Biking thoughts – Gravel, family ride, speed notes, etc.

My ride up around the D&H in May reminded me of how awesome the dirt roads are in NE Pennsylvania.  So that I can plan some rides, I added a gravel overlay. On this, I can draw potential routes  that use mostly gravel and get an approximate mileage.

My NE Pennsylvania Gravel Map

Family bike ride to Manayunk Arts Festival

It’s hot, so we’re driving to Spring Mill and biking the 5 miles to Manayunk today.  I was going to bike over to Spring Mill, but it’s hot.  Things to remember – Bring plenty of water, keep bikes clean, oiled and ready to go.  I spent a half hour just cleaning pollen off of Sandi’s bike and cleaning the chain.

Later… The ride along the trail was good.  We parked at bike racks by the bridge to the Cynwyd trail and walked down to Main Street.  Kate led.  We saw several recumbents, including a tandem recumbent.  There are several restaurants in Conshohoken, so we made our way over to El Limon for dinner.  There’s now a Mexican restaurant on the west side of Main Street as well.

Biking to the grocery store

Jay Conners said that I should just create a facebook event to bike to Trader Joe’s.  I’m thinking that Trader Joe’s Bike Monday, like Kimberley does, makes sense.  I’m thinking that we could meet at 5:00 pm at Grace Church across from the library parking lot and bike from there along Vernon, to Spring St to Old York Rd.  It’s just a short ride, but it would be more fun to do with people.

Biking speed

Regardless of which bike I’m riding and hills, I tend to average between 11-12 miles an hour when I include stops.  This is true whether I’m riding the Finesse or the Jari.  With the family, it is about 7 mph.

Videos

There are TED videos that talk about how bicycling addresses health issues for people.

I like the Trans Am Bike Race Ted Video.

And I like a video about how bicycling changes you.

I listen to the videos as I do dishes.