august rides

[roo4]

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!

[Crankin]

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.

[ny biker]

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.)

[Crankin]

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.

[Raindrop]

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.

[Crankin]

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.

[ny biker]

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.