Month: April 2009

Since I haven’t ridden to work this week yet, I decided to squeeze in another 11-mile evening ride.  This time it wasn’t fully dark when I left, but was nearly so when I arrived home.

I had three dogs give chase, but I could actually see them this time.  They appeared friendly, and I’m glad, as they cut in front of me, forcing me to brake.

The weather forecast has been calling for rain and possible thunderstorms, but it was simply cloudy during most of the ride.  Some light rain started shortly after I got home.

Today’s weather is the epitome of a beautiful Spring day.  It turned out to be a good day for me, other than spending a good portion of it at work.

I needed to drive to work due to running some errands before work, so I couldn’t ride, but I am enjoying my new truck.

After work I had some housework to do, and I cooked a steak on the grill.  I sat on my front porch with the dogs and ate dinner.  After washing the dishes and messing around on the computer, I decided to go for a bike ride.

I didn’t leave on the bike until after 10:00 p.m.  The wind had calmed significantly, but the clouds were rolling in.  It is supposed to rain later tonight.

The night air was full of the sounds and smells of the countryside at night.  I startled a possum eating something on the side of the road.  I had to outrun two dogs.  I saw two cars during the whole ride, once getting out of town.

My 600 lumens worth of headlight did a decent job of showing the road, unless I was traveling more than 25 MPH.  600 lumens is a lot for a bicycle, but nothing compared to a pair of car headlights.

I was riding Nermal, so I wasn’t expecting to be all that fast, but I averaged 14.4 MPH on my 11 mile loop.  Not to shabby for a quick jaunt in the hilly countryside.

… I went on a ride with Tim.  Tim sent an email this morning to let me know he had some free time for a ride.  I knew I wouldn’t ride without a little prodding, and that email was all the prodding I needed.

I rode Nermal (poor Oria is feeling ignored), and he performed well.  Since we weren’t on brick back-alleys this time, nothing rattled loose.  We did go off-road for a stint since it was just two of us on fat-tired bikes.  That part of the ride was a narrow, smooth path through the woods.  There were a few places where we had to get off, and carry the bikes over downed trees.

The weather was beautiful.  There were many people out: on road bikes, mountain bikes, hybrid bikes, rollerblades, joggers, strollers, and dogs.

Tim mentions that I seemed stronger.  I don’t feel stronger than I did a few weeks ago, but I have put a lot of miles on the bike recently, so maybe I am.  Our average pace was only 12.8 MPH, but we weren’t trying to go fast.

Today was my birthday, and all things considered, it was a good one.

My commute home today summed up many of the reasons I ride my bike.

• The sun warming my face
• The goofy grin that comes with simple pleasure
• A strong tailwind for much of the ride, pushing me faster toward home
• The smooth sound of tires running over wet pavement
• The fierce headwind and smattering of rain as I neared home
• A short break to consume the contents of a water bottle
• Ominous storm clouds in the distance
• Birds riding the air currents near the edges of the storm
• A full rainbow from horizon to horizon as I finish my ride

The warmer weather has come to the Ohio River Valley.  It was 55 degrees at 7:00 a.m. when I left home today.  There was light rain and some wind.

As I continued on my commute the light rain picked up to a steady rain, but not quite a downpour.  I rode the entire way, and arrived at work very wet.

My cycling tights, compression shirt, light jacket, and wool socks did a fine job of keeping me comfortable.

I found out today that there are laundry facilities here at work, so I’m using a dryer so I don’t have to put wet clothes back on for the ride home.

Today was the April RCCS ride.  This was the ride Tim dubbed the Paris-Redux ride, named after the Paris-Roubaix race in France.  Well, our ride wasn’t a race, and it was shorter, but it did go over slippery bricks, through mud, over broken glass, through potholes, and so on.

In additon to the challenging terrain it rained for the entire ride.  The puddles would hide deep holes and debris.  Let’s just say that I was glad I have health insurance.

Our group was seven people.  We managed four flats on the ride, one of them mine.  I had a small piece of glass in my tire.  We had multiple little problems with things rattling loose from the bikes going over the bricks.  We had a crash but no injury save for a scraped up hand.

The grit that gets splashed on the bike on rainy days is hard on the brakes.  The brakes were getting used a lot on this ride, so I wore a significant portion of my brake pads off.  I didn’t take the time to readjust the brakes, so I spent the last part of the ride with brakes that slowed me down about as much as a weak headwind.

Now I’m home, dried out and warmed up. I’ve adjusted my brakes and cleaned the bike.  I need to tighten everything that could have been knocked loose.

I’m drained, but I feel good.  I will sleep well tonight.

Riding to work everyday, even when I use the bus for a portion of the trip, is starting to tire me out.  I’ve put 80 miles on in the last three days.

I took it slower today, and used the bus for both legs of the commute.  It still meant riding 21 miles.

I normally commute with three bags on my bike, but I’ve eliminated all but one for the bus.  It’s easier to just have one bag to take off before loading the bike on the front of the bus.  I can carry a change of clothes, laptop, tools, spare tubes, lunch, wallet, keys, cellphone, and such.  What I don’t have a lot of room for is spare clothes or a grease rag.  I’ll have to look into more options.  I loathe backpacks, so that’s not an option.

I haven’t ridden my recumbent in a while.  I love my recumbent, but I prefer Nermal for commuting… and the ‘bent won’t fit on the bus rack.

I got on the bike today.  I rode a partial commute from Jeffersonville into work.  It was still chilly in the morning, but the ride was good, and traffic didn’t get too backed up on the bridge.

Nermal’s new back wheel is working flawlessly.  I really like the slightly higher gearing the 12-28 cassette has.

By lunchtime the temperature had hit about 60.  I took about  a 3.5 mile ride down to On Your Left Cycles.  I didn’t buy anything, I just wanted to check out another bike shop.

They did have a KHS Urban-Xpress.  I was checking the bike out for Kristy, as she probably needs an upright riding position.  She hasn’t commited to the idea of a recumbent yet.  The bike there wasn’t the right size, but they should have more soon.

I still have to ride my bike back to my car after work, but it’s a beautiful day.  Let’s hope the drivers are polite.

I was away from home overnight, and didn’t have time or energy to ride to work today.

While driving home from work the storm clouds were blowing in.  The rain just missed me.  I was home for all of about ten minutes before the wind and rain teamed up to give horizontal rain.

The rain was intense, but short-lived.  After it stopped, I hopped on the bike, and rode to the grocery store.  Several minutes after getting home with the groceries, the rain started again, but more of a slow drizzle than a downpour.

It was fun to squeeze all of my travel between rain showers.

I’m attending a wedding after work tomorrow, but I’m still considering a partial-commute on Nermal.  I’m a bit leery of doing it, as I haven’t got around to buying a another tube to replace my spare.  Maybe I’ll patch my old one.

Today looks to be the best day for bicycle commuting this week.  I got up at 5:00 a.m., showered, dressed in my cycling clothes, ate breakfast, packed my commuting stuff into the bags on Nermal, and headed out the door.

About 2.5 miles into my commute, I had a flat rear tire.  No big deal, I have a spare tube, pump, and tire levers.

Bicycle tubes come with a variety of valve types.  The two most common are Presta and Schrader.  Schrader is what most cars have.  Nermal used to have Schrader valves.

My new wheel was set up for Presta.  My recumbent has Presta also, and I was looking forward to not having two different kinds of valves to worry about.  Nermal’s front wheel is still Schrader, but I carry both tubes, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

My pump is convertible between Presta and Schrader, but changing it requires taking it apart, and flipping two different parts around.

It took me entirely too long to change the tube, even longer to convert the pump, and my pannier that holds my laptop and change of clothes lost some mounting hardware.

So, I rode back home, changed clothes, and drove to work so that I could make it on time, and with my laptop intact.

I still managed a five-mile ride for the morning.  Maybe I’ll squeeze in another ride tonight.