Harris Cyclery has been around for many years and Sheldon Brown,the owner, is older than dirt (almost). His pages continue to draw me back every time I am ready for more cycling information. If I have a question about a wheel a cyclometer or bike gear, Sheldon Brown is the "Go To" guy for me. Early in 2007 I decided that todays modern padded saddles may not be my best choice for my touring bike I am preping hopefully for 2008 on the road adventures. Ask any serious touring guy and the majority of the time you will hear the name Brooks of course! So, the first place I go is of course to Sheldon "Hidebound" Brown. to see what his thoughts are on the subject. I started to gain hope that now I could break that nasty 30 mile barrier I had hit on my weekly rides. Me and plastic-padded saddles do play good together after that distance, and I discovered that I was not alone with this problem. Lots of cyclists don't often talk about this as it is a "sensative" (pardon the pun) area to discuss. I decided to talk a bit about it, because I want people who are just riding for the first time or recently returning to bikes to have helpful info to better enjoy their rides. You won't ride very long if your in pain in your soft spots :)                                                                                                                
I found a distributer of the fine leather Brooks Saddles and goodies that go with them like Brooks Proofide Leather Saddle Dressing in San Marcos,Tx selling his products on eBay. So after much research I dug in deep with a lot of hope and some faith and bought the single rail Champion Flyer (it has spring support ). Check back in a week or two to see how me and my new behind friend are getting along. I promise, no bull here,I'll let you know if the talk is true or just a bunch of bull.                                                                                                                

A ride I enjoyed was Sat. June 03,2006 Mesquite Rodeo Ride

I was planning to ride the 20 mile course and because most of the roads would be out in the rolling hills, I added a little windbreaker out of donated colorplast and while it looked weird, I could notice a good deal of wind breakiing effect from it on the country hills. While the forecast called for winds from the SE @ 6mph, that didn't apply out in the country. Where we were, it did pick up to about 14mph and of course going downhill half the time, there was a huge gain in speed for the 50 lb trike. All in all, I had a blast Saturday, you know, I am soo used to working these rides, I forgot they could actually be a lot of fun,don't get me wrong, I get a great deal of satisfaction of working in communications for all the events, it's just that another bent rider and I partnered up for a real good time talking bike stuff and we just averaged abt 10.5 mph while we never fell behind the DFers on the route ( can you say cake walk :-) ). There were plenty of little roller hills to play on and a couple of descent climbs that payed off in spades on the downhill side (30.1mph max with plenty of 25mph areas as well ) The police were at every intersection of note and we never had to slow down once. On the 20 miler, we made 2 rest stops and the later had big throw away towels next to a large bucket of ice water :-) for us to cool down with and because it was so clear as you remember, it got plenty warm on the asphalt county roads. The after ride food was great, no peanut butter sandwiches here! Large chicken barest sandwiches and Blue Bell Ice Cream! All in all we got our money's worth pluss change. I will have more photos later in the week, so check back often. BikeJournal Bikejournal.com is where I keep track of my bike rides and miles, I am pleased to report that my overall average bike speed for this season is abt 11 mph. Not bad for a guy with a neuromuscular disease! JoeTriCruiser. The 2006 event season flew by!!          Feb.25,The Fort Worth Cowtown Marathon Classic ushered in the new season. Aledo Ride For Hero's is on again on April 7,2007 This is a great annual charity ride. Their were over 1200 riders in 2006.                                                                                                             April 08, I joined some friends at the Spring running of the Lancaster Country Ride. I will have some links later for photos of the Saturday event.                                                                                                         MS Awareness Week Begins in March I'm very proud to say I was a part of the Comm Team for the Dallas area MS 150 in 2006!     Fellow Amateur Radio Operators and Cyclist, I have a special love for these events because I live with a neuro-muscular disease myself. I am very thankful for the great work all the volunteers and groups provide in this fight. Our children hopefully one day will never again have to deal with these disabilities, please consider this information. A few weeks ago, I had a bit of a relapse and lost a little more use in my legs at least for a while. well I have learned that when life gives you lemmons, you make lemonaide! In order to ride again I need 3 wheel under me and because recumbent trikes are not only cool, they cost a bit more than I had in my other bikes. So I aplied for a little financial help as suggested by some of my fellow neuromuscular family. The trike I ended up going with is custom built in San Diego,Calif. by Sid Gowdy,it is called a TriCruiser                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Here is an exerpt from a letter a fellow cyclists sent me regarding bike helmets and the up comming local MS 150_250 event.                                                                                                                                      HI!, The responses were quick in coming with suggestions for safe riding after the email I sent about a fallen rider on Sunday.  The list of great ideas can be found on my website at the link shown below. There were too many to include in one email.. I hope you'll take time to look at them. There will be a few that will really surprise you!                                                                                                                                       We have comments from several doctors, EMT's, law enforcement officials, experienced riders with decades of riding under their helmets, clowns and magicians! Seriously! But the one that shocked me the MOST, was the email that said I was WRONG for promoting the use of helmets.. It's worth clicking onto the site just to read their emails to me....                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Many good Recumbent pages http://www.americruiser.com/ http://www.recycledrecumbent.com/ http://www.toxy.de/ http://www.bacchettabikes.com/community/teamb/article002.htm http://www.ihpva.org/people/tstrike/bike.htm http://www.recumbentusa.com/ http://www.manytracks.com/recumbent.htm http://www.bicycleman.com/recumbents/lightning/lightning.htm http://www.lightningbikes.com/p38.htm http://www.eurosoccerblog.com/sports_soccer/Cycling/Comfort-Bikes.shtml http://www.icehouse.net/jim_d/choose.html http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/records/Fastest_one_hour2005.htm http://www.actionbent.com/ASSEMBLY_MANUAL/ABHiRacer.htm http://bacchettabikes.com/index.html http://bike123.com/ http://www.tetcycles.com/ http://www.liggcykel.se/montypage.html http://flevofan.ligfiets.net/index.php?doc=ch4-02 http://www.bigha.com/index.php http://www.volaerecumbents.com/ http://www.azub.cz/en/ http://ryanownersclub.com/vanguard/ http://ryanownersclub.com/scrapbook/tomrose/ http://www.longbikes.com/Reviews.html http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/archive/index.php/ http://amlingscycle.com/index.cfm http://www.actionbent.com/ http://www.bentechbikes.com/ http://www.flevobikeusa.com/ http://www.bentrideronline.com/ http://www.springcreekrecumbents.com/ http://www.recumbentbicycles.net/news/May2006/bicycles-news-22May2006.html http://www.barcroftcycles.com/index.html http://www.trimuter.com/ http://bikerodnkustom2.homestead.com/cover3.html http://www.rbr.info/ http://www.recumbent-bikes-truth-for-you.com/ http://www.sunbicycles.com/sun/recumbents/ezSpeedster/ezSpeedster.htm http://www.ransbikes.com/default.htm http://www.easyracers.com/ http://www.hpvsupply.com/ http://www.recumbents.com/home.asp http://members.shaw.ca/tknutt/bentlinks.htm http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/whatsup.htm http://www.optima-cycles.nl/ http://www.e-bent.com/ http://1rw.freewebspace.com/ http://ebent.wordpress.com/ebent-philosophy/ QST--QST