It's August! Riding through the heat.

[Crankin]

Just got back from a 38 mile ride and I am exhausted. This is a ride DH planned, so he really was not sure of the elevation. We ended up doing 1,000 ft of climbing in a flat place. Basically rural farmland and at one point, we were seeing glimpses of another bay, not the lake. Not that beautiful, but nice. We stopped at an apple orchard for lunch and had soup and a muffin. After that, I realized my azz was hurting, but that’s because the saddle on the Guru is not broken in as much as on my Silque. About 20 miles to go, my chain fell off and I could not get it to go back by shifting it into the big ring. DH had to work for awhile to get it on and I had to stay in the small ring. That was ok, because the wind was relentless and so were the gradual climbs. DH will work on it later. After we drink the cider he stopped to buy one mile from our inn.
Going to stretch and shower and drink that cider. I earned my dinner tonight.

[emily_in_nc]

We rode again today, and once again cut it a little short. I think DH was up for doing our usual distance, but there were a lot of storm clouds looming, so we headed back. Ended up with just a bit over 28 miles. A good ride, though!

Crankin, sounds like a pretty tough ride. Enjoy your vacay and your dinner! I bet the area is gorgeous.

nwg, my max speed on our route is in almost always in the 19-21 mile range due to the flatter terrain here in Florida, so 29 mph sounds like fun!

[north woods gal]

Nice work, both of you.

Crankin, you might need a front derailleur adjustment if your chain popped off while shifting to a different chain ring. That's the usual culprit. 38 mile in new country is a very impressive ride, though. When I ride a new route, those miles seem to be much longer and more intimidating.

Emily, our weather has been very humid in the morning, this week, thanks to some overnight fog. Still, I don't think it compares with anything you have in Florida. I'm going to be in Florida, again, this September. Hubby has another conference in your area. Not sure whether I'll be able to do any biking, so will get back to you.

Did 13 miles on the ECR, yesterday, in the humid heat, to take a break from single speed riding. Yeah, that ECR is one of those bikes that could work as my only and my last bike, no matter where I lived or what the weather or roads. Could ride it in the snow, even, but just not in the same class as a fat bike for that riding. Definitely an apocalypse kind of bike I could load up with a ton of gear and live off it. Very comfy to ride and no road in our area can stop it (and that's saying something with our near wilderness roads in places).

Afternoon ride was with the Krampus for some trail work, after dropping the tire pressure way low for the sake of my neck comfort. Yup, another Surly steel bike, but different in character than the ECR. Pure trail bike, this one. Been experimenting with the gear ratios. Getting real close to converting it to a single speed. Not sure why I like riding single speed so much. Maybe it's because I've always been a minimalist as far as gear and love keeping things simple. Whatever. Single speed riding is just a good fit for me. Matches up with my "just get on the damn bike and ride" philosophy.

[Crankin]

So, we planned a shorter route today, since the tour company’s route covered some of what we did yesterday. After a couple of miles, we turned onto a trail more suited for my new bike! There was one point I had to put my foot down, as I wasn’t sure I could get around a large puddle, and my entire cleat on my shoe and pedal was so mud encrusted I could not clip in. Since these are SPD pedals, I tried kicking the mud out, but I had to stop. I did not want to be on this trail to begin with! After several squirts of the water bottle, we got back on the main road and decided to turn down a side street that ended up on a peninsula. It was beautiful and had some shade, with views of the water. On the way back to town, my chain dropped again. We stopped at the farmers market, bought sadwiches and ate by the water. Lovely! After cleaning up, took my bike to the LBS in the next town. The mechanic, a women was a riot. There is no obvious cause, but a weird thing that may be affecting it, that she needed to wait for the head guy to fix. We are going back to pick it up in about 30 minutes. What a pain. I truely do not remember what it is, but they seem competent. Since we won’t have our car until Monday, we need to be able to ride to our next inn tomorrow morning and to our final destination on Monday, where our car will be waiting.
The cab comes to get our suitcases at 9 am, so we will be leaving to our next stop around 10:30, after breakfast.

[Crankin]

Ok, my bike is fixed. This was DH’s fault! He put a new chain on the night before we left and he put it on wrong... Mr Genius mechanic. But, he was mortified in front of the mechanic, who told him to “own his sh!t.” She was hysterical. They did a couple of other minor things for me and charged us only 25.00.
I was able to enjoy my dinner!

[emily_in_nc]

Ok, my bike is fixed. This was DH’s fault! He put a new chain on the night before we left and he put it on wrong... Mr Genius mechanic. But, he was mortified in front of the mechanic, who told him to “own his sh!t.” She was hysterical.

Too funny!

No riding this weekend, as we leave the busy trails to the families, but we did other things. Today was a long walk to the parking garage downtown, stair and ramp climbing, then after a quick dip in the pool to cool down (felt glorious, and I had it all to myself!) I worked out in the gym. Looking forward to riding tomorrow, though. First day of school for the kiddos here, which means buses on the roads.

[Crankin]

We left Wellington around 10:30, after a memorable dinner last night and good conversation with the other guests at the inn, as well as the owners. The ride today took us in a more isolated area, through a provincial park on the lake. Needless to say, it was crazy busy getting close to there, but the route took us on a gravel path to avoid most of it. It was tricky to get the right path looking at the GPS, but after quite a few turn arounds, we got to the beach. We stopped and used the bathroom, and just took a look at the dunes/water. We both felt incredibly overheated, as there is no shade here, and we were getting close to our inn. After another short dirt section, we were on our way with 5 miles to go. We stopped once, in the shade so I could eat a Shot Block and drink copiously. I was starting to feel weird.
Ended up with 28.5 miles. We both cannot figure out why these rides with 240 ft of elevation feel so hard! The 2 factors are a relentless headwind and the sun. It was 80 when we got here; after a quick shower, we walked half a mile to a wonderul place for lunch, around 2. On the way back the wind had died and it was 85.
The inn does not have AC, but it is not bad. And it cools a lot at night. Since this place is in the middle of nowhere, we eat at the inn, a special thing for people on this tour.
Tomorrow we ride to our final riding destination. Seriously thinking of doing the shorter route, if it is not cloudy. Some cool things on the way. Weather still looks iffy for Tuesday. Neither of us want to risk t storms.

[north woods gal]

Love your bike mechanic, too. Sounds like a lovely area, Crankin. How's your bike do on the dirt/gravel? Hopefully, okay.

11 pavement miles this morning on the single speed Log lady, then did a little trail maintenance work. Much needed, since I couldn't do any work during my recovery. Whoa, I am still way out of shape for this kind of physical labor. 7 weeks of no lifting or physical work really weakened me. I'm going very slow and light, though. Little bit at a time. My goal is to smooth the trail as much as possible, removing roots or small rocks that might possibly cause a fall, but mostly just to make for a more comfy ride.

Still at something of a crossroads on the bikes and what I want to ride into the future. The fat bikes will always stay, but the plus bikes may get traded off at some point. They're kind of an in-between kind of bike. Not as good as a fat bike for gnarly trail riding and not as sweet and nimble as the light single speeds for pure road work. When I want to ride trail, I grab a fat bike. When I want to ride pavement, I grab a sweet and fast single speed. The 3" tire plus bikes don't get ridden much, now. The single speeds have kind of spoiled me for pavement and road work. Who knew?