Well, wouldya lookit that!

Ride #107
41 miles all over the place
Sunday, September 18th

This was another organized ride. I led it.
I put it together with my upcoming metric century in mind. I had planned to try for 47 miles, but decided to stop a little short.

4 other riders came out for this "tourist's pace" ride: one new to road bikes, one working toward a sprint triathlon, another road-biker, and a friend from the casual bicycling group. For various reasons everybody stopped after 22 miles. I kept on rolling for another 19 miles.

We spent most of our time on bike paths with a little section on some of Folsom's nice roads. We worked hard for the first 12 miles, riding up to Beals Point and then up the Folsom Crossing bridge. One of my rest stops had to be altered since the bathrooms at Briggs Park were locked! But the grocery store across the street was a handy alternate.
From the grocery, we hopped back onto city streets and played in traffic for a while.
I think we were a little relieved to get back on the bike trail, it was certainly quieter.
The next rest stop was at a state park boat launch area near the Nimbus Dam.
Then I stopped (by myself at this point) just past Sunrise, then again at Wm. Pond where I decided it would be wiser to make that my turnaround point. So I did, stopping again near Sunrise, then back to the car, pleasantly tired but not whining.
Yay for no whining.

I got home and ate 3 pieces of cold pizza and took a 4 hour nap.

Ok, so maybe this was a long ride!

I saw a handful of two-wheeled recumbents, a hand trike, a guy on a handbrake-equipped longboard (skateboard) being towed by his two absolutely gleeful dogs, and a bike like no bike I've seen before.
Let's see if I can describe it. It had two wheels, I think equal in size but I'm not sure. Feet below butt (so not recumbent). It looked like the handlebars were up under his chin, supported by what looked like a metal tee-pee. I don't think it was a tall bike (go look in wiki) but it might have been. If I see it again I will turn around, pursue, and shoot! (photo). I did not see the unicyclist, but that's OK.

Here's the map, and there's more blog below.



Instead of riding on Thursday, I decided to crawl all around my trike with wrench and list of torques in hand, checking and tightening if necessary. Now, my little torque wrench does not go past 15nm, so there are some things I can't check. And I will admit I don't really understand the suspension terminology, so I checked what I was sure of and poked around at the stuff I was not.
The rear suspension was the only thing I found that needed a little tightening. Oh and the fender mounts.

I also put my front fenders on. This is how it went:
Find fenders in garage. Look for bolts that WERE taped to the fenders and are no longer, find replacement bolts.
Remove left wheel, put on fender. Put wheel back on, check for fender placement. OK.
Remove wheel, Remove fender. Add locktite (blue) to fender bolts, put fender back on. Put wheel back on.

Repeat for right side, with an additional step of 'wiggle fender mount to correct position' and repeat all.

Oh. and I forgot to mention that before I was even putting on the fenders, I noticed my left tire was a rather low. Look! A goathead! From my garage?! No clue.
Replaced the tube with one of my patched ones.

After I put both fenders on I decided to test ride.
&*(@^%#*? the left tire's flat! Changing the tube with the fender in place is not bad.

ttttttthhhhhhaaaat's all folks!