Grumpy Old Men

I've been cranking out a lot of miles lately; some around the city, some for errands, but mostly on the Monon and Fall Creek trails, and an observation that I read in a touring journal a while back keeps flashing through my head.

In this journal the author was talking about a short three-day self-supported tour he rode near his home.  On this tour the author spent a lot of time on established trails and he made some quick observations about the people he came across on these trails.  The part of the observations that stood out to me was a short casual remark about how the least-friendly people he ran into were middle-aged men.

Now-a-days the term "middle-aged" can mean different things for different people, but to me it is the age group of around my age (46) to just before traditional retirement age.  I took no offense at his remark, because I consider myself rather friendly and have noticed that my age group can be kinda grumpy.  But, lately this "grumpiness" has begun to bother me a bit.

No doubt due to the tour writer's comment I have been paying a lot of attention to who returns my greetings when I am riding, and it seems that the writer and I have been seeing the same people.  I say this because, by and large, the least friendly group of people I run into are middle-aged men, and this gets to me for many different reasons.

The first reason these guys bother me in one of selfishness.  I am a middle-aged man, and these guys are making all of us look bad.  When they snub people, or give curt insincere replies to well wishes they reinforce negative opinions that younger people already have of us, and this hurts me.

Then there's the negative effect that the Buzzkillingtons have on the people they come into contact with.  People use these trails for many different reasons: some for exercise, some to walk their dogs, some to get from point A to point B, some just to get some fresh air and get out of the house for a while.  Whatever the reason, people are on the trail as part of their life, and coming across some grumpy old bastard who can't take the time to say "good day" or smile puts negativity into their life, which is not what a jaunt on the local trail should do.

But, I think the biggest part of why these people bother me in the sense of entitlement that they exude.  By far, I have run into the guys most on the Monon north of 54th street.  For those of you who aren't from these parts, this is the part of the trail which runs through some of the more affluent sections of Indianapolis: Broad Ripple (my neighborhood), Carmel, Fischers, and others.  In Indianapolis, the farther north you live (in general) the better off you are financially, and I have noticed that this clique of grumpy old men starts here in my neighborhood and expands with northern progression.  I have also noticed that they are riding nice (i.e. pricey) bikes and not the "lesser quality" rides seen farther south on the trails, which by the way are what the nicer folks seem to ride.

This combination of latitude and expense leads me to believe (possibly unfairly I admit) that this group of grumpy guys is not on the trail due to a need to get to work cheaply, or to save money on gas by riding to the grocery instead of driving, and I never see them with dogs.  Yet, they seem to be on the trail against their will--which runs contrary to their station in life.  So I have come to the conclusion (once again possibly unfair on my part) that they are just being snobs with the attitude that us lesser folk shouldn't be addressing them, or possibly tainting them with our presence on their trail.

Regardless of the reason for their crappy disposition, these guys have become an irrational irritation to me.  I have realized that this irritation has begun to spoil a part of my life that I otherwise thoroughly enjoy, so I have started taking steps to alleviate the problem.  I have begun to ramp up my geniality as a way to contradict the negative opinion others may get of my generation from these grouches, and have noticed that my increased friendliness has made me (if not others) happier in return.  I am especially exuberant in my greetings to those who seem to belong to the group who bother me, in the hope that my cordiality may in some small way rub off.

While I would never begrudge anyone the joy of a bike ride, especially in the lower stress environment of an automobile free trail, it seems to me that these grumpy old men would be better served emotionally and physically by exercising in an environment more suited to their disposition like the stationary bike section of their country club exercise lounge with others of the same disposition and status.

I know that these ramblings have little to do with touring or serious cycle training, but give me a break, I am part of the Grumpy Old Man demographic.

Stage 1--Short trip

For my first real test run I have chosen a Thanksgiving weekend ride to Brown County State Park and back.  The plan is to ride to the park on Black Friday; stay at the campground, explore Nashville and the park on Saturday, then ride back home Sunday.

So far I plan to use a route I found online here.



The trip is short, just under 43 miles one way, but should be long enough to test out my bike, trailer, gear, and legs/heart.

To many a trip of this sort at this time of year may seem a bit extreme considering the weather, but for me trips like this are usually taken at this time of year.  Since the death of my wife the holidays have been a little depressing, so over the years I adopted a habit of taking the children on various climbing, camping, biking trips to occupy our time and minds.  Now that the children are young adults they aren't quite as interested in spending time with Dad in a tent at the base of some cliff somewhere, so I have started doing my trips solo.

I still have a couple of weeks to tweak things a bit, but for now the following is a list of what I plan to take on the trip:

• Bike (duh)
• Bike repair--tubes, flat repair, multi-tool, spokes, nuts and bolts, cables, etc.
• Nomad
• Tent-I'm hoping to be able to get an REI ASL tent because I don't think my MSR Hubba Hubba will cut it in the cold.  But, if the finances don't pan out for it I can borrow a friend's North Face VE-25.  The VE-25 is an ideal tent for cold weather, but is a little overkill in altitudes under 14,000 feet and it weighs almost twice as much as the ASL tent.
• 15 degree North Face sleeping bag
• REI self inflating sleeping pad
• Foam sleeping pad
• Jetboil stove and coffee press
• Katadyn water filter
• Nalgene 48 oz water bladder
• 2 Nalgene bottles
• Voltaic solar charger with the USB battery charger and LED light
• Assorted stuff sacks and dry bags
• On bike clothing-pants, jacket, base layers, gloves, rain gear, etc.
• Camp/casual clothing
• toiletries
• First aid kit w/ medications
• 4 meals (some meals will be covered by Restaurants in Nashville)
• Camera, MP3 player. phone
• Misc. items--Clif bars (don't leave home without 'em), gel packs, Nuun tablets, spare rechargeable batteries, etc.

Obviously some of these things are completely unnecessary for such a short trip, but my plan here is to test out some of the equipment as well as get an idea on packing and carrying/pulling these things around on the road before I commit to longer trips where they will prove more useful.

I will, of course post updates to the plan and details of the trip.

Also, I haven't expressly stated this, but I am VERY open to critiques, comments, suggestions and encouragement, so feel free to engage in such things.

Finally-I Can Begin to Begin

I can now finally begin to start touring.

I have my bike, a trailer, most of my gear, and seem to have recovered enough to start training.

My steed:

My Ride

I haven't given her a name yet, but (to me) she sure is pretty.  She is a 2012 KHS Urban Xcel (supposedly short for accelerate).  I won't bore you with component details, but if you want you can get them here.  I picked this bike primarily because it had what I was looking for--steel frame, disc brakes, longish wheelbase, 9x3 drive train, and upright geometry all at a price I could afford.  I am already looking at potential upgrades in the components and wheels, but what I have now looks solid enough to get me going and keep me going through some initial trips.

Interim Cockpit

I have added some things to the basic bike to make her more trip worthy.  The first thing I did was change the handlebars from the mountain-bike style bars that came with her to a set of trekking bars.  (This picture is to show the bars;  The cockpit isn't complete and I plan on a seperate post on just the cockpit once it is.)




I love these bars for a couple of reasons the main one being multiple hand positions.  I have always had issues with hand numbness, and since my heart-attack this issue has gotten worse, so being able to move my hands around a lot while still maintaining control of my bike is a big deal to me.  The trekking bars accommodate this quite well while providing a lot of space for mounting all of the paraphernalia that I want close at hand--lights, computers, bar bag, GPS, etc.

The next addition was fenders.  I am not a big fan of road spray to the face, so fenders were almost mandatory unless I only ride on dry roads.  During drought season here this isn't an issue, but during the other 2/3 of the year it is, so I bought a set of Axiom Rainrunner Trekk Reflex fenders.  I will probably post a review of these later, but for now I will say that they were a real pain to install, but after installation they seem to be what I needed.

Then came the rear-rack.  This took me a while to decide upon.  I plan to use my Nomad for hauling gear, but I wanted a rack that could serve me for commuting/grocery duty as well as hold my solar charger and small things during a trip.  I settled on Topeak's Super Tourist because it seemed to fit the bill for everything I was looking for.  I also got the Trolley Tote for grocery runs.

I have mentioned commuting and grocery runs a couple of times now.  These are big in my overall plan, because they supply training miles.  I have decided to park my Jeep and use my bike for anything I possibly can, which is why I have tried to go for gear that fulfill multiple roles.  Since I am neither independently wealthy or retired I have to spend a good part of my life working to pay the bills and buy what I need for touring. So, in order to do the needed training for touring I use my bike to travel to job sites (when feasible) and to do my daily errands (grocery, recycling, post office, etc.) then on the weekends I ride farther and do practice runs with the trailer.

Some other things I have gotten for my new-found obsession include my Voltaic solar charger, a USB battery charger to use with the Voltaic, a new MP3 player, and a rain jacket.  There are still things I want/need, but they will have to come as I can afford them.