Cycling Thread

[Yukon John]

Hello,

A mate of mine uses his arms to power the pedals on some sort of recumbent bicycle.

Do you guys know any web site where there would be discussions regarding this sort of bike - and the sort of training would be appropriate ?

Regards

Bill

Hi Bill, they are called hand cycles. If you do a google search you can find lots of resources, here is one that I found, http://www.sitski.com/handcyc.htm

I've got a friend of mine up here in Whitehorse, Yukon that has a disability with his legs. He puts in some long outings on his hand cycle and is looking at "cycling" across Canada next summer! It's not as fast as regular biking because of the smaller muscles that are used, but they do work well. If you would like some more first hand info., I'm sure that he would be glad to talk to you about it. Let me know. I'm not sure how it got arranged, but we have 6 hand cycles in town. I'm going to try one out sometime this summer. John.

[billw]

Yukon John,

Thankyou.

Followed some links from the page you gave me and found some other sites here in Australia.

Thanks again.


Bill

[Yukon John]

Yesterday, my wife Shannon and I dropped the kids off at a relatives so that we could go for a somewhat long mountain bike. The trail we were on was supposed to take around 2.5 hours. We had a bit of a scare on the ride and by the time we got back it was double that amount. The trail was pretty challenging with big uphills and downhills guaranteed to get the blood pumping. We had encouragement to not stop for long as the mosquitoes were thick. We completed the trail section and had to ride back along old dirt roads (mostly used by four wheelers.) We weren't too far from our ride when I looked down the road and saw something large and brown. About 400 metres ahead of us a huge grizzly bear stood up. I alerted Shannon to the bear and we turned around and kept looking over our shoulder. I've seen quite a few bears up here over the years, but this was the biggest I've ever seen. I would guess that it was around 8 ft. tall, stocky and very imposing. This would be the one day when we forgot to bring the bear spray too! Anyway, we had to take the long way around and we were pretty wiped by the end of the ride. Lesson learned? Next outing each of us will have a can of bear spray.

[billw]

Hello,

Am intrigued regarding bear spray ..............

What does one do with it .............

Bill

[Hal Morgan]

I use a little behind my ears and it encourages the bear to, how should I say, be gentle .

[whp4]

An old joke from bear country:

In light of the rising frequency of human/bear encounters, the Montana Special Department of Recreation and Wildlife is advising hikers, bikers and fishermen to take extra precautions and to keep alert for browns and grizzlies while in the field:

We advise that outdoorsmen wear noisy little bells on their clothes so as not to startle bears that aren't expecting them.

It is always a good idea to watch for fresh signs ot any ursine activity. Skilled outdoorsmen should be able to reconize the distinct differences between black bear scat and grizzly bear scat.

We urge people to carry pepper spray in case of an encounter.

Black bear scat is small and contains berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly scat has little bells in it and smells like pepper.

[Yukon John]

I use a little behind my ears and it encourages the bear to, how should I say, be gentle .

Actually we had some tourist up here from Europe a few years back and they thought it was used similar to mosquito repellent . The active ingredient is made from red pepper and it's supposed to work similar to tear gas or mace. It's supposed to temporarily irritate and hopefully blind the bear long enough for you to get away. I've heard that it usually works but for some poor unfortunates it hasn't work well enough. I suppose that there aren't any guarantees with bears. Even high powered guns often only slow the bears down. I saw a bear once go from a stand still to a very fast speed in an extremely short period of time. Incredible creatures, but a bit scary too .

Good one Bill! we were both writing at the same time and I didn't read yours till after I posted . John.

[Jim Barry]

John, that ride sounded a little too interesting. I read where in some places it is illegal not to have bear spray.

I rode a bear-free 60 miles yesterday on the road (3 hrs 20 min, 18mph). Not exactly the way to recover from a 10k running race the day before, but it seemed just different enough that it worked out OK.

Part of the ride covered part of the course of this weekend's time trial. Looks fast. I won some new aerobars on e-bay this week, but I do not think they will come in time. The one's I have are a bit more suited to century rides.

Here's some cool footage of the masters doing over 31-32mph in a 16km tt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRQhTaSj ... me%20trial

[Yukon John]

John, that ride sounded a little too interesting. I read where in some places it is illegal not to have bear spray.

I rode a bear-free 60 miles yesterday on the road (3 hrs 20 min, 18mph). Not exactly the way to recover from a 10k running race the day before, but it seemed just different enough that it worked out OK.

Part of the ride covered part of the course of this weekend's time trial. Looks fast. I won some new aerobars on e-bay this week, but I do not think they will come in time. The one's I have are a bit more suited to century rides.

Here's some cool footage of the masters doing over 31-32mph in a 16km tt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRQhTaSj ... me%20trial

Great video Jim! That should fire you up for the weekend. I believe that in Kluane National Park (150 kilometers from here and home to Mt. Logan) it's required to have bear spray and a special kind of canester for your food that is supposed to be smell proof (if you are staying over night.)

Question for you on the aero bars. I've got a profile aero bar with the padded arm rests. They are full size and I've noticed that there are smaller bars out there. Are the ones for time trials smaller than the ones for centuries? John.