16 December 2010

Enticed or Bedeviled?

Ride #23
Thursday, December 16th. 7 miles, mostly on Folsom bike paths.

What a lovely afternoon for a ride! My sweetheart played hooky from work and we went on a short ride in the late afternoon sun. I like parking at the light rail parking lots and by 3pm there were spots open at the Glenn station. It is easy enough to get on to the bike paths from that parking lot, but getting back at the end of the ride is a little awkward. I need to figure out a better way before I lead any rides from that location. Should I confess that I directed us through a corporate parking lot via the sidewalks? Ok, then I won't!

The really fun loooooooong bridge.

There were plenty of little bitty hills to conquer where the bike path swoops under surface streets. We saw some other bicyclists grimly pedaling along, and some dog walkers. Humbug and Willow Creeks are nice and full, but since it has not rained for two whole days the undercrossings are dry enough.

I had mapped out a longer ride, but himself got a little tired so I sent him up a set of steps with his nice lightweight bicycle and zipped around a loop with more ups and downs to meet him on the uphill side of the steps. Our curtailed ride necessitated a little bit of street riding (and we even took and used the left/straight lane) to get back on the bike path.

The new overcrossing at Bidwell in Folsom

I had wiped a lot of leaves out from between my fenders and my front tires before this outing so my ride was back to being nice and quiet. I did a little surgery on my seat and uncovered the water-bottle braze on points unhelpfully covered by the mesh. I like drinking from a bottle better than a hydration tube so I'm glad I took the time to do it.

Instead of a bladder on the back of my seat I put a bag just for tire repair and locking up, so my trunk bag on the rack is a lot less heavy to carry around at stops.

My sweetie is having the same problem on his bike that I had on my hybrid: not enough low gears. We'll head down to the shop and see if he can get a different gearing setup.

It is supposed to rain from tomorrow until Christmas, so there will be a dearth of posts for the next ten days. Unless I get desperate ....

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