When I started doing my virtual biking in November 2020, and even when I wrote my original blog entry about FulGaz, I had no idea how much indoor biking I would be doing. The weather was finally good enough that I took my bike off the trainer in mid-May 2021 Read more…
For a number of years I have been aware of virtual cycling programs where you can ride your bike on an indoor trainer and the software controls the resistance that you have to overcome as you ride along a “virtual” course, which is displayed on a TV or computer screen. Read more…
Unlike many veteran cyclists, I’ve actually been interested in e-bikes since they first arrived on the scene, if mostly from the technical side and curiosity in trying one out. But I didn’t begin getting serious about them until they started to become available from the mainstream brands for whom there Read more…
I have a detailed trip report elsewhere in the blog for this same tour that I took in 2016, which remains my favorite off-road trip to date. In contrast, I didn’t have nearly as much good to say about the first time I took it in 2012, which was colored Read more…
Back to Part 1 Day 4 – June 13: Hancock, MD to Shepherdstown, WV The next morning, after a good breakfast in the hotel dining room, we shuttled back down across the river to start our day’s ride where we had left off in Hancock. The weather continued to hold Read more…
After doing my first tour on the Allegheny Passage – C&O Canal Towpath in 2012, I had the bug to do another fully-supported tour, but without making some of the mistakes of that first tour. It turns out that there were not too many multi-day end-to-end trail routes out there Read more…
At the start of the year I didn’t have any particular plans for making modifications to either of my bikes, but as time went on I just couldn’t help but make some changes and additions. This post pretty much wraps up the changes from the beginning to the end of Read more…
In my searches for another bike tour reasonably close to home I had come up empty until a few years ago when I discovered a new tour offered by Wilderness Voyageurs that was located right up in northern Michigan. But when I looked at the itinerary, there were a number of Read more…
Day 3 – Tuesday, August 6, 2019 – Torch Lake to Petoskey Following the previous two days of fairly hard riding, this day turned out to be the start of the best part of the tour. After the previous night’s rain, the weather turned cooler and less humid for the Read more…
Day 5 – Thursday, August 8, 2019 – Tunnel of Trees This was one of the days I had been looking forward to the most since it involved riding on M-119: the famous Tunnel of Trees route that runs for 20 miles along the lake between Harbor Springs and Cross Read more…
Day 3 – Tuesday, July 17, 2018 – Ohiopyle, PA to Meyersdale, PA This was set to be the longest ride of the tour — 42 miles — and would end in Meyersdale. Meyersdale is a town that I’d passed before on the 6-day route, but had never had a Read more…
So here I was at 8AM on a mid-July Sunday at the Wilderness Voyageurs home base in Ohiopyle, PA ready to load my bike and luggage onto their rig for another trip down the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Rail Trail. Twice before I’ve been here at 7AM to start a Read more…
As the Michigander is to MTGA, so the Shoreline West ride is to the League of Michigan Bicyclists: their primary fund-raising event of the year. It is also Michigan’s true “signature ride,” passing through the most beautiful parts of the state and attracting riders from around the country. So after Read more…
This is the first in a series of posts that will cover bike trips that I went on before I created this blog. I came late to bicycle touring, so missed out on a chance to do things like join a club or do the nationally famous rides like RAGBRAI. Read more…
What would a winter off-season be if not for the goodies that we can buy and install on our bikes? I’ve actually been making changes on my Felt VR5 throughout the past season, but thought I’d provide a summary and review of the various changes and other purchases.These are not Read more…
With fewer miles to do each day, this trip was definitely much more laid back than the last few trips I’ve done. Instead of everyone getting ready to ride as soon after 8AM as possible, on this tour it was more like a 9AM breakfast and getting on the road Read more…
My tour for 2017 was something a bit different: shorter and with more concentration on the places we were to visit along the way. It was another offering of Wilderness Voyageurs and featured visits tosignificant American Civil War sites in southern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia, namely Gettysburg, Antietam, and Read more…
After all the changes that I’ve made — and blogged about — to turn my two very different road bikes into bikes that could be used for multiple purposes, the manufacturers have suddenly managed to discover that I’m not the only one in the market for such a bike. They Read more…
Tuesday, June 7, 2016 We had a long day in store. The C&O Canal Towpath Trail is much more isolated than the GAP trail with fewer places to get on and off or to find lodging, resulting in a long 77-mile route for the day. Fortunately this started with the Read more…
Monday, June 6, 2016 Today’s ride would take us on the more scenic stretch of the Great Allegheny Passage for about 57 miles, up and over the Eastern Continental Divide, and a little way down the other side to the town of Frostburg. Starting from Ohiopyle, we had about 1100 Read more…