Afternoon Ramble

#154

Sunday, April 8th

My sweetheart and I went out on the Folsom bike paths, on a version of our 10 mile ride.

I had pulled a muscle in my thigh this morning, so I was pretty tired by the time we got done. At least, that muscle was pretty tired. The rest of me was fine.

I'm getting used to clipping in with my old cleats on new shoes. I managed to lace them too tightly today and had Feet of Fire, but after I loosened them up, it was fine.

Himself did great, pushing the pace more than usual and increasing his average speed by 10%. He was pleased.

A pack of kids were at our rest stop, themselves resting from the skate park, or maybe just hanging out. One 10 year old (I'm guessing) asked me if I had built my trike. I told him about Atomic Zombie, where he can get plans build all kind of recumbents. He seem interested and unfazed by the idea of welding. I hope he gets to build one.

It was pretty quiet on this Easter Sunday.

I was trying to take a picture of budding leaves, but I missed.

This morning, I had finally gotten around to taking off my front fenders (even though more rain is forecast) and fussed at my brakes a little. I managed to get the rotors to not "sing" from being a little out of true from excessive downhill chicken-braking and it was really nice to ride without hearing "shh shh shh shh shh" all the time.

I did not clean the chain, but I did check the rear derailleur for excessive gunk. There was none.

Yesterday, we had gone down to Alphabents (formerly Peregrine Bicycle Works) in Dixon, CA so Himself could check out some recumbent bicycles.
He discovered the nasty learning curve on two wheels (he really was interested in overseat steering but the knees of his long legs kept whacking the handlebars) and underseat steering freaked him out.
He also discovered that he does not like the idea of balancing while facing up. He'd rather face down. Weird.

So, a bunch of folks were there trying out trikes, so he did also. He tried a Catrike Expedition with a very reclined position and a huge rear wheel (I'll confess I tried it also). And he tried out an ICE and all the Velotechnics, including the Gekko, with which he was quite taken. On the way home he proclaimed himself "quite confused now" but I did see him looking on the internet for Gekko reviews, so we might become a multiple German 'bent household.

By the way, registration is open now for May is Bike Month, the Sacramento area ride-your-bike-why-we-don't-care-just-do-it thing. So go register if you feel like it.

CU