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!