An interesting day on my bicycle

[BailOut]

I was working from home today and had some down time. I decided to run my errands.

I had borrowed a bicycle stand, tools, tubes, pump, etc. from the Kiwanis shop in order to support the river tour/bicycle ride that I hosted for Big Brothers Big Sisters last Saturday. I loaded it all onto my Yak and headed out, only to realize after a few blocks that I forgot to grab my keys to the shop. That added a mile and a half onto the trip. The loadout weighed about 60 pounds.



This won't mean much to folks that aren't local to Reno but I handled "University Hill" better than I anticipated. However, once I got about half way up Comstock Road I had to stop and rest for 2 minutes. I was sucking wind something fierce! The ride there was 13.5 miles.

At the Kiwanis shop I put everything away then selected a refurbished bicycle that I can leave at and use at my office in Tahoe now that I don't drive up there (I ride to a carpool in south Reno). I took it in back and worked on it to my satisfaction. I then added kickstands to both my hybrid bike and my Yak. I also grabbed a helmet that can stay with the Tahoe bike and then loaded it all into my Yak. This loadout weighed about 40 pounds.



I went all over the central part of town with this load while the sky threatened to rain on me. At least it was cool. First to REI for some bicycle tools and a seat-type bag for the Yak, but they didn't have any emergency-style ponchos (they fit nicely in a seat bag) or 3-socket wrenches. From there I went to a hunter's type store and found the kind of poncho I was looking for. I then had lunch at a Port-of-Subs where I scarfed down about 1,800 calories without flinching. From there I hit an AT&T store for another iPhone charging cable since I will need to be able to charge my phone at the office, also because I'm not driving there anymore and therefore can't charge it in the car.

On my way to my next stop I came across a car stopped crooked in the bike lane and as I got closer I could see an overturned electric wheelchair and a white haired man on the asphalt. It turned out that he had been on the sidewalk and was trying to maneuver around a lightpost that had been planted right in the middle of it but there wasn't enough space and his chair went over the curb. He was dumped in the street and hit his head quite hard. I had the lady that stopped call 911 as another woman pulled over in front of us. I determined that the man wasn't in any immediate danger (I used to be a Paramedic) and did my best to make him comfortable while we waited. No one had anything soft to get under his head so that it wasn't on the street so I took off my riding shirt (which had extra padding due to having my mountain biking gloves wadded up in the rear pockets) and set it up as a pillow for him while the newcomer got his cell phone out for him and called his daughter.



After a few minutes an ambulance and fire truck arrived and took over, and I got my shirt back. I rode on to my favorite bike shop in town, Great Basin Bicycles. My friend from the Kiwanis Club was on duty and I always enjoy his company. They were also out of the tool I was still looking for but they were able to order it for me, as well as a handlebar-mounted horn. I refilled my water bottle and got to look at some incredibly expensive road bikes they were working on for a racer. Custom built, all carbon fiber, magnesium wheels... each of them is worth about as much as my Yaris.

From there I stopped by the local gardening center in the hopes of finding an adjustable-stream nozzle for our garden hose as the old one has fallen apart, but all they had were adapters for watering plants. So I had one more stop at Home Depot on the way home for the nozzle.

My total ride was just over 30 miles, the longest I have done yet with a load behind the bicycle.

What a day!

[Yar Is Word]

work it
http://www.ransbikes.com/Hammertruck09.htm#

[blacksandiegovitz]

Sounds like a fun/random day of riding ! I've been riding/building my 99' gt box series 20" bmx and riding around my city lately . We have a monthly "criticle mass" ride the last friday of every month and we ride all around the city at least 1000+ people and i've ridden on one criticle mass with over 1600 people , Madness ! The last ride I rode 33 miles on my single speed bmx !

[yaris-me]

I got tired just reading your post. I need to rest.

[mo_feezy]

Originally Posted by Yar Is Word

work it
http://www.ransbikes.com/Hammertruck09.htm#

I prefer the big dummy:

[twowheels]

I sometimes ride with loads... for example (there are three images, but some are big -- sorry 'bout the size!):

Towed an 80 kg (~175 lb) brick saw home from the rental place once I found that it was too big to fit in the back of my Subaru Outback...

http://twowheels.us/blog/?p=112

I sometimes tow my kayak down to the lake:

http://twowheels.us/blog/?cat=10

Plus vacations often involve a load:

http://twowheels.us/blog/?p=71

[BailOut]

Great stuff, twowheels!

Where did you get that cart from? And how well (or how much worse) does your bike handle with all those loaded panniers?

[texkid]

Damn guys. Y'all make me want to buy a bike. How do you mount your bikes to your Yaris, IF you don't have a roof rack, much less want to use one?

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by texkid

Damn guys. Y'all make me want to buy a bike. How do you mount your bikes to your Yaris, IF you don't have a roof rack, much less want to use one?

I use a Hidden Hitch and a Yakima Double Down 2 bike rack, though I would recommend the comparable Thule rack instead (I had to cut off some of the Yakima rack's tongue to make it fit the hitch because Yakima doesn't support Class 1 hitches.).

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by texkid

Damn guys. Y'all make me want to buy a bike. How do you mount your bikes to your Yaris, IF you don't have a roof rack, much less want to use one?

I haven't yet carried my bike on the Yaris as I usually just ride the thing (I commute by bike every day, better mileage than even the Yaris! :-) ), though I test my cheap trunk mounted rack on the back and it looked like it'd work just fine, though I wouldn't trust that rack with any of my heavier bikes (like the one shown), just my fixed gear which weighs < 20 lbs.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by BailOut

Great stuff, twowheels!

Where did you get that cart from? And how well (or how much worse) does your bike handle with all those loaded panniers?

I guess you didn't follow the links below the images. :-)

The 'cart' was originally a child trailer that I removed the top portion of and replaced with a wooden frame -- pictures of the process are on my blog in Part 1 of the Kayak trailer project. Notice that it's the same trailer for the Kayak and for the brick saw -- there's an attachment that I put on/take off depending on the load.

As for the handling fully loaded... it handled great. During my multi day tour that is represented by that picture I descended hills at 40+ MPH and climbed 10+% grades and descended 14% grades. When I ride that bike to work (I ride that one a bit more than half of the time) I usually carry just those two front bags. The steering is a bit slower, but if anything it dampens the bumps and makes it ride more like a Cadillac of bikes; steers slow, but rides smooth.

[Malaya1221]

i once carried a car

[nemelek]

Wow! Hope you didn't have to go up or down too many hills.

[texkid]

Originally Posted by BailOut

I use a Hidden Hitch and a Yakima Double Down 2 bike rack, though I would recommend the comparable Thule rack instead (I had to cut off some of the Yakima rack's tongue to make it fit the hitch because Yakima doesn't support Class 1 hitches.).

Do you think this rack would fit/work?

[BailOut]

No, texkid. That is a trunk rack and you have an LB.

[BailOut]

Here's the perfect setup for you, texkid:

http://www.hiddenhitch.com/fitguides...9&partno=60209

and

http://www.thuleracks.com/product.as..._id=22&sku=912

[texkid]

Originally Posted by BailOut

Here's the perfect setup for you, texkid:

http://www.hiddenhitch.com/fitguides...9&partno=60209

and

http://www.thuleracks.com/product.as..._id=22&sku=912

Sweet! I bookmarked those links. When I am ready, I'll start looking for those parts. In the meantime, in between school and work, I'll start looking at some bikes for sale.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by BailOut

No, texkid. That is a trunk rack and you have an LB.

Some trunk racks fit on liftbacks... The one I tested on my LB worked.