My Bicycling Interests
I've been a "serious cyclist" for about 30 years, and have at least dabbled in almost all types of cycling. The types I've the most
experience in are bicycle touring (multi-day camping trips), randonneur
or "ultra-marathon" events, tandeming and bicycle mechanics.
Bicycle Touring
I've been on 9 tours of a week or more. The second was an organized tour
with Bikecentennial (now The Adventure
Cycling Association), all the rest were self- designed, and all but
the first two were on tandem with my wife. The longest tandem trip was
a 30 day tour from Colorado to Oregon when I came to Willamette. The most elegant
was a bed-and-breakfast hop in the Loire valley in France before Paris-Brest-Paris
(see next section). Here's
the chateau at Chenonceau (no, we didn't stay there).
If you are interested in Bicycle Touring, The Adventure
Cycling Association is an excellent source for information.
Randonneur events
Hmm... how to translate Randonneur? I once heard it said that a Randonneur
is a cyclist who rides not to compete nor to see the sights, but just for
the fun of riding.
When I talk of Randonneur events, I am thinking mainly of long-distance
rides completed in some fixed time frame: 100 miles in daylight (also called
a century ride in the US), 200 miles in 24 hours (a double-century),
300 miles in 24 hours (a triple century) or others. The French randonneurs
have 200, 300, 400, and 600 km rides (also called brevets), and
every four years the Audax Club Parisien puts on one of the biggest
randonnees/brevets of all, Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP), 1200 km (~750 miles)
from Paris to Brest and back in 90 hours. For info on randonnees in the US, see rusa.org, or the local club, Oregon Randonneurs.
I've finished three triple-centuries
around fourty double-centuries, though only a few doubles and no triples in recent years. We went to
Paris for PBP in 1987 but "blew up" at about 400 miles from lack of sleep and poor
diet. Below you can see me (at left), my wife, and friends, on the Champs
d'Elysee a day before PBP began. Another rider's PBP experience.
Recent adventures: The Ultimate Oregon Road Bike Ride, Oregon Randonneurs Three Capes 300K, Salem Bicycle Club's Watermelon Rides (200 mile route).
Tandem bicycles
Take a good look at the bike in the picture above. That's the rear end
of our tandem. Most of the really long rides listed above were done
on this bike. I could go on for pages about tandems, but instead I'll refer
you to Wade
Blomgren's tandem page which is a good start.
Bicycle Mechanics
I've been interested in bicycle mechanics (and the physics and design of bicycles) since college. I've worked in bike shops for
brief
periods, and have done all my own work since. Working
on tandems is especially fun, as is building wheels. Here's a little tutorial I made for shipping
or packing non-folding tires. For the mathematically inclined,
there is a nice topology problem in there somewhere.
Remember the motto:
Bikus non lubrium bustibus
Last Modified August 15, 2006.
Prof.
Janeba's Home Page | Send comments or questions to: mjaneba
willamette.edu
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