Bike Month Day 25: Man bicycles himself out of high blood pressure!

John suffered from high blood pressure. He was prescribed medication to a try to reduce it to a safe level, but it wasn't working.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the dangers associated with high blood pressure are numerous and both life and quality of life threatening. (I've copied a list of some these dangers to the end of this post - click here to visit the Mayo Clinic website for more details.)

One month ago John's car died, which may seem unfortunate, but as it turns out ... the death of John's car was very agreeable to John's heart.

Without a car, John began bicycling to get around, and in the video below John shares what happened:

John joyfully spoke to the staff at East Coasters about his new bicycling life. I caught up with him as he was leaving and John was nice enough to talk to me all about bicycling too, and ...

I noticed that John had equipped his bike with Dinotte bicycle lighting. I'm a bicycle hi-vis lighting geek, and I'd heard about the super-bright ultra-high visibilty (and expensive) Dinotte lighting, but I'd never seen a set in person.

Since John is riding on the roads all the time I'm really happy and feel safe knowing my new found cycling friend has invested in this incredible lighting system.

Check out this video to see just how impressive John's Dinotte 400L lighting system is:

So, if like John, you've got high blood pressure, I hope you find some comfort in this post ... in knowing that a fun resolution could be as simple as enjoying bicycling to get around.

And if you will be bicycling, please consider running ultra-high visibility lighting day and night to help keep you safe :)


Here are some of the Dangers Associated with High Blood Pressure (from www.mayoclinic.com):

• Artieries 
• Artery damage and narrowing. 
• Aneurysm. 
• Heart 
• Coronary artery disease. 
• Left Ventricular Hypertrophy - thickening or stiffening of the left ventricle which increases your risk of heart attack, heart failure and sudden cardiac death. 
• Heart Failure 
• Brain 
• Transient ischemic attack (TIA). 
• Stroke 
• Dementia 
• Mild Cognitive Impairment 
• Kidneys 
• Failure 
• Scarring 
• Kidney Artery Aneurysm 
• Eyes 
• Blood Vessel Damage 
• Fluid Build up Under the Retina 
• Sexual Dysfunction 
• Erectile Dysfunction 
• Decreased Sexual Desire / Arousal 
• Vaginal Dryness 
• Difficulty Achieving Orgasm

Bike Month Product Review: Terry Cite-X Gel

During an earlier chapter of my fiancé Lisa's life she went 9+ years without a car. She bicycled everywhere, carried her bike up and down stairways daily, but one of the things she disliked about bicycling was the uncomfortable bike seats.


When the carless years of Lisa's life drew to a close she thought and said often "if my ass never touches a bike seat again it'll be too soon."


Fast forward to 2010.


Lisa is courted by a bicycle nut job, yours truly, and I'm really hoping to enjoy cycling with Lisa and her son Mark.


I got her a  beautiful Trek Belleville but it came with a recycled plastic seat. Lisa tried it and then she took it off the bike, put it in the middle of our driveway, poured gasoline on it, set it on fire, and drove over it six times with her car. Not really, but that accurately depicts how she felt about it.


So I replaced that seat with a much more comfortable looking model from Planet Bike which was a huge improvement - but still not great.


Then we acquired a tandem and in an effort to try to find something more comfortable I outfitted the stoker position with the coziest looking saddle from Eleven81 and ... she didn't like it at all.


I almost started to think that there may not be a bicycle saddle that Lisa actually likes. In her words "When I ride, even if just for a short period of time, my sit bones hurt." 


I wasn't ready to give up yet, and in retrospect, it would have probably been a good idea to have started with "The Original Women's Cycling Company" Terry Precision Bicycles for Women. 


I installed the Terry Cite-X Gel on Lisa's bike, she rode it and said ...

I love this seat! She says the Terry is the first bike seat she's ever ridden that doesn't hurt.


Lisa thought it'd be nice to tell all women who've had trouble finding a comfortable saddle about Terry ~ so here we are :D

Bike Month Days 18-20: *741% Less Cursing*, PromBomb, & Disco Racing!

Friday 5/20: While our first attempt to bicycle Lisa's son to Green Valley Elementary School was a disaster (see Misery. Pure unadulterated uncut misery.), Lisa did create a tiny thread of hope when she said "if I'm going to ride routes like that I need a bike with more gears, that's lighter, and has skinnier & faster rolling tires".

I knew I could create just such a bike with a little help from my long time cronies over at EastCoasters.

EastCoasters had everything we needed in stock
so Mark & I rode over and Dave Tompkins hooked
us up! 

Later that evening, I modified Lisa's trusty old GT mountainbike, replacing the saddle with a Terry Cite-X Gel, replacing the knobby tires with Bontrager SR1s, adding ultra-high visibility lights to both ends (front: Planet Bike Blaze, rear: Blackburn Mars 4.0) and the cherry on top - new Pearl Izumi Select Cycling Gloves. 

Compared to her Trek Belleville, Lisa's modified GT is lighter, has many more gears, and should also be more comfortable and faster.

The result? On Friday we did try bicycling Mark to school again and ...

741% less cursing! There was still some, but so much less that this bicycling Mark to school craziness just might become a regular part of our mornings :)

The lovely Green Valley Greeter Ladies are helping
us dial-in our drop off positioning.

After another breakfast date at Star City Coffee, unbelievably, Lisa agreed to ride back to Mark's school! I wanted to check out another route option and Lisa was game :)

Our original route was very direct, but it included a steep climb on Overdale Rd and a short, but treacherous section along a particularly busy and narrow part of Colonial Ave:

The route we discovered after breakfast is slightly longer than our original route (1.74 miles vs 1.31) but it eliminates both riding on Colonial (we just cross Colonial) and the Overdale climb:

The average grade is also less on the new route, but it contains a life threatening hazard - loose dogs! Lisa was relentlessly chased by this man eater!

Later that same day, we biked to the post office with Mark to put our first round of wedding invitations in the mail!

To be sure I didn't try anything funny, Mark kept me at
gunpoint during our post office errand.

Thursday 5/19: STARBOMB! On the Thursday closest to the full moon each month an antique bus takes anyone willing and their kids bicycles from downtown to the Mill Mt. Star.

Starbombers & our faithful driver Cedric in front of an antique bus whose 

use is donated each month by the Commonwealth Coach & Trolley Museum 

From here we downhill "race" on these mini (kids) bicycles, through the darkness, all the way back to downtown where we have a mini critical mass ride and ... afterparty at Flannery's! 

to my immense delight, the signature drink of STARBOMB has become Irish Car Bombs!

Wednesday 5/18: Tennis practice was cancelled Wednesday evening due to rain in Salem, which opened the window for me to race in the Singlespeed class in the Wednesday Night Disco Race Series. As soon as I realized tennis was a no-go, I scrambled to get to the race start as fast as I could but was I still was late so I started 8.5 minutes behind the field. I didn't care though, I was so excited to be able to participate, to try to ride fast, and to see and hang with my racing cronies a bit.

There were only three singlespeed racers, and one was racing

 in his first ever race,  so I managed to get one of these awesome awards!

Bike Month Day 17: "Misery. Pure unadulterated uncut misery."

That's how my fiancé Lisa described taking her son Mark to Green Valley Elementary School by bicycle with me this morning.

According to the greeter ladies in front of Green Valley who were delighted to see three humans arriving without huge metal boxes around them - we were the first ever to drop a child off by bicycle ... but as Lisa will colorfully describe, it wasn't easy.

On pedaling her ~35lb Trek Belleville 3-spd up the hills on View Ave, Poplar Dr and Overdale Rd, Lisa is clear "It just sucks. It just sucks."

There were moments when it wasn't clear if I was going to survive this mini-adventure turned mega-debacle. Probably the only reason I'm alive and typing right now is that the reward for lugging our bikes back over those hills was a breakfast date at Star City Coffee House.

We actually arrived there a few minutes before they opened and while we waited Lisa clarified the qualities of the bike she needs if she's going to ride routes like that "more gears, lighter, skinnier & faster rolling tires".

She was pissed off as she was exclaiming this, so I wore an empathetic expression on the side of my face that was facing Lisa ... but I couldn't stop the smile that was growing on the other side.

Because beneath her stream of profanities that would have flabbergasted truck drivers, sailors & vikings, Lisa's tough, a great athlete, and the Vegas odds makers are saying the good money's on her falling in love with bicycling in Roanoke - even the Star City's hills.

This morning (Friday BM Day 18) when Lisa's son Mark was walking out of the house to go to school he enthusiastically said "so we're riding!"

Lisa "no you're taking the bus".

Mark "WHAT! I want to bicycle!"

That boy likes to bike ;)

So here's where this story gets bigger and even more strange and interesting. While it has rained every day during Bike Month 2011 ... somehow more and more people are bicycling!

Last night when I pedaled to the Cave Spring Corner Kroger I was one of three people who had bicycled there! And there's not even a bike rack at this store, yet ...

I met Chris Kingsbury at the Red Box and he said he loves riding his bike and rarely drives. He works at Texas Steakhouse and says "riding really gets you going, and when you arrive at work you feel ready to rock & roll". Any employers out there who are considering incentivizing bike commuting - take note of that quote!

And then there was this bike, locked to a parking lot light base.

Just a common mountain bike. But, in my opinion, mountain bikes are short changed by there names. They are really anywhere super bikes. Add fenders, rear rack, milk crate and visibility lights and you've got a comfortable commuter utility bike. Road riding? No problem. Fire roads? No problem. Singletrack trails? Come on - I'm starting to salivate here! Bring'm!

If you're reading this and you've not yet tasted the magic of riding a bicycle during Bike Month 2011 I hope you treat yourself today!

Bike Month Hump Day: I did *not* ride & as a result ...

i didn't feel as good, physically or emotionally, as i did the prior 15 days.

i had bicycled every one of bike month days 1 thru 15, but yesterday morning i put on my Bontrager reflective shell and opened the back door to bike to work ... and it was raining, again.

i said to myself "to heck with this, i'm driving".

it had rained every day for seemingly as long as i can remember and it had gotten to me. as i walked back into the house to grab the car keys Lisa said "what are you doing?"

me "it's raining. AGAIN. i'm driving."

Lisa "really? you're wussing out? it's not raining that hard."

that little pep talk nearly worked.

Lisa knows me pretty well and on another day those very words may have been all i needed to ride, but i'd deeply rationalized my being a wuss by that point.

• drive rationalization #1 - my Passat wagon had become a warehouse for tennis gear, which i completely unloaded at my office, improving fuel economy and making more room for passengers.
• drive rationalization #2 - the wagon was a mess, inside and out, and i had a fantastic travelling car detailer Paul Mercer (540-589-1217) come to my office and beautify the Passat while i worked. i can't recommend Paul highly enough. he does incredible work, he's inexpensive, the convenience is unparalleled, you save money and time over driving your car to a detailer somewhere and then having someone pick you up and give you a ride back, and Paul is just a great guy - so it feels good to support him with my business.
• drive rationalization #3 - because i've been driving so little, i actually still had the winter tires on my Passat, and i really needed to have them removed and my Bridgestone Ecopia (low-rolling resistance, fuel saving, all-season) tires reinstalled.

a redeeming joy was that that i grabbed my skateboard when i picked up my Ecopia tires from my old home, dropped the car off at Oak Grove Firestone to have the tires swapped, and i skateboarded and walked home from there :)

in this photo: zero skateboard, bontrager sport packable wind jacket, shiny VW Passat TDI

so while i didn't feel as good when i arrived at work in a car, i did make the most of a driving day, and i loved skating home. 

as i was going to bed i thought "wow, i didn't ride at all today" and i knew in that moment that i wanted to ride  all the rest of days of bike month ... and beyond ;)

Bike Month Day 15: Celebration Time + peopleforbikes.org!

the day started by me and Mark being killed repeatedly by Andrew in some DS download game, then we worked on getting ready for our ultra-mega yardsale that's coming up next Saturday, which was followed by 7+ hours of back-to-back junior team tennis matches! both goofballs teams had crazy amounts of fun and played really well.

it was after 7pm by the time i was headed home, i hadn't been on a bicycle yet, so i called home to Lisa and asked "could we celebrate by riding our bicycles to Pop's Ice Cream & Soda Bar?"

celebration time!

we're both sitting on the deck of our xtracycle outside of the world's greatest ice cream & soda bar  while Mark reads "spy vs spy" and works on a vanilla cone

speaking of celebrations - i recently discovered some great videos created by peopleforbikes.org to celebrate bike month!

peopleforbikes.org is trying to unite 1 million+ voices "to speak with one powerful voice—to let policy makers, the media and the public know that bicycling is important and should be promoted". please check out http://www.peopleforbikes.org/ and consider taking the pledge.

also, head down to one of your local East Coasters Bike Shops and pick up one of a variety of cool peopleforbikes pins for FREE! here's Andrew's super cool mountain biker for bikes pin:

here's a couple of the video's peopleforbikes.org have created celebrating bike month. enjoy!

Bike Month Day 14: Flat City & Bicycling's Contagious

Friday afternoon and evening Andrew and I were to bike home from his school, then bike to Garst Mill Park for Mark's U8 junior team tennis practice, then bike to the Salem Civic Center for Andrew's U12 jtt practice, then bicycle to Andrew's friend Brett's house to "pick him up" and all pedal back to our house together. But then Andrew tells me ...

"Brett wants to come over now and bike everywhere with us." I replied "Does Brett know all the places we're biking to?"

Andrew "Yeah - he wants to come."

I was thinking that couldn't possibly be true because while Brett's a great athlete I know he doesn't bike those distances regularly, if ever, so ...

Me "Let me talk to Brett's mom."

It turns out Brett did understand all the riding that was on the menu, as did his parents, and he did indeed want to come. And so he did :)

Heavy rain began right at the end of the U8 practice (which cancelled Andrew's practice - the longest leg of our planned travels) so Brett, Andrew & I just rode home in the downpour, soaked to the bone, laughing & smiling from ear to ear.

Once the rain had stopped they wanted to ride some more ...

Evening ride to Cave Spring Corner for fun & snacks. 

Saturday, our family schedule was crazy packed. And, as seems to be the case with every day of this Bike Month, it rained some more.

Mark's had some puddle fun while I watched ...

Andrew's LAX team play really well and finish their season with an exciting win!

which was followed by a team pizza party

Once we finally made it home from the day's events we were all in agreement that it was time for a family bike ride. 

As we were getting ready, Mark was riding the Wigglegoose around the driveway and took a spill. That's so common I didn't think much of it at first but then I realized the bike had a flat front tire.

Mark's BMX had a flat rear tire whose fix had been the object of my procrastination, so I decided to fix it ... but I made the silly mistake of not removing the little upholstery nail that caused the flat before installing the new tube. It thought I'd removed it the other day, but apparently I decided to include it's removal in my procrastination.

Mark's BMX suffered two rear flats and the Wigglegoose a front flat

So Mark was able to ride for 85% of our family bicycle ride, all of us zooming along Fleetwood and then splashing thru puddles on the Garst Mill Greenway ... then for the remaining 15% of our "ride" the boys took over the tandem, Lisa pushed Mark's bike with a flat tire, and I rode Andrew's BMX along side her.

Patches are in our near future ;)

Bike Month Day 14: bonus bike "jump" video crash footage

Don't worry, Andrew didn't even get a scratch in this wreck. Just a bike seat poke in the butt cheek ;)

Bike Month Day 11 - Folding Lawn Chair to the Rescue!

Andrew's tennis team (Episode IV: Return of the Goofballs) had a match yesterday so before i pedaled to work i tried to be sure i had everything i needed both for work and the match.

fail.

i forgot Andrew's racquet bag and something else ... i knew i was forgetting something else but it wasn't until 4:39pm, while i was pedaling the xtracycle to the match that i realized I NEED A TABLE!

one of the highlights of junior team tennis matches are the snacks and drinks! the parents of the home team provide these for all the kids and put them out on the TABLE for the players. that is, if the coach remembers to bring the table.

i need to be at the courts in 20 minutes, i'm on my bike, and i have no table. i try to quickly turn around but there's a load of car traffic on brandon ave.. i ride back to my office and find - no folding table. i fly out of my office, back on the xtracycle and head in the opposite direction of the tennis courts toward a Family Dollar store. no folding table - but as i streaked through the aisles an el-cheapo tri-fold lawn chair caught my eye ... that'll do!

i roped it onto the xtracycle, then did my best impersonation of Lemond's 1989 Tour de France Final Time Trial to the tennis courts, arriving just in time to get the team warmed up and ready for some big fun.

Andrew's team played well! for his team winning = having fun + doing your best. our team won on every court, and the other team did too :)

match complete & all packed up (note the lawn chair in the left freeloader pocket) 

what the heck is that?!

i bet some people think or exclaim those words when they're approaching our xtracycle (sport utility bicycle) from behind because of this:

i take being seen, especially by distracted motorists, very seriously for lots of reasons ...

these BIG reasons

& her

& her

and all my beloved family & friends. plus i really enjoy being alive and well, and ...

because i care about motorists too. drivers don't want to hit bicyclists, it's horrible for everyone when accidents occur, but the fact is that cyclists are the smallest and least visible users of the roads, so at times it can be hard for even good, alert drivers to see us.

by using the ultra-high-visibility bicycle lighting that's now both available and inexpensive, we protect ourselves and our loved ones and we make it easier for motorists to safely share the roads with us.

my top three ultra-high-visibility lighting pics are:

#1 - PDW Radbot 1000

#2 - Blackburn Mars 4.0

#3 - Planet Bike Superflash

i own all three of these, and another new model that i'm anxious to try is the Planet Bike Superflash Turbo which doubles the light output of the already awesome Superflash.