Bloviations

I’m not a big fan of making “New Year’s resolutions”, but I like having goals. So, here’s my list of goals for 2009:

• Commute 5,000 miles by bicycle – This is pretty easy. In January my commute will extend from 6.5ish miles to 11ish miles. That’ll make for 112ish mile weeks, 450ish mile months and over 5,000 miles for the year. Provided I don’t have any severe life-changing events (move, change jobs, etc), I shouldn’t have any problems meeting this goal.
• Ride 1,000 miles for fun – This one will be pretty hard, I think. My plan is to go on weekend rides of at least 25 miles. If I do that, 1,000 should be pretty attainable.
• Get into short bicycle touring – And by “short”, I mean short weekend trips by bike. The first trip will probably in in April and will be from Jacksonville to Swansboro’s Hammock’s Beach State Park (about 20 miles) to catch a ferry to Bear Island and camp for the night. The second trip will be from Jacksonville to Fort Macon State Park (about 45 miles) and will also include camping for the night.
• Learn to do some basic bicycle maintenance – I don’t want to do full-bore bicycle overhauls, but I need to learn more of the basic tasks. I can change a tire, but I can’t adjust brakes or either derailleur. I can change grips, but I can’t remove and replace handlebars, forks, stems or any part of the drive train. I want to build a basic tool set and a bike stand. Then, I want to learn to do emergency repairs and then move onto the more advanced stuff.

There are more goals for 2009, of course…But these are the bicycling-related goals.

December 26th, 2008 | Tags: 2009, 2009 Goals, Bicycle Commuting, Bicycle Repair, Bicycling Camping, Bicycling Goals, Bicycling Touring, commuting car-free, Fort Macon State Park, Hammock's Beach State Park, Jacksonville, NC, Swansboro NC | Category: 2009 Goals, Bicycling, Commuting, Jacksonville, NC, Swansboro NC | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL