Calnan-web.com/Cycling

Personal Cycling Info

Newcomers Rides for Cascade Bicycle Club

Newcomers Ride 7/8/2006
This is a leisurely paced, stay-together ride for folks who know how to ride, but have not ridden in a group. This particular iteration will be from the Tukwila Community Center, south on the Green River Trail to Kent Station for a latte and snack break, then back up the Interurban Trail to Tukwila. Total distance is 23 miles, and the route is almost completely flat terrain.

Yet-to-do 2006 Ride Schedule

STP 7/15/2005
RSVP 8/4/2005

Past Rides

My first big ride was the Cascade Bike Club's RSVP. You can read my account of this trip on my blog, Day 1 and Day 2.

Other rides more recently completed:

Why I Ride

I started this cycling thing as an exercise routine. It was not long until it became something else entirely.

At a base level, cycling takes me back to the feeling of freedom I had as a kid when I would ride my Schwinn Varsity around the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and to points north like Redondo and Hermosa Beaches.

Cycling is a borderline spiritual thing for me. I just plain love pedaling along on my bike and checking out my surroundings.

To me, cycling is:

An exercise regime.
An escape from the day-to-day worries of work, etc.
A chance to see, at a much slower pace than in a car, the world around me.
A chance to meet new people, and develop new friendships.
A hole in my wallet that leaks money, but buys me some fun bicycle accessories.

For me, cycling isn't a need for speed. I want to see the world around me, rather than spend my ride trying to hang on to someone's wheel at 20 mph. I'm perfectly content to chug along at 14-16, and be able to see the hawks in the daytime, or the owl that I saw one night down in Kent.

My Bike

This is my new bike, a 2006 Lemond Buenos Aires with a combination steel/carbon frame. The ride is smooth as butter compared to my Specialized Sequoia, which I am keeping as my "rain bike". I test rode the Lemond first, and that short-circuited my plans to test ride several different bikes of different composition. It felt like my bike, so I ended up buying it from Garry at Mountain Bike Outfitters (MBO) in Kent, Washington. Garry is a nice guy, plus it is a friendly and local shop, something I missed the benefits of when I bought my previous bike in Seattle. MBO is only a few blocks off my usual training routes, so it's easy to stop in and get a quick gear adjustment or whatever while riding.