There I was at  Shawnee Mission Lake luxuriating in the beauty, the speed and the accomplishment of getting here.  I rested.  I continued around the lake and started up the hill on the other side of the lake.   Oh my.  This is awful.  This little hill just keeps on going, up and up and up.  This was in the time before communication other than a phone at home attached to a wall plug in. I was trapped in the park.  I peddled.  I got off and walked.  I peddled.…

I was living in Johnson County, Kansas in the city of Lenexa.  This was the early 90's.  My golf obsession had ended and my body was getting thicker, maybe wider would be a better term. Something about a bike caught my attention.  Something about a weight loss exercise program using a bike!  I need a thinner body.  The answer just  might  be a bike! I have stored in my garage, a stylish three speed English bike from my college days, a mere thirty year old or so bike.  Three speed…

The first and biggest bike ride is RAGBRAI! RAGBRAI, The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, is an annual seven-day bicycle ride across the state.  RAGBRAI is the oldest, largest and longest bicycle touring event in the world. In the beginning, no one imagined that RAGBRAI would become the Iowa tradition it is now.  We at The Des Moines Register thank all the riders who have joined us over the years.  We especially wish to thank the thousands and thousands of volunteers in the towns we’ve visited along the way for their…

Kansas City has a huge bike charity event called the MS 150. MS 150 stands for "ride a 150 miles over a September weekend and raise money for Muscular Dystrophy".  The people who volunteer for this event are legion wide.  There are practice bike rides throughout the summer to help you get prepared to ride the MS 150.   Often times the rides have their own T-shirts so you start collecting some mighty fine T shirts to show the miles you have ridden. There are MS 150 rides in different…

Bike clothes deserve an entire chapter along with bike seats.  Let's talk about clothes first. Bike pants are tight and they are foam-lined where the seat hits the road...so to speak.  Bike pant color comes in black.  Summer bike pants go down to the knees and have elastic to make certain they don't ride up.  It's important that bike pants stay exactly where they need to be and provide some cushion.  I had to find bike pants that would fit my immense body.  The link that you see here shows…