Well, illegal to sell, anyway.

A bill has been introduced in New Jersey to prohibit the sale of bicycles that use wheel diameters of 20″ and have quick release levers.

According to the legislation, over 100 cases of injured and disfigured New Jersey youths have been attributed to the absolute horror that is the quick release!

Unfortunately, lots of recumbents use 20 inch wheels (or, rather, 451 and 406mm wheels) with quick releases since it means not having to carry a wrench to change flats.

It’ll be interesting to see how recumbent sellers in the Garden State deal with this if it becomes law.

http://www.guidehorse.org/sneakers_horses.htm

I don’t know what to make of this.

About three times a week, I do an 8.5 mile round trip from Pine Hall Road to West Aaron Drive during my lunch hour. The route I take goes through Tudek Park in both directions so that I can enjoy throwing my rear wheel around the sharp corners of the gravel Tudek paths.

There was a bit of a field trip at the park today, and it just so happened that I really had to stop to use the bathroom.

Four different kids ended up on my trike (per my permission) and a whole crowd of them came over to gawk and ask questions. One asked me why I rode a trike instead of a regular bike. There were two answers. The first was, “Because everybody else rides those kinds of bikes. I wanted to ride something different.” It was an honest answer. The other answer was, “Because I can ride this for hours and miles and it doesn’t hurt my butt.”

It wasn’t long before I got the dreaded “How much does this cost?” question. When I revealed the answer, one little girl dropped her jaw and said, “How can you afford that?” “I have a job.”

Eventually, I really did have to use the bathroom, so I appointed one child to guard the trike while I used the facilities. After my rest break, back on the trike I went to complete the apex of my route.

All the kids thought the trike was cool, and a couple said they’d like to have one, but the price point really is the kicker. Recumbents are just too expensive, especially considering that most kids will grow out of them quickly.

Speeder Trav
Originally uploaded by ratsinis.

I’ve recently learned that the glory of a three day weekend is to provide one with three days during which to ride. Gareth and I mounted his bike no fewer than three times while I did some short solo triking once.

Incredibly, Brandy joined us for one of our rides. She took the trike while Gareth and I went tandem. This is incredible because Brandy never really learned how to ride a bicycle past the training wheel phase. The trike is basically like having training wheels all the time, so she gave it a go and found she enjoyed it.

I did my first semi-extended street riding with the trike last night, taking it along College Ave and Harrison Rd in Pleasant Gap. Nearly everyone gave wide berth while passing, but the 18-wheeler that rumbled through town wasn’t as considerate. Oh, and whoever designed the sidewalk on South Main St needs to be shot. The angle at which driveway entrances are cut makes biking on that walkway severely painful. Same goes for pushing a wheelchair on it. After about three driveways, I ditched it for the shoulderless road.

Oh hey, while I’m here… If you haven’t seen it already, be sure to stop by this site to grab plans for building paper models of Star Wars and Star Trek craft. Quite cool, but I’d never have the patience to actually build them.

A photo at arrrrrrrm’s length
Originally uploaded by ratsinis.

Laz and I are in Orlando for the week attending the Star East software quality conference.

The conference is going really well. I’m learning lots of great new stuff.

But it ends at 5PM. After that, we must amuse ourselves. Monday night was a group dinner with the other folks that came from Minitab (there are six of us). At the end of the night, Alex and I suggested we hit up Pirate’s Dinner Adventure for the next night. Everyone agreed, so I booked the reservations. Then, come Tuesday night, everybody bailed! This left Laz and I to go get our pirate on.

Photo pretty much says it all.

Tomorrow night is Sea World. No plans yet for Thursday, but Friday is going to be a trip to MGM Studios for a Star Wars geek out.

Laz has made it his mission to visit as many mini-golf places as possible while in town.

Okay, really… how hard can this be… I’m trying to find a wide brimmed hat that has a neck drape on the back for protecting the neck from sun exposure. I’ve found a few online, but I’d really like to purchase it locally so I can try it on.

Does anybody know where in State College I can buy something like this:

I haven’t had a chance yet to try Appalachian Outdoors, but I have tried Target, Wal-Mart, Dick’s, Tussey Mountain Outfitters, and a few shops at le Mall.

The reason I want one is that Laz and I are going to canoe about 30 miles of the Susquehanna soon. That’s a lot of time in the sun, so I’d like to have a little backup protection beyond the sunscreen.

Speaking of Laz, he and I are going to go see Hot Fuzz at the College 9 tonight at 7:30. Feel free to show up.

Where I Been
Originally uploaded by ratsinis.

I hit up Bald Eagle State Park on Sunday with the goal of doing about two hours of triking and two hours of kayaking.

But then I decided to take my Catrike Trail off-road for a bit. Bad idea. Everything was going fine until I ended up stuck in a lot of very wet mud. By the time I had the trike out and had carried it beyond the few hundred feet of muddy trail, I realized I wouldn’t have enough time to get home and wash off the trike before dinner.

So… I nixed the kayaking and just did one more ride around the park in the trike.

One of these days, I’d love to try getting from my house to Minitab on it, but I’m still quite afraid of the traffic habits of R26 drivers. I just don’t trust them to notice my day-glo flag and flashing tail light.

And now, through the magic of Google Maps, my trail ride.

Ooooooooo! Ahhhhhhhhhh!

Since my last entry, I’ve dumped my 2005 Ford Focus and picked up an ‘06 Honda Element. It’s an awesome vehicle for what I enjoy doing these days. It’s always handy when an auto can haul my trike, Gare’s tandem, and my kayak all at once (not that we would ever be transporting more than two of those items at the same time).

Just got back from Baltimore last night where I was attending some really horrible Vista training. The upside was that I got a chance to take my trike out on the Gwynns Falls Trail. Not a bad ride at all and only slightly more bumpy than driving the Element over potholes. I didn’t get as much of a ride in as I would have liked, but the sun was starting to set, and the parks closed at dusk.

My kayak is now out of winter storage (which consists of it having been wrapped in a tarp for six months). Now I need to get a launch permit for ‘07-’09. Should only be about $18. The only painful part is leaving work early enough to get it somewhere that does boat registration. Can’t wait to get back out on the water.

Wednesday, 10AM - I go to my trainer session, do 10 minutes on the elliptical, then follow that with my usual workout of squats, push-ups, torso rotations, et cetera. Only this time, I become so dizzy that I can barely sit upright and my lips start to tingle like they’ve fallen asleep.

11AM - Brandy arrives at Minitab to take me to a doctor.

12PM - Ate lunch since my doctor appointment couldn’t be scheduled until 3:10.

1PM - Attended an appointment that Brandy already had scheduled with her doctor.

2:30PM - Go to State College Ford to pick up my car which was in the shop for the second time for the same problem they fixed two weeks ago.

2:40PM - Get pulled over in Lemont driving 42.6MPH in a 25MPH zone. Pull into the parking lot of the Lemont House to get my ticket. Officer asks me to move my car in a bit more. Find that the car will not start (problem that was supposedly fixed).

3:20PM - $150 ticket. Car starts again. Call off the tow truck driver. Have Brandy follow me back to the dealership to drop it off for the third time.

3:40PM - Missed my doctor appointment. Don’t have a car. Canceled my workout for Thursday.

Thursday was a little better, as I got to see Grindhouse. But the day was filled with people asking me what my doctor said and chastising me for not seeing him. Then I came home to find out that we’re in a whole new tax bracket now and owe at least $1,500 on our taxes.

Now the only thing I have to look forward to is the new Aquateen movie. If the weather gods comply, maybe a tandem ride will be in order for Saturday.