June 18 ride reports...

This was my first ride since my crash and the first ride with clipless pedals. I took a short ride this AM - 11 miles. IT was around 78F with 10-15mph winds. I felt good, loved the clipless, LOVED the shoes! Up to this point, I've been riding with cages and my walking shoes. My feel were so cool! Love the new helmet, too.

Encountered a dog - black lab type dog. He gave good chase, but I yelled "git...git home" very loudly and he turned immediately and went home. Imagine that! The one day I didn't wear my good dog socks and I encounter a dog. I should have known ;)

I was not twitchy around cars (thought I'd be). It feels good to be back on the bike!

What shoes/pedals did you end up with? I never thought about non-cycling shoes being hot. You know what's _really_ cool?? Sandals!

Do the Good Dog socks prevent chasings?? If so, then what is the purpose of the Bad Kitty socks?? Those are my favorites, only I don't wear socks with the sandals in the summer...

I always yell "No!! Go Home!!" Sometimes it works. I still would like bar-mounted pepper spray, though. Whenever a dog stays in its yard and just lets me go by, I always say "Good Dog!!" so they know.

Nanci

ALmost got hit by the newspaper dude today! It was a CLOSE one!!
We have a gated area that is like a T. When you go through the gate you either take a left or a right. Well I usually take a right, go do a loop then come down and go through the hood that's on the left, then go loop the hood on the right again and then go out the gates. So today I did that, I took a right, looped then went and rode the left side of the hood and was heading back to the right side. I was riding by the gated entrance when a guy that was coming towards me (from the right side hood) decided to cut me off and take a left right into my path. So it was either hit him or swerve to the right. So I did that and I gave him a thumbs up and said "thanks buddy" and shook my head. So he stops his truck and rolls down his window. So I come up to him and I say "You need to watch for bicycles please" and he says "I saw you."
Me: "then why did you almost HIT me"
him: " I didn't. We were both turning" (BY now I'm stopped an unclipped)
Me: "NO. I was going straight. Did you see me signal a turn?"
Him: "No, but you turned"
Me: "yeah, because I didn't feel like getting HIT today!"
Him: "Oh.... (pause)... I'm sorry. I really thought you were turning."
Me: "well when you see a cyclist, please don't assume anything. If you had hit me it would have been ugly for both of us. I know your distracted delivering papers and all, and your probably running late, but you need to remember that there are others out early in the morning too. Esp. in the summer."
Him: "I know. My brother rides bikes so I should know better. I'm really sorry"
Me: "well thanks for that, most people don't take responsibility. Just please be safe out there"
Him: "Oh I will, believe you me! I would never forgive myself if I hit someone"
Me: "And your brother wouldn't either. Imagine the holidays after THAT?!" and I kinda laughed. He did too and then we went our seperate ways.
It stated out a bit tense, but when he realized he was wrong he really started apologizing. Of course me pointing out that I knew he was delivering papers prolly scared him to. I could have called the newspaper on him. But like I said, he took responsiblity, so I chalked it up to one of those things. I was lucky though cause it was REALLY close!! I was going about 18 mph at the time. That would have hurt.
Other than that, not much exciting. Just an early Sunday morning ride. ONly had time for 1.5 hours tho because someone is coming to pick up the Volvo. My hubby sold BOBO lastnight, so I had to clean her out. I'm going to miss that car. I'm kinda sad. But she's going to a good home... :o

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Originally Posted by Nanci

What shoes/pedals did you end up with? I never thought about non-cycling shoes being hot. You know what's _really_ cool?? Sandals!

Nanci

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Are they regular sandals or are there sandals that work with clipless pedals? I wore morenal (huh? what the heck does that say? -normal...) sports-type my sandals once riding and found my feet sweated too much in the rubbery soles. What are yours made of?

barb

Mine are clipless pedal Shimano sandals. Rubber footbeds- but my feet don't seem to sweat- maybe because they get so much breeze? Sure was nice to be able to put ice under my toes on the 100+F 200k I did last week...

Nanci

Nanci - I went with SPD pedals (I'm not sure which ones - I'll go look in a minute) and the Pearl Izumi Vagabond M3 (mountain bike) shoes. Happy accident - they match my bike (silver and blue). I tried shimano, nike, and pi shoes - these felt the best by far and were mid-range in price ($85). 3 velcro closures and very nice airflow. My feet never felt hot.

The Good Dog socks seem to have special powers. I don't know what to tell you about the bad kitty socks. I had a black cat cross my path when I first started out this morning - of course I own 2 black cats, so they cancel it out ;)


RunningMommy - wow what an adventure! At least it ended up positive and with you in one piece. That was a close one!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fishdr

of course I own 2 black cats, so they cancel it out ;)!

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I've got two cats, only they own me! :rolleyes: It's a good thing they're cute...

RunningMommy, I'm glad you managed to evade that driver and are all right. Sounds like a scary, close call.

Bikerz and I rode the Bay Trail today. We really booked it up to Richmond. There weren't a lot of people out until we got to the marina up there, and then there was a lot of "highly oblivious person evasion" (HOPE) with people on headphones and unable to hear us calling out, or just not paying attention in general. I almost got chased by a dog that was off a leash, but the owner called him off. That was good.

I always like riding this trail, because you really get a good look at the bay. I'm always thinking, "look where I get to ride!" and really enjoying the scenery. The wind picked up towards the end (just what we needed) but we still managed to increase bikerz's personal average speed record for this trail by a tenth of a mile.

I had a great time!

I lead a club bagel ride (about 15 in the am. It was mostly fast guys who wanted to go farther, so I told them they were were on their own. I bought a New Camelbak last night, so tried it out and scoped a ride I will be leading on 7/1 to an air museum(wen by Corsair drive...). It all worked out OK. Typical Inland Southern California June day (Hazy with temps in the 90's)

Rode around town, meeting, brunch, errands, racked up 10+ miles on the Bianchi. I don't know if it's the bike or if I'm getting stronger, but the wind has not bothered me so much this weekend. Maybe it's because riding on city streets, the wind gets broken up some by buildings and cars? I don't know. But I have the feeling of cutting through the wind with the Bianchi that I don't have with the Marin.

Then I ran 2.5 miles after my nap this afternoon. Starting a 19 hr call shift tonight, so I'm going to shower, eat, watch some more IM DVD and try to sleep a bit.

RM, good on 'ya for setting paper guy straight. L.

Rode to church in half of my newly acquired Gore-Tex rain suit (given to me on week-long trip I just got back from... another post). Started rainig hard just as I left - should have put the whole thing on! Arrived dry from the waist up, drenched downward - and then the homily included mention of Father Tom's mom's parish in Ireland where only paying folks could sit in pews, and they would arrive all wet and be standing there in their damp clothes... but I at least got to be sitting :-)
Too much catching up to do to get miles in, tho' I am hoping to get 1000 miles this month.
LIse, sounds like one bike cuts the wind better than the other :-) Down here in CHampaign the buildings make a *big* diff, though, over out on the prairies.
Good educating on the paper-guy! It is also an object lesson in the advantages of being further out in the lane when going straight (though that depends so much on that corner and that traffic). I learned to appreciate lane-taking (no 'incidents,' fortunately) on my 100 mile ride this week - mile after mile of serious traffic on a two-lane road.

Rode 30 miles on the Burke Gilman trail. Half the time with a teammate from Team Survivor. Stopped for a couple picnics and to remove my dang front fender and adjust my dang rear derailleur and yank at my dang dragging brake pad. Once while kicking back on my favorite bench (BG and 97th/Densmore) I saw this blue tandem go by with a couple wearing soccer jerseys: one yellow, one red. I was on the phone with the S.O. or I would've hollered.

I think it was a TE. Salsa, was that you?

Someone on here said they have a blue tandem and ride in soccer jerseys.

Took a little side trip into Ti Cycles and had a yearning moment for a Jamis Aurora. Would've tried one, but they didn't have one in my size.

http://www.jamisbikes.com/usa/bikes/06_aurora.html

It was HOT and humid today. I couldn't ride until around 12:30. It was about 90 and very humid. The air was really thick. Took my inhaler with me, but didn't have to use it... we went out with our riding friends. I started really really slowly because I thought I might might really lose it in the heat. I drank my whole Camelbak and 3/4 of a bottle of Accelerade for a 21 mile ride! We didn't go anyplace special, but the fun part was when we got back, we went swimming in the community pond in my neighborhood. Well, I didn't actually "swim," but I went in the water and took a couple of strokes and then lay on my beach chair and chilled out. Then we had a BBQ. I am exhausted from the heat and sun. Hope to ride at 5 AM tomorrow before work, but who knows...

"I saw this blue tandem go by with a couple wearing soccer jerseys: one yellow, one red. I was on the phone with the S.O. or I would've hollered.

I think it was a TE. Salsa, was that you?"

Hey, KnottedYet! You saw us! How cool. Wish I'd known. I even said to Chris this morning, "Hey, keep an eye out for a woman on a pale blue Kona, okay?"

I think by the time you saw us we were on about mile 73 of an 80 mile ride. We did the 60 mile round-Lake-WA ride, and added on 20 miles worth of the Cedar River Trail down in Renton. Boring, boring trail---aside from a few miles in the woods and really on the river, a lot of the trail goes alongside Rte. 169, busy highway, straight line, blah. But it let us go up to 80, which is all part of revving up for STP on July 15: 80 again next Sunday, 100 the next two Sundays, with several 30 mile rides during the week, and we hope we will be ready to go to Portland in one day this year. Urg. Nice cool day today, nice day for a ride. Still seeing that osprey by Lake Sammamish in his/her favorite dead snag. Lots of herons, some bald eagles. Love this place!

Rode 24 miles today. It felt like the longest uphill 3-5% grade ever... I felt like a little kid wondering if I was there yet... :rolleyes: . The winds coming off the ocean to the mountain top almost knocked me off my bike at times, but the awesome long steep descent down Kings Mountain Road was sooo worth it!

I rode 46 miles in blazing 90 degree weather after riding 45 on Saturday. It actually felt great.

After complaining about the rain and not being able to ride, how can I complain about the heat.

After that long ride saturday, hubby thought we ought to do a good ride sunday too.
So we rode from home to ballard and back, going through downtown on the way home.
2nd avenue was almost deserted, we figured it wouldn't be the tense affair that it usually is during the week.
2nd avenue has a bike lane on the left, and 3 other lanes for cars.
We were almost "done" with 2nd avenue when a car came down the center lane, not very fast, but faster than us (we're on the tandem)
at the last minute, when we were almost to the intersection they decided to turn left in front of us. My husband who is blessed by a huge voice started screaming obscenities. The car slowed down and decided NOT to turn in front of us and shot down the street so they could turn left 2 blocks further up.
If they had turned just there (FROM THE CENTER LANE!) we probably would have crashed!
I gave my guy lots of hugs and thanked him for using his big voice and saving our lives. We had 23 miles on the bike when we got home.

We did a 3 golf course loop :p 51 miles, one climb early and two near the end. New seat was great, even felt good to get back on after we took a short break. Climbing is getting better- it's still tough, but I haven't had to suck wind like last year, and am finding myself recovered by the time I descend, or very shortly there after. We did run out of water with 10 miles to go, and the muscles were getting fatigued. I thought I'd be hurting today, but I'm feeling great. Huzzah!