While my friends at work were getting rings for their 10th wedding anniversaries, my husband and I got our first mountain bikes for ours. Indeed, it was time to get into shape. This led to an obsession with biking, both road and mountain. We now have 4 bikes each. My stable includes a Fisher Tassaharra, a Fisher Sugar, a Giant NRS XTC, and a Kona Jake the Snake (a cyclocross bike I use for road riding - Pennsylvania is known for nasty roads). The photo shows me with the XTC during the summer of 2006 at French Creek State Park, one of our favorite places to ride technical trails. Incidently, I’m the bike mechanic. With so many bikes, one of us had to learn! Then our son came along and we got a bike trailer and eventually a bike Trail Gator to hook his bike to ours.
Hydration Pack Cleaner: To keep your water reservoir bacteria free, after a bike ride, empty any leftover contents. Fill half full with warm water and put 3 Efferdent® tablets in the water. Remove as much air as possible and close the lid. Drain some of the fluid to remove air from the tube and get the cleaner in the tube. Allow to soak on one side and then flip the reservoir to let the other side soak. You could let it soak overnight, but an hour or so will work too. Empty the cleaner. Fill half full with clean water, swish around, empty some from the mouth piece and then all of the water. You can repeat the rinse to get rid of the tablet taste. Then either reuse or hang to dry. I remove the mouthpiece for drying. If your reservoir has black stuff growing, you will have to scrub it first. I use sports drinks in mine all the time, and in all my biking years have only had to scrub twice.
You can also toss one table in a flower vase that has marbles to clean it out -- just make sure you rinse it. I also soak my hummingbird feeders in sink of water with a few tablets. Just remember to rinse well before filling with hummer food.
Links to Biking Sites
Fair Hill Mountain Bike Races We have raced here with our friends.
Brandywine Bike Club A great local group to ride with.