King's Chronicle -- April 2005

Note: The Spoke ‘n Word is the official newsletter of the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club.

The Second Sunday Biltmore Forest Tour will start with a super easy ride on Sunday, April 10 at 1:00 PM. We will start from the Ingles Parking lot at the South Forest Shopping Center on Hendersonville Road. Busbee is the cross street on Hendersonville Road. This ride will be only seven miles, and will last for about 35 minutes. There are no hills on this ride. If you want to learn a no hill loop through Biltmore Forest, this is your chance.

This is a super easy ride, so kids are welcome. However, we will be crossing Hendersonville Road at the traffic light on Busbee Road. The rest of the ride is very low traffic. There are several hill loops we will be skipping, so if anyone wants to join us and add a few hills on their own, they are welcome to do so.

If you have not been on the bike since last year, this is a great tune up ride to get back in the groove. Helmets are required. No one is dropped!

Tuesday Night Rides

The Tuesday Night Biltmore Forest Tour returns this Tuesday April 19 at 6:00 PM. We'll be starting the season with a slightly shorter and easier version of the regular ride. We'll skip four of the big hills. Normally the ride is about 20 miles. The starting version will be about 15 miles. Average speed will probably be about 12 mph.

Meet at the back parking lot of TGI Fridays on Hendersonville Road near the entrance to the Biltmore Estate. This is about 1/2 mile north of I-40. Helmets are required. All are welcome. No one gets dropped. Ride starts at 6:00 PM, and we should be done by 8:00PM. No ride if it's raining or if the weather radar looks bad.

I have seen many riders out previewing the course. That's great! There is a map and queue sheet available on the BRBC ride library. There are a lot of turns on this course, so expect to get disoriented from time to time. If you ever get really lost, try to find your way to Vanderbilt or Stuyvesant roads. (These are east of most of the official course. Head towards Hendersonville Road.) Vanderbilt and Stuyvesant are the main roads that run north and south through Biltmore Forest. If you can find either of these roads, take it and head north. (Mostly downhill from most locations.) Eventually they will take you back to the parking lot behind TGI-Fridays.

It takes several rides to get oriented in Biltmore Forest. It's very confusing at first, but the light traffic and beautiful scenery make it all worthwhile.

If anyone would like to lead additional rides in Biltmore Forest, that would be great.

Please set a good example while riding in Biltmore Forest. Whenever there is a car behind you, be sure to ride single file. When it is clear for them to pass, give them the "go ahead and pass" signal.

Biltmore Forest Lite

The first Tuesday Night Biltmore Forest ride turned in a respectable 16.6 miles in just under two hours. We skipped five of the climbs, and will continue with this route for the rest of April. Several other riders (Michelle, Bonnie and others) were out on the course enjoying the excellent riding conditions. A convoy of high school hooligans were on their way to a home with no parents on duty. It made the ride a little extra exciting and reminded all of us to ride defensively. No contact, but a nice set of skid marks... Discussion topics were bicycle riding, economics fitness in four minutes and investing.

Don't forget Claudia Nix's presentation Wednesday evening on adding value to communities with bike lanes and mountain bike areas.

For those of you interested in economics, the annual Crystal Ball Seminar is this Thursday at UNCA. 6:15 PM to ~8:30 PM Chestnut Ridge Room- Reuters Center, lower level, UNCA campus. Get a glimpse into the economic future for the next year from two of the leading economists in the US. Free registration: kmoore@unca.edu

Low Cost Cell Phone Service

Do I Want One?

Cell phones can be very helpful to bicycle riders. Being able to summon help in an emergency or just getting picked up when you run out of spare tubes and patches is a good thing. Sorting through all the cell phone deals to determine the best one can be daunting. Monthly plans typically run around $30 to $40 per month. With a corporate connection, some plans can be as low as $20 per month. My research project was to determine the best deal in a cell phone for a value conscious bicycle rider. A little research found that prepaid cell phones are the least expensive option. There are three services available: Tracfone, Virgin Mobile and Simple Freedom. They each have different pricing policies so it is difficult to compare them directly. Tracfone appears to be the leader. An informal survey of Tracfone users found that most were very satisfied.

A Tracfone with charger and batteries costs about $35.00. After you buy the phone, you buy minute cards for service.

Tracfone has all the advantages of a prepaid plan and appears to have very good coverage. The Tracfone pricing choices are complicated so this article sorts through a few of them so you can see which option is best for you.

Tracfone Minute Cards

There are six different cards for buying minutes for the Tracfone. Four cards require you to buy new minutes every 60 days (six cards per year) and two of the cards give you a one year usage period.

The four cards that require the purchase of new minutes every 60 days do not lose their minutes. You just have to buy some new minutes every 60 days to keep the cell phone active.

Minutes	Card Cost	Cost per Minute
40	$18.92	$0.47
100	$29.58	$0.29
200	$48.42	$0.24
400	$78.66	$0.19

Minutes	Card Cost	Cost Per Minute
150	$93.42	$0.62
300	$148.46	$0.49

The 300 minute card also doubles the minutes of other cards that are purchased. A 200 minute card becomes a 400 minute card. The cost per minute is cut in half.

What's the Best Deal?

The best deal depends on how many minutes are used. Obviously this will vary from month to month and is difficult to predict. Here are a few possibilities:

Plan	Annual Cost	Monthly Cost	Annual Minutes	Monthly Minutes	Cost Per Minute
Six 40 Minute Cards	$113.52	$9.46	240	20	$0.473
One 150 Min Card	$93.42	$7.78	150	12.5	$0.62
One 300 Min Card	$148.46	$12.37	300	25	$0.49
300 Min Card + 400 Min Card Doubled	$227.12	$18.92	1100	91.66	$0.206

If you want the lowest cost cell phone service, the Tracfone with a 150 minute card is the rock bottom deal. This gives you 150 minutes for the year, or only 12.5 minutes per month. For emergency use only, this is the best deal.

For the lowest cost per minute, a 300 minute card and a 400 minute card (doubled by the 300 minute card) is the best deal. You get one year of service with a cost per minute of only $0.206. Total cost for the year is $227.12. This averages out to $18.92 per month which is still well below most regular monthly cell phone packages.

An Even Better Deal

From the webmaster: the absolute best deal is a free cellular phone. The FCC requires that all cellular phones be able to make free 911 calls, place credit card calls or collect calls anywhere in the US. So any cellular phone, whether its service contract is valid or not, can make such calls. Of course, you should only call 911 in an emergency--but that is why you carry a cell phone with you on your bike.

If they happen to have any phones with expired contracts, most cellular phone stores will be happy to give you one. Or you can buy one from any of several companies, including the ones below.

Riding with Slower Riders

We all like to ride at our own speed, but contrary to the Declaration of Independence we are not all created equal. Some of us are faster and some are slower. To make the rides more enjoyable for everyone, faster riders can double up on the hills. On long, or even short climbs, let everyone proceed at their own pace. Traditionally, the fastest climbers will reach the summit first and then stop to wait for the slower climbers to catch up. This is not really a good approach. The faster riders get a longer break and the slower riders have to push themselves more than is really optimum.

A better approach is for the faster riders to double up or even triple up on the hill. Everyone rides at their own pace. When the faster riders get to the top of the hill, they turn around and head back down. Keep going until you are well below the slower riders. The slower riders are now ahead and the faster riders are chasing. This encourages the slower riders, and gives the faster riders more miles and more hill climbing. If the faster riders time it right, everyone reaches the summit at the same time. The slower riders don't feel like they are holding the faster riders back, and the faster riders can ride fast and get a better workout.

Where are the Flat Places to Ride?

We live in the mountains. There are not too many flat places to ride, but it's a recurring question from newcomers: Where are the flat places to ride? For very short rides with children, or to get back into bicycle riding, Bent Creek Experimental Forest is a good place to ride. It costs $6.00 to park an automobile in the North Carolina Arboretum (except on Tuesdays). You can ride a bicycle in for free. There are a few places to park outside the Arboretum and then ride your bicycle into the Arboretum. There is a USDA Forest Service road that runs along Bent Creek that is very flat. It's popular with hikers, walkers, joggers and bicycle riders. The Park Rangers are the only ones allowed to use motor vehicles, and they usually drive pretty safely. If they are in hot pursuit of a jogger, look out. On the weekends, the main sections of Bent Creek are very safe to walk, jog or ride because there are lots of people around.

For a little bit more riding, Biltmore Forest, has some flat sections. Biltmore Forest is south of Asheville and just west of Hendersonville Road (Route 25). You can park at the Ingles at the South Forest Shopping Center on Hendersonville Road, or at the park in the middle of Biltmore Forest. They are pretty particular about where you park your automobile, so be sure to park in a legitimate space. If you stick to the roads around the park, in the central area of Biltmore Forest, you can avoid most of the hills. There are some hills, so don't go down anything you can't climb back up.

The longest flat stretch I know of is along the French Broad River. Riverside Drive (Highway 251) runs along the French Broad River. Ledges Park is a popular place to start from. You could also start from UNCA if you don't mind dealing with a little bit more traffic. Ride north into Madison County. Follow the signs to Marshall, the county seat of Madison County. The Buncombe County landfill is on this road, so it's not so nice during the week due to all the garbage trucks. But on the weekend, it's fine.

Henderson County has some nice flat sections. There is a very popular Tuesday evening ride near Etowah during Daylight Saving Time. Check the BRBC email list server at Topica for details.

Of all the organized weekend rides in WNC, the Fletcher Flyer has the flattest courses. Gregory Wilcox voiced the secret desire of many riders in WNC for a weekend ride without killer hills. Expert course designer Ralph Draves came up with some beautiful courses that minimize hills and maximize enjoyment. For 2005, the 100 mile course is even flatter than last year. The cumulative climbing is only 4044' for the full century. That is only about 40' per mile, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains, yet! There are also 50 and 62 mile courses to choose from. Starting in Fletcher Park, near Fletcher, NC, these rides meander though the beautiful apple country of Henderson County. The rides start on Sunday, June 5, 2005, at 8:00 AM. If you enjoy riding but are not keen on big hills, this is the ride for you.

Finally, the Family Ride at the Hilly Hellacious Hundred is a nice 15 mile ride that can be doubled into a 30 mile ride. There are a few hills, but nothing too terrible. A cue sheet is available at the BRBC Ride Library. The official start at the annual Hilly is at Cane Creek Cycling on Cane Creek Road, near Fletcher. If you are doing the ride on your own, it's a better place to start than Fletcher Park. There is much better parking.

Hinges of the Gates of Hell

A few years ago while living in Georgia, I rode a century in August. It was insanely hot. I mean really hot--hotter than the hinges hanging off the gates of hell hot. The ride started at 8 am and it was already humid, so I began drinking water at every stop, and drinking continually while I rode.

To make a long story short, at about mile 80 or so I flatted. My friends who I was riding with at the time stopped also. I had felt fine up until this point. I sat down in the shade under a tree and began to change the flat. At this point I started feeling very odd, very confused, I had trouble speaking and I felt quite dizzy. Over the next few minutes I started feeling worse and worse. I told my friends to go on and I would get a ride in a sag wagon. Luckily one came by quickly and picked me up. On the way back to the start, I began to have very bad chest pains and a horrible, skull crushing headache. At this point my speech was very slurred and I was starting to feel quite panicked. I thought maybe I was having a heat stroke, so I asked them to take me to the emergency room. The strange part was that I also felt very intoxicated--almost a drunk feeling. When I got to the ER, I wasn't even able to get out of the car.

Due to my chest pains, the ER initially treated me as a heart attack just to make sure I wasn't having one. They took some blood samples and found my sodium levels to be dangerously low, so they gave me sodium and electrolytes via IV solution. I ended up spending the night in the ER for observation. The worst part of the experience was the headache and the chest pain. They said my brain had actually swollen, and had I not come to the ER I would have probably gone into a coma. The pain was so bad they gave me morphine to sleep that night. On my follow-up doctor visits, my doctor told me a few horror stories of hyponatremia victims who literally got "treated to death" in the ER. The ER doctors treat them as heat stroke and dehydration, and give them more fluids. In my case I was lucky, because my chest pains led them to do blood tests which revealed my condition.

I learned a lot in that experience. Don't drink crazy amounts of water on a super long ride. When they forecast high 90s and 95 percent humidity, do not do a century. Stay at home and drink beer and watch M*A*S*H reruns. And more importantly, move to the mountains where the air is much cooler.....

King's Chronicle

Contents

Biltmore Forest Tour Resumes

Sunday Afternoon Rides