This is the blog of a one Ben Wilson, a Louisville, Kentucky native who enjoys baseball, beer, music, bikes, things that fly and good food. By day he pushes pixels and makes the Internet happen for a local advertising agency. His wife, Kelly is an Ironman, and his baby Amelia is the cutest thing ever.
Cue ominous music… A SEDENTARY lifestyle led this man to WEIGH 1000 POUNDS!
But… I don’t weight 1000 pounds, in fact, I’m pretty average.
NO you aren’t, TUBBY! Your BMI is in the “FAT” range!
Well, yeah, but that’s just a guideline. What’ I’m really doing is…
…SO HE TURNED TO THE LATEST IN FAD DIETS – PERHAPS THE CABBAGE SQUEEZIN’ DIET or the ALL BACON DIET…
Hey! No! It’s not that at all. Let me explain:
Two years ago I weighed 180 pounds, give or take a daily fluctuation. In the intervening two years, I’ve been “moderately active”, running two Louisville Triple Crown series and two Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathons, a handful of triathlons and other local running races. In the last year, I’ve started cycling a fair amount (I did likely 1000-1500 miles in 2008) while helping my wife train for the Ironman, learned to swim decently, started going to gym regularly, joined a cycling team and commuted to work via bike every day in October.
My weight after those two years? 180 pounds. No foolin’! I intend to get to the bottom of that – to understand the why and wherefore of this machine I call a body. more after the jump…
As Biketober Day 10 comes to a close it is warm here in Louisville – the high topped out at 80-something today. Even the mornings are 60+ and I’m left wanting a chill in the air. It’s been a good second week of Biketober, and you can read more about it after the jump…
So yeah, it rained on Day 4 on the way home. It was actually kinda awesome (I thought so, Matt was withholding comment) – with the exception of the splashy-splashy from the wheels. Matt also mentioned something about constant stream of water flying in his face when he was travelling behind me - but I can’t double-source that actually happened. :)
It was slated to rain on the way to work on Day 5 in the morning, and I wasn’t really looking forward to getting all splashy-splashy on the way to work. Fenders to the rescue! Cheap fenders. Fenders inspired by the Internets – Kent’s Bike Blog Coroplast Fenders.
I went to my local Lowe’s and picked up a blank coroplast yard sign for $6 (which is !@$& highway robbery, but I digress). With that I found I could easily make 4 sets of fenders as pictured above. I had some plastic zip ties already and I was set. A quick measuring job told me that 13 “flutes” wide (the little segments in coroplast are called flutes) for the actually fender parts was right on. The length of the sign was actually just right as well. I cut some 5-flute wide fender supports for the rear and trimmed them appropriately.
Rear fender-y thing
Front fender thing!
Worked like a charm in the rain that morning and Matt reports that rearward projecting rainwater from my tires was effectively reduced to zero. The front fender works great as well – my feet were kept somewhat less wet from splashy-splashy from the front tire. I may make some front fender supports to wrap the fender around the front tire.
Good ol’ Matt and I have completed Biketober: Week 1 with 5 commutes between home and work since last Wednesday. The weather has been very good, if a little chilly up until today when it rained on the way home. Also, according to Matt’s own statistics, it’s getting easier every day (on a cardio-pulmonarial level).
It’s been a pretty busy week in the cycling world with as much bad news as good. Meanwhile, the ride has provided me some time to gel my thoughts on cycling safety. More after the jump…
All I know is that Matt Rasnake and I are going to attempt to ride out bikes to work every day in the month of October. Not exactly a tale of epic proportions or anything, but definitely something worth noting, I think.
You bike commuting folks in major metropolitan areas are probably thinking “wow, way to go, you hayseeds! I do that every day,” but let me tell ya that it just doesn’t happen so much here in Louisville. I’m seeing more and more bike commuters here in Louisville, but it’s still kind of a novel thing for our suburban-sprawl town.
Bike commuting is becoming more popular, not only because we “Got a War On” or “Oil Prices are Sky High” or “The Economy Is in the Toilet”, but because Louisville has been rolling out a bike-friendly city plan over the last decade. We’ve got 30 miles of bike lanes (in fits and starts all around the city), and just last week the city announced $4.9 million dollar grant from the state for bike friendliness improvements. Thanks to the [Review] of the State’s Bike Grant to Louisville over at State of the Commonwealth, I now know that some of those improvements are slated for Taylorsville Road (near my home) and the Bluegrass Industrial Park (near my work). Huzzah!
