BikingBrian

Biking Brian’s Blog

  • Don’t Get a Whirlpool Water Heater!

    My water heater went out in May 2008.  Obviously when that happens, there’s not a lot of time to do research on what to get as a replacement.  Since my travels that day brought me closer to Lowe’s, I picked up one of their Whirlpool models they carry – a 50 gallon gas heater with…

  • Cross USA 2001 Bicycle Tour – Reflections

    A family member is writing a paper about my Cross USA 2001 bicycle tour.  I have a web page on the tour with daily updates (before the term “blog” was coined) and a one page summary.  She asked a bunch of questions – much more interesting than “how many flat tires did you get?”  The…

  • S&S Couplers – Are They Worth It?

    Back in 2002 or so, I had a bicycle retrofitted with S&S couplers.  These allow the frame to be split into two pieces and disassembled into a small enough package to escape oversized baggage charges for air travel.  While this sounded like a great concept at the time, in practice assembly and disassembly time each…

  • Broken Air Compressor

    I went to use my Husky H1506F air compressor last weekend.  When I saw that it wouldn’t get higher than 25 psi pressure, I knew there was something wrong.  So when I called their technical support, they were thinking it was probably a damaged valve plate.  They asked me to open up the compressor and…

  • Bike Across USA – Day 70 – Boxborough to Beverly, MA – 46 miles

    It was nice of Jeff to make breakfast and leave his Rubel bike map with me so I could navigate the curvy suburban Boston streets. Just before I got to Route 62 in Concord – oh drat, a phlat! Actually, it was more like a slow leak, so being the last day of the trip…

  • Bike Across USA – Day 69 – Keene, NH to Boxborough, MA – 65 miles

    The forecast low temperature for the night was 47 degrees. So nobody was in a hurry to get going in the morning. I was the earliest to leave, at 9:30, while the others were still in bed. We said our goodbyes, as I would be detouring from their route and be on my own again.…

  • Bike Across USA – Day 68 – Bennington, VT to Keene, NH – 61 miles

    The surprising thing is that I’m the earliest riser of the three of us. But since I’m also the slowest rider, I used that to my advantage to get a head start on the others. The climb into the Green Mountains started immediately after leaving town. We got mixed reviews on the length and difficulty…

  • Bike Across USA – Day 67 – Malta, NY to Bennington, VT – 44 miles

    The hotel we stayed at wasn’t listed in the phone book. It’s owned by an older couple and is only open six weeks a year, during the race season at the horse track at Saratoga Springs. Despite the lack of publicity, the hotel fills up almost every night. This was Steve’s first, and probably last,…

  • Bike Across USA – Day 66 – Dolgeville to Malta, NY – 72 miles

    I had a good breakfast at the B&B and I was on my way. Now that I had already made the 6 mile climb up the hill into Dolgeville, I had the choice of staying up in the hills on Highway 29 or dropping back down to 5. I saw the big climb out of…

  • Bike Across USA – Day 65 – Canastota to Dolgeville, NY – 68 miles

    Since the library was on the way out of town, I decided to go in to use their internet connection to check e-mail and add more dots to my map. I had remembered Miki commenting that there were very few internet cafes here in the US, so she was having trouble accessing her e-mail. She…

Got any book recommendations?

Get In Touch