August Riding

[rebeccaC]

Thanks to both of you…I’ve been using Chromes for their rigid sole and grippy rubber but need some new shoes. I remembered an earlier post of yours Sheila (Maybe i misremembered it ) and I thought you might have found a good solution for your Krampus. I'll probably go with Chromes again.

eta...Emily does that mean no more wiring of the jaw? if so congrats on getting away from blended food!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and hoping it makes things easier for you too.. +1 on thorns and +1 on marathons....i have them on my commuter and they have taken a lot of abuse without any problems

[azfiddle]

I've been using the folding Gatorskins exclusively for a while. Very rarely do I get flats, in spite of the goat's heads around here. And it's much easier for me to get them on to the rims than the non folding variety.

[Crankin]

I did another "dark ride" this morning. Same measly distance of 9 miles, a slightly different route. First time wearing tights since I was in Spain, but probably since April at home. It was 51 out, but since it was fully dark when I started at 5:15, I didn't want to have any leg exposed with knickers or knee warmers. I also tried out my new light weight, long fingered gloves, wore a light head cover, and a sleeveless base layer. I pretty much nailed it for clothing, which is tricky, between 50 and 65 for me. Next time, I will go out in a diferent direction and go longer, although 35 minutes of exercise is fine for me this time of day.. On the way home, near my house, I saw my gym instructor running, on the other side of the street. We instantly knew who it was, as how many others are out before 6 AM!??

[ny biker]

I tip my hat to you, Crankin. I am pretty sure I would not go out riding in the dark at 51 degrees right now. I am just not ready to play the how many layers game.

I picked up a new tire last night at REI -- a folding Gatorskin Hard Shell. In the past I've just used regular Gatorskins but the Hard Shell was the only one they had in stock in the size I wanted. When I got home I was too tired to put it on the wheel. So I'll do that tonight. Not sure if I'll go for a ride tomorrow night since I'll be helping to mark roads for our club century during the day. I might go out Thursday night instead.



I think I need to take the mountain bike out for a spin. I might do a ride in a few weeks that is partially on gravel. It's a fundraiser for a free clinic a couple of hours west of where I live -- a long drive to get there but a beautiful area. And they have free pie afterwards. Lots and lots of pie.

[emily_in_nc]

eta...Emily does that mean no more wiring of the jaw? if so congrats on getting away from blended food!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and hoping it makes things easier for you too..

Oh yes, I've been out of wires for a couple of months now! I got them on on May 16th and off just two weeks later. Then I was in heavy elastics on the arch bars for three weeks and was able to eat soft foods, not only liquid foods. After getting those off in late June, I started adding more and more foods to my diet, just not really hard, chewy, or sticky foods. But about 90% of everything was fine. Sometimes I had to cut things up smaller to eat them since my jaw is still a bit weaker than before, and my bite is still wonky -- though WAY better than before the wiring.

As of yesterday, I have braces on my teeth to further correct my bite (plus straighten my teeth as a side benefit), leading to another round of food restrictions. Fortunately, I'm used to those by now, so it's not as traumatic. My teeth are quite sore today, so I'm sticking with yogurt, soup, and so forth. Should get better over the days until the next ortho visit! But I still have to be very careful so as not to break or bend a wire or dislodge a bracket.

I'm just glad to be moving forward!

But back to the subject of August rides, I got out today after my 1.5 weeks off for four separate dentist/orthodontist visits and having a cold. Nice to be back on the bike. Just a nice 20 miler and beat the rain back!

[azfiddle]

I don't know where I've been this month. Here it is, August 29 and I've ridden somewhere around 26 days of the month- mostly commuting but rides on weekends too! I won a $50 gift card for my commuting from the local "Rideshare" website that promotes commuting by bike, bus etc. I did a ride up Mt. Lemmon to milepost 9, two weeks ago, a 55 mile ride about a week ago with the JDRF training group - I'm going to ride with them for El Tour de Tucson. (Doing that miserable fund-raising begging....I'm not good at it!), and I did a 38 mile ride on Saturday that cooked me completely. It was about 100 degrees or more for the last 8 miles and I had to stop and go cool off inside a store for a couple minutes about 5 miles from my my house- and then downed Starbucks frappucino to cool down a little more about a mile from home.

[ny biker]

Glad you were finally able to get back out and ride. When my sister had braces back in the day, she always ate scrambled eggs for dinner on days when she went to the orthodontist.

[Crankin]

I actually asked my DH about which Gatorskins I had last night. I didn't know, because they were on the bikes when I did the builds on both of them. I remember asking the shop(s) to use them, but not the discussion of which kind. They are the folding ones. However, I still wouldn't want to try to get them off or on!
I might have to try, as yesterday morning I rode through a pile of broken glass on my ride. I checked my tires when I got back and last night, so far, OK, but a little leery of going out alone today. It's raining now, but supposed to clear up and I do want to ride at least 20 miles today. We are leaving for Philly tomorrow, where my younger son and family are temporarily hanging out until they go to Ft. Benning. Decided not to take the bikes, as we want to concentrate on the visit.

[emily_in_nc]

Glad you were finally able to get back out and ride. When my sister had braces back in the day, she always ate scrambled eggs for dinner on days when she went to the orthodontist.

We're having Mexi-eggs tonight, in fact! Yesterday I was quite sore and had salmon and quinoa/kale for dinner. Less sore today - yay!

[rebeccaC]

There is a lot of variation in Chromes, and I've never tired them. Which do you like?

Chrome Kursk’s….the soles are stiff enough for my use and they hold well on the serrated edges of my commuters mks pedals. I do use nylon-reinforced resin strapless toe-clips when doing some of the hills here in town on my commuter too.

They are very comfortable to walk in. The Pro Kursk has a removable plate for recessed spd compatibility if someone wants that too. The ones I have are a few years old and looking worn now. Sizes run large and I went one size down and they fit well. They also have a nice elastic loop to hold the lace ends securely on the top of the shoe.

[north woods gal]

I don't want to get pushy about my preference for flat pedals and by flats I mean thin platform pedals with pins on either side, not the old blocky cruiser pedals we had on Schwinns when we were kids or that are still found on cheaper bikes. My advice for anyone is to try flats if interested, but give them at least a couple of months. At first, there is a feeling of insecurity with not being locked in with SPDs if you've been riding them for years, but it passes as you become familiar with the flats.

I switched over to good lightweight flats on my road bikes a couple years, ago, now, and in the beginning I kept notes for a month on my average speed on the same long pavement loop with the flats versus my SPDs. Meant a lot of switching pedals on my Trek Domane WSD road bike, but I really wanted know the trade offs. Sometimes even did back to back rides on the same day with the different pedals for the sake of comparison.

My findings - and I stress that they were my findings for my riding and they may or may not apply to others - is that there was no significant difference in my average speed for the two types. If anything, my speed was a bit higher with the flats. Go figure. I did greatly reduce foot cramps by going with the flats, though, and that was one of the things that lead me to try them in the first place. So many thousands of miles over so many years of my feet being clipped into one single position on the pedals for hours and hours at a time with the SPDs had caught up with me. It was a repetitive stress kind of injury. I couldn't go for more than a couple of hours without my feet cramping and, yes, I changed seats, seat positions, you name it. Very painful.

The flats cured it, though, by allowing my to move my foot on the pedals a bit, same as moving my hands around on the drop bars reduced hand numbness and fatigue. The cramps disappeared almost immediately, as long as I remembered to keep my feet moving and stretching. Two years, now, many long rides with the flats and no cramps. Don't even think about it, now. Problem solved.

For trail work, switching from clipless to flats, I did have to adjust my riding style to avoid my feet bouncing off the pedals when not being locked in with eggbeaters as I rode over gnarly stuff. That was actually very easy, though. I now get at least one wheel off the ground when hopping logs and rocks and on some serious drops with me and the bike landing hard with no loss of contact with the pedals. More importantly, flats let me move my feet around on the pedals for technical advantages. I sometimes ride on the balls of my feet when steering though turns for the sake of balance and sometimes even drop a foot to pivot through a really tight twist when I'm getting a little wild with the speed. I then go with the flats of my feet on the pedals for more power when climbing. Huge difference in power. All in all, pretty amazing how changing positions with your feet on the pedals adds to your riding, same as changing positions with your hands on the bars. Going back to clipless would now be a real handicap for me on my MTB riding. No way. And remember, this is all with fully rigid MTBs, no suspension. It's all a matter of technique.

As for the flats on one side and SPD on the other pedals, totally worthless on the two versions I've tried. Neither side worked as well as a standard all flat or all SPD.

Again, not telling anyone what to use. Not my style. Sold off all my clipless pedals, though. Flats, only, for this gal.

[Crankin]

I used SPDs at first... couldn't stand the restrictive float. I can see how you had cramps with SPDs, NW. I switched to Speedplay X pedals. They are not even made anymore, but I see no reason to change to the newer version, as you can still get them. I kept SPDs on my mountain bike, which was dumb, since I already was scared to death and never really progressed much, flats would have helped. I had the campus pedals on my Jamis Coda; one side SPD, one side flat. They always flipped over to the unweighted side when I clipped out and I had to kick it over to get back in. However, I did ride that bike twice with the flat side and regular shoes, which was a disaster. In traffic, I had no muscle memory for pushing off unclipped. I have ridden beach cruisers/rental bikes with flat pedals, but with no pressure around me (cars) it was OK. I sold the Coda (wish I hadn't) when I got my Guru. That had Speedplay Frogs, which are great to walk in, but I always seemed to fly out of the left pedal. I read about it on line, there was an issue, mostly because it's so smooth clipping in, you can't hear the little click, so hence, you aren't actually in when you think you are. I bring them for when we go on tours in Europe. When we came back from Spain, we never put them back on the bike, and when I had to ride the Guru over the past month, DH put his old Speedplay Xs on the bike, since he bought the newer version, when he got new shoes.
I don't like change with any part of my bike! I don't have a good idea of how pins work. Do they stick into some kind of special bottom on a BMX shoe? If I ever get another bike like the Coda for just going into town, I might get flat pedals.

[rebeccaC]

So many thousands of miles over so many years of my feet being clipped into one single position on the pedals for hours and hours at a time with the SPDs had caught up with me. It was a repetitive stress kind of injury.

Float ftw!!!
I have speedplay frog ti’s on my road, tour and fixie cuz I like having the float when I need it, the secure and reliable foot retention especially when pulling upward/climbing off the saddle/the high cadence of some fixie rides etc. and of course there’s the comfortable walking off the bike. No problems in the years I’ve used them.

I have the no longer made Carnac shoes, which has a sole constructed in a way that eliminates any hotspots no matter the length of, long hard climbs on or long headwind grinding it out on the pedals kind of rides.

Soooo for me…it’s a good thing that my feet and knees feel good even if other parts of my body may be in distress cuz of the ride.

[north woods gal]

Added another 1/10 mile branch on my MTB trails, today. That doesn't sound like much, but, believe me, that is full day of work and heavy work at that. Good section, though, with some hefty steeps that will give me a good workout. May be able to use it as a cross country ski section, too.

By the way, I do not cut down any large or even small trees, just an occasional seedling. Most of the trail work involves moving debris, raking, trimming over head limbs for the sake of safety, filling dangerous holes and so on. Also involves some cutting of old stumps and fallen dead trees that block the path. Have made an effort to minimize the disruption to our woods. Very little underbrush in our local woods, though, thanks to our overpopulation of deer and we also have an infestation of earthworms - an invasive species for us - that seriously deplete what few soil nutrients we have, so our woods should have more of an understory if truly healthy. The mostly bare forest floor does make it easier on me to lay out trails, but I would rather see my woods a bit more healthy.

Now at about 2.5 miles of trail on our property if you took all the pieces and strung them, end to end, but in order to actually to access and ride all the pieces, you have to ride over 6 miles with lots of doubling up on sections to access all parts. Usually takes me a full hour of riding, full out, hard, and that includes LOTS of climbing and techy turns and maneuvers. On a good day, I can average over 6 mph for average speed. If I just cruise and/or play with then objects such as logs and rocks, much longer and slower. So many ways to ride the trails, I never get bored. An almost infinite number of combinations. All beautiful, too, with me right there in the midst of it all the sounds and smell and ambience. Life is good in our north woods.

[emily_in_nc]

Your trails sound really nice, NWG. My husband put in trails on our 11-acre wooded property in NC which also didn't have a lot of undergrowth (lots of deer there too), but I think even if I rode every segment/loop, it couldn't have been more than a mile and a half total for each loop. Our trails were easy by MTB standards, but there was one little hill that was scary descending and a difficult climb up unless you were in the granny gear ahead of time. I didn't ride these trails much since I was almost much more of a roadie, but they were fun at times!

A couple of similar rides here the past two days on the bike path and roads. Hot and humid with heat index in the low 100s! Today traffic was worse on the roads, heralding the start of the holiday weekend, but the trail was not bad since the kiddos still had school. 27 miles yesterday and 29 today.

Ordered a couple of items from Amazon yesterday: A Polar water bottle that I can squeeze to drink from rather than have to use my teeth to open, which is impossible with braces and tender teeth! Also new Conti Gatorskin tires for both me and DH. He decided that riding the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires we bought for riding out west (goatheads!), where we didn't make it this summer due to my accident, was silly here in Florida. The Contis will save us about 1 lb. of rotating weight for each wheel (when coupled with lighter tubes, as we're also running super heavy bulletproof tubes) and allow us to save the Schwalbes for the next time we actually need them without wearing them out ahead of time. It will be nice to be a bit speedier once we get the new tires installed. I've gotten so used to the Schwalbes that I don't even notice that they are slower. DH just put them on his Trek recently and said he could really tell a difference in his average speed and acceleration. His Contis were well-worn, so it was time for new tires anyway.