24 August 2013

Duffy's Tavern

#284 / #90

Where the Elite Meet to Eat Ride

The Usual Ride around Lake Natoma with a very small (and elite) crowd. Red Leader, me, and our tandem riding friends. 8 wheels, 3 vehicles, and 4 people.

Saw one two wheeled recumbent and 2 or 4 trikes (I'm not sure if I saw the same people twice). Lots of joggers finishing up some organized run, and many bicycle riders and peds. Kayakers on the lake and even some pedal powered kayak shaped things. A recumbent paddle boat would be more stable, I think. And cooler. And more comfortable. One horse rider.

We went pretty fast today around the loop. I got one personal best on some segment and a bunch of 2nd places. We almost always do this ride in a crowd, which slows up down a lot, especially since I usually am last, sweeping.

The casual riding group has another active ride leader, so there is not as much pent-up demand for my Natoma loop. I'll keep running it on Saturdays, and probably add in some strange new ride for fun in September.

22 August 2013

Smokin'!

#283 / #89

It has been so very smokey that Red Leader and I have been hiding in the air conditioned inside, and neglecting the outside. Today, since the smoke plume over Sacramento was only light gray on the WeatherUnderground's "wundermap" - a cool interactive map where you can turn on and off symbols, including Fires and the Smoke Plumes - Red Leader and I went over to Sunrise and rode from there to Our Usual Spot at William Pond Park.

There are more and more fast riders reappearing, even some pacelines, which I had not seen since the speed limit enforcement thing, which seems to have gone by the wayside.

We saw a couple of other trikes, and one two-wheeled recumbent.

At dinner (Smashburger, a guilty treat) we compared Strava achievements. We are such geeks!

Saturday, our usual ride around Lake Natoma with the Meetup group. I hope the smoke is not too bad.

We had not ridden in long enough that our tires were down 15 - 20 pounds!
The only mechanical thing was my rear quick release, which had gotten loose enough the wheel would wiggle back and forth. I noticed it as I was unfolding the bike; there was an unfamiliar 'clunk' and extra thump feeling as I set the rear of the trike down. So I poked around and determined it was a loose QR. I've never had that happen before. I tightened it up and it was still fine at the end of the ride.
I do know that the quick releases for my seat (all three of them), being empty and flopping around when the trike is in the car being driven around) loosen up between rides. I wonder if the same thing happened to the rear? Well. I'll keep an eye on it in the future.

12 August 2013

Grand Opening!

#282 / #88

Sunday, 11 August

Red Leader and I rode over to Alphabent's grand opening celebration. There were lots of people and lots of trike-test-riding. We rode from William Pond park to C and 12th, then after some Celebration we rode back again.

My trike's flag is sticking into the left edge of the picture, and Red Leader's is at the right edge.


Some folks rolled in as a group, one on a Greenspeed quad. The green Catrike Pocket belongs to one of the people standing around (he generously offered to let it out for a test ride), the other HP Velotechnik - an FX Scorpion is the shop's and I think the yellow trike everyone in the picture is staring at is also the shop's. I can't remember what it was.

It is about 25 miles round trip, and it was a little hot on the way back. I had absentmindedly drank 1/2 my water bottle while wandering around the recumbent shop, and neglected to refill it. And it appears my other water bottle (which usually has an electrolyte solution in it (Nuun)) has sprung a leak in the top half of the bottle, leaving me with a total of one bottle of liquid for the 12 miles back. Which was just enough to get me back.


07 August 2013

Mixin' it up

#281 / #87

This afternoon, Red Leader and I headed out to the Folsom South Canal, rather than our usual Wednesday ride on the American River Trail.

I like to start at the park on Spoto, just off of Zinfandel, near Mather Airport. Spoto neighborhood park has restrooms, and an entertaining pair of half-pipes for the skateboarders. I like to start here also because there are no pesky road crossings on the canal south of this point until the Jackson Highway.

Heading down Spoto, we turned right (away from the South Canal) and headed over to a stub of a road that took us up onto a service/road bike path, then over to the Stone Creek subdivision, and up on to the South Canal service road.

We went about 13 miles total today, down to where Kiefer crosses the trail. We saw two bicyclists and one other recumbent trike.

This was Red Leader's first ride on the canal. He was not thrilled with the canal ride, calling it "unaesthetic." There was the usual headwind from the south as well.

I like the canal because it is empty and wide. I can buzz along, concentrating on technique and speed rather than keeping strict watch for other trail users. A late afternoon ride was nice because the steep walls of the canal blocked the sun.


04 August 2013

Hey mister, wanna drag?

#280 /#86

Red Leader and I did our Wednesday ride on a Sunday, pedaling from Sunrise boat launch to Watt and back again. Lots and lots and lots of people out today.

We saw 3 recumbent trikes from our car as we were pulling in to the parking area, then 2 or 3 more on the trail. Plus 3 or 4 two-wheeled recumbents, one with super high hamster bars and a small front fairing.

We got a new comment today, "How's the weather down there?" Which was even funnier since RL and I have heard that (with 'up') far to often. I'm just under 6 feet and RL is 6'4".

Another amusing comment heard today while we were paused at William Pond on our way back, was a perfectly delivered and extremely sarcastic, "Really?" Everyone who heard it laughed. The 'really' was delivered by a woman in response to an aggravated fastmoving cyclist who admonished her that she was, "on the trail." I think women are much better at injecting loads of sarcasm into one word than men are. Feel free to disagree.

We were not moving too terribly fast today since RL was working out a programming problem while pedaling and I was planning a sundress for a doll and enjoying people watching. I did help RL get a personal record on the William Pond bridge by attempting to pass him on the climb while inquiring, "wanna drag". The bridge is wide enough for two trikes to drag in a single lane, but I felt a little awkward taking up so much room so I let Red Leader win.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it! (I did not beat MY personal record today, so THERE!)