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[Starver]

Riding in a park... With a speed limit...  Strange situation, to me.  I also pretty much assume that you're not in the UK, where anyone who looks old enough to shave (or would do, if they were male) really ought not to be on footpaths (unless so designated for cyclists as well).  If you were, I could probably point you to a cycling club (one that didn' t just do racing) and soon get your milages up to perhaps 50 to 60 miles by way of newbie-friendly clubrun, if you were so inclined.

But you're probably elsewhere, and I wouldn't even know what your Road Traffic Act says about cycles.

There's two other someones in my park that ride, but I've never encountered them. There were just two bikes, probably nicer and more expensive than mine, sitting in someone's driveway. One very sporty looking one with curly handlebars, and another with a short straight handlebar. That about encompasses my knowledge of different bikes, but I'm glad I'm not alone, even if I don't know and might not ever know these mystery bikers.

The curly (or 'drop') handlebars are likely of a traditional road bike. a.k.a.'racer', but also 'tourer' because it's just the normal hanlebars for bikes, up until the '90s, certainly. The straight ones are likely on a pseudo all-terrain bike, where nobody bothers much with dropping down, and the simply handlebars also don' t catch terrain/rider in so bad a way if you're tumbling off on rough ground.  Although there's all kinds of bikes, including hybrids, and not every bike with thick, inefficient but dirt-grabbing tyres does much more than mounting or riding off a curb.

I forget if you described your machine.  Drop or straight bars?  Cantilever or disc brakes?   Gears include multiple chainrings (pedal end)?  Rear-wheel gears are derailer or hub-gear?  Suspension,  or entirely rigid frame and forks?  Pedals are plain,  toeclips or clipless with shoe-plates to lock onto? LED lights (even for daytime use)? Optional saddlebag/etc, or are you doing your back in by wearing a backpack with whatever you're carrying?  Puncture repair kit (and know how to use it)? And, for that matter, tools enough to not need to walk the bike home if something simple bursts/fails/unscrews/falls off/unwinds/overtightens/jams? 



(Again, over here, the MAMILs (Middle-Aged Man In Lycra) tend to go and buy a bike and loads of accessories, upon deciding they want a bike for the first time since their childhood, and don't actually know what to do with it.  They don't even know what rules of the road apply to bicycles, save for misconceptions during their time as a car driver.)

[JoshuaFH]

Riding in a park... With a speed limit...  Strange situation, to me.  I also pretty much assume that you're not in the UK, where anyone who looks old enough to shave (or would do, if they were male) really ought not to be on footpaths (unless so designated for cyclists as well).  If you were, I could probably point you to a cycling club (one that didn' t just do racing) and soon get your milages up to perhaps 50 to 60 miles by way of newbie-friendly clubrun, if you were so inclined.

But you're probably elsewhere, and I wouldn't even know what your Road Traffic Act says about cycles.

There's two other someones in my park that ride, but I've never encountered them. There were just two bikes, probably nicer and more expensive than mine, sitting in someone's driveway. One very sporty looking one with curly handlebars, and another with a short straight handlebar. That about encompasses my knowledge of different bikes, but I'm glad I'm not alone, even if I don't know and might not ever know these mystery bikers.

The curly (or 'drop') handlebars are likely of a traditional road bike. a.k.a.'racer', but also 'tourer' because it's just the normal hanlebars for bikes, up until the '90s, certainly. The straight ones are likely on a pseudo all-terrain bike, where nobody bothers much with dropping down, and the simply handlebars also don' t catch terrain/rider in so bad a way if you're tumbling off on rough ground.  Although there's all kinds of bikes, including hybrids, and not every bike with thick, inefficient but dirt-grabbing tyres does much more than mounting or riding off a curb.

I forget if you described your machine.  Drop or straight bars?  Cantilever or disc brakes?   Gears include multiple chainrings (pedal end)?  Rear-wheel gears are derailer or hub-gear?  Suspension,  or entirely rigid frame and forks?  Pedals are plain,  toeclips or clipless with shoe-plates to lock onto? LED lights (even for daytime use)? Optional saddlebag/etc, or are you doing your back in by wearing a backpack with whatever you're carrying?  Puncture repair kit (and know how to use it)? And, for that matter, tools enough to not need to walk the bike home if something simple bursts/fails/unscrews/falls off/unwinds/overtightens/jams? 



(Again, over here, the MAMILs (Middle-Aged Man In Lycra) tend to go and buy a bike and loads of accessories, upon deciding they want a bike for the first time since their childhood, and don't actually know what to do with it.  They don't even know what rules of the road apply to bicycles, save for misconceptions during their time as a car driver.)

Scouring google image search for a minute, I believe this is the exact model, or atleast very nearly identical to what I have:



I believe it's just pad-on-wheel brakes, whatever the name of those are. There's the toggleable suspension in the front there. Normal pedals (it'd be outrageously cool to try clipped pedals though, I've never even met someone that used those). I don't ever carry anything of any significant weight with me, so no backpacks or saddlebags or anything. and I'm never more than 1/4 mile away from home so even if the thing spontaneously breaks down, wheeling it back home isn't a big deal.

It'd be cool if there were a bicycle club nearby. That kind of community is nonexistent in my corner of the world though.

[JoshuaFH]

Riding in a park... With a speed limit...  Strange situation, to me.  I also pretty much assume that you're not in the UK, where anyone who looks old enough to shave (or would do, if they were male) really ought not to be on footpaths (unless so designated for cyclists as well).  If you were, I could probably point you to a cycling club (one that didn' t just do racing) and soon get your milages up to perhaps 50 to 60 miles by way of newbie-friendly clubrun, if you were so inclined.

But you're probably elsewhere, and I wouldn't even know what your Road Traffic Act says about cycles.

Also I forgot to mention this explicitly, but yeah I live in America. Michigan. Saginaw. The stinky finger crotch of Amercia, right next to Flint which was just recently found to have lead in the drinking water, just to let the world know that we're shitty and backwards in all ways possible.  Also, I'm not sure if the United Kingdom has trailer parks, I always think of everywhere in Europe as being very highly cultivated and developed, so I don't know if the concept of trailer parks exists in the mind of your ordinary European. I wanted to point out though that I've been using the word "park" too loosely in my various posts, cause I'm using it both to mean the Trailer Park which are massed produced side-by-side rectangular houses that the stereotypically poor and uneducated live in, and the Children's Park which is just a field with a swingset, slide, gazebo, and Springy rocky-horses for the kids of what is basically this small neighborhood that IS that trailer park. As far as my biking route is concerned, I'm riding *through* the trailer park, but *around* the children's park. Just for utmost clarity, because I feel I miscommunicate very often, and it frustrates me to no end when I want to communicate as clearly and succinctly as possible.

The size of my trailer park is about roughly 1/2 square mile if I had to guesstimate, as it requires one back & forth lap to go 1 mile, so yeah, the place isn't very big, and I'm trapped in it for all intents and purposes barring enormous personal effort involving car trips to the next town over or whathaveyou.

[Meph]

We don't have trailer parks; we don't have the space. Low-cost housing is usually in a tiny apartment in a huge block.

Would you ever consider bike touring in addition to normal biking?

[JoshuaFH]

Sounds like an adventure, though I have no clue where I'd start.

[Starver]

Sounds like an adventure, though I have no clue where I'd start.

Although I find a number of... 'strange' things on the site, perhaps the League of Michigan Bicyclists might be a starting point.  Their advocacy for cycling (even in its stranger forms!) looks commendable, and similar(ish) to the Cyclists' Touring Club, here in the UK (national cycle advocacy group - they changed from the term 'bicyclists' in 1883, however, to not show discrimination against other configurations of machine...  ).

I saw a few places named under a Michigan Cycle Club search (Royal Oak is 90 miles away, unfortunately, and Lansing only slightly nearer according to the usual on-line tools) but perhaps a search of your own would be better, given that I don't know your area/state well enough to understand either its geography or its communities.

(Not saying you should run off and immediately join a club or other organisation, just perhaps keep an eye on the calendars (apparently May is the month for cycling advocacy) and other announcements. And if a Slow Roll (not, as I feared, a disruptive protest, but a casual 'pootle' suitable for all ages and abilities of cyclist) is organised within easy getting-to distance of you..? Might be worth a look, right?)


Getting your milage up would be good.  Going round in circles, for multiple laps isn't exactly rivetting, but at least you're always near your base of operations. (OTOH, it's also easier to give up when passing by for the umpteenth time, when you were planning on doing half a dozen more circuits but are feeling a bit sore.)  I really don't know if I want to send you on long-looking journeys on the open road, alone, but it can be rewarding to do them, so if you do find some friendly club-run or other that you can tag along with.

Don't worry too much about hitting that 30mph you mentioned earlier.  Even 21mph is more 'racing speed', and perhaps 12-15mph sustained (on the flat) for 10 miles (perhaps by circuits of your par for half an hour) , 20 miles (using out-and-backs on routes radial to your starting point on friendly-looking roads, for a couple of hours including a lunch-break) and upwards, and building up that way would be a suitable aim to get you to a group-riding level of capabity. Talk this through with anyone you're prospectively joining, though. You don't want to find youself joining a 90-mile 'burn up' training session or attempting half of the Race Across America, too soon.

Build up endurance, first, even if it means 'windmilling' in a low gear for very little forward speed, when you'vre getting tired.  Pushing the big gears for short periods isn't something you should overdo at the start, but you could perhaps set up a beeper on your watch/phone/cyclecomputer to prompt you to do maybe a minute of power-training and then four minutes of a more sustainable speed without straining yourself, repeated for the hour, two hours or more that you can stand to keep it up.

Meant to comment on the bike, but forgot.  Looks Ok, and Ivve seen far less 'road capable' machines in use.  Remember to lock off that suspension for normal road riding (so long as it isn't rutted dirt-road, anyway!) as it tends to soak up pure forward effort as much as minor irregularities in the road surface, so you have to balance the two demands. Or perhaps exploit this effect for your endurance-training?

[JoshuaFH]

I appreciate the advice there Starver. I've actually been riding with the suspension on, as I wasn't sure what the difference between on and off was so I thought it wouldn't hurt, and never payed it any mind.

I checked, and apparently there is a weekly biking get-together sponsored by a group called B.A.R.S. (Bicycling Awesome Riding Society, corny name I know) that takes place in a not-far-away place. That might be worth examining.

[JoshuaFH]

Rode 20 miles again today after a one day rest due to weather. I'm not sure how much help the stiff suspension was over the loose suspension, but I did break my previous speed record, having improved to 23.7 mph, previously 22.8. I'm happy about that. Otherwise the ride was very difficult, having experienced the strongest winds so far, where even on a very low gear I had to tolerate significant pedaling resistance, though I guess I can thank it for the very good tailwind, allowing my record.

Odometer: 130 miles.

Starting to feel more confident about my ability to handle a bike, it's getting to be real natural.

[JoshuaFH]

20 more miles today. Persevering through some irritating chilliness.

Odometer: 150 miles.

[TheBiggerFish]

Exercise is a good way to keep warm all right.  Go you!

[gimlet]

I would up shelling out $240 right there for the class's textbook just so I can attend the class.

Oh btw, next quarter try to find out the book title and edition in advance, you can then try to order used ones online and save a HUGE percentage of that insane price.  Even if you don't find out until start of class, you can usually go a few days without it, either reading a library copy or borrowing one or whatever while you wait for one to be delivered.  See what your bookstore's return policy is, you MIGHT be able to do that even for this one...

[JoshuaFH]

I would up shelling out $240 right there for the class's textbook just so I can attend the class.

Oh btw, next quarter try to find out the book title and edition in advance, you can then try to order used ones online and save a HUGE percentage of that insane price.  Even if you don't find out until start of class, you can usually go a few days without it, either reading a library copy or borrowing one or whatever while you wait for one to be delivered.  See what your bookstore's return policy is, you MIGHT be able to do that even for this one...

Yeah, I need to do something about that. That's like how people always talk about prison and joke "Don't drop the soap ha ha ha" and then you accidentally wind up in prison some how and you actually get butt raped and it's not funny at all, that's how buying that POS book feels like. Charging this much for such an asinine but necessary item should be a crime.

[TheBiggerFish]

Extortion?

Sounds like extortion.

And taking advantage of a captive market.

[JoshuaFH]

Had I known beforehand about this:

http://www.chegg.com/textbooks/business-mathematics-13th-edition-9780321955050-0321955056?trackid=4b1a6d7d&strackid=576e715a&ii=1

maybe I could have saved, I don't know, TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS? If I'm able to return it for half (what is this, an RPG? Is this the Gamestop of education?) in a couple months when they do buy-backs, I could potentially recoup a hundred-ish dollars by switching it with the rent-version, but until then I'm just gonna have to stew in the fact that I got conned into making a badly irrational and suboptimal choice. I'm gonna remember this wrongdoing Modern Education, I'll hold onto this grudge for the rest of my goddamn life you fuckers.

And I'm still an awkward impotent social wallflower that can't make a connection to save his life, and I'm frustrated about that too. I have a feeling it doesn't matter though, even if I become really fit and attractive, I have a hunch I'll still die alone, I'm just a spiny, difficult, boring, childish person, who would need or want me in their life? This is why I need music on my trips, my introspection will tear my asshole open if I let it.

Anyway, it's a nice day out, I rode around for 10 miles. I broke my top speed again, now I'm at 25.6 mph. I maintained it for just a few seconds, but I'm gaining a handle on the higher gears on my bike. I'm still only on the second front gear, I'm only ever switching the back gears around, of which there are 8, and I used the 7th to get that topspeed. Maybe one day when my legs are super strong, I'll graduate to the final third front gear and push my acceleration to the next level, and hit that goal of 30 mph.

Odometer: 160 miles.

[TheBiggerFish]

There's somebody for everybody, and I bet there's more people that would like you than you'd think.