Category: cycling (Page 10 of 37)

The I Can Bike camp ended Friday, and as advertised, most of the campers could ride a regular two-wheel bike on their own! If you’ve ever taught anyone how to ride a bike you know what an astonishing accomplishment that is.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I Can Bike is a national program designed to teach individuals with disabilities the skills to ride a bike independently. Their approach is solid, using a variety of different sized rollers in place of wheels/training wheels they teach the skills necessary to ride a bike. As a person’s skill develops they move to a smaller roller, allowing for more movement of the bike thus mimicking the feel and movement of a two-wheeled bike.

For instance my rider, Parker, Monday used the full size roller; on Tuesday he progressed to the smaller roller and most importantly rode on the front of a tandem with one of the instructors. This gave the instructor a good idea of Parker’s biking abilities and any areas he might need to work on – like steering or leaning.

On Wednesday Parker and the other riders made a big jump in their biking ability. There were way fewer starts and stops and more fluid pedaling and better turning. They were also faster which meant more running for volunteers to keep up with them!

Thursday is known as launch day – the day the rollers come off and participants ride a regular two-wheel bike and use a hand brake for the first time – outside. Up to this point we were inside in the gym. I wasn’t able to be there on Thursday unfortunately so I missed the launch, but from what I heard they primarily worked on braking and using either a power start (using the traditional foot on upturned pedal to start) or a frog start which is both feet on the ground pushing off for a count of 3 then pedaling.

On Friday Parker graduated from the “frog start” to the “power start” and as the session went on his braking and pedaling became smoother. His balance and turning also improved as did the speed in which he rode – and for volunteers (and Parker’s dad) the difficulty in running to keep up grew exponentially!

Watching Parker and the other campers biking around the parking lot was incredible. The transformation that took place over 5 days was nothing short of amazing and to be a part of it was something special.

Besides being a great guy, Parker had a very cool bike, retro style with a crimson and cream color scheme going on.

Although this was Oklahoma City’s first I Can Bike camp, the plan is to do it again next year. I plan to volunteer again and encourage you to consider it. You can find more information here.

No storms today, just heat and humidity. Oh how I have missed you. Not.

Today’s ride was 32 miles with a good average speed, 15.5. I seem to be recovering.

Fingers crossed.

In spite of the cloudy sky and high chance of rain, we checked radar just after 8am and determined we could get a 10 mile ride in if we hurried. We quickly got ready to go and then off we went heading east. It was muggy and warm, but cloudy as I said so not too bad.

Better than the weather was the traffic, very few cars/trucks but several cyclists. Just the way we like it. Once it was time to turnaround we decided to ride a little further since the sky didn’t look threatening, then a little bit further again before we decided we should turn around and head home.

As luck would have it, I heard the first roll of thunder about a mile from home. We just got our bikes in the garage and ourselves in the house before the heavy rain started, quickly followed by lightening and thunder with only 1-2 seconds between.

Close call, but a good ride. Hoped to get at least 10 miles and ended up getting 21 miles.

With coffee in hand, snug in the kitchen we quickly recounted all the times we have avoided thunderstorms while out riding. Rain we have biked in, particularly on the Katy Trail, but thunderstorms we have always been able to avoid. Twice on the Katy Trail we managed to out maneuver storms. Our first time we rode in rain, but got to the bed and breakfast moments before all hell broke loose. Another time we rode as hard as we could do to beat a severe thunderstorm headed our way and did. There is nowhere to hide on the trail if you are in between towns, which you are most of the time.

In all the years I have been riding I have actually only been caught in lightening/thunderstorms once. Even then I was able to find a deserted barn to wait it out in.

Now that I have said all this, I’m sure next time there is a thunderstorm and I am riding I will be pelted by hail, blown over by wind and struck by lightening. :-/