What's new in ibBiking land?
The commuting thing will be going well when I get my medical bills paid down. A new flood of outstanding bills came in that I did not expect. On the ( http://sfcompact.blogspot.com/) -which is a very cool idea- I read a post by one author who recently ate a chunk of flesh. It was interesting. I was thinking about my seven years and how I don't miss a single thing anymroe; definitely turned a corner about a year ago. I'm done with the Chinese food kick. For me tho, it's been a lot of PF Changs and Suriya Thai -2 local restaurants. LightLife products, in general, I've found to be very agreeable and yummy. The only thing I'm working on right now is my roommates. They eat a lot of cheese (mostly imported stuff which I love) so that's hard. I haven't found a reliable source for alternative cheeses that duplicate flavors well. Living in a large city, close to a Wild Oats I might find larger selections of alternatives -but no go for now. What I'm working towards is 1 pizza a month. Presently I eat about 15. I'm pretty right on with that estimate. Those pizzas tend to be Amy's or some variation of or homemade. What difficulties have you encountered, if any, while giving up meat? I'd be curious to know if you suppressing or facing anything. The last thing I gave up was fish. Let me get some things settled and then I'll share more thoughts on combining our efforts for commuting, compacting, tech-ing, vegging, triathlon-ing etc-ering...

Better crank:
http://www.rotorbike.com/2006/rotor_test.htm
Place to buy:
Orangle cycle
Thoughts on commuting: http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/commuting-article.html http://indygreenways.org/
See better:
Try panoptix or go to Harley-Davidson Dealership and buy $10 clear sunglasses
Fuel for the ride:
Powergel Vanilla
Indoor Trainer:
spin on this.
Lights:
MOAB -this one most likely
Train smarter:
use a watt meter
http://www.ibikesports.com/products.html
"The iBike Pro is CyclingPeaksTM WKO+ compatible!" http://www.ibikesports.com/detail.aspx?ID=19
Bar extender for computer:
http://www.ibikesports.com/detail.aspx?ID=18
Analyze ride:
http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/ TrainingPeaks.com
"Add real meaning to your heart rate monitoring. Heart monitoring alone does not tell you how your actual performance is improving, it just tells you how hard your heart is working. A power meter measures your rate of work (power), and analyzes your efficiency by allowing you to compare heart rate data to power output to your cadence and finally to your speed."

If you're like me, maybe, you need to find more useful links for your trike.

(<---My friend Renee barreling down on me in my Speed.)

Two ways to transport:
http://www.sportsexpress.com/

http://www.hitchrider.com/anatomy-trike.htm

One place to buy a Catrike perhaps & get a great deal:
http://p216.ezboard.com/For-Sale/fcatrikefrm7
http://www.catrike.com/pg_faqs.htm#where

Brian Piccolo Park Velodrome

"The first race held at the Velodrome was on April 17, 1993. The Velodrome has a 333.3-meter concrete track with a maximum banking of 28 degrees. Being located in sunny South Florida where the weather averages 70 degrees from November to February and 80+ degrees the remainder of the year, this bicycle/skating facility attracts more than 3,500 athletes every year. Click here for the Velodrome fees."

• 
  
  new criterium course is open to the public daily from 8:00 a.m. to dusk.


• 
  
  paved course, containing both 500 meter and 800 meter loops. It was developed for both cyclist and in-line speed skaters.


• 
  
  no charge to use this facility, except during special events.


• 
  
  park admission fee on weekends and holidays.


• 
  
  criterium course is adjacent to the skate park and Velodrome.


• 
  
  For more information, please call the Velodrome at 954-437-2626.

Information pulled from: http://www.broward.org/parks/velodrome.htm

Link for lights:

http://www.xenoline.com/

I got a flat yesterday too. I had to do a 3-mile run back to my car. Being in bike shoes made the run feel like it was 6-miles. Hiding my trike, I was literally and figuratively sweatin' it made it feel like 12-miles. Which should teach me to go out better prepared to ride. I couldn't haul the trike behind me because the flat made it too hard to drag.

Link for a rack:

http://www.hitchrider.com/anatomy-trike.htm

Cool Blog:

http://feetfirst.name/

Catrikes 4 Sale:

http://p216.ezboard.com/For-Sale/fcatrikefrm7

Just a few of my trike:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iblee/475190146/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/iblee/484101558/

Why a recumbent? Why a recumbent trike?

There are many reasons. (My daily commute rider will be one of these Matt. Under "cruisers" check out the GhostRider. ) My primary reason was comfort. Depending on how I describe my lovely neck pain, I could say I have a pinched nerve, compressed vertebrae, or shooting pains down my arms. However it's described, I stopped riding bikes because the enjoyment was, oohhhh: how does one say -nonexistent- and the pain would have turned a lesser person into a cripple. I hated to ride a bike.

The Patron Saint of Instigation: Matt Shepard
Matt and I started conversing about commuting to work, by bike. He does; I don't. I wanted him to go veggie and he wanted me to become communist, er, I mean a commuterist. (But I really wanted to get back into cycling not only commuting.) You start down one path and you get led to another. In looking at the forward crank designs, body-geometry improvements, and scientifically & technologically refined frames, a person could find a bike to fit their body. No more spanish inquisition torture rack for me. Why would anyone use a bike that pains their body? I have no idea. I didn't just want to ride though, I also wanted to spend more time outside, in the outisde world, in nature, away from a computer -and I like the internet. I've spent enough years exercising inside lifting weights. I will be sticking with Aikido though for the rest of my life. In getting back to commuting, I wanted to stick to my word yet I wanted to get more out of this for myself. Since, I've been shaving my spending down for nearly a year while devotedly siphoning funds into an account I had no access too, I finally could afford outright my (used) Catrike. The fruits of building a substantial ancillary savings account, led me to have enough for two things: buy a recumbent trike & (semi-regular) bike & a Tabletpc. The ride feels great again. Added to this the satisfaction of stuffing so much money away in such a short time to reach this objective my reward is doubled.

triCycling for life:
For my recumbent, once I tried a few of the industry designs, I decided to settle on: comfort, performance, and stability. Based on these fixed points, once I tried the Catrike, I found this trike fit my body like a glove. Obviously, I chose comfort first because I actually wanted to be able to ride free of pain -for a very long distance. I chose performance as the next point because I like to exercise; it's a de facto part of my life. Tie this with my want of spending more time outside. I already top over 40+ hours looking outside; so wistfully at times. Finally, stability has the lock on comfort and performance in my opinion; you will never achieve the kinds of rides you want to achieve if you don't feel at home on your ride.

Out of the recumbents of various designs I tried, the Catrike met my criteria. While this unique design may not make yours, remember the point that we're as different as we're alike and I personally thought Spider-Man 3 was awesome.

There is more to come on this. I'm still compiling my thoughts. I'll give you more detail later and update you on my rides. I will race next year; it's at a velodrome in Florida!

I'm still testing my ride out. I've clocked myself at over 25 m.p.h and rode for a 3.5 hour stretch with little body fatigue. My legs were wiped out though.



Links
http://www.bikely.com/
http://clevercycles.com/blog/?p=186
http://recumbentcyclist.blogspot.com/
http://bikeroute.com/WhyBent.php

Bike-Friendly Cities in the U.S.

A number of towns have recently focused on making roads more accessible to bicycles. Here are some of the top spots chosen by the Bicycle Friendly Community Campaign from the League of American Bicyclists, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

CITY	% OF ARTERIAL ROADS WITH BIKE LANES	% OF COMMUTERS WHO BIKE	COMMENTS
Boulder, Colo.	97%	21%	Boulder has spent an average 15% of its transportation budget on building and maintaining bicycle traffic over the past five years. The goal is to create a system that's "equitable for all users," with no hierarchy among pedestrians, cars and bikes, says Marni Ratzel, who runs the city's program.
Chicago	11%	1-2%	Mayor Richard Michael Daley bikes to work, setting the example for this city, which released an ambitious new bike plan last year. The goal: making all of Chicago's streets safe and convenient for cycling.
Davis, Calif.	95%	17%	Mostly flat and temperate, this town's logo is a bicycle; it has more bikes than cars and is the only place to earn platinum status on Bicycle Friendly Community's list of top cities. The city is about to build a $1.7 million bike-only tunnel under a major road.
Madison, Wisc.	About 37%	3.2%	There are 32 miles of bike lanes, 35 miles of bike paths and more than 100 miles of signed bike routes. On University Avenue, the major street in the downtown and University of Wisconsin campus area, there can be over 10,000 bicyclists a day -- plus 30,000 cars.
Palo Alto, Calif.	13%	5.7%	Along with the bike lanes on roads, the city also has nine miles of bike paths. In 2004 it spent about $5 million on a rail line under-crossing and $1.5 million on a 0.8-mile bike path.
Portland, Ore.	28%	5.4%	Though there are lots of hills and rain, this city has 163 miles of bike lanes. All but two bridges accommodate bicyclists. There's still a long way to go: The city still has 38 miles of bike lanes left in order to achieve its master plan. But in some neighborhoods bike commuters are as high as 9%.
San Francisco	About 4%	2.1%	In November 2003, San Francisco voters approved a half-cent sales tax measure, estimated to total $2.6 billion over 30 years. Of that, $56 million (a little more than 2%) will go to bike-related projects.

The search begins, again. I want to ride a recumbent bicycle.

And for this quote:
"… Anything you do from the soulful self will help lighten the burdens of the world. Anything. You have no idea what the smallest word, the tiniest generosity can cause to be set in motion. Clarissa Pinkola Estés "
I would have wrote : Whenever you do something from your deep internal self, you lighten the burdens of the world. Anything. Understand that the smallest, lightest, tiniest generosity sets changes the direction of the darkest times. Lee D. LeBlanc"
That's how I would have said it.

http://bike-recumbent.com/hydsys.shtml
"For $5.99 I bought a genuine Camelback Bite Valve, this is a big improvement over my previous method of always rememebering to blow out the water in the line before dropping the end. The other feature is a key-card retractor to keep the end of the hose conveniently to hand."

That's what I'm talking about.

Matt cooked. He is serious.

I want to ride my recumbent bicycle, to here.

As I search for my recumbent, I'll let you know how it goes. Notes, pictures, all the other metadata I gather along the way about what to kind of recumbent bicycle to buy will be posted to help you make a decision.

I'll also give my notes about how to successfully commute, trials along the way, methods on how not to get hit by a car, and my perspective with the likes and dislikes of commuting by bike. This is Florida afterall. Not residing in an especially bicycle-friendly area should make things lively. Maybe one day I'll ride other places. I hear there are a lot of bicycles in China.

I made this bet.
You should be careful when you do that. The other person may hold you to it. Matt did that. Now I have to do my part. I'll explain the bet in a minute.

Dang.
I didn't actually believe he would do it. Since I can't ride a regular bike without a lot of nerve pain between my shoulder blades (already way ahead of you -I see a Chiropractor and get Therapeutic Massages when my friend Melissa wants to trade out), I will be getting a recumbent.

Enter the bet.
I bet Matt if he gave up meat I would commute to work by bike. Being that we're both inclined to keep our word because we believe that intangible substances like honor, truth, integrity mean only as much as the energy we put into them. We could be at an impasse. We're not though. We both believe that when you give your word to do something, you do it. I don't really know how to define love, compassion, truth, respect -other than through action.

I've expressed it this way. These are my expressive views, not Matt's. If you asked Matt he could have very different views on this. I don't presuppose to speak for anyone. Quoting and paraphrasing the Dali Lama, my only real religion is kindness to all beings, my god is peace, and I bring god and participate in religion by making compassionate choices. That's it for me. An example is, should something have to die painfully so I can eat? No.

How did the bet come about?
I'm vegetarian with borderline vegan tendencies. Over six years ago I gave up meat in all forms. My reasons were physical at first, then environmental. Spiritual and mental concerns followed next. Finally, as I delved into my own human nature, ethical reasons came to the surface.

Once you start digging, you can't just stop. Some people say you can; I can't. You have to know your own nature and how far you are willing to take an idea before you start. Deciding after the fact not only puts you in danger, it could put other people in danger. It's called readilism: being a realistic idealist. Or some other made up word. The point is: decide beforehand, when you can. For there may be some time when you can't; it may be the most important time in your life. How do you know when it's that time? Be ready beforehand. Yet, be supple. Thanks Renee. And Melissa.

What's next?
You take the bet. That was Matt's idea. Also we figured, I blog my commuting re-education. Matt blogs his palate re-eduction. If you're vegetarian, find a meat-person to take the challenge. You commute if they re-educate how they eat by becoming vegetarian. If you eat meat, challenge a veg-head to commute if you go veg.