August Riding

[north woods gal]

You can do it, Emily, if anyone can. Go for it, girl.

Added the simpler Jones Bend H-bar to the Krampus and love it. Gets me all my favorite hand positions and the same comfortable ride as the standard H-bar, but with less weight. Makes the Kranmpus the long-distance rider I hoped it would be.

[ny biker]

Thanks Emily and NWG. The ankle saga continues, unfortunately. Long story short, an MRI showed that the tendon we thought was hurting is actually fine, but the one next to it is torn, and some of the PT exercises were making it worse. Not sure what the next step is. And as for domed saddles, they make no sense to me -- the shape just makes the effective saddle width smaller. Anyway.

This past week we had heavy thunderstorms popping up in the afternoons, somewhat unpredictably. The ultimate lesson for me was: prepare for a post-work bike ride, get rained out; prepare for either a bike ride or a workout at the gym, it won't rain so the bike ride is on. It took until Friday for me to learn this lesson, however, and even then I wasn't sure if I'd get soaked near the end of the ride or not. Just in case, I plotted a shorter route than usual, building on the improvised short route that I did last week when I was worried that my newly-repaired flat tire would go flat again. On paper it was 11 miles; near the end I decided the rain chances had dropped enough to loop around and do the last part of the ride a second time. Total distance was just under 16 miles. It was warm, very humid and very breezy bordering on windy at the end.

Afterwards I took advantage of the fact that I had my gym clothes with me -- I changed from bike shorts to gym shorts (but kept on my loose-fitting sleeveless bike jersey) and stopped at Target on the way home to pick up a few things. I had serious helmet hair and I don't think I smelled very good but oh well.

[Crankin]

Our weather was similar this week, NY.
I decided to walk yesterday morning. Good thing I went out when I did, as it started raining heavily about 30 min. after I returned. Oy, we had a lot of stuff to bring to my son's for the birthday, in the rain, and I *forgot* the damn vegan cake! I felt really, really badly. My DIL ran out to a bakery and got some great chocolate cake, but my granddaughter broke out in hives from just a taste of the frosting. A wash and some prescription cortisone cream cleared it up in minutes, though. I sliced it up when we got home and froze it and will bring it to them next week.
Today we did a lovely 30 mile ride, locally. DH was feeling a bit off, so he did not want to do a 50+ mile hilly ride. So, we went through like 5 towns, without being more than 10-12 miles from home, including some climbing. One of the roads is designated as a scenic bikeway; we used to ride on it a lot before I moved to the condo. We stopped at a large Mobil station/convenience store that has a patio with tables, by a bike path and on a pond we sometimes swim at. First, we were going to eat elsewhere, but I got hungry very suddenly. It was nice. It was quite cool, 72 and windy, and almost fall feeling in the shade, until we got back into Concord. As we rode into Concord Center, the temperature went up about 6-8 degrees and the sun came out more. So many more cars, too. I mean we are not talking about Boston here, but despite the fact that parts of my town are rural and farm-like, it has become noticeably more city like in traffic around the 2 town centers. Otherwise, it was really quiet out on the roads.
With a temperature of 72-78 and low humidity, couldn't ask for a more perfect day.

[Crankin]

Yesterday I did my first "dark" ride, in quite a long time. Maybe since last fall. I went out at 5:15 am, it was just starting to get light, but I still used my big, powerful light. I rode out on a flat road and then decided to ride south on another flattish road. At the end of that, I had a choice. Go straight, up a longer hill and back the way I came, make a sketchy left turn on a curve and go up a smaller hill, left across a road that would busy with traffic going toward Boston, or ride more through some country roads and be out longer than I wanted to be. I chose the second one, and I did have to wait a few minutes to make a left across Rt 117, with a steady stream of cars. Other than this, it was quiet. Some mist/low hanging fog as I rode through a golf course and other valley type areas. About 58 degrees, and I was dressed correctly for once. I did see a couple riding in the other direction nearer to the beginning of my ride. They had crappy little lights and it was still more dark than light out when I saw them. I've been using a front light all of the time for about 3 years and it makes such a difference in how cars react. My big light is as good as a car and has several settings. I only use this in the dark, or in winter. I have a light with less lumens I use most of the other time.
I love riding at this time of day, but this ride is more rural than what I could do when I lived on the other side of town. It was fun to see the town waking up in the shopping area, as well as seeing lots of other cyclists who were as nuts as I am to get up and ride at 5 AM.

[north woods gal]

Thanks, Crankin. Brings back some pleasant memories of commuting in my Chicago suburb days. Much of the year, it was in the dark, since I was one of the first into work. Very different, kind of peaceful world in busy urban and suburban areas that early in the morning. I remember seeing coyotes, fox, lots of deer, raccoons right along main street. Yeah, now and then I'd see other commuters on a bike, some even with no lights or any reflective clothing. Just crazy. I suspect some of these were commuting on a bike out of economic necessity and I felt their pain, but no light at all?

Been a good week for my riding. Most of it's been a daily combo ride of pavement, gravel and single track, averaging about 25 miles on the Krampus and the Krampus handled them all very well. Can't help but think the Krampus would have made a great commuting bike, back in the day, but that was just before the big tire craze hit the bike world. Standard 29ers were the radical new thing at the time. Thought I was going big at the time with those old 26x2" MTB wheels. Things sure have changed.

Still have my two 26" MTBs that I used for commuting, though, and still ride them. I think standard 26" MTBs still have their place for trail work and even some road riding. They got me through a couple of Chicago area winters and never let me down. I know the industry is making an all out effort to replace the 26" wheels with the 27.5" wheels as the industry standard, but I hope they don't forget the good old 26". Be a real shame.

[emily_in_nc]

I rode! I rode! I rode!

Pardon the excitement, but since I haven't ridden (other than a few trainer rides) since my crash on April 21, it was a big day for me. Very hot and humid since we're back in Florida, but there's a reasonable amount of shade on the bike path, and so long as I kept moving, the breeze I created made it tolerable, and plenty of cold water helped too. Had a great time, managed 24 miles (a bit more than I'd expected). Mentally, it was just great to get out again for both me and DH, who was going pretty crazy without riding.

This is a short stretch of busy road we have to ride to get back to the campground after riding the trail. Fortunately, there is a bike lane, and with the stoplights, sometimes you can get all the way without being passed if you time it right. I didn't quite manage that today, but almost! Cars are gaining on me here....


And back at our motorhome:


Thanks for all the support during this tough time, gals of TE. I really do appreciate it!

[Crankin]

Looking good, Emily. That's a very respectable amount of miles after coming back from injury!

[rebeccaC]

I rode! I rode! I rode!

good on you!!!!.......i'm slower getting back than you but hey it's all part of our journeys

[rebeccaC]

NY….Folding beads can stretch a bit after being ridden, which can make them a little easier to get off and on. At first they can be as hard to get on as wired though. If the leak location can be determined from just looking at the tire, with folding I can remove part of the tire, pull the tube out, patch and get back to riding quicker. That’s harder to do with a wire bead. I prefer carrying a folding spare tire when i feel the need although you can coil a wire bead into thirds. Folding tires are a little lighter too.

Perhaps getting a longer stem on the replacement tubes will help with the pump attachment....if you're using a screw on pump head depending on how hard you attach it that may loosen the stem core when you remove it as most cores loosen counter clockwise....and don't really tighten the stem cap for the same reason, i don't even use them.

[rebeccaC]

I've heard of people laying tires out in the sun to soften them before first installation. Never tried it, but maybe that would make it easier.

Sheila…possibly the rubber but I wouldn’t think aramid-fibers like the Kevlar beads in tires or wire beads are affected much if any by sun heat….actually I'm pretty sure aramid-fiber isn’t.

Did you ever find a good flat pedal shoe for your Krampus? I’m looking for my commuter.

[north woods gal]

I agree on not riding when a cold is coming on, Emily. From experience, riding can make it worse. Rest up.

Bill and I recently purchased a bike rack for the Toyota so that he could join me on some of my area trails and gravel/sand roads. Due to disabilities, he can't sit for the long times it takes to ride out to these trails, but using the car to get there, he can join me on the shorter rides. Today, was a five mile jaunt on my favorite gnarly sand road and we used it to pick some blackberries, which are plentiful along this road.

This mostly sand road can vary, tremendously, in its condition for bicycling, but even at its best, anything less than 3" tires is going to be impossible in sections. It gets pounded by ATV traffic and since no one lives along it's 7 mile length, it receives minimal maintenance. Anymore, I just grab a fat bike, usually my beloved Pugsley, to take the guesswork out of it. Got lucky, today, though, because a road grader has recently done some work. Best I've seen it, yet. Still no place for a skinny tire bike, though.


My Pugs stops to pick some berries.


While Bill was busy picking berries, I did sneak off down a snowmobile trail that was absolutely fat bike, only, country. Fun, fun, fun.


Heading back to the car with a load of blackberries and a nice ride under our belt.


How sweet they are!

[north woods gal]

Plus one on what Rebecca says about the folding beads. I use them on all my MTBs, not because they're lighter, but because they do give a little when I have to change tires. Still a matter of individual tires on specific rims, though. Some combos are a bear, not matter what the bead. Most MTBs tires, these days, are folding, anyway.

The lighter thing isn't much of a factor on my MTBs and fat bikes, as I said, but that might be something that would be more of an interest on your road bike.

Curious, though, that your tires are getting so cut up, NY. It's seldom an issue on my trail bikes and they see a lot of nasty rocks and such.