No, not cereal, it’s a ride close to 500 miles across the back roads of Nebraska, organized by the Norwest Omaha Rotary club and the Omaha Pedalers bicycle club as a fundraising opportunity to help others, primarily scholarships for high school students. This year is BRAN’s 30th anniversary and they are going with the space theme, given it is 2010. They are calling it the Space Cowboy Tour. Costumes optional. 😉
This year BRAN will start in Harrison with the following route (approximate mileage to each city in parentheses):
Alliance – Home of Carhenge (84 miles) Hyannis (59 miles) Thedford (63 miles) Burwell (85 miles) Albion (64 miles) David City (74 miles) Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland (56 miles)
Support vehicles will haul our gear and bikes from the Space Museum on June 5th to Harrison. We then reassemble our bikes, set up our tents, enjoy the local fine food, attend a required meeting and head to bed ready for an early start in the morning. Support vehicles haul our gear from town to town. SAG vehicles will provide water, fruit and Band-Aids along the route.
Each host community has worked with BRAN to provide camping areas either at the high schools or in city parks. Various organizations in towns, such as churches and schools provide meals as a fundraising opportunity.
Registered riders receive a very nicely prepared booklet with information about the towns, historical items of interest, where food will be served, rout maps and even elevation maps (Nebraska is Not Flat!).
Be sure to read my daily blog entries on the trip for details about the unique things I find along the route and my experiences. It should be a very interesting ride for this newbie!
BRAN, the Bike Ride Across Nebraska, is just a few days away. In August of last year I decided I wanted to expand my horizons and participate in a supported ride over a long distance. I signed up for BRAN and RAGBRAI (bike ride across Iowa) hoping to get accepted for at least one. I got accepted for both! For many these state wide trips are their annual vacation. I frankly can’t imagine that, given my longest outing was just a few days ago at 80 miles. Doing 500 in a week ? Oh my!
Before I signed up for these trips, I started increasing my miles last fall by 5 miles a week and eventually made it to 50 miles in one outing. That was on a road bike and my wrists were numb and neck sore for a week. Sure, I could do it but at what risk of damage to my body. Carpel tunnel, chiropractic visits? I started to research various bikes on-line and learned how recumbent bikes put the body in a more natural position, thus not hurting the body like on a road bike. I searched ebay and craigslist every day and finally found what I wanted at a very reasonable price. My bike is a Burely Canto.
I rode my Burley every chance I could but a very cold, snowy, icy winter kept me off the bike all of December through March, one of our longest snow covered winters. I got in about 200 miles in April but on 28th of that month I caught the edge of the sidewalk in the park near our home and went down, spraining my right ankle. Up until a week ago I was still limping and feeling some pain, but this week it is much better. So much so that I did 66 miles several days ago (with 3,000 feet of ascent) and 80 miles a few days later. With the first day of BRAN being 84 miles, possibly 93 if new road construction begins, I felt I needed to get out there and test the limits to determine if I can really do this.
My recumbent bike was made by Burley and the style is a Canto, which premiered in 2002. Burley built several styles of recumbent bikes for a few years, but stopped production completely in September of 2006. I’m not really sure what year mine is, but built sometime between 2002 and 2006 I would guess.
It should be noted that this is known as a convertible recumbent, in that it can be switched from short to long wheelbase. I prefer the long, which is great for long rides. The long is a bit wide on the turns and not good for city street traffic. The shorter version is excellent for the city commuter.
Here are the specs as it came from the factory (with changes I made in parentheses):
Colors: Pearl Silver
Model: Canto
Weight: 34.5
Year: 2002
Brake Levers: Shimano BR-420
Brakeset: Shimano BR-420 brakes, Shimano BR-420 levers
Front Brake: Shimano BR-420
Front Brake Lever: Shimano BR-420
Rear Brake: Shimano BR-420
Rear Brake Lever: Shimano BR-420
Bottom Bracket: Shimano BB-UN52
Chain: SRAM PC-38, 1/2 x 3/32″
Chain Size: 1/2 x 3/32″
Chainrings: 30/42/52
Crankset: 3-piece aluminum, 30/42/52 teeth
Front Derailleur: Shimano Sora, clamp-on
Front Derailleur Type: clamp-on
Handlebar: Hsin Lung aluminum
Handlebar Stem: aluminum
Headset: 1 1/8″ threadless Cane Creek STS
Headset Diameter: 1 1/8″ threadless
Largest Rear Cog: 32
Number of Rear Cogs: 8-speed
Pedals: Fasten NWL-953 (replaced in April 2010 with Wellgo platform/clipless pedals with shimano SPD cleats)
Rear Cogs: 8-speed, 11 – 32 teeth
Rear Derailleur: SRAM ESP 5.0
Rear Shock: Not applicable
Saddle: Corbin custom
Shift Levers: SRAM ESP 5.0
Smallest Rear Cog: 11
Fork Crown: unicrown
Fork Material: chromoly, unicrown crown
Frame Construction: TIG-welded
Frame Tubing Material: chromoly
Wheelbase: 40.5″
Front Hub: Shimano Deore
Front Rim: Weinmann Zac 19
Front Tire: Primo Comet (Replaced in April 2010 with Primo Comet with Kevlar Belts)
Front Tire Size: 20 x 1.75″
Rear Hub: Shimano Deore
Rear Rim: Weinmann Zac 19
Rear Tire: Primo Racer (Replaced in April 2010 with Primo Comet with Kevlar Belts)
Rear Tire Size: 26 x 1.50″
Spoke Brand: DT stainless steel
Spoke Holes: 32-hole
Spoke Material: stainless steel