Rain and Redemption

Ride #80
Monday, June 6th

Just shy of 10 miles in soggy boggy froggy Roseville

My sweetie and I tried to bike part of this trail a month ago or so and gave up. I blame the donuts.

So today I went out and did it up proper, starting at the staging area for the benefit rides next Sunday. I'm a ride leader for the short easy ride, so I figured I'd better figure it out before I played Pied Piper on Sunday.
I did take an unnecessary ride up to Orvietto, but eventually realized that Google Maps calls ALL the trail Miner's Ravine, when the part that parallels Stone something is actually (on the ground, anyway) called False Ravine trail.
I suppose I could submit a correction.
Naw.
I'd rather whinge.

I raced a squirrel, rang my bell, did plenty of shifting, and generally had a good time. The skies were dark and threatening, the asphalt was nice and damp, there were puddles to zip through and burbling creeks to admire.
Yes, it is June in California, but no-one told the weather gods that. It only actually rained when I was in the car.

This is a cute little trail with many small rises. It is generally uphill from Linda so the return trip was generally downhill. There were some dog walkers and joggers, and a few other cyclists.

Mechanically, everything was splendid. I was relieved, since last week I had taken off the chain, cleaned everything, and reassembled it. I figured I was doing OK since there were no parts left over. I have this history of taking things apart and failing utterly to get them together again (take that, infinitive!).
I had decided to change to a dry wax lubricant. I was getting really tired of grease tattoos on everything. I picked T-9 from the many options available. I was half expecting the shifting to be noisy or clunky with this lube but it was fine.

If you even need to clean a chain tube out, just find a trombone player (I am one in a houseful of them), borrow the cleaning rod, cut some "green meany" scrub pads in strips, locate a bucket and some Simple Green cleaner and it get busy! Stuff a strip of green meanie in the slot in the cleaning rod and start swabbing, dosing the scrubber with Simple Green and rinsing in the bucket as necessary.

To do a really good job of cleaning the cassette and chainring, I should have disassembled them. But I have neither the tools nor the inclination to do so, so I just applied liberal amounts of orange bicycle solvent (no, it does not dissolve orange bicycles or I'd be in a heap of trouble) and 'flossed' in between the rings as best I could. I also sacrificed an old fingernail brush to the cause.

I also declined to remove the derailluer, cleaning that and its rollers in place. You would not believe the globs of black glop that were stuck in there. Some were the size of small dogs! Really really small subminiature dogs. Ok. the size of mouse skulls? I know, the size of a dime. Which considering there is not that much space in between the rollers is quite a bit. I am interested to see how the wax lube does. Theoretically, it should not pick up nearly the dirt that the old lube did.

I toyed with the idea of taking the chain to the shop to have them clean it, but I rocked it old-school instead with mineral spirits and a couple of glass jars. Yes, I wore rubber gloves. And worked outside. And poured the used spirits into an appropriately labeled tin for future disposal at the hazardous waste place.

It looks like typical June weather ahead, so a ride or two before Sunday's benefit ride.

The jeans gene

Ride #65
Thursday, April 21st

About 13 miles on the splendid American River Bike Trail: Sunrise to Wm. Pond and back again.

The rain stopped, the sun came out, and I had to get OUT. I had an appointment later in the afternoon, so for the first (and last) time I rode my recumbent trike in jeans. Not doing that again.

Why were the jeans so awful?
Was it the button digging into my bellybutton? Was it the rolled up cuff catching repeatedly on the end of the chain tube? (Chain tubes are plastic tubes through which the bicycle chain runs - helps keep the chain and you cleaner). Was it the apparent effort needed to repeatedly force folds into all that fabric around my knees on every stroke?

Some wag on bentrideronline said something like "would you ski in a swimsuit?" when responding to the 'bent community's tendency to gloat about wearing street clothes for bicycling instead of 'having' to wear bicycle-specific clothing.

Street clothes mean you blend in when not on your bike, you theoretically don't have to change clothes after a ride (I do since I sweat like a horse), and you don't have to buy more clothes just for bicycling. Well, I like bicycling-oid clothes since they don't flap around and get caught on parts of my 'cycle, they identify me as a bicyclist, and they come in BRIGHT colors.

However, when I get to the point of wearing shirts and shorts plastered with logos and advertisements and so on, you may feel free to point and laugh.

Well. Got that out of my system.

I saw a recumbent tandem today on my ride, and lots of families out together (Spring Break for many local schools). And never have I seen so many squirrels dashing across the trail. Spring Break for squirrels?

I was so excited to get out that I managed an overall average speed of 11.4 mph over the 12 miles! That's pretty fast for me. I think the longer ride last weekend got me over some speed-barrier (not to mention the intoxicating effects of fresh air and sunshine).

My bicycle group has a ride this weekend and I hope to get my sweetie out also (he is getting over a horrible chest cold so we'll see).

I'll take that one, and that one and - ooooh - that one...

Ride #46
Monday, February 21st

Finally home and finally no rain so finally rode! Yay!

13 miles or so on the Folsom South Canal

A bit of a headwind cramped my style heading south, but it was niiiice on the way back. I had intended to go maybe as far as Sloughhouse Rd, but turned around far short of that since my chain tube finally cried out for my attention loudly enough I could not ignore it any more.

I successfully navigated the White Rock Rd detour (only signed in some places but I have friends who told me where to go. Um, that came out wrong, didn't it?) and made my back onto the canal-side road. I had hoped to take some advanced beginners on this ride in the future, but there are no bike lanes on the detour roads. I don't mind playing in traffic and "taking a lane", but I know a number of my usual riders would not be comfortable in that situation.

Chain tubes are useful things since they help prevent chain tattoo (when the chain leaves a grease mark on a leg - often the calf with a recumbent bike). And they keep some of the muck off the chain as it whizzes along mere inches from the ground. And with a chain about 3x as long as a 'normal' bike, that's a lot of chain to keep clean! I have 2 main tubes on my trike (made from shorter segments).

As soon as I got home I wheeled the trike into the garage, popped the master link of the chain free, slid the chain tube off, sawed the ripped up split end off, flared the cut end a little (probably not enough), and reassembled my beautiful ride. Didn't take too long at all and now the top chain tube will stay well clear of the front derailer and all will be well for tomorrow's ride! I hope the weather holds - a little overcast and a chilly breeze, but no rain!

This is the whole route - my turnaround today was a little short of Douglas Road

Backwards is the New Forwards

Ride #8. Thursday, September 16th. About 6 miles. I managed to go "backwards" around my 6.1 mile route through Folsom. I'm keeping 'backwards' from now on since there are fewer hairy left turns on the counterclockwise route then on the clockwise route.  This route uses relatively quiet neighborhood streets, some with bike lanes and some without.

There were several areas of MUP (multi use path - come on, I know you missed those TLAs) congestion this morning. Again, I utilised the wonderful stability of three wheels and just parked it until the congestion cleared, enjoying the wetlands and other biomes the paths travel though. The area with the most variety of trail-users had a set of three fitness walkers all abreast, two cyclists thinking about passing them, and a family with a toddler who really really wanted to see what was on the other side of the path. All that was missing was a dog or three. Then, just as the congestion cleared, a jogger overtook from behind. I saw the handtrike gentleman again, and a roller blader, and a grandma with her grandsons' razor scooters (Grandma walks them to school every morning and has scooter-toting duties also). I talked briefly to the gentleman with the mountain bike again (his name is Al). No jackrabbits today, but I did spot a fast moving vole or mouse - he got startled but not squashed.

I tend to speed, I admit it. There are so many tempting curves on the Folsom bike paths. There is a particularly nice little curve on my route that I really enjoy. This time I kept pedaling around it and leaned into the corner like some kind of speed freak. Only to emerge almost in the middle of another clot of trail users! I demonstrated the power of disc brakes and we all had a good laugh at my expense.

I have a mystery noise when on the largest chainring in front - it seems to me it might be one of the chain tubes (sleeves the very long chain runs through to help keep it clean). I'm not going to use that ring very much yet, so I won't worry about it at this point. Next time I have the trike in the garage I'll see if I can pin it down. My messing about with the barrel adjuster on the rear derailluer seems to have done the trick - shifting is back to the smooth side of things.

I've ordered an extra long visor for my helmet, since yellow face is out in the mornings still. Looking forward to some fog.