Weekend Rides: Sept 22

[DebSP]

Well I picked up my new Surly Cross Check yesterday and today I took her on a one hour jaunt just to check her out! I bought her to handle roads like the one shown. She was like a dream and as soon as I have fine tuned we can go even farther! Adding a Cross Check to my stable has increased the number of roads I can travel by about 40%. Not sure how many kilometers we rode today because I forgot to set my phone to track. If I had to guess I would say about 20 km.

[azfiddle]

I always enjoy reading everyone's ride threads. I'm guessing it must be beautiful riding in fall in so many areas.

It's still like summer here.... Yesterday we finished a 66 mile ride, just before noon and it was 98 degrees. One of my friends drank 7 bottles on the ride (or so he said) and still started overheating.

Today my legs were pretty tired, but I made it up to milepost 5 on Mt. Lemmon, to about 4200 feet (starting at 2400). It's 5 miles to the base (mile 0) from the parking lot. My DH, training for a big hill climb next weekend, rode to milepost 20, well over 7000 feet, but I rode home and left him the car. It was hotter today than yesterday, so going up in elevation was probably a good idea. I can't wait for the weather to cool down a little.

[gocard]

Can I tag along? I went out on a 14 mile ride yesterday around the baylands. We probably would have gone further but found that many parts of the trail were actually made of gravel and sand...so I didn't think I should bike on it with road tires. Today I went out on another 23 mile ride over in another part of the bayland trail which was paved. I'm not sure where those paved paths connect or if they are only connected by gravel paths so I'll have to do some more research. One of these days I will bike the entire trail! The fall weather was wonderful this weekend.

Congrats on your new bike, DebSP!

[Crankin]

Perfect, perfect riding weather. 68, sunny, no humidity, breezy. Did 32 miles with great friends. Up Oak Hill, into Harvard center, had to tell a guy to wait in line at the porta potty, and then up Bolton Rd (another climb) back into Stow, and back to my friend's house. I am very proud of my friend, Linda, who rode with us. The one who said she'd never get clip less pedals, never get a road bike. She did awesome and she actually rides faster than my other friends. All showered, now back there for wine and dinner!

[shootingstar]

It has been abnormally summer like for the past 2.5 wks. Just dreamy and wonderful.

Did 52 km. yesterday through various park paths and took photos along the way. Did lots of grocery shopping + a farmers market + cafe stop. Towards last 15 km. I did a mini art studio tour that was going on this weekend. This is the stuff I wanted to see --prairie landscape/icongraphy interpretations. I don't need to see abstract, non-representational art...I can anywhere in the world for that.

Today was 45 km. different direction. More photos, creme puff stop, Mediterrean bakery shop (for flatbread lunch snack with sumach spice) and grocery shopping.

[Becky]

Friday was a short mountain bike ride, since we were chasing daylight. It was my first ride on my singlespeed since I switched from a 20-tooth cog to an 18-tooth cog. Oww. That will take some getting used to, but I didn't have to walk anything. If I can ride this gearing all winter, I'll be an animal come springtime.

Saturday was a commute to work, just 12 miles roundtrip, but with beautiful weather.

Another gravel grinder today, this time without the horrible nike-a-bike hill! There were plenty of others! We had knobby tires this time, which really helped on the off-road sections, but made the road sections very tough, especially the uphill ones.