May flowers... and bike rides

[north woods gal]

Mostly a sweet ride on this beautiful May day, with a little of the bitter thrown in and maybe some doubts, too.

32 miles of pavement work was sweet. So was seeing my first bear of the year, crossing the road about 100 yards ahead of me. What a thrill! Sweet seeing a couple other riders to there on the road, too.

The not so sweet was having to cut down the 4 miles of gravel road I planned into my route to only 1.5 miles. Have ridden the Salsa Warbird road bike with its 700x40 tires on this well-maintained gravel loop many times. Unfortunately, this same loop was a little too well maintained, this time, with fresh, loose gravel. This is a worst case scenario for a gravel road biker. The tires sink down in that loose gravel, then suddenly smack that hard surface below at an angle and the bike seems to explode out from under you without warning. After 1.5 miles, I was a basket case of nerves. Bailed out and opted for the pavement, rather than turn off onto the next gravel road.

Last time out, I called it exactly right by choosing the Surly fat bike (which would have been the right bike, this time, too). Called it wrong with the Warbird road bike, today, and its 700x40 tires. That's gravel/dirt/sand road biking for you. Just when you think you've got it figured out ... you haven't.

Another not so sweet surprise was re-dscovering how much I hate riding over those road cracks on paved roads, compliments of riding on high pressure tires via the road bike, again. Ouch! Never even notice them when riding fat bikes or plus tire mountain bikes on pavement. In like manner, also not so sweet re-discovering how my hands were getting much more numb on the road bike, today, versus the fat bike on pavement, last time. Even with gloves, was constantly switching hand positions and shaking the hands to improve circulation. Honestly, the loss of ride comfort by switching back to the road bike, today, was really irritating. Even dropping the tire pressure didn't help much, either for working the gravel or the comfort level.

Am I crazy to just trade off the road bike and go fatter tire only bikes, even for pavement? Sure, the road bike is faster on a long ride. Gets me a higher average speed (though not all that much). On a fat bike or plus tire MTB I'd end up be an embarrassing straggler on a group ride, but I haven't done a group ride in many years and old lone wolf me is not likely to do those anytime, soon. I'm retired, so not schedule to keep, either. What's the hurry? Have I reached the end of the road, so to speak, with my two road bikes? Maybe.