Workin'

#119 (ride, that is)

Saturday, October 22nd
11ish miles around Lake Natoma

I'm pretty sure there were only 21 of us pedaling around the lake this morning, but I might be wrong. I was sort of freaking out all week as I saw the sign-ups for this ride hit 30+ and STAY THERE!

I utterly and completely confused most people by using a hiking-type count off. Gather in a circle, say your name and a number, increment by one. So "Liz, 1." "Michelle, 2." "Sandra." "Alex." I interrupt, "Sandra 3, Alex 4." You get the idea. We got to 21 in a staggering, semi-coherent fashion. I had some no-shows.

I drafted a Repeat Offender (previously on this ride with me) to lead the group off. I took up the rear. That worked.

One third of the group leaving on our ride

I drafted other Repeat Offenders to direct riders to our rest stop. That worked.

I requested, "If you decide to leave, or go on ahead, please tell someone. Does not have to be me, just someone." That worked. Had 5 people go on ahead after the reststop. Got word that a family of three was dealing with a flat and that we "were not to wait". So we did not.

I put off trying to explain the Hazel Bridge interface until we were gathered at the rest stop, and then I put it off some more. Not working so well!
There are three ways to get over the bridge and I think our group used all three. I need to remember to make any announcements as soon as I get to the stop, not try to do it as people are impatiently starting to move on. We split up over that bridge like field mice avoiding a barn cat.

We had the right number of people after the bridge, so that was OK after all.

I boogied on ahead, trying to get ahead of the most of the group so I could catch them at Negro Bar to lead them on the last of the ride. That worked, thanks to yet more Repeat Offenders.

Having taken the "official" route to the bridge ramp a few weeks ago, I am more firm in my resolve to always use the park road bypass. Way better!

For those of you riding in the Folsom area, this might make sense. For the rest of you, go get a cup of coffee or something.

The blue arrow is the way to the bridge. The red line is the official way. The orange line is my sneaky way.

The problem with the official way is the left turn from the bike trail onto a park road. There are folks overtaking you, trying to get their speed up for the approach to the Beals climb. There are people oncoming, moving fast off the last hill down from Beals. If you are an inexperienced rider, it is difficult to judge your speed and timing and look behind you and maintain a straight line and signal to turn and shift or stand because didn't I mention you go uphill on Park road?

I hope your coffee was nice.

Tech Talk.
I finally took off my rear wheel, squashed the poor rounded off aluminum nut with the awesome and mighty power of the Vise Grips, laboriously spun it off the bolt, and found a replacement nut at the hardware store. So my rear fender is finally fixed properly. I even used blue Loctite on it.

I scooted my boom out about 1/4 of an inch. Nice, a little more leg extension.

I got some True Goo and put it in my tires. No flats today but that does not prove anything much. Removing the valve cores was no problem. Filling tubes in 20" wheels was a bit awkward, but the Goo wipes up nicely.

Maybe I can entice my sweetheart out for a short ride tomorrow.

Loops, schmoops

Ride #77

Tuesday, May 24th
7 or so miles in Folsom

I parked in a slightly different section of the same-ol parking lot and, since I was feeling like a vehicle today, decided to slog up East Natomas Rd and then up some more on Sophia. I had gone this way last on New Year's Day, in the rain and cold, to shoot the bike club's epic hill-climbing challenge.
The roads felt totally different on a sunny weekday in May!
Lots more traffic. Not so bad on Natomas where there are generally two lanes and the bike lane is all asphalt, not so reassuring on Sophia, where the bike lane is 1/2 asphalt and 1/2 concrete curb extension.

This screen-shot from Google Maps shows what I mean. There is a  bump where asphalt meets concrete.

Even the label has to extend onto the concrete!

And there is only one lane in each direction on Sophia, so unless I'm riding with one wheel on concrete and 1 or 2 on asphalt, cars have to swerve around me. Generally across the double yellow line. Or at least they think they have to swerve.

So why am I whining? I'll tell you.
(you knew I was going to say that, didn't you!?)
1) abrupt differences in height along the direction of travel (like the asphalt/concrete line on Sophia) are GREAT for grabbing a wheel and causing a spill, no matter 2 or 3 wheels.
2) the paint used to mark off bike lanes is generally slippery, even in dry weather.
3) the above mentioned swerving of passing cars

My trike is about 6 inches wider than the handlebars of my old hybrid bike. On standard width bike lanes, all three wheels fit nicely within the lines. On Sophia, I have several choices. And unlike a buffet, not all the choices are great. Wait. Buffets aren't all good either. nevermind.
As I was saying ... I can run with my right wheel on concrete, my left wheel on asphalt, and my rear wheel (the center, if you will) hopefully avoiding the bump. Not great, especially since some sections of the concrete/asphalt interface are sprouting 3ft tall weeds. And any slight course correction (to avoid a bolt, or a manhole cover, or a diviot, or a grate) risks catching my rear wheel on the weed-infested bump. Which, when I'm rolling down hill at 25 miles per, is not fab. On the plus side, I'm contained in the bike lane.
Another option is to avoid the bike lane all together and take the lane. Not safe in a 50mph zone.
Or I can run with my left wheel just outside the bike lane stripe, and my right wheel to the left of the concrete. This is what I did, which still led to swerving by passing cars. They might have swerved anyway; not being used to seeing a recumbent trike in the area.

By the time I was starting up the hill on Sophia to Green Valley, I was tired of the bike lane and tired of the traffic, so I turned around at a usefully placed cross-street and headed back to the shopping center.

And this is where the loop is not my friend. I'm getting closer and closer to my car, my feet are tired from pedaling, my butt is tired of climbing, and I'm sooooo close to my car.
But I've only done 7 miles!
Well, I could just stop and walk around for a little while and keep going.
But there's my car, right over there.
I could do some more hills - leading to cardio and a happy physician. And a happy me.
Ooooo, there's a Jamba Juice. And my car.
I should not park near the Jamba Juice.
I should not ride past my car when I'm not finished with my ride.

I bailed on my ride, had a pomegranate smoothy and a low fat muffin, loaded my trike in the car, and went home.

On the upside, the trike is already in the car, I'll be down in Folsom again tomorrow, and I can easily go for a 'make-up' ride.

I moved my boom out 1/4 of an inch, the beast still shifted well. I'll see how my knees feel and maybe take it out another 1/4 inch next ride.

Clean shiny lungs

Ride #57
Saturday, April 2nd
30 miles with the usual suspects, from Folsom to William Pond and back again, American River Bike Trail and Nimbus trail.

Time once again for the 1st Saturday ride with the recumbent folks. I am getting faster although my average speed is up by just half a mile. BUT (and this is a big but - kind of like mine. Urk. Nevermind) today I managed an average speed for 8 miles of 13mph. Whoo! What does this mean? That I could see ahead of me the rest of the group. Like a carrot dangling ahead of me. AND that I was huffing and puffing like nobody's business. AND that I was pretty sure I'd die. But I did not. I do have well exercised lungs. Of course after that I was all tuckered out.

The turkeys were tuckered as well since all the toms were in display mode.

They did deign to move. Eventually.

Turkeys are about eye-level on a recumbent. Interesting and a little creepy. Do I want to know that much about turkeys? Maybe not.

Boaters out as well today.

Today's ride officially starts and ends at Wm. Pond (Discovery Park is still flooded from spring rains (a normal thing) so we've been going to Folsom the last few months. I decided today to START in Folsom and meet the group at Wm. Pond. It worked out OK since I was warmed up when the pack took off at about 15mph.
So this means I parked in Folsom. In the parking structure (yes, there is only one structure in Folsom). It was very full, as full as I've seen it yet, so I got to park at the very top level. And ride down down down and around around around to the exit. Going up was fun also. Normally I won't do that, but ... it was fun.

It turns out the Sacramento Fit folks were out in force today: they decided to come down to my neck of the woods to run/powerwalk around Lake Natomas, a nice 12 mile route. And that's why the structure was full! So there were packs of peds and aid stations and everything. They are a really nice and well organized bunch of people.

On Thursday I took off my chain, cleaned it, added a section to make it a little longer, and moved my boom out 1/2 an inch. My knees were happier than the last time I rode but still tired today. I'll take it easy for a few days and see how they do.

I had another incident of my chain dropping between the rings when shifting. Everybody tells me "that shouldn't happen, the chainrings should be close enough together to prevent that". Duh. Well, folks. It does. Comes of swapping out parts here and there. But it happens ONLY when I am not paying attention and this is ONLY the third time. The first time I had no clue how to fix it and had to spend 15 minutes scratching my head. Today it took longer to get my latex gloves on then it did to move the chain. So I ain't gonna worry 'bout it right now.

BOOM!

Ride #32
Friday, January 14th
Almost 9 miles in sunny Folsom

I did a happy dance today when my sweetheart called from work to say he was taking the afternoon off so we could maybe take a bike ride. So we did.

Many dog walkers, families, marauding bands of pre-teens on bikes (behaving well, so marauding is not the right word but it is such a cool word how could I resist?) and just plain walkers. For a geeky bonus, we had a brief chat at the end of our ride with two fellows on trikes! Yay! One was on a Greenspeed and the other I was not sure what it was, but it had a large rear wheel. Very sporty looking. I found it interesting that the two trike riders we encountered also have more or less permanently removed their front fenders. I suppose when I get coated with muck on a ride I'll decide to put them back.

The sweetheart deliberately pushed himself a little more on this ride, so he felt a little off at the end of it. I had to pedal more often so I know our average speed was a bit higher. AND we went almost 9 miles, a mile longer for him than previously. The weather was in the high 50s and such a nice change from yesterday's deluge. I wore shorts and a t-shirt. So there! to my friends and family in colder climes.

So, I am pretty good (I thought) about checking and tightening things periodically, but the boom escaped my attention. Until today.

The boom, by the way, is the thing that sticks out in front of the trike with the pedals attached. Since you can't raise and lower the seat, it is easy to make a adjustable length pole and match that to the rider's leg length. Well, since it can move in and out, it can also rotate, and that's what happened to me!

Himself decided, at the bottom of a hill, to make that the turnaround point for today. I was in the Wrong Gear to get up that hill (a very short one) so what I SHOULD have done was drag the trike up to the top of the hill and resume the ride. But nooooooooooo! I had to try to mash my way up it and in the process of mashing I felt the whole front assembly start to twist! Yikes! A friendly pedestrian gave me a hand up and off the trike (difficult to do when facing up a hill with my feet much higher than my center of gravity, aka my butt) and I towed the thing to the top, dug out my set of folding wrenches, and was very very happy that the largest one was the right size.

So my beautiful beast is in the garage now, and the truck is exiled to the driveway, so I can make sure I have the right torque on the bolts and of course I need to fuss with the rear derailer. My derailer is quite nice, but I've decided that I like to fuss and it is somewhat like tuning timpani. I have to have it Just Right. Since it is neither horseshoes nor hand grenades, close is not making it!

No pictures today since I forgot to charge my little camera.

Next ride on Tuesday, since this weekend I am taking a two day wilderness first aid course. Yay!