25 February 2014

One Bike, Two Bike, Red Bike, Blue Bike

#235 / #120

Red Leader and I did our usual ride on the American River trail (this time together - I took the weekend off of bicycling since my foot was sore).

Many people out enjoying the horrible dry, warm weather (we need RAIN, otherwise I wouldn't object to such nice weather).

Some of what we saw: wide dude on a very short bike, knees up around his ears, serenely cruising along. Recumbent bike, overwhelming impression of Yellow. Usual dude on his high racer passing us like we were not going 15mph, but rather standing still. Buzz - blue-black-black-orange-black-red-green-black - buzz: pack of fast racers.

I had a close call with an oncoming bicyclist. I was hugging the right edge of the pavement, my right wheel about an inch from the dirt. Small drop off, so if I bobbled I'd roll. Oncoming bike - I think he was passing someone? Or just swerving, going pretty fast, passing 4 inches from my left front wheel, our combined speeds leaving me just enough time to transfer my gaze back to my right wheel, concentrating on keeping it off the dirt, while hunching my left shoulder in anticipation of a collision which did not come.  Whew. I think I let out one loud contralto squeak.

CU

19 February 2014

Blow, thou Winter Wind

#234 / #118

Finally back on the bikes (travel, work, torrential rain (yay!) all conspired to keep us off our bikes.

Gusts to 27mph this afternoon. But nice and sunny and in the mid 60s. The trailside is starting to green up thanks to the ride-preventing torrential downpours. The wind slowed me down so much (and I didn't have my trusty goo with me for quick fuel), that I watched Red Leader pull steadily away from me on our return leg from our Sunrise/Watt/Sunrise ride.

Oh well, I was just so happy to be back on the bike I didn't really mind.

Hopefully another ride Friday or Saturday!

CU

09 February 2014

Chillin'

#233 / #117

Wednesday, Feb 5th

This is about our ride on Wednesday. I forgot to write about it until now. oops. We went up and down the American River trail again, as usual. It was pretty cold. I didn't take off my full-fingered gloves until our turn around at Wm Pond.

Neither Red Leader nor I were moving too fast - 1mph average slower than our usual. The cold, maybe?

We enjoyed it anyway, even though the sun was not out. It seemed only the hardiest of riders were out; we saw one triking couple, with her scarf wrapped all the way up to her eyeballs!

Rained all weekend (8th adn 9th). I went to the gym today (Sunday) for a 40 minutes recumbent exercise bicycle ride. It was weird. The cranks are long and the angle is different. But at least I got sweaty! I used a 'rolling hill' workout. Baby hills in my opinion. I couldn't pedal faster than 90 rpm as the machine got to rocking quite a bit at that speed. I'll probably use it again when I can't get out on a real bike.

01 February 2014

Bike-cream Social

#322 / #116

American River trail today, as usual. The 1st Saturday Recumbent Ride caught us just after we set out, so we stopped and chatted with them for some minutes. It was good to catch up with them.

We continued our socializing with a lovely family out for a bike ride from Hazel to Discovery Park. The littlest girl needed an assisting push up the hills but both girls seemed to have a lot of fun. We first met them when they stopped at William Pond park, then waved and rang our bell madly when we saw them again on our way back. They peppered us with questions about our trikes, which we were glad to answer. The girls inspected our shoes, our cleats, our pedals, our lights, our helmets, our reflectors, our bags - the oldest even noticed and inquired about the built in zippered pocket on the Velotechnik's mesh seat. I handed out one of Alphabent's cards.

We turned around again at Howe - there's a nice relativly unused portajohn there and if we stop there for our bio-breaks, we can make a non-stop ride back to the car. Red Leader was pleased to get a few more personal records on some Strava segments, and I finally got two new PRs on the Enchanted Forest, in both directions. We were trying to keep up with the 1st Saturday ride on the way out, and Red Leader was on fire on the way back.

A good day for a ride (is there a bad one?)

CU