Reason No. 16 to Ride is a great holiday bike giveaway!

Here’s your chance to give your and others the gift of health this season.  Sign up for the San Diego Tour de Cure or better yet, Team US Cares rides the Tour de Cure and start your fundraising to help make a difference!

Raise $100 by December 16th and be entered to win a Specialized Road Bike courtesy of UC Cyclery!

$100 = 1 entry; $200 = 2 entries; $300 = 3 entries

About Diabetes
Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. The cause of diabetes continues to be a mystery, although both genetics and environmental factors appear to play roles. There are 23.6 million Americans living with diabetes, a disease that is outpacing heart disease, cancer and AIDS. Diabetes is a disease that has deadly serious consequences, and there is no cure.

I don’t know about you, but after a few hours on a bike I can’t handle just … one … more … Clif bar.

I mean, I like them alright. They even rotate special flavors seasonally which makes me look forward to the fall and other changes. Since I am a diabetic and limited on my choices, I have them in my jersey pocket, bento box and when traveling in my backpack. That’s a whole lotta Clif.

To alter my snackage (and meals when stuck in an airport over night), I supliment with nuts, mostly almonds. Trader Joes has tidy little packets of raw almonds all made up for your next Century at $4.99 a bag.

Yesterday, Trader Joes changed my Clif bar enhanced life. There it was, sitting unassuming on the shelf. The heavens did not part, and the angels did not sing, but I knew my cycling engery snackage would never be the same again … Wasabi Wow!

Made up of almonds, peanuts, cranberries and wasabi peas, it has just the right mix of everything I need – including just a bit of salt for that sweat replacement.

Reason number 14 to ride is you create scientific proof.

I saw this on another blog and thought they were spoofing, but when I clicked on the link I was stunned to find an actual study!

Strange but True: Helmets Attract Cars to Cyclists
Although you might not want to leave your protective gear at home, just know that if you do, drivers will be a lot more scared of hitting you…

Girl Meets Bike wrote an excellent list of “When I Bike, I Always Carry…” but I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I felt compelled to share with you my “must haves” and why.

1) Cash - now this isn’t new or earth shattering, but how many of you make sure you have a $20 bill to use as a shim? Not only is this a perfect liner between your tube and tire but it also means you have twenty bucks handy when you need to buy a new tire!

2) ID – make that ID attached to me. I have a shoe tag from Road ID as well as my ID in my Bento Box. If I go endo and separate from my bike I want to be sure that my contact and allergies are front and center. After all, just about every road rash cream has aloe in it – which, I am allergic to.

3) Cell phone – I learned this one from my favorite cyclist friend, Joe Felder. I carry an extra cell phone just for cycling. It has preloaded minutes and all my emergency contacts. If this one hits the pavement, I won’t panic the way I would if my Palm Treo (which contains my whole life) would and since it can only dial out as much as I’ve loaded funds into it, I won’t worry that someone is going to call Ethiopia on it

4) Mini pump - I used to love CO2 cartridges until I started flying with my bike in an Iron Case. Then I started to stress “Did I remember to get those cartridges off my bike? Will they explode in mid-flight? OMG, did I pack a pump?” Enough! Out with the single use CO2 cartridge and in with an environmentally friendly mini pump, nicely attached to my road bike.

Since I was a kid I’ve always been a fan of big dogs. I’m not sure how it started, maybe it was because our family poodle never wanted to be around me and even bit me when I was five. Or because that neurotic toy thing was later replaced with a loyal Shepard/Collie mix that my brother brilliantly brought home on my birthday much to my mother’s chagrin. If it wasn’t either of those reasons, it had to be my repetitive viewings of Old Yeller.

But then came Lance. Not some pound puppy, stray or offspring of a friend’s surprise litter. No, Lance was an addition to our family after a year of research of what dog would be small enough to take back and forth to Canada with me, to the office and of course spend his fluffy little Maltese days on the bike with me.

To locate the right cycling companion I read everything, contacted breeders and hung out at pet adoptions on weekends, lifting and sizing potential distance riders.

At less than 3 pounds, Lance came home with us and immediately turned 12 year old Duke back into a puppy. Every morning started with the two of them racing through the house while the cats looked for higher ground. Our Retriever mix had always hung out quietly under my desk or by my side where ever I went. Now I was forsaken as she became a partner in this rapid fire Mutt and Jeff scene.

Now came shopping! Lance would need all the doggie basics… a helmut, a portable water dish for our stops and a basket to ride in. I did resist the urge to get him a yellow doggy jersey.

The helmut was a guessing game to me. I knew how large he was at the moment but since he was a rapidly growing member of our family I had no idea how large his head would be. Lance was turning out to be just a wee bit bigger than the 4 to 5 pound baby Maltese the pet store had promised him to be. In fact, he has settled in at just a hair over 8 lbs. Bless his bow legged little heart!

I found a fabulous basket on ebay. Collaspible and light weight, plus it had a rain bonnet (just in case!). The basket became part of our sharing time together. I put it on the bed and petted Lance while he sat inside it while I watched TV or read (or truthfully spent too many hours playing solitaire on my cell phone.). I placed the basket on the floor next to my desk so Lance could hang there during the work day next to Duke would would squeeze under the desk between reams of paper and my feet. I even carried Lance around in the basket so he could get used to the motion of a soon to be basket on a bike.

What I never did was actually test the basket on the bike.

Uh oh. I couldn’t put the basket on the intended commuter bike, old Belle had her brakes in the way. No worries, at 40 years of well loved age, Belle didn’t ever shift out of 3rd or 4th gear anyways so I tended not to ride her much. Not to be diswayed I attempted to place the basket on my Trek (I will now admit to you what a geek I am and let you know that she is named Enterprise). Nope, didn’t fit here either. As I moved from one bike to another, I found that all 3 of my road bikes, from Belle to the WSD would not accept a basket of any sort at the handle bars!

I’m not comfortable with rambuncious Lance in a back pack, And believe it or not, I am too anal to handle the idea of one panier, making the bike lopsided in my mind. With the way I am about visual balance, I would have to get two dogs – and what if they didn’t match? Or worse yet, what if one was Lance and the other Lemond – would they get along? Yeah, he’s named after that Lance.

So here I am with my”bikey dog” still paying off a Madone 6.5 while looking at Beach Cruisers for the two of us.

Sometimes you marry the perfect match, but yet, your interests drift in different directions. Such is the case with Dave and I.

How did it happen? We were two geeks happily following the path of techno weenies everywhere, downing Jolt Cola and eating Fritos, never leaving our keyboards, never seeing the light of day. Life was good. Until…

I found out about Team and Training. Instantly, I was back in the world of biking – something I had not done since I left for college a lot of years and 3 kids ago. I loved it, the constant joy of being back on the bike, the constant struggle of being back on the bike, I rode every chance I got. I was hooked. Dave, not so much.

Rae joined me in our first Team and Training event and the months of training up to it. Then a few years later, Josh joined in – in fact, he participated in his second event this past weekend, the Tour de Cure. Most of the household was now in the saddle.

My husband was not too enamored of the concept of peddling to get to where he wanted to go. Still, he continued to meet me at Helen’s cycles, eyeing the new models and every now and then looking at a bike for himself. He would talk to the manager and gear techs, making sure I was being taken care of, asking about the new Madone I was looking at, etc. He seemed into it, but I still couldn’t get him on a bike.

I teased him, encouraged him, cajoled him and finally I just gave up. I muttered something about those tech support guys whose only time away from the computer is when they are discussing going to the next level with other World of Warcraft players. He jerked his head up in hurt surprise. “You really think so? You think that is all I am interested in?” Uh oh, I had crossed a line. “Uhm, well…” trying to quickly assess how much damage I had done, “it does seem odd that you keep looking at bikes and talking about wanting to ride and you never do.”. Not knowing when to quit, I continued on, “Dave life is just better when a couple have things in common, things they do together other than raising kids. I know we can’t do everything together, we have to have some interests of our own, but this is something that the kids and I really love and you have to get up in the morning and drive us to training rides anyways…” I whined. “Right,” he responded, “I get up early, check the bikes to make sure they are safe and ready for the road.” . “I know, I know. So if you are there anyways, why not be a part of it?” I asked perplexed. As patiently as a Father to a dolt child, he learned close and softly asked ” If I rode with you, who would be your SAG vehicle?”.

It must have been seconds, but it felt like minutes or even hours passed as I processed this. All this time I thought Dave just didn’t care about it all. The very fact of the matter was that Dave cared a great deal. He cared about us. He has spent the last two and a half years carrying bikes, tires, tubes and basic medical supplies, waiting hours at SAG (support and gear) stops and picking up hurt riders, taking them to safety. His addiction may not be to cycling but it has been to “his riders”.

Sometimes, you marry the perfect match.

You would think that as I approach this week end’s Tour de Cure, I would be preoccupied with training, nutrition and preparation. Not so much.

Part of my mental game plan is to go into this century ride for the American Diabetes Association with a happy, upbeat attitude. One large key in overcoming some of my obstacles has been to love what I am doing and find the happiness within.

While Tide may not be aware of how they are helping me across that finish line (and thus helping others) I thought I’d share with you something that has sent me into uncontrollable peals of laughter every time I look at it…

I went over to BeTheStain.com and upload my pic to their applet, making me the talking stain that you see in the commercial. Sure its dumb, but seriously, what sane person spends their day off biking 100 miles.. on purpose?

Reason number 12 to ride is so you don’t end up like this guy:

All that show, where ya gonna go?

Need I say more?

You have to admit, Rae puts herself and her bike through more physical challenges then some see in a life time. She is extremely careful in her actions but not timid about what those actions are to be. Grammar school gave us annual photos of her with the sling of the season on her arm and many years later our go getter has returned from Hawaii, or more recently with a little less skin and a little less bike then she started out with.

When we first started cycling, we needed new bikes. Our old trusty steeds were ill fitting, big heavy things that could get us to the bank and stuff but just weren’t going to be the easiest thing to ride a century on. In typical Rae fashion, she struck out on her own, did the research, found the bike shop she wanted to do business with and bought a 2007 Giant OCR 3 W.

Recently, she had a small falling out with a car on a rainy night and lost. Oh, and I might add after the night guy potato chipped her wheel he left and just might be the same car that ran over her glasses – we’ll never be sure on that one.

New glasses have been ordered, the bike is whole and home again, ready for Saturday’s training ride. Plus there is the extra bonus of having to be fit to a bike with a new fork. All is happy again, until the next time. *sigh*

For a 12 year old boy, our son showed quite a bit of dedication to the team and our training routine. So much so that I knew he would stick it out and needed a better bike than my old one. My 40 year old road bike had been to Santa Barbara and back in its day, plus into the Mojave – however, it this point in its life it is stuck in 3rd and 4th gears. Just not the bike for a lot of climb.

We did a scouting trip over to Helen’s Cycle’s in Santa Monica to narrow down the choices and be sure we could stay in budget, came home sprang the new bike surprise on Josh and took him back to the shop to show him the 2 Treks and a Diamondback for his final approval.

Instead, we settled on a Cannondale hybrid (Cannondale Quick 5) that appeared magically beween visits. It had seemed to have a frame that would hopefully let Josh and his big puppy self fit together for the next few years. he’s enjoying the heck out of it, tackling the PCH and the Tour de Foothills with his ol’ Mom.

From the Cannondale website:
LIGHTWEIGHT AND COMFORTABLE

We have paired an already comfortable bike at an attractive price point with something even more attractive: A carbon fork. Excellent vibration resistance means you’ll be ready for anything, from long-distance charity rides to a spin around the block.

SPECS:
Frame Quick
Fork TIG-welded Chromoly
Rear Shock N/A
Rims Cannondale C4, 32 hole
Hubs Formula FM-31 front, FM-32 rear
Spokes 15g stainless steel
Tires CST Selecta w/Kevlar belt, 700 x 35c
Pedals Wellgo resin platform w/Kraton insert
Crank Shimano FC-M151, 28/38/48
Chain KMC Z72 8-speed
Rear Cogs Sunrace M66, 11-32
Bottom Bracket TH cartridge
Front Derailleur SRAM 3.0
Rear Derailleur Shimano Alivio
Shifters Shimano SL-EF50 EZ-Fire
Handlebars Cannondale C3, 20mm rise, 600mm wide
Stem Cannondale XC3F 1 1/8″, 31.8mm
Headset VP semi-integrated threadless, 30 mm top cover
Brakeset Lee Chi TX-120 linear pull
Brakelevers Shimano SL-EF50 EZ-Fire
Saddle Selle San Marco Ischea
Seat Post Cannondale C4 Alloy
Sizes S, M, L, X, J
Extras Montague “CLIX” Front QR