Solution:  The Chicken Paradise Bike Tour

Dad rides an Electra Townie bicycle and a few years ago did his longest ride – the 25-mile route of Conquer The Coast.  I wanted to share the bicycle touring bug with him and started planning a weekend, overnight bicycle tour.  Each time I mapped out a route, the distances were usually well outside his range.

Then the idea formed in my mind about doing a bicycle tour right here in my hometown of San Antonio.  After doing a little research, the Chicken Paradise Bike Tour was born!

We’d leave Dad’s house in the Town of Hollywood Park and bike 10-12 miles one-way to the Chicken Paradise, a bed and breakfast in central San Antonio.  We’d stay overnight and then bike home the next day.  The mileage would allow Dad to ride his bicycle at a comfortable pace and would give me the opportunity to make his first bicycle tour a really positive experience.

Equipment for the Tour

Justin : CoMotion Americano Bicycle (Rohloff Speedhub, Tubus Cargo Rear Bike Rack, Brooks B17 Saddle) with Arkel T-42 panniers

Jack : Electra Townie Bicycle, Electra Rear Rack & Bag

Route

Most of the route would involve a bicycle lane on Blanco Road, a major north/south street.  A stretch of almost a mile would require us to “take the lane” as vehicular cyclists on Blanco Road when it loses its bicycle facilities at Interstate 410.  We’d then make a left turn off Blanco onto quiet, residential streets for the remainder of our journey.

The Chicken Paradise Bike Tour Route

Saddle up! Chicken Paradise Bike Tour begins!

The Journey Begins

With our route planned, bikes prepped and reservations made it was time to begin.  We left Dad’s house at 10:30am and made our first stop at Phil Hardberger Park, a new park in North Central San Antonio.  We hydrated and explored some really cool exhibits including solar panels, the use of natural materials for building and rainwater reclamation.

Dad in front of huge rainwater reclamation tanks at Phil Hardberger Park

We hit the road again aiming for our next stop – lunch at Dough restaurant.  We lost our bicycle lane about a 1/4 mile from the restaurant and exercised our legal right to the road with no issue at all.  At Dough, we dined on the Margherita Pizza – a vegetarian selection that hit the spot.  We finished off our meal with some caffeinated beverages and a delicious Polenta Cake (one of the lighter dessert items on the menu!).

Yummy Polenta Cake hit the spot and powered us on to our destination!

It was time to make our final dash for our destination.  After about a mile of “taking the lane” on Blanco Road we followed my route onto quiet residential streets and in no time arrived at the Chicken Paradise Bed & Breakfast – nestled among rows of home, the long driveway to the entrance ends with a gate you might expect for a property out in the country.  Passing through that gate, the urban world around us disappeared behind us – replaced with wandering chickens, beautiful peacocks, towering trees and a sudden sense of calm.

Entrance to Chicken Paradise with Theo, the peacock!

We were quickly greeted by “Papa Joe” Barfield who gave us the glorious news that the Paradise Suite was already ready despite our arrival about 1.5 hours before check-in.

After storing the bikes and cleaning up, it was time to explore this amazing place.  My mother & daughter showed up about an hour later and like many of my tours the adventure became a family affair.  Within minutes of arriving, my daughter was climbing the many steps leading up to the incredible tree house on the property.  Soon my sister and niece arrived and we took a dive in the almost too cool but actually just right swimming pool.

Nana's Treehouse - you have to see it to believe it!

The next morning we had an amazing breakfast from our wonderful hosts Joe & Ann Barfield.  An appetizer of fresh fruit followed by a goat cheese omelet and waffles.  We knew we’d have plenty of fuel for our short, but mostly uphill journey back home.  Just before we left we were dazzled by the antics of Theo, peacock extraordinaire, strutting his beautiful colors for girlfriend Cleo a few steps away (turns out she wasn’t in the mood but Theo made a valiant attempt!).

Theo shows off for girlfriend Cleo (and us!)

Breakfast was amazing!

We loaded our bikes, said goodbye to our wonderful hosts and their amazing place and pedaled our way out the gate.  Sunday morning meant we had very light traffic to deal with and this made the ride home stress free and enjoyable despite the mostly uphill journey.

Three generations - Me, my daughter and my Dad - departing Chicken Paradise

There was, of course, that ginormous hill I knew we’d have to climb about 3/4 of the way home.  As we approached it, Dad said he might walk the bike.  If he had, I would have totally understood.  The hill is a long, steep climb that I encounter everyday I ride my bicycle to work.  As we approached it Dad took advantage of every one of those 24 gears on his Townie and slowly, but steadily…we conquered that hill together.

We celebrated with some Americano’s at a nearby Starbucks knowing that the rest of the ride would be flat.

Starbucks celebration for the hill climbers!

As we pulled into the driveway at my Dad’s house, I realized bicycle tour #8 had reached an end for me.  It was a very special bicycle tour with a very special fella – my Dad.

View the Chicken Paradise Tour Photo Gallery

Great job, Dad!  Time to plan our next tour!

Safe arrival back home is the end of our fun, overnight bicycle tour!

Trek Valencia and a 1946 North American Navion

I’m a private pilot that loves riding bicycles.

On the surface, you might assume that flying and bicycling have very little in common, right?

It turns out that flying and bicycling have many things in common.  Here are just a few…

• What were the Wright Brothers doing before they built that first, famous airplane?  Building bicycles!
• Riding a bicycle is a workout and believe you me…flying an airplane can be as well – just ask a pilot after a training flight full of maneuvers and multiple landings!
• Headwinds can be bad news for bicycles AND airplanes.  On your bicycle it means more work, slower speeds and thus a longer ride duration.  In an airplane it’s more fuel, slower speed and yep…a longer flight
• Turbulence in a small airplane and a rough road on the bicycle can be disturbingly similar
• Many aircraft today are made of aluminum and steel as are many bicycles
• Like cyclists…private pilots are part of a community, General Aviation, that faces many challenges

What other similarities do YOU see between bicycling and flying?

That’s the slogan of custom bicycle builder CoMotion Cycles.  About a year ago, smitten by the bicycle touring bug, I decided to start putting some cash aside so I could purchase what many bicycle tourists agree is one of the top touring bikes on the market – the CoMotion Americano.  I was determined, too, to add a truly American Made bicycle to my stable.

Nickel Headbadge of my Americano

Having logged several hundred miles on my Trek Soho commuter bicycle, the Rohloff version of the Americano with the Gates Carbon Drive was singing its siren song.  Despite the price, what’s not to like about having a very wide-range 14-speed bullet proof internal hub with a maintenance free carbon belt.  Part of my research involved following a bicycle tourist with a similar rig who was doing a cross-country bike tour.  His experiences doing 3,000+ miles using this setup was very encouraging.

Once I got my finances in gear, I had the pleasure of working with Dwan Shepard and Pete Stasney at CoMotion Bikes to work out the detailed design and setup of my Americano.  After a few weeks, I picked up my Americano from the good folks at Bicycle Sport Shop in Austin, TX and shortly thereafter completed my first overnight bicycle tour to Blanco, TX.

Here are the specs for my CoMotion Americano Rohloff:

• Classic Trim Package – Brooks B17 Saddle, Brooks Leather Grip, Nickel Headbadge
• Gates Carbon Drive
• Tubus Tara front rack and Tubus Cargo rear rack
• Ergon PC-2 Pedals
• Arkel T-28 (front) and T-42 (rear) panniers

I’m closing in on 200 miles on the bicycle and will rapidly increase this mileage as my bike tours mature from overnight excursions to 2-3 day mini-tours.

An Americano is born!

Americano poses for a portrait

A bicycle commuter is born - July 2008, gas at $3.97 a gallon

Ride to work.

Ride to breakfast/lunch/dinner.

Ride to an event.

Yes, all of these are possible, but only if you’ve been awakened to the fact that the bicycle in your garage can be so much more than a fitness device.

Before my own awakening, back in the early part of 2008,  I actually remember worrying about things like “how would I get to work if there was a gas shortage” at a time when there was much doom and gloom about gas prices continuing to climb and potential gas shortages.

Then it happened.

I realized that most weekends I’d ride my bicycle care free 20-40 miles with friends.  The round-trip distance to work was about 18-22 miles depending on route.  Wait a second!  I could ride my bike to work!

In June 2008, I completed my first bicycle commute with the help of some fellow commuters who kept me under their wing for my first few rides.

I still remember the strange feeling I had when I was at work that day, “My truck is not here…I got here on my BICYCLE…whoa!”

That feeling was more than just the mere realization that I’d made the journey to work on two wheels.  It was much more than realizing I’d saved $8 in gas money.  It was an awakening…that awareness that I would never look at my bicycle in quite the same way.

It was the moment I viewed The Bicycle as Transportation.

Grocery shopping by bicycle with the Burley Travoy!

“Cool!  What is that?!”

That’s a typical response I get when riding my bicycle with the Burley Travoy attached.  The Travoy is an attention getter both because of it’s unique look and it’s uncanny ability in a manner of seconds to add cargo carrying utility to nearly any bike.

I have used my Travoy to:

• Carry all the equipment I need to facilitate a bicycle safety presentation including laptop, projector and handouts.
• Transport groceries (Tip: Just take your Travoy bags into the store and load groceries into them so you can maximize how many groceries you purchase without exceeding your carrying capacity)

A lot of thought went into the design and operation of the Travoy, including:

• The “twist and fold” system makes it easy to quickly fold the Travoy into a compact size that can be carried with you like a small piece of luggage.  It also makes it easy to store your Travoy when not in use.
• The latching mechanism used to secure the Travoy bags to the frame is intuitive and easy to use
• The seatpost attachment system means you can use a Travoy on virtually any bicycle – you can leave the Burley collar on your bicycle at all times and then quickly attach or detach the Burley Trailor when you need cargo capacity on your bike.

The biggest challenge the Travoy may have to overcome is its price.  I’ve had more than one cyclist cringe at the ~$280 price tag.

If you consider, however, that the Travoy has serious potential for introducing you to a whole new world of transportation & utility cycling then this price of entry becomes much more reasonable.

More grocery shopping by Burley Travoy (and Trek Soho S)

Burley Travoy loaded with projector, computer and other accessories for my bicycle safety class

Tour de Cure 2011 finish with my biggest fan!

In 2011, riding my bicycle to/from work helped me avoid purchasing 100 gallons of gasoline which put just over $300 back in my pocket.  Thank you, bicycle!

Thanks to Garmin Connect it’s easy to look back and analyze my 2011 bicycle mileage:

• Transportation:  1,190 miles (commuting, errands)
• Training:  607 miles (prep for cycling events like Tour de Cure)
• Fitness:  240 miles (usually solo rides about an hour in length)
• Touring:  225 miles (overnight tours to Comfort, Blanco, etc.)
• Recreation:  29 miles (easy rides with family)
• Events:  225 miles (Tour de Cure, Hammerfest, Rock ‘n Roll Bike Tour)

Total Mileage:  2,516 miles

Highlights of 2011 include:

• A full year of commuting on my Trek Soho bicycle purchased December 2010
• I purchased a CoMotion Americano touring bicycle – an American, handmade bicycle I look forward to racking up some serious mileage on
• I co-taught six Traffic Skills 101 bicycle safety classes (that’s about 54 hours of teaching people how to be safe on their bikes!)
• I presented my first of hopefully many FREE bicycle safety presentations at San Antonio Public Libraries.
• I completed three overnight bicycle tours to Seguin, Comfort and Blanco, TX
• I participated in three events I’d never done before: Tour de Cure, La Vernia Hammerfest and the San Antonio Rock ‘n Roll Marathon Bike Tour.

Looking back on 2011, I can honestly say it was definitely a “Year of the Bike” for me and 2012 is already lining up to be another banner year!

Deborah (left) is all grins as she rides her bicycle home for the first time

I was born a bicycle commuter in June 2008 when gas prices flirted with $4 a gallon.

Nearly 6,000 miles later, I’m still trying to make the 21 mile roundtrip bicycle commute at least twice a week.  What has held my interest in bicycle commuting over the past three years?  Time for a Top 10 list!

1. The “never stops amazing me” efficiency of getting a workout and getting to work in one activity
2. The money savings (currently about $6 saved for each commute)
3. The 500-700 calories burned for each roundtrip commute
4. The continued fascination of using a bicycle as transportation
5. The experience of soaking up the sounds and smells of the world around me on the bicycle
6. The health benefits and elevated mood provided by nearly two hours of cardiovascular exercise for each commute
7. The quality of sleep on bicycle commute days and the amazing ability to fall asleep in seconds once head hits pillow
8. The interaction with people I meet along the route – joggers, walkers, the old, the young
9. Introducing bicycle commuting to a cyclist and joining them on their first, usually awe-inspiring ride to work
10. The example I’m providing my daughter that human-powered transportation is viable and fun

What are your top 3, top 5 or top 10 things you love about bicycle commuting?