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.

I declare this Middle Chainring Month

Ride #39
Wednesday, February 2nd
8.8 miles in Folsom

Returned to an old favorite route - mostly bike paths and some street riding with a fun loop uuuuuuuuup hill and then doooooooooooown hill. My ride ran like a dream, since bike-shop-dude adjusted the rear derailer for me. He also advised taking out another link in the chain, so I said "go for it!"

I decided that I need to push myself a little bit, so I stayed in my middle chainring in front as much as I could. There were a few sections where I needed to be in a lower gear, so I headed in the direction of Granny once or twice. The gearing on this trike is a lot better fit for me than the gearing on my old Trek, or maybe I'm getting in better shape? Anyway, I did not feel the need to drape myself over my ride and pant once I got to the top. I did stop to adjust my brake pads. Much better!

Now for a bunch of pictures!

Hills ahead

Uphill direction on the bridge

<whine>Aren't we done yet?</whine>

Hellooooooo! Granny!

Oh for crying out loud Who said UP was ok?!

Yes, wheel-wrecking curb cuts and prickly shrub debris ahead.

Riding this weekend - both days if I can manage it.
CU!

Two in a row!

Ride #38

Friday, January 28th
8.9 miles in Folsom

The rain is supposed to start up again, so Himself and I went for a ride this afternoon (Himself is waiting for software testing results so nothing going on at work today for him). We had planned to do the 10 mile loop of last weekend, but my derailer was giving me FITS! And Himself decided to crank up the speed a notch. So I was pooped and we took a shortcut back to shorten our ride by a mile.

I'm very proud of my sweetheart - he is really committed to getting fit (of course, the stinker will get fit Much Faster than I will!) On our car-ride home we talked a little bit about the mechanics of standing to pedal up hills. I never did have clips or toe-traps on any of my upright bikes, so I never really got in the habit of standing to pedal. But I've read a lot about it and I can deliver loads of plausible sounding BS at the drop of a hat. We'll see if he can stand sometime to climb.

I've made an appointment to take the beast in for rear-derailer work tomorrow morning. Bike-shop-dude says it  should be a quick fix and if necessary he can just swap out the rear derailer. What a guy!

Our ride on Sunday might get rained out, so just keep checking back for a new post!

The hills are...

Ride #37
Thursday, January 27th
"Powerline" hills in Folsom, just over 5 miles

I went out again to the rolling hills that follow the powerline in Folsom. This time with some bicycling friends to scout these rollers as a possible group ride. The conclusion: if folks are willing to walk up a short hill or two if they need to, to work a bit, to huff and puff if necessary, then it will be a good ride. A perfect ride, in fact, for practicing shifting gears. It is a quiet path, mostly mid-morning dog walkers. So, I will schedule this ride on our group's calendar real soon now.

My friends both drove to our meeting place through fog, so they were wondering if we were really going to ride or not. I had not a doubt in the world since it was supremely sunny at my house. On our ride, we did not reach the fog (if we had gone south instead of west we would have). While we were chatting in the parking lot before riding, my "parking lot acquaintance" Al showed up. He was heading to the fog. Introductions all around and off we all went.

I was passed on the uphills and generally braked on the down hills (must remember to check if my brakes need adjusting again after this ride) and my friends were more than happy to wait at the top of hills for me. My rear derailer is beyond me at this point, so I'll call the wonderful shop that built my ride and schedule some non-do-it-yourself adjustments. Sometimes you have to turn the experts loose on your problem.

This is not the exact path we took (we started across the street at the grocery store) but it is the path I will use for the group ride.

Another wonderful day!

Ride #36
Tuesday, January 25th
8 miles in Folsom
With a bike group: fun!

I spent a little time today hanging out with folks on those strange upright bicycle things - they were everywhere! And following me! I could not escape!

Our little band of bikers had a good time listening to all the birds in Folsom this sunny spring-like day. We stopped at the duck pond to check out all the feathered inhabitants, and chatted for a while about the intricacies of Folsom's bike paths. Several folks went off after the ride to find maps of their own. I hope City Hall still has some available.

I eventually got frustrated with my phantom shifting problem and switched my rear derailer to non-indexed shifting. Ah, what a relief! Yes, yes. I still need to fool with it, but there are so many other things to do: like go for bike rides.

I hooked up my little Kodak Playsport video camera on my very old-school Manfrotto clamp-on tripod and turned it on. Or I thought I did. I had full batteries and an empty card, with theoretically an hour of battery life and 2 hours 30 minutes of recording time. I got 2 segments: 3 seconds and 5 seconds. Thrilling! Just peachy. I wonder if vibration is making it shut off? It's worked OK before. It couldn't be operator error, could it?!

A couple more rides scheduled later this week: catch you later!

Not quite cats

Ride #35
Saturday, January 22nd
9.9 miles in lovely Folsom

Led my crew of biking acquaintances around and around and around the paths of Folsom. No one got lost, left behind, or confused. And everybody seemed to have fun. My sweetheart (who came with us and graciously agreed to sweep the ride) said he didn't see a single one of my beautiful blue arrows. I did, but then I knew where to look. I think they look bigger from a 'bent then from a conventional bike. We finished off our ride with tasty Chicago style pizza. Yum!

Lots of strollers, toddlers, dogs, other cyclists, geese, ducks, coots, blackbirds, squirrels and so on. A busy day on the trails. Lovely spring weather in the low 60s - perfect for cycling around.

One usable pic today: of everybody else that was on the ride, stopped for a lot of chat at the duck pond. We left when the geese started noisily fighting over the bread some kids were tossing in. Some of us speculated on the possibility of nice fat goose for dinner. Yum!

I had to straighten my seat out a little bit (and I think I'll take another look at it before I ride again) and I really do need to check the indexing of my rear derailer as well. I like my Detroit Tigers baseball cap as a visor under my helmet, but I would like a visor or hat that does not have such bulky seams. Leaves an impression my my poor forehead! I like having pockets in my shirt, but I hate how the stuff in my pockets pulls the shirt on the back of my neck. Time to get serious about figuring out some kind of seat-side pouches for assorted stuff: camera, snacks, handkerchief.

I'll take a couple of days off and then it will be back on the trike again!

Chalk it up

Ride # 34
Thursday, January 20th
9.9 miles in Folsom

I'm scheduled to lead a ride on this weekend on the Folsom neighborhood bike paths. They are crowded and confusing on weekends (ok, they can be confusing anytime). So I was out today defacing public property by drawing big blue arrows at key intersections.

My big piece of blue sidewalk chalk is now a little nubbin. I'm not planning on having people slavishly follow the arrows (since I might have missed some spots, and irrigation might wash them away) but I hope it helps. And let me tell you, a trike is the perfect platform for chalking a route: just slow to a crawl, stick a hand down, and draw! After the ride is finished, I'll go around with a waterbottle and a rag and erase them. Maybe I'll follow the route backwards, just for fun! Well, maybe not: since my arrows would all be on the wrong side of the path.

Lots of lovely dogs out today (I got to meet an American Bulldog mix that was OK about the strange orange trike once his owner and I had chatted. I even got a dog-kiss on the chin!) and some couples and families enjoying the lovely sunny weather. Stopped for a while at the pond to check out blackbirds, mallards, geese, and a coot or two. Saw a couple of birders who were more than happy to give me a long list of what they'd seen so far today. mumble warbler, mumble black mumble, mumble mumble, mumble something else. Darned if I can remember anything they said!

Had my ride into the shop to straighten out a slightly bent derailer hanger - shifting better but still some indexing weirdness. Oh well, got me up and down the hills with no problems so I'll worry about that later.

TTFN

Unholy Bellowing

Ride #33
Tuesday, January 18th
12 miles or so on the lovely American River

Three intrepid women set off down the trail to brave the overcast day and were eventually rewarded with sunshine and a fun day on the trail! This was an organized ride for the two bike groups I belong to and it was fun fun fun! Another member joined us for a bit, then set off for his own longer ride.

Other bicyclists, more fishermen, various hikers, including a large group of hikers heading off into the distance (could they have been the group I keep encountering on my weekday rides? Maybe).

No-one wiped out, no one had any serious mechanical problems, I believe we all remembered to drink water, and we even had a short stretching session at our midway point.

I dropped my trike off at the shop after this to get the rear derailer adjusted by experts (I get sooooo confused by barrel adjusters and I'm quite sure it is someone else's turn for this task) and to true up the rear wheel. The clearance between the tire and the rear fender is very tight, so a wobble in the wheel usually equals rubbing.

More rides (official and un) scheduled for next week and later this week.

CU

Oh yeah, we went from a little ways up Sunrise Blvd down to the bike path, across Hazel, and turned around a little ways before reaching Folsom.

And the unholy bellowing is me shouting directions from the rear. I am louuuuuuuuuud!

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!

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!

Blue days, all of them gone ...

Ride #25
Thursday, December 23rd.
A beautiful sunny 7 mile trip on a bit of Folsom's bike paths.

My sweetheart said that the coding problem at work (he is on vacation until the end of the year but email never sleeps) would not get solved today so he came for a ride with me. Booyah! Yes! There was much rejoicing! Und so weiter.

The less he has to do to get out and on the bike, the more likely he is to go. I love fussing around with bicycles so I don't mind at all pumping up tires and loading equipment and all that. He led this ride, with me bellowing occasional directions from behind. I polled him every once in a while if he wanted to go on or turn around and eventually he decided to turn around.

Today's route was partly on the route we could not finish on the 16th, and I think himself is interested in doing the whole messy complicated route one day. We talked a bit about how where we turned around fit into that other ride. He avoided cotton next to his skin and he was more comfortable this time. We might go shopping for a lightweight baselayer for him after xmas. (He borrowed a wicking t-shirt from me and it was, um ... snug. He looked a bit like a giant olive green Buddha.)

My trike worked beautifully today - I just needed to mess with the barrel adjuster for the rear derailluer a little bit near the end of the ride. I moved my tools and bike lock to a seat-back bag and I like having less stuff to paw through in my trunk bag. I was sure there was a baggie of raisins in there, but I could not find them. I'd better check again!

I've ordered a replacement digital point and shoot (a refurbished Canon Powershot) so pictures should appear again soon.

I am scheduled for a 30 mile ride on Sunday, but there is an 80% chance of thunderstorms, so I fear the ride will be canceled.

Happy holidays everyone - time to tinker with my egg nog recipe!

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

!

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.