Biking Kentucky

Biking Kentucky

Biking in Kentucky is something that at first did not come to my mind.  Then I went to visit a good friend of mine – someone I have known since I was 14!  Yes, indeed, it is great to have the ability to stay connected with your classmates from high school and be able to visit and spend time together…But enough of the touch and feely stuff – let’s get back to the topic…

I have always associated Kentucky with horses, horse races of course, and tons of beautiful farms with endless bluegrass covered meadows.  Well, since my visit earlier this week, I now know that this state also offers great opportunities for enjoying the rolling hills, horse farms, and yes, biking!

Kentucky Biking

 

Here are a bunch of photos I took during the week of Thanksgiving to help you see the opportunities to have some great rides – in this particular case in the Lexington area.

Kentucky Lexington Biking

Kentucky Horse Country biking road

Kentucky Lexington Biking

Just outside Lexington

Kentucky Lexington Biking

Lexington bike road view

Kentucky Lexington Biking

Near by Lexington Horse Farms

Kentucky Lexington Biking

Biking road – near Lexington

 

Gifts for Bike Enhusiasts

Gifts for Bike Enthusiasts

The holidays are approaching fast and with that the great time of shopping for gifts for the bike enthusiasts in your circle of friends.  Shopping can be fun – when you have a clear idea of what you want to find – i.e. what your friends and family would like.  Sometimes, though it is pretty stressful to come up with the right ideas so I decided to attempt a quick help list – with ideas that may resonate with you.

The list I have in mind is comprised of tools, bike gloves, bike helmet, bike bottle and bottle cages, may be even some shoes and apparel…and if you really know the person you want to buy the gift for – may be even some bike suggestions.

How did I come up with the ideas – mostly through my personal experience of what I would like to get and use when on the bike trail…. Your desires may be different, hence ignore my list if it does not match your expectations.   Please give me some feedback via the comments page – I would like to hear what are your ideas…

Here we go with the list:

  1. Bottle cage:  This is always useful on those long bike rides.  I often ignore the water bottle and always feel that I made a mistake when I do that.  So having a good lightweight, easy to get the bottle in and out cage is a good addition to your bike.  Here are some links to products you can find easily on Amazon….  and here is a link to an interesting product from King Cage
  2. Tools for quick access to adjustments on your bike.   I always carry some patches for my inner tubes and it is good to have also some allen wrenches and quick bike tools.  Here are some options – again easy to purchase&nbsp and another one  The Fix It Sticks are a very versatile toolset that is both very helpful on the trail as well as one that stores and mounts easily on your bike.  The tool attaches in a mount that fits under the bottle cage on your bike so it is conveniently located and out of the way during your ride.  The tool is comprised of two lightweight sticks that combine into a T-handle Tool for ease of use and leverage. There are six variations of the Original Fix It Sticks: Standard Set A, Standard Set B, Roadie Set A, Roadie Set B, Mountain Set, and SRAM Set. Each set comes with four permanently installed bits.  Check out the FixItSticks Web site for more info
  3. Bike Helmet – Yes! you do need one.  Speaking from personal experience, having taken a spill multiple times over the years of riding, the helmet is absolutely important.  It could save you a lot of headaches – literally!   You could spend a lot or less but by all means you must have a helmet.  Here are some options to consider – starting with the tried and true Giro and then going into a platform –  Lazersport which actually offers a helmet that can be integrated with a bunch of different accessories:  

                                   Enjoy your shopping!

 

Even Argus Has Issues Though

Argus Has Issues

I have been using and reporting on various biking software / Smart Phone Apps to record my exercise and measure various vital statistics while riding my mountain bike.

My bike itself has been outfitted with several brackets / attachment modules so I can install both specific sets of iPhone cases with my iPhone 6 Plus as well as more generic ones.

On top of the iPhone then I run different apps to track my activity.  Argus is one of them I just reviewed and was pretty happy with as a exercise tracking aspect of it but now have discovered a bit of annoying feature / capabilities.

Argus mountain bike and other exercise traker

The Annoying Feature…! I just exercised and am being reminded nevertheless

The image above shows the front screen of my iPhone (not the only time you see the notifications) – and according to it I need to go workout – e.g. ride my bike.  One problem though – I just returned from a bike ride using the Argus SW for tracking my bike ride….So you would think that the Application designer would consider that and update the clock being used for the reminders….Go figure!!!