A Cat 2 Climb...

Well, when my wife put our mini tour ( home to Tehachapi and back) on mapmyride we discovered that we will get to enjoy a 5.77 mile long Category 2 climb as we head into Tehachapi from the south east side of the mountains... Now, I haven't voluntarily ridden/climbed a Cat2 since my roadie/MTB days, so, today we are doing the route via automobile and making an 'outing' out of it. Should be fun, and umm, exciting, to drive the route and experience the grade from the car while visualizing spinning up it with trailer in tow - yep, a dog trailer. Hmmm, definitely gonna have to have our touring legs for this outing next year!! I'll have pics to post after we do the car trip to show the climb, if the pics come out!

The Excitement Builds!!

Well, I just passed another one of those birthday milestones "yay"... more importantly, I have made my clear choice on the trike that will carry me through rehab and beyond... This badboy will be my ride and the nice folks at http://www.utahtrikes.com/ will be the online store of choice for my purchase of said machine!

As far as cycling goes, the pain while riding my KHS TR 101 is borderline unbearable. I cannot wait for the proverbial dollars to be in the bank so I can order my new ride. Wanda has been having fun on http://www.mapmyride.com/ plotting out both training rides out here and our first 'mini-tour' to Tehachapi that hopefully will take place this time next year - provided all my surgeries have been completed and my rehab is going well. We are blessed with having a whole lot of roads out here in the desert to ride on, not too difficult to acrue mileage without going too far out of the way...a lot of loops out in the boonies - lol!

Some Not Really New, News...

Well, here it is April and I have an update on my Workers Comp case. I went to my AME (Agreed Medical Evaluator) this morning and he is moving my case forward to get my benefits back and get my elbows/wrists fixed. This is good news! My previous PTP (Primary Treating Physician) stopped his treatment of me without actually doing anything and thus my benefits were cut off back in December. So funding our existence has been interesting at best since I haven't had an actual pay check since Nov '10.

Our touring plans are still on, and we are still looking to see which 'trike will be the one for me...I can't wait to get back out spinning - saw Stage 4 of 'Tour of the Basque Country' on Universal Sports today...man, made me wish I was out there. Oh well, all in due time. Once we know my surgery schedule and figure out the finances we will be able to look real hard at a 'trike. I'll keep ya posted!

Home Time

Well, it is official - I am now on TTD (Temporary Total Disability) with my Worker's Compensation (WC) case. My employer let me work on modified duty for 92 days then pulled the plug on that and sent me home. Man, now the stress really kicks in. For those of you unfamiliar with WC, here in CA it is a big pay cut when you go on the biweekly benefits - although they would have you believe it should be close to the same as your normal check because the benefit $$ are 2/3 of your weekly average gross for the past 52 weeks, and untaxed - it rarely is. So, we won't find out how thrifty we will have to be until the first check. This could go on for a maximum 104 weeks, my case is going through the appeal system - it was denied - so, I've been waiting since July to get my elbows/wrists fixed.

 The cool thing is, not being able to pedal is making me very hungry to get back out there, regardless of how far into the future it is!!

Made The Decision On A Trike!!

Yep, gonna pull the trigger probably next week  on this bad boy.  Not the Catrike, no. I have been doing reading and reading and have decided that the overall impressions of current owners and others, that this T1A will be just fine. It cost about 60% less than the Catrike Expedition, but has all of the same features. Some minor upgrades are required, but they will not amount to a substantial amount of money; so, the T1A is it! Very excited about the trike and completely scared to death about my impending surgery-yeah, I know. Honestly, having the ability to ride without pain while I am rehabbing/recuperating will be a big boost to my mental health, so, it has to be done, for my own sanity. I have posted on several forums about one handed steering on the trike and all the input is favorable, I won't really know if the motion of steering will hurt my still bad elbow, until I get the trike home and try it. Hopefully, it will be all good. I'll post when I order and when I get it back from Chuck at Gil's.

There May Be A Third Wheel In Our Future...

Wanda and I have been deeply discussing my upcoming elbow surgeries (yep, plural, I have Cubital Tunnel Syndrome in both) and have realized that in order to keep riding, which we love so much, I am going to need to switch to a recumbent trike. I had never even considered a recumbent - being basically a "roadie" from back in the day, 'bents' were an oddity, not a real bike as it were; well at least that was my mentality back then. So, we are looking at trikes and are learning about them. One thing we have learned is that I will need to ride one with Under Seat Steering (USS). USS has the controls that keeps your hands low and there is very little to no pressure on the elbows; at least not the immense pressure that you get when on an upright bike - kind of important for me. There are also two types of steering we are learning - direct and linkage. As in most things, the type of steering is a personal preference, I like what I have read about linkage so we have narrowed our search to one model, for the most part. Here is the one we really like. We have looked and looked and Catrike seems to make a very well respected product, and it is strong enough to be used for touring which is our primary goal. I am busy reading journals from folks that have been touring on trikes and it is very exciting, I wish I had my trike and we were gearing up to head out on our first overnight! Can't wait for that day to get here!!

After A Brief "Life Interlude", We Are Back!

Yep, life took a hold of us and we had some pressing things to get done, but, the good news is we are getting back in the saddles!! We finally got the much needed software (ImageMixer 3) that our Hitachi camcorder needs to download the video, so, my much anticipated fun of doing a video blog is closer than ever! This weekend I plan on working on our current dog trailer to make it more suitable for the heat out here, hopefully we will take Pepper out on Monday and I can share the video (knock on wood). I have to put the home made frame hitch back on my MotoCruiser - it didn't quite work out on the TR 101; plus the MC has the camera mount I made. Speaking of the TR 101- I love the bike, I truly do! It is everything I had hoped it would be, and it pulls a loaded trailer really, really well. We are still exploring the lighting dilemma; we haven't really come up with which system we want to use... I really want us to to do some twilight/dusk to dark rides (the cool times out here) , but I will be just as happy if we start early morning twilight/sunrise rides (equally as cool). We shall see.