Skyscrapers, Another River, and Drafting Behind a Friend

Content Advisory: This blog post is written and designed with children ten years old and younger in mind. Kids, you can go ahead and skip this paragraph and start reading. Adults, make sure you get permission from your child before reading. If you don't have a child, it's okay to get permission from your niece, nephew, 2nd cousin once removed, or that little girl who lives next doors who's always leaving her toys in your driveway (In all seriousness, I encourage all of you to share these blog posts with your children, maybe even read them to your children who are not yet able to read).

(Click here to find out what this ride is all about. I encourage all who are able to support the children of Ryves Youth Center with a donation. Click here to make a donation.)

**If your children have any questions or comments for me about my ride or about anything I've written, feel free to comment on my blog, and I will do my best to respond within 24 hours.

Today I rode 68 miles from the south end of Nashville to Clarksville, Tennessee. I rode 41 of those miles by myself, and for the last 27 miles, I rode with my friend Tim. Tim lives in Clarksville, Tennessee, and he rode his bicycle out today to meet me. Once we met, he turned around and we rode back to Clarksville together.

Before I could get to Clarksville, I had to ride my bike all the way through Nashville. It took me about 15 miles or so to get out of Nashville and back out into the country. In downtown Nashville, they had some really tall buildings. Those buildings are called skyscrapers. Skyscrapers cost a lot of money to build and they have a lot of rooms in them, so they usually are only built in large cities that at least have a few hundred thousand people living in the city. Here is a picture of the skyscrapers in Nashville from far away:

There is a river that goes through Nashville called the Cumberland River. It is smaller than the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers that I crossed a few days ago, but probably a little bigger than the Wabash River that goes through Terre Haute. I crossed the river on a pedestrian and cycling bridge. Pedestrian means a person walking on foot, and cycling means that someone is riding a bicycle. So no cars were allowed on the bridge, only people who are walking or riding bicycles are allowed to cross. Here are some pictures I took from the bridge. Notice in one of them, there is a big crane that is being used to either build or repair a building:

There were a few people walking on the cycling/pedestrian bridge, so I had to slow down and be careful to keep from running into anybody. Here is what it looked like going across the bridge:

Here is a picture of the beautiful Cumberland River:

When I met my friend Tim around the 41^st mile of my ride today, I was glad to have someone to ride with. First, it gave me someone to talk with and to keep my mind off of being tired. Second, I was able to go a little faster during those last 26 miles because I was able to draft behind my friend Tim. I will need to go into some science in order to explain what “draft” means.

Drafting is an example of how we can use science to help us in our daily lives. Some people think that science is just something boring that we learn in school, but science is actually fun because we can use a lot of things from science to help us out in real life! Drafting means that one person rides closely behind another person who is in front. When the person in front rides, his/her body and his bicycle are hitting the all of the air that is in front—this makes it so the air in front of the lead cyclist is at a high pressure and the air behind him/her is at a lower pressure. When I say that there is “higher pressure” in front, that means that the person in front has to pedal a little harder to go a certain speed, because he/she is breaking through the air that is in front. When I say that there is “low pressure” in the air behind the lead cyclist, that's a fancy way of saying that it will be easier for the person behind him/her to travel through the air at a certain speed.. Thus, even with my big, heavy bike, I was able to follow Tim and it was easier for me to go faster than if I were riding on my own. In fact, my average speed for today for the last 27 miles of the ride (when I was riding with Tim) was 16.3 miles per hour, which is much faster than the parts of the ride I did on my own (during which I averaged 12-14 miles per hour). Drafting is a good example of teamwork and one person helping another, but it is important for both riders to follow safety rules while drafting. The person in front must let the person who is behind know about trash or potholes in the road, and also must tell the person behind when they are about to slow down. The person who is following should give the person in front enough room so as not to hit the person in front, and must pay close attention to make sure that he/she does not run into the back wheel of the person in front.

Bicycle riders who are in races use drafting a lot to help them go faster than they could on their own. Racecars also use drafting to save gas by riding close behind other racecars as they go around the track—if you like to watch car races on TV, you might watch for them drafting behind each other next time you watch a race.

Note: If you ride a children's bicycle, drafting will not help you. It only really helps if you are going 15 miles per hour or more, and children's bicycles generally cannot move that quickly. Drafting should only be done by adults who have had practice in doing it and who know the safety rules—children can easily be hurt if they try following each other too closely on bicycles, so please do not try drafting if you are under 18.

Here is a graphic that shows how drafting works. Notice the arrows showing how the cyclist in front breaks through the air, so it is harder for him/her to pedal, and the air pressure behind the lead cyclist is less, which makes it easier for the second cyclist to pedal:

(Image was borrowed from: http://pad1.whstatic.com/images/thumb/9/99/Draft-on-a-Bike-Step-1.jpg/aid141638-v4-728px-Draft-on-a-Bike-Step-1.jpg)

I want to think my friend Tim for coming out and riding with me! It really helped me out a lot and made me feel less alone while I was on the road. Sometimes we all need someone to help us out on the road of life—sometimes we are the one who are helping someone else, and sometimes we are the ones who need help. Today I was the one who needed help, since I was carrying the heavy load. Here is a picture of my bike (in the front) and Tim's bike (in the back):

You will notice that my bike has a lot of heavy bags on it, and Tim's bike doesn't. Because his bike was so much lighter, it made more sense to have him up front and me drafting behind him.

Today and tomorrow I will be visiting with my friend Tim, and getting my bike ready to start the trip back to Indiana on Monday. I will post something tomorrow to let you know how I am doing.