Live, Love, Ride

Image: My Fyxation EastSide fixed-gear build - favorite bike ever!! This will be my tool of choice for the 2026 MS Ride.

2026 Ride to Eliminate MS

This year I’m going to ride for my 25th year to support the National MS Society’s goal of creating a world without MS - 75 miles in and around New Bern, NC, on 19 or 20 September. As always, if the weather is awful or anything else prevents me riding that weekend, you can count on me doing a makeup ride**. I will work for your donation :-)))

Please donate now!! The first $1,500 went quickly - you met my match challenge by contributing $750 in three days - thank you so much!! Let's keep the momentum going.

My goal this year is to raise $2,500, with a stretch goal of $3,000 - please donate by going directly to my personal page with the National MS Society.

** If it's going to rain all day on both official ride days, I will not do the ride because I feel it is too dangerous to ride on an open course (i.e., with traffic) all day in rainstorms. Predictions of occasional showers or afternoon thunderstorms will not prevent me riding. If I am rained out, I will do my own 75 mile ride by mid October. I appreciate your understanding. I also don't deal with the heat as well as I used to. So if it's getting into the upper 90s, I'm limiting to 50 miles on ride day. If that happens, I will do an additional 50-75 miles on another day by mid October.

This is a personal effort, not sponsored, endorsed, or supported by NC State University.

2025 Ride

I completed the MS ride on Saturday 09.06 - 126km (78miles) in 6 hours and 1 second of ride time (excludes breaks) on my fixed gear bike (pictured at the top of the page) on a beautiful sunny day. Maybe a bit too much sun :-)) My daughter rode with me - her 3rd ride for MS, her first 75mile ride, and her longest ride ever!! We had a cool start and it did not get ridiculously warm as it has during some past years.

Was a lovely ride out of New Bern on my Fyxation fixed gear bike starting at 08:00 over The Big Bridge (with no traffic but us bikes :-)), through Grantsboro, Bayboro, and Merritt. Then way out to River Dunes for our lunch break (at 10:30, lol), then back through Oriental, Arapahoe, back up to Grantsboro, and return to New Bern. Such beautiful countryside! And we were tired!!

Thanks to your support, I raised $2,500. Thank you so much, from me and from all those who live with MS.

2024 Ride

This was my 23rd year riding. I rode with my daughter again this year on the 50-mile route. With riding from and to her apartment, we made 103k (64 miles) - a pretty good day! Next year ... 75!!

It wasn't supposed to rain, but it did. We were lucky and missed most of it because we hit the lunch stop (at 10AM, lol) just as the rain started and stayed 45 minuntes until it quit. But when we left, the temperature had dropped quite a bit and we were both shivering, almost uncontrolably. Lucky for us, there was a Dollar General on our path and we went in hoping for a sweatshirt. No such luck, so instead we bought 2 pairs of socks and made arm warmers out of them. Wow, what a huge help!

Fundraising was not as good as I'd wanted :-(( Start earlier, push harder next time.

2023 Ride

I rode with my daughter this year - her first ride - so we did the 30mile ride on Saturday. With back and forth to her apartment, plus some extra sight-seeing at the end, we wound up at 70km (43.5mi), so a pretty good day! The rains held off and it was an enjoyable ride.

To make up for my short ride at the official event, I rode the full Neuse River Trail on Friday 09.15. 121.1km (75.2mi). It was a beautiful day and a wonderful ride.

Milburnie Falls, start

Clayton Municipal Park, south end

Falls Dam, north end

Milburnie Falls, finish

2022 Ride

I just completed my 21st year of riding the MS 150, an annual fundrasing event in support of the National MS Society's misson to create a world without MS.

Saturday was a washout, too dangerous to ride (my opinion) so I didn't. The prediction for Sunday was grim, but I decided to stay in New Bern and crossed my fingers.

Sunday morning was very nice with no signs of rain, though it was predicted to arrive early afternoon. So I decided to go. I was going to ride a metric Century -100k - by adding on after finishing the 50mile ride but the skies opened up 5 minutes from the finish line. Wound up with 90k (56mi) on my fixed gear bike.

Because it was 09.11, I observed moments of silence, as I did last year, at 08:46 (impact at north tower), 09:03 (impact at south tower), 09:37 (impact at Pentagon), 10:03 (impact in Shanksville, PA).

2021 Ride

Fantastic ride on a crisp, blue-sky September morning, 09.11, which made memories of 2001 even more poignant. I observed moments of silence at 08:46 (impact at north tower), 09:03 (impact at south tower), 09:37 (impact at Pentagon), 10:03 (impact in Shanksville, PA).

Rode 120.83km (75.1mi) in 4:30 for my 20th MS ride, met some nice people, and saw some of our beautiful state. Drank water more frequently and in smaller doses than on my dehydration-plagued Raven Rock ride three weeks ago. Plus it turns out that lower temperatures really do help - who knew?

Raised $1,335 of my $1,500 goal.

Thanks so much to all who supported the National MS Society through my ride - much appreciated!!

2020 Ride

Ride completed!! As you can imagine, the actual 2020 ride was cancelled because of the C-19 pandemic, so I made up my own. On Friday 3 October, I rode 164km (102mi) on the Neuse River Trail in Raleigh. My friend and cycling companion, Steve, not only joined me but talked me into turning the ride into a century - I was only going to do 75mi. Glad he did, because it had been several years since either of us did a century.

2019 Ride

End of the ride on 7 September.

That's 75.41 miles.

Help me crack the top 100.

End of the backup ride on 11 August ... 75.2 miles

In 2018, I rode again for Ginny Grisez (since 2015), a friend's sister who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis and, for the first time, NC State University colleague Jennifer Garrett.

After 75 hot, humid miles in 2018.

At the half-way point in 2015. Rode my fyxation Eastside fixed gear build that year.

Other Cool Bicycle Stuff

Hess, GR & MN Peterson. 2015. “Bicycles May Use Full Lane” Signage Communicates U.S. Roadway Rules and Increases Perception of Safety. PLoS ONE 10(8): e0136973. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136973.

Key messages ... “Bicycles May Use Full Lane” signage was the most consistently comprehended device for communicating the message that bicyclists may occupy the travel lane and also increased perceptions of safety. “Share the Road” signage did not increase comprehension or perceptions of safety. Shared Lane Markings fell somewhere between. “Bicycles May Use Full Lane” signage showed notable increases in comprehension among novice bicyclists and private motor vehicle commuters, critical target audiences for efforts to promote bicycling in the USA. Although limited in scope, our survey results are indicative and suggest that Departments of Transportation consider replacing “Share the Road” with “Bicycles May Use Full Lane” signage, possibly combined with Shared Lane Markings, if the intent is to increase awareness of roadway rights and responsibilities.

Hess, GR. 2016. Why Bicyclists Ride Like they Do: A Quick Guide for Curious Motorists. On the BikeWalkNC website.

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