October rides: put a little color into it.

[Crankin]

That sounds lovely, Emily. When are you leaving for Mexico? I forget.
I had a nice recovery ride to check out the new gourmet market on the other side of town. I was looking for some failed birthday cake replacements for tonight; I tried making a vegan pound cake with a frosting and it was a disaster, I think because the measurements were translated from metric. Luckily I have 3 frozen pieces of left over vegan chocolate cake (granddaughter is allergic to dairy AND eggs, DIL is vegan), so after I saw the new place didn't really have anything my son would like, I rode back to West Concord and stopped at another bakery where I bought 2 huge triple chocolate brownies for DH and my son. Of course, when I went out to unlock my bike, it was drizzling. I was wearing regular clothes, well, some wicking clothes that are nice enough to wear to work, and I did not want to have to change. Thankfully it stayed a drizzle, was starting to feel wet in the 2 mile ride home and I did not have to change. I had to quickly eat, go to the next town in my car to get a present for my son, come back, and make the dinner. If it had been nice out, I might have ridden to TJ Maxx to get the gift, but I was not prepared for rain.

[emily_in_nc]

That sounds lovely, Emily. When are you leaving for Mexico? I forget.

November 1. Can't wait as cold weather is coming here to NC by the end of the week (after Michael). I had to dig out some fall clothes in the vaccuum bags we have stored under my mother's guest bed so I'd have something to wear -- have worn nothing but shorts and t-shirts or tank tops in months. We leave to drive back to Florida on Monday, so we'll be back in the heat, but only for 1.5 weeks before we leave for good. Excited!

[rebeccaC]

as others i do hope it's nothing serious sheila!!!!!!......i wanna move to mexico!!!!!!!!

The Eastern Sierra’s have some of the most wonderful climbs I’ve ever done. Beautiful on-coming scenery also helps to calm me on a hard climb and gives a good excuse to sit and meditate into the view. If it was my last solo climbing ride I’d want it to be in the Eastern Sierra’s. The ride was 13 miles up Onion valley rd. out of Independence Ca. It’s just north of the Whitney Portal rd that I wrote about in the Jan thread and is similar but I went higher on this ride.
Temps were kind, even a passing light shower helped in refreshing me when I needed it most during steep switchbacks towards the top. Riding off the valley floor isn’t eventful or that scenic so counting expansion joints mindfulness ftw. The descent was worrying but i stopped a lot for photography, so that made it wonderful!!!
….and in-between were cloud covered mountains, the beginning of stain glassed woods, just being immersed in the beauty of the environment and being completely present….good for my urban soul.

This limited time in life to do things just isn’t nice!!!!! Just pilates, yoga and commutes for awhile and into the near future for me. The commutes have provided many good moments of just moving through the morning light and starting a productive work day in a good mood and when needed on the way home the exercise of some intervals to keep work from home and Alex. Not even commutes for awhile though as i want to be able to get to Alex as soon as possible since she’s in her last month……

going down a different but wonderful road

some photos of the ride

[north woods gal]

Is that blue sky I see peeking out of the clouds, Rebecca? If so, send some my way. Haven't had a sunny day for well over a week, now.

In fact, got so frustrated I just threw on a raincoat and rode in the rain, this morning. And most of those rainy 24 miles (21.5 of them, in fact) were on this one.


Yup, got a call, late yesterday, that my new All City Nature By was ready. By the time I got home and changed the saddle, added a computer, handlebar bag, water bottle cage and made some fit adjustments, it was too late in the day to ride and, it was also raining, too. Surprise, surprise.

Had the shop do some mods for me on the Nature Boy to better suit my riding. First thing was to change it from a drop bar to a flat bar, since all my other bikes are flat bar. This is easily done, since All City uses the same frame for their drop bar bikes and flat bar bikes. Did take a MUCH shorter stem to get it done, but works, great. Next up was to go with different tires than the 700x33 stock tires. I went with 700x38 Panaracer Gravel Kings, set up tubeless, both for comfort and safety on rough or gravel strewn roads. Lastly, was to change the gearing to match what I wanted for my area roads that I would be riding.

So how did it ride? Looks like I got it just right. The bigger tires did a great job in the rain on the wet pavement, no slipping at all, even on wet leaves and sand on the road. Great for comfort on the rough patches, too. Could probably ride gravel with this one, too, but I have better choices for that work. The Nature Boy will be a pavement bike.

The gearing was a bit higher than I expected as far as pedaling effort, but calculating exactly what you'll get with any single speed gear ratio and tire combo is part art and part science. The important thing is that I could handle it, though. For comparison, my Gunnar is also set up for road work. With the Gunnar at max spin on the flats, I can do 13 mph before spinning out. On the Nature Boy with its higher gear ration, I can hit 15.5 mph before spinning out. That's a significant difference in a single speed and, yeah, over the course of 21.5 miles, I could feel it in my legs. Glad to report, though, that I purposely tested me and the bike on my two steepest and hardest climbs and we made it. Took a lot more standing to pedal to do it, but we made it. At this point, I think I can develop the leg strength in a couple of weeks of pedaling this one. If not, a simple gear change is easy to do.

Now down to only my fat bikes for bikes with full gearing and one of those will likely end up single speed, too.

As for the other 2.5 lies, that was on the Krampus on our soggy trails, also in the pouring rain, with Star running along for company. Border Collies like this cool and wet weather more than I do, but it sure beats sitting in the house.

[north woods gal]

Yup, almost looks like my old Pugsley went on a diet.

Before


and after


The Nature Boy replaces the old Pugs. Not to worry, still have the new Pugs and two other fat bikes.

[ny biker]

Very nice, NWG!

Good to hear from you, Rebecca. Best wishes to you and Alex on that different road!

I led a ride on Sunday in northern Maryland, 58 miles. It was summer in October, and most of us were less acclimated than we thought we'd be to sunshine, humidity and temps in the 80s. We ended up adding an extra rest stop for water and few minutes in air conditioning. Overall it was a great ride, very scenic with farmland, creeks and rivers. One person thought the route was too zig-zaggy but when I plan a route I go for narrow back roads over direct routes with traffic any day. Another person made a wrong turn and got pretty lost, but fortunately he passed a cyclist who was out riding alone and who helped get him back on track.

The new bike has been ordered, along with a new saddle and pedals. The free-gift bike to be traded in is also on order.

I have a Rivet Independence on my Madone and generally like it. It solved a lot of saddle problems for me. The only thing I would like to change on it is that it somewhat dome-shaped in back. I decided to order a Rivet Pearl to try on the new bike. It has a flatter profile. It's also 1 cm wider. The Indy is just barely wide enough for me, so I'm hoping that extra cm on the Pearl won't be too much.

It will probably be sometime next week before I am able to get fitted on the new bike. They didn't have one in my size to test when I went to the LBS the other day, but there was one that had been sold but not picked up yet that I was able to sit on quickly to check the reach. After comparing the geometry to my 54cm Madone, we had thought the 52 Checkpoint frame would probably work for me, but the fitter at the LBS thought I should try the 54. He measured my arm/shoulder angle on it and said I was right at the upper limit, so we will probably put a slightly shorter stem on it.

I have asked several friends for input re: tires for the bike. I will start out with the stock gravel tires which are 700x35, but I expect I will want something smoother and a bit narrower when I use it on mostly paved rides. I am finding that everyone has different and very strong opinions. So I'm still not sure if I'll want 32 or 28 for road rides. It looks like I will need to experiment with tire pressure, regardless of which one I go with. Also everyone wants me to give up on Gatorskins in favor of something with a smoother ride, no matter how much I tell them that I really really really do not want to be on a dark road at 10 pm wasting the last bit of headlight battery as I try to find the glass that caused a flat. Nor do I want to freeze my fingers off dealing with flats on a winter daytime ride. I'm already content with Gatorskins, I just am not sure which width to go with.

[north woods gal]

As you said, I think it's your call on the tires. I'm like you, though. I'll sacrifice some performance for durability and flat protection. I HAVE had a flat in the dark, riding home late at night, by myself, on a lonely road. One of those times I should not have been out at all, but it was a necessity and something I had to do. Ended up walking three miles instead of riding. Spooky experience. NOT good. I also like wider for comfort and safety on less than perfect roads, but 4mm one way or the other probably isn't going to be too significant. Had 28s on my old Domane that came with the bike and had no complaints at all. The reason I go so wide on my road bikes, up here, is that our paved roads don't get much maintenance or traffic, so lots of debris on the roads at times. That, and I like to go down the occasional dirt or gravel road. Also, I'm always riding solo, so I can take my time. No need to keep up the pace.

[rebeccaC]

thanks NY!!

nwg….here’s some bike path blue sky for you!