July riding

[Catrin]

Agreed regarding steel. Back when I could still ride and I meandered on isolated country roads for 4-6 hours at a time - I dearly loved my steel Gunnar. I've also heard very good things about Pugs for areas with less than...optimum roads. Or that passes for roads. Or goat tracks...

[Crankin]

Today I led a 31 mile ride with another woman. It's someone I was in outdoor leadership training with and she came on my first ride I led. Anyway, only 3 people came, but it was really nice. Was spritzing and a bit cool at first, but after we stopped at 3.5 miles, it had stopped raining. That was good, as I had no jacket. I led all but the first 3 miles. One of these women is someone who always rides behind my husband when we lead; however, she must have not been feeling it today. When we had gone about 6-7 miles, right near where I used to live in Boxborough, all of a sudden we started seeing tons of riders going the other way, and coming from a couple of different directions. It was obviously a charity type ride (I saw a sign that said BHA, but i have no idea what that was). So, we had that and a HS nordic ski team roller skiing, also the opposite way on one street. Thankfully, it was only for about 2 miles, but during all this, the other leader who was sweeping, lost one of our people! We stopped, but I made the decsion to go ahead, as she did have a cue sheet and she's from this area. As we were regrouping at the top of the biggest climb, she caught up with us and had realized her mistake quite quickly.
This ride has some of the most beautiful and quietest roads that used to be my go-to roads for riding. It's hilly, but nice. Then we went down a steep (I mean so steep I have seen people walk up this street on group rides) downhill near my old school where I taught. At this point, I was feeling exhausted and knew I needed to eat, but we had a stop a couple of miles after that. I ate my bar and on we went. As we turned back toward our start I asked them if they would like to cut out some of the neighborhood streets on the route, that I added, just to get 33 miles. Everyone was in agreement, as we all had commitments, so we headed straight back to the start, and the ride ended up at 30.7 miles.
I got lots of thanks, which is nice. Usually, I am sweeping for DH, so this was no stress, as we always argue about speed! Going to dinner at a friend's tonight; I hope i can stay up.

[Crankin]

Watched the Tour all morning, while having homemade challah French toast... it was hot by the time we got out, so planned a shorter, local ride.
We did 20 miles, the first half shady, the second, not so much. There seemed to be a lot of cyclists out for 1 pm on a hot day. Not large groups, just lots of couples, groups of 3-4, and solo riders. Maybe they were all watching the Tour, too. I've decided that I do feel stronger since coming back from my trip, but still trying to keep the same mental attitude that got me through.
I finally looked at my total mileage since January. Sigh... I am about 2-3 weeks behind where I usually am. Most of it is due to taking time off for various injuries, some for weather. I should be able to make it up, as we are going for our annual riding weekend in the Berkshires on Thursday, plus doing a club ride Wednesday. The key will be keeping it up after that. I want to do more hiking, and that definitely interferes. My legs need time to recover between riding and hiking.

[ny biker]

I haven't bothered to add them up, but I know my mileage is way way off this year. But I am still hopeful to get back on track.

And in that vein...on Saturday I brought the bike and new Rivet Independence saddle to the LBS to see the fitter. He started by setting up the new saddle in the same position as the old one, then did the plum line thing which indicated it was a bit farther back than it should have been. Last week he had determined that the old saddle was slightly set back, and he moved it up a little but not as far as he could have. But he moved the Rivet up so my knee was in line with the spindle. Things felt good as I pedaled on the trainer, and he said he could see the saddle move as I pedaled, in a good way. The Rivet did feel a bit slippery and the seat area seemed smaller than what I was used to, even though it is really very similar to my old saddle.

For my first test ride, I decided to do a ride in Virginia in an area southwest of where I live. It was with the club that I occasionally with, and I had done this particular route with the same ride leader last fall. Officially there was a choice of 52 miles or 35 miles, with the decision point at mile 18. I checked the map and noted several options to bail in the first 10 miles if the saddle felt really bad.

As I started out, the saddle no longer seemed slippery or too small. It was quite comfortable. After a few miles I was conscious of the backs of my legs hitting the leather on the front edges of the wider part of the saddle. I could definitely tell that I was sitting farther forward than usual. At the first rest stop, about an hour into the ride, things felt good. And by the way the weather was perfect for July, warm and sunny but not humid, with very light wind from the NW. One my friends had shown up for the same ride, so I had someone to ride with. So when we reached the turn for the 35-mile route I decided to go ahead and ride the longer route. I haven't ridden more than 45 miles all year and had only done one 32-mile ride in the past month, but what the hell.

By the end of the ride -- well, I was very tired, was feeling the heat a bit since I'm totally not acclimated, my back and shoulders were not happy. But overall the saddle test was a success. I was a bit sore on the front edges of the sit bones, which I think is okay for the way I usually sit on the road bike. The spot on the right side where I've been having problems with pain and swelling was fine (yay!). I do think the nose might need to be tilted down a little. And maybe the saddle should be shifted back a hair -- toward the end I realized the backs of my legs were hitting the plastic frame around the back edge of the saddle, so I think was sitting too far back. So there are some adjustments to play with, and most likely it will take a few months to break in the leather. But in general I was happy.

[north woods gal]

Glad you found the new saddle to work, NY. Hopefully, your search for that just right saddle is over.

Been in the steel bike mood, of late, so dusted off my old 1996 Kona Kilauea and took it for a spin. This bike won MTB bike of the year in '96 and has a superb steel frame of Tange Prestige steel. After experimenting with various types of bikes, this became my standard commuting bike in my Chicago days. It may not look like much, given all the touch up paint on the frame, but looking a bit old and worn is actually a good thing for a commuting bike in Chicago to reduce the risk of theft. A closer look, though, would reveal that I did some serious upgrades to the bike. The include a full Shimano XT crankset and a 9 speed SRAM X9/XO derailleur and shifter. All else, though, is original, except the seat.

In the old days, the Kona was just bit slower on my 8 mile commute than the cyclocross and road bikes I had tried, but I found it to be a safer bike for commuting. It could accelerate and get out of a dangerous traffic situation much faster than a drop bar bike and sitting more upright was also an advantage for seeing traffic dangers. The wider 2" tires also handles bad roads better. On my 8 mile traffic commute, this was a good trade off for the 4 or 5 minute extra minutes the bike cost me on my commute.

Riding my trails with the Kilauea, this week, brought back many memories. It also was quite an interesting lesson in how bike technology has changed. Still love that old geometry and the way the bike handled, but, wow, those old center pull brakes are pretty crude by comparison to today's disc brakes. Still a place for these old 26" MTBs, though. They accelerate like a rabbit, climb like a goat and turn on a dime. They don't hold their speed as well as my larger wheeled bikes and they can't handle the soft stuff as well, but still lots of fun.

They really don't make them like this, anymore. Lots of miles left in my old pal, though.

[north woods gal]

Thanks.

The saddle is actually not bad. Has enough padding that I could ride comfy in jean shorts or slacks for a quick trip to the grocery store. Worked fine for a grab and go kind of bike. Still have the original Kona saddle, though. Has zilch for padding.