2013 in review

        The 2014 riding season is quickly approaching (I hope), so I thought I should close last year before starting a new one.

I put over 3,500 miles on the Musashi in 2013. That pushes me over 12,000 miles for the three years I've owned the bike. 

Last year I joined the UMCA  , riding in three of their events:
Calvin's Challenge for 188.5 miles.
The National 24 hour Challenge for 226.2 miles
The Ohio Cycling Challenge 200 - Columbus for 212 miles

I also rode in a couple of other events:
RAIN for 161 miles
The Tree City Rolling Tour for 103 miles.

Last year wasn't my highest mileage year,  but it did have the highest number of rides over 125 miles.

2014:
In 2014 I'd like to ride at least a 300 mile ride, 400 miles would be even better.

I really enjoyed the UMCA races last year, here is their 2014 calendar of events.
I'm interested in some of their events that are close to home:
CtoC Cincinnati to Cleveland, 500K (new ride)
Patriotic race over 500 miles (new ride)
Calvin's Challenge 12 hours
RAAM Ohio Cycling Challenge 200 miles
24h National Challenge 24 hours

The two new rides look like great challenges for both riding endurance and the wallet. I would need a sponsor to ride all these events. In light of that, I have been considering skipping the UMCA events altogether this year and simply plan my own long distance rides.


I'm starting to wonder if the 2014 season will ever start, It's been a rough winter here in Indiana with record lows and lots of snow. Here it is, the first day of March and they're predicting up to 12 inches of snow! Will it ever end?


The Musashi is a great bike, but is it time for a new ride? I'm keeping all options open,

  

Whats new

Its been awhile since I have posted (four years). I'm still happily riding a bike, last year I rode over 2,200 miles on the Vision R40 starting in June. My longest trip last year was 100 miles while doing the Hope Indiana Century ride. The longest trip in one direction was 90 miles when I rode to New Albany Indiana from Greensburg Indiana on a whim.

There are a couple changes since the last time I have blogged, I now have a Garmin 705 GPS to keep track of my rides. The biggest change happened two weeks ago when I traded in my 15 year old Vision R40 for a brand new Catbike Musashi from Fairfield Cyclery in Fairfield Ohio. Its pictured above. The new bike rides great, I already have over 250 miles on it. I'll add some posts to talk about the changes plus the positive experience I had with the Garmin service department when I needed my GPS unit replaced.

Picture from the handlebar view:

 

Mounting of the Luxos U:

Expanding plug used to mount the Luxos: