1000 miles

Hey! Last night I passed 1000 miles! I did about that much all of last year. On the commuting front 8 full rides from home to work, 2 partial rides. That's about . . . 288 miles or $64 in gas or E85.
I had my wife take the picture to commemorate the first day of the "Car-Free Challenge".
The truck's just under a quarter tank right now. I didn't ride the bike in today anticipating a ride with friends on the MB in Yankee Springs. I didn't have to fill it today, probably won't have to tomorrow. Did my ride on Tuesday allow me to go until next Monday before filling it up? I dunno, but I have the cash in my pocket a week longer than I would have otherwise. Think about that!

Starting the contest

Today is the first day of the Bentrider car free challenge. Had an uneventful ride in this morning. I guess a good start to it. Last year I took a stab at it, but broke the arms. Within my little world I did go car free as much as possible. I actually couldn't drive, but in the spirit of the event I also took rides only when necessary. I walked to lunch, walked to the store, walked to visit people. Still car free, but not enough to impress I guess. That's alright, it got me out of the house and moving around. I could have been one of those people who sit around the house feeling sorry for myself. I'm just not like that.

Sunday morning I had a nice ride with the team from Tunnel Park in Holland MI to Grand Haven. It was not quite 40 miles up the lakeshore. The houses were pretty and it was interesting riding right up to the beach and getting sand on the tires. Along the way I stopped to check tire pressure and was just about carried away by mosquito's. I'm still itching from 'em. I was slower than the rest of the group Sunday. Either they're getting better or I'm not. It's alright, I can plod along at 17mph all day - the rabbits runnin' at 20mph have to stop every now and then. Maybe next year I need to get a carbon fiber trike!

Tour de Cure

Wow, that was interesting. I haven't been on an organized ride other than with the JDRF group before. It was a smaller crowd than I'm used to and a smaller support staff. I lined up with the 70 milers at 7:30 in the morning and we were off! The first 1/4 was rolling hills and about killed me! I'd be stuck climbing, get some momentum and then right back onto another hill. Far too short of a distance for the trike to shine. The Southern end of the course was better, open fields, flatter. There was one section that was perfect for the trike, a long slow downhill of 2 or 3 miles. Man that was fun, must have been hitting about 40 mph. There were a couple guys surprised I caught up to 'em! In Gun Lake the other groups (15, 25 & 45 mile) joined in at one of the rest areas. There was a Priority Health team rider there hauling a baby cart behind him! Good training! Out of there I felt a little better, I was passing people and leaving them behind (no passing the 70 mile group - I'm just not fast enough.) One stop was outside the Thornapple Vet clinic. I asked where restrooms were & the ADA volunteers pointed to a bush. I was pretty disappointed they didn't have any porta-johns on the route at all. Thank you to my friends at the Thornapple Vet Clinic for letting me use their facilities! I was also pretty disappointed that I didn't see a SAG van the whole day! The last 1/4 was light rain right up until I pulled back into the state park.

I had 2 problems with the Trike; 1 - the nose of the fairing kept wanting to slip down and my orange flag on the back kept bunching up into my back wheel. The fairing issue was pretty annoying, in addition to it wanting to slip down, when I pulled it up the part that holds it up wanted to slip over to the chainring and rub. I'll have to figure that one out soon.
It was a lonely ride I'll bet that for 1/2 of the ride I didn't see a soul. With the way the recumbent works on hills it's difficult to have a riding buddy to talk to. I did actually have a friend from work with me, but again, it's difficult and I told him not to wait. Thank heavens I had my MP3 player!
So, I've done a 70 and don't feel too bad. Didn't feel bad doing it. I hope I can keep this momentum going until October! Hey - go donate to my JDRF ride would ya? The link is on the top right! Thanks!

Commute week

Tally for the week (ending tonight):

Monday, 34 miles to Steelcase and back - Trike

Tuesday, 10 miles from 100th to Steelcase and back - Mesa MB

Thursday, 34 miles to Steelcase and back - Trike

• Monday I was almost perforated! Just North of Moline I heard some barking, looked back and saw a set of teeth and a black blur at my rear tire! Fight or flight kicked into gear and so did I. I'm not used to being chased but kept him at bay until a honking car scared it away. Thank you honking car! What would happen if he was faster? Where would the bite be? Shoulder? Cheek? That was actually the scariest thing that's happened to me on the Trike.


• Tuesday was different. I haven't commuted on the Mesa before. I parked at a school at 100th & Eastern and rode from there. Usually on the Trike I take up a lane or more recently used construction areas to get to work on Eastern. Even on the Blade (road bike) the road feels right. I wasn't comfortable riding the Mesa there, I used the sidewalk. It wasn't as efficient, but I got to have fun with the urban obstacle course of broken pavement, overgrown branches, missing pieces of sidewalk in the construction zone and lots of curbs. Oh, and I'm always amazed at how close people will drive to a 2 wheeled bike but give the trike tons of room.


• Today the most interesting thing (so far) was a squirrel trying to commit suicide in front of the trike. Not sure I could kill one, but I just about knocked some sense into him. I suppose I should have hit my bell a few times to ward him off. 'ding 'ding!
  My legs are still tired from earlier in the week. I rode at a more relaxed pace this morning.

Saturday is the Tour de Cure in Yankee springs. I made the full $150 donation myself. I can write it off and Camp Midicha has been great for Taylor (they run it). I'm planning on 70 miles, I hope that with rest on Friday my legs will be fresh enough. It might be a long day!

Are printers still relevant?

Let's separate my target audience, if you're a home user yes, no need to read on. The battle here is in corporate America.

I've heard "we will place no more printers" lately. Do devices that only print still make sense in a output savvy corporation? I'd say yes, but the noose is tightening. We've had multi-function machines for about a decade now. Good device planning says that we place what's needed to support the needs in the area. Usually that means we consolidate in a couple ways. We consolidate printers, fax machines and scanners into one machine and we consolidate several printers into one device. That leads us to plunking a big multi-function device in the middle of a pod of people (size related to volume.) Great, solved. Hold on:

• I have a user that's on a manufacturing line that needs black and white print ability to be next them.
• I have a user who needs photo realistic printing.
• I have a disabled person who can't easily move to central device.
• People are pooling up around the one device waiting on everyone else.
• etc.!

What's the answer? A point specific printer.

However, what else am I saying? Placement of printers is and should be in decline. Unless the price difference becomes nil between printers and multi-functions (multi) there will always be a home for single function printers. All pricing being equal if I'm given the choice between a printer and a multi I'll choose the multi every time. Yes, they give you and some of your users more functionality, but in addtion to that they enable future capabilities. One day "Mary" in shipping will figure out that faxing costs them $ and scan to email is free. In addition it allows you to slim down the number of different models placed. What does that buy you? Less support headaches and less supplies laying around.

Sometimes I think people think I'm a printer centric person. My mindset is that I want to bring output technology to the corporation in a smart, efficient manner. Sometimes that means a printer.

Finally, the printer in the picture? That was my Christmas decoration a few years back. An old broken Tektronix that found a glorious new life for a couple months.

Sad

I received a note the other day that was kind of a downer. It was an auction notice for the assets of Champcar. I wish I had the spare coin around to buy stuff to hang onto, but then again it's not good to live in the past. I was taken by the pace cars that were still around, stored in some warehouse. I hope that some museum or someone who'll take care of them bought 'em.
I did watch some of the race at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend. It's difficult for me to watch too much oval racing. I do like the strategy that goes with it, but watching them buzz around isn't as exciting as a road or street race. PT had some strong opinions on the Indycar package and having watched some I tend to agree. The cars look a decade old and they don't sound exciting. I've never been a big NASCAR fan, but they're moving forward with the car of tomorrow and it's enticing to me. The Panoz DP01's like Katherine Heigl, the Dallara's . . . not.
Oh, and the Champcar website is still up? Who's paying for that?

A fun ride

A few entries ago I was complaining about not getting enough fun riding in. Since then I did the mountain biking which was fun, but again I was trying to keep up. This past Sunday I hopped on the bike between the storms and headed South. It was nice to have a quiet solo ride out in rural Allegan county again. I can't say anything really interesting happened, it was just sunny, quiet and at my own pace. By the time I got to Martin (9 miles) I was feeling the sun and wished I'd have put some lotion on. Sometimes I forget that people aren't used to seeing a faired' 3 wheeler, and I did get some odd looks when I stopped in town. I needed to get back to take the group to the movies, so I turned around and baked the other side of my arms on the way home. Overall it was a warm trip, but an enjoyable one. I need to do that more often.