Another easy 20 with the bike club, this time at about 13.7 mph. Good news: DH is going to the bike store to pick out a new bike! He is looking at a Cannondale Synapse, aluminum with carbon fork. We may get to ride together! :)
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Another easy 20 with the bike club, this time at about 13.7 mph. Good news: DH is going to the bike store to pick out a new bike! He is looking at a Cannondale Synapse, aluminum with carbon fork. We may get to ride together! :)
I commuted for the first time in 2.5 weeks. I went to boot camp (in the car), came home, ate, showered and rode to work. I must say, it is so nice to have a cloudy day. After 5 days of hot scorching sun in LA and beautiful, but sunny weather since Monday, I need the break. Didn't have to do too much of a clean up when I got to work and I even wore my Terry knickers with a minimal chamois, so I was able to keep them on and just change into a tunic type top from my jersey. Saw a couple of clients and came home. Actually got sprinkled on, on the way home for a bit, but it was just a spritz.
I rode last night after work. Started later than usual because (a) things suck at work right now and (b) I had to wait for a thunderstorm to pass. The roads were still wet for much of the ride. My legs felt pretty tired, which is not good since I'm planning to do a 50-miler on Saturday that will not be flat. I needed my headlight for most of the ride, because it's getting dark earlier. It was cool at the beginning -- I started with light arm warmers and a vest -- but it was super humid, with steam still coming off the pavement hours after the rain ended. So all around not the best conditions. Still, it was a decent ride.
I probably should have put the fenders on my bike last night but I was too lazy. I had just cleaned the bike the night before, because this past Sunday I did the Covered Bridges metric in Lancaster, PA. This ride should have been called the Tour de Poo. Most of it goes through farmland inhabited by Amish and Mennonite people, so there's horse sh*t all over the roads. My friends have been going on and on about the beautiful scenery on this ride, but I was mostly focused on not riding through the piles of sh*t. And it rained for the first 40 miles, which just made things worse. I have SKS Race Blade fenders (easy to put on and remove, but not full-coverage), and they helped keep me and my bike cleaner than most folks, but I still had lots of cleaning to do after the ride ended. (I didn't have my Camel Back with me so I covered my water bottles in plastic wrap. It was a pain to have to unwrap the top of the bottle before taking it out of the cage to drink from it, and after about 45 miles the plastic had torn so I had to toss it. But it definitely helped keep the poo spray off the bottles.)
Rode 25 pleasant local miles with DH today. So nice and cool, about 71 and partly cloudy. We did the flattest ride we can do, and then added in another loop with a hill. Saw some seriously egregious riding when a guy on a tri bike whizzed past us on the road leading out of Hanscom AFB, was in the right lane at the stop/T intersection, and then made a left from the right turn lane, because he didn't want to stop and wait in the line of cars turning left. And, this is turning onto a busy, main road, which goes through Minuteman National Park. Sigh.
I've ridden more this summer than I have in years, probably because my bike really fits this year, I'm finally retired (pretty much) and, due to a divorce between my son and DIL I've had a lot more depression than usual and have needed the time on the road to clear my head. I'm pretty much a loner, not much of a joiner so when I ride I just get out my front door and go wherever the mood strikes. I know most of you do more mileage, but my treks usually only vary from 24 - 30 miles a day because that fits into the time frame I have for my singular pursuits.
In a time crunch I tend to hit the MUT that's about four miles away for an out and back, but I really like to just head out and see different areas of my city/county. The only consistent ***** I have about the roads around here are the number of bolts/nails/ screws I run across and the glass pieces. Next set of tires will be better than the ones that came on this bike.
Rode 30 miles with DH, in Harvard, Littleton, and Boxborough, Acton, without doing any of the big hills (which is kinda hard!). We started out to climb Oak Hill, but DH just doesn't want to push his recovery and he was feeling a little tired. There were enough little hills to keep me busy. I'm focusing on riding a couple or a few days in a row now, in preparation for my trip. I know I can do the climbing at this point in the season, that part is all mental for me. And I've been riding even the bigger climbs with my Kuota, which has a couple of less lower gears than my Guru, and the gearing is more like what I'll have in Portugal on a Madone.
I've noticed a little issue with my Terry Bella shorts. They used to be the shorts I always wore, but when I went to Spain, the heat was unbearable, and I ended up riding in the 2 pairs of Sugoi RS I had. Since then I usually reserve the Terrys for early/late in the season, when I need leg or knee warmers, since they are the only shorts that don't give me horrible thigh bulges. It's going to be cool in the mornings in Portugal, so I've been wearing them a little more, and I've been having soft tissue issues. Nothing else has changed. I am wondering if they are just old and the chamois is worn, or I need something different now. I generally hate thick chamois and I am not sure how the RS are different. I might buy one new pair of the Bellas and see. I now have like 5 pairs of the Sugoi.
I started having chafing problems with the Neo Power shorts, including a new pair of them. I think something about me has changed, the way I'm sitting or something. I've been happy with the Gore Oxygen shorts -- their new chamois is very good, thinner in front than in back.
I was going to do a 50-mile ride in northern Maryland yesterday, a club ride that would give me a chance to check out some roads that I'd like to include on some routes I've been working on. But the weather forecast was iffy, with rain possible, and I had had a long week at work and I was just really tired when I got up yesterday morning. So I decided to skip it. This turned out to be a good idea, since it rained very hard in that area yesterday during the late morning/early afternoon. And I went back to bed and slept until 11, so I guess I needed the rest.
I had to work this morning starting at 6:30, and we finished up around noon. By then the sun was out and the humidity was dropping. I headed out for a solo afternoon ride, using a 48-mile cue sheet I had developed last month for a ride with a few friends. That ride had to be cut short, because one of my friends wasn't feeling well. But one of the good things about this route is that it's easy to short-cut. Sure enough, my legs felt pretty tired from the get-go so I figured I'd cut out a 10-mile section and make it an easier ride.
After about 15-16 miles, I was nearing my rest stop at a wildlife sanctuary on a river, when I felt something snap. It was a spoke on my rear wheel. Okay, this has never happened before. (Did I mention I was riding alone, in a quiet rural area, and that I live alone, have no significant other and no family within 300 miles?) Now I remember that a friend always keeps duct tape and zip ties in her bike bag. Why don't I do this??? Would they even help???? I find a small plastic sandwich bag in my handlebar bag (in case I need to keep something dry in the rain), and I use that to tie the broken spoke to one next to it. But now the wheel won't turn. I open the brake lever, it's still rubbing, the wheel is out of true. Damn. My car is at at a small community park, and it's not a short walk to get back there. I know the roads around here well, what's the best way to go? Wait, let me send an email to my bike club's yahoo group -- there are a few members who live nearby, and others might have suggestions.
So I send the email, giving details on where I am and where my car is, then I have a quick snack, put the cleat covers on my cleats and start walking. Fortunately I'm able to walk the bike without too much trouble. Fortunately the weather is fantastic, sunny but not hot. Fortunately the road is not steep; since I was down near the river, every route back is uphill.
After about 10 minutes, my phone rang -- one of my friends from the club is out running errands and can meet me to bring me back to my car. Yay!! We made arrangements to meet at the intersection where the the road I'm on meets the main road in the area. A few other club members sent emails with tips on how to make the bike rideable -- loosening the brake cable, loosening the spokes on the other side (if I had a spoke wrench, which I don't). Another friend sent the name of a cab company that serves the area I'm in.
The walk was actually not too bad, even uphill in cleats. Though my legs and feet definitely would have been hurting if I'd had to walk the whole way.
I left the bike in the car, so I can bring it to the shop tomorrow to get the wheel fixed (or replaced? I hope it's fixable). While I'm there, I'll get a spoke wrench and ask them to show me how to use it. I actually had thought it would have been bad for the wheel to try to ride the bike with a broken spoke, but I guess that's something that is okay to do. I supposed you'd want to get off the saddle when going over bumps, and of course you'd have to be careful with only the front brake for slowing and stopping.
By the way, this is my friend's trick for carrying duct tape in her bike bag -- take a piece of cardboard and wrap a long strip of tape around it. This will give you a small "role" of tape for roadside repairs. She also has a fiber spoke that can be used as a temporary replacement when needed, so I'll look into that. Also I'll be programming the name and number of that cab company into my phone.
So, I had a pleasant 15ish mile ride, followed by an adventure that underscored how very nice the people in my bike club are.
ny biker, you're right, bike club people are the best! Glad you were able to make connections.
(my ride was rained out yesterday, so no report. I had limited time today so I went for a run instead)
Ah, ny biker, so glad you were able to get some assistance. It's times when something like this happens that we always realize how we could be better prepared, but more often than not, a cell phone is your best line of defense.
I am sure your wheel will be fine. I broke a spoke on each wheel in Belize (not on the same day) due to them rusting out, and was able to get the wheel rebuilt. At each time I replaced all the spokes with stainless steel -- a must when living on a salty island. One big difference in there and here is that the young bike shop guy only charged me $15 BZD ($7.50 US) on labor! And he spent around 90 minutes each time! Of course, I gave him a very good good tip!
Today's ride was a good one. We rode a gorgeous route DH just discovered. It was tacked onto one of our usual 40 mile loops, so I ended up with 61 miles. The scenery was breathtakingly gorgeous, and we only got passed by a couple of vehicles on the 21 mile addition -- it's super deserted rolling farm country. We were lucky enough to have NO wind starting out and a tailwind for a lot of the middle section, but our luck ran out in the last 5 miles where we faced a stiff cross to headwind, as the wind clocked around due to nearby afternoon storms. I thought I'd never get back and was going SO slowly at the end.
Here are a couple of photos so you can see how pretty it was...this was north of the tiny town of Touchet, WA outside of Walla Walla.
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Cons: Headwinds for the first 3 days.
Putting tent up in the rain on the 1st day. A wet night in the tent.
3 nights of shredded pork or beef sandwiches.
Pros: Beautiful scenic country including flats-rolling hills-steeper hills, corn, soybean, sunflower, and flax fields-many small to large lakes and the Missouri river.
Around 200 great people
Very good support
Bike ride averaged 67 miles per day.
A loop ride.
I went solo to this N. Dakota ride and had a fun week. The route was close to the Missouri River. The cons were mostly controlled by Mother Nature. Tent service is available and I would of paid a lot for it the rainy evening.
Port-a-potties are adorned with geese dressed in their finest apparel. A beautiful thing in the middle of the prairie!
I'll try to get out of my comfort zone to attach some pictures.
Fun rock-n- roll rest stop with yummy oatmeal with all the fixings:
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Port-a-Potty on the prairie:
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North Dakota roads are rumble strip happy with a middle strip too. Blue is a beautiful flax field that looks like water.
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My tent at fairgrounds with abandoned carnival rides:
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Sunflower field with Missouri River in background:
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A few more pics to share:
Close to Bismark with low ground fog over river :
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Quad riders that have participated in many Candisc tours.
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Celebration at the end:
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I rode 19.5 miles with 2 of my riding friends from the 2 clubs I belong to. I just am losing the will to drive far for a group ride. So, one of these guys doesn't drive and lives near me and is usually a willing riding partner. The other lives in Cambridge and comes out here to ride. He's about 76, and had a bad crash 2 years ago. Since then, he can't ride more than 25 miles, and he said he's working on "not trying to ride at 18." Thing is, he says he gets exhausted, and he is really struggling on hills. We paced him, riding at an average of 13.5 and he still was struggling on the hills. I am wondering if he's having cardiac issues and doesn't know it. Anyway, it was fun, though. Was getting quite hot, got to 91 yesterday, so we stuck to our little loop in Concord and then went for coffee when we got back to where he was parked. I kind of wanted to ride longer, but, the heat and having stuff to do on my day off made me ride home!
I think you should try to bring up the possibility of cardiac issues with your friend, just to be safe.
I rode 20 miles after work last night. The guys at my LBS are beyond awesome. They replaced the broken spoke, trued the wheel, and also replaced the cable to the rear derailleur after I had mentioned that it's been needing more adjustments than usual lately. It's now shifting beautifully. Since my usual post-work route is ~20 miles from the LBS, I rode a different route last night, which included portions of some other rides I've done before. It was very dark for the last 10 miles (very few streetlights), so it's a good thing I knew where I was going. Also a good thing that I had just changed the battery on the headlight that's on my helmet, because I needed it to read the cue sheet.
DH took today and tomorrow off and I don't start my Thursday clients until 9/11. Had all intentions of doing a 40-50 mile ride and I woke up feeling like a truck hit me. Who knows why. My weird autoimmune/allergy stuff has been acting up this summer, but since I know the drill, I push on, at least in a modified way! We ended up doing a more local route, that goes into Westford and Chelmsford for a bit and then stopped at Ferns for lunch on the way back. DH put a new chain on my bike a few weeks ago and I have had issues since, despite him fiddling with it continually. After the second "shift by itself" incident, of course, on a hill, and the third time we had to stop, he found the correct fix and it's finally back to normal. Yesterday I dropped my chain making a left in traffic and I could not get it to go back on with the "put it in the high gear" trick, so I actually had to pull off the road and lift the rear of the bike and spin the pedals to get it to move.
We sat at Ferns for quite a while; it got cloudy and was feeling a bit cool for the last 7 miles home, but it was fine. Actually averaged over 15, so, in the end, a good ride of 23 miles.
I am going to take a day off from riding tomorrow, probably hike in the afternoon, after I am done with work.
Awesome ride to the Fruitlands in Harvard, MA today. It has to be perfect weather... 73 degrees, breezy, no humidity. DH did his first post surgery ride with bigger climbs, including Oak Hill. We are kind of experimenting for our Portugal tour, and we went at touring pace! We rode about 17 miles, ate lunch at the restaurant at the Fruitlands, where the view is outstanding, but we were surrounded by loud women, having lunch! This is where I have often seen the Red Hat group, but, it was just various random groups of people who had fun staring at our bike clothes. We went home a more direct way, past our old house, where the trees DH and DS #2 planted are totally mature. Total ride was about 37 miles, with 2,000 feet of climbing.
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I rode 79 miles today, my first >70 miler in years. It was a century ride put on by a local racing team, but I figured out a couple of short cuts because I didn't want to ride more than 80. I rode with several friends and had a (mostly) good ride.
Five miles from the end, I had another broken spoke. I was able to finish the ride; the wheel was out of true but I opened the brake as far as it would go and ignored the rubbing brake pad. I'm planning to start a separate thread to discuss broken spokes. In the meantime, I can't get to the LBS until Monday but have a big ride planned on Saturday. So I called the LBS from the parking lot of the ride start/finish location, they looked up the type of wheels currently on the bike, we discussed some options, and I ordered a new set of comparable wheels. They should be in by Tuesday, but if there's a delay the shop can lend me a wheel temporarily.
This is not an expense I would like to have right now, but I consider it an investment in my sanity. ;)
Btw one of my companions today was asking about winter cycling clothes. The general discussion centered on layering, wool and shopping at TE.
I rode about 64 miles today on an organized event east of Tucson, from Willcox to the Chiracahua Mtns and back, with about 2500 feet of climbing. I did not go with my regular breakfast of oatmeal or a bagel, but threw together a piece of toast & peanut butter and mini-yogurt from the motel we stayed at. It warmed up quickly and was a little humid, and my stomach felt yucky as soon as we left the flats and started climbing. It basically felt yucky the whole ride, though I managed to drink a bottle of electrolytes, 3 or 4 more bottles of water, and ate half a banana, a cookie and a piece of my home made fruit-nut bar (pan forte).
I felt so crummy on the last uphill portion (about 15-16 miles before the end) I stopped and rested twice on the climbs. I considered just getting a ride back, but stopped at the last aid station and dumped a bottle on my head, sat in the shade and then got back on the bike for the descent and a 5-6 mile flat section. After all the riding I've been doing, I was a little depressed about my lack of progress and an overall moving speed of 13.5 mph.
I blamed it all on my eating, but then after I got off the bike, I realized that I was getting a headache and scratchy palate (actually ignored a little preview of the scratchy palate when I woke up this morning). So now I am thinking it was more that my body was just having to deal with too much: oncoming cold, sub-optimal breakfast, and a long bike ride with heat and hills.
It was still a beautiful route with almost no cars, grasslands green from the summer monsoons, soaring Swainson's and Red-tailed Hawks and the songs of the desert sparrows serenading me.
Been riding a lot but haven't been posting. Today's ride was just a little 13.5 mile market ride, but overall for the past week I've done several 50+ milers. I've been battling a bad saddle sore, but I think I finally turned the corner on that in the past few days. Thank the gods.
The wind has come back with a vengeance here, and the past few rides have been less than fun having to fight it. Looks like more of the same tomorrow. :( Other than the wind, the weather has been lovely, though!
Today we did a CRW ride and then went to the Labor Day party at my friend's Jack, house, after. It started about 2 miles from his house, in a parking lot at the VA campus. Unlike AMC rides, it's a kind of "you're on your own," thing, so we took off about 20 minutes before the start. Rode some new roads and nice ones in Lexington (where i've never ridden, except on the bike path), and then we headed back to Concord, into west Concord, Acton, and up Nagog Hill. Now, this is in the area I live in, but I rarely do the whole hill... it's a series of 5-6 hills on one road. Today, we did them all, and more, because we took the road all the way to the end, which I have only done a few times. Then, we headed into Littleton and Westford, back onto a route that we often do. From there, we had about 12-15 miles left to get to Jack's house for the food! Need I say, that the weather is the absolute opposite of Saturday. It's 85 degrees with like 70% humidity. Thankfully, partly cloudy. We did stop to eat and take long drinks twice, but overall, we got to Jack's hosue with a decent average for a hilly ride. Sat and had pizza and beer, sat more, because then we had to ride 2 more miles back to the car. That 2 miles felt pretty painful, after sitting.
I'm really stiff and tired, need to go revive myself. This weekend I've ridden about 80 miles and hiked 8 miles.
DH and I just finished the Seattle Int'l Randonneurs Maltby-Granite Falls 100 km ride: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3728236
The ride was just over 64 miles and started and ended at the Maltby Cafe. What a scenic route! It went through mostly quiet country roads, with lots of horse ranches and farmland. It was also mostly downhill with lots of long descents, a few miles of rollers, and only a few climbs, kind of like my favorite loops around the Kitsap Peninsula, even including some water views of Lake Roesiger.
Maltby's also a bit more convenient since it's only about 25 minutes away from downtown Seattle and doesn't require a ferry ride. It's great to start a long ride with a big hearty breakfast at the cafe. If I didn't have gluten sensitivity that makes my stomach blow up like a puffer fish, I would definitely have ended the ride with the cafe's signature gigantic cinnamon roll.
http://www.drmariev.com/Cycling2014/MaltbyCinnRoll.jpg
We've done that SIR Maltby 100k on our tandem! It's a great ride. And omelettes after at the Maltby Cafe. :)
Today we did a ride on our tandem that we made up and love, about 44 miles, that includes a bunch of hills, including riding up the ridge from Meydenbauer Bay in Bellevue, a 13-14% grade in parts. Beautiful day in the PNW today. 70 and mostly sunny. Typical sight on this ride: Mount Rainier from Medina City Hall.
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This summer I was training in part for Rebecca's Private Idaho, which was on Sunday. Let me pitch it to you ladies here: that area of Idaho has the most amazing landscapes. The only muscles that nearly cramped were those in my face because I had a silly grin most of the ride. It is a gravel ride and they offer two courses: the 'big potato' (93) miles and the 'small fry' (50-something miles). Each rest has wonderful volunteers -- they would fill your bottles or hand you one on the go, if you were racing the course-- and the tastiest roasted potatoes... It's a small ride, limited to 300 people, Rebecca Rusch is super nice. I can't say enough. I wish I had spent the entire week leading to the ride in Ketchum and hope to go back. Here are a couple of photos:
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Did another little 22 mile ride with my 2 older friends today. We are pacing the one guy, and he was very pleased with himself today. He stayed with us, did better on the hills, and felt better about himself. I did bring up the cardiac issue, but he says he has no issues there, it's just age. He did want to hear all about my DH's story with cardiac stents, so I know I gave him something to think about.
The humidity is gone, but it's still too hot for me.
Sunday, I went for my first ride in a long time. About 10 hot miles. I nearly bonked. (I went with my BF and his parents. ALL of them are of the type that can't eat anything before riding. I am exactly the opposite. I figured I'd be OK, since I'd had 2 days of more food than usual--loads of sushi on Friday night, Saturday they had people over, and there was a huge amount of loaded nachos and so forth--and I wanted to get out before it got really hot. Yeah, no.
My road bike is still in the shop getting new wheels after the two broken spoke incidents. Last night I planned to ride my mountain bike for my usual post-work ride. I haven't ridden the mountain bike in a while, so I pumped up the tires to max psi on Monday night, figuring any leaks in the tubes would make themselves known before Wednesday. As I wheeled the bike out to the car yesterday morning, everything was fine.
After work I arrived at my usual starting point, started to take the bike out of the car, and discovered that the front tire was completely flat. Awesome. I got out the floor pump (doesn't everyone keep a floor pump in their car?) to put some air in it so I could see what was going on. That's when the local mosquito gang arrived and started to attack. Naturally the floor pump decided not to cooperate. I could tell that air was going into the tube, but the tire gauge didn't show any air pressure. I take the thing off the valve and try again, and now it won't stay on the valve at all. While I'm struggling with it, I'm trying to fight off the mosquitoes, and one of them keeps flying right into my face, and it's hot and humid so I'm sweating, and I'm yelling at the mosquitoes to leave me alone. I take the tire off the rim, look at the tube, finally get some air into it, it seems fine, I put it and the tire back on the rim and try to pump it up again but the pump is still not cooperating. I reach for the frame pump, then find that the air I had already put into the tire has leaked out again. And these damn mosquitoes will not leave me alone.
At this point I'm ready to give up. I only have one spare tube with me for this bike (of course I have a bunch of 700c tubes in my bike bag, but no extra 26" tubes). Given the way my luck has been lately, I don't want to use the only spare tube before I even start the ride. So I throw everything back into the car and head for home. Once I get there, I bring the wheel and floor pump in to the house, replace the tube with an extra that I had at home, reassemble the tire, fight some more with the floor pump and finally get enough air into the tire. It's almost dark, but I have good lights so I can still get in a ride around my neighborhood. So I go back outside to get the rest of the bike out of the car, change my shoes, top off the air in the rear tire, finally get ready to ride. While doing this more mosquitoes show up and attack. These are slower than the first gang, and I manage to kill three of them.
So. All in all I rode 12 miles, doing laps around my neighborhood. It was not easy to get going, but pretty uneventful after that.
I'm hoping the road bike and its new wheels will be ready tonight. Also hoping that I get a break from mechanical problems for a while.
I hope your spokes are fixed soon! The same thing happened to the other bike leader I was leading a ride with back in July. No one in the group could fix his issue, and the wheel was totally out of true. He walked/hitch hiked back to his car 5 miles and left me to lead the ride. We were in Mystic, CT, so I was thankful as hell that we had pre-ridden this route.
I rode with my friend Linda today. She spends most of the warmer months at her house on the Cape, so I haven't ridden with her too much this year. It was fun, and I didn't mind her slower speed. I stopped at the tops of all the hills and enjoyed the weather. The ride was about 22.5 miles and had about 1,500 ft. of climbing. My legs are a little dead today; I have taken about 10 days off from boot camp, to ride more, but next week, back to the grind, in both fitness and work.
I'm a bit worried that it's 5 pm and I haven't heard from the shop yet. Though I'm still okay for Saturday's big ride if it's ready tomorrow.
I'm going to bring the old wheels home, keep the front as a back-up and practice using the FiberFix temporary spoke on the rear, so I can be more prepared the next time.
I noticed that the multi-tool that I keep in my mountain bike seat bag has a spoke wrench on it. I never new what it was before. If I can get better at emergency spoke repairs, the whole experience will have been worth it. The adorable little multi-tool I use for the road bike doesn't have a spoke wrench, but I bought one to keep with it.
It's been pretty windy here lately, and we're back to having to use arm/leg warmers, etc. in the morning (ugh!), but we've managed some really nice rides. Just put up a blog post today about two of them. We did the Touchet North ride again today (photos in the blog are from about 1.5 weeks ago, when we last did it), and thankfully got a break from the wind as it was light today. 58 miles round trip.
http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/t...-of-highway-12
Today was some of the worst weather I've seen this summer. We did some stuff at home this morning and it was 12:30, 88 degrees and at least 60% humidity when we finally got out. At least it was mostly cloudy and breezy. With the threat of impending severe weather, all ideas of a long ride went out the window and we did our go to 11 mile hill route.
Despite starting off slowly, when we turned onto the homeward part of the loop, my average was at 15 and ended up at 15.9 just as I started climbing the hill to my house. Very strange, as I felt terrible in the beginning of the ride and like I was flying by the end.
I do not enjoy this weather. Plus a lightning strike hit our cable modem about an hour and a half ago; DH is now at Best Buy getting a new one.