Bike around the Buttes

#245 / #63

Red Leader's first large-scale organized ride! He had fun. I'm glad.

We piled in the car at 8:30am - ungodly early for us for a weekend - and drove to Sutter CA to ride in a charity ride for the local Type 1 Diabetes youth center.

Really, just an excuse to ride in a new area. We rode the ride and got the t-shirts.

The 17.5 mile course took us up and down some hills along the base of the buttes, then swung around and headed back. The hilly area was 'blessed' with wild winds - 20mph - which were sometimes cross winds but mostly headwinds.

I used my granniest granny gear, leaned back against the headrest, and zoned out for the 5 minutes it took me to crawl up the hill.

Coming down the hill we could have had a respectable speed, but the cross/head winds sucked some of that away.  My trike handled pretty well, and on the way back I got to use the highest gear I have, pedaling away down a slight hill, wind at my back, at a comfortable 22mph.

Just before we turned south, diverging from the longer route, we had our one and only rest stop.

Red Leader got pretty far ahead of me on the curvy bits: between the road's camber and the cross wind and the curves, I slowed down until it no longer felt like my tires were greased.

I caught up to him after passing two very tired roadies (I think they'd done the longest loop). Yes, I'll admit it. I put a little extra effort in and steamed past them, up hill and into the wind. ha hA HA!

Last night we checked our tires and I put the boom in again 1/8 of an inch. I think that's the right spot. Very little ankle soreness and no funny knee sensations. Taking a week off the bike (boo hoo!) and plenty of rest and gentle stretching did the trick.

Red Leader is open to doing something like this again. I'm thinking Foxy's in the fall (the 30 mile family ride).

Oh, I forgot to say. One two-wheeled recumbent w/ a tail box and two cattrikes.