Blinded by the Light

#4 / 3.7 miles

12.99 cumulative

Leaves in my undercarriage: big curly oversized maple leaves stuck in the cables for the derailleur and the brakes and who knows where else. Swish Swish Swish Swish Swish Swish CRUNCH when they come loose and the back wheel finally gets them.

For some reason that escapes me now, I decided to wash the wicking ball cap I wear under my helmet. Did I put it back with the helmet? No, no I did not. So I rode without anything to prevent the sun from beaming into my eyes over my sunglasses.

There are my poor pupils, obediently squinched down to tiny dots in response to the sunlight, completely unable to see through the sunglasses. BAM (hit a rock) SWERVE (was that an animal or a shadow?)

There WERE some suicide squirrels out. You know the ones: facing to the right in the middle of the trail, so you swerve left, and the darn thing makes an about face and runs right at you.

Between the leaves, the sun, the squirrels, and the brisk breeze, I bailed on my ride and soothed my upset with Starbucks.

Ciao!

Friendly Neighborhood Triker-Girl

#3 / 3.44 miles

9.29 cumulative

Lovely day, about 66 degrees at 11am. Tootled around the neighborhood, sidewalks still bedecked with chunks of asphalt.

I spent the morning removing the front fenders and installing Mr. Tuffy tire liners. I also took the time to replace the one patched tube that slowly loses air over time.

I prop the front of the trike on a plastic foot stool when I'm fussing with the front wheels. Rear-ward rolling is prevented by stuffing a bike shoe under the rear tire.

High tech!

I managed to remove the rear wheel with a minimum of cursing, and replaced it with even less cursing.

I've been trying to work out a trail-side method for propping the trike up for rear-wheel removal, and have decided to stick to helmet on top of bike bag since it is reasonably stable and I always have those with me.

My new Lazer helmet (recommended by the helpful folks over at Utah Trikes) is great! It does not crash into my headrest and is light and comfortable. You can see it there, stuffed under the trike.

My eventual plan is to ride to my dentist's office (much nearer than my old dentist's office) for my November cleaning appointment. It is less than 5 miles round trip. I would be traveling between the upper right and lower left of the handy map there. 

The only sketchy part is right next to the lake: two lanes, no middle lane, no shoulders, guardrails (crosses a marsh). But I've ridden that before and am comfortable riding there again. I do need to get replacement rear blinky lights. My faithful Cherry Bomb is dead dead dead.

That's enough for today.

Ciao!

Fun in Fantastic Folsom!

 #2 / 4.28

6.85 cumulative 

Started at the skate park, went in the uphill direction, diverted my route because of trail closure (tree work), then zoomed in the downhill direction (no real hills, just a trend in elevation) and slogged back up to my start in a nice wide bike lane on a slight hill.

I should drop a note to the City of Folsom and ask that the green light time be extended at this one intersection. A bike takes too long to get through on the green from a dead stop. The light, at least, seems to have a bike sensor. Not all do.

It was a beautiful day for a bike ride (honestly, given my past proclivities, ANY day is a nice day for a bike ride. Except hail. I draw the line at hail.)

My new tubes have arrived, just waiting for the tire liners, then it will be OFF with the front fenders and ON with the liners. And probably the fenders will stay off. It is slightly bothersome to load the trike into the car with the fenders on. Easier with bare-nekkid tires.

Ciao.

reboot

 #1 / 2.57

Well, it's been a minute, yes?

I stopped riding for a couple of years, except for intermittent spasms of guilt-induced clusters of rides.

I'm fed up with myself.

So, today I pumped up my horribly flat tires and tootled around the neighborhood (bigger than it used to be with the addition of a (thankfully) more flat subdivision to the west of our house). A whopping 2.57 miles. My legs are kind of tired. That's OK, totally worth it, because I did detect my usual huge bug-catching grin rolling down one of the small hills on my route. I've missed that grin.

I chose to ride mostly on a large, bike-width sidewalk, because - although the adjacent boulevard has bike lanes - the traffic is at least 55mph (no speed limits posted yet on the road - Autobahn anyone?) and the bike lanes are full of debris and vegetation.

The ped push buttons at the intersection are impossible from a recumbent trike. I need to get a poky stick.

Maybe, once I get over my newly discovered aversion to risk (thank you, pandemic (I worked in retail the entire time and it was life-altering)) I'll boldly ride on the roads again. Until then, poky sticks and sidewalks!

The sidewalk (and the road, and the bike lane) was covered with annoying little chunks of asphalt from nearby road 'improvements'. 

See that nice smooth sidewalk? See the black chunks? The bigger ones are perfect to rub on the front fenders when they get stuck to the tires. I spent some time reaching forward, tapping my fingers on the rolling tires, knocking off the biggest chunks. Tedious.

I inventoried our tubes (Red Leader and I have tires that take the same tubes) and we are down to 2 Presta valve and one emergency very fat Schrader tube (my rims are set up for Schrader but I added shims because I prefer Presta).

So I ordered 8 tubes today, and thorn-guards for my tires. Red Leader has had basically no flats since adding the guards to his tires. I remember a memorable week of 6 flats.

I've restarted my ride tally and I'll keep a running tally of miles as well.

Ciao!

Uninterested

I'm still riding when I can, but I'm totally uninterested in keeping up this blog.
Please enjoy the old posts, and maybe I'll see you on the Sacramento area trails some day!

liz

December/January Catch-up

#463 / #275

Yes, yes, I've been egregiously radio-silent for two months.
Sue me.

December 4th, December 11th, and December 25th Red Leader and I rode up and down the American River.

Then I got a horrible cold, work got busy, and the rain rained hard enough I thought about an Ark.
For pairs of recumbents, of course.

Red Leader got in four rides by himself in January, and then we rode at the same time and in the same place today!

Bliss!

Spring is on the way in Northern California, with green green grass, dead trail-side squirrels, and lots of horse poop.
Sunshine and bird song too.

Several other recumbents (three and two wheeled) out in the sunshine and intrepid runners and roadies and cruisers and all sorts of lucky people with a Friday afternoon off.

I do not know when we/I will ride again, but I'll try not to let it be a month gap again!!

CU

Flippin' Visors

#459 / #267
Thursday, December 1st

Today day we took our short, but not shortest, weekday afternoon ride along the American River.

Red Leader's visor (Da Brim) finally flipped off on the downhill (velcro vs wind) on the Hazel bridge. We were able to retrieve it, no problem.

Chilly - I wore my double layer wool Ibex gloves. Too much. Sweaty wrists. No arm warmers, but did wear tights and my windproof jacket.

And a wool Buff to cover up my super sensitive ears. Were you one of those children who got earaches all the time? I was, and still am. No cold breezes around my ears, please.

Finally, my early fears of riding trikes along the pedestrian/bikeway on the Folsom Auburn bridge came to pass. Some numbnut decided to pass both of us, despite me announcing and gesturing that he could cut in between us until the ONCOMING BICYCLISTS were safely pass. Said oncoming riders ended up slamming to an ungraceful and startled halt, clipped in and clinging to the concrete divider so Mr Numbnuts could ride by. Being a middle aged female, I apologized to them. BUT IT WAS NOT OUR FAULT. I hope Mr. NN got a flat today.
The Petty Person, signing off.