Got myself a new bike today...

[The Annoyed Man]

my wife and I are going to go for a ride together this evening after it cools off a little bit.

You mean an evening in November?

HEY!!! 85º is cooler than 95º.

[oran214]

Hey, did you ever ride to toro peak?

[The Annoyed Man]

Hey, did you ever ride to toro peak?

No, I can't say as I have. I did 99% of my mountain biking in the San Gabriels, and the rest of it in the foothills between Escondido and Oceanside, in Vista.

[Dan20703]

I'm going to try a more local ride through some of the bike trails near my house this evening; and I'm going on a longer ride tomorrow evening with friends, probably over by the lake. Pray for me.

I know it skirts very close to the edge per forum rules, buuuuut... All together now:

"O Lord, we pray that you would enable TAM to keep the big round black things down, and the little round white thing up on his bike ride. We earnestly desire that what is in his head stays there, even if it does cause him to go out in this infernal heat. Amen!"

As necessary, congregational petitions will be offered at the altar tomorrow morning, if this one didn't cover it.

...and also may the Lord protect his new possession and anything he may be carrying for protection from the deluge of perspiration. Amen.

[PUCKER]

Congrats TAM!! Very nice bike! I still have my 1995 Trek Y33 that's in mint shape - used to be an MTB nut, but I haven't ridden in quite awhile.

The nice thing about GV is that there are alot of hike-n-bike style trails (ie - alot of concrete paths with dirt not too far away). One of the main reasons I moved to GV back in 1994 was for the Northshore trail, I used to ride it 3 or more times a week. Another out of shape buddy and I have been talking about getting back on our bikes....so, we'll go ride once and then they sit for a few months...or longer...it probably doesn't help that we like to smoke cigars and have a few beers either...and that we've "lost" the battle of the bulge...LOL

We need to go riding sometime...I mean, it will be a short ride... well, I meant that it would be a short-distance ride but it could take a looooooong time....you know, with all the oxygen stops! LOL

[The Annoyed Man]

PUCKER, I took a ride like that just yesterday evening with a friend. We started at my house (north of Hall Johnson, west of Heritage), and rode over to Parr and then down to Parr park. Rode the trail there over to and under the 121 and then down along the 360 to Bear Run park and through there. We came out on Tate behind the nursery which is next to the U-Haul. Rode up Tate back to the trail crossing, then back into and through Parr park to the main play area; then back up (pant, huff, blow) hill on Parr and then left into my neighborhood again. It was a lot of exercise for me, but other than getting killed on the hills, I actually did OK, and I'm not too sore this morning.

One thing... my bike has THESE PEDALS by "TIME" on it. I have a new set of cleats to match, but no shoes on which to mount the cleats as I tossed my old shoes years ago. These pedals may be in a platform configuration, but they are barely so. They are quite narrow, and I have kind of wide feet; and the clips protrude above the platform level, so they aren't really that suited to riding without cleated shoes. That made the ride more difficult than it needed to be because my feet keep sliding sideways off the pedals.

This is a picture of what my old bike looked like (only mine was metallic blue and black, and being a 1997 model, it lacked the mounting bosses for disc brakes on the fork - which was a Judy T2 rather than the Judy C pictured here):


It had those little Scott "clipless" pedals that use the Shimano SPD system. I liked those, but I really want to stay with some kind of platform pedal that uses clips because they are more versatile. I'm not going to want to always be wearing bike shoes.

[PUCKER]

I have those same exact pedals (the one that are pictured above) - had them on both my road and mountain bikes as I wore the same mountain bike shoes for each (easier to walk around in!). Sold the road bike a few years back. I've recently taken them off my MTB and went with a BMX-style platform pedal, I'm pleased with how much easier it is.

[Ropin]

TAM,

you can get (fairly inexpensively, IIRC) a pedal that is platform on one side, SPD on the other, which is great if you prefer the SPD system but also want the option of regular shoes.

As a caveat, it should be noted that you'll pretty much always have to flip the pedal to clip in, as the SPD side is heavier and tends to stay toward the bottom.

BTW, I'm rather fond of Parr Park. My football team used to practice there, but I now find it to be one of the more cyclist-friendly MUT parks.

[The Annoyed Man]

TAM,

you can get (fairly inexpensively, IIRC) a pedal that is platform on one side, SPD on the other, which is great if you prefer the SPD system but also want the option of regular shoes.

As a caveat, it should be noted that you'll pretty much always have to flip the pedal to clip in, as the SPD side is heavier and tends to stay toward the bottom.

BTW, I'm rather fond of Parr Park. My football team used to practice there, but I now find it to be one of the more cyclist-friendly MUT parks.

Ropin, the guy I was riding with yesterday had a set of pedals like those on his bike.

Speaking of cycling friendly, back in about 1992, my wife and I visited a cousin of mine in Burlington Vermont. One of the nice things they had there was called something like "Rails to Trails" or something like that. Old unused railways were being converted to bike trails for public use. It was nice to ride on because the surface was pretty smooth, well maintained, and very scenic.

Is there anything like that in the Metroplex?

[Mike1951]

Have you tried here?

http://www.traillink.com/trailsearch.as ... allas&sp=Y" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;