UCI Race

The past months maybe year I am less interested in racing bicycles myself and more interested in adventure and social riding. I religiously attend the Wednesday rides of our club and make noise to the younger guys on how to race but I don't care anymore how I am doing.

The Tanzanian Bicycling Association has chosen to join UCI so we have some standing so they need a bunch of timed races so they can decided whether Tanzania deserves something or not.

26 April is a Holiday and the first race was Arusha on that day. I almost opted out of the race but signed up and was glad I did. It was 150km , to Moshi town and back. I haven't ridden that far on road bike for awhile but knew the peleton affect would make it much easier.

The first 1/4 race was fun. A few times I had to press hard on the pedals to hold on when someone decided to take off or we came to a longer hill. In the middle or back of the pack it was bliss being sucked along. the 2nd quarter I started to feel the pace but managed to just hang on on the hills. One time they took off again after cresting a hill and luckily the peleton was big enough that we pulled them in. Bad for the best riders in our club as they were trying to shake people off.

We turned around and my average speed was 38kmph. We had probably lost 1000feet elevation but it was into a slight wind. The pace was crazy after making the U turn but I held on. I was pretty proud of myself. Mike and Andrew had been dropped way before. There were over 20 people now in the front pack.

As we roller coasted out of Moshi I started to wear down and as the wind was pushing us it seemed they kept the pace up higher. I think our team was working harder now. The first half all our good riders just kept in the pack.

I got dropped on a slight uphill with another half dozen. there was now the front pack of a dozen or so and then the rest of us spread out. I was not looking forward to 65km riding without a break but kept pushing the pedals.

Luckily Mike turned around and helped me half way back. We got caught by one guy who helped some but then left us on a long uphill. Then Mike pooped out and I rode in alone. Hill after hill. I managed to average 31kph. the last 30 km were a struggle and the hills in the last 15 km were slow. I got cramps twice and had to get off the bike. That never happens. wonder what was going on in my body.

At the finish i felt okay but within 5 minutes I threw up , then felt okay. Once home I had diarrhoea the rest of the afternoon. I must of really wore down my body.

Saidi from our club got first followed closely by a guy from Mwanza on a single speed Phoenix bike! three of the guys from mwanza finished in the top 10. Amazing. I need to find what the average speed was.

Helping others to bicycle as a means of transportation

Five days ago I received the email below from my friend Erik Zweig. It says many thoughts, but what immediately struck me is that by me riding long bike rides maybe Erik considered riding a bit further and maybe the bike becomes for Erik transportation and not only exercise.

The other thought was when he says maybe I shouldn't ride with him as he is not as fit as me. I used to see how far I could go on my bicycle, not at least sometimes I ride to see how much fun I can have and how many interesting things can I see and experience.

8 April 2008

email from Erik Zweig:

This morning I woke up just as the sky was beginning to glow. I decided to get out of bed and go for a ride. My intention was to try to get to a place not far beyond Carmatec, but a little further than where I had gone last week. When I got there, I came upon many students of the secondary type. I did not feel like turning around in the middle of the road as teenagers yelled such things as “mzungu.” So, I continued on. I then decided that I would try to get to Usa. Once I got to Usa, I thought, “Hey, our other farm is all down hill from here and it is still quite early.” So, I continued on. It was indeed all down hill and I found myself singing in the cool morning air. I got to the farm and people were shocked, couldn’t believe that I had come to work on a bike. I walked the farm, spoke with a few people, you know, managerial stuff, checked my e-mails, had a cup of coffee, drank a bit of water and then headed back.

I made it to the other farm in about an hour, popped into the office to show my face and act like a manager. Then I headed down to my place to take a bucket shower in my front yard in the beautiful sunshine. On the way to my place, I had an epiphany. I decided that the answer to all of the world’s problems is ice-cream. I thought to myself that no matter what it costs, I should invest in enough solar panels to power a big freezer so that I can make ice-cream at my place and open a little stand in the village and sell ice-cream cones. I thought, “Yes, when the mangoes come into season, I will make mango ice-cream. When the strawberries ripen, I will make strawberry ice-cream, and raspberries, and lychees, and peaches, and so on.” I also thought that I would buy two cows and plant sugar cane and vanilla and wheat so that I could actually make all of the ice-cream, including the cone, from my little plot. I was so euphoric and thought that life was beautiful and that it was the most beautiful day and that I should ride to Usa every day.

Then I realized that this was just some endorphins making me feel good, and then I started to feel really tired and decided that I am probably the last person you should go biking around Tanzania with ‘cause I’m totally wasted after a mere two and a half hours of biking. My goodness, it made me hungry.

thanks Erik Zweig for the email. It made my day.

My mind and body is limited

I should be posting more. I have the ideas and trips for posts. I even have drafts waiting to be finished and posted.

I have too many interests for my mind and body. Is that a reflection of age, planning of ones life, or is it a good thing?

(I wrote this whole post and lost it on a mozzilla crash while posting, and if I am not careful I will get called away before finishing this post to fix the vacuum cleaner, and after fixing the vacuum cleaner I will start to fix a bicycle.)

Back to my limitations. For example I get interested in waste water purification. So I research it, forget what I learned, learn it again, build one, it has flaws. research, forget, research, .....

How does this apply to bicycling? I am wondering if I should simplify. My biking activities include: commuting, bike racing with club, riding with novices, casual club mountain bike rides, riding with family, long mountain bike rides, short and fast mountain bike rides, fixing my bikes. They are all fairly different activities, related but different. So I am wondering if i should give up on the racing and casual rides.

Another posts waiting to be written on how I am seeing my role as encouraging others to ride bikes.

There was a young pilot at a restraunt couple of weeks ago. He had walked by himself from Engaruka to Arusha. I told him he should come biking with us.

It is raining everyday.

I went to bed early for a planned 330 rising and leaving at 4am. I woke up about 11pm and felt aching all over and a bad sore throat. I lay in bed being miserable for about an hour and then gargled and took aspirin and then slept.

I didnt feel too bad at 330 so I started to get ready. I move slow and then i had to get Ezra's bike ready. I can't believe it took until 445 before we started off in a heavy drizzle. it was pretty slick to get the the highway.

Our destination was vague but figured with mud that riding towards Mfereji was a good bet.

My 02 Rainshield jacket worked well and I was dry.


Only one vehicle passed us on the hours ride on the highway. that was pretty nice. We could ride side by side and talk.

We reached the Lengijave plains and stopped for a drink and I took this picture. I guess it was still raining at that time. the slog, the boring highway part was over and now we had the short grass plains before us. We swooped down to the edge and then bounced on rough grass down a steep ridge.

It was mostly downhill for the next hour or so. Everything was green but notmuddy. we got on a small foot trail and that led along hte edge of Oldebesi valley. We say some thomson gazelles and zebra and a hawk here and there. mellow ride.

the trail led us into the sand river so we crossed it and came to a boma half way up the other side. Paulo discussed our optins and then recomended riding straight for the old track on the far side of the valley. Ezra surrendered his bike to a masai who wanted to try.

We rode across clumps of grass for awhile and got ot the hard smooth road and went on down the valley.

Paulo suggested we crest a hill and stop at a boma for chai. while swatting flies in the boma Paulo asked for some chai. the man of the boma was castrating sheep that day. They sent a young girl to borrow some sugar from the boma 400 meters away. Paulo talked and eEzrra and i got to know each other better. Turns out one woman in this boma had been to our compound in Arusha, and stayed two weeks waiting treatment.

chai was good and we sat inside a hut.

They showed us a good trail back and we were oon tracks the whole way back.

Turning around it was now slightly uphilll all the way and into the wind and we were more tired. We moved at about 10-15kmph until it became steep and stopped for another breakfast. We lay on the grass drinking chai and sandwiches from home.

Now there was 30 minutes of a steep track up to the lengijave plains.

people changed from masai to waarusha. we met some people who knew Ezra.

up on the plains the speed picked up and by 1230 we were at the highway. Now it was a coast home. I was tired .

78km total time was 8 hours, riding time was 5 1/2 approzximately

Lower Themi River

All week i as promising myself that I would do a new route, maybe an adventure. It is great doing the same routes with the club too, but I needed something new.

I had several options but a ViaVia Cafe after work Erik mdogo suggested riding south from his place to Kiteto. I didnt commit until 2 minutes from leaving the house. 4am was hard to get motivated, but 5am i could get out of bed and get ready. I left at 6am in the dark.

at around 7 i was passing Erik's place and called in and got him out of bed to share my breakfast. He showed me how to get back to the road without backtracking and soon i was out of the trees and into the plains, an old Sisal Estate stretched every way i could see.

I started to runn into big camps from the estate , some derelict, most deserted as all the adults were in the fields. I crossed a river and found out it was the Themi river. It was chocolate colorted and full of plastic bags.

I was warned to ask directions abecuase there was mud over the road. I didnt see anyone to ask and before i knew it i had done an arc and was back along the Themi river fallowing two bike tracks between =plowed fields and the river.

It got better after 5km and then i noticed a big track accross the river so i waded the river .

People were filtering water by diggin in the sand along the river. Most of the river is in a steep cut out and lined by huge fig treees. Never seen such big fig treees.

I was advised to leave the track along the riverr and follow a track away from the river.

It was always uphill and sometimes steeper. I hit a big road and a washed out bridge being rebuilt.

Met some hice people and kept cranking. was gone 6 1/2 hours, rode 5 hours and went 90 km. the last 2.5 hours i rode straight and didnt eat, just drank. I was a bit knackered and took a 10 minute nap before taking kids swiming.

Isn't commuting to dangerous?

A few weeks ago commuting on my way to work I stopped at a apartment complex called Fortes and bumped into so nice people that lived in Arusha 15 years ago. They now live in Holland. They commented that they would commute and ride bikes but it is too dangerous.

Being who I am I agreed, said i survive by being defensive rider and using the tactic of not trusting drivers. I basically supported their idea that bike riding is too dangerous.

As I rode to work I wondered if that is true. Is bike commuting dangerous? I have been commuting for like ten years in Arusha. Sometimes every day in a week, a few weeks never. Lets take the low figure and say i have commuted 50% of the time in the past ten years. So like more that 1500 trips through Arusha Town. Sometimes like two days ago I cruised through town at lunch time and back to the office.

Anyway I had one accident. I was about 6 years ago and a pedestrian crossed the road far ahead of me and I braked on wet oily pavement and the bike slipped from under me. I had a sprain to my wrist and a bruised pride.

Make a note here that most of my mileage is on a racing bike and riding rough roads on the weekend. I fall almost weekly on the mtn bike rides, not serious. I once fell on the road bike ride on a wet greasy cornor.

So is it dangerous or am I lucky or skilled. I thought about that on the way to work. I often ride just to the side of the vehicle lane, so i figure people in their cars see some bikes there and it looks dangerous. But if i want i can move off the road, take different routes, with little traffic. I prefer the shortest smoothest road. That happens to have alot of traffic.

Non commuters should also realize that on alot of road traffic is going so slow that vehicle traffic is not a problem.

To those who dont commute i would say it is not nearly as dangerous as you think. But be smart, start with low traffic roads, trails. Dont trust drivers to do what they should. Wear a helmet and clothing and reflective gear so you are visible.

I have to refrain for tendencies to race with other commuters (both bike and car) and trying to ride like a NYCity bike messenger.

Why I bought ANOTHER bicycle

There are a fair number of bikes in my compound but I consider only two mine. One is my wife Bernice's , two are my daughters, 3 are for the kids next door, one for my watchman and so on. So if someone shows up I usually have a bike or two to loan them.

So why did I buy ANOTHER bike? I preach simplicity! I am against buying new stuff.

One of Nashesha's bike is really a half bike, called Alley Cat, that attaches to a bike and then we can ride around together. We did a number of rides but it seemed a bit of work and is wobbly and only kids can use it. Going through ditches is difficult.

A guy in my club, Dave Armon, has a tour company specializing in biking
http://www.tanzaniabiking.com/

Last year Dave opened a “real bike shop” in Arusha selling Trek bicycles and a few spares. I don't need a new bike but it was good to tell others about and I would check out the bikes sometimes, or just stop to say hello.

The shop had a tandem bike that just didnt seem to sell. He had hoped some tourist safari lodge wouuld buy it for $1300. I kept looking at it, even rode it around on a couple of times, and tried it with innocent bystanders.

I probably would of bought it eventually , but there were some other factors that led me to giving Dave $1000 in cash while standing in the bank one day. A bit of a whim, but I had been debating about it.


My first thought was to replace the alley cat on rides with Nashesha, and hopefully it would get Bernice riding more.

So for the past 3 weekends since getting the tandem Nashesha and I have gone out for 3 to 5 hour rides with groups. And this weekend I went another time with Dina the 12 year old neighbor.

I seldom am so happy parting with that much money.

It is kind of a mtn bike setup, leaning toward a comfort bike. I will change the front seat and pedals soon, and maybe the handle bars. The first ride we were able to do all the hills that took the group 3 hours to negotiate. Some places I could not ride, as I couldn't turn or go through ditches sharp ditches. My first thoughts was it is more stable than the alley cat, and I could use a little lower gearing .

When we turned around and started screaming down smooth sections, managing sand, deep dust, and rough sections I couldnt believe how comfortable the ride was. Is it the tyres, which seem to be wider? or the long frame absorbing the bumps, or the curved fork? Seems more comfortable than my shocked mountain bike.

Next I noticed either the componets work better or my mtn bike is worn out, like smoothness of the brakes. If i work on the shifting on my mtn bike it comes pretty good, but the brakes never.

Other items I need to work on are putting 2 sets of frame bags, a rack on the rear, and maybe a bottle cage or two, a odometer, handle bar bag, holders for lights. I am thinking i could put another long slim bag on the down tube for the stokker position.

Oh yeah it has a really good bell that came with it.

Nsahesha was screaming on half of the fast descents. I dont have to convince her of bike rides, she is suggesting and asking if we are going on sunday.

When I don't ride on Sunday what do I do?

Sometimes I just can't get on the bike and pedal all day.

At 4am the alarm beeped and I debated for 2 minutes and decided to sleep. The rest of the day I made excuses, procrastinated, dreamed, and schemed.

I lean towards being lazy. It is the Norwegian American protestant work ethic that makes me do anything.

I researched rocket stoves.

I researched brick kilns. Mostly vertical brick kilns.

Then the morning was gone.

I started to make another rocket stove, so I looked around the store for materials. Then I felt I needed organize my big store. Then I decided I needed more buildings. I schemed on building a brick wall with mesh openings in the old farm garage. All afternoon I wandered around the property planning.

In the end I took all the bikes out of the walled in store and hung them up in a row and restrung the clothes line. I only wheeled bikes around today.

Hold that plane

Last week I had a tzNIC (no website although it controls all dot TZ names) board meeting in Dar on Tuesday afternoon. I had to stay overnight so I missed the Wednesday club ride. Bummer. But I did get to hold up a scheduled airline.

Getting the ticket this time was a bit of a mess, culminating on finding out 75 minutes before take off that the flight was from KIA airport, 50km away and not Arusha airport 10km away.

I had missed the bus shuttle.
Take off was 11am.
Last check in is 10:30.
It is 50 minutes normal drive.

I gave up but Esther in Customer support says, "You can make it". So I jumped in a taxi at the office 55 minutes before take off.

While in the taxi to the airport the operations manager of Precision Air calls me and asks where I am and when I will get there. (Esther had got on the phone to Precision Air. ) I say hopefully 1045. (For 11am take off). "hurry". I walk briskly to the check in and realize they are all waiting. The ops manager calls me again while I am checking in.

Everyone says hurry. When I walk out of the building the women on the apron says "can you run", so I run to the plane. As soon as I am in the door slams shut and the engines start roaring and we are away.

Jeez, am I a big shot or something. I held up the damn plane for a few minutes. And this is the guy who rides a bicycle to work and walks the stairs instead of the elevator. Hmmm they must of had the wrong guy in mind.

Dar is about 650 km by road. While flying I kept mulling over trying to ride my bike there in 1 1/2 days, rest 1 day and do the meeting. (Now I can keep this post in this blog).

LATER: I was telling Bernice about this and she told me of about 4 times she has held up the plane. Her brother is an air traffic controller and held an International flight once so she could catch it. I guess I am insignificant as I thought.

Monduli Mountains and Plateau

During a Wednesday club ride Mike Peterson asked if I was still doing long rides on the weekends starting in the dark. He said he would join and before you know it we have a crowd. I think we were around 15. It was only 120km what I rode but it was about 7 hours of fairly hard riding and twice we climbed 2500', a numerous other rolling hills. Below is us heading toward Monduli mountain.










We agree to meet at 530 AM on Saturday on the road to Likamba. Everyone is late and it is getting a bit light when we all finally are together. We get treated to sunrise splendor.







We move up through dry farmland and through a valley after valley, ridge after ridge. You can see the riders at the bottom of this valley. The time it took me to stop, whip out my camera, turn it on and point my buddies were at the bottom.






Where is the picture of Wes riding out of this canyon?




I was thinking we would ride straight across to Monduli Town, but we took a right heading up a ridge and ended up going through Mondul Coffee estate. They have some of the best coffee grown in Tanzania. It was so green at this elevation and the farm is protected from cows and goats. Contrast this to the previous previous picture.




Right there we came across this xxxx chameleon. way cool.









View to the south from the rain forest.








From here on the riding got really cool and everyone was excited about riding down single track into Monduli town. There was one rocky section that some of us walked but most of it was screaming fast, teeth showing, fun downhill.


A view of the trail from above. I couldn't get the camera out quick enough to catch someone in the picture.







In Monduli town we stopped in a roadside hoteli to drink chai and eat whatever people had in their pockets. Some decided to head home from here and some decided to ride up to Monduli Juu and over the 7 corners, where the road drops down into the Engaruka basin at Mfereji. The young guys left us quickly on the climb and eventually Wes turned around too and i was on my own. The road is really good, could almost do this on a road bike.

Just a few kilometers before the steep drop into the basin i met Thomas under a tree and we waited for the rest who came by shortly.













We had a soda in Monduli after 30 minutes of coasting down and took the old road across to Kisongo. It is completely gone. You can see where the culverts and bridges were in places but the road is mostly erased. enlarge the picture and the red shows the big erosion in this area.




People started peeling off for trails to their homes and then it was Paulo and Richard and myself. 12 km only and then Paulo had flat troubles and we got to fix some flats on the side of the highway in the full sun.

That evening i was sick for awhile, think i had sunstroke slightly.