Another May

Well, it's May again and that means Bike Month. A few years ago I pledged 600 miles and barely made it. This year I pledged 500. I hope to easily eclipse that total, but you never know.

Yesterday I took the mountain bike out for a nice 40-mile mixed surface ride. I was pretty tired afterward due to all the climbing. I know I could log a lot more miles if I used the road bike, but I really like this type of riding.

On a ridge looking east.

Great dirt road downhill.

Gravel road through farmland.

On the levee near Brown's Ravine. The lake is very high.

Probably the highest point in El Dorado Hills. This house has a fantastic view.

I may have previously mentioned that I have a few bikes in the stable. One thing that has given me constant grief is keeping all the computers running. The batteries were always dying, sensors broke, magnets fell off—it drove me crazy.

A GPS would have been a fine alternative, but everything I read in the past really turned me off. They were expensive, fragile and suffered early on from communication problems. Plus, they offered many functions I just don't care about. I don't need mapping or navigation. I KNOW where I am going when I ride.

Then Garmin recently released the Edge 200. It just gives you the basic functions of a cycling computer without the need for sensors or calibration. You power it on, stick it on the bike, and off you go. And the best part is it only costs $149.

I couldn't be happier with the Edge 200. It just works. And when you get home you can upload your data to the web site and everything is graphed for you. Cool stuff. Check it out.

Later.

Click to enlarge.