18 April 2015

Bike Around the Buttes 2015

Saturday, April 18th

Generic picture

Red Leader and I had intended to do the 40 miles course this time, but we wimped out and did the 17 again instead. It was over in a flash, and we decided that the magic hill-levelers were at it again.

My trike was a little unstable on the downhill side of Pass Road, wanting to wiggle and wander from the combination of road camber and a slight wind. And a rough road. So I kept it down to 27mph and was relieved to reach the bottom rightside up.

Last year, I said I would count cows this year. And I did. About 150 cows on the 17 mile ride.

Butte Slough, I think. No cows here.

I considered naming this post "Cows and Culverts", or "Cows, Culverts, and Concrete", or "Teleporting Cows."

Whaaaaaat?

Red Leader decided that my efforts to count cows were in vain, since the cows were obviously teleporting around the course to stay ahead of us. All cows look the same to me. He might have something there.

We don't go very fast on our trikes, and we are positioned to look ahead and around, rather than staring at the pavement and a front wheel. So I noticed a dry rice field to our right. Well, first I noticed tiny little narrow culverts in long straight berms. Then I figured out it used to be a rice field.

I also noticed that many roadside culverts - where a driveway or farm road comes out - were constructed of bags filled with something. We decided it must be Quick Crete. So that's a twofer - Culverts AND Concrete.

A Concrete? Culvert

I'm looking forward to May is Bike Month - signed up for a 25 mile and a 60 mile ride already. Whee!

CU

Autopause. Sigh.

April 9th, Red Leader and I started from the Folsom parking garage on our (now) usual 20-something mile ride to somewhere past Sunrise and back.

I have got to remember that using any other app on my phone while Strava is running causes it to autopause. I don't want it to autopause, because then I have to find the app and poke it to get to to run again.

So my recorded ride was 7 miles. Phhhhhht.

That is all.

04 April 2015

Low Ride R

#372 / #168

We tried to get to William Pond by 10am. We really did!

We decided to hop ('hop' get it? Tomorrow's Easter) on the trail at Sunrise and ride West, hoping to meet up with the Sacramento Recumbent Riders and their 1st Saturday ride.

The odds were in our favor, since the group ride was traveling East. We did a U turn and caught them up.


One rider was on a new to him 2 wheel 'bent, and another rider was coming off of knee surgery, so they were not interested in any land speed records. We were the only trikes on this ride, although we did see 3 other trikes and 1 two wheeled recumbent not associated with the group ride.
Red Leader got to set the pace for most of the time we were participating.

We stuck with it until Willow Creek boat launch, where we said our farewells and rode on our own back to Sunrise.

Red Leader and had stopped into Alphabent with our trikes on Wednesday. It was really strange to drive there!

My tires are near the end of their life, and the left had developed a proto-blowout during my Tuesday ride. And two of my chain tubes were in horrible shape!

Shop Dude fixed me up with a used-but-less-than-mine tire for my trike. This is my 2nd pair of Scorchers. I might try Kojacks next. And my trike is quieter with non-shredded chain tubes.

I'll be heading back to the shop sometime soon, as I noticed today that part of my quick release lever is falling apart. This is the lever for the hinging frame. Kind of important.


You can see here that the round bit the lever pivots against is in pieces! The flat bowl shaped cover has come in two pieces, but both pieces can be shoved back into place and used anyway.

CU

Itchy and b*tchy

#371 / #167

Thursday, April 2nd

Wooooo, boy. That was one miserable ride! Wind and dust and bugs and more pollen.

My eyeballs feel sandblasted. See, I have a pretty strong correction, glasses-wise. So it is not possible for me to have a pair of those fancy curved prescription shades. So I wear my regular glasses, that are photo chromatic, and do cut some if the UV. But they are by no means good at keeping wind, grit, or bugs out of my eyes.

So I do a lot of squinting and whinging.

I have tried a pair with inserts for my correction, but (and I have the same trouble with clip on sunglasses) looking through two pieces of plastic separated by an air gap bugs me. I get weird light shards bouncing around and distracting reflections and so on. My optometrist says it is not just me.

So the only thing left to try is a face shield.

Or I might just keep squinting and mumbling.

01 April 2015

Pollen Promenade

#370
Tuesday, March 31st
Spring has sprung. Wildflowers everywhere. Pollen everywhere.
Today, I decided to breathe deep of all the stuff floating in the air, and do my 20 mile hill ride in Folsom.
I was very very slow today. But I got it done! And here's some pretty pictures of my ride.