April Showers bring... riding

[azfiddle]

Saturday- short ride on the Surly to a nearby park and then groceries... maybe 7 miles?

Sunday- ride with my husband to 3 parks and Sweetwater Wetlands. 61 species, including an American Bittern at the wetlands, a Peregrine and a Prairie Falcon. We stayed on the bike path most of the way- his wrists are very sensitive after a fall while running a few years ago and he doesn't do well on bumpy roads....Oh and a brief stop at the spring bike swap meet, but most of the vendors were packing up. I got a new little backpack to replace the little Camelback type pack I use on my birding rides. Used, but only $7. I don't use it for water, just for carrying shoes, a lock and extra layers that I've shed after it warms up.

[north woods gal]

Going to be an indoors riding day, today, and an indoors kind of day, period. Been months since I've had one of those. Hate being cooped up, all day, but what can you do with cold gusty north winds and steady rain?

Nasty T storms continued, last night. Our Border Collie had a rough night with all the lightning and thunder. Typical Collie. She finally curled up at the side of our bed, shivering.

The rain is expected to turn to sleet, snow or ice, overnight, so may wake up to a white landscape, again. Good thing I didn't put the Norco fat bike with studded tires away, just yet. It'll be temporary, of course, but I am kind of eager to see how my trails fared with all the rain, wind and even hail.

[emily_in_nc]

Yuk, NWG, sorry you had such an ugly day. Our Boston Terrier hates storms too. I hate that they scare her so much, and nothing I do helps. Poor things! The overnight ones are the worst. Fortunately we've had very few this year in Florida, compared to last. It's been mostly very dry, bad for the farmers and wildfires, but good for my furkid, and for our riding!

35 miles today; gorgeous out!

[Crankin]

I commuted yesterday, after going to my core and bands class. Was going to do a "dark ride" this morning, but I am really sore, from the class, so I want to rest for my group ride tomorrow, which is going to be hard. Nagog Hill Rd., features prominently, so you get the drift.
Tuesday is the only day I usually can fit this early AM ride into my schedule, but I have to get my body more used to this class. I know it's not the commute! It is going to be near 80 today, almost too warm for me, so I will go on a walk at lunch. I really like riding early in the AM, I find it very meditative.

[Pax]

Had a friend over on Sunday, she and her partner own the condo two doors down from us in FL, we also all have the same beach bikes, in different colors... we joke that we're some sort of old lady lesbo bike gang, watch us go!! I finally got to show her my ortho pedal and it got us all talking about all the places we'll go on our bikes, now that I'm mobile again, really gives me hope.

[north woods gal]

Wonderful to hear that everyone is getting out for a ride. It's that time of year, again. Well, not for everyone. Woke up, this morning, to 5" off this stuff. Very wet, heavy and icy. Gave hubby fits with his snowblower, so we had to do a lot of shoveling. The good news is that it is melting, fast, so I am going to try riding my trails for some late season snow biking.

[north woods gal]

Two miles of trail riding in heavy 5" of snow makes for a GREAT workout. Absolutely no glide in this stuff. You stop pedaling, the bike stops moving, as in right now. All my riding was in the lowest two gears to get it done. Yeah, totally different kind of bicycling, but welcome to snow biking at its best.


This is fat bike work, exclusively, and not just any fat bike, either. For this work, I use the fat bike that gives me the widest footprint and tires with the most aggressive tread. It's my Salsa Blackboro with 4.8" tires on 100mm rims (wider rims flatten out tires more than narrower rims). The tires are the Surly Nates. My other fat bikes would certainly work, but at the risk of some fishtailing and loss of control. Not issues with the big bruiser of a Blackboro.


You really need to know the trail when doing this. Trust me, the trail through this section is quite narrow and if you miss it, you are going down for a nasty spill. A little snow can hide a multitude of hazards.



Star is no dummy. She let's me break the trail and do all the work. She just trots along in back, going off trail, now and then, when she finds an interesting stick.

[emily_in_nc]

Gorgeous photos, NWG. You continue to amaze me with your courage to ride in just about any conditions -- and all your bikes for different conditions too! How many in your stable?

Today was gorgeous, and we rode west into the hillier Lake County. My rear shifting has been giving me fits for awhile, and I was hoping after my DH changed out lots of my parts (new chain, new middle crank, and new 12-30 Ultegra cogset in back for lower gearing), things would get better. But if anything, they kept getting worse. Just about ready to head to the LBS, but DH took a close look at it today after our ride, and while he was running through the gears, the shifter cable broke! It was totally frayed at the end that attaches in front. So, now I have my answer. Fortunately, he has a spare so will replace that tomorrow (our day off the bikes for laundry and other chores/errands anyway).

I hope this fixes things! I think I'll have him replace the pulleys too, since he already replaced so much other stuff.

Oh, and as I was rolling along today after my rest stop, I saw a flash of silver in my rotating front tire. Stopped and looked, and what did I find but a thumbtack embedded in my tire! Thank the gods we'd changed out my tires for Schwalbe Marathon Plus and some thornproof tubes not too long ago, in anticipation of riding out west this summer (goatheads!) I kept my eye on it for the rest of the ride, and so far, so good. We'll know in the morning if there's a slow leak. These tires and tubes make my bike a little heavier and slower to accelerate, but to me they are worth it. I haven't had a flat yet this year, and we haaaate changing flats!