This webpage has been created at your request on
Interested in starting a Recumbent cycle club in Orlando and its surrounding area count me in.
Please e-mail me 
email: bmiller@cs.ucf.edu
Clear Frame
I have seperated the years apart. The year for this article is 1999.
Click here for the previous year 1998.
Interesting links:
Bent Folks.
The recumbent Cycle Page.
My Bent, My View.
By: Benny D. Miller Jr. February 14, 1999
Well it certenly has been quite a while since I last entered anything here. It has been either too cold or I've been to busy. I'm a Graduate Student at U.C.F. in computer science, so I do have a lot of projects and homework to do.Ok here is where it stands. I just got out this last weekend to the Econlockhatchee Trail's (Econ Trail for short) grand opening (there was a grand opening last November also and it was a big affair I won a bike helmet there). This Grand Opening was fairly disappointing, but since the full trail of Four miles is now open, a good friend of mine and I road the trail. To the end and back. I only live about a mile from the Trail. This one is somewhat different from the other trails I've been on, this one has some dips. I can't really call them inclines as they aren't much more than about a 4-6 foot change in altitude. Anyway it has been since last December since I road and we had a great time. This also worked as a stress releaver from my school work since I have a midterm today!
This was Valentines day. Sort of an obligation for me to do something other than school. I won't tell her, she needs to think I really missed my school work, but I had a great time. The whole day went well, she had somethings to do in the early afternoon and this gave me time to run out and get the candy, flowers and of course the card! I won't go into the rest of the evening, but it did entail a nice evening by the fireplace, with real wood burning, we don't get much of a chance for that here in Florida. Just one more item, the fireplace set the smoke detectors off, the flu lever closed sometime after about 3 hours and filled the house with smoke. It is good to know they work.
Febuary 26th, 1999
I did get around to dropping some classes on my graduate studies. Oh well. The good news is that I now have more time to ride! To continue i rode 17.85 miles today and now have over 500 miles on my Vision recumbent. I'm not sure if I had mentioned a bad back and a constant recurrance of vascular urticaria (hives) or not. I have had no hive related or back problems from riding the recumbent after my first adjustments of the seat. Only had some minor hives from the front support peg of the bottom support on the seat.
March 2nd, 1999
Well today my girlfriend and I rode the Econ again. This time we decided to go and get lunch at Taco Bell. We ride from our houses and go to Colonial and ride east(just east of the 417 is where we get on Colonial). After the short 1/2-mile we cross at the light of Econolockhatchee and proceed north to the econ trail entrance. Here we ride west for about two miles to the end of the trail and go west on Colonial for about 300 feet. Turn right and a quick right again and we are in Taco Bell's parking lot. There we have our lunch or late afternoon lunch. After lunch we went back to the trail and rode back to Cemetary Road then going south to Colonial Drive again. After crossing Colonial we ride east on Colonial to Constantine where we enter our neighborhoods. I say neighborhoods as we live in seperate housing developments. A special note about Colonial where we decided to ride east is that Colonial has extra wide paved berms at these places and we can even ride side-by-side here without entering the traffic or right turn lanes. this trip was 7.67 miles
March 4th, 1999
Well today our lunch special took us to the other end of the Econ Trail and then some. We decided to go to Subway at Colonial and Rouse Road. I'll dispense with the directions on colonial to the Econ Trail. From the trail entrance at Econolockhatchee we went east on the trail to its end. Continuing through the Jay Blanchard Park to Rouse Road we went south on Rouse. This road is narrow and the people that drive it are very impatient with bike riders. I felt the wind from more than one car passing me there. I would have only had to move about two inches and I would have been hit by some of the vehicles. This road isn't very safe and we'll need to find a safer route. Anyway we made it to subway and had our lunch. From Subway we crossed colonial and rode west on colonial. This wasn't as bad as riding on rouse road. Here we had only to ride about a 1/4-mile and finally arrived at the shopping center where the Wal-Mart is. We took some time and went shopping, I bought a lock for my bike and made sure it was long enough to lock both our bikes.After our little shopping trip we went in back of the shopping center and to the next street (I can't remember the names of the following streets). From here we went north into a small neighborhood and to the second street on our left (it is actually the first paved street). From here we went to the next stop sign and end of the street and went right and then a quick left to the stop sign. From here we went right and it curved around to RiverPark drive. After going north and then west on RiverPark we came to Dean road and road north back to Jay Blanchard Park. from here we went west on the Trail back to Econ. From Econ we rode west on Colonial, but I don't recommend this side of the road here, it has no berm or bike lane. We crossed at Constantine and back to our homes. All together it was a nice ride and I think We'll go back to Subway via the back route through RiverPark area and then cross Colonial at Wal-Mart and ride the sidewalk to Subway. This trip was 10.85 miles
March 12th, 1999
Today I decided to take on my most ambitious ride to date. I decided to ride from my house to school, which is about 7.18 miles each way. Went the usual Econ trail to Dean Road then to University Blvd which allowed me to use the sidewalks all the way to U.C.F. This ride took me about 38 minutes which I think works out to be about 11 plus miles per hour average. The prompt for this ride was I had a meeting to attend on some VLSI design (integrated circuit design). The trip back was a bit better since it was more downhill that the ride in. at times I got up to 23 miles per hour and was able to make the ride home in about 32 minutes at about 12.8 mph average. Nothing notable about the trip, just a good hard ride(for me anyway).
March 16th, 1999
Today's ride went back to Taco Bell for lunch, see march 2nd for description of ride. This riding is turning out to be a nice way to get outside and do things. I know I will miss it during the hot summer we have here in Orlando. Just a note, I've put over 600 miles on my vision since I purchased it. I will say that after the tune-up it does shift better and the wheel's are better aligned. This tune-up provided a much better experience for me in riding.
March 18th, 1999
Again today I rode to UCF. This was simular to the ride on March 12th. The ride is about 7.18 miles and this one was a bit more what I thought it should have been at 12.8 mph average and it was 32 minutes in duration. The prompt for this ride was I had another meeting to attend on some VLSI design. The trip back was a bit slower than the ride in. I was able to make the he ride home in about 33 minutes at about 12.2 mph average. Nothing notable about the trip, just a good hard ride(for me anyway).
March 23rd, 1999
My ride today in the later afternoon took me down to Subway. This particular store is a new one at Goldenrod and Colonial. The route is basically the same as the March 2nd ride to Taco Bell. Then past Taco Bell, through the Sam's Club parking lot to Goldenrod. Crossing Goldenrod and past Eckards is the New Subway right beside McDonalds. After I got my sandwich, and ate it of course, I returned basically the same way back to the Econ Trail. Rode the trail for about eight miles and came across a black ReBike. Actually I had passed Ed, the rider, and he turned around and caught up with me in about two miles. Well I was actually cruising at about 15 mph so he did not have too hard a problem with it. Ed stated this was the first Vision he had seen and we rode and talked for another eight miles or so. It was a fun ride to have someone to ride with at about a 13-mph cruise. Nothing much happened, we discussed several different bikes and the prices and swapped a few stories. We may have the start of an informal group of recumbent riders. We had discussed about trying to get a few of the recumbent riders together and see if we can pull off an informal meeting to share information with recumbent riders. Hey it's a start anyway. So back to the story, our ride came to an end and we parted company at Colonial and Harrel Road. I then rode back to the house concluding a 22.76 mile ride and this is my longest ride to date. BTW it was at 11.2-mph average.
March 27th, 1999
I did a 30.32 mile ride today. That was a good workout. I'm not sure of the average speed, as there were several stops. This ride was very good for me, as I had accomplished what I had set out for. I did have some back pain about 17 miles into the ride, but I was able to diminish the pain by adjusting the bottom of the seat. The seat had gotten a bit loose and needed tightened.
March 29th, 1999
Well my riding days have come to an abrupt end, for a while anyway. My frend that I ride with has had an accident, we were stopped and I was adjusting my seat and she was doing likewise on her NEW bike. She had made several attempts to adjust her seat and finally came to the conclusion that she needed to get off the bike. She was in an abnormal stance when she decided to get off and caught her foot on the chain, fell back and fractured a vertabra. This is not a bad break since she did not do any damage to her nervuos system and no damage to any disks in the back. She does not have any loss of feeling or movement. The doctor expects her to fully recover in 8 to 12 weeks if she keeps with the bedrest for this period of time. More to follow.
April 28th, 1999
Hey, I'm back! did a little 10.33 miles today. Felt good to be back to riding. More on the g/f later. I was surprised how much speed I lost on only 4 weeks away from riding. I was doing a good 15-16mph and that dropped to 12-13mph and that was real work to do that. Bike is still in good shape, I've been reading my RCN (Recumbent Cycle News) and keeping up with some of the stories there. I've decided that I would like another bent, just now there are so many I'm not sure what I really want. Ride went good and they actually put up a street sign at Econolockahatchee that calls the Econ Trail, the Little Econ Greenway. I sure hope the folks at the greenway don't catch wind of this or they will begin putting up toll booths.
April 29th, 1999
The girl friend is back in the saddle, the bike saddle anyway. She did break the back with a compression fracture and it has healed. The doctor gave her a good bill of health and not to lift more than 15 pounds for the next 3 months. Well she doesn't think stitting on a bike is lifting so she is riding against my advise. Oh well thats something else. Anyway we did 10.33 miles today. This was the same route I did last ride.
April 30th, 1999
I'm riding again today and so is the g/f. We went 10.33 miles today which is the same ride I did on the 28th. Nothing spectacular, just a good ride.
May 1st, 1999
Today we went to the West Orange Trail. For anyone that likes hiking or rollerblading or biking this is the place. Where I started the trail was at the Winter Garden Station. To get there, take Colonial (route 50) west roughly 12.5 miles west till you get to 9th street, turn right (north) and go till it dead ends into Plant Road and turn left, about 1/2 mile (or less) on your right is the Winter Garden Station. It is a nice rustic looking area, the station is well done and the bike path winds around the parking lot and the building (note there is a play gound for the little ones). We took the trail to the west from the 5.0 mile mark at the station. We rode west through town, with a lot of little stop signs (7 or so) and continued to Oakland Post (another station) mile marker 2.0. From there we contined west down to the County Line Station (temporary trail end). After the g/f rested quite awhile and consumed most of our water supply and I talked to a local rider about the trail and my recumbent, we headed back. I had noticed that much of the trail was either a slight upgrade or a slight downgrade. This took its toll on the g/f. She is still building up from the broken back. we had to make a couple stops going back for water, which we ran out of. On one of the stops we both looked up in a tree and saw a couple squirls mating. Now thats something I had never seen before! We continued back to the Winter Garden Station. I talked her into letting me ride a bit further, tried to get her to go to Apopla and wait for me there, but she would not do it. So I just rode another four miles up the trail and turned back. Good thing too, I got right out of the station and rode about four minutes to the east and came to a good-size hill (for a flat-lander its a HILL) and at the bottom was a stop sign as there are a lot of cross-roads on this trail. From this hard-for-me uphill and the awaiting long downgrades and upgrades along with the heat of the day. It all started taking its toll. I was up to about 15-16mph cruising speed by this time and maybe that had something to do with it also. As when riding with the g/f I can only get about 11-12mph on a good day, but usually around 8-9mph cruise. Anyway, I got to about the nine mile marker and after the last road I crossed I had quite a bit of trouble getting the bike to start up I decided I was getting too tired to continue. I turned back and ended the trip without any incident other than the HILL. Did it without much problem, but I was noticing I was pooped. I ended up with only 18.33 miles, but felt like the ride I had before at 30+ miles. Overall this trail is a MUST RIDE for the folks in the area.
May 13th, 1999
Well it has been alomst 2 weeks since I last rode. Everything went well with 10.33 miles behind me. Just trying to get back into the gruve.
May 14th, 1999
Rode to UCF again. Did it in record time, for me anyway. Had a good ride at an average of 14,3-mph and was under the 30 minute time frame. Came in at about 29.31 for the 7.08 mile ride. Was exceptionally tired when I arrived. Sat in on a lecture about Robotic's vehicles and 3D space modeling. Good talk. Back home it took me 35.47 milutes at 7.84 miles somewhere around 12.2-mph.
May 15th, 1999
Nice ride on the Little Econ Greenway. A none incidental ride of about 10.35 miles.
May 17th, 1999
Good ride today, but I have noticed that its getting rather warm in the afternoons to do do much riding. Was rather warm this afternoon at about 88 degrees. This ride went well with the exception that the girlfriend is complaining about me going to fast. Oh well, she has been improving her speed and we are making minor adjustments to her bike as we ride. This ride was about 18.41 miles and was without much incident except for previously mentioned complaints.
May 19th, 1999
Good ride this evening and it is getting far to warm and humid to do this much longer. Seems like I have a small pattern of riding that 10.31 miles now. Notyhing else to comment on with one small exception that I'm proably as comfortable on my VR-40 as I have ever been.
May 20th, 1999
Since I'm a late morning riser we've been trying to ride later in the evening. Somewhere around 18:00 (or 6:00 p.m for you others). Nice time to ride, but not sure if this will work out either since it is still quite warm and muggy. Oh yea, it was 14.7 miles today
May 21th, 1999
Rode against a strong headwind today. it was about 15 gusting to about 22 mph. At first I thought I was just tired or something, but after I made the turn at the end of the trail I noticed it was so easy to ride at 20-mph. I just knew it had to be a strong wind. I did try something and that was to let a mountain biker go ahead of me and let him disturb the wind. I call it disturbing the wind as I wasn't that close to him to draft, but he sure broke that strong wind for me. After about 1.5 miles of riding behind him and getting some much needed rest I came around him and told him I'd break the wind for him. I did notice that I muct have gotten too much rest as I was crusing at about 15-mph. I can't see well behind my bike (I still need a mirror) and when I rode that last 1.2 miles I turned the bike and looked and there was no mountain bike to be found. Oh well I tried to be somewhat fair about it. It was another grueling 10.31 miles today.
May 22nd-26th, 1999
Well I decided that since nothing spectacular has been happening I would combine my reports for now. Anyway I've rode 92.4 miles in the last 4 days. Nothing spectacular unless one considers that I have urticaria (hives) and I am able to ride for any length at all. Things are going fine and nothing has happened on our rides to report. Other than the more than ocassional people coming up and asking questions when we stop for water. Much more of that has been happening before on our rides.
May 30th, 1999
Today was a good ride, my girlfriend and I rode about 18.45 miles and had a good time. A lot of it was spent putting on a new computer. I've went to a computer with cadance so I have a better idea how many rev's my feet are going. Lots of people stopped us and wasking about the Viion R-40, lots! Most likely the reason so many people talked to us was the fact we weren't whizzing by them. It took us quite a while to do the ride, I kept recalibrating the computer. I now think I have it dialed in right. I had the old computer on the bike too for compairson. I have a 1200 and my old one was a CatEye Cordless. Only reason I changed was the cadance. I really like the CatEye Cordless.
June 3rd, 1999
Well, today was a real experience. We rode the preformance Rebike that my parewnts have. Well I should have known that one should never let my father setup ReBikes. I can't find any adjustments that I consider were done correctly. But then maybe I'm wrong. I've had to constantly readjust the brakes and linkage on these bikes. I thinnow that theu are correct. I have one noticable thing I've detected that I don't like and that is the fork post/column is sloppy. Perhaps this is something my father setup. I'll have to look at it more carefully when I come back to Fort Pierce. My impressions on the ReBike are: I don't care for the steering and its sensitivity, but they have spring to help dampen that a bit. Next, for me the seats are quite hard, but my girlfriend like it much better than her Cypress-Giant.I have ridden a Rebike with the 20" rear wheel and sorta liked it. I really don't care for the 26" rear wheel. I do like having more gears as the performance bike has 26" rear wheel and 18 speeds and the 20" rear bike only has 6 speeds. What an expierence, Bothof us feel tireder riding 5.85 miles on the ReBike's than we feel after riding 18 miles on my Vision and Giant.
Special Note, May 1st, 1999
There is only about 4 miles left in Lake County that needs to be done before it can be linked into the West Orange Trail. Of course Lake County hasn't the money to do this at this time and who knows if Orange County will help out? (Doubt it) Also in the next couple phases the West Orange Trail will be extended to Wekiwa State Park. At present the trail ends in Apopka.The Econ and Cady Way trails are suppose to be linked up together by the end of this year. There is also some talk about linking up U.C.F. with the Econ trail also. Once the trail goes through U.C.F.'s area it is to exit to the north of U.C.F. at the county line. Hopefully Seminole County will link this up with their Ovideo's Cross Seminole Trail.
More to follow when I get a life back. Perhaps I will drop a class.
I have seperated the years apart. The year for this article is 1999.
Click here for the year 1998.
Benny D. Miller Jr.
This page is maintained by Ben Miller.email: bmiller@cs.ucf.edu
Interested in starting a Recumbent cycle club in Orlando and its surround
ing area count me in.
Please e-mail me 
email: bmil
ler@cs.ucf.edu
Clear Frame