Candy Cranks

::DETAILS::
DATE – Sunday, 3.14 (March, 14th)
TIME – Registration will begin at 1:59PM, RACE WILL BEGIN AT 3:14 SHARP!
LOCATION – Cambridge Common, off of Harvard Square.
COST – $5 with a helmet, $7 without.
BRING – A bag, lock, and your biggest Pi eating grin!
AFTER PARTY – Otherside Cafe 5-7PM!

So I finally got the dust off of my commuter bike and made the 12.5 mi journey to work.  I have to say that it really felt great to ride in again…SO much better than driving!!  Now that I’m back at it, I feel a little more comfortable promoting a great local event:

Save the Date:  Walk/Ride on March 26th!

The Green Streets Initiative is an international grassroots organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA that celebrates, promotes, and advocates for the use of alternative transportation.  www.gogreenstreets.org

The Green Streets Initiative is best known for the creation of monthly Walk/Ride Days.  Walk/Ride Days occur on the last Friday of every month.  On these days people everywhere are invited to go, and wear green!

It’s a dreary, cold and  rainy winter day here in Boston.  This ugly weather leaves me dreaming of spring time temperatures and the long and glorious miles to come in my favorite sport.  I’m also prepping some info for work on biking and the back and thought I would share this with my fellow CC’ers in hopes that this information keeps you healthy, happy, and most importantly…on your bike!

Bikes and Backs:  Back and neck pain is very common among us cyclists.  Especially among single speeders that ride a high resistance gear that increases the load on the spine and legs.  As a back patient myself, I’ve had to learn to work around some limitations of my lumbar spine and ruptured discs in order to enjoy my time on the bike.  The good news is that with some preventative exercise and proper positioning, we can all go on riding pain free until our hearts are content!

Think about your typical position on the bike.  Your back is flexed and the neck is hyper-extended so that you can see the road in front of you.  The more aggressive your position is (longer top tube length and lower handle bars) the more you will increase pressure on your lumbar spine and hyper-extend the neck.  Also, your legs are repeatedly flexing at the hip for what could be hours.  Having your body in this position for prolonged periods of time can cause some muscles to be overworked and tightened and opposing muscles to be stretched out and weakened.  It is important to counter act this by stretching the overworked muscles and strengthening the opposing muscles to create balance.   More specifically, stretch the neck, chest and hip flexors and strengthen the hamstrings, glutes, and back.  Although having strength and flexibility in all areas of the core and legs will help prevent issues, here are a few exercises to try to create a more balanced body.

Hip Flexor Stretch

Chest/Shoulder Stretch

Renee Bousquet:  B.S. Exercise Physiology, ACE Personal Trainer, FRA Pilates Instructor, Johnny G. Spin Instructor

Assembly Required: One Peace at a Time from Bikes Not Bombs on Vimeo.

This short video shows part of the story of Bikes not Bombs, a charity in Boston, MA. Bikes not bombs has seen the donation of tens of thousands of bicycles to youth programs and charities from Boston to Ghana.

Bikes Not Bombs promotes bicycle technology as a concrete alternative to war and environmental destruction. For 23 years, BNB has been a nexus of bike recycling and community empowerment both in lower income neighborhoods of Boston and in the nations of the Global South. BNB’s programs involve young people and adults in mutually respectful leadership development and environmental stewardship, while recycling thousands of bicycles.

This film is (C) 2008, Allegra Anderson

Some chicks with mad skills. 

This is a great report about the current bike efforts in the city of Boston.  We’ve had a 43% increase in ridership from 2007 to 2009!  Boston has also gone from being a 3 time offender on Bicycling Magazines Worst Cities for Cycling to the Future Best City List!

http://www.cityofboston.gov/TridionImages/Annual%20Report%2009_tcm1-4770.pdf

What do you think of this?

http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?a=276308&c=45195

A great local resource in Cambridge Mass…Broadway Bicycle School.  Not only can you get a great price on a refurbished bike or get your bike repaired, but you can rent a space in their workshop with or without professional help to fix your bike yourself.  They have classes too!

A loose collective of ghouls is planning the 2009 Halloween Bike Ride.
Saturday, October 31, 2009.  See more fun pictures here.

So everyone needs a break sometimes.  After an early spring of  high mileage days training for the 100 and a summer filled with biking fun, my biking enthusiasm in early fall wanes.  I needed a break, so I returned to running.  Well I was quickly reminded why running can suck as the injuries started popping up left and right.  I was finally forced to get back out on my bike to spare my poor body. 

It was Love all over again!  I was  just in time for the crisp fall air and the leaves beginning to change.  My body felt strong on the bike and I enjoyed the mental and physical challenge of the technical terrain.  Although I must admit, I could have done without the ground being laced with acorns…like riding on marbles!!

So here’s to some great fall riding for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere!

Boston selected the Public Bike System Company to set up it’s bike share program modeled after the Bixi bike in Montreal.

In the market for a custom made beauty?  I really love these hand crafted bikes from a small shop in Massachusetts:  ANT (Alternative Needs Transportation).

http://antbikemike.wordpress.com/

As part of the initiative to make Boston a world-class bicycling city, the Stolen Bike Alert program makes reporting stolen bikes easier and increases the chances of finding your stolen bike by giving you a larger network of search parties.
When you report a stolen bike, they send out an alert to the police, local bike shops, hospital and school security, and everyone who follows us on Twitter or Facebook. All of these people will be on the look-out for your bike and we will instantaneously notify the police as we receive updates on your stolen bike.

Register your bike and find out more information here.

Hello All- I just returned from a month of vacation and fun!  Here are a couple of biking highlights:

Lumberjack 100: The trip started off with the Lumberjack 100 mile mountain bike race in Michigan.  It was my first 100 miler-4 laps of 25 miles on buff single track.  I entered the single-speed category.  All was well until mile 32, when my egg beater pedal broke!  It couldn’t be repaired and of course I didn’t carry extra pedals, so at the next aid station I begged the race volunteers to duct tape my foot to the pedal so I could finish lap 2.  Hey, I traveled a long way for this race and there was no way it was going to end over a mechanical!!  Anyway, the duct tape held, although it SUCKED to have to mash the pedals on the steep climbs instead of just hopping off and walking them.  I had no choice as it isn’t exactly easy to walk with one foot attached to the bike!  Regardless, I managed to finish lap 2 and get some new pedals.  Finish time was 11 hours and 7 minutes.   DUCT TAPE ROCKS!

Biking and dogs update:  The new dog has fit seamlessly into our biking focused lives!  We put a lot of effort into discipline and it really paid off!  We never had to use any training tools other than voice command.  We did some trial runs in a campsite with my husband biking in front, the dog running after, and I was the sweeper doing voice commands to keep her in check.  She quickly understood that her job was to stay a safe distance behind the lead bike or a bit to the side regardless of speed and she was an ace!  Although we won’t ever do this on a road or on busy trails, the Colorado back country trails were perfect for this.  As far as animals, squirrels, etc, she had no time to chase anything if she hoped to keep up with us!  She was very focused on her job. 

This is a little different…that doesn’t look too comfortable to me.

I was on my way into work and noticed that one of the upscale hotels is offering a free bike share for those staying there.  Nice idea!

The Liberty Hotel

For a beer company that is just as crazy about bikes as they are about beer, check out New Belgium Brewing Company in Colorado.  I wish I worked there!!!

I had a women’s specific mountain bike that I loved.  The problem?  All those gears!  With vertical drop outs, the options are limited in converting to a single speed.  You could tension the chain with a chain tensioner, but what’s the point?  I’m trying to GET RID of the derailleur and the beauty of the single speed is it’s simplicity!

Instead, I tried the ENO eccentric disc hub from White Industries.  I love this hub!  It tensions the chain with a simple twist of the axle.  This hub has gotten me through several endurance races and hopefully a 100 miler in June without a hitch!  I also use White Industries free wheels for racing. 

For all of you fixie lovers out there, they have a flip flop fixed/free hub also!

Holy Smokes!!  It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me!  In addition to being flat out at work, my husband and I are adopting a dog!  In doing some research on how to train your dog to run just behind you while riding a bike, we came across this.  Are we crazy to try this?  Does anyone have any experience using something similar?  We look forward to having our canine companion out with us on the trails, but we want to make sure we have a well trained dog and safe scenario for all involved!