august rides

[cosc]

Cons: Headwinds for the first 3 days.
Putting tent up in the rain on the 1st day. A wet night in the tent.
3 nights of shredded pork or beef sandwiches.

Pros: Beautiful scenic country including flats-rolling hills-steeper hills, corn, soybean, sunflower, and flax fields-many small to large lakes and the Missouri river.
Around 200 great people
Very good support
Bike ride averaged 67 miles per day.
A loop ride.

I went solo to this N. Dakota ride and had a fun week. The route was close to the Missouri River. The cons were mostly controlled by Mother Nature. Tent service is available and I would of paid a lot for it the rainy evening.
Port-a-potties are adorned with geese dressed in their finest apparel. A beautiful thing in the middle of the prairie!
I'll try to get out of my comfort zone to attach some pictures.

Fun rock-n- roll rest stop with yummy oatmeal with all the fixings:


Port-a-Potty on the prairie:



North Dakota roads are rumble strip happy with a middle strip too. Blue is a beautiful flax field that looks like water.


My tent at fairgrounds with abandoned carnival rides:




Sunflower field with Missouri River in background:

[cosc]

A few more pics to share:

Close to Bismark with low ground fog over river :




Quad riders that have participated in many Candisc tours.



Celebration at the end:

[Crankin]

I rode 19.5 miles with 2 of my riding friends from the 2 clubs I belong to. I just am losing the will to drive far for a group ride. So, one of these guys doesn't drive and lives near me and is usually a willing riding partner. The other lives in Cambridge and comes out here to ride. He's about 76, and had a bad crash 2 years ago. Since then, he can't ride more than 25 miles, and he said he's working on "not trying to ride at 18." Thing is, he says he gets exhausted, and he is really struggling on hills. We paced him, riding at an average of 13.5 and he still was struggling on the hills. I am wondering if he's having cardiac issues and doesn't know it. Anyway, it was fun, though. Was getting quite hot, got to 91 yesterday, so we stuck to our little loop in Concord and then went for coffee when we got back to where he was parked. I kind of wanted to ride longer, but, the heat and having stuff to do on my day off made me ride home!

[ny biker]

I think you should try to bring up the possibility of cardiac issues with your friend, just to be safe.

I rode 20 miles after work last night. The guys at my LBS are beyond awesome. They replaced the broken spoke, trued the wheel, and also replaced the cable to the rear derailleur after I had mentioned that it's been needing more adjustments than usual lately. It's now shifting beautifully. Since my usual post-work route is ~20 miles from the LBS, I rode a different route last night, which included portions of some other rides I've done before. It was very dark for the last 10 miles (very few streetlights), so it's a good thing I knew where I was going. Also a good thing that I had just changed the battery on the headlight that's on my helmet, because I needed it to read the cue sheet.

[Crankin]

DH took today and tomorrow off and I don't start my Thursday clients until 9/11. Had all intentions of doing a 40-50 mile ride and I woke up feeling like a truck hit me. Who knows why. My weird autoimmune/allergy stuff has been acting up this summer, but since I know the drill, I push on, at least in a modified way! We ended up doing a more local route, that goes into Westford and Chelmsford for a bit and then stopped at Ferns for lunch on the way back. DH put a new chain on my bike a few weeks ago and I have had issues since, despite him fiddling with it continually. After the second "shift by itself" incident, of course, on a hill, and the third time we had to stop, he found the correct fix and it's finally back to normal. Yesterday I dropped my chain making a left in traffic and I could not get it to go back on with the "put it in the high gear" trick, so I actually had to pull off the road and lift the rear of the bike and spin the pedals to get it to move.
We sat at Ferns for quite a while; it got cloudy and was feeling a bit cool for the last 7 miles home, but it was fine. Actually averaged over 15, so, in the end, a good ride of 23 miles.
I am going to take a day off from riding tomorrow, probably hike in the afternoon, after I am done with work.

[Crankin]

Awesome ride to the Fruitlands in Harvard, MA today. It has to be perfect weather... 73 degrees, breezy, no humidity. DH did his first post surgery ride with bigger climbs, including Oak Hill. We are kind of experimenting for our Portugal tour, and we went at touring pace! We rode about 17 miles, ate lunch at the restaurant at the Fruitlands, where the view is outstanding, but we were surrounded by loud women, having lunch! This is where I have often seen the Red Hat group, but, it was just various random groups of people who had fun staring at our bike clothes. We went home a more direct way, past our old house, where the trees DH and DS #2 planted are totally mature. Total ride was about 37 miles, with 2,000 feet of climbing.

[ny biker]

I rode 79 miles today, my first >70 miler in years. It was a century ride put on by a local racing team, but I figured out a couple of short cuts because I didn't want to ride more than 80. I rode with several friends and had a (mostly) good ride.

Five miles from the end, I had another broken spoke. I was able to finish the ride; the wheel was out of true but I opened the brake as far as it would go and ignored the rubbing brake pad. I'm planning to start a separate thread to discuss broken spokes. In the meantime, I can't get to the LBS until Monday but have a big ride planned on Saturday. So I called the LBS from the parking lot of the ride start/finish location, they looked up the type of wheels currently on the bike, we discussed some options, and I ordered a new set of comparable wheels. They should be in by Tuesday, but if there's a delay the shop can lend me a wheel temporarily.

This is not an expense I would like to have right now, but I consider it an investment in my sanity.

Btw one of my companions today was asking about winter cycling clothes. The general discussion centered on layering, wool and shopping at TE.