Sunday, March 08, 2009
Our First Pino Ride
The weather was still beautiful today, so Jillian and I wanted to spend as much of it as possible outside. What better way than on our new Hase Pino?
We're still nervous about starting and stopping, so we decided to drive to Utica Park, just north of Frederick where we could get some more practice before riding through town. We stopped at Frederick Coffee Company for bagels and muffins to have as a picnic breakfast. I thought the food was delicious. Note my very unfashionable Zinetic Pocket Slippers. We were actually stopped while getting food by a woman who thought they were the coolest thing ever. Not very comfortable, but they're so light and fit on the bike well. Hopefully I won't need them when I buy spd shoes.
We started by riding through the Utica covered bridge before turning North on Old Frederick Road. We were giddy. Neither of us could stop smiling. Jillian took the better part of seventy photos in the first hour, mostly of farm animals. The road was mostly flat, but it was here we discovered our first potential problem. Jillian would stop thinking about pedaling while trying to get a photo, and suddenly it would become a lot more difficult for me. I had to remind myself that she was taking a picture and would be back pedaling in a second. It wasn't too bad at first, but a couple of hours later, I started to get frustrated because I was exhausted and it felt like she was taking a break while shooting a photo. We started to wonder if we should switch up the gearing so that either of us could coast. It would make it easier her to stop pedaling while taking a photo, and it would make it easier for either of us to coast when we felt like it.
About two hours later we arrived at US-15, just south of Emmitsburg. Rather than cross a busy highway or ride along the shoulder a couple of exits, we turned right and went what I thought was a North Eastern Direction. Instead, it turns out we went South East. A lot. While we were on this part of the adventure, two dogs decided we might be fun to play with. For those who aren't familiar, Jillian was attacked by dogs while riding a few years back. She has a rather large scar on her ankle because of it. When the first dog decided to run, Jillian simply froze. This worries me a lot. I can understand freezing, but if she freezes on the bike, it means that I need to pedal not just for me, but also for her. Our speed dropped significantly. She didn't immediately reach for the Halt!. Fortunately, the dog decided to not run onto the road, and instead just barked from the yard. An hour later, a Doberman went running along a fence to get us. Jillian froze about half as bad, but panicked and couldn't get her hands around the Halt!. This time the dog was confused, and ran right past the exit to his fence and got stuck in the corner of the property. I'm actually more concerned about dogs than I was a few months ago. I might need to carry a backup thing of Halt! just in case Jillian can't get to hers in time.
You can view the entire route on Gmaps Pedometer
Not long afterward, I saw some hills in the distance that didn't make sense to me. I decided to call my former roommate, a middle school National Geographic Geography Bee State Champion, to Google Map where we were. Althought it would have been fastest to simply turn around, I wanted to avoid going by the dogs again. So we turned on the next main road we came to and went to Taneytown. While stopped at a Sheetz, we were asked by a group of Harley riders all about the bike. They seemed to like our bike a lot, though most said they'd need to give up smoking before trying it. We were stopped by 4 groups of people throughout the day, and most simply told Jillian that I'd stopped pedaling without her knowledge (our cranks were on the same chain - one of us stopping without the other noticing was quite impossible). One asked if the camelback straw was for whipping and yelling "Mush!" Everyone was very friendly and we got a lot of stares - just like Larry at Mt Airy Bikes had promised us we would.
From Taneytown we found our way to Gettysburg, where we had an awesome lunch with our friend Tammy. Naturally, she had to give our bike a whirl, since it's such a unique experience. One of the pictures we took perfectly illustrates another problem we have. I'm the captain - I sit in the back where I control steering, brakes, and shifting. Jillian is the stoker, she simply sits up front and pedals along. When we stop at an intersection, I want to be able to see both ways before crossing. However, if I pull up to where I can see comfortably, I end up putting the front person into the intersection. Jillian reminded me a couple of times on our ride, but I had to see this picture before I realized just how bad it was. Jillian and I will need to work on communication and she'll probably be in charge of crossings from now on.
We had an uneventful ride back home, returning to the car about seven hours after we left. Not so bad, when you consider we had seven stops, including one for more than an hour for lunch. Neither of us was terribly sore, except for my behind. I might need to play with saddles before doing this every day. I had a few new concerns
- Dogs
- Stopping to use a bathroom - I was happy to stop only three times - Jillian wanted to stop twice as often.
- Food - We carried a few candy bars and water. I ran out of energy and stopping at a gas station for a PowerBar really reenergized me. We'll have to plan for food and water better.
- One of us being more exhausted than the other - when I got really tired and Jillian wasn't tired, I just wanted to coast on downhills and flats. Jillian, in much better shape than me, wanted to keep pedaling. On the other hand, if I could have spent more time coasting, would Jillian have felt the ride was unbalanced, and be bitter that she'd worked harder than me?
We also had a list of a long list of things to change about the bike. Before long I'll be returning the bike to the shop so they can do some work on it and use it for a few rallies and displays. But final option? We love this bike. We're very happy on it. I've heard tandems referred to as "relationship accelerators". Regardless of if things are going good or bad, you're going to get there faster. We think this bike will help create a happier and fuller marriage for us.
← We bought a Pino! | Home | Jillian Won →
| posted at: 19:00 |
permanent link and comments
