Cycling: I love all kinds. In my garage are 5 bikes now, two road, two mountain, and my latest love, my recumbent. Pure Comfort over the long haul. I've got well over 8,000 miles on this bike now. She is no lightweight at almost 30 lbs, but its amazing how little that matters when it is so comfortable to ride.
For the bike geeks, it has a Campy Racing Triple crank and derailer in front, Shimano XTR in the rear, handbuilt wheels (yes I build wheels) with Phil hubs, and it uses 2.5 chains. Front wheel is a BMX size 20" and the rear is a 26" Mountain Bike wheel Seat is an aluminum frame with a mesh sling seat that I find personally very comfortable. Brakes are XT V-brakes with red cool-stop pads.
Gearing is completely custom and ranges from 19 to 117 "Gear Inches". Gear Inches is a way to describe a gear in terms of the old high wheel bicycles. For example, my 117 Gear Inch would be the equivilent of riding an old high wheel bicycle with a wheel 117" in diameter, or roughly 9 3/4 feet. For each pedal revolution I travel 30.5 feet along the road, or roughly 172 pedal rotations per mile.
On the other end, you have a gear that is smaller than most children's tricycles, turning the rear wheel about 80% on each pedal revolution, traveling only 5' 2", or about 1026 pedal rotations to the mile.
I bought the frame from a small one-man shop in California and then built the rest.
My Current Road bike is a Campy Record equipped Cannondale frame (I like a really stiff frame) This is another Home assembled bike. I just can't buy a bike in a shop anymore. (^_^) Again, this rides on homebuilt wheels with special lacing to minimize weight and maximize strength. The entire bike with the seatpack, spare tube and inflators is just a touch over 18 lbs.
And I currently use a mid-90's Cannondale Delta-V F1000 Mountain bike. Very little of the original components remain due to wear or breakage. Again, she rides on handbuilt wheels, and otherwise standard Shimano XT/XTR components. Last I checked this bike was in the 19 lb range.
This photo was taken on our Honeymoon along the rail trail to Wood's Hole where we spent our week camping and biking Martha's Vineyard. The trailer has roughly 45 lbs of camping gear. It's almost like car camping with the stuff we can drag along.
For the past 10 years, I have been responsible for ending the Pan Mass Challenge charity ride for the Jimmy Fund. I operate a support vehicle at the end of the ride helping those slower riders complete the 192 mile event.
Last year I tried to do that job on my Recumbent loaded with 50+ lbs of medical, mechanical, and fluids, but found that I'd have too large a gap to make up if people quit. So, last weekend I returned to the van, but still took the bike to sweep the few areas that the Vans cannot go. My standard comment has always been that if I wanted an easy PMC weekend, I'd just ride it. (^_^) Course, this is from the guy who trained for last year by pedaling that 50+ lb loaded bike 105 miles from Walden Pond to the summit of Mt. Wachusett and back.
Visit my PMC page for more details
My other love is 4-wheeling, but have not been able to do much lately. In 1993, a drunk took out my heavily modified Jeep YJ.
So now, my project is this 1946 CJ2A that is being modified from the ground up.
I'd try to show you what it looks like today, but the engine is gone, the gear boxes are sitting on a shelf all rebuilt, the sheetmetal is in various stages of repair with the MIG, and the frame is awaiting replacement with a heavy duty aftermarket upgrade. She wasn't a good candidate for restoration as a previous owner really butchered an F-head transplant, but enough sheetmetal was in good shape that it made for a really good base for a modified rig. The T90 was rebuilt with a Novak kit to mate with a Buick V6, the D18 was swapped with a large hole model upgraded with a 3.15:1 low range and Warn Overdrive. The Rear D41 is replaced with a D44 and will receive a rebuild with a Warn full floating kit and Locker. Eventually I'll have a custom front built, but will stick with a rebuilt D25 for a few years. Ross Steering will be swapped for power Saginaw, and hanging pedals with modern brakes and clutch systems installed. Interior will be totally redone to be comfy and safe. Basically, I'm taking the best of the '46 and updating to today's mechanical standards.
Also into Camping, Have had my Ham ticket for 15 years (N1LYD), was NAUI certified as a diver, and love messing around on computers.
![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
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