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.

Sunscreen Soup

#117

Foxy's Fall Century, Davis, California
Saturday, October 15th

Now, that was more fun than may be strictly legal.
Fresh air, sunshine, puffy clouds, and more cyclists than you can shake a diamond-framed, carbon forked, aero-bar enhanced miracle of modern sports equipment at. And a few recumbents also.

I left the house at 6am, after walking the dog (and dodging skunks), stretching, and eating a nice breakfast.

It took the hour I had estimated to drive to Davis (I stopped for gas and a restroom), and then 15 minutes to find somewhere to park. This time I remembered to park my car with the hatch next to someone's driveway, so I could get the trike in and out without worrying about being parked in from behind.

Then I hiked over to registration. Holy Cow! Bikes leaned against the building, bikes strewn on the grass, bikes wobbling through the crowd. People tottering along in road shoes, shuffling in flipflops, mincing in stockinged feet (the Veteran's Memorial Center had requested No Cleats in the main hall).

I looked at the line for the bathroom (you gotta be KIDDING) and joined the line to pick up my registration instead. The 100K route was Green, so I had a green wrist band, a green route sheet, and green arrows to follow along the course.

Back to the car to unload the trike, change to my bike shoes, eat another banana, and to hit the road.

The course was all road riding: some roads were nice and smooth, some teeth-jarringly rough (my rear fender stay came loose again!), some had bike lanes, some just a shoulder, some with no shoulder.

With the exception of one white sports car, all the vehicles out there were well behaved. Even this agricultural implement which took up most of the road.

Leaving Davis itself was pretty funny. A couple clumps of road bike would pass me. Then they'd all bunch up at the traffic lights. I'd roll up behind just in time to leave. Another bunch would pass me, stop for the light, bunch... You get the idea.

The shadow in the lower right is me and my trike.

After dropping more or less south nearly to Vacaville, the course headed for the hills!

There were fun rolling hills before the reststop at about 20 miles. I ate a quarter of a bagel with peanut butter and scarfed some orange segments. And another banana. And finished off one water bottle and refilled them both.

Then up Steiger Hill Road. Not too bad at all. I just crawled up it in my granny gear. Heading down I chicken-braked and only reached 28.5mph.

This 1906 bridge took us to lunch.

Lunch was pretty good. Amazing how lovely a simple cheese and tomato sandwich can be. From there it was just 20 more miles back to the beginning.

I drank two bottles of water with Nuun electrolyte replacement in them, and probably should have done another. I don't know how many bottles of water I drank, but again, not quite enough. I used a different sunscreen than usual on my face and I'm not sure if I got a little sunburned, it is making my skin unhappy, or both.

By the last 5 miles, I could tell I was getting tired, since I forgot three times in a row to shift down before coming to a stop at intersections. So I mashed my way along in slow motion for a couple of revolutions until I picked up speed again.

I had no flats today, and other than having to stop twice to pick gravel out of my tires (left in it will work its way in and puncture the tube) and stopping the annoying rattle of my rear fender with Gorilla tape, it was a trouble-free ride.

The Official bike computer pictures.

58.67 miles, average 10.9, max 28.5

I think I want to take a link out of my chain. There is a good page here that explains how to determine the proper length of your recumbent chain. So I will do that before the next ride.

I stopped by Dixon after the event to chat for a while with the owner of PBW, the man who sold me my wonderful wonderful ride. It was great to see him again. A link to his website is in the sidebar.

And my sweetheart is making his super tasty stirfry for dinner. A wonderful end to a wonderful day!

Here's the route from today:



No telling what I'll be up to later this week, but as of this moment (Sat afternoon) I have 27 people signed up for my casual bicycle ride next weekend. Yikes!

Smooth roads and well-behaved drivers for all

Sproing!

Ride #115
9.5 miles on the American River Trail
Sunday, October 9th

I set out with the intention of going up to Beals Point, then back down and around Lake Natoma. Hey, at least I did the climbing part (I ended up skipping the lake today).

I set off from old Folsom across the bridge and up the trail to Beals.

A very pretty Nor Cal fall day. Not a lot of rain yet, so the hillsides give a nice contrast with the always-green oaks.

That's the backside of Folsom Prison on the far hill.

After the newish construction at Folsom Auburn Road, there is an encouraging sign.

Of course, it is 1 mile of hill but I got to the top and took a snack break by the lake.

These trees looked neglected so today was their photoshoot.

Coming down Beals I still did not quite reach 30mph (29 today, 27 point something the last time). Today, since I had planned to go around the lake, I went all the way back down Beals to old Folsom.

There is a lot of rough trail (tree roots) and I have no way to avoid it. I used to stand up on the bike when I encountered these things. Now on my recumbent I had to just sit there today and let the suspension take the hit and try to remember to keep my teeth from snapping together.

Then there was a sudden rattling! Oh no! My rear fender stay came unstuck. The Gorilla Tape I'd 'repaired' it with had given way. The rattling was driving me NUTS so I did a U-turn and headed back. I'm going to avoid that rough section from now on. Too hard on me and the trike.

Coming back on the bridge there were multiple groups of walkers, including one family who had the BEST way of keeping their kids to one side of the bridge (the interesting side), "Hands on the railing!" Thanks, folks. Made me much less nervous going by them with oncoming bicycle traffic. My trike looks WIDE but it is really not. It looks even WIDER when I'm on a ped/bikeway with high concrete on one side and a high fence on the other.

So my task before Foxys on Saturday is to get a mirror and a flashlight and see if I can see underneath the fender to figure out how the stays are supposed to "stay" (ha ha) and FIX it. I think there is supposed to be a hex nut under there.

I don't really want to ride around Davis/Vacaville/Winters with Gorilla tape stuck to my beautiful trike.

Oh yeah, and last ride I had a soft tire. I pumped it up. This morning it was FLAT. So I stood around in the parking garage changing the tube. I had TWO holes in that stupid tube. So after my ride, when I got home, I sat around and patched it.
grumblegrumblegrumble
Stupid thorns!

Well, wouldya lookit that!

Ride #107
41 miles all over the place
Sunday, September 18th

This was another organized ride. I led it.
I put it together with my upcoming metric century in mind. I had planned to try for 47 miles, but decided to stop a little short.

4 other riders came out for this "tourist's pace" ride: one new to road bikes, one working toward a sprint triathlon, another road-biker, and a friend from the casual bicycling group. For various reasons everybody stopped after 22 miles. I kept on rolling for another 19 miles.

We spent most of our time on bike paths with a little section on some of Folsom's nice roads. We worked hard for the first 12 miles, riding up to Beals Point and then up the Folsom Crossing bridge. One of my rest stops had to be altered since the bathrooms at Briggs Park were locked! But the grocery store across the street was a handy alternate.
From the grocery, we hopped back onto city streets and played in traffic for a while.
I think we were a little relieved to get back on the bike trail, it was certainly quieter.
The next rest stop was at a state park boat launch area near the Nimbus Dam.
Then I stopped (by myself at this point) just past Sunrise, then again at Wm. Pond where I decided it would be wiser to make that my turnaround point. So I did, stopping again near Sunrise, then back to the car, pleasantly tired but not whining.
Yay for no whining.

I got home and ate 3 pieces of cold pizza and took a 4 hour nap.

Ok, so maybe this was a long ride!

I saw a handful of two-wheeled recumbents, a hand trike, a guy on a handbrake-equipped longboard (skateboard) being towed by his two absolutely gleeful dogs, and a bike like no bike I've seen before.
Let's see if I can describe it. It had two wheels, I think equal in size but I'm not sure. Feet below butt (so not recumbent). It looked like the handlebars were up under his chin, supported by what looked like a metal tee-pee. I don't think it was a tall bike (go look in wiki) but it might have been. If I see it again I will turn around, pursue, and shoot! (photo). I did not see the unicyclist, but that's OK.

Here's the map, and there's more blog below.



Instead of riding on Thursday, I decided to crawl all around my trike with wrench and list of torques in hand, checking and tightening if necessary. Now, my little torque wrench does not go past 15nm, so there are some things I can't check. And I will admit I don't really understand the suspension terminology, so I checked what I was sure of and poked around at the stuff I was not.
The rear suspension was the only thing I found that needed a little tightening. Oh and the fender mounts.

I also put my front fenders on. This is how it went:
Find fenders in garage. Look for bolts that WERE taped to the fenders and are no longer, find replacement bolts.
Remove left wheel, put on fender. Put wheel back on, check for fender placement. OK.
Remove wheel, Remove fender. Add locktite (blue) to fender bolts, put fender back on. Put wheel back on.

Repeat for right side, with an additional step of 'wiggle fender mount to correct position' and repeat all.

Oh. and I forgot to mention that before I was even putting on the fenders, I noticed my left tire was a rather low. Look! A goathead! From my garage?! No clue.
Replaced the tube with one of my patched ones.

After I put both fenders on I decided to test ride.
&*(@^%#*? the left tire's flat! Changing the tube with the fender in place is not bad.

ttttttthhhhhhaaaat's all folks!

Rained on my parade

Ride #31
Tuesday, January 13th
7.7 miles on the American River Bike Trail

I made it rain, yes I did. It is my fault. I did not put my front fenders back on again.

The indistinct white streaks are big fat drops of water spraying up from my front tire. Not only did I make it rain, I made it rain UP.

It started out overcast and a few drops. By the time I got back to the car from my ride, it was raining hard enough that I felt I needed to put my jacket over my head to run from the back of the car to the driver's door.


This was intended to be a group ride for the two bicycling groups I belong to, but we were rained out. I started from a shopping center on Sunrise and made my way down to the river via a feeder bike route. Lots of anglers out today, some intrepid dog walkers, and a surprising number of spandex clad, logo bedecked riders of road bikes. And they probably don't even HAVE fenders for their bikes.
I also saw my favorite hiking group out and about - and this time we almost had a conversation - but I was in a hurry to get back since the rain was getting harder and harder.

I have not been on the Sunrise to Folsom  part of the trail (Hatchery side of Nimbus) since the work on Hazel Ave began. So I was not too sure about getting across Hazel with the bike trail detour. It was not a problem (but I'm glad I had a chance to scout it out before the next ride I lead in this area). I did get to play in traffic a little. It looks they were putting up a new light pole. I bailed out just after that point since it was raining Even Harder!

Dry

The anglers and I agree: today was a good day! Any day on my 'cycle is a good day.

Wet

The next scheduled ride is on Tuesday with the bike groups. Rain is NOT in the forecast.

Yay.

Unofficial Fun

Ride #29

Thursday, January 6th.
12 ish miles on the American River Bike Trail

I belong to two bicycling Meetup groups (Meetup is an internet based social activity site). One is mostly fast paced rides and the other is more casual. The casual group is rather inactive in the winter, so when a new member of that group posted that she was interested in exploring the ARBT, I jumped on it!

So I 'cycled around with a total stranger and we had a blast all the way from Wm Pond to Sunrise and back again on our unofficial ride. I drove down to Sacramento for this ride: leaving my house under sunny clear skies and almost immediately driving down into fog. And then out of the fog (actually low clouds) into cold clammy overcast. We saw an absolutely HUGE jackrabbit bounding along, a red tailed hawk on a fence post, several groups of bicyclists (some grim intent 'roadies' in a paceline and others slower and smiling), and pairs of walkers.  And a couple of probably homeless folks. We also buzzed by a large group of familiar-looking hikers all wielding pairs of trekking poles, mostly gray-haired - yes indeed, it was a group I hiked with a few years ago. Solemates from Fair Oaks. I waved and they waved and we each went our separate ways. Neat!

In the parking lot while I was putting my ride back in the mobile garage I call the SUV, I answered a ton of questions from some very interested gentlemen, one of whom had been persuaded to ride on a recumbent decades ago. He didn't much like it, but he sure liked my trike! He was also encouraged to hear about the TerraTrike Rover - a reasonably priced entry-level trike at a base price of $800.

My right fender was loose (again) so about 1/2 mile from our ending point, I just wiggled it loose, tucked it under my left arm, and continued on. I also played a bit with the barrel adjuster for the rear derailer. I might have it in the right spot now, but I'll check it out when I'm replacing that fender in a few days.

I'm off to Oregon for a few days, so the next post will be sometime next week.

Cheers!

Enticed or Bedeviled?

Ride #23
Thursday, December 16th. 7 miles, mostly on Folsom bike paths.

What a lovely afternoon for a ride! My sweetheart played hooky from work and we went on a short ride in the late afternoon sun. I like parking at the light rail parking lots and by 3pm there were spots open at the Glenn station. It is easy enough to get on to the bike paths from that parking lot, but getting back at the end of the ride is a little awkward. I need to figure out a better way before I lead any rides from that location. Should I confess that I directed us through a corporate parking lot via the sidewalks? Ok, then I won't!

The really fun loooooooong bridge.

There were plenty of little bitty hills to conquer where the bike path swoops under surface streets. We saw some other bicyclists grimly pedaling along, and some dog walkers. Humbug and Willow Creeks are nice and full, but since it has not rained for two whole days the undercrossings are dry enough.

I had mapped out a longer ride, but himself got a little tired so I sent him up a set of steps with his nice lightweight bicycle and zipped around a loop with more ups and downs to meet him on the uphill side of the steps. Our curtailed ride necessitated a little bit of street riding (and we even took and used the left/straight lane) to get back on the bike path.

The new overcrossing at Bidwell in Folsom

I had wiped a lot of leaves out from between my fenders and my front tires before this outing so my ride was back to being nice and quiet. I did a little surgery on my seat and uncovered the water-bottle braze on points unhelpfully covered by the mesh. I like drinking from a bottle better than a hydration tube so I'm glad I took the time to do it.

Instead of a bladder on the back of my seat I put a bag just for tire repair and locking up, so my trunk bag on the rack is a lot less heavy to carry around at stops.

My sweetie is having the same problem on his bike that I had on my hybrid: not enough low gears. We'll head down to the shop and see if he can get a different gearing setup.

It is supposed to rain from tomorrow until Christmas, so there will be a dearth of posts for the next ten days. Unless I get desperate ....

Am I daft?

Ride #17
Sunday, November 21st, bike trails in Folsom CA. A measly 5.6 miles.

It was raining and windy at my house, but down in Folsom, it was just breezy and overcast. The weather forecast was dire enough (thunderstorms! wind advisory!) that the leader of the scheduled picnic ride sensibly cancelled the outing. I went on a ride anyway. There were some families out enjoying the break in the rain, and a couple of other crazy cyclists out jamming through puddles.

I paused, as I always do, by the pond. It is much fuller than the last time I took a picture (see blog for September 10th) and inhabited by ducks and other waterfowl.
I had wanted to do a more extensive loop through Folsom, but my planned route used 3 bicycle underpasses, all probably flooded with all the recent rain. Some of the underpasses have surface street options, but one would require hauling my trike up a muddy embankment. No thanks!


I spent some time fiddling with the barrel adjuster for my rear derailluer, but I think to do it right I'll have to work on the bike in the garage, where I can concentrate just on the bike and not stuff like, oh, driving off the trail or running over a jogger and so on. My fenders (which I reinstalled last week) worked just fine to keep me from getting splashed from the damp trails and occasional puddle.

I dressed in wool layers, topped off with my high-viz windbreaker. I tried Ibex midweight longjohns for leg protection and they were acceptable. If it had been raining, I think I would have been too cold without rain pants on as well. I did eventually unzip my windbreaker and also the neck of the midweight Ibex top I was wearing. I could probably have left the lightweight 'woolie' shirt at home, but it was nice to have when I was unloading the bike. I ended up pulling my wool buff (serving as a balaclava) off as well as my wool gloves by the end of the ride. If I had been riding on hills, I would have removed layers sooner.

The partially unzipped windbreaker was a great place to store my camera and phone while pedaling along although the lumps and bumps caused by doing so probably did not do much for my image as a bicycling fashion plate. The most damage to my image was probably the bright red wool wrap skirt I was wearing (along with a yellow jacket and a bright blue shirt. And a bright red face from the wind.) I whipped up the wrap skirt the other day since, as I often have said, the world does not need to see my rear in spandex (or wool tights).

I might see if I can entice folks out on a short Turkey Day ride. If not then, then on the weekend.

Come Hell or high water ...

... I'm going for a ride.

And I did.

Ride #14, Saturday November 6th. Just over 8 miles.

I finally got to hook up with the Sacramento Area Casual Bikers, a fun and laid back group of folks who just want to ride their bikes.

It has been over a month since I've been able to ride, and I'm so glad to be back I just can't find words to express it. So I'll just natter on about the ride.

We cruised around on the city of Folsom's beautiful bike trails, starting at Karen's Bakery Cafe in Old Folsom and doing a little bike lane/sidewalk work to get on to the Willow Creek/Humbug Creek trail system.


As a bonus, the new bike/ped bridge across Bidwell street is finished! We took a gratuitous loop just so we could 'cycle across the bridge to get to Peet's coffee. I forgot to get a picture of the bridge. If someone in the group gets a good one I'll ask permission to add it to this post.

The group pretty much filled the patio area at Peet's with bodies and a lot of chatter about bicycles and lights and trips and trails and ...

Then we pedaled back down to Old Folsom, spent some more time chatting in the parking lot, then all went our separate ways.

Since I last posted, I've taken the other fender off the front (more straightforward then getting the other one back on). I switched out the pedals from a Shimano type double sided (cleat-ready on one side, platform on the other) for some Crank Brothers' Candy pedals. I set those up with 20 degrees of float and I like them much better! No talking from my right knee at all, very secure clip in, easy enough to clip out. It sounds like I need to adjust the rear dérailleur just a little bit.

Hope to get out again next weekend.
Keep on pedaling and smiling

!

Rollin' on the River

Ride #13, Monday September 28th. A shade less than 7 miles.

I believe this trail is actually the Nimbus Trail, but that is not so important. The important thing is that is follows the lovely American River from Folsom to the Hazel Bridge on what I suppose you'd call the south side of the river. I didn't go all the way to Hazel, but did spend some time at my favorite overlook.

I finally stopped, removed the right fender, and strapped it to the bag on the rear rack. I need to get around to either taking both front fenders off or "nut up" (Yes, I enjoyed Zombieland very much, thank you) and take the right wheel off and really tighten the fender down. I'll probably wait until I've ridden in the rain and gotten all wet and uncomfortable before I really get around to it.

This is a shorter post then usual (rejoice!) since I am reduced to using the mouse-replacement-device on the laptop that is substituting for my "real" computer. Next ride should be Thursday and by then I should have gotten around to charging up a replacement mouse.

Uncharted Territory

Ride #9. Saturday, September 18th. About 7 miles. I asked for fog and I got fog, but not for our ride. We live at 1200 feet or so and the weather down where the American River Bike Trail is was "overcast" and "ceiling 1200 feet. So we were livin' in the clouds this morning. By the time we got to the trail, it was sunny with scattered clouds, mid 70s (F) and perfect cycling weather.

My sweetie, who shall henceforth be known as the King of Flats, got to show off his tire changing skills right in the parking lot. He does not like Presta valves and I don't like Schrader. So guess what kind of valves we each have our our rides? Yep - the kind we don't like. My task when out and about is to get a couple more spare tubes for him. And I figure a couple more for me - I have half again as many wheels as he and maybe this flat thing is contagious...?

We started at the Upper Sunrise area - one of the Sacramento County parks on the American River. I have not been on the ARBT for several years, and never starting from that parking lot. So we took a 1/2 mile side trip and then turned around and found the 'real' trail - zipping downstream for around 3 miles and then turning around and zipping back.

OK - so I was leading on the way out and was zipping and my sweetie was leading on the way back and was not quite so zippy. Hills (ascending) make neither of us very zippy at all and downhills let my inner zippy speedfreak shine. I chickened out and braked for curves at the bottom of hills. Afer all, I would not want to roll my trike where someone might see me! (There's Pride, now where's the Fall?)

We saw plenty of spandex-clad 'roadies' flying by in both directions, a very upright two-wheel 'bent and another 2 wheeler in a (homemade?) velomobile. One fellow operating a hand and foot twowheeler 'bent with the hands only, and a few walkers. We started our trip at a popular put in spot for rafters so there were plenty of bright yellow rafts full of happy people floating down the river. Although the rafters often count as wildlife, I did not see much of the usual sort. I'm sure it was out there, I just was concentrating on staying in my lane and not running over any sticks or twigs so had not time to scan for critters.

My right fender was loose again by the end of the ride - and now that the metric allen keys have reappeared in the toolbox (tidying the garage can be a good thing), I'll see if a longer key makes it easier to tighten things up this time. I'm getting better at shifting before it is almost too late, and my rear derailuer is behaving itself. I didn't spend anytime on the biggest chainring in front so the noise there did not bother me.

oodles of toodles, next ride Monday!

A Bike Path Made for Two

This is ride #3 (06 September 2010) on my beautiful new Scorpion, about 5.5 miles. I managed to entice my sweetheart out onto the bike paths with me (he has a nice Specialized DF which spends too much time hanging in the garage!). We are both sadly in need of exercise so getting out is A Good Thing.

Still cruising around on the neighborhood bike trails, a bit later in the day than my previous rides (my sweetie is not a morning person) but it was still only in the low 80s. More bikes than walkers on this Labor Day Monday.

The route was mostly flat with just a few little inclines and declines. They are too small to call hills: more like cute little baby slopes, but enough to give me some practice shifting early enough to keep from mashing on the pedals. I had a blast on a little curvy section of the trail. I remember learning to be confident on those little curves on my DF bike, but it is even more fun on a trike! I just leaned left, right, left, right and enjoyed myself. I'm afraid I whooped and hollered a little bit, but got only smiles in return.

I concentrated a little bit on spinning smoothly and not giving the returning leg as much of a "free ride" on the pedal. So still more of the muscles in my legs got a little workout - exactly what I want! I loooove clipping in - so much easier to get the ol' feet blurring. (Spinning is a technique which saves the knees from wear and tear: one uses lower gears on the cycle so the feet move faster and there is none of that slow motion mashing on the pedals.)

I also tried a tiny bit of steering with the brakes (I have independent left/right brakes). That's fun but not something I'll do a lot of: a bit too exciting and I don't know what the long term mechanical downsides might be. I also worked on convincing myself that it is OK to pedal while cornering - the inclination is to coast.

I still have not installed a computer (odometer, speedometer) on my ride, but my sweetie said our usual cruising speed was 8 - 10 mph, slower up slight inclines or when I was messing about with the clips, and sometimes a "blinding" 14-15. Which is brisker than I expected. These particular trails have a lot of intersections and curves and blind corners and street crossings so they are not a great place for speeding around. The Folsom South Canal is the place for that.

On the mechanical side I had tightened the clips on the pedals so there was a lot less unexpected unclipping - however the right side still could be a bit tighter. On the left I could finally feel the 15degrees of float ("float" is a characteristic of some pedal systems: it allows your foot to turn in and out a little bit while still remaining firmly attached to the pedals).  My right fender was a bit loose, so I tightened that up. Tomorrow I'll go over the trike and check for other looseness.