Keep Riding
- Written by: Greg Sushinsky
Keep riding. That’s the thing to do if you’re a cyclist during this coronavirus pandemic. Keep riding. If you can. If you have a bike and a place to ride and you’ve been riding, you should keep on doing it. For your health. For your fitness. For your sanity.
These are difficult times for us all, but if you’ve been a cyclist prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus, you can still be one now. There’s no reason to stop. You need a bike and a safe place to ride. You also need the permission of your local or state government. Check with them or their website. In most places, riding along the streets or dedicated bike paths or in parks or in your neighborhood is still allowed.
In Troubled Times
- Written by: Greg Sushinsky
These are difficult times for everyone around the world as we face what was once an unknown enemy, the novel Coronavirus Covid-19. Now well known and in full bloom, the virus has attacked people all around the globe, as we have watched the virus wreaking havoc with health everywhere. No one seems to be beyond its reach.
The media is filled with reports 24/7 with harrowing details of how the illness has spread to just about every city and town in our country and most of the world. It’s easy to get caught up in a litany of panic or despair as we watch one discouraging report after another.
Love Your Turbo
- Written by: Greg Sushinsky
Graeme Obree said it was the first piece of equipment he’d rescue from a fire. He was talking about his turbo, his stationary trainer.
Why, you ask, would he feel that way about a fairly simple mechanical bike stand, a piece of cycling equipment that is often overlooked, considered outmoded, or outright hated by riders?
Obree feels the turbo is the key to cycling improvement. Vast improvement.
What Obree is talking about is setting your bike up as your static turbo trainer on a stationary stand and pedaling to nowhere. Nowhere, except in his case, to the World Hour Record.
One Cog Up
- Written by: Greg Sushinsky
It was early in the season when I saw my friend Jim, who was just finishing his ride as I was about to start mine. I hadn’t seen him in awhile and always looked forward to talking with him. He’s an accomplished, serious rider as well as an engineer who built up his own titanium bike. More than that he’s a really sharp and witty guy. He always has something insightful to say about riding or fellow riders.
But he’d had a serious health problem which I immediately asked him about. I was glad to find out he was recovering well. Jim was more excited about getting back to riding, though, and said, “It’s going good, I’m getting better. I’m one cog up.”
A Passion to Ride, A Passion to Race
- Written by: Greg Sushinsky
You head out on your Surly Pacer as the dappled sunlight glints off its shiny steel frame. You leave a day of work and those cares behind you as you pedal. Your body, slightly stiff from a day of holding itself up in office chairs while you hunched over a keyboard, begins to feel both looser and alive as you pedal. It’s remarkable, you think, how your body remembers how to do this and how good it feels.
Maybe you are riding a Diamondback hardtail instead, and the sun isn’t so much your friend as the bumpy trail is, which you meet wheels down and biting into the dirt. You ride with a can’t-help-yourself grin as you go bounding into the woods. Work? A distant memory. Cares? What cares? You’re on your bike. You’re riding.
We Ride With the Cicadas
- Written by: Greg Sushinsky
As you pedal through the heart of the town and head out of Oberlin, you’re immediately hit with a din, something between a buzzing and chirping, a crackling that grows louder and louder. At first I thought it was buzzing electricity, transmission from the municipal power plant as I rode past that. As soon as I came upon a cluster of trees, however, I knew I was riding in the middle of a concert. It was the cicadas.
High Effort, Under-Distance Pays Off
- Written by: Greg Sushinsky
This article originally appeared on Clarence Bass' "Ripped" website:
The passion continues.
Last year (2015) I entered 19 races—16 time trials and three road races. I grabbed three second place finishes and got my first of three wins, all in time trials.
I set a personal best in a 5K time trial of 8:59, which is an average speed of 20.8 mph. Only a couple years ago I raced this same distance at 10:33. For the approximately 20K time trials I got my average speeds up to around 20.4 mph. The elite riders are faster than this, but in a couple of years I’ve progressed from an average speed of over 17 mph. So I’m getting faster and I’m still having fun. Or having more fun.
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