Duffy's Tavern

#284 / #90

Where the Elite Meet to Eat Ride

The Usual Ride around Lake Natoma with a very small (and elite) crowd. Red Leader, me, and our tandem riding friends. 8 wheels, 3 vehicles, and 4 people.

Saw one two wheeled recumbent and 2 or 4 trikes (I'm not sure if I saw the same people twice). Lots of joggers finishing up some organized run, and many bicycle riders and peds. Kayakers on the lake and even some pedal powered kayak shaped things. A recumbent paddle boat would be more stable, I think. And cooler. And more comfortable. One horse rider.

We went pretty fast today around the loop. I got one personal best on some segment and a bunch of 2nd places. We almost always do this ride in a crowd, which slows up down a lot, especially since I usually am last, sweeping.

The casual riding group has another active ride leader, so there is not as much pent-up demand for my Natoma loop. I'll keep running it on Saturdays, and probably add in some strange new ride for fun in September.

Smokin'!

#283 / #89

It has been so very smokey that Red Leader and I have been hiding in the air conditioned inside, and neglecting the outside. Today, since the smoke plume over Sacramento was only light gray on the WeatherUnderground's "wundermap" - a cool interactive map where you can turn on and off symbols, including Fires and the Smoke Plumes - Red Leader and I went over to Sunrise and rode from there to Our Usual Spot at William Pond Park.

There are more and more fast riders reappearing, even some pacelines, which I had not seen since the speed limit enforcement thing, which seems to have gone by the wayside.

We saw a couple of other trikes, and one two-wheeled recumbent.

At dinner (Smashburger, a guilty treat) we compared Strava achievements. We are such geeks!

Saturday, our usual ride around Lake Natoma with the Meetup group. I hope the smoke is not too bad.

We had not ridden in long enough that our tires were down 15 - 20 pounds!
The only mechanical thing was my rear quick release, which had gotten loose enough the wheel would wiggle back and forth. I noticed it as I was unfolding the bike; there was an unfamiliar 'clunk' and extra thump feeling as I set the rear of the trike down. So I poked around and determined it was a loose QR. I've never had that happen before. I tightened it up and it was still fine at the end of the ride.
I do know that the quick releases for my seat (all three of them), being empty and flopping around when the trike is in the car being driven around) loosen up between rides. I wonder if the same thing happened to the rear? Well. I'll keep an eye on it in the future.

Grand Opening!

#282 / #88

Sunday, 11 August

Red Leader and I rode over to Alphabent's grand opening celebration. There were lots of people and lots of trike-test-riding. We rode from William Pond park to C and 12th, then after some Celebration we rode back again.

My trike's flag is sticking into the left edge of the picture, and Red Leader's is at the right edge.

Some folks rolled in as a group, one on a Greenspeed quad. The green Catrike Pocket belongs to one of the people standing around (he generously offered to let it out for a test ride), the other HP Velotechnik - an FX Scorpion is the shop's and I think the yellow trike everyone in the picture is staring at is also the shop's. I can't remember what it was.

It is about 25 miles round trip, and it was a little hot on the way back. I had absentmindedly drank 1/2 my water bottle while wandering around the recumbent shop, and neglected to refill it. And it appears my other water bottle (which usually has an electrolyte solution in it (Nuun)) has sprung a leak in the top half of the bottle, leaving me with a total of one bottle of liquid for the 12 miles back. Which was just enough to get me back.

Mixin' it up

#281 / #87

This afternoon, Red Leader and I headed out to the Folsom South Canal, rather than our usual Wednesday ride on the American River Trail.

I like to start at the park on Spoto, just off of Zinfandel, near Mather Airport. Spoto neighborhood park has restrooms, and an entertaining pair of half-pipes for the skateboarders. I like to start here also because there are no pesky road crossings on the canal south of this point until the Jackson Highway.

Heading down Spoto, we turned right (away from the South Canal) and headed over to a stub of a road that took us up onto a service/road bike path, then over to the Stone Creek subdivision, and up on to the South Canal service road.

We went about 13 miles total today, down to where Kiefer crosses the trail. We saw two bicyclists and one other recumbent trike.

This was Red Leader's first ride on the canal. He was not thrilled with the canal ride, calling it "unaesthetic." There was the usual headwind from the south as well.

I like the canal because it is empty and wide. I can buzz along, concentrating on technique and speed rather than keeping strict watch for other trail users. A late afternoon ride was nice because the steep walls of the canal blocked the sun.

Hey mister, wanna drag?

#280 /#86

Red Leader and I did our Wednesday ride on a Sunday, pedaling from Sunrise boat launch to Watt and back again. Lots and lots and lots of people out today.

We saw 3 recumbent trikes from our car as we were pulling in to the parking area, then 2 or 3 more on the trail. Plus 3 or 4 two-wheeled recumbents, one with super high hamster bars and a small front fairing.

We got a new comment today, "How's the weather down there?" Which was even funnier since RL and I have heard that (with 'up') far to often. I'm just under 6 feet and RL is 6'4".

Another amusing comment heard today while we were paused at William Pond on our way back, was a perfectly delivered and extremely sarcastic, "Really?" Everyone who heard it laughed. The 'really' was delivered by a woman in response to an aggravated fastmoving cyclist who admonished her that she was, "on the trail." I think women are much better at injecting loads of sarcasm into one word than men are. Feel free to disagree.

We were not moving too terribly fast today since RL was working out a programming problem while pedaling and I was planning a sundress for a doll and enjoying people watching. I did help RL get a personal record on the William Pond bridge by attempting to pass him on the climb while inquiring, "wanna drag". The bridge is wide enough for two trikes to drag in a single lane, but I felt a little awkward taking up so much room so I let Red Leader win.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it! (I did not beat MY personal record today, so THERE!)

Old same

#279 / #85

I think Red Leader had done one complete ride of the Miner's Ravine trail, back when he was riding a diamond frame bike and I was on a Trek hybrid.

Today, we started from the Sculpture Park in Roseville, off of North Sunrise, and rode west to Folsom Road, turned around there, rode back past the Sculpture, and then east, all the way over to Sierra College Blvd, for a ride of about 9 miles.

The high point of the ride was just before Sierra College, where there is a great long loopy switchback down the side of a hill. Great views of totally dry grasslands - part of Roseville's open spaces.

We were tentatively planning to take the False Ravine leg out and back as well, but we decided that we needed a bathroom. We even contemplated trees.
There is no restroom anywhere along the trail. I was kind of hoping for a port a potty at the Sierra College parking area.
Nope.
So we hightailed it back to the car, quick loaded up the bikes, and stopped in for a $1.79 potty break at the Taco Bell.

It is a nice trail, lots of little entertaining hills and plenty of useful signs directing you to various streets and attractions. Someday I'll stop and check out the grinding rocks.

If you use the search function on the sidebar over there to the right, with "miner's" you will be able to find the other two posts I've made about this trail system in Roseville.

Like a distant cow-catcher

#278 / #84

Red Leader and I chose to beat the heat today by riding in the evening.

We set out about 1/2 hour before sunset and arrived back at the car about 1/2 hour after sunset. About 10 miles on Folsom's twisty bike paths.

It is remarkably hard to see twilight-colored peds and ninja bikers (no lights at all) and bunny rabbits in the dark. I liked the joggers who had reflective strips on their shoes. Them, I could see. Everyone else? Well, let's just say I didn't actually hit anyone, but some are probably tucked up in bed dreaming about trail-side UFO encounters.

Red Leader charged ahead, unbothered by his increasingly dim headlight (year old batteries, that - when we finally figured out how to open the compartment at home, were somewhat corroded.) He may be part cat.

I scurried along behind, staying far enough back that I was not blinded by his taillight, hoping that my reflex of looking at people when I say hi was not blinding them due to the little CREE LED flashlight on my helmet. I'm more on the bat side of things.

I had my trike-mounted B&M headlight and the flashlight on my helmet, and a B&M 'senso' tailight and a Cherry Bomb taillight (the one you can see for a mile in perfect conditions). All I need now is a bunch of reflective striping and maybe some amber down-lights on the frame. Yeah!

Speaking of reflective: the sidewalls on RL's tires were quite visible anytime he was not dead straight ahead of me. And his taillight has a sort of wrap around on the sides, so it was visible from the side of the trike, although not as bright as from the rear.

My headlight has a thin strip of the lens cover on the sides and top of the light. I can just reach the power/selection button while sitting in the seat (I can even click it while rolling along). The slight wrap-around of the lens cover is great, since I can see if the light is off or on high or low without unclipping. I am not bothered at all by "foot flash" (intermittent but regular reflections of the light off one's shoes or cranks.)

I used the seat-stay clamp provided with the Cherry Bomb taillight. I have it clamped to one of my headrest's stems. It is hard to get the clamp tight enough so the light does not end up illuminating my trunk bag. I have another piece of rubber shim. I'll see if that is enough to stop it wiggling out of position.

The cheap flashlight stuck to my helmet is great. It is not as bright as the headlight, but it is enough to light up the edge of the trail. It lights up what I look at. Wonderful for curves, and warning off cars at intersections.

I eventually stopped and repositioned my headlight. since I finally realized that I wanted to look about 4 feet in front of it, where it was still dark! Positioned correctly, it did a fine job of creating a nice long puddle of light in front, with a little bit left over for the trees on the sides of the trail.

I do not plan on riding on the roads at night, probably even when I get those down-lights. Nevertheless (I love using that word) I will see about adding some reflective stripes to my jersey's sleeves, so my signalling is visible.

I tried too many leg exercises at the gym earlier this week, and my knees are quite sore now. So I'll stay off the bike for a week or maybe two (boo hoo!) See you then!