Month: July 2009

Back and Knee Problems with New Bike Seat

On By Michel McDonaldIn HealthLeave a comment

As the title says I am having Back and Knee (not backne as in acne on my back) issues from this new seat.  I’ve adjusted it every way I can to get it comfortable.  No matter how I adjust it I am being pushed forward to the handlebars and it has been causing me issues with my shoulders and my upper back.

And my right knee has been giving me issues since I got this new seat.  Keep in mind this is only day 5 so maybe 10 more days (the guy said keep trying for 3 weeks, to me 5 days is 1 week since I only ride 5 days a week) and maybe, just maybe that will go away.

I’m going to keep trying though because I really don’t want to sit on anything that is going to cause numbness in my giggle area.

I removed the sheepskin during my ride today because I was thinking that maybe the sheepskin is giving me issues and it was.  That is what was making me slide forward all the time.  So just sitting on the seat without the sheepskin and the seat pretty much grabs onto my shorts like a cell phone on one of those rubber mats that you stick on your dashboard.  If that makes any sense.

I’m still going to buy another gel seat and cut the nose (or horn) off then sew it back together so it fits this new seat.  I think that will help not only raising me back up to where I was to give my knee some help but also my underwear seam won’t hurt my butt lol.  And I think it will feel better on my sit bones if I’m sitting on gel instead of the seat.  Actually the seat without any cover on it is pretty cushioned, it doesn’t really need any cushion so that’s good.

Bike Cam 2 Video

On By Michel McDonaldIn BikeLeave a comment

The video starts out on Manor St. and ends up at China Grade Loop. It takes me about 44 minutes to get to my final destination from the house then after I have rested for about 5 minutes I get back on the bike and head back home. My total round trip ride coming all the way out to here is 22 miles, it takes 2 hours but waiting for the stop lights/signs and my 5 minute break my total time is about 90-95 minutes and my average speed is 14.0-14.3 mph.

At the end it says To Be Continued… As soon as I get used to riding 22 miles per day and it’s not enough exercise then I will be adding more miles by continuing past China Grade Loop on the bicycle trail.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grd4VTPQtBs

Bike Cam Part 2 Troubles

On By Michel McDonaldIn BikeLeave a comment

I took the camera with me this morning and turned it on just before I got to the tunnel to go past Manor St.  I went through the tunnel, over the bridge and through the woods to grandmother’s house er um wait no that’s not right… ok, I went through the tunnel then over the bridge … then kept riding.

As I went over the 2nd bridge the bicycle went over the usual bumps before and after but the 2nd bridge screwed up the camcorders ability to auto focus lol.  I tried fixing it but it just would not fix so I stopped recording but I just could not fix it.  I turned it off hoping that would help and it did.  So I turned it back on and kept riding.  I went all the way to the end of that part of the bike trail and turned off the camera.

I get home and plug the camcorder into the computer and the program I use ImageMixer 3 gives me errors.  It cannot download from the camera at all.  I have a feeling it’s because of those darn bumps but then I go to watch it from the camcorder onto the computer with PowerDVD and it stops after only 20 seconds which was when I first started filming so I’m a bit stumped.

This morning at 8am they closed that part of the bike trail from the first tunnel to the 2nd tunnel until tomorrow afternoon at 2:30pm so tomorrow morning I won’t be doing my 22 mile trip, instead I’m going to have to settle for 16 miles so I won’t be able to do it over tomorrow.

The video plays just fine in the camera so I thought that maybe I could just plug it into the TV and record it with my DVD recorder.  Well, when I plug it into the TV it shrinks the video from 16:9 to 4:3 so that doesn’t do me any good.  I’ll need a widescreen TV to be able to do that.  So instead I just put the mini DVD into the DVD recorder and recorded it to a VHS then recorded it back to a regular DVD.

I tried putting the DVD into my computer but it won’t recognize dvd’s that I’ve recorded on the dvd recorder so I had to put it in my laptop.  It’s uploading now so as soon as it’s finished I will transfer it over to my computer and work on it.  I will try to get it on YouTube today and when I do I will post it here.  Well, as a new post.

Bike Cam Part 2

On By Michel McDonaldIn BikeLeave a comment

When I did the Bike Cam video the place where I stopped at was my half way point, the place where I would rest before I got back on and turned around to go back home.  That was 16 miles round trip.  Well, since then I’ve added to my bike ride.  I was going 19 miles then 20 miles then 21 miles and now I’m going all the way to China Grade so my bike ride is now 22 miles round trip.

So since I’m going to China Grade now, the next time I ride I will bring the camera with me and when I get to Manor St. instead of going through the tunnel I will set my camera up on the handlebars and then continue through the tunnel from there and go all the way to China Grade before stopping the camera.

This of course means that I will have to leave the house at 5am instead of the usual 4:30am because when I get to Manor St. the sun isn’t even up yet and I don’t think doing a video in the dark is very productive lol.  Especially since I don’t have a light for the camcorder.

Anyway, tomorrow is my day off from riding, I do 3 days on then 1 day off to give my body (and now especially because of the new seat) some time to heal.  So Thursday morning I will take the camera with me and video tape it and then by Thursday afternoon the video will be on YouTube.

If you want to help me before then, suggest a couple of songs for me to buy to put in the video via a comment.

Day 3 With My New Bike Seat

On By Michel McDonaldIn BikeLeave a comment

Today is the 3rd day and final blog post about my new Ergo bicycle seat.  I’m getting used to it more and now instead of just being strange it’s starting to feel normal.

It’s still too hard for my butt so I still plan on buying another gel seat cover and cutting off the nose (to spite its face? lol) then of course sewing it back up so I can just put that on top of the seat.  The sheepskin is nice but it’s a winter coat for a bike seat, not a summer coat heh.  Hopefully by winter I will be able to slip the sheepskin over the gel but I’m not quite sure how that’s going to work out so we’ll see.

I still highly recommend “the Bicycle Seat” but I would go with the gel seat if you have a fat ass like mine and you don’t like hard seats lol.

Jackson 3?

On By Michel McDonaldIn CelebritiesLeave a comment

Joe Jackson has said in an interview “who else is going to raise those kids?”.  Uh, anybody but YOU!  He was saying that he can see some talent in Paris and that Blanket can dance.  He already sees dollar $ign$ in his eyes.  Can you imagine if this fool gets his hands on those kids?  History will repeat if he gets his hands on these children and I just know that he will start beating them and he will take their childhood away from them.

Michael Jackson said that when he thinks about Joe Jackson he regurgitates and Joe said “yeah, regurgitates all the way to the bank”.  This man has ice in his veins not blood.  He can not get his hands on these kids.  I think that if they want to be performers that should be their decision and not forced on them.

As I said earlier, Joe Jackson said there is nobody else to take care of the kids.  And you think that YOU are the only one who is capable of taking care of kids?  What about Janet?  What about Germaine?  What about Diana Ross?  What about their birth mother?!?!  I think there are plenty of people who are more capable of raising a child let alone 3 children than you are Mr. Jackson.  You need to go away and get off camera please.

Day 2 With New Bike Seat

On By Michel McDonaldIn BikeLeave a comment

Yesterday I felt everything was against me.  My back tire had a bump in it, my computer wire was cut from the pimple in the front tire and my seat just wasn’t comfortable at all.

But yesterday I fixed the back tire by putting in a different tube, not the presta but the other valve, I fixed the wires for the computer and I adjusted my seat ok.

Today I woke up late.  I normally set the alarm to wake me up at 4am but I guess I forgot last night because I woke up at 5:30am.  So I was able to leave at 6am.  I thought the world was going to be against me again but it was ok.

I thought that yesterdays last adjustment of the seat was good where I made it so it’s forward and not backward but that wasn’t good at all.  I just felt like I was going to fall off.  When I got to the bike trail I decided I need to adjust it yet again so I just moved it back 1 notch and it was good the rest of the trip.

I did my 20 miles and all was good.  Although, I need to sit in the Shiatsu massager for awhile because my back is killing me from that lol.  It’s like my arms are pushing too hard on the handlebars or something.  I’m sure that I will be comfortable with this new seat and then there won’t be any problem.

Oh one last thing, when I was looking at the website where I bought the new seat from I was debating on if I should buy the cheapest seat by itself or maybe with the sheepskin.  Or maybe I should buy the gel seat I just don’t know.  So I emailed the website asking them for their opinion and the guy who runs it said that he uses the classic with sheepskin so I took his word for it and bought that.  Big mistake.

I should’ve taken into consideration that sheepskin is going to be hot during the summer lol.  DUH!  And I really do need that gel seat.  It’s just too bad that I gave my old seat along with the gel cover to a neighbor.  I could’ve cut the gel part and sewn it to the bottom of the sheepskin.  Or I could just cut it at the crotch area and just make my own cover with the fabric that it has on it.  Just a little nip and tuck here and I could’ve used it.  Oh well, maybe next check I can buy another gel seat cover from Wal-Mart or Target and just cut it up and put it on there.

New Lower Priced Kindle

On By Michel McDonaldIn eBook, Kindle, TechLeave a comment

There is now a lower priced Amazon Kindle at $299.  Now that’s what I’m talking about.  Although it has a 6″ screen, 2 GB HD (1.4 available for user content) and you can see what else it has…

Kindle: Amazon’s 6″ Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)

It’s not as big as the latest Kindle and it doesn’t have an SD slot, it’s not in color and it isn’t touchscreen.  But the good news is that it’s coming down in price.  Maybe they are seeing that people just aren’t buying the Kindle because of the gigantic cost.  I mean, $300 is still a lot of money but not compared to $489 for the Kindle DX.

If I bought a Kindle for $299 then I bet you anything in about a year they will have a better one for $199 then a year later a better one for $99.  Well, I don’t know if they will drop that dramatically but I think I’m going to wait for them to come down a bit more before I take that leap.

I would love to buy a bigger screen one for Darrin for the newspaper but unfortunately our local paper is not available for the Kindle.  They are digital but with another company so hopefully when the Kindle goes down in price then our paper will see that it’s getting popular or they are getting a lot of requests then they will finally add their paper to the Kindle.

My Interesting Ride Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

I went on my ride this morning but I found that I had a few problems.

  • As I was riding the bike I got to where Kaiser Permanente hospital is and their lights were shining on me and I went to look at the computer to see what time it was and to see how fast I was going with my new tires and seat but the screen was blank.  So I pulled over to find out what the issue was.  When I put the wheel back on the front fork I put it on backwards so my magnet was on the wrong side of the wheel lol.  So I put it on the correct side and spun the wheel but it still didn’t work.  It’s because of what my pimpled front tire did to the computer wire, it stripped it so there are wires that are exposed so it doesn’t work now.  So today I have no reference of how fast I was going or how many calories I burned.
  • When I left the house I didn’t notice that my back wheel had a bump to it.  As I was riding on the bike trail I could feel the bump and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do about it because it’s a brand spanking new tire.  When Darrin bought me the new tires he also bought me new tubes that had the presta valves.  My front wheel is brand new (26×2.00) but my back wheel (26×1.95) is the original wheel on the bike so since they are both different sizes they both won’t accept presta valve because the presta valve tubes have this big ring under the valve.  The regular tubes that you buy don’t so I just had to change the tube on the bike trail then all was good.
  • And now my new seat lol.  Yesterday when I first put the new seat on I rode it down the street then had to come back to adjust it.  Then I rode around a bit and had to make an adjustment here and there and I thought I had it all worked out but I guess I didn’t.  So on my bike ride this morning I think I pulled over 3 times to make adjustments.  I finally got it to a comfortable position.  I had to raise my handlebars though because even though the instructions are to lower the seat by 1 inch I did that yesterday and my legs were bending too much so I put it back so today all I had to do was raise the handlebars and that fixed that issue.

Since my computer didn’t work today I’m going to have to write down an old time when I used to go 16 miles so I can at least have something to write down.  I’ll have to fix that wire today so that I can use it tomorrow.

“The Bicycle Seat” website that I got the new seat from say to give it at least 3 weeks and considering I’ve already given my old seat and the gel cover to a neighbor I have no choice but to give it 3 weeks lol.  I can’t ride any other way.  But I do want to give it some time to get used to because I’m not numb today in the naughty parts but my butt is killing me lol.  My arms are killing me too ugh.

The Bicycle Seat

On By Michel McDonaldIn BikeLeave a comment

Well I got my bike seat today.  I almost didn’t get it because the mail carrier left it on my doorstep where anybody walking by could take it.  They didn’t even bother ringing the doorbell.  I’m about to go out on it now.  BRB.

…

The website where I bought this seat from, The Bicycle Seat suggest that you ride it for 40 minutes so that you can make adjustments here and there so it’s comfortable.  They suggest that you lower the seat 1 inch which I’m not quite sure that works for me, I’m probably going to have to raise it back up.  But I had to adjust my gear shifting thingamabob because when I was riding it I felt like I was riding faster than the bike was capable of so I adjusted that and it works for me.  I adjusted the seat so it’s down a bit in the back as per their suggestion and that kinda helps.

I do kinda feel strange though while riding it.  I can actually feel my “sit bones” sitting on this seat.  Before it was just my crotch area that was sitting on the seat.  Now I won’t have to make any more adjustments to my shorts while riding.  They usually ride up because of the “horn” or “nose” of the seat.

Well, I don’t really have the time to test it out for a full 40 minutes today because I have lots to do but tomorrow I will be on my 2 hour / 20 mile bike ride so as soon as I get home (probably 6:30 or 7am) I will definitely be back here to blog about my strange new experience.