Head like an ice cube

Sunday, January 1st

Happy New Year

#134

What is the windchill at 44 degrees and 40mph? Hm. Let's look that up.
About 30 degrees. Which would be below freezing.

Which would explain why, while bombing down hill at 39.2 mph (my personal best so far) on a chilly calm morning, my whole skull felt like your hand does when you stick it in a tub of icewater.

What. You don't go around randomly sticking your hands in icewater? Why not?!
I would also like to note that it is difficult to keep one's eyes open at that speed/temp combo.

Today was the Hammerin' Wheels' 2nd annual Beatty Hill Climbing Smackdown Challenge something-or-other. Hill repeats for 2 hours.

I did not do that hill. Not even once. I volunteered again, this year helping with registration and with the refreshment stop at the bottom of the hill. We had, as far as I know, a little over 50 participants. Last year (cold and rainy and windy) had 20-some.

I handed out bananas, oranges, gatoraid and water, and collected jerseys, arm and leg warmers from the rapidly warming participants.

The volunteer organizers of this event made nifty laminated bibs for early registrants. I got one, even though I was just volunteering.

This time I rode the 8 or so miles from my house, hung around volunteering, and then turned around and rode back.

I had another 'standing flat' (I park my bike somewhere and return later to find one tire flat). I'm just glad it did not go flat on a downhill. I have become quite nonchalant about flats: I can now hold a conversation while changing one.

I wore a lightweight short sleeved merino wool Ibex top and a midweight long sleeved Ibex top and some Danskin exercise tights. I had originally had my merino wool Buff deployed in earband mode, but after the first ice-cube head incident, I switched to balaclava mode, pulling it off my face when not going downhill. My head was still cold, but not icy.

I also had wool gloves on the whole ride.

After I got up the first hill (right out of my driveway as I'm sure you've heard me whining about before) I took off the longsleeved wool shirt and put on my bright windbreaker. I was a little cold downhill, but I really did not want to get too sweaty on the ride in and then stand around getting hypothermia or something dire like that while volunteering.
On the way back I had just my Danskin tights and the short sleeved top and I sweated plenty.

All told, it took me 2 hours and 20 minutes to go the 17 miles round trip. I averaged 10 mph on the way out and my overall average was 7.1. Just under 2000 feet of climbing today.

This year my goal is to get better at climbing hills. Which means I must push myself a little bit.

The red is elevation and the wiggly lines are the grade. Lots of down followed by lots of up.

Her Majesty

#130

Wednesday, November 30th
11 miles around Lovely Lake Natoma

The wind was a blowing, I was pompously pontificating, and I had a flat on the left front before I even loaded up the trike for the ride. So Three, count 'em, Three blow(s/hards/outs) for the price of One.
Buy Now.
Eat at Joe's.

I think that the xmas advertising has gotten to me a little bit.

"Parking lot Al" and I went around Lake Natoma. He's offered to sweep the upcoming Casual Bike ride so I wanted to show him my route of choice.

The wind was blowing enough that I was afraid our flags would go around the lake without us. It was thick fog at my house, but by the time I got to our start point (1100 feet lower) the sun was peeking out. We looked like arctic explorers, bundled up the way we were. I don't know what all Al was wearing, but he looked a bit wider than normal, so I'm thinking at least 4 layers. I had 3, and for a wonder, kept them all on.

My favorite fall/winter/spring garment is a wool Buff (tm). Just a long tube of fine Merino wool, it can be worn multiple ways. I use it most often on bike rides as a balaclava or sometimes as an ear warmer. I did both today.

We averaged 9mph (Al did at anyrate, and we stuck together pretty well so I'll borrow his number - I was too confused this morning to reset my odo from last weeks Stupidly Steep Climb). We took several breaks, admiring the new Hazel Bridge interchange (it is just too grand to call it a bike path).

I left the camera in the pouch, since I had my gloves on most of the time and it is a bit awkward to use that way. So please imagine an achingly blue sky, a few clouds barreling along here and there, and about a hundred seagulls circling in the sky, making a big messy scribbly circle, orbiting the Fish Hatchery, hoping desperately for a tasty scrap of salmon.

Leaving the gulls and their fish heads fish head roly poly fish heads ...

Loyal readers will remember I had filled my tires with some anti-leak stuff: True Goo, so I was understandably dismayed to find a flat this morning.
Then I realised that the goo stuff works best on small holes in a moving tire. Neither of which was the case for me.

After I had pried the flat tube out of the tire (they tend to weld themselves together a little bit) I noticed one other spot where the goo had patched a hole for me. It is easy to see since there is some amount of goo ejected through the hole before sealing happens. The goo leaves a white residue on the inside of the tire.

I'll be replacing these tires with more Scorchers, but the kevlar belted ones, soon. Meanwhile, this is HRM, the Queen of Flats, signing off.

CU

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!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Ride #113
Sunday, October 2nd
47 miles on the American River Bike Trail and in Folsom and Gold River and and and...

I had one taker for my "good idea" ride this morning. As last time, the ride makes a loop with a handy bail-out point at 22 miles. Which is where my companion bailed, leaving me to slog on to the turn around for the 47 mile ride.

No pics since I'm a lazy creature.

The annual Princess Promenade event was going on today. The trail was not closed, so I saw plenty of women and girls riding up and down the trail with various bits of girly princess-like attire. Mostly seemed to be sparkley crowns and pink tulle. Some women had bunches of tulle (netting like in tutus) stuffed in the back of their helmets like odd tailfeathers. Not my idea of fun. I did kind of like the grass skirt. Mostly because it was NOT PINK.

The other odd thing I saw was what my companion dubbed a "techno mohawk": a fellow who had strapped his small bike pump to the top of his helmet. Maybe Tech-mo-hawk?

And not odd, but Team Revolutions was out in force today. I have never seen so many of their jerseys out in one day. I wonder what their ride today was?

Oh, and I saw the unicyclist again. I was standing in the parking lot after my ride, trying to muster the mental and physical energy to shovel the trike into the car, when I noticed a couple trying to work out a path over the new bicycle interchange at the Hazel bridge. I stepped over and asked "Which side of the river do you want to be on" and the answer was "The other side" (not a chicken joke). So I was able to say "See that unicyclist? Follow him. See that regular bike? Don't follow him." Easy as pie.

I'm pretty beat today (came home and took a nap) and I think it was a mistake to change the seat configuration and then go on a long ride.

Normally (like, for the last 1500 miles) I have the seat tipped up as far as it will go (so I am sitting as upright as possible). I have a range of 33 to 42 degrees. Today I split the difference between the two extremes. I like it, but my legs were not ready for that much time in a new position. My achilles tendon on the left complained and my right knee complained about 38 miles in, so I hopped off and put the seat back to the usual position, then gingerly carried on to the end of the ride. I iced when I got home. Should be better tomorrow, but I might ice again.

I think the more reclined position effectively puts my feet farther away from the pedals, meaning I have to flex my ankles a bit more while pedaling. My left leg acts like it is shorter than my right (because of my hips) so that ankle has to flex more, and my right knee is the 'bad' knee. So I'm not surprised. Just grumpy.

My rear tire required a little tweaking after the flat of last ride. The valve stem was not straight from the rim. It was easy enough to deflate the tire (still on the bike, thank you) and scootch the tire and tube around until it was in the right place. It was refreshing to pump up a tire with a floor pump instead of a mini pump.

My shifting is quite noisy again, so it will be time to reapply my favorite lube, Boeshield T9. I'd better also check out the rear derailler and make sure it is all clean and tidy.

Foxy's in two weeks, I'll take some short rides between now and than and pamper my ankle and knee.

Nap time

Ride #108

Thursday, September 22nd.

20 miles on the American River Bike Trail

The usual Tue/Thurs ride from the Fish Hatchery to Wm Pond. My friend with the trailer full of kids couldn't make it but another rider from the meetup group came. He's pretty fast, so I got a good workout. So good I came home and napped for 3 hours. I have a pretty rough life, ha ha. He's also getting ready for the metric at Foxy's.

I also had a flat. #5 I think. Who's counting? The right front tire. I'm glad the other rider was along since today was a "bad shoulder day" and I had trouble getting the tire back over the last little bit of rim. I think if I had spit on the rim, or used some lip balm on it it would have been easier. As usual, most passersby asked if we needed any help. Cyclists are great!

It took me a while to figure out the tire was going soft; all I noticed that it was getting hard to maintain my speed. Much different from the squirmy feeling of a rear flat. I finally was able to peer over the side of the trike to see the tire squashing out from under the wheel more than I expected. The fenders interfere with seeing the tire by just glancing to the side.

I find it easiest to flip the trike on its side to change a front tire. I dug all the stuff I needed out of the tool bag and stuffed it under the side of the trike on the ground (to keep from squashing the fender or mirror). Worked great. It is so nice to be able to work on the tire at a comfortable standing height.

Have you ever noticed how when someone is watching you are suddenly all thumbs? Its true! So I handed my fellow rider the leaky tube to flatten out (I'd inflated it to see if I could tell where the leak was - no luck, time to drown the tube) and knowing he was occupied with that made the 'all thumbs' go away.

I've decided that my tool kit needs to be stored somewhere else. I've had it hanging behind my seat, but it is kind of a pain to fetch it out when it is needed. So I might try attaching it to the rack instead. I had 4 tubes with me, 2 patched and 2 new. I chickened out and used a new tube. I've got to try one of my patched tubes sometime. Or I suppose I could just wait until ALL my tubes are patched then I'll have no choice.

We were out a 1/2 hour later than usual, but there was still plenty of wildlife: I was nearly nose to knee with a deer (my nose, her knee) on a corner and I also saw a turkey hen and some half-grown turklets? What is the right name for young turkeys, anyway? I like turklets so I'll keep it.

This weekend I'll be doing a one-day wine tour in Sonoma County. I wonder how many bottles I can carry on my trike?

Hic. Ish that ano'er win'ry? Wun'erful. Lesh go.

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!

Your Title Here

Ride #93
Saturday, August 6th
30 miles on the American River Bike Trail

with the Recumbent Riders of Sacramento.

Yes. It is good to be back. And yes, I was mostly in back of the pack also. Back. Heh heh. Get it?

BUT this month I could see most of them most of the time, I think my average for the first 1/2 of the ride was 12-13 mph. So now I know I can do that for about 15 miles.

My view for most of the ride.

I don't know what my average for the second half was, but I'm betting my over all average was less than 10. 'Cause I was one tired puppy at the end of the ride.

So, why DON'T I know my average?

Because my speedometer sensor was knocked askew.

Why askew?

Because of removing and replacing my rear wheel, of course. (This is starting to sound like a conversation with a 5 year old).

Why mess with the rear wheel?

Because of this!

The Goathead thorn I found sticking out of my poor abused tire.

These little buggers are EVERYWHERE this year since we had such a wet spring. They are like caltrops: no matter how they land, there is always a point sticking up.

Here is an extremely amusing video about this horrid little scrap of vegetation. I had nothing to do with this video but I find it hilarious. No really. I do.

The Goat Head Thorn and You!

I had no problem removing the rear tire and getting a new tube in and inflated. I had a little trouble getting the wheel back in the dropouts while managing the chain. So a kind passerby held the back of the trike up while I cut loose with some language and got the wheel all settled in place.
I love my RoadMorph pump. It was easy to use and the trick a friend of mine discovered of unscrewing the collar on the business end of the pump a little bit prior to attaching the pump to a Schrader valve made it much easier than the first time I tried the pump.

I was remarkably nervous riding the last 10 of the 30 mile ride, knowing that I had only ONE spare tube and no patch kit.

Why no patch kit?
(Oh, for crying out loud! Not the five year old again!)

I probably picked up the goathead when I pulled over earlier to give a pack of cyclists my patch kit. Which I had never used. So much for the Good Samaritan act.
Who am I fooling, I'd do it again in an instant, but I might check my tires before scooting off.

I tried using the Tracks app on my phone (android). It did not seem to record anything ridewithgps can use, so I'll try again another day. The app ran for 5 hours and ran my battery down almost to nothing. So I think it might be a fun thing to play with, but only good for recording short routes.

The To Do List:

• I really really need to see if I can tighten up the seat mesh where my pokey shoulderblades have caused it to sag. 
• I also want to fix up my speedometer and make sure my pepperspray is attached to the bike securely.

Yes I have a little can of Fox strapped to my bike. There have recently been some unsavory characters (gang members, so I've heard) hanging out at the Sacramento end of the bike trail, attempting to separate people from their stuff. So I figured the spray is better kept where I can reach it rather than buried in the depths of my bag. And yes, I've practiced getting it in my hand and facing the right direction (easy with the type I bought).

• And it might be time to check the rear derailler for lumps of crud and maybe to lube and wipe down the chain.
• Oh. and check various bolt for tightness, since I'll have the seat off anyway.

Out for an early ride on Monday: Up up and away!

flat, fat, fast, fun

Ride #90
Thursday, July 28th

13 miles on the ARBT

I spent entirely to much time this week moping around the house feeling fat so today I finally pried myself off the big comfy couch and climbed onto my smaller but equally comfy trike. (yes, even I have bad days)

I decided to see what kind of average I could maintain for the six miles from Sunrise to Wm. Pond. I was pleased to see it was just slightly over 13mph. I don't know how long I could maintain that (I suspect less than 15miles, in favorable conditions) but it was sure fun zipping along today.

Once I fixed the flat. Yes, my second flat in over 1000 miles. On the right front (the side that gets all the debris on the side of the trail). I could not detect a leak once I removed the tube (I'll do the water bucket test in a little bit) and I did not feel any sharp things in the tire. So I installed a new tube and went on my merry way.

I also tried messing around with a couple of camera mounts today. One is a handlebar mount and the other is a helmet mount. I need to revert to my old helmet to make the helmet mount work, and I may need a lighter, smaller camera. I think it will wobble around quite a bit.
The handlebar mount was a little too big for the accessory mount on the front of my bike, but some innertube scraps from the last flat helped. However (and I knew this but had to try it anyway) the front of a trike is WAY too bouncy for video.
I am now the proud creator of several minutes of very jittery video. Really unwatchable. I had to shrink it down quite small on the computer to stand to watch it and I think a whole lot of caffeine might have helped. The jitters might cancel each other out. Or not. Where's my coffee!?
But I did get a couple of frames of other recumbents (not very high resolution, but better than nothing). I wonder if I can set that video camera to take frames every few seconds. And if so, what would the resolution be? Have to read the manual, I guess.

This is a fellow who made his own recumbent trike. We had a nice long chat about the geometry of a recumbent trike, the possible benefits of changing to shorter cranks, and the goodness of clips (on the shoes, you know).

He is planning to make a tandem recumbent trike so his wife can ride along with him. Lucky lady!
We also shared war stories about that little short very steep ramp up to the Hazel bridge. He has one bad knee so he made it up by mashing with his good leg, applying the brakes, spinning the cranks around backwards, releasing the brakes and mashing with his good leg. Rinse, repeat, until at the top of the hill.
He definitely needs some bigger gears in back!

And I know I've seen this guy before, and probably ridden with him on the monthly recumbent rides, but I have no idea who he is. But he always sticks out a hand. I try to remember to do so also, but usually forget. But it is a cool kind of laid back thing.

Social graces are not always my strong suit.

I HAVE HAVE HAVE to get that reflector on the left side to quit squeaking. It is going to drive me nuts. I'll just take it off for now, then put it back on for a night ride, then forget to take it off and whine some more when it squeaks. Which is what I did last time, which is why it is still on there and still driving me nuts.

Let's see. What else.
Oh, I saw a deer leap over the trail, and a turkey hen and a half-grown turkey. I clicked at them and they scurried off into the scrub.

I'm contemplating a ride in the Delta this weekend. We'll see. The lure of the couch may be too much.

Snot-pocalypse

First, a note.  There is a benefit ride coming up in the Sacramento area: Ride4Matt. 
Check it out, participate if you can.

Ride #68
Thursday, May 5th

57 miles along most of the American River bike path

I think this is the longest I've ever ridden in one day in my life. I'm not dead so it is obviously survivable.

My triking pal and I left Folsom on a fine, bright Spring day. We returned later - much later - that day. And on my part at least, hot, tired, slightly sunburned, and ever-so-mildly crabby.

This was, I suppose, a little taste of touring in some ways:  it was a fair distance, it was a bit stressful, and I'm sitting here a day later composing this post in a coffee shop.
On my phone.

My left foot is bruised, my leg muscles are tired, and my allergies are in full swing. It is a good thing the coffee shop has lots of paper napkins. I'm thinking about what kind of small pump I want to buy, and trying recall the correct sequence for removing and replacing a rear tire. And thinking about the next loooooong ride!

Hey, I just noticed that my phone's keyboard has a voice recognition function. Here goes: I have no idea if this is good to work or not I have removed myself to the car so I don't sit in peets coffee house talking to my phone which would sound very very very strange.
Hey. I can 'speatype' a run-on sentence! Ok. Back to work.

When using clipless pedals (pedals-that-attach-to-your-shoe-with clips. Don't ask me, I didn't name them) on a recumbent, it is useful to push the foot away as well as pulling back on the return. Apparently, I cannot do that effectively for more than about 35 miles. I started loosing the "oomph" in my legs at that point and I suppose my left foot was repeatedly slamming into the bottom of my shoe: hence the bruise. I'm considering more cushy forefoot inserts for my shoes.

We took plenty of breaks on the way out and even more on the way back! I stopped and stretched about 3/4 of the way through the ride. I drank 24 x 6 ozs of water: still not enough, since I came home with a raging headache. Two packets of electrolyte replacement powder and several glasses of water put me to rights.
I've added some packets to my bike bag.

I ate two oranges and a handful of trail mix along the way. And some jerky. I was pretty hungry at the end of the ride, so I think more trail mix is in order.

About 4 miles from the end of our ride, my steering started getting squirrelly. My rear tire was losing air! So we stopped and pumped it up to see if I could get back without hassling with a tube change. It held enough air to do so, I did no damage to my rim, and I put a new tube in the next day. And here's the "tattoo" to prove it. Saturday's ride will tell if I did a good job.

Have you hugged your bike today?

My pump sucks. Yes, air pumps are supposed to blow (which in this case is a good thing), so we used my pal's pump. I LIKE that pump! It's a Topeak road morph. Very nice, especially the built in pressure gauge.

I experimented a little bit with tipping my seat all the way back. I seemed to have more power with less effort, and it uses slightly different muscles than my usual, more upright, posture. I've set up the seat and the mirrors for the new laid back position and I'll give it a try on Saturday's ride.

TTFN

May is Bike Month

Ride #67
Sunday, May 1st

19 miles, some on the ARBT

Today is the first day of my favorite month of the year. How better to celebrate then to go for a ride? And even better, a ride I'm not leading! I got to hang out at the back and veg. Lovely.

We had an assortment of eight riders, some on road bikes, some on hybrids, a handful of mountain bikes, and me on my orange beastie.

I did see four other recumbents while we were out and about: one hand-powered and three foot-powered.

The group started from a shopping center on Sunrise Blvd., but I decided to park up at the light rail station and get a few more miles in and have more elbow room for unloading and loading.
In general, I don't mind parking at a shopping center to go for a ride, but I feel a lot better about it if I'm going shopping or eating at the center as well. I did not need to shop, or eat, so I'm just as glad I parked where I did.

There are three ways to get across US50 in the suburban Sacramento area: an overcrossing near Hazel Blvd, the tunnel on the South Canal near Gold River, and an underpass paralleling Sunrise. The Sunrise underpass has been around since 1997, but it seems very little used. The underpass hooks up to a stretch of abandoned road, then to a lovely paved multi-use sidewalk that runs down to the entrance at the Sunrise area on the American River.

The abandoned road. No idea what the name used to be.

I'm very glad the county set that underpass up, since trying to negotiate the Sunrise/US50 area in anything less than a ton or so of steel is just too ... exciting. It is remarkably difficult to find out about this alternate route: I found it by accident several years ago, and try to spread the word. It shows up as the usual green dashed line designating bike paths on the ARBT map, but it is not labeled.

I arrived at our shopping center meeting place in plenty of time, and watched the rest of the riders trickle in. I'd met some of today's riders before, but I have another batch of new faces for which I can forget the names.
Sigh.
I answered the usual questions about my trike: is it comfortable, what kind of brakes, how does it handle, how is up hills. Interestingly, I did not get weight or cost questions, so that was refreshing.

One of the folks on the ride had a flat tire (I had actually never heard the distinctive 'pop' and 'hiss' of a flat before, so that was cool). Most of the group waited while the tube was changed out, taking the opportunity to chat without having to watch for oncoming and overtaking bicycle traffic.

I solved my "brake" issue of yesterday. It was not a brake thing at all, but rather my wheel reflector banging around in the spokes. I removed it entirely. Now I just have to figure out how to put the thing on so it stays put!

On the way back I got tired of vegging and took off like a cat with a scalded tail. Earlier, I had not commented on the handful of folks who, I suspected, felt that a trike might have trouble keeping up with 'real' bicycles. I'm pretty good at sprinting, and took advantage of an ever-so-slight downhill and zoomed past the group doing about 20mph.

Oh yeah. Eat my dust.

The jog over to Gold River shopping center shows up on the way back. Sue me.

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!