October rides: put a little color into it.

[Geonz]

FALL got here yesterday after weeks in the 80's... it feels so good even if it's just commuting and running errands. 51 now so time for a quick ride!

[ny biker]

30 degrees colder today than my last two rides. We planned a 58 mile ride, a variation on the annual Gettysburg tour that my friend leads. The sun is still fairly strong so it was not bad with temps in the 50s.

But I fell a couple of miles into the ride. I was riding next to a friend, chatting, got too close to the edge of the pavement, went off the edge onto the grass next to it, foolishly tried to get back onto the pavement and fell on my left side. My left palm and wrist took most of the impact, followed by my elbow and knee.

Of course I did the whole ride (probably not smart but we did stop several times to evaluate and the pain was not getting worse). It was a slow touring ride with numerous stops, a long day in the saddle ( and a really nice route). I had full range of motion in my wrist but it hurt, and by the end some bruises had appeared and it felt stiff. No visible swelling. After we finished I bought an elastic and neoprene brace for compression and immobilization. Iced it once I got home. Consulted with a nurse (family member) who said to see how it is in the morning -- no need for urgent care tonight. I don't think anything is broken but there is definitely soft tissue damage. By the end of the ride I felt a twinge in my back/shoulder back beneath my neck, no doubt from the impact going up my arm.

The elbow is okay as long as I don't touch the tip of the bone -- that is sore. I scraped my knee but it's not serious. All the extra layers of clothes prevented serious road rash. (So yay colder weather, I guess.) My left bootie is torn but I needed new ones anyway. Most importantly, although I hit my friend's bike as I fell she stayed upright. This is important because her bones are way less dense than mine.

The bike is okay I think. The shifter got knocked crooked. We fixed that, but it made a slight noise when I braked and felt wrong. As it happens I already planned to go to the LBS tomorrow, to pick up my new gravel bike. I still have not test ridden it so tomorrow I planned to take it for a spin on the rail trail next to the shop. First I was going to put the pedals on myself because it seemed like something I could handle myself and is worth learning (and saving some labor costs).

So now I will have them look at the shifter on the old bike, and I will pay for the new one and take it home. Hopefully in a few days I will be able to ride it.

[Crankin]

So sorry your crashed, NY. Your injuries sound a lot like what I have experienced, both in bike crashes and now, with the fall I had last weekend, hiking. Get some Arnica gel. Put it on the bruises, and anywhere that feels stiff or swollen. You can use it 4X a day. It really helps healing, along with icing.

[north woods gal]

Hang in, there, N.Y. We've all taken a spill and, as we all know, I'm still doing it. Hope you recover, soon.

One of the things that you might check on the shifting is the derailleur. With MTB crashes, bending a derailleur arm is very common occurrence and that will give you fits with the shifting. Easy enough fix by bending it back. On the other hand, if you actually damaged the brifter on a road bike, that gets very pricey. Very expensive part on a road bike. Hope it isn't that.

Light snow, as I write this, this morning. Ugh! Oh, I'll still go out with a fat bike on the trails so Star and I can get some exercise, but not a great day for biking. Oh, well, Florida this is not and I know it.

[ny biker]

Thanks ladies. All in all it could have been worse. There is a bit of swelling today on the back (not palm side) of my wrist, but it feels better today than last night. My elbow is a bit puffy too. I probably could test ride the new bike today but it would be better not to.

I realized when cleaning the cut on my knee that I landed on a scar, a spot I have cut twice before. The first time I was 4 or 5, walking my bike (I think with training wheels still) and somehow managed to trip and fall. My knee hit a small sharp rock, which hurt a lot and left the scar. Then back in 2003 I was riding my then-new road bike on a paved trail through some woods. There were puddles from recent rain. I went through a muddy curve too fast and fell, right on that scar. So yesterday was my third time cutting the same spot. Third time's a charm?

I learned several lessons yesterday. First, it you go off the edge of the road, keep going straight and stop rather than trying to ride back onto the pavement. Two, pay more attention when chatting while cycling!! (c) Keep an ace bandage in your bike bag along with the regular and large Band-Aids.

[Crankin]

For once I did the ride I set out to do to Bolton Farms, although we did make it a bit shorter and took an alternative a friend had told me about. I had been on the road, going the other way. It was quite lovely, and a downhill. It was cool when we started, about 49. I was dressed correctly, and because we had a headwind on the way there, and it was mostly cloudy, I did not get overheated. At one point, I took my head cover off, but then, we went down that hill and I was cold, but I knew we were almost at our stop. This ride has a lot of climbing. The first climb is a hill I often gauge my fitness on, but I've only climbed it 2-3 times this season. It felt pretty hard... as we turned on to this climb, first we passed woman struggling to get up a little rise before the turn. She was zig zagging so we had to call out. DH suggested a lower gear, but she was not responsive. Then, on the first part of the climb, we saw a guy walking. He had a nice bike and looked experienced, and was not broken down. When we go to the top, his wife was waiting. Then, as we were deciding if we were really going to do the intended ride, we stopped at our turn. The struggling woman rode by us, on the same road, also a difficult 8-10% climb. The husband and wife also passed us. We decided to go for it, and we passed the struggler, and the guy got off his bike again, to walk. We caught the woman, who told us he was doing chemo, and insisted on doing a 30 mile hilly ride. Perhaps not a good choice. We went ahead and got onto the new part of the ride; there were cars parked all along the road before the farm market where the festival was, so we pulled in the lot and then walked our bikes to the patio. Mostly vendors giving samples of junk food and people buying apples and cider donuts. There was a good band playing, so we went inside and bought a sandwich to share. We ate quickly, as we felt cold, and then quickly warmed up on the 4 mile climb into Harvard Centre. As we turned by the Harvard General Store, we saw our friend Jack, pulling in, with some riders he was leading. We stopped for a second to say hi, and then up the last major climb to a big downhill. At this point we repeated about a mile of the beginning of the ride, but we stopped to take pictures. Finally, after another teeny hill, we got back to what I call my favorite roads in our old town.
The ride ended up being 35.3 miles. My knee/leg was hurting and then my other knee started hurting. I was going to do a Meet Up ride on Wednesday, but it's 19 miles with 1,100 ft of hard climbs, so I don't think I should annoy my injury even more. If the ride was longer, I might, but I'm afraid to make it worse and to be dropped by new people, even though the stated average is in my range. I still might ride with my regular group.
Glad I went, glad I didn't do 50, and happy with the cooler weather. The colors are not anywhere near peak, seems a bit late this year.

[ny biker]

I picked up the new bike!

I put two bottle cages on along with the pedals while I was the bike shop parking lot. The only difficulty was opening the tube of Park Tools grease -- I didn't have scissors to cut the tip open. But I had told the folks working in the shop that I was going to attempt my first pedal installation and would be back if I ran into problems. So while I was putting on the bottle cages one of them came out to see how I was doing. He took the tube of grease inside and opened it for me.

I rode in circles around the parking lot a few times. I definitely need a fitting. The reach to the handlebars is ok but the reach to the hoods is too long. The hoods are huge! I think they can be adjusted, though.

Before I left I had them show me how to remove the wheels and got a spacer for the disc brakes for when I have to remove a wheel. They said a piece of cardboard would work too, as long as it is roughly as thick as the rotor. Good to know.

I maxed out on posting photos here a long time ago -- will have to figure out how to delete some so I can upload photos of the new bike.