviate the problem. It was a daily thing, waiting on trains as you were driving across town. The project now complete is great, no more waiting on trains! Today's ride started out with following the project about 1 mile.

Another Wichtia landmark is the old Joyland Amusement Park, now vacant, but the old wooden roller coaster is still standing, in need of a new owner. Today's ride left Wichita, heading west on McArthur road, into western Sedgwick County. Temps started out mid 20's, finished almost 50 with a slight breeze, a perfect Christmas week ride of 55 miles.

I need to get a few

more clicks in on the Roadie to get to 2500 miles on the bike for this year. I am needing just over 100 miles to make my goal. Late December is a tough time of the year to get in a couple of longer rides. By just riding regularly (several times per week) I should be real close. This morning I road the Gunnar Roadie to the radio show, getting in just over 20 miles on the commute. It was a cool 34 out when I left home, and never got much warmer all day. With it being cloudy, it seemed colder.

On my way back across town, I went through 'Old Town', Wichita's center city that has seen much improvement the past 10 yrs. I stopped by the yet to open Intrust Arena for a few shots. Then found a couple of other spots that seemed fitting for a shot.

This mornings ride across town

started at a balmy 27 degrees. Compared to the 5 we had a couple of days ago (when I did not ride) seemed warm. With the proper clothing, 27 really did not feel cold at all. In fact, after a few minutes it gets kinda toasty actually.

I really like riding on the 17th abandoned RR path. At some point the city has to open this path up for biking, jogging, walking, maybe even horses as it goes out into the county. This shot is taken at the I-135 overpass where the path will have to tie into a N-S trail under the highway. I don't really know how far east the trail could go. The old RR line did go to eastern Kansas. I guess some places it has been returned to farmland. It would be good to see it turn into a KATY trail type of path. Check out http://www.bikekatytrail.com/.

Today I decided to ride the Salsa Chili Con Crosso, a great bike for the gravel that the trail offers.

I think the name needs to be changed

from the Pumpkin Pie ride the the Oz bicycle club puts on to the Pumkin pie - choclate cake with whipped cream and cherries - pumpkin soup - cinnamon candy corn - hot cider ride. 15 or so Ozzies braved the breezy 40's temperaturs for a 30 mile ride today from Heartland Cycle. This 4th annual ride has become a favorite for the local cycling community.

Salsa Baby - Ride and Smile

I jumped on the Salsa this morning to ride to do the weekly gardening radio show. http://www.knssradio.com/ I can get a 20 miler in on Saturday mornings commuting to the radio station. Unless the weather is icy, I try and do the ride year around. By years end, it should add several hundered miles to my total for the year. Today I came through the hispanic area of town and had to stop for a photo at the ElMarichi store. This is one of Salsa's mountain bikes, so I thought it would be a good photo. Today it started out in the 40's and ended up in the 50's, very little wind, and sunny. Like Salsa says, Ride and Smile

Thursday Mornings

I meet my brother, Linden for breakfast at Clear Lakes Cafe, our favorite local diner. Unless it is raining or icy, I almost always ride my bike. Clear Lakes cafe is less than 2 miles from home, so in the winter it is hardly worth the effort to get layered up for a 4 mile ride. It is hard to get up much earlier to get miles in on the way to breakfast, so I try to take a longer route home. Wichita has been adding to its bike paths the past several years so I take a route along the Arkansas (that's R-Kansas, not R-Cansaw). This morning it was a beautiful, calm 34 degrees during my ride along the river.

Giant TCR SL project

The frame arrived a couple of weeks ago, and today I ordered the group, Campagnolo Super Record 11 speed. Nancy gave me a set of Zipp 404's for my 50th birthday and now I have a carbon fiber bike to put them on. Stay tuned for the build, hopefully it will start later this week

11/25/09 Byron from Heartland Cycles sent me a message yesterday - "Super Record". I knew at that moment that the parts, or Groupo had arrived. I didn't drop what I was doing, but I did make my way down to the bike shop and check out the parts. With Thanksgiving being this week, I hope the build can be done by this weekend. This carbon fiber rear derailleur is a piece of art.

11/3/09 The build is getting closer. The handlebars need to be switched out and wrapped, the chain put on, the seatmast cut to proper length, and the bike will be ready to ride.

I passed up the State CX race today,

had some things to do. Besides, spending 5 hrs in the car to ride for less than an hour just is not worth it. I decided to spend the day in Wichita, had wanting to check in with the stores (http://www.jonsonsgarden.com/) and go for a ride later in the day. It was overcast, rainy in the morning, but by mid-day it had stopped raining. With the temps in the mid-40's I headed out on the Gunnar. I headed into the north 10-15mph breeze, going about 15 miles. I found a perfect spot for a photo at an old shed on what was the highway way back when. I set the Argus bean camera on B&W for this shot. The ride home was much quicker than the ride up, but with a little mist falling I was ready to be home.

Salsa Chili Con Crosso, my go-fast CX bike

Or at least as fast as I can make it go. My first Cyclocross bike was a Surly Cross-Check. A great all around bike that does it all. Put road tires and it and ride across the state, or country if you wanted to. The Salsa is a bunch lighter, weighing in at 19 lbs. I do some gravel road riding, even tried the Dirty Kanza race this year, a 200 miler. I would not say that the Salsa is a do anything bike, but it is a blast to ride. I've done 1 cyclocross race this fall, and hope to do a couple more. There is a 3 race series in the area which is all on gravel roads, hopefully I can get out and do a couple of those events.

I packed my Salsa up and took it to The Netherlands last summer. The gearing was better for the hills we rode than my Gunnar Roadie. The Salsa with road tires did great.

Why Via Velo?

I thought it would be fun to have a blog about places I go by bicycle. I guess to start off, I'll do a rundown on my bikes. Here is my Schwinn Panther, Santa brought it to me for Christmas a few years back, not too many miles on it, just over 200, but it is fun to ride. Nancy got a Pink Panther the same year.