New Bike and First Ride to Work on the Space Horse!

The All-City Space Horse is mine! My first new bike ever. Lynn took this picture right outside of the Hub, on Cedar Ave. I like this shot because this was my neighborhood during my first year in the US, living in the highrise peeking out from behind the larger building left of center in the background.

And what a beautiful ride it was!

Got my new bike last weekend, an All-City Space Horse! I had been ogling it since my friend David had suggested it to me as an ideal mix of road and touring bike. I had tried it out a couple times at the Hub Bike Co-op on the West Bank in Minneapolis and ended up having them put a 58 cm size on lay-away. Lynn and I had attended a going away party of one of her staff at SHADAC and she gave me a ride to the Hub on this fateful Saturday afternoon. While they prepped the bike, we browsed Midwest Mountaineering's wares. I was hoping to make the ride home the maiden voyage but was almost thwarted when they removed the cheapo try-out pedals, which of course is standard practice. I must have looked like a little boy cheated out of a Christmas present because the chief mechanic on site relented and re-installed them. And I was off! Great feel compared to my old, creaky, rusty but still trusty Schwinn Super Le Tour.

I quickly decided to ride it to my new job in Eagan as soon as possible. In preparation for the new bike I had already ordered a few components at Amazon and they arrived on Monday. So I quickly installed a pair of Shimano PD-A530 pedals, they turned out to be easy to clip on, without any adjustments. I also put on a sturdy Topeak Explorer bike rack that same evening to clip on my Vaude Newport (size L) messenger bag with pannier attachment. It's a tight fit but I was able to squeeze a change of clothes and my lunch in and Vaude's patent hook clips work great. Just not sure how long they will last.

Going down Montreal Ave, towards W 7th Street.

The morning was gorgeous, cool and cloudless. I needed to ride conservatively in order not to work up too much of a sweat since my new place of employment does not sport a shower. On the first stretch I was able to stop  next to my neighbor Tim at University Ave intersection to say 'hi.' It was a smooth ride from S of Hamline-Ayd Mill intersection to Lilydale but there was 300 m of gravel from the Valley Park trailhead to the big downhill. I guess the gas company is working on its pipeline and must be improving that section of trail for service vehicles or maybe something was buried under that stretch. But I was able to test gravel riding capability of the Space Horse. Not bad, likely partly due to the size 37 tires.

On bike trail atop I-35 E bridge across the Mississippi.

On my second ride which I took the morning after a storm
I encountered a couple of surprises in Valley Park: first a
deer crossed my path, then the path was blocked by this
fallen tree.

I missed light at Dodd and Hwy 110 by a few seconds, oh well a 3 minute breather. Smooth sailing for the remainder of the way, all along Dodd Rd. to work. I made it in 41 minutes under observance of ALL traffic rules.

Locked the Horse to the reeling at our loading ramp and had a quick splashdown in bathroom.

Since then, I had two more rides and also installed the Garmin GSC 10 Cadence sensor and my tush is now resting on the ol' Brooks B-17 saddle which I switched out from the Schwinn. One Item I am still missing is a mirror, currently waiting for the Mirrycle bar-end mirror which I really liked on my old bike.  

First Ride to New Work Location in Minnetonka

Well, this last weekend our company finally made the big move from way out in Maple Grove to out in Minnetonka. I had been studying and discussing bike options for this new location, it definitely was now within reach of me, as a casual biker and occasional bike commuter. And since the weather was not too shabby I needed to get this out of my system before the beginning of winter.

Great route along Minneapolis Greenway and Cedar Lake Trail. It must be about 70% on bike trails! Will verify this, though. All in all a much easier ride than going to Thomson Reuters in Eagan, even though it is a couple of miles longer. No significant hills at all! That's good and bad: a lower barrier to actually doing the ride but less of a training effect.

Issues for my first ride:

1. Went into the neighborhood off W River Road and needed to carry my bike up a flight of stairs. Next time I'll stay on River Road right up to the trail head.
2. After Lake Calhoun I should have hopped onto Dean Blvd for a shortcut. Instead I followed the Greenway to the intersection with Kenwirth Trail.
3. Stopped at Victoria Rd. to check my chicken scratches. I was right on.
4. Ice-cold feet. Need to invest in some shoe covers. Maybe a plastic baggie around my running shoes?
5. The dark was not an issue, my bike light was plenty bright, as was the street and trail lighting.

Interesting to see how many cyclists were out, I crossed and passed fewer than a couple dozen. A few joggers and folks walking their dogs, too. Cedar Lake Trail goes through along BNSF railroad with overgrown easement and through some wetlands, which is very nice.


After work I went back via the Mill City District and the Stone arch Bridge. I appreciated the stiff back wind, especially when seeing how hard the cyclists heading homeward from Minneapolis were working. The trail was very easy to find, within 30 minutes I was at the new Twins stadium. The first time I needed to stop after getting on Cedar lake trail was when I hit the river.

Again smooth riding, across the Stone Arch Bridge and then onto SE Main Street. I must have missed my turn for all of a sudden I found myself on a railroad service road. There was a squad car parked a little further down and fully expected to be turned back, but the officers paid me no heed. So I continued, crossing Dinkytown below street level and re-emerging onto fifth street behind the Ridder Arena. I stopped shortly at the Gopher Football Stadium to see if Lynn might be in her office. She wasn't, so I continued.

After I got my big light on I merged into the heavy bike traffic on the UMN Transit Way and was home in another 10 minutes. This seems to be the route of choice for a quick commute to work, barely more than an hour, admittedly with a lot of help from the strong westerly wind.

Bike Ride Eagan-Farmington-Hastings-Eagan

Nice bike outing with some colleagues from Thomson Reuters and the MN Boat Club. They were poopooing my rickety old bike but they could not drop me ... I did get that wobbly wheel fixed, though ...

Christian, Christine, Martin Carlos & Jack

Harriet Island-Mendota Bridge Bike Ride

Beautiful afernoon bike ride with Lynn, Peggy and Joel. It seems we were always a nose length ahead of some sprinkles and immediately after out return it began raining in ernest. We celebrated our accomplishment with ice cream at Creamy Cone at Maryland and Dale.

Minnesota Orienteering Club 2010 Adventure Race Tune-Up

or The Lost Boys found.

We did it and we did it at an extremely short notice: Bryan and I entered MNOC's annual AR tune-up, starting at Riverbend Nature Center in Faribault, MN.

Neither of us knew quite what to expect, neither the sequence of legs nor had we ever done anything like it. All we knew was that we would be running/orienteering, kayaking and bicycling.

When we needed a team name, Jen at work came up with a good one without delay: "The Lost Boys." I was just hoping that this would not prove to be a premonition ...

I picked up Bryan at 6:15 and we were on the road. Warnings about traffic delays due to the Ironman Bike Ride proved to be unwarranted. We moved at a good clip and were soon in Faribault. We had a quick pit stop at Hardee's and then dropped off our bikes at the appointed location in Two Rivers Park near downtown Faribault. Like at the bike drop, the parking lot of Riverbend Nature Center, participants were busy readying their gear.

The sky was leaden, the temps anything but mild, with a brisk northerly wind. Thus, after signing the waiver, the next order of business was deciding what to wear. I wore shorts, my orienteering gaiters and a rain jacket. I warned Bryan not to overdress, but the cold got the better of him.

At the pre-race meeting we were told that for the first leg we needed to carry all of our gear. That meant that those of us who insisted on using their own paddles would carry them through the woods. The sequence of events was orienteering, kayaking, cycling with a short orienteering (i.e. UTM location followed by compass bearing) interlude, a score-o and another bike leg.

On the Straight River, in my mind the most difficult leg

It didn't take long before we got going, a little after 9:00 AM. The Orienteering was rather simple and my experience helped us quite a bit.



We arrived at the start of the kayak portion within the first quarter of racers. Here, the decision was whether to install a seat. I decided against it, which may have been a mistake. I should have either invested that time or knelt in the inflatable craft. Quite a few parties passed us, our rhythm was off and I had a hard time sitting up straight. Furthermore, my rear end received a good soaking from a puddle of water that formed in the hollow I created in the back of the rubber boat. We made it without serious hangups but fell back by probably 10 places or so.



At the take-out I let Bryan clean the canoe while I plotted the UTM coordinate of the orienteering interlude of the first bicycle leg. A volunteer checked the plot for accuracy and off we went. One more control point within Faribault followed by a steep climb, then the country roads were ours.

The climb revealed what would turn out to be a major draw-back: Bryan’s studded tires were slow on smooth surfaces and his soft fork made climbing difficult. We plodded along and eventually made it to Caron Park, to the UTM coordinate at the picnic shelter. From there, we took an 11° bearing to a large boulder. We found it without problem. Back onto the bike, to Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, familiar to me from previous orienteering meets.



I do like Nerstrand Big Woods, it's one of my favorite parks. Here, we had to run a score-O, i.e. to tick off as many controls as possible in the allotted time. The control placements were generally simple and we hit all but the last one right on.

Ticking off the control points at Nerstrand Big Woods SP

They were placed more as during a regular O-event, it was easily possible to create a route not requiring any detours. As I said, I made a mistake at the last control. Since we only had about five minutes left, I had already resigned to dropping this one. However, it was so close to the check-out point that I decided to go for it. Fortes fortuna adiuvat, we got that last control and made it back with a minute to spare!



Back on the bikes and a tactical decision that would help us quite a bit: we switched bikes. I am a little fitter than Bryan and my smoother rolling Gary Fisher helped him a lot. Three controls on the road and three in Riverbend Nature Center, all by bike. The first one was not a problem. South, with a brisk back wind, that made even steep hills seem easier.

Easy ridin' downhill and with a back wind

The second control was where the road intersects with a drainage ditch. A strong, fast-riding team overshot this control and was out of sight by the time we had punched our card. I wonder how long it took for them to notice. The way back to Riverbend was a little more difficult because the NNW wind and a rather soft gravel road surface. The occasional farm dog would jump out at us but never persist. Just doing their job, keeping the riff-raff and varmint (like us) away.



The short bike-O in Riverbend was a fun piece of single track, nothing technical. Again, my orienteering helped except that I turned the wrong direction (left instead of right on the road back to the finish. This probably cost us a minute.

All in all, what a great experience for participating in an adventure race. It also boosts the ego to finish 8th out of 38 teams, for the results, see AR Tune-Up Finishers. For Mike Carlson, the meet director's thoughts, a description of all the work that went into preparing this and how the final scoring worked, see AR Tune-up review.Garmin Connect (click next to move to the next leg, they are in sequence, 1 to 5)

First Ride to Work In 2010

Last week held the promise of warm weather.  I thought I would ride my bike to work one day, taking advantage of the early season heatwave forecast by the weather augurs and of my kids' spring break. When the weather turned out as balmy as predicted, I checked my bike, dug out my saddle bag, packed it on Monday night and hopped out of bed at 5:00 on Tuesday morning. The usual cup-o-joe, sudoku, leftovers from the fridge for lunch, one last equipment check and off I went, at 6:00 sharp.

I had hoped that the gusty winds would start only after day brake, but I was not as lucky. I was buffeted by strong southerly gusts all along my ride form St. Paul to Eagan, which happens to be oriented completely north-south. Especially the open areas were a little troublesome, but hey, biking on March 30 in Minnesota at 12 C, not even a month after my last cross-country ski outing, I'll take it. I have to say that I do mind a head wind on the way home more than on the way to work. As always, I love crossing the Mississippi via the I-35E bridge. The river was still well outside its banks and the slower pace of the bike allowed me to take in the view. Again, as always, Valley Park in Mendota Heights is a welcome relief from the frantic traffic on the interstate. By now, day night definitely started to give way to the gentle light of dawn and the noise of the nearby free-way is muffled by trees and shrubbery. Nature is still dormant, the meadows and woods seem still barren and grey. Because of the wind there is no hint of the morning mists that I love along this stretch. 

After labouring up to Hwy 110 I am back on the road, Dodd Rd, just for a short piece, until I cut through a residential neighborhood to get to Mendota Heights Rd. and then Argenta Trail, which takes me almost to the West campus. While I love Argenta Trail for its almost rural character, it has the nastiest stretch of the entire commute: the short piece of way between Hwy 52 and where Argenta Trail turns south from Yankee Doodle Rd. Always heavy traffic on four lanes and not a good way to make it across. But this morning it worked out because of a slow semi that kindly held up traffic, thus creating a gap. 

I made it in about 11 minutes more from my usual time, due to the strong head wind and my lack of practice with the bike. 

In the screen shot above, note the time difference between ride to work and ride home. Most of the times, for this ride I am a little faster in the morning than in the afternoon, mostly because there is significantly more traffic on Hamline Ave, especially near University Ave. This time was no exception and I was further delayed because I lost my pack when I jumped a curb at the Midway Target. There is just not enough room on the road to ride a bike safely in rush-hour conditions.

All in all, an excellent first bike outing. Later that evening I also rode my bike to the Midway Y to attend my second to last front crawl swim class.

Bike Ride to Work at TR West in Eagan

Rode to work for the first time since August 8 of last year! And what a wonderful morning. Left our house at 6:00 AM sharp. The river, other bodies of water and the park along Interstate 35E between Lillydale and Hwy 110 were covered in a light mist which, in the first hour of daylight, gave the landscape a dreamy quality. I am so glad I had my rear wheel trued and the missing spokes replaced. What a difference that made, though I was with just under an hour more than six minutes slower than last time I did this stretch. Must get my bike legs again I guess ...


View Ride to Work at TR West in a larger map

By the way, the ride home was much better, in spite of headwind, higher temps and more traffic, almost 5 minutes. Why? (a) I discovered that the rear wheel was misaligned and scraped along the fork. Like riding with the breaks engaged. (b) Hit some lights (Hwy 110, Sheppard Road and W 7th) in a very opportune way. Does not happen very often and these can be real stinkers. (c) Tried to keep up to, pass and shake off some hard-core recreational bikers. Not bad for my 30+ year old steel Schwinn Super LeTour II! (d) Bicycle legs coming in early? I would hope so but we'll talk about that next time I take the trip.