This one just chased me home, twenty miles In a hour and 40 minutes

I won

20 miles in an hour and forty on a bicycle ain’t particularly fast, but most guys ain’t riding a bicycle ballasted to 80lbs with four gallons of water either. I rode out to the turnaround point through the hottest part of the day in full sun and was pretty well whipped. See, I put in 70 miles on the same bike yesterday, and was doing a follow-up today to see if anything hurt.

Got to the turnaround, opened up the weather app (97F) and damn, a developing line of storms about two hours out. Riding a bicycle in a thunderstorm ain’t fun, riding a bicycle home in the dark in the wet after waiting for a front to pass ain’t fun either.

Fatigue vanishes, the chase was on, for the last thirty minutes the front obliged me with a welcome cool and damp tailwind.

Doesn’t matter if I had help, I won.

Sitting on the porch in the wind, waiting on the storm, drinking the first watered-down Merlot of the season.

That’s the beauty of bicycles, they allow even old guys to be athletes

Sounds like good times Birdy. Unless it's a tornado then maybe not.

Mike, you weren’t worried about lightning strikes on your bike?

Front came through here earlier with a 30 mph wind out of the North. It was 96 before the front hit. Only 69 degrees now.

What's the advantage of water in the tires?

Just blew through here. A nice dump of rain to fill the catchment system.

Here all day the wind has been up and that means that the dirt was up in the air.

Sometimes you might not have been able to see the end of the porch.

Birdy, You must be in damn good shape, not just for your age but for any age. Keep on trucking and living life on your terms doing what brings you happiness. 👍

Do you have any international bike trips planned?....,or any major adventures planned for the summer?

Storm Front Training. Franchise?

No water in the tires, my bicycle is purpose-built for cross-country travel; relatively long wheelbase for stability and room, flexible steel frame and forks to soak up road bumps, front and rear racks to hold four back-pack-like panniers. Max load capacity 80lbs, I was packing about 50.

Adventures?

Ride his bike out of debtors prison and buy a car...and a hot water heater.

Mike needs his own reality TV series.

Yes. Yes he does.

If I lived in god forsaken Texas where the average year round temperatures are 150* I’d think a water heater would be superfluous. Just running cold water through the hot pipes probably gives him enough water temperature to take as long of a hot shower as he’d need. Air conditioning is an altogether different animal......he’s batshit crazy for not having air conditioning.jk. 😁

I don’t begrudge anyone for living simply and sometimes the stress of modern life makes me wish for simpler times. I figure to each his own and if Birdy is happy and content that’s all that matters.

As for me.....I need my truck, hot water heater, air conditioning (in Washington for a couple weeks a year) and a comfortable bed but I haven’t suffered the loss of my marriage nor do I understand pain that he has had to endure so my sympathy (I’m not sure that’s the right word) for him is borne out of respect for his resilience.

His focus on his children and his grandchildren are what I deeply respect. Birdy catches a lot ofshit here and is always a gentleman and I respect that as well. I’ve known people that had everything and more with respect to money and possessions and they were some seriously miserable bastards so I don’t judge a man by his car or water heater. I’d sure be willing to give being monetarily rich a try though. 😁

No doubt about it, Mike is an interesting fellow. And, he's pretty darn good with a muzzle loader. Glad to call him my friend.

I’m looking to hit the road this summer, west and north this time, ain’t making any promises because it depends on my knees, my back and my wrists. Ya actually don’t gotta be in that good of shape to do this, the trick is to just mosey along all day with as little effort as possible; 7 to 10 mph. Do that all day long like it was your job and you’re looking at 60-70 miles a day, ballparks to about 2,000 miles a month, God willing.

As Murphy would have it, this particular summer I can’t roll until the last week of June. Leaving me about 40 days.Also because of work and family commitments I haven’t ridden a whole lot over the past few months.

Besides trying not to get run over, out there on the bike all day ya gotta manage four elements; sun, heat, water and salt. Big hat, little exposed skin takes care of the first, Long sleeves long pants all of thin UPF 50 nylon takes care of the second.

The good news is going in cold, between yesterday and today I put in about 100 miles and I ain’t especially fatigued or hurting. Whether I could do this forty days in a row is a whole different story.

If I head west to the Rockies I gotta cross West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, 70 miles or more between water in places, 100+ F some days, heading against the prevailing winds, afternoon sun in my face.

Saturday, on a hot day (not quite as hot as I hoped) I drank about 1 1/2 gallons over 70 miles. 70 miles between water and I’d need to pack twice that as insurance, 24 pounds of just water. Didn’t think to bring salt (Lite Salt -50% NaCl 50% KCl), I was missing it by the end of the day

OTOH if I run north to run away from the sun and heat, Sturgis is only 1,200 miles from here, three weeks. I could brag to all them Harley riders that ya, I rode American Iron to Sturgis too..... a Schwinn But it’s flat and boring most ALL the friggin’ way.

So I dunno. My ex also has to agree to look in on my dogs and cat too. Hopefully not a problem, she stepped up big time on my NY and IOM TT trips.

Power went off at 7:25. Just now came back on at 12:50. We had 70 mph gusts here. Lost one big elm tree in bottom. Got 2” rain in a little over 30 minutes. Im going back to bed. Goodnight Mrs Calabash, whenever you are!

To keep expenses down the trick is to sleep out by the side of the road as much as possible. This prob’ly sound bizarre to folks here but a brief perusal of this place will make clear how common the concept is, i thinks there’s like 12,000 tour blogs on here now......

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doctype=journal

What I won’t do that many of those people do is hop a fence line. There are three reasons for this a) trespassing is uncool b) I don’t want to get my a$$ kicked and c) I don’t want to get my a$$ kicked. Out of the headlights, in late and out early is all you need, small backpacker’s tent to keep the ‘skeeters and snakes st bay.

Anyhoo, this fall will be three years paying off debt, on track to clear it fall of 2020. OTOH if I live like this until the fall of 2022 I can pay off the mortgage too. So I’m looking at three more years like this, God willing.

I love watching light shows in the sky.

Drug mule?

Ah, I re-read, I don't know how I got water in the tires from that.

Been watching a lot of storms roll in. But Saturday afternoon they missed my grandson's outdoor wedding.

He has always been lucky at deer hunting and now lucky at love.

Real lucky at love. The bride is a blue eyed blond ex college volleyball player with a great smile.

My observation after biking to work for several seasons is:

Two people can pass in opposing directions, and both will be fighting a headwind.

White families are getting to be a rare thing these days.

Setting here looking at this damn big azz pisselum tree that I gotta cut up that blew down last night. I threw some Opa’s sausage on the little grill for lunch. Think I’ll drink a beer, eat a link or two and mebbe start on this tree this evening.

You know what they say about Opa’s sausage? Oma can NEVER get enough of Opa’s sausage!!!

BULL$HIT.

Ok.

Lmao.

Prob’ly could get out of debt faster that way, or my son gets to collect on my term life, or I eat for free with A/C as well for the foreseeable future on the Government’s dime. One of those three.

‘Fraid not.

So, did ya cut that tree yet, or did ya just sit around drinking and making yer typical jokes about Opa’s weinerschitzel?

Lightning? Always had a thing about that since my distance running days, avoid it like that plague, if I can.

THIS is why I dug up this thread, didn’t want to let this slip by.

Thank you Sir for that ringing endorsement

....and I value the friendship of guys like yourself highly.

Birdwatcher,

You should try and get a Van Van.

Your cross country, and day-to-day stories would be way less gay.

Just a thought.

Thanks but ain’t this what we all do? Or should. Goes double as we get older. ‘dafugg else does one do? .

...and I wish grandchildren on ever’body... this Grandpa gIf prob’ly the most joyful thing I’ve done in life



What is more retarded than insulting some guy from the safe anynomity of the internet?

I dunno, so you’ll have to ask Travis

Why? Even you could cross the country on a Van Van, tho not 1,000 miles in a day like I would.......

Good. I thought about you riding home in that storm.

Great GrandMother was struck by lightning in the depression era as a young woman out hoeing cotton in the fields on their farm on the TX high plains. She was terrified of it the rest of her days.
She lived to be 96, and when we were kids, we’d go to visit. We’d be out in the field playing baseball or having dirt clod fights, and if there was even a distant rumble of thunder she’d be out there screaming for us to get our little asses in her storm cellar. 🤠

I still To this day enjoy sitting out on the front porch at the Ranch watching the big storms roll in. And often think about her when the lightning starts getting close. 😬

Yeah good point.

Stick to the bicycle.

Riding a bike causes ball cancer.

It’s done. I gotta say this. The Kobalt 80 volt chainsaw i got for Christmas from my old copanero and his wife is awesome! That thing is a cuttin’ jenny!!!! Uses Oregon replacement chains and bars. Ive been cutting a bunch of mesquite firewood with it too. I think payday I’m gonna get me a polesaw. Looks like they have one that uses same battery. Thing sure has saved my gimpish right shoulder. No rope to pull!!!

And brain damage.

Apparently.

Neal,

I knew an ol’ boy, a welder. Got hit by lightening bolt. Said it made his pecker grow out to 10”. Dead pan serious as wiener cancer! Said if he knew now all the misery it would end up causing him , he would have cut it off!!

Moose and lightening are the two things I try to stay aware of up at the Colorado ranch when out running the fenceline.

My brother and I rode bicycles from Pecos, down along the rio grand (big bend), Ruidosa, Marfa, and back in the 90's. We were carrying 2.5gallons of water a piece each day and got caught short on the Presidio, Ruidosa, Marfa leg. Would have been fine but my bike didn't like the section of ranch road and my rear rim started cracking across the spoke holes. Had to walk the bike until we hit pavement again. That was in April before it got hot.


Back when I was married, the wife and I did a lot of tours, the only time she rode fast was when she didn't want to get wet, I could barely keep up with her then.

😳😬😁

Birdwatcher: The VarmintWife and I were cruisin down I-15 two days ago here in SW Montana as we had been invited to a diner party. When all of a sudden as we came out of a canyon what do we see, but a "storm rollin in"!
We were headed right for it - the storm appeared 6 to 8 miles wide and unknown depth. It was obvious that heavy rain was falling from it as we neared.
I happened to check the outside air temperature gauge and it was 79 degrees. As we came under the cloud the temperature began to plummet.
The temperature outside fell from 79 degrees to 59 degrees - in 3 miles!
And it began to rain - hard! Accompanied by numerous lightning strikes per minute.
I was glad I had a raincoat in the trunk of the VarmintCar.
Glad you did not get wet.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

93 here, having b day party for youngest grandson tomorrow, rented a big water slide, be a bunch of kids here, hope we have no rain.

80°F here. Then the storm rolled in, now it is 52°F.

VG, I can relate, once I was riding my KLR650 up Interstate 81 up through Virginia, I was on motorcycles a lot back then and had this routine worked out where I could reach back into the saddlebag for a Diet Coke, unscrew the cap, flip up my face shield, drink, recap the bottle and reach back to put it back in the saddlebag, all with my left hand while riding.

Just then a van pulls alongside full of Amish teenagers, driven by an older Mennonite, they are all laughing and waving, having seen my Diet Coke procedure. A couple of minutes later it starts to rain, hard. There was a line of cells roughly paralleling the curved SW-NE track of the interstate.

For the next 20 minutes I was in a storm system as bad as I’ve ever seen, so bad people were pulling off to the shoulder. I could barely make out the taillights of a semi crawling along in front so I got right behind him, the Mennonite guy in turn close behind me. Violent crosswinds, drenching rain, lightning and cracks of thunder all over.

Twenty minutes later we’re out the other end, me and everything I’m wearing is drenched, dripping wet. The Amish van pulls up on my right, I flip up the face shield and motion to him, he rolls down the window and leans out. I look around at the sky while holding my hand up, palm up. “It’s raining” I called out, we all laugh

I dunno, maybe ya had to be there.

I think this post is a sign that I should go by a klr650.
And drive it down 81
Amongst Amish...

Ha!

Golly, people actually LIVE in Pecos? I’ve been through there a bunch over the the years, always going to somewhere else. I thought the whole place hadda be a movie set, just store fronts, like that little place right on the river down around Big Bend Ranch. I mean, who in their right mind would live there?But the fact that people DO live there would explain why the WalMart in particular looked so realistic.

Egad! People who live in Pecos must have to go to FORT STOCKTON when they want a night on the town

One time me and my brother went fishing on Red Bluff Lake, he liked it well enough on account of they had just stocked it with hybrid stripers (??). Me, I thought the whole place looked like Mordor.

Anyways, every time I’ve been through that way the museum by the big hump you drive over to get across the railroad tracks has always been open some other time from when I was there.




Damn, I hate to hear that, I wish ever’body could stay married, including me.

Anyways, do you recall how many miles a day you guys were riding? And did you go down and back through Fort Stockton?

My brother and I drove down from Northern Michigan. It was one of those trips of a lifetime. We stayed at a Motel 6 in Pecos for the night and headed out in the morning. Oh, one detail, a hose on my trucks a/c blew off just as we got to Pecos. I didn't give it a lot of thought at the time.

From Pecos we hit Fort Stockton, Marathon, Big Bend, Lahitas, Presideo, pedaled into Mexico for a bit, then Ruidosa where we got onto a ranch road that got us to Marfa. We planned to camp every night but I sprung for a room in Presidio, Lajitas, and Marfa. From Marfa we went to Fort Davis, was totally blown away to see a scuba shop and irrigation ditches in Balmorhea. From Balmorhea we went back to Pecos. We only had 470 miles so we put on 30 more in the morning before getting in the truck and heading home.

Oklahoma with the dust and dirt trading sides in the hot sun sucked. Windows up we cooked, windows down we choked. Had I known I'd have dropped the truck off at a service garage and had it fixed.

We averaged about 90 miles a day.

Pictures.


My brother, we camped on a ranchers property. My bicycle in foreground


Me at Big Bend.


Me, pushing bike on ranch road out of Ruidosa. Rear rim was cracked in many places.

It was an experience to remember.

Got a nice rain today, we were getting dry.