Fri. 11/28 Rides (or is everyone out shopping?)

[RolliePollie]

No shopping for me today!

My poor new bike needed to visit the LBS for more derailleur/shifting adjustments, so I rode to town. It's about 32 miles round trip...16 miles of down hill and 16 miles back up to get home. Probably about 2,000-ish feet of climbing. Not sure of grades, but I can easily hit 35+ mph on some of the downhills and 4 mph on some of the uphills. Luckily the LBS guys figured out the bike problem (indexing was off one click) and the shifting purred like a kitten on the way home.

There are lots of choose-and-cut Christmas Tree farms around here and unfortunately I had to ride past several of the busier ones. Our little two lane shoulderless roads are not designed for heavy traffic. Actually, they're not designed for bike traffic unless there is no car traffic. It was very scary. If there was any way to avoid riding past these Cmas tree places, I would have. But no such luck unless I want to ride on the freeway. Note to self...do not do this again. Next time, put bike in car and drive to LBS. Then ride someplace safer.

Other than the scary traffic, it was a good ride. I really, really, really enjoyed my new bike today. The fit feels just wonderful.

[Fujichants]

I was having the same problems as you with my bike and it was annoying me beyond belief. I'm happy its fixed now!

I didn't go shopping today Finally got back on my bike and went for a nice 30 miler.

[7rider]

My friend who got the new Seven ID8 and I finally hooked up for a ride! She put her old Look's on the bike and came over to our house to do our 40 mile Triathalon Loop with me. Her bike is GORGEOUS!! Now, I'm not one for powder blue and flowers, but this bike says "her" all over it. Pretty, yet not garish. Very well done. And the LBS built it up with all Shimano Ultegra SL in the Ice Black finish, complete with a pewter Chris King headset. Swoon! The Bontrager Race X Lites I'd never put on my own bike (I refuse to put any Trek house brand on a Seven - the guys at the LBS love to tease me about it...but we all have our hang-ups ), but the white spokes and the flash of red spoke nipples....very nice. She even has the ti stem. Wowza.
So anyway....after saying "Hello" to the bunnies, we set off. Yesterday, my legs felt like jellied cranberry sauce (in keeping with the holiday). Today...well, they felt like yule logs, I guess. "Love the ride," I told her. "Hate the wind." Ugh. Did you ever have a ride where you ALWAYS seemed to have a headwind?? Well that was today. We were trying to bomb down this one hill, and I swear, the wind was blowing me to a stop ON A DOWNHILL!!! Ugh. We got back to the house later, and I told DH about it, and he looked at me quizzically, and looked at the trees - which weren't moving. It was WINDY!! I swear!!! It's just calm. Now.
But, my friend LOVES the ride of her new bike! She's really excited about it.
Later, we did contribute to the local economy by going shopping. We joined the Dyson vacuum cult by picking up a Dyson DC-18 slim at Tuesday Morning. Second Black Friday in a row that DH and I bought appliances and not anything resembling a Christmas gift. Good news, tho...is that DH is actually excited about vacuuming the house! Yee ha! Have at it, hon!!!

[tulip]

I hate shopping, especially this time of year!

I didn't get out for a ride, though. I helped my parents with some repairs to their house, and took their dog for a nice walk. Oh, and I had to do some work on the side, too.

[redrhodie]

I had an interesting ride. My friend and I got caught in a crazy downpour that I didn't even know was in the forecast. I don't usually ride in the rain, but I continued along, riding away from home, because I thought it couldn't possibly continue. Well, it did. I ended up riding in drenching rain with a headwind the whole way home.

Traffic was scary close passing me, something I don't usually have a problem with, but in the rain, I would have liked a little more room. I don't know if it was deliberate, but I suspect I was just hard to see, and I was happy to get up my hill and off the busy road. My friend also had an incident with a crazy driver after we parted. Really weird for around here. Maybe some people had a little too much pumpkin PIE (it certainly wasn't me, though ).

The rest of the ride, before the rain started, was windy. My friend, who was supposedly tired from her nearly 60 days of riding in a row (1000 miles each month!) kicked my butt the whole ride. CS, if you're reading this, you're almost there!!!

[Becky]

Commuted to the shop today. Man, there's just something about getting deals on stuff that makes people crazy. I had far more run-ins than normal with motorists, fortunately none of them serious. Just the "pulling out too far, not looking, passing at horrible times" variety. Oh, and the ~8 year old kid who screamed out the car window- I still have no idea what he said- hope he enjoyed it

[arielmoon]

I did do a little shopping after my ride!

21 miles with the St. Pete Bike Club on a gorgeous day I felt good after worrying that I had over done it the day before- so yay!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

No shopping for us either. DH and I went on a lovely 20 mile ride through the countryside after a breakfast and a 3 mile walk. It was great biking weather- partly sunny/partly cloudy, and 35-40F degrees, with only mild winds.
What a wonderful day we had!