Did the Skagit County Spring Classic metric century on the recumbent. Started out fine, but as soon as I hit the climby bits of Chuckanut drive, I started having problems shifting. The chain wouldn't drop down from the middle ring to the small ring, so I had to dismount and move the chain myself--all old-school like. After a couple similar instances, I just decided to keep it in the small ring until the lunch stop, 20 miles off, since there were a lot climbs and rolling hillyness, and I couldn't continue to hop off the bike and move the chain to the small chainring manually every time I encountered a hill, or it would have taken forever! The mechanic at the rest stop really knew his stuff and adjusted the FD, and then hopped on and put the bike through some loops, making hard shifts, making sure it was shifting correctly, but wasn't set too far to the inside. It shifted like buttah after that, and I didn't tip that guy enough! The rest of the ride was pure pleasure, and I enjoyed the long descent after Bow hill, the scenic farm lands, and on to the beautiful views of Fidalgo bay. I was happy as a clam until I was almost killed by an on coming truck, swinging wide to pass a slow moving farming implement on Farm to Market Road. Screamed like I was in an 80s slasher movie, I did, then dropped a lot of f-bombs at the driver, who did luckily, see me at the last second, and narrowly avoid hitting me head on.
This remains one of my favorite rides, in spite of the fact that it seems to get more dangerous every year.