A zero "Gas" week

Since Grant has been out of school for the summer we have not used my car much at all!  In fact last week was a zero gas week. We did all our commuting by the Big Dummy (aka) the Sherpa. To his swimming practices and to Kroger. A swimming update they are the 3 and 0  at his last meet he missed the pool record in the Breaststroke by 1 second. He got 2 first places and 1 fourth place. !!!!!!!

Pre fathers day ride to the movies

Me and my best buddy on our way to the movies.

Memorial Day week end with the whole family

It was an incredable week end to have all the children at home! we went to a local beach and to a family friends pool party. I got to take the one of my grand children on a ride on the "Dummy" (Adelyn) she is 3 yrs. Stone is 18 months and I don't have the "Pea pod" hooked up. He is a little to young to hold on. Needless to say Adelyn loved it and did not want get off, so her dad and I took turns with the rides even her uncle "G" got in on the fun. We plan to see them in August they live in TN.

Tour of Flint 5/19/2012

Today Grant and I did our first organized ride of the year the "Tour of Flint" wow what a great ride the weather was so nice 80 degrees the company was so nice the tour of the city was so nice. Through old historic neighbor hoods along  the Flint river there is a lot of history in that city that goes unappreciated unless you see it by bike. The tour consisted of 2/15 mile loops the Biped-alist team just did one loop. A big thanks to every one who helped organize it .

First year for the Organic Garden

After reading Dr, Asa Andrews  book Empowering your Health and  watching the Documentary" Forks over Spoons " I have decided to start my own garden so I can control some of the quality of the vegatables
that my family eats. So Grant and I started a garden it has two sections they both are 4'x4'  one section is 8" deep and the other is 12" deep for root vegi's.

So far we have Romaine Lettuce , Multi color leaf lettuce , Cauliflower , Broccoli , Sweet Onions , Red Onions,  Sweet Red Peppers, Green Peppers,  Pimiento Peppers , three kinds of Tomatoes, and Spinach, the Spinach is not up yet.

So it is going very well so far Grant and I go out every morning and water and talk to our garden.

He can not wait until we can pic the Vegi's He is an impatiant gardener

Walk around the big dummy

Modern day, taking vintage for a ride

Modern day, taking vintage for a ride. 1980 Bianchi  "Campione D'Italia  Campy equipted (steel is real frame)   milage is unknown

A quick gropro video of the Dummy

She's a beauty

Rails to Trails (Poly Ann Trail)

Rails to Trails ride (poly ann trail)

Today my wife took Grant to school, so that freed my morning up to start on an early ride. I decided on a rails to trails ride. The Polly Ann Trail runs about thirty five mile north of where we live. The weather was beautiful, I did a 20 mile length 10 up and 10 back. I is a beautiful trail system, they have the adopt a trail program which works great. The trail is a mixture of crushed stone and and asphalt that is well maintained.

Bi weekly trip to the farm.

local raw honey, farm fresh eggs, and homemade chapstick.

On my way to get Grant from school.

He loves it when I come to get him on the bikes we  get a slurpee on the way home.

Today was the first ride on the Big Dummy will be referd to as BD from now on we just did a very short ride from town to the historic very small train station in our town. The station is no longer operating they just have a bench were the dock used to be Grant thinks its pretty cool there sometimes when trains come by they blow their whistle at him it scared him the first time it is very loud win you are that close to the tracks. The city is doing a lot of construction to our roads and crossing last year they redid some of our bike paths. I think they are going to some work on our main road going through town and maybe widen it and hope fully a bike lane wish wish. We also got a new camera it is a Go pro so we are excited to do some videos. we have a lot to get caught up on.

The new Big Dummy

Today a ride through town with the second half of the Biped-alist team my son Grant. Then a ride to the local Kroger for some homemade sushi for my wifes post birthday gathering at Grams house.

The weather has been very rainy lately, we made the national news with 6.5 inches of rain the other day. As a matter of fact two of my short cuts that I take to town were under water. I rely on those to make my commute to town on my bike the same time frame as by car. So I had to take the Auto route (Yuck) .

Super Green smothie (reciepe)

One quart of green power

1 large hand full baby organic spinach
6 oz. plain greek yogurt
4 dates
1 small pinch  (local) bee pollen
1 table spoon spirillina
1 table spoon hemp seed
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup frozen mixed fruit,  (yellow & red)
1banana
Opitional 1 medium drop of Dave's insanity hot sauce

When blending add ingredients as listed
blending time is approximately 1 minute
If less dates will be chunky

enjoy your day full of energy!!!

Super Bowl Sunday slurpee ride

It has been a long time since our last post together it being December and January in Michigan the weather is so unpredictable. But today it was sunshine and almost 50 degrees. So we had to take advantage of it so off we went. I have mostly been riding indoors on a turbo trainer so it felt so good to get out and ride some hills.


We decide to try a new stretch of bike path just built in our town, it runs about three miles along a pretty busy rural road. We were glad that our city decided to put it in. I had made several comments to my wife "Boy it would be nice if they put in a bike path there" as we would commute that section of road.There is a lot bicycle and foot traffic that is along that stretch of road. There is also a stretch of path they added in the down town section that I had made comments to my wife.

So back to the ride, we over dressed mostly do to the "maternal instinct of mom" so the Slurpee that was promised in the prior agreement started to sound good, how ever we only had enough money for for the big Guy so I settled for the last part of a cold French press from earlier in the day.


I have to give my Daughter Kristan a plug because I wore the cycling hat she made me out of wool I love it it is my favorite hat.

She has an etsey shop WWW.adelynSTONE.com She is very creative. so visit her shop.
also grants new favorite bicycling shirt from the Gap.

Well that is it for now The Biped-alist team

A Brisk morning ride in Michigan

This was taken just after I dropped Grant off at school. The roads were free of ice and mostly dry. With snow it helps with the traction even if there is ice the snow will give you some stability, how ever it does enhance your rolling resistance I do run a little lower pressure in my tires also.

It was a beautiful day over all. I can remember when I would say I could handle winter all year? I recently told my wife that I would have to retract that statement. I have pretty bad arthritis and the cold is pretty bad with it. My hands are more sensitive to the cold. Its hard to ride with mittens on but I do not do a lot of shifting anyways. Layering is a must and I find that the best method is to dress that went you are standing and just start out it is a little chilly because you will warm up. Just be careful of extremities , ears, finger toes.

get out and ride, A body in motion stays in motion.

My journey back into cycling, My old vintage Bianchi road bike (That is not me in the Pic Ha,)

I did most of my cycling in the late 70's through the 80's it consisted mostly commuting to the LBS where I worked. Also commuting to my high school, I lived in a different school district than I attended so that meant that I either was driven to school by my father at 5:30am on his way to work or ride my bike. So summer months I road my bike and winter months I got to school real early. Touring the great state of Michigan, riding along the Great Lakes has incredible memories. From the late 80's my cycling went dormant with my Bianchi going into storage not to come out of "hibernation" until 2008 that was about 23 years.When my youngest son Grant the second half of the "biped-alist" team showed an never ending interest in cycling I knew it was time to wake her up. Cycling with your children I can not talk enough about this. When cycling with your family it seems like before you get your first mile in you are talking about things you would never discuss if you asked them out right, they just seem to open up and talk about school, their friends, what they want to be, and what makes the world go round.

I wish that I would not taken that time off of cycling.

Ride your bike, it will make you smarter

Our trip to Tennessee to vist our " Big Sissy"

The trip was very nice. The weather could have been a little nicer. It was about the same as back home in Michigan. The grand children are growing up to fast. Grant is still not keen on being an uncle. When we got there and were unloading the bikes Adelyn was so excited. I think that it might have been possible to take her for a "short ride" only if mom remains in sight. I can't wait until I can build the bike that I want so I can take them for rides.

Grant and I did our daily rides to the park, his "brother in law" Craig took him for a ride one day and taught him some so called "tricks," that was quite something. We did manage to get to some mountain bike trails at Montgomery Bell state park. They were beautiful. The state of TN. is very beautiful, with the mountains and rolling hills. There are some very large hills that Grant is not use to climbing on his bike I told him "son always remember that for every hill we go up we get to go down the other side. Before I knew it he was saying come on dad this hill isn't that bad just a little further and we get to go down the other side.

There were some dangerous obstacles like an open sewer grate. We have some tools to fix a flat if we have to, on one ride there was an earth mover who had a flat tire and Grant suggested that we stop and help him with his flat tire, what a big heart.

We also did a ride in old down town Dickson TN. while everyone else was shopping we were exploring. When all of a sudden we heard some loud popping sounds so we went in the direction the sounds were coming from. Guess what we found in the town square or park they were having a Veterans Day weapon demonstration wow Grant was in his glory, he is a Call of Duty nut he loved the military weapons.

He was so excited that he got to collect the blank cartridges.

It was an awesome trip.