Spring on the A. R. Parkway April 9, 2011
Posted by Bill in Photography, Reflection.Tags: american river parkway, orange county, Photography, spring
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OK, so it was brisk. 
Click on the photo to the right to get the full effect. An amazing day, with nothing else about it to write about but simply that.
Well, there was the coyote that dashed across the trail in hot pursuit, ears alert, the calm herd of deer by the trail, the 20-30 wild turkeys including fanning toms, the river itself at dramatic springtime flow, and the dense and dramatic clouds that turned my ride from warm to frigid at will.
Add to that the freshly blown trail courtesy of county employees, and you have bicycling paradise. Having bicycled a bit of SoCal “Class 1″ bike trail this past week with its frequent interruptions, dirt wash-outs and traffic diversions (not to mention the awesome poodle count), I return to the parkway with renewed appreciation for was has to be one of the best bike trails anywhere.
Bike for Life! July 13, 2010
Posted by Bill in Events, Photography, Reflection.Tags: american river parkway, california state fair, training
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Welcome to GeezerWheels! If you’re reading this after a visit to the California State Fair, thanks for dropping in to give GeezerWheels a look. This blog is nothing more than one guy’s reflections on getting on a bike and enjoying time in motion, along with the wonders the American River brings to the life hugging its banks and living in its waters.
Recent posts here have been photography centered (except for the immediately previous post, thankfully) thanks to the fair, but earlier posts have been been mostly about conditioning and encounters with life on a bike. Should you have thoughts to add consequent to your own quest to bring bike-pleasure into your life, please join in.
Don’t miss the other resources in the margins of this blog, such as links to great bikes and great bike shops. Your gear can be as important as your mindset, and it will pay huge dividends to pay close attention to both.
Why bicycling is like sex July 3, 2010
Posted by Bill in Conditioning, Equipment, Reflection, Uncategorized.Tags: american river parkway, older rider, training
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This blog originated from my observations about getting older, and efforts to return to a level of fitness from before my lifestyle became anti-exercise. How to sustain something that would benefit my body over the long haul, to allow me to have a long haul in the first place. As a educator of humans for many decades, one thought has held true for all: nothing is sustained that isn’t fun or immediately beneficial. How many NordicTrack machines are taking up space in garages, piled on top of college textbooks we haven’t yet had the nerve to give away?
I also knew I was a slave to chemistry… fun or not, I had to cope with the fact that my body had some cardiovascular growing to do, and that didn’t sound fun. Here’s the deal: fitness is a question of how well your body can turn oxygen into useful energy. The more oxygen you can convert into energy, the fitter you are. The good news is this: regardless of your age, your body can increase its fitness as a result of your efforts. The bad news is this: you have to give it a reason to do so. You have to stress it, make your heart pump faster and harder, to engage the chemical machinery and tissue growth required to make you better able to use oxygen and deliver it to muscle tissue.
The word “effort” in our culture has negative connotations. “To get good grades, you have to put in effort.” “Politicians must make an effort to avoid corruption.” I’d like to shift the paradigm a bit here, hence the title of this post. Sex requires effort, at least good sex does. It may even require a bit of planning and careful orchestration of circumstances (right, parents?). Bad sex does not encourage a return to the scene, so most of us put a good deal of energy, effort, into making sure the experience is a good one for all parties involved.
Well, the same thing goes for bicycling. If you do it well and pay attention to details, it will feel good and you will ache for more. If you ignore the details or assume someone else (a bike builder, for instance) will take care of them for you, it’s not going to work out and you’ll wind up with a two-wheeled paperweight. So, think of your conditioning regimen as an act of love-making. Just like with sex, a partner can make your bicycling experience far more rewarding, but a partner is not required for a quality experience. Regard the following list, and keep the metaphor running:
- Decide what kind of bicycling feels good to you, but leave yourself open to an evolving/changing sense of what that is. Quality bike shops such as The Bicycle Business rent performance bikes for test rides. If you are tentative about dropping the Big Nickle, a few rentals will help you narrow your interests. Also, top shops also employ very experienced people who have much wisdom in these things. However, none of those folks would have guided me to my Madone, so don’t take their word as gospel. Test various rides, get opinions of other riders, and let your imagination be your guide.
- Find the right setting. Doing it in high traffic areas is not generally satisfying, so find a place to ride where you feel safe and you can pay closer attention to the act of bicycling, to your body’s attempts to communicate its needs to you, and to your surroundings beyond finding the texting driver before he/she finds you.
- Pace yourself. Listen to your body’s attempts to determine what feels good. If your body says “go faster!”, do that. If after riding a half mile your body says “I’m pooped!”, give it a rest. If the inside of your legs feel tight, get off the bike and rest them and gently massage. Whether bicycling or lovemaking, pushing into some crazy performance ideal ruins the entire experience. Setting goals in either activity is certainly useful, but it isn’t the goal that determines the joy you will derive. It is the journey that will determine the quality of your experience, and it is the quality of the journey that will determine whether you want to embark on another.
- Pay attention to your attire. Just yesterday I was riding in 90 degree morning air, passing rider after miserable rider (all men) wearing their favorite cotton weekend t-shirt. They were red in the face, visibly sweating. Other riders (those clearly not dismayed by those who sneer at the “spandex crowd”) had prepared themselves with moisture-wicking, highly evaporative synthetic clothing, and were obviously comfy. Also, you are much more attached to your crotch than you think. Heavily padded riding shorts may feel odd, but if you are riding more than a couple blocks, they are well worth the effort and weirdness.
I once had someone say, “Oh, you’re one of them,” when she found out I was part of the spandex crowd of bicyclists. Yep, guilty as charged, and happy with my lot. 120 years ago people were clothed head to toe in cotton or wool from neck to ankle for both cycling and sex. Let us aspire to more modern expressions of attire in both. - Hydrate aggressively. This does not mean stop every half hour at a drinking fountain. This means drink when you are thirsty, and on a bike this will be every few minutes during a moderate workout. Not only do you sweat it out, you exhale a great deal of your body’s water. When your throat feels parched, you are dehydrated, and blood will not move to your extremities and muscles as effectively. If you are not secure about reaching for a water bottle from a rack in your frame (or if you’re vain about frame appearance like I am), invest in a backpack hydration system such as a bike-specific Camelbak. Narrow, as your back is part of your cooling system, so the more of your back that’s exposed the cooler you’ll stay. If you don’t hydrate sufficiently, you will cramp sooner, you will feel artificially fatigued, and your recovery period will be far longer.
- Focus on the moment. OK, this sounds kind of new-agey, but it’s for real. Your life is a collection of experiences, and as humans we seek to repeat those experiences that give us pleasure and we avoid those that don’t, despite our best “adult” intentions. If you think for half a second about addiction, you’ll get my drift. As you ride, stay in touch with how you feel, and give yourself permission to stop that which doesn’t feel good. Do not “push through the pain.” That’s high school football coach bs, and it is a very destructive orientation. Especially as you are beginning a conditioning regimen and you are learning how your body responds to exercise, experiment with periods of exertion and rest. While it feels good to exert, it also feels good to rest. Over time, your periods of exertion will grow and your rest periods will shrink, but it should all continue to feel good. In time you’ll find the balance of exertion & rest that works for you, and which feels good over an extended period.
- Check in with your doctor. This is particularly true if you have not exercised for decades, if you have other health issues that would be negatively impacted by sudden exertion, or if you’re at all nervous about beginning exercise. Older (and not-so-older) riders will feel a bit on the creaky side coming off a period of non-exercise, and there may be momentary aches and pains as you extend into ranges of motion unfamiliar to your body. Mostly those little annoyances will pass, but do respond to those that don’t with a little personal TLC.
Serendipitous moments June 22, 2010
Posted by Bill in Photography, Reflection.Tags: american river parkway, Photography
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Any photo shoot of a public place can get complicated when people don’t want their pictures taken. While photographers have the statutory right to collect images in public places, the pleasure of the shoot can be quickly undermined by bad blood and misunderstanding. To avoid that outcome, I generally attempt to get permission of subjects before they wind up in a photo.
Such permission I sought from this family, who by their excellent choice of picnic sites, wound up in the middle of one of the better angles on the Fair Oaks trestle bridge. 
When I approached them with my usual apologies, not only were they very okay being in the shot, they voiced concern that I might be in need of some of their chipotle barbecue chicken, it being the dinner hour, after all. I declined, but only because I was rapidly losing my low-angle sunlight and I had more photo stops to make on this stretch of the river. With shots taken, I was left much enriched by their warmth and hospitality. Not only did it make my day, I am reminded of their warmth each time I see this image.
On the other side of the balance was the shot I took of a fifty-ish white guy on his road bike as he approached on the bike path. As he passed, he muttered in as hostile a tone he could muster at 15 mph, “You don’t have my permission!” That’s cool, and it’s only remarkable because he stands alone in my memory of hundreds of shots taken for this project. In every other circumstance I was either waved to, smiled at, nodded to, or ignored. Mostly ignored. Frankly, he needn’t have worried, as I didn’t use any shots of obviously unhappy people. They don’t make for good photos for promoting bicycling, so while I didn’t need his permission to publish the shot of him, he did not receive my permission to pollute this blog or the State Fair photo exhibit with his unhappy mug. Ugly doesn’t sell. I may dig it out when I do a piece on “grumpy old men on bikes,” but until I do, his dour visage is safe from publication.
Too little time – June 12, 2010
Posted by Bill in Equipment, Photography.Tags: american river parkway, Photography, relationships
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My intention has been to regularly post the photography generated by the request from the kind people at the California State Fair for the benefit of the Pedaling to Adventure bicycle exhibit, and my blogging time has been overridden (pun intended) by the balance of life. My apologies to friends who have been looking for promised posts.
Quite apart from this photo assignment has been the infrastructure of my ride, the ways and means by which it can happen. Without the ride, there is no blog. As mentioned before, my wife has joined me in this interest such that our life includes the bicycle, in in a form that gives me enormous pleasure. She is the true foundation & rebar of my bicycle infrastructure.
Earlier posts have detailed the process of the ’08 Madone 6.9 coming into existence, with its debut last February. 
I built this thing up from parts acquired through a number of sources – see those posts – but the combining of parts alone, without the finesse of experience, does not let one of these lovely bikes sing. I have thrown together kids’ bikes from scrounged parts, and they worked fine. What I did not understand was that the tolerances of adjustments in bikes designed to go fast with little mass were well beyond the instincts of a newbie. A half degree on the angle of a derailleur hanger is critical. Whodathunk?
So meet Brendan:
Brendan, at City Bikes Citrus Heights
Brendan not only did the final tune and handle bar wrap for my Madone, when the bike turned up with an annoying tick coming from the rear wheel, he cheerfully rechecked the tune, finding (and repairing) a very slightly out-of-true hanger. This photo collection for the state fair could not be complete without due credit. I already have a link to City Bicycles on this blog, as they have brought me great pleasure and security that someone in this town knows what they’re doing with bikes, and does it cheerfully and with passion in what has to be a very competitive business. If you know City Bicycles, don’t feel you need to schlep into downtown Sac to get the job done. Go see Brendan in Citrus Heights, on Greenback just west of Sunrise.
Sunset at Sunrise May 7, 2010
Posted by Bill in Photography.Tags: american river parkway, Photography
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Whether you’re an Eppie’s Great Race’er or a bicyclist craving a break, the old footbridge next to the Sunrise bridge has been an attraction for a very long time.
Whether you’re under it or just passing over, the community has preserved this icon of the parkway for all of us.
While nearly all of these photos were taken from the American River Parkway bike trail, I’ll admit I had to hike a few feet away from it for this shot… the day was late, the angle of the light superb, and the water caught the light as only sunset riffles can…
William Pond Park April 29, 2010
Posted by Bill in Photography, Reflection.Tags: american river parkway, Photography
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Photography and bicycling. Applying one’s art to one’s love can be tricky and frustrating, I find, because the expectations rise so very high that one address the other with quality. While I’m usually pretty satisfied with my adequate photography, I don’t find automatic satisfaction here. The process has been very satisfying, but my assessment of the product finds it lacking.
William Pond Park is a centrally-located and attractive watering hole/rest stop/gathering place used by most regulars on the bike trail.
This couple obliged with a repeat of a performance they had enacted spontaneously just moments before:
This WAW recumbent is a work of art in itself… combat-ready: [do you ride it? drive it? fly it?]
The parkway bike trail; a good place for friends…
and yourself; you and two wheels…
Wildlife on the bike trail April 21, 2010
Posted by Bill in Photography, Reflection.Tags: american river parkway, Photography
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Biking on the American River Parkway is about more than escaping text-messaging drivers. Sacramento living can truly suck if you are limited to the 80/50 corridors, forever at the mercy of white pickup trucks and lowered Honda Civics pretending to be boom boxes on wheels. There is a thirty mile-long retreat waiting for you…
Two more images for you. The first of a critter I complained earlier would not hold still:
"I am invisible!"
Next is an image that, for the life of me, I just do not understand why I like so much. Is it the explosion of flowers to the crown? Is it the dashing red pigment? Something about it just reeks of vitality, so maybe that’s the GeezerWheel connection. At any rate, if you hurry down to the Parkway prior to our lovely 110 degree weather, you’ll be treated to sights like this one at the foot of the Howe Avenue bridge.
Sunrise on the Parkway April 12, 2010
Posted by Bill in Photography, Reflection.Tags: american river parkway, Photography
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These days, to get across the river to ride toward Folsom, one needs to navigate the Worm Hole Time Tunnel that is the Sunrise Bridge pedestrian walkway. It gets a little creepy when some fool stops mid-span to take pictures.
However, the rewards of making your way to the Lake Natoma side are yours for the peddling. Birds on the lake, it should be said, favor the north side nearest the bike trail and furthest from lake-level development on the south shore. Egrets and great blue heron nest in trees on the north side, and sights like these water-landing Canada geese are common:
Beyond the iPhone April 10, 2010
Posted by Bill in Photography, Reflection.Tags: american river parkway, Photography
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Photography for a cyclist on the American River Parkway bike trail is something of a love/hate experience. I’ve shot a fair percentage of those places I’ve called home over my life, and a much smaller percentage of those I haven’t. This blog, however, hasn’t been about photography. It’s been about riding, speed, conditioning, feelings about getting older, blah-de-blah. The pics have been there to keep your eyeballs and imaginations entertained.
It seems, though, that images on this blog have attracted the attention of the California State Fair, so I am motivated to shift the focus of this blog, for the coming months at any rate, to the visual end of things. I’ve been asked to contribute images of the views we cyclists take for granted as we travel the parkway for a cycling exhibition at the fair this July in Sacramento, so this is what you’ll be seeing here for a while. It’s hard work, I find. Putting miles under me with an occasional “oh wow!” at the scenery, whipping out the iPhone for a snap underway is not the same as photographing it. I’ve been retracing those miles, now stopping for a setup and shoot. Here’s one of my first scores:
This couple was gracious enough to let me record their blissful respite. They’ve been all over, traveling on two wheels to see those places in the world they need to see.
Encounters with great people like this are just part of what makes the parkway a special place for cyclists. If you’re too busy getting ready for a race or you’ve got time-cramped weight loss goals to reach to occasionally enjoy the other people on two wheels, don’t worry; there’s time. Or is there?
Camera work on the parkway is real work. At least it feels like work because my modus transportatus, my pleasure place, is interrupted by frequent photo setups. Having the question in my mind “Feel the stroke, pace the breath, hydrate, relax” replaced by “What views would be important to share here?” as I ride is a fantastically different experience. However, like all good work, the rewards are unexpected and surprisingly real.
The parkway holds wildly diverse rewards, and I use the word “wildly” with purpose. I discovered that jack rabbits and turkeys are none too fond of cyclists stopping, taking off a backpack, opening that backpack, removing a camera, and setting up for a shot. Sad, as they are frequent companions, along with the occasional coyote and rattlesnake. This dude, however, was more than willing to hang out within telephoto range as he went through his mating display:
This great blue heron joins the river otters, salmon, egrets, endless birds, deer, and (if I don’t mention them they’ll get me sure) the kamikaze squirrels that frequent the bike trail.
The above-mentioned turkey that wouldn’t hang around for my dismount & setup was, in fact, almost hit by a cyclist who had the good sense to slow to a crawl as the hen watched him approach from her vantage point, just off the pavement. She, of course, opted to cross directly into a collision course. His laugh scared her into the grass; a welcome outcome considering the alternative.
If you love the parkway as I do, watch this space. I’ll be adding shots over the coming weeks, with versions of them hopefully to be selected for display at the fair.
