Ludlow, CA to Barstow, CA – 55 miles
After yesterday’s long day, the plan was to sleep in today, have a relatively mellow ride back to the car, and drive back home early afternoon. Oh, the best laid plans!
The portions of Route 66 for all of today’s route are now the frontage roads for I-40. The weather was pleasant when leaving the motel room a little before 9AM. I went under I-40 and caught the frontage road on the north side. It started going uphill – no surprise, since the whole day would be a gradual uphill to Barstow. Continue reading →
Posted in: Bicycling.
Needles, CA to Ludlow, CA – 113 miles
Yesterday I alluded to my concern that I would not be able to ride the distance in the available daylight. I didn’t want to start at sunrise and put myself in a position where I would have to do the night riding at the end when I may be more fatigued. Instead, the plan was to get an hour or two of riding before sunrise, so that I could be assured of finishing in daylight. Continue reading →
Posted in: Bicycling.
Kingman, AZ to Needles, CA – 71 miles
Since today was going to be a relatively short day, followed by a long ride the following day, I decided to sleep in and wake up when I felt like it – which ended up being 7AM instead of 6AM!
In my mad dash to ship the cold weather gear at the post office yesterday, I had accidentally threw in there my knee warmers. Oops. So it was off the to the local bike shop the morning, which was 3 miles north – i.e., 6 miles out of the way when you count the out and back. Good thing they opened at 8AM – real early for a bike shop. Continue reading →
Posted in: Bicycling.
Seligman, AZ to Kingman, AZ – 86 miles
I forgot to mention that yesterday’s 77 miles was a little shy of my expected 84 miles. My cycling computer must be a bit off, or I must have used the most direct I-40 shoulder in a location where I had originally planned to use the old highway. Today’s planned route is 89 miles, all of it on the old Route 66 with no turns, so I would find out for sure whether or not the computer is the issue. Continue reading →
Posted in: Bicycling.
Flagstaff, AZ to Seligman, AZ – 77 miles
Regular readers of my blog entries from previous bike trips know that I try not just to talk about the riding, but also the people and places along the way. But today was a challenging day, so this day’s entry is (mostly) about the riding. So deal with it! 
Continue reading →
Posted in: Bicycling.
I forgot to mention that earlier today I had noticed that the heads on the stem bolts on the bike were starting to show a little rust. While it was fresh on the mind, I figured I’d go to the hardware store and swap these out for stainless bolts, and I’d also do the same for another bike that needed it. Yeah, that technically breaks one of the cardinal rules of bicycle touring (don’t make any last minute changes to the bike), but what could go wrong, I figured. Continue reading →
Posted in: Bicycling.
Later today is the drive to LA Union Station to ship the bike to Flagstaff via Amtrak freight. Tonight I drive to another Amtrak station in the desert (can’t say where, I’ll ruin the suspense), stash the car someplace safe, take the train to Flagstaff, then ride back to the car to finish the tour. Shipping the bike from LA is necessary because shipping the bike as freight can’t be done at the other Amtrak stops along the Southwest Chief route.
The weather is forecast to be sunny all of next week, with highs in the 70s and 80s – with the exception of a chance of snow flurries tonight into tomorrow morning for Flagstaff, which is located at about 7000 feet elevation. I could delay the tour start by about a day to avoid the flurries, but I figured it best to leave tonight as planned and have an extra day in my pocket on the road. Continue reading →
Posted in: Bicycling.
I love my iPhone, but it can really suck down battery juice with heavy use. Most of the time I’m close enough to a computer during the day for me to use a USB cable to keep the battery topped off. But I decided to get a few external batteries for those other times.
The first battery was this one that cost under $10 shipped from a US seller on Ebay. This looks very similar to a Kensington battery that retails for about $30 from a brick and mortar store. Continue reading →
Posted in: Tech.
Well, not exactly. Remember my older post about installing a new webcam for the cabin backyard because the old webcam overheated, resulting in blurry optics? Today I found a use for the old webcam – placing it above the garage door to check for snow in the driveway and street. It’s pretty helpful to know in advance how much work I have to do just to pull into the driveway!
Installation was similar to the original install, using an electrical junction box and plexiglass for the enclosure, except this time I used a 4″x4″x4″ box instead of a 6″x6″x4″ box. I had to take apart the webcam casing in order to get the antenna to fit in the smaller box. Since the webcam overheated last time, this time I didn’t bother with any insulation to keep it warm. Continue reading →
Posted in: Cabin, Tech.
Bike Brain – for Palm handheld PDAs – product review (no longer available – review archived from 2001)
I just received BikeBrain as a gift last week, and I thought I’d give some first impressions.
BikeBrain is program that is run on a Palm-series handheld organizer that provides basic cyclocomputer functions and ride routing. It comes with a plastic case to mount the Palm organizer on the stem or handlebars, and a Vetta cyclocomputer-like pickup mounts to the front fork and plugs into the port on the bottom of the Palm. (The Palm organizer is not included.) Overall, the mounting system is definitely secure enough for road use, though I don’t think it could survive an endo off-road. In spite of that, I got a used Palm Pilot 5000 to use with BikeBrain instead of using my “good” Palm. Continue reading →
Posted in: Bicycling, Tech.
