pt. 2_day1

For my next exploration I plan on experimenting with water kefir, and making a variety of fermented beverages from it.

I have had a fascination with making cultured food for a while now, and go in and out of trying it...whether that is yogurt, sourdough, etc. I have found a number of challenges with them in the past, and am excited to see what I come up with when it comes to water kefir, and to see if the challenges are the same, different, or nonexistent.

Image borrowed from www.culturedfoodlife.com

pt. 1_day5

Day 5 I rode about 30 miles but actually climbed some hills for fun. I decided to ride up Heekin twice, which was a worthwhile challenge, though certainly wore my legs out.

The biggest single revelation of this entire experience...I need to get some glasses with lenses that I can see through at night. I almost always ride with sunglass on a lanyard of sorts so I can take them off easily if I am in a super shaded area. That said when it gets to dusk, I have to take them off in order to see...that exact time happens to coincide with all the bugs coming out, so I tend to have to ride slower and constantly deal with gnats getting in my eyes.

pt. 1_day4

Day 4 rode 28 miles or so. 

Hot, but rode most of the time with a partner today. Gotta dial in a few things as when I am with someone else, and have to lock my bike up and load up my pockets, it takes forever.

Also discovered revisited the fundamental design flaw in the Erie Bike Trail, in which you have to ride on more or less a highway between sections. Above is Lyle on said section. Today was the first day I realized I may be getting stronger from this really quickly.

pt. 1_day3

Didn't take a lot of photos today, or climb all that much, but clocked a bit of mileage at 51.6 and 2,308 feet of climbing. I am using Ride With GPS on my phone to track everything, and find that while interesting for the sake of this project, it doesn't seem to tell me all that much about the real parts of the bike ride...am I tired, do I feel particularly fast or strong through a section, etc. I have typically avoided these measuring tools until now, though quite a few people I ride with seem to be into them. Maybe tomorrow I will follow someone else's route using it.

I also made a few decisions of adaptations to my setup that I need to execute later...mostly buying a much smaller lock situation for day rides where I am never going to be more than 50 feet from my bike.

I saw this snake...

...and fiddled with my brakes a bunch. After years of trial and error, I have dialed in my seat bag  really pretty much perfectly...I wish I could say the same for my rear brake.

One of the days this week, I will make a point not to ride across or near the Little Miami River. Not today.

pt. 1_day2

Day 2, I was a little slow on my way into work. Grabbed an Iced Americano and rode one handed from Startbucks drinking it on the way...saw this great GT Triple Triangle locked up at DAAP.

This awesome building is at the bottom of one of my favorite descents in town...from Ault Park down to Eastern Ave. This time around I rode back up, and back down...a first for me as I had never climbed that road.

Rode along the river for a little while, a bit further east than I usually venture, and man it is weird out there. 

Ate a great sandwich at the High Mark, and rode the 5 miles or so home. Funny story about the High Mark...the first time I ever noticed the place, I was on a bike ride checking out the flood we had earlier this year, and noticed them pumping out their basement, which apparently had 5 feet of water in it. I guess the name seemed fitting...or a jinx.

Relatively short day at 26.6 miles but dense with climbing at 1,923 ft.

pt. 1_day1B

Day one I got a little over zealous and ended up pedaling just under 45 miles and 2,000 feet of climbing when I add my ride to and from work to the ride I did in the evening. Fun was had, and the weather was nice, but I am a little tired on day 2.

Saw some nature, road off trail a little bit and ended up getting stranded and having to hike a bike out of the woods and up to the road in Beechmont...incredibly, no ticks. I ended up riding some areas that I had never ridden before, finding that the bike trail has a weird jog, where you more or less have to ride on a 4 lane highway for 2 miles, and discovered a nice stretch of downhill gravel in Ault Park.

pt. 1_day1A

Ride my bike 25 miles. That's the first daily task / act to undertake in this year's Task to Ritual project at UC. The act of riding 25 miles in and of itself is pretty easy, but getting myself out every day to accomplish this is where things get tricky.

I have been an avid bicycle rider for my entire life, but since pretty much quitting BMX due to injuries in 2010, I have suffered with making riding a bicycle something I do everyday,,,more on that later. 

First part of Day 1...ride my bike to work. I live in a valley and work on a hill so my ride to work consists pretty much of a long hill climb and thats it.

Sidenote: There are going to be a ton of photos of my handlebars throughout this.

The First Post

It's 2016, and I fully recognize that the age of blogs has come and gone. That being said, they are still a great format, so I decided to build one. It will go more in depth into projects I work on, be a place for me to share thoughts associated to design, and share things that have influence my relationship with and interpretation of design.

The first post is of a video of me riding BMX from all the way back in 2007. My time in BMX slowed to a virtual standstill almost immediately after the completion of this video, which coincided with my second ACL reconstruction. 

This video is relevant as BMX played a major role in developing my interest in design. I began riding when I was 12, and formed a friendship with a product in a way that I feel few people ever experience. Bikes have played an extraordinary role in my life since, though most of the bikes in my life now are larger and have brakes.

Because of this friendship with an inanimate object I have had for most of my life, bicycles will be one of the many topics featured on this blog. We will visit different times throughout my past in which bicycles have played different roles, different experiences I have been given via bicycles, and discuss why the bicycle may just be the ultimate product.