October 10th rides

[cycling_sarah]

Had a great ride today with redrhodie (see her post above)! Having a friend out there motivated me to do a longer route than the one I've been doing by myself lately!

[Crankin]

It was just gorgeous here in New England. I did a short 14.5 mile ride that involved making a right turn on a busy road, with lots of thorny bushes squeezing me between them and the cars. Then the street I needed to turn on to head back to Concord was blocked off, but the police woman let me through, only to be met head on by a guy on a bulldozer whom I swear didn't see me (on a country road on a red bike and a red jersey). It was beautiful, but my average sucks... (see the what's your average thread).

[skhill]

Beautiful indian summer day here in KY... if a bit windy

I saw bison on my ride!! I ride through rural Central KY, so there are plenty of horse farms. There are also some cattle, and I've gone by a couple sheep farms (one of which has a llama, too). But I never knew bison lived so close to my home!

Meant to go 40 miles, but the winds changed my mind for me, and only went 30. Good thing, too, because I didn't bring as much foood as I thought I had, and was very hungry by the time I got home. But it was a great day to be out on the bike.

Now it's off to my LBS, to help my brother look into a new road bike. I'm only looking for him, not me, honest!

[mudmucker]

Did my 28-mile commute into work. A lovely day for a ride, warmish. As it starts to get darker, I've been putting in some extra time up front earlier in the week, so I can leave an hour or so earlier on the days I commute. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I'll commute in total darkness for the distance I do. Maybe half the commute gives me some good protective shoulder, but the other half squeezes me more out into 50-55 mph traffic with no shoulder. And in these areas I'm dodging sand pits, glass, and some deep potholes in daylight. Not sure I can react as well in the dark. Right now I'm using the carbon fiber bike but I'll probably change to the heavier steel bike if I do use it in the dark as I'll be going slower anyway. Last night it was pretty much dusk when I arrived back at the car. I thought I was protected by the back light I had. As I was loading the bike in the car I noticed it was gone and that it must of flung off the bike after some bumps. My headlight was on but I had no protection except my hi viz jacket from the back and I didn't know it. Going out to get new lights this weekend.