Why do I ride?

Why do most people ride a bike?  Exercise?  Fun?  To get somewhere?  For most people it is exercise or fun or both.  There is a growing trend of bike commuters (which I find to be most excellent) but our world/lives are not really built for commuting.  I would love to bike commute but it is just impractical.  That topic will be a whole different post sometime later.

Why do I ride?  Good question.  The first thought that pops into my head is, "Because I love it".  Why do I love it?  Once again, good question.  I'll list them out one by one.

• Freedom - There is this tremendous sense of freedom when riding a bike.  You can go anywhere you want if you are willing to pedal long enough.  Running always seemed limited to me.  I ran one 1/2 marathon and was so beat up it would be hard to imagine going farther.  When cycling, it feels like I could just keep on going if I just had the time.  Which leads to...
• Exploration - There is something cool about winding down a country road you have never been on before, despite living in a particular area for a long time.  You see things that you never noticed previously.  Small intricacies of the landscape that flash by when you're in a car.  You appreciate that sturdy, old barn because you have time to inspect it as you roll past.  Sometimes I'll go down a road simply because I have never been down it ("I wonder where this goes?").
• Exercise (a.k.a. stress relief) - I'm weird.  I don't feel truly fulfilled as a person unless I physically push myself on a regular basis.  I actually enjoy suffering, to a degree.  It seems like I have extra energy I need to release and pounding up a series of hills does that for me.  There is also the fact that I have an extremely healthy appetite and I need something to burn off extra calories (I would be 300+ lbs in a heartbeat if I didn't exercise and gave in to every gustatory urge I have).
• Alone time - I'm also weird in that I need some alone time.  Call me anti-social but I just don't need to be around other people all the time.  In fact, I prefer to be alone on a regular basis.  Cycling fills this need pretty well.  Not that I wouldn't mind a riding buddy every now and then.
• Gear geek - Every male has some "gear geek" in him.  We all express this in different ways (cars, hunting, electronics, sound systems, etc).  I have a brother-in-law who loves fish and aquariums.  He seems to enjoy the "gear" side of the aquariums as much as the fish.  Cycling provides an amazing amount of gear and gadgets you can get.  It all starts with the bike itself.  Different bikes are made for different uses.  Each component on the bike can be broken down to reveal its strengths and weaknesses.  I'll admit, I am the type of dork who wants everything on his bike to work perfectly and to do exactly what I want it to do.  Here is a good example: gearing - with different combinations of the front chainrings and the cogs on the rear cassette, you can have a bike that works great for racing, casual riding, long-distance riding, or touring.  You wouldn't want the touring gearing on your race bike and vice versa.  You can even break it down to how many teeth are on each cog of the cassette (this effects the smoothness of the shifting on the cassette).  I could go into tremendous detail but I should stay on topic.

When you add all of this up, cycling is the perfect hobby for me.  It fulfills all of my many "needs".  I can't imagine giving it up.  You could probably call it an addiction.  There are way worse addictions.

As a side note, one thing I do miss about running is the cost.  Running is way cheaper than cycling.  If you decked yourself out in all the best running gear you could find, you still wouldn't have spent as much as an average road bike costs.  No clolthing, no helmet, no water bottles, no shoes, no nutritional products, just the bike.  Sigh.

Grandpas

Both of my Grandpas have passed away.  My Grandpa Winters died about 3.5 years ago and my Grandpa Terrell died about 9 years ago.  I have thought more about them recently for two main reasons.  First, I have been doing a lot of work in hospitals and nursing homes recently.  Many of the men I have treated remind me, in one way or another, of my grandpas.  Second, I can see the slow deterioration of both of my grandmas and I have to wonder when they are going to pass on as well.  I know that last thought isn't a pleasant one but death is inevitable.

Grandpa Terrell

My Grandpa Terrell passed away when he was 85 years old.  He worked most of his life as an auto mechanic, after serving in the Sea Bees during WW II.  Even once he retired as an auto mechanic, he continued to work.  He got a job doing maintenance at a local Christian college.  He spent about 20 years working 3 days a week doing small engine repair and maintenance and whatever else they had for him to do.  Working was part of who he was.  He had to work.  He didn't know what else to do.  If he ever had to take time off work, he would get immensely bored.  How many people do you know that worked 20 years after retirement?

Grandpa was always a jokester.  He took pride in being born on April 1st (April Fool's Day).  There was no particular favorite joke but he always had a smile on his face (except when we splashed water out of the pool - DON"T SPLASH WATER OUT OF THE POOL!!!).  I think he and my Grandma Terrell were kind of pack rats because they never seemed to throw anything out.  Their house was not messy.  In fact my Grandma always kept the main floor nice and tidy.  The basement, however, was full of stuff (or junk, depending on how you looked at it).  The explanation I was always given was that Grandma and Grandpa had grown up during The Depression and you did not throw anything away.  You could always find some other use for any item.  They were Green before anybody knew what Green was.

There is one item of my Grandpa Terrell's that I truly cherish.  It is an old, beat up, black lunch box.  It is the same lunch box my Grandpa used from the time he got out of the Navy until he died.  One lunch box in all that time.  Why?  It was perfectly good.  Yes, it was beat up and the paint had chipped or peeled away on a lot of it but it still worked perfectly fine.  In many ways, that sums up my Grandpa Terrell.  Beat up and chipped paint, but he still worked perfectly well.

Grandpa Winters

Grandpa Winters retired from the Grand Rapids Police Department.  He was a beat cop and then a detective later on.  He also served during WW II.  In fact, he met my biological grandma while serving in Great Britain. Both my Mom and my Uncle Bob were born overseas.  I'm pretty sure Aunt Barb was born in the States.

Grandpa had heart disease.  I think a major heart attack and a multiple bypass procedure got him to retire early.  I don't remember the exact order of events.  Did the heart attack precede his retirement?  I should ask Grandma.

Prior to retirement, Grandpa and Grandma had a cabin near a lake between Newaygo and White Cloud.  After retirement, they also had a mobile home in southern Texas.  And I mean southern Texas, like on the Mexico border.  At some point, they sold the cabin and moved full-time down to Texas.

We didn't see them often after that.  They would come up maybe once per year for 3 weeks to a month and hang out with their family.  I never went down to Texas.  From what I hear of the weather, I didn't miss much.  As Grandpa's health started to deteriorate, there was more and more pressure for them to move back up to Michigan.  I think the "final straw" might have been when they missed my wedding because Grandpa wasn't healthy enough to travel.

After moving back up here, Grandpa would often comment about how much he had missed and how much he enjoyed being around his family again.

Lessons Learned

My grandpas taught me quite a lot, most of it unintentionally.

From Grandpa Terrell:

• There is value in good, old hard work
• Everything has value, if you are willing to look for it
• Have a sense of humor
• Love your wife.  Love your family.  Love your God.
• Don't splash water out of the pool (everybody knows that)

From Grandpa Winters

• Spend time with those you love.  Nobody knows how much time they have, so take advantage of what you have.
• Spend time doing what you love.
• Tell your wife how much you love them and how lucky you are to have them (because you are!).

Looking back, I wish I had spent more time with my Grandpas.  I wish I had asked more questions, listened to more stories, gotten more explanations.  Yes, I regret not doing these things but I'm also pretty convinced I will have another chance someday.  Maybe by then, we will all be so happy that none of it will matter anymore.

7/23/11 Bike Ride

30.2 miles
1:55:00
15.7 MPH pace
1447 miles YTD

Amazing!  I actually got to ride two consecutive days.  Quite unheard of.  It was certainly an eventful ride but I must start from the beginning.

Michelle and I had planned on on going to our friends, Matt & Sarah, in Hudsonville for the evening.  The plan was for us to leave once my son, David, had woken up from his nap.  I decided to leave early and ride to Hudsonville and possibly take some detours along the way.  I left at a time that I thought would likely get all of this there about the same time.  I was way off.

I rode down to the same set of trails I had been on the day before.  This time, I wanted to check out a scenic drive I was reminded of the night before at my sister's wedding.  Her wedding and reception had been at a building at the end of the scenic drive.  This scenic drive was typical in that it goes both steeply uphill and downhill and twists and turns considerably.  Quite fun on a bike, actually.  I rode this twice and then looked at the time and thought I needed to "waste" a little more time.  So I took off on a relatively short loop and then did the scenic drive one more time.  Just as I got to the same building we had been at the night before, I hear my phone ring.  I assumed it was my wife but it was actually my sister.  She and her new husband, Jeff, needed to drive a friend of theirs to Chicago to catch a plane back to Denver (he had somehow missed his flight out of Grand Rapids).  My sister wanted to know if her 3 kids could hang out with us for the night.  After talking with Michelle, we said sure, but they would have to drop the kids off in Hudsonville.

At this point I felt like I needed to get to Matt & Sarah's in a hurry.  Michelle and the kids were there earlier than I had expected and I wanted to be the one to meet up with my sister so Michelle could relax.  But it was hot out and my legs were feeling tired.  I took off and was pushing it pretty hard, despite having to ride into a headwind.  I have never ridden to Matt & Sarah's, so earlier in the day I had looked at a map and "memorized" a route.  Turns out that my memory is not as exceptional as I thought.  I'm not saying I got lost, but I was definitely "off-course".  Meanwhile, I had to stop periodically to make or answer phone calls.  Each time I stopped, I got hotter and hotter.  Eventually, I got to Matt & Sarah's and Michelle had already gone to the designated rendezvous point (McDonald's).  In short time, she was back with the kids.  Oh well.

The rest of the evening was fun, relaxing and fairly uneventful.  We had burgers, cupcakes, and later s'mores by the campfire.  Whew!

Betsey & Jeff

My sister got married yesterday.  She married her high school sweetheart.  No kidding.  What you wouldn't expect is my sister is 3 years older than I am.  No, she didn't just earn her GED or something like that.  She graduated when she was 18, like most people.

She re-met Jeff after an approximate 20 year hiatus.  Both were divorcees and just happened to run across each other on that little world-of-it's-own we call Facebook.  If I have my info correct, Jeff was looking up friends and acquaintances in preparation for a 20 year class reunion.  My sister's divorce had just been finalized so she decided to go with him to the reunion.  That was about 3 years ago.  It is definitely an unusual situation but how often in life do things happen as we expect them to?  I am thoroughly convinced that God has a tremendous sense of humor.

My prayer has been that they will have a long, happy and fruitful marriage.  Betsey's divorce was an exquisitely painful process that she never should have had to go through.  As painful as it was for me to watch, it must have been 100x more painful for her.  Then, of course, there are her 3 kids (Ashley, Jacob, and Emily).  I was probably more concerned about them than I was about there mom.

I believe that Betsey & Jeff's marriage is God's way of making good out of a bad situation.  Nobody knows how the years are going to unfold.  When it comes down to it, I'm not sure what's going to happen in 5 minutes.  Don't worry, you are not in control anyway.  Remember, "The Dude abides".

7/22/11 bike ride

22.8 miles
1:23:10
16.4 MPH
1417 miles YTD

I woke up at 6 am and was off and pedaling by 6:30.  I rode down to a series of interconnected bike paths on the SW side of town and did 10 sprints.  I used the interval timer on my watch and did 15 second warning --> 30 second sprint --> 4 minutes easy spinning and repeated for a total of 10.

My quads are definitely fatigued.  A good ride overall.  On my way back, I saw a young man in a Founders Brewery team kit doing repeats on the steep hill that leads to the picnic/park area behind John Ball Park (just off Butterworth at the south end of the park).  I've done this before and it is killer.  The hill is steep and deceptively long.  I think I've done up to 8 repeats before and been fried afterwards.  I should have asked him how many he was doing.  I never think of that stuff soon enough.

Mike the Bike PT

Why did I chose that title for my blog?  It was a bit off the cuff.  I decided I wanted to write a blog, for some strange reason and the blog needed a name.  "Mike's Bikes " always had a nice ring to it so I added the "PT" at the end because my job is a pretty big part of my life.

It is about identity, I guess.  I love bikes.  I love being a PT.  My name is Mike (a fabulously ordinary name, by the way).  Add it all together and you get "Mike the Bike PT".

There are a few clarifications I would like to make.
1) Yes, I'm a physical therapist.  My specialty is orthopaedics.  I can effectively treat back pain, knee pain, neck pain, shoulder pain and a lot of other neuromusculoskeletal pains.  That does not mean I am an expert on bike fitting and set-up (although boy would I love to be!).  Because of my passion for cycling, I understand these matters better than the average PT so I am more capable of treating a cyclist than others but I wouldn't be able to look at someone and say "Oh yeah, a 55 cm Trek Madone with a 100 mm stem, 175 mm cranks, 3 degrees of varus tilt at the feet and 1.5 cm of saddle set back is exactly what you need!  With that set up you'll need a radar detector so you don't rack up to many tickets!".

Would I like to have that ability?  Certainly but, there are a lot of other more important things in life.  I played tea with my daughter tonight.  That gives me nearly as much enjoyment as a good, hard bike ride.  It is a different type of enjoyment, but enjoyment none the less.

2) On a different note, my job and cycling are certainly not the most important things to me.  Important, yes but definitely not the most important.  Here is a little run down:

• Having a happy wife vs. bike ride - happy wife wins
• Having a happy child/children vs. bike ride - kiddos win
• Family or friends need help vs. bike ride - family and friends win
• Church responsibilities vs. bike ride - God wins (doesn't he always?)

Those in the "win" category win because of a combination of love and duty.  Sure, I would like to take a bike ride everyday but I'm not single with no attachments.  My wife and kids need me and are best off when I play a BIG role in their lives.  There will always be time for cycling later.  Hopefully.  I do love to ride.

Gimli the Road Bike - 2009 Jamis Satellite - 57 cm

This post is basicially an overview of Gimli the Road Bike, my 2009 Jamis Satellite.  I'm completely re-writing it because I have changed Gimli the Road Bike so substantially that my old post doesn't really seem relevant anymore.

Modifications (as of June 2013)

• Saddle - replaced original saddle with a classic Brooks B-17 (black) - now that it is broken in, I rarely have tush discomfort
• Fork - replaced the carbon fork with a steel Rivendell Carbonomas fork.  Why?  Steel doesn't suddenly and catastrophically fracture.  Safety first.  The steel fork also allowed me to raise the handlebars about 2 cm higher and I am much more comfortable.  The carbon fork could only have 4 cm of spacers underneath because anymore spacers and the manufacturer can't say your stem and handlebars won't suddenly snap off (even below the maximum, your stem and handle bars could suddenly snap off - sounds pleasant, doesn't it?).
• Stem - The bike came with a 120mm Ritchey stem.  This was too long.  Recently, I have switched to a shiny, chrome 70mm stem with a 17 degree rise from Velo Orange.  Mmmm, shiny.
• Cranks - Velo orange 48/34 compact double (170 mm) - less knee pain with the slightly shorter cranks (the originals were 175 mm).  The original crank was a triple and while I don't have a problem with a triple, I didn't like the shifting.  It was cumbersome and altogether too time consuming.  Especially when you are in traffic.  Edit - in May of 2012, I somehow managed to break the small chainring and all the bolts came loose.  Velo Orange shipped me new rings for free, so everything is cool now.
• Cassette - SRAM 12-28 nine speed - that gives me a nice 34/28 combo for climbing the long or steep hills.  I wouldn't want to ride cross country with that, but it works well for the vast majority of my riding.
• Derailleurs - the front is an Ultegra and the rear is a Dura-ace.  I got these cheap from a friend and couldn't turn down the quality.
• Shifters - The shifters have gone from Sora level "brifters" to Dura Ace bar ends (set on friction mode) and now to Silver Shifters from Rivendell Bicycle Works.  They are simple and easy to use, once you get used to them.
• Brake levers - I could have used the old Sora brake levers, but I decided I wanted something more comfy, so I went with a set of SRAM S500 levers.  They are pretty comfy and seem to fit my hand well.  I don't notice them much and that is a good thing.
• Wheels - The original wheels were never used.  They were immediately replaced with a pair of Mavic Askiums.  I had issues with durability, particularly of the rear wheel, so I switched to a set of Cole Rollens.  I've now been riding them for about a year and have had one broken spoke.  My current thinking is the next set will be either 32 or 36 spoke for improved durability.
• Tires - both tires are now 23 mm.  I would love to have at least 28s, but with the new fenders I put on, the biggest I can go is 23s.  I might be able to squeeze in 25s but the clearances would probably be too tight.
• Computer - Currently, I'm using a Garmin 500 and I really do love it.  It gives me all this great data, maps of where I have been, and nicely compiles all the numbers in one space.
• Pedals - Grip Kings from Rivendell (actually made by MKS).  They have a nice big platform and I can wear essentially any size of shoes.
• Handlebars - These have been upgraded to set of Velo Orange Grand Cru Randonneur handlebars.  They have nice, parallel drops which do seem more comfortable to me.
• Bar Tape - this is currently my favorite part of my bike.  When I got new handlebars, it gave me the opportunity to try something I had been daydreaming about for a long time...Shellac!  I purchased cork bar tape from Rivendell and used an amber shellac to coat the tape after it was applied.  It is fabulous?  It looks like leather and feels fabulous.
• Headset Spacers - yes, I got new headset spacers.  Why?  Aesthetics
• Inner Tubes - who knows what type of tubes they have?
• Fenders - I just added some SKS-Germany Chormoplastic fenders.  They are considered their silver color but it really is more of a shiny grey.  The great thing is that the fender color is almost a perfect match to Gimli the Road Bike's paint scheme.
• Mud Flaps - What?  Mud flaps?  Yep, I made some DIY mud flaps out of a rubber stair tread cover and some rubber coated twisty-ties.  They're fabulous.  What I really like is I can take them off or put them on fairly easily.
• Seat Post - The original seat post has been replaced with a shiny, aluminum seat post from Velo Orange.  It has extra setback built in to make getting the Brooks saddle far enough back.

To this point, the only parts of Gimli the Road Bike I have not replaced are the headset and the brakes.  That's it.  Pretty ridiculous, huh?

Will I eventually replace those parts?  Probably not.  I'm currently saving up for a new bike because I don't feel like the frame fits me as well as it should.  It seems just a little too long for me.  The handle bars are as far up as they can go and the stem is as short as they come.  With all this, it still feels like I'm too far forward with my hands on the brake hoods.

When I do finally replace Gimli the Road Bike, it will be a little bittersweet.  We've done a lot together and will do quite a lot more before he is replaced.  I'll have put thousands of miles on him.  Some of those miles will have been the best miles I've done.  Some will be the worst.  I might even find some way of keeping him around.  Maybe Gimli the Road Bike will convert over to Gimli the Solid Commuter.