October rides...

[ny biker]

My friends live in Orleans; I am not quite as familiar with the lower Cape and am still amazed that after 64 summers (first one at age 9 months), there are still places on the Cape I have not been to. Of course, we don't go regularly anymore, and my family was most certainly not hiking in the 50s and 60s! But, I did a fair share of riding there, as a kid, mostly in our cottage compound. In fact, it's where I learned to ride, at age 9.5. Yes, that's how uncoordinated I was.
The hike we did was in Wellfleet, on Great Island. It started on a trail, and then we were on the beach for at least 2.5 miles. The trail reappeared and we had respite for awhile, with hard pack and a climb, but then we were back on a sandy trail. This killed my hips and back. We were at the height of high tide, so near the end, the path was narrow, with a water crossing at one point.
Glad I went, but also this reinforced my feeling that I would never, ever want to live there. All older people, not normal.

I went to a baseball game in Orleans -- it's a nice park for a ballgame, but there seemed to be a cold wind from every direction thanks to its location near the elbow. It was actually the farthest out (down Cape?) that I've been. The main thing I noticed about the people was that many had faces that looked like they'd spent a lot of time in the wind, from sailing I assumed. Last summer (2016) we took a boat ride on the Canal and saw cyclists fighting headwinds on the trail there. I wondered if it was always windy or if things settled down as the summer warmed up.

I think I am heading out to ride tonight after work. Today was our last warm day, possibly for months. They're saying it will be in the 30s and 40s by tomorrow morning. I think we'll still get some comfortable daytime weather in the next few weeks but with the sun getting lower in the sky and fewer hours of daylight we are rapidly heading toward needing Amfib tights and thick fleece booties.

[Crankin]

The wind has commenced, branches everywhere when I got home. Torrential rain and wind tomorrow. Maybe OK by Thursday afternoon.
NY, you were at the Cape in late spring/early summer? It's always windier and colder there than where I live. Once, I went on a field trip where it was 50 degrees and windy in Sandwich, in May. When we got back to school, it was 85 degrees, all within 90 miles. However, it is always windy there, more so in the spring. I rode on that path by the canal in September about 7-8 years ago and it was fine.

[ny biker]

Yes we were there in June. Needed blankets at a couple of the baseball games, especially Hyannis. In DC a south wind usually means warmth, but up there it just means cold ocean air.

It was breezy here yesterday but by sunset it was calm. I did go out to ride after work. It was cool enough to fool me at the start, though, and I headed out wearing tights, booties, full-finger gloves and a windstopper jacket. I quickly warmed up and took off the gloves. Later I took off the jacket. I had originally thought that a vest and arm warmers would be enough, changed my mind at the last minute, and ended up regretting that I hadn't gone with my original plan. Anyway I was reasonably comfortable without the jacket, though a bit chilled going downhill.

The real problem was my right leg. Several times in the past month or so I've had pain just above the knee on the inside during bike rides. The first few times it happened I was able to control it by trying to focus on proper knee position over my foot. But last night it seemed like everything I did made it worse. The question is, what is the cause? It seems to happen when my legs are tired (which they were last night, due to strength training the night before). But this year I think my saddle position is slightly different, after putting a new saddle on my bike. And recently my right shoe has felt weird, like the cleat is too close to my toes, even though when I look at both shoes the cleats are even and in the right place. Of course the right foot is the one connected to the torn ankle tendon, and I've developed a habit of holding my toe up to keep from straining that tendon. And just for kicks, the cleats are old and looking worn around the edges; they clip in and out okay as long as I keep them clean, but maybe they need to be replaced. So who knows what is really causing this problem.

[north woods gal]

Rain or snow for basically the next week for us. How much rain versus how much snow is a guess, given the temps will be right at that borderline for snow. Have been getting ready for winter snow riding, anyway, so I'm ready. Put the skinny tire bikes in the shed for the winter and dusted off the Norco (a Canadian bike company) Bigfoot with it's big 26x4.8" 45NTH studded Dillinger tires. It sits in the shed during the warm months as I ride my other fat bikes, but the warm months are gone, now. Ride my other fat bikes in the snow, too, but this one gets the call when things turn icy. Also what I ride out on our lake when it ices, over. Yeah, fat biking in the snow and ice is a whole different world, but, remember, fat bikes are what I mainly ride on trails in the summer, too.

[ny biker]

Rain or snow for basically the next week for us. How much rain versus how much snow is a guess, given the temps will be right at that borderline for snow. Have been getting ready for winter snow riding, anyway, so I'm ready. Put the skinny tire bikes in the shed for the winter and dusted off the Norco (a Canadian bike company) Bigfoot with it's big 26x4.8" 45NTH studded Dillinger tires. It sits in the shed during the warm months as I ride my other fat bikes, but the warm months are gone, now. Ride my other fat bikes in the snow, too, but this one gets the call when things turn icy. Also what I ride out on our lake when it ices, over. Yeah, fat biking in the snow and ice is a whole different world, but, remember, fat bikes are what I mainly ride on trails in the summer, too.

Even if you get snow, if the temps aren't that cold I imagine it would melt pretty quickly since the ground probably isn't too cold either. But yes winter is just around the corner. (Though folks in southern California would disagree I suppose, given the heat wave they are having.)

Around here I worry most about borderline rain-snow temps because sometimes the result is ice, either freezing on contact with roads and sidewalks or weighing down tree limbs and knocking out power lines if it is really bad. Ugh, I don't even want to think about it.

My knee feels better -- yesterday there was some pain when I walked down stairs but today it's gone. I will try a short bike ride on Saturday afternoon. Must get out and enjoy the sun while it's here! Sunday is looking rainy all day. We do need the rain, though.

[Crankin]

I had a Norco full suspension mountain bike from 2004-8. It was nice, but I sucked at mountain biking and I was pressured into buying a small size, whenI needed an x small. But, I would definitely buy another Norco bike again.

[north woods gal]

Glad to hear the knee is better, NY. Yeah, ice storms are the worst. We actually had more of them, last winter, than is normal for us. Global warming?

Crankin, I get what you're saying about the mountain biking. It took me a lot of time, patience and getting over some of my fears to get where I am, now, not to mention developing a whole different kind of physical strength. To be sure, mountain biking is really a very different kind of biking than road biking, completely different sport, but I still do both, though mostly the MTB stuff because it's so darn convenient, what with trails right outside the door.

I like Norco. Their bikes are well-researched and designed with good components, but it's mostly their frames that I like on these fat bikes. Norco fat bikes handle very much like regular MTBs. Not at all slow or sluggish as some fat bikes are. Their fat bikes make great year round trail bikes.