Palm Beach Bike Tours – Page 81 – Two Wheels, one GPS and a Camera

June 14, 2001June 18, 2008

100 Miles: Key Largo to Key West by Bicycle

Five of us rode from Key Largo to Key West in February.

If you’re talking about a serious touring-type ride, the ride TO Key West was enjoyable (the operative word is FEBRUARY).

If you want to do serious riding, Key West isn’t where you want to be. If you want to putz around on a rented cruiser or a beater bike to keep from having to find a parking spot in a tiny town that is in total gridlock, then Key West is your spot. Bikes, mopeds and other small transportation vehicles are readily available. (The bikes even come with D-cell flashlights strapped to the handlebars for night riding. Probably to give the drunks something to aim at.) It’s a tourist town/Bourbon Street wannabe.

There is ample shoulder, bike lane or bike path the whole 106 miles, except for a few hundred yards at Bahia Honda. Even though the shoulder is fairly narrow and traffic is running 45 to 65 mph, I never had a close brush. There is enough utility biking in the keys that the local motorists are very bike-aware. A car would pull out onto the bike lane to get on the road, see us, then back up to clear the way. Most of the time they’d give us a friendly wave or a greeting.

We encountered our first certifiable a-hole in 106 miles about 100 yards into Key West: a Hummer full of college kids who deliberately pulled out to block the bike lane just as I approached them.

My Keys advice in June would follow your N’awlins advice: find a cool spot and hunker down. It was a hot ride in FEBRUARY. It would be a killer in the summertime. I had a couple of friends who rode it in July. Took ’em four days with all the stops they made to jump in the water to cool off.

In 1980, I spent a month in Key West as a photographer covering the Cuban Boatlift. Like I’ve posted before, the sun in Key West is exactly twice as bright as it is in West Palm Beach, FL. By light meter reading, the sun in West Palm Beach is twice as bright as the sun in southern Ohio. Use your sunblock accordingly.

If you want more details about the Keys ride, lemme know. (By the way, the beaches in Key West ain’t all that great.)

June 1, 2001May 10, 2008

Stop Lights that Never Trip: Just Run Them?

There are about three stop lights on my regular route that don’t routinely detect my bike. One of them is on a fairly busy street, so I’ll usually make a right turn on red, go about 100 feet to a median cutout, cross over and make a right turn to continue on my original path.

One night there was a cop sitting in the cutout writing a report. I stopped to complain about the light and ask if he’d report it, but I’ve never seen a change. It’s not enough of an irritant for me to pursue it with the traffic department yet.

The other two intersections are either busy enough that there’s usually a car around to trip the light or there’s usually no traffic. I’ll stop for that one, wait about 30 seconds for it to cycle or not cycle and then go through the intersection.

There are some folks who would make the argument that, if I know that it’ll never trip, that I should just blow through it, but I’m one of those folks who are anal about traffic laws whether I’m on two wheels or four. (The difference is that I would probably do a right turn on red in my car if the light didn’t trip.)

June 1, 2001September 27, 2018

Kidney, Camelbak; Camelbak, Kidney

A kidney stone and hot, humid rides in South Florida were what moved me to get more focused on hydration.

The CamelBak M.U.L.E. holds 100 oz. I have sucked it dry on some rides, but I don’t know that I would want to carry any more weight than that. You can almost always find a place to refill before you go dry.

Camelbak M.U.L.E. with ipod In addition to the water, I carry my wallet, cellphone, Schrader / Presta adapter, allen wrench and extra Vistalite flasher on or in it. I like the idea that if something would happen (like a bikejacking) that the wallet and cellphone are on my back instead of the rapidly-disappearing bike.) I added a tube director primarily to keep the first gulp of water a little cooler, but I’ve gotten to like the mouthpiece living where I just have to move my head a little to pick it up. If I’m not on my bike, I’ll throw in a CO2 inflator, a few more tools and some snacks.

I’ll still carry a water bottle either to refill the Mule or to pour over my head. It’s not uncommon for the water bottle to get so hot that it’s not refreshing, though.

Maybe I’ve just gotten used to the weight, but that was never an issue with me. The insulation / wicking is good enough that it has never felt cold against my back in the winter (such as we have down here) nor has it been noticeably hot in the summer (which we have for about eight months of the year). I’ll always yank off my helmet when I stop, but I usually don’t bother to pull off the Mule.

I’ve never put anything but water in it and I drain it and hang it up with the expansion hanger after every use. Since it gets used several times a week, it doesn’t suffer from the corner-of-the-closets-crud.

Hydration Backpack Advantages:

Water stays cool, not heated to the 90s by radiation from blacktop.
Water stays clean. I’ll take algae over poodle poop and pavement pollution splashed over the water bottle.
If I load it up with ice, usually there’s still ice left when the water’s gone. I can add water from any source and it’ll be cool.
Hydration happens almost without thinking, a couple of sips every few minutes rather than bottle-draining gulps at infrequent intervals. Makes following the old, “drink before you’re thirsty” rule easy to follow.
You can use the ice-filled bladder and insulated bag as a ice pack for an injured rider. Worked great for a friend who sprained a wrist on a ride.
Your grandson likes drinking out of it.

Malcolm Steinhoff drinks from Ken Steinhoff's Camelbak M.U.L.E. at Dreher Park in West Palm Beach, FL

Hydration Backpack Disadvantages:

Cost.

May 14, 2001September 27, 2018

FRS Radios, Cycling, Hams and, Whoops, CRASH!

My usual riding partner and I ride at different speeds, so FRS radios have worked out well for us. We bought a couple of refurb Uniden units for $60 and plug boom mikes into them. We use voice activation so we don't have to take our hands off the bars to talk. Diddling with the sensitivity settings eliminated most of the problem with wind noise.

It's great to be able to carry on a conversation without having to set your speed to match the other person's. When we start to break up (at about 1-1/2 to 2 miles), I'll either stop for her to catch up or I'll double back.

I got my ham license a couple of weeks ago, but that was primarily so I could communicate with the hams running sag on organized rides. I've monitored them with a scanner and thought it would be nice to be able to talk with them.

There are some good safety reasons to use the radios. One night, my partner radioed ahead to ask me if the restrooms at a park we were approaching were open. I checked and told here that they were. Over her voice-actived mike, I heard her say, “Where the bleep is the turnoff?” followed by “Oh, Bleep!!!” CRASH!!! and moaning. Fortunately, she survived with only a little road rash and some bruises. At least I knew to go looking for her.

May 10, 2001July 27, 2008

Trek Navigator 300

Have ’em show you the Navigator comfort bike series. You can get a Navigator 300 for about 300 bucks. It’s not a fast bike, but you can ride centuries on it.

It has a suspension seatpost (that doesn’t do a whole lot of good) and a suspension stem that absorbs some road shock. More important than the accessories will be getting a bike that fits you. Until you get a fair number of miles on your bottom, though, you’ll feel every pebble and bump no matter how soft the saddle or springy the suspension.

I’m not exactly sure what looks dorky, nor do I care (which probably means that I are one.) If it feels good and you like it, who cares what it / you look like?