Manster

There are a couple of good trails: Vulture's Knob in Wooster, OH, and Mohician State Park in Loudenville, OH - But I never found a good rental bike place anywhere near these locations.

The floods last week remade lots of points on the Greenbelt trails. Who do I talk to at ARR about organizinging a trail repair day?

If you ever go back or anyone else visits Ohio try Mohician State Park. It's free, named one of the top 100 trails in the US, 26 mile loop, long sections under the shade of 80' tall hardwoods with a roller coaster feel (espically if you are going fast).

2 - Flat Rock & Vultures Knob. I would have bet no one else had ever ridden Vulture's Knob because it is in a small town in Ohio more than 1-1/2 hours south of Cleveland. Luckily it is just 5 miles from my Grandmother's house.

The US is also converting rails to trails:

I've always heard that the correct trail etiquette is for the guy going downhill to stop and yield for the person riding uphill (on narrow trails). I have heard this called the "Colorado Rule" - where they have mountains instead of just hills. Makes sense since the guy going uphill will have a lot harder time getting re-started than the guy going downhill. My question is how are young riders going to learrn this rule, and how will you know if the rider barreling down Mt. lakeway is going to stop/yeild or not?

Since Dr. can't find a specific cause for the blood clots that formed in my leg he says I have to be on blood thinners for the rest off my life. I had heard that 6 months was the normal perscription time and then you could go off the blood thinners. Apparently that only applies if they can find a specific cause like a recient surgery/injury. I do have a metal plate in my right leg from an old dislocated ankle, but no ones seems to know how that could cause blood clots. It is just the only differeence between my right and left leg so they are pointing to that as the cause.

There are old articles out on the internet with tables that show the correct crank length for your size (inseam measurement). But the best thing I ever read was an article that explained that a person’s optimum spin RPM was directly related to their % fast twitch and slow twitch muscle composition. It also said that geared bicycle racing was the great equalizer. A normal person could effectively compete with an Olympic sprinter in a bicycle race by picking the correct crank length, gear ratio, and spin cadence. In other words a naturally quick/fast person might be spinning a 160 rpms in a small chain ring & big cog while being passed by a bigger stronger slower person spinning at 80 rpms in a big chain ring & small cog.

I had a PE (Pulmonary Embolism) earlier this year. Basically, a big blood clot moved from my leg through my heart and lodged at a bridge in my lungs. The ER doc’s looked real close at the CAT scans of my heart to see if left side (side that pumps blood to lungs) was over stressed compared to right side. Said I was lucky to have a strong heart since a lot of the men you hear of dying of heart attacks in their early 50’ & 60’s are really PE’s where the heart blew itself up trying to pump against a blood clot lodged in the lungs. I’m Taking blood thinners now which was the easy fix, and I am fully recovered and riding every day. But I’m still kind of shocked that it all snuck up on me with almost no warning. No family history of DVT’s (Deep Vein Thrombosis) or PE’s and no pains at all from my right leg which was loaded with DVT’s (blood clots). In this case though a strong heart which I can only attribute to biking may have saved me.

2 years ago, my riding buddy was training for his first beginner race at Pace Bend. He was having trouble with one section of rocks and told me he was thinking about removing the big rock so he would not have to slow down and dab every time he went through. I told him that since we live close to the park just keep practicing and pretty soon, he would have a home court advantage by being more skilled at all the technical sections than the out of town riders. He was good with that until the day before the race someone removed the rock. After that he felt like he had wasted a ton of time developing skills and timing for which in the end he received no benefit.