biking

Thanks to All My MS 150 Donors; Please Give NOW to My Texas Mamma Jamma Ride to Treat Breast Cancer Survivors!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 1 Comment
MS150 progress final
My final tally from the BP MS 150 ride from Houston to Austin – 202 miles in 2 days!

We Raised $2,167 for MS Treatment and Research!

A Dude Abikes would like to give his whole-hearted thanks to the following for their magnificent donations, large, medium or small.  It’s the act of giving as much as the actual amount that made my supreme effort of 202 miles in two days on the bike back on April 29-30 have any meaning.  With the 9,000+ other riders, we raised over $13,000,000 for the cause:  for the  National MS Society to treat people with Multiple Sclerosis and drive research into better treatments and someday, a cure.  Here are the beautiful souls:

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202 Miles in 2 Days: How I Bicycled from Houston to Austin & Raised $2,000 for MS

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 15 Comments

The short answer is this:  I don’t know.  That’s the first thing that comes to mind a month after my personal best on a bike.  It was definitely a peak life experience.  But it sometimes seems like I imagined the whole thing.  I mean, who does that distance in a car or motorcycle on an average weekend, much less on a friggin’ bicycle?  There was wind, heat, hills on day one, and wind, cold, rain, and hills on day two — repeat riders say it was the hardest in a decade.  There were 9,000 other people out there (I never claimed to be special.)  Yet there are GPS maps proving I did it, and well, Strava doesn’t lie.  So when I think back to the entire experience – the rolling community of all kinds of people with all kinds of bodies on all kinds of bikes, the lush, rolling, green countryside, and of course, the sweaty, serene and sometimes serious suffering – it seems surreal.  But I definitely, most certainly, indubitably did it.  I have witnesses.  Here’s how I did it.  And many of you can too.

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Why I’m Biking the MS 150 from Houston to Austin: Multiple Sclerosis Treatment & Research (P.S. SHOW ME THE MONEY!)

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 3 Comments

*** To skip right to my donation page, click on this link:

       http://Main.NationalMSSociety.org/GoTo/ADudeAbikes

Make The Miles Meaningful, Man

Previous readers (but old and new are all welcome) know that in 2016 I biked 5,306 miles, which was nothing short of incredible, especially to me.  That’s because I’m not a young, thin, professional cyclist.  (Or use PED’s [performance enhancing drugs], although I do take my share of vitamins and supplements to get me through the rides.)  But more than a few people say I’ve inspired them.  Like my good buddy from high school Jeff, who’s no slouch and climbs rocks, plus donates money.   There’s a guy on Strava in Florida I’ve never met.  My dear lunkhead brother said he began walking more on account of all my bicycling.  Co-workers, friends, family, and strangers on line in the grocery store have in various ways said my efforts were, well, to paraphrase my fellow Jewish brohim Adam Sandler’s The Hanukah Song — “not too shabby”.  So when I decided to retire from long-distance cycling, especially the charity fundraising rides, I thought I would go back to my car-free life and do more walking, swimming and weight-lifting.  No more 10 hours a week getting my 100 miles. Not having to ask for money.

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New Jersey for the MS 150

But then Bill (there’s always a Bill in these sort of stories, isn’t there?), an inline skate marathoner (!), fellow bike rider and nice guy who helped me get through a tough patch in the Mamma Jamma Breast Cancer Ride in 2015 and then donated to both my AIDS rides, said he couldn’t do the MS 150, but if I did, he would donate.  Then I won the new bike (see my previous blog post), the weather got warmer, I found myself riding more, so I said yes:  I would bike from Houston to Austin April 29th and 30th to inspire people to donate to help sufferers of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) with treatment and research for a cure.

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The Fairdale Weekender Archer: A Review of My New Bicycle I Won in a Raffle!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 22 Comments


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Strava

A Dude Abikes on Strava

Fortune Favors the Bold

This super-exciting event started with a routine administrative procedure.  Last November I renewed my membership to Austin’s biggest advocacy and educational bicycle organization, Bike Austin.  A merger of the former League of Bicycling Voters and Austin Cycling Association, BA came to my attention due to a past landlord (who shall remain nameless and faceless, at least until I can unearth a photo he okays).  I finally joined, began volunteering, entered a raffle and voila!  I won a BRAND… NEW… BIKE! Continue reading →

12 Years (NOT) a Slave to Cars

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

One year ago I wrote about my anniversary of not owning a car when my car was hit on January 25, 2005.  So now it’s another year, and I suppose A Dude Abikes is a little bit proud about that accomplishment.  In last year’s post, I referenced Trump’s hair, Star Wars, real war, the environment, love and of course, bicycling.  Well, what a year it’s been!  Yes, the nightmare of a proto-fascist becoming president has come true.  But so has resistance come alive; A Dude Abikes attended the March on Austin with 50,000 friends, where he experienced a great deal of hope.  We’ve had another Star Wars movie, Rogue One, which if you think about it was about suicide bombers.  War in Syria and other places, probably some love somewhere, the hottest year on record, threats to re-open pipelines, etc. ad nauseam.  But most interesting to me, the biking.  So much biking.  ALL THE BIKING!  Did I mention I biked 5,306 miles in 2016?  I’m STILL sore!

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A Dude Abikes attended the March on Austin with up to 50,000 people, including that guy with his bike in the photo

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1,096 Days (3 Years) of Daily Yoga Practice 12/6/16:  Boy Is My Assana Tired!

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Biking and Yoga:  Two Complementary Practices

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A Dude Abikes, before yoga class bliss.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Today I have completed my third year of daily yoga.  Technically I began on 12/4/06, but I missed two days right before Christmas for a medical thing, so I count 12/6/13 as my yogaversary.  Purists would say my uninterrupted consecutive practice began on 12/25/13.  However you count it, it’s a heckuva lotta downward-facing dogs, which is something worth celebrating and announcing to the infinitesimal corner of the internet in which A Dude Abikes inhabits.

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After 104 Miles, 50 Are a Walk in the Park

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

Lois:  Have you designed any buildings in New York?

George Costanza:  Have you seen the new addition to the Guggenheim?

Lois:  You did that?

George Costanza: Yep. And it didn’t take very long either.

                                — Seinfeld, “The Race”

After last month’s personal best of 104 miles in one day, it turns out that going on a 50-mile social ride isn’t that exciting to do or write about.  The century ride took 10 hours, and it took a lot out of me at all levels.   I expected fatigue and a bit of a let-down emotionally, so I was glad for the break.  After two days completely off the bike both before and three days off after that 130-mile week, including the Hill Country Ride for AIDS, I still put together a decent 105 miles the next week, including the 50-miler.

This was with the Bike Austin group that rides on Sundays from The Peddler, and it was notable for four reasons: Continue reading →

My First Century: 104 Miles Biked for AIDS Charities

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

Friday, April 29, 2016, 10:16 am – The Day Before

It’s less than 24 hours to the biggest bicycle ride of my life, and A Dude Abikes is rushing around in order to relax. I’m getting a massage and reflexology treatment with my friend Richard. First I have to go to work to borrow a car; I’m not biking the day before, especially in the rain. Later, after the painfully pleasant massage, mostly on my legs, Richard offers to discount the rest of his fee if I’ll pick up a used recliner at a second-hand store. The lure of easy money is irresistible, plus I like to help. With the savings I pick up two necessities at a bike shop on the way — a rain jacket for the downpour forecast for the morning, and sunproof arm sleeves for the hot and sunny afternoon predicted to follow. But being stuck in Austin traffic stresses me out, and undoes alot of the relaxation. Whatever, my legs feel great, like heavy weights have been lifted from them.  Little did I know how important the session would be for my lesgs, tight from 1,600 miles of training since January.  Something major is coming.

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The Wheel of Life: Biking with the Ghosts of AIDS

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 6 Comments

To donate to my Hill Country Ride for AIDS effort on April 30th, please email me at <ADudeAbikes AT gmail >

The Wheel of Life

It’s early morning on a cloudy Sunday in the Hill Country town of Dripping Springs, Texas.  Fifty cyclists trickle into the empty school parking lot slowly, as if arriving at a wake.  They spill out of Subarus and Priuses (Prii, my high school Latin teacher’s voice echoes from the past), weird clowns in brightly colored costumes, but tight and made of Spandex, shoes not floppy, clicking on the ground.  Aliens looking down would be perplexed by this bizarre parade.  Their faces still show signs of sleep, coffee tumblers clutched closely in hands that would soon be covered in fingerless gloves.  There was banter and hugging friends, and talk about the chance of rain, while mentally they were each preparing themselves for 22 or 44 miles of relentless pedaling up and down country roads.

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The Hill Country Ride for AIDS “Joy Ride”, they call their training outings.  But underneath the frivolity and anticipation of just another weekend sporting event being replicated around the world, an air of solemnity hung over this group.  Despite my staunch atheism I can’t help but shake an eerie feeling.  It’s as if the ghosts of people lost to that damn fucking virus — so many lives lost, and still without a cure — are also gathered in that parking lot with us.  Brothers, sisters, lovers, husbands, wives, partners, mothers, sons and daughters.  They were there, watching and waiting, their energy drawn to the event, simply by virtue of being remembered.  I imagine a silently cheer emanates from the ghosts of HIV victims past, urging the living riders to go on in their names. Continue reading →

T.I.T.S.! Lots and Lots of T.I.T.S.!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

Time.  In.  The.  Saddle.  What did you think it meant?  A doctor who bikes told me this, so it’s okay.  And he’s right.  Spending alot of time sitting on a bike seat, legs spinning out the miles while time goes by, is what one needs to do to feel comfortable on long bike rides.  A Dude enjoys alot of T.I.T.S, going 10-miles an hour average with stops as he does.

So Tuesday night, feeling tired, not having a riding buddy, but knowing it would rain the next day, and as Monday was mostly a rest day, I suited up and got back in the saddle.  Because that’s what A Dude does, even when he doesn’t particularly feel like it.  Instead of puttin’ on the ritz, he’s puttin’ in the T.I.T.S.  Here’s my 33.5-mile ride results on Strava.

It was a chilly night, but eventually I had to remove my hat with nose and mouth cover, outer gloves, and unzip jacket and jersey.  I had a fun thought and did a fly by of the residences of one riding partner and then the place of another friend.  Strava isn’t 100% accurate, but it shows I was there, for sure.  But I didn’t stop, because that would mean less T.I.T.S.  Still, good times.

Winding my way back north from nearly to the Austin airport, I found myself on my old friend, the Southern Walnut Creek Trail.  Riding it at night is fun, now that I know the way well, plus with my super-bright rechargeable Serfas Thunderbolt lights that I lucked upon at the Bike Farm and a freebie orange and yellow safety vest I got lucky and got for free at the Yellow Bike Project, I feel alot more comfortable.  (How’s that for name-dropping?)  Saw a cottontail rabbit who almost ran in front of me, and then nearly hit a possum.  The three wild boar I saw previously were not there.  Five guys having a party were the only humans I passed.

Time is short and A Dude is tired, so I’ll say that at one point I heard coyotes.  People in cars yielded the right of way.  My knees hurt.  So did other things I won’t go into.  Nothing happened, and yet everything happened:  life, going by quickly.  I had seen my friend’s riding on Strava, so I set out with a goal to bike more than my riding buddy did.  The rain only fell in sprinkles, and I did not fall off the bicycle, get hit by a car, or receive a ticket.  I simply put in the time in the Saddle, and that is it’s own reward.

Of course having the ability to spend hours biking and thinking of something else is a bit of a luxury.  But one with blood, swear and tears, too.  More to come but I welcome your invitation.  Keep on reading, and I’ll keep on writing.

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Thanks! A Dude Abikes

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