26 January 2014

Crank-a-dellic

#321 /#115

I started our 30 mile ride in a terrible humor, and got to mile 25 still cranky. So I slowed way down, kicked back and noodled along, admiring the countryside and the other cyclists and the kids and the parents and the squirrel who thought he'd play chicken with me.

And by mile 30, my mood was much improved!

'nuf said.

22 January 2014

Grin or Grimace?

#320 / #114

We rolled this afternoon from Sunrise to Howe on the American River Trail (and back), for about 22 miles of delightfully unseasonal weather. Coming back, we had the sun behind us and I found some amusement in the grimacing faces of oncoming traffic, squinting against the sun.

We saw some regular recumbents folks, a grey velo and the gray haired FAST dude on a recumbent with a fairing, and a handful of other recumbent bikes, but no other trikes. Many packs of joggers out, not much wildlife that I could see.

I took along a bit of homemade gu and didn't run out of energy this time. Yay.

13.2 mph average, 22.6 miles, a paltry 68 feet of elevation.


19 January 2014

A tube is not a chain and other stories

#319 / #113

I owe you a post (rides #s 318 and 112) so I'll just say we rode from Sunrise to Watt and back on Wednesday.

Today (Sunday, and a beautiful sunny day it was) we planned to go from Sunrise to I-80 and back - 30 miles. Red Leader had that awful creaking noise return, so I started randomly trying to diagnose it while rolling merrily along. I'd drift up beside him when traffic on the American River Trail allowed, and bellow a suggestion. He'd try it and then we'd repeat.

I had noticed that the creak was louder when his left leg was at full extension, and also that his torso bobs around quite a bit when turning the cranks. So I asked him push harder with his right and that evened the creak out in regards to left/right.

Then I asked him to coast and shift his weight around like he was pedaling and ta-da! Creaking.

We stopped at William Pond and he started checking his trike from back to front and decided that the rear wheel's quick release could be tighter. So he tightened it a little bit. He sat in the trike and bobbed around and it did not creak as much.

Ok, that's good.

Somewhere between Wm Pond and Watt, Red Leader pulled over announcing that his chain had disappeared. WTF!?

Turned out that the upper front chain tube had come unmoored and crept up the chain and tried to insert itself through the front derailler. That kind of worked, but the tube is not a chain so did not travel along the cogs well, instead diving off to the left and trying to wrap the tube and chain around the left crank.

I need to add zipties to my pile-o-stuff (there used to be zip ties in there, honest!) Red Leader figured out what was going on, got the chain tube to go back through the webbing/zip tie tether without taking anything apart, and reinforced the end of his battered chain tube with some Gorilla tape. Which I did have in the pile-o-stuff.

We went on to Watt and decided to turn around since all the diagnosis and repair had eaten up some of our bike time.

I'll be getting some new tubes on both trikes, as I've been putting off that job for my trike and I had no idea Red Leader's tubes were so chewed up and split.

10 January 2014

The rut

#317 / #111

Guess where we rode today?! Yep. The American River Parkway from Sunrise to Wm Pond. Again.
Hey, as long as Red Leader gets out riding with me, I really don't care.

To make it more interesting for me, I stayed in my middle ring the whole time, spending lots of time on the smallest cog in back. Good for my cadence.

We didn't ride on Wednesday since I had had yet another filling replaced and it takes a while for me to get over having gone to the dentist. I like my dentist and his staff, but .... it's still the dentist.

And probably no more rides this week since the weather should be rainy. It had BETTER rain. I'm tired of drought. Tired, tired, tired. So there.

RAIN ALREADY!!!

06 January 2014

Proclaim the Day!

#316 / #110
5 Jan 2014

As Red Leader and I were unfolding trikes and pumping tires and all the things necessary before rolling down the trail, a fellow triker proclaimed that it "is a great day for a ride." We concurred.

30 miles later, tired but satisfied, we returned to our starting place, ready for lunch. At 4:30pm. Good heavens! We declared it Lupper - lunch/supper (I'm from the midwest and often call the evening meal supper instead of dinner). Linner, Dunch, Slush were all losers. Lupper it is.

I never did eat dinner, but that's OK. Unless 2 tangerines count as dinner.

We saw lots of recumbents, 2 and 3 wheeled, on our ride. The 60 degree, sunny, calm weather brought lots of people out.

CU

01 January 2014

Parkway Parfait

#315 / #109

Busy day today on the American River trail. Packs of roadies, families, trailers - I even saw a Wike trailer (fancy!), solos, tandems, recumbent bicycles and tricycles, walkers, horses (with riders). No rollerbladers, and no handcycles. But everybody else.

Riding behind Red Leader as I do, I am often unable to pass safely to keep up with him. So I click along behind a group of slower riders, lurking, eavedropping, finally passing when I have a clear shot and a straightaway.

Sometimes I have to pass a single person at at time, so you get trike, bike, trike, bike. Or bike, trike, bike, trike. Like a fancy layered dessert! But better because it is human powered!

A 19 mile bike ride is the perfect way to start the new year. So, happy new year to all, and to all good riding for the next 364 days!