Palm Beach Bike Tours - No, you can't sign up for a bicycle tour here. This is a blog by my friend Ken Steinhoff who rides a lot and knows a lot and writes some pretty good stuff. Check it out.

Jan Norris is former Food Editor at The Palm Beach Post. If you want to know where to eat in Palm Beach County, you need to read this blog.

CPS Racing I also ride motorcycles. I found Paul Vilte's shop a couple of years ago and I've been a fan ever since. He is a motorcycle racer so he knows how to set up a bike so it will perform for you. I now trust the care and service of three motorcycles to Paul and he has never let me down.

The Children's Coalition We try to help at-risk kids by exposing them to computers, digital photography, web design, and other stuff in hopes of broadening their horizons. We can use your help. Visit the site to learn more.

Palm Beach Bicycle Trail Shop This is my local bike shop. They have been unfailingly polite and helpful when I stop by and I do that often. Next time you are in Palm Beach, stop by the shop next to the Palm Beach Hotel just across from Publix and say hello.

The Coastal Star is a print-digital newspaper-blog networking site started by my friend Mary Kate Leming serving the coastal communities south of Palm Beach. Mary Kate has my admiration for being the only person bought out by Palm Beach Newspapers twice. You gotta be doing something right to have that happen. Check it out.

Charles Keefer has been a photographer, reporter, editor, and computer programmer during a 40-year career in the news business. He is now a web site consultant and amateur photographer based in West Palm Beach's CityPlace. He also has this thing for two-wheeled vehicles - he owns six bicycles and two motorcycles. Visit his other sites at slowbikes.org, lostcyclist.com, and shambleyfarm.com.

Email: charles.keefer@gmail.com.

2009

2008

New Platform

Feb. 23, 2009 - This blog has moved to www.charleskeefer.wordpress.com even though I hate using other people's software. I'm doing it for you, dear readers, so that you can leave comments.

Enjoy.

Win a Bicycle Light Set

See the New Year's Resolution Contest entry at the bottom of this page to win a set of Planet Bike Blaze Superflash Lites.

Dinghy

Feb. 17, 2009 - Reader Matt Steinhoff informs me that dinghy is "an Anglicized version of the Hindi word for float or raft" and that the answer was found at wiki.answers.com, a site I didn't know about. It purports to answer such questions as "What are the seven improvements Julius Caesar made to Rome?" and 'How does composting help the environment?".

Back in a second. I'm going to ask it the meaning of life.

OK. I'm back.

The question I asked it is "What is the answer to everything?" I was expecting 42, the perfectly logical answer from Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

The answer from wiki.answers.com: "try asking google".

Another dream crushed.

By the way, Google got it right.

I didn't do my normal Palm Beach Bike Trail loop today. Instead, I headed south on a mission. First, I wanted to find out how far it was from City Place to the Lake Worth Bridge and back. Second, I wanted to see if Wayne at Bicycle had any of those wonderful brass bicycle bells I've seen around.

Mission partially accomplished (I get to wear only half a flight suit).

The round trip (Flagler to the Southern Blvd. bridge, down S. Ocean to the Lake Worth bridge, and back on Federal and Dixie) is 16.57 miles. The route south is very pretty with the intra-coastal and the ocean on your left and the mansions on your right. You just can't be squeamish about having about a thousand cars and pickups pass inches from your handlebars because there is no bike lane. Most folks move over when traffic allows and there is a bike lane going north. Heading north on Federal and Dixie is urban assault riding.

I've been spoiled by the Lake Trail which, in addition to no cars, has the added benefit of Palm Beachers in the wild. There you see walkers, joggers, old folks, grounds keepers, nannies with kids, nannies with herds of dogs, and the occasional trophy wife capable of looking like Bo Derek while jogging several miles without breaking a sweat. You don't see the mansions, however. Foliage. Damn, I wish I had money.

The bicycle bells are out of stock. Wayne says he had no trouble selling out his last order of 6 and will order 10 this time. They retail for $19.95 and it will be about two weeks before they come in. I've got dibs on at least two of them and I'm thinking about how good a third will look on my antique, restored Viner Italian tourer.

Contest log:

Lost a Leg

Feb. 16, 2009 - As fellow cyclist Ken Steinhoff points out, I've been "slowing down" on the way to my 3,000 mile goal. Good news for you.

Today I was going to make up a bit by doing two loops rather than one, despite it being windy to the point that a gust almost blew me over on the Hammock Dunes Bridge (that's what Google Maps calls the north bridge). But ...

As I was getting a drink at the trailhead fountain on Sunset Ave., I heard the half-flop, half-crash sound a bicycle makes when it falls over. Upon investigation, I found that my big recumbent hit the pavement because it lost its kickstand - the "leg" it stands on.

Phil at the Bicycle Trail Shop found a more substantial screw to repair it, but now he is off on a mission to find a kickstand that better fits the thick aluminum frame of my bike. During the repair, the guys also had to handle about 10 other people who walked in to rent bikes and check on purchases or repairs. Busy place.

That shot up the time I had for the second loop. However, due to a good start, I'm still 17 miles ahead of schedule based on 60 miles a week. So here is the report for today.

Contest log:

73 Lasers

Feb. 12, 2009 - Lots of sailboats passed the Palm Beach docks Sunday morning. Turns out the Palm Beach Sailing Club was hosting the Florida Laser Masters' regatta. According to the results posted on their site, 73 boats participated.

Wikipedia says the Laser is a one-design class of small sailing dinghy that is 13' 10" long, has 75 sq-ft of sail and weighs 130 lbs. It also is one of the most popular single-handed dinghies in the world with 190,000 boats produced by various manufacturers.

A quick search didn't reveal to me the origins of the name dinghy, but I am fairly certain they are different from Jan Norris' favorite word for just about everything - "thingy."

The sailing club has several you can use, but their site gives no information on membership or costs. If you want to know more, stop by the office. I guess if you have to ask ...

If you want your own, you'll have to cough up around $5,000 not including shipping.

Contest log:

Introducing the Hypermotard

Feb. 4, 2009 - Welcome my new ride.

This is a Ducati Hypermotard 1100S - a screaming, kick-butt motorcycle that is so hot it is downright scary. Yesterday I traded my beloved Suzuki SV1000 and my Ducati Monster S2R 800 for this thing and I'm not looking back. It is the perfect combination of both of those bikes - only on steroids.

After $2,000 worth of modifications, the Suzuki pulled like a mad mustang goosed with a cattle prod. Suzuki unofficially called the machine the "torque monster." The Hypermotard has nearly twice the torque from the factory. That means that if you do anything more than barely crack the throttle in first gear, the front wheel is coming off the ground and you'll be hanging on to a hell-bound monocycle approaching a rapid and unhappy end. Some, who do this for fun, call this a "wheelie".

The Suzuki was no slouch in the handling department, but the Ducati Monster S2R 800 took handling to another level. Most of the four cylinder street bikes out there require some effort to haul them over into a turn. On the S2R 800, you thought it around a corner. There was simply no effort involved. My motorcycle mechanic, Paul Vilte of Competition Power Sports in Lake Worth (see the links on the left), has been racing motorcycles for years and took the Hypermotard out on the track when it was introduced a couple of years ago. "It will handle 10 times better than the Monster," he told me. I simply have to take it on faith because my riding skills are nowhere near what it would take to actually test that assertion.

Unlike some people, I don't name my vehicles. My car is simply "the Porsche." My BMW R1200RT is "the BMW." If I were to name the Hypermotard, I'd probably call it "the Alien" from the movie of the same name. At this point, it is that scary.

I put it in the stable with a mere 54 miles on the odo because it is getting cold out there. By the time I have to change the oil at 600 miles, I may be calling it "Crack" or "Horse" for how it makes me feel (not that I have actually tried any of those illegal drugs - I'm just working from their reputation).

Without further comment, more views.

Contest log:

New Year's Resolution Contest

Blaze Superflash Lites

I normally don't make New Year's resolutions for the very good reason that, like most people, I don't keep them. But, it is a new year, I have a new job title - retired - and it is never too late to change. So here goes. I resolve to ride 3,000 miles on a bicycle over the next year. I'm hoping this shouldn't be that difficult. My almost daily bicycle loop, from my apartment in West Palm Beach's City Place to the docks at the north end of the Palm Beach Bicycle Trail and back is about 12 miles. If I can do this five times a week for 50 out of the 52 weeks of the year, I'll hit 3,000 miles on the nose. Any other recreational riding or touring will be just gravy.

We will keep track of it with daily entries right here. That way you can tell if I succumb to sloth and you can match my progress fulfilling my resolution with your performance fulfilling your own.

Just to make it interesting, and as an incentive to keep me riding, we'll have a little contest. I'll bet a Planet Bike Blaze Superflash Light Set that I make it. To win, you must most accurately predict when I blow up and quit.

That doesn't mean you get the light set the first day I miss an entry. That means if your prediction most accurately reflects the day I admit my goal is unreachable, you win.

Two other rules. If I'm still riding the day after your prediction, you are out of the contest. I'll not have certain of my friends betting on Jan. 3 and having any chance in the world to win. Also, you only get one prediction.

And, of course, I'll post your predictions and I'll remind you of them when I make you a loser.

To win the light set, send your predictions to charles.keefer@gmail.com.