20. April 2008 by admin.

A few other people seem to have invented this word before I could. Rats. Ah, well, it’s a great hobby nevertheless, and one that I’ve started last week! Driving a car around to take interesting photos is too fast; you miss a lot in a car, I think. Besides, a car can’t go all the places a mountain bike can. Heck, a Hummer can’t go where a mountain bike can either! And hiking around for photo opportunities is kind of slow and time consuming. Thus, cyclophotography is the answer! If you take a look at my blogroll, you’ll see that I’m certainly not the first one to discover this.

The camera I use is a Sony Cybershot (4.1 Megapixel). Yeah, not a stupendous camera, but it does the job for at least web-quality photos. I then use ImageMagick programs and a few Perl scripts I wrote to auto-generate different sizes of each photo, sharpen them, and produce an HTML gallery. Yes, to most people this is kind of crazy since there are much easier ways to create web galleries than this, but then again those are the kind of people who drive to work everyday instead of riding their bicycles, right?

So anyway, this is my very first official cyclophotography gallery taken along Gibson Jack road in southern Pocatello, Idaho while riding my favorite road bicycle. It was around 7:00 pm and the sun was getting close to setting, but I took a few shots before it got dark. Not a very wonderful gallery but I’m sure I’ll find some more interesting scenes to shoot as the warm season goes on… or rather if it ever gets here!

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15. April 2008 by admin.

Last Sunday (April 13) the weather was wonderful, finally. And I could tell everyone else in the area was grateful; lots of motorcyclists and bicyclists were out along with people doing yard work and even a few people just laying out and sunning themselves. Yes, it has been a long, cold winter and spring.

So, I decided to explore an unexplored territory for me: Blackrock canyon.

It’s a rather nice place with restrooms, picnic tables, gazebos and a table map of the trail system. According to the map, you can go up one of the trails that turn to the left and it goes all the way up and over China Peak, down to Barton road and back to Pocatello. I’ve gotta do that trail sometime. Anyway, I explored as far up each trail as I could go without getting into mud. About 500 feet up each hill and you run into “glacial runoff” as I call it. I even slipped in the mud while try to see what was over one of the ridges; ah, but what is a mountain biking adventure without getting filthy? Blackrock Canyon seems to be a favorite among equestrians; I saw about 10 or so horseback riders up there. That’s actually one of the no-so-attractive things about this area: the trails are pretty beaten to death by horse hooves so the dirt is rather loose and so spinning out and sinking in the loose dirt is commonplace. Oh, and here’s a pic of the bike I was riding… yes, it’s another Taiwan special

I would have posted photos of the area but, alas, I forgot to bring along my camera. Meh, anyway, I’ll remember next time. I promise. :-p

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6. April 2008 by admin.

Last Tuesday evening (April 1), I did my first Tuesday Night Ride with Idaho Cycling Enthusiasts (ICE), which makes my second event participation with ICE (I did the practice Time Trial as well, previously) . About 5 other folks showed up, one of which I recognized from the practice TT. The majority of the other riders had bicycles with names and features that look rather foreign to me, whereas I was riding this thing:

Oh, yes, I can just hear the oohs and ahs and the smell of green envy in the air. This is a geniune 2008 Mercier Galaxy made by the good people at the Kinesis factory in Taiwan! If you’re still wondering what the heck you’re looking at, just google around for some of these keywords and you will be enlightened.

Anyway, on my with my story. Yes, I was wearing my baggy windbreaker outfit and riding my rack-sporting road bike; quite a stark contrast from the aerodynamic clothing and carbon fiber bicycles of my companions. But, hey, I’m a newbie and I wasn’t afraid to fit the stereotype

So, the ride began. We were all pedaling along at around 16 mph or so, quick cadence with a light gear. It was easy and I was mainly focusing on practicing my drafting. The lady I was riding next to (sorry, I’m horrible with names) was giving me some helpful coaching which I appreciated. I was told before the ride that the first rides of the year are purposely easy to acclimate the riders for the season. So, I was really glad I got into these rides early. Even though I’ve been riding a lot for the past year and a half or so, I knew that the folks I was riding with had been at it for probably centuries. TEE HEE, I love puns!

Riding along with ICE felt pretty fun and it was interesting to ride with people I don’t normally ride with and just soak in everything about the experience; their clothing, their riding technique, and so on. After we turned around in Inkom, I was shifting gears and my chain fell off. DOH! Yeah, something I must adjust ASAP. So I stopped, fed the chain back onto a chain ring, and by that time the cyclists were far ahead, even though I could tell they were slowing down so I could have the chance to catch up again. As I continued cycling I noticed another rider had stopped and was tried to adjust something-or-other on his bike… this made me feel a little better! I was huffing and puffing to catch up after a while and my good friend Steven Parker fell back a ways and was pushing on my bike to help me catch up, much to my shame! Hehe, yes, I know there’s no shame in accepting help when you need it but… meh. Anyway, it was rather startling at first because no one had ever pushed on by bike before… I thought my rear tire had gone flat or something…. and then I was like … what the heck… OH, HI STEVE!

During the last quarter of the ride, I was really starting to poop out. And then it happened… the steep hill going up under the underpass near Century High School happened… oh, the burn… I felt it… in my thighs… ARGH, THE LACTIC ACID, IT BURNS! On past rides I usually haul ass up this small hill, but none of my past rides were quite as fast as this one. I fell behind. Way behind. Sigh. I eventually pedaled to the Ross Park parking lot, said goodbye to the few riders who were still there, and slowly pedaled home, chugging from my water bottles all the way. I felt pretty dang pooped and almost dizzy. Yeah, I’ll eat more before the next ride. Carbs are good.

Anywho, this is my first cycling blog article and I will try to do another article at least once a week. I hope I give encouragement to other folks who are new to cycling and I’m sure I provide amusement to the experienced people!

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