Active Triangle

REI Outdoor School: Full Moon Hike

A couple weeks ago, my wife signed us up for a Full Moon Hike through the local REI. We’ve been doing a lot of hiking, so this sounded like a lot of fun.

The hike was scheduled for 7PM on Wednesday (the night before Thanksgiving) at the Triangle Land Conservancy Horton Grove land preserve. We arrived a little early and met up with Casey the REI instructor. The rest of the folks that signed up for the class arrived on time and we were off after signing the paperwork from REI and Triangle Land Conservancy.
Continue reading “REI Outdoor School: Full Moon Hike” →

November 30, 2015 0

Riding Defensively on the MUP #2

We’ve been riding most nights on the Capital Area Greenway (or Multi Use Path, MUP) and we’ve been having a fantastic time. In the first post of this series I mentioned buying some bike lights so we could be better seen by any folks that may be illegally using the pathway with motorized vehicles. We have the lights now, but that’s not the only thing we’re doing to ride defensively on the MUP.

There’s one portion of the trail that we find ourselves going through frequently that always seems to have some shady characters hanging out on the trail. Today in particular, there were a couple guys walking along the trail, one carrying a stick. We came up behind them, and I rang my bell, they moved to the left, and we passed without issue. Continue reading “Riding Defensively on the MUP #2” →

November 18, 2015 0

It’s all in the Saddle

Since picking up the Fuji Sportif 1.5 almost a month ago, I’ve been having all sorts of trouble with the saddle that came with it. The bike came with an Oval saddle that is very long and narrow. I figured I’d just need to get used to it after not having ridden a bike in several years, but things kept getting worse and worse. Continue reading “It’s all in the Saddle” →

November 18, 2015 0

Here’s to you, Mr. Cruises the Greenway on a Singlespeed FatBike Guy

Twice now I’ve passed this guy cruising the greenway path on his singlespeed fatbike. The guy’s been whirring along with his big knobby tires looking like he’s having a blast. The first time I saw him, I assumed he was using the greenway path to get to some sweet urban singletrack that I don’t know about, but then a few days later I saw him again 10 miles north of where I saw him the first time.

Here’s to you fatbike guy, you’re awesome. Fatbikes are cool.

November 13, 2015 1

Texting While Cycling

Holy crap, I didn’t even know this was a thing, but apparently it is.

Yesterday we were able to get on the Neuse River Trail early at Poole Road, and we had a fantastic 20 mile ride, **except for the last 100 feet.**

Continue reading “Texting While Cycling” →

November 12, 2015 0

Disk Brake Road Bikes

When I picked up my new bike a few weeks ago, I found out that disk brake road bikes have become a thing since I gave up cycling 7 years ago.

My first thought upon seeing this was that it’s awesome. Of course, when I went online to do some research, I found that this is a subject just as controversial as what the best chain lube is.

Anyways, we’ve been out riding quite a bit over the past few weeks and I think I’ve come to a conclusion on the subject: disk brakes are freaking awesome on a road bike. Continue reading “Disk Brake Road Bikes” →

November 10, 2015 0

Riding Defensively, Even on a MUP

Last night we headed out to the Walnut Creek Trail for a quick bike ride after work. The sun was supposed to set at about 5:15ish and we didn’t hit the trailhead until almost 5. We got on the bikes, and set about a 16mph pace heading from Poole Rd, onto the Walnut Creek trail, and then as far as we could go, until we felt the need to turn around.

We hit 3 miles and decided it was probably time. On the way back down the trail, the sun had set but it wasn’t really dark. It was that weird twilight period where it’s probably a little darker than I remember, but I didn’t have any trouble seeing what was ahead. Maybe a mile after turning around, I started to hear the whiz of 2-stroke engines, and then a second later headlights coming toward us. Continue reading “Riding Defensively, Even on a MUP” →

November 5, 2015 0

Back in the Saddle

A week and a half ago, I picked up a Fuji Sportif from the local Performance Bike store. The day I got the bike, we loaded up and headed out to the Capital Area Greenway to try cycling for the first time in about 7 years. We ended up cruising about 10 miles, and it HURT.

My butt hurt, my knees hurt, my lungs burned, and my legs were on fire. So in other words, we had a blast. Continue reading “Back in the Saddle” →