Did You Ride Today?

[CAMPYBOB]

17 miles after mowing some more...

16.1 MPH avg. with 500' of climbing and the wind going 12 to 15 MPH. Passed a bunch of Amish kids out riding their push-bikes this afternoon. Most had black or dark blue bikes. One was fire engine red and one girl had a bright pink bike! Er...keep thyself plain, yo!

Got back to the house after stopping to talk to a local dairy farmer about what a farm in the 'hood just sold for...got millions? Pulled the blades off one of the main line garden tractors to sharpen them tomorrow. The first two mowings chucked rocks, chopped up sticks, hit roots and generally demolished what little was left of any edge from last season.

Just a nice cruise with a couple of fast spots along the way. Working on getting an under acceleration 'ting' noise out of my back wheel. Damned spokes check perfect tension, even and true as a razor's edge. Flowed a little synthetic spindle oil around the nipples again and the spoke head seats. Noisy bikes drive me batshit crazoid, so I got to get on top of this...or just buy a new pair of Mavic's or Enve's.

 

[Uawadall]

18.2 miles/17.9 mph/844 ft of climbing. I tried to pay attention to my cornering and descends trying to do both as crisp as possible. I'm no expert, but not half bad when I focus.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Had almost the same ride, U!

18.1 miles, 16.7 MPH avg. with 804' of climbing. I bombed off the big hill at 41 MPH, but other than that it was just roll, roll, roll.

I got a late start thanks to changing oil & filter on one of the tractors, re-installing the sharpened blades on the garden tractor, marking some drain outlets with surveyor's flags and generally doing the stupid ******** life requires us men folk to do. Fun ride with only one real climb on it.

 

[zipp2001]

Went out after work for a 29.45 miles that had a lot of stop and go. Wanted to find where the new bike shop was going to be. Had to deal with a lot of real bad roads, but still able to avg. 17.6 mph. Had a few minor knucklehead driver out their today, par for the course I guess.

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[CAMPYBOB]

Yeah, Zipp...100 MM wheels in the wind are always fun! You had a nice day to ride.

 

[zipp2001]

Yeah, Zipp...100 MM wheels in the wind are always fun! You had a nice day to ride.

The weather is slowly getting better, and I can't wait for some nice hot humid days this summer. I always enjoy riding when it's real hot, that way it doesn't take my leg's to long to get loose. If I'm not running deep rims I'm rolling tri spokes on my bikes most of the time, so playing with a cross wind keeps you alert.

 

[Weatherby]

I did an interval workout. It wasn't cold but 48F felt cold with all the dampness. I really don't enjoy interval workouts especially when my overall fatigue level is high but I got it done. I am looking forward to Saturdays 300K at an endurance and low tempo pace.

I am pretty sure I am doing the Route 66 Bike Race starting on October 1 from Chicago ending something like 2600 miles later in Santa Monica hopefully around Oct 13th but who knows because much of the route is abandoned with broken pavement. A Double a Day keeps the Doctor away is my plan. 200 a day. Its all down wind to LA, right?

http://www.route66bikerace.com/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1567218763544180/?active_tab=posts

 

[jhuskey]

Windy here but wonderful feel to the air. Of course I am riding but only baby rides next to Weatherby. Dang show off.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Just 50 minutes on the trainer...rain all day. Kicked it hard. I might ride a day or two of TOSRV next weekend depending on the weather.

A double a day all the way to Santa Monica?! Impressive!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Another 50 minute trainer session. It rained most of the day. The high was 48 degrees and when I rolled the bike out to the car to head out it was drizzling...again. The forecast for the weekend is for more rain.

 

[Weatherby]

Windy here but wonderful feel to the air. Of course I am riding but only baby rides next to Weatherby. Dang show off.

I'm like a Kenilworth truck with double fuel tanks.....not fast but I have range and a P938 in the handlebar bag....LOL.

 

[OursIsTheFury]

Nope, bike broke, had to get it repaired at the shop. Too bad though, I really missed it, like a part of me was missing today. It won't be long though, so hopefully I get a fixed one tomorrow, and I can make up for the absence today. I miss the rush of fresh air, the great scenery, the adrenaline rush when I'm out there in the wind. Now I'm just sitting, relaxing. Can't really do much, all I can do is wait. Oh well.

 

[jhuskey]

Mostly overcast but no rain so far and no wind. All in all I had a good bug tasting session on the bike today.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

52 miles in cool air. It was 49 degrees when I took off and 60 degrees when I returned. Just a Long-Steady-Distance effort with a few intervals thrown in to keep myself away from vehicles.

There was some amount of climbing at just under 2,900' worth. Nothing killer steep and I never needed anything lower than the 39x23. In my mis-spent youth I would have ridden this ride with a 42x21 and only grimaced a little over a couple of those climbs. Getting old...sucks.

It was overcast for most of the ride. The sun came out right around the 14-mile mark for a few minutes and coincidentally that was the point at which my legs finally turned on. Those last two trainer sessions were tough!

Another of those weird 'no water' rides and I ate one of the Shot Bloks more out of habit than need. Never got the hunger knock and I sure wasn't thirsty. I stopped at the half distance mark and peeled off my top layer, A light long sleeve jersey. I felt good all the way home. The last 16 miles were into a light headwind that was diminishing as I rode! How often does that happen?

All said, a nice solo ride full of good training miles and beautiful scenery.

I tossed the bike in the car and on the way home it started to rain. Timing is everything!

 

[jhuskey]

49? I think it was around 71 when I went out but that was early afternoon. I believe it was 60 at 6am. Sunday is now looking good as far as being dry.

 

[Uawadall]

17.7 miles/17mph/550 ft. Wanted a longer ride, but I had to travel today. Don't know when it happened, but somehow roadkill guts sprayed all over the under side of my bike. I made sure to dodge any roadkill I saw, maybe it was spread out more than I though. Ohh well, it was a good excuse to give the entire bike a good clean

 

[zipp2001]

Didn't have a lot of time to ride today so went out on my regular 25 mile loop late morning. Was a tad chilly and the wind didn't help make it any better. Last two days I've had the leg and arm warmer back on, hoping for some hotter temps soon.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

It rained all afternoon and it's still raining. Tomorrow is 50/50 at best.

I forgot to mention...

As I crested a hill on this morning's ride I saw multiple oncoming riders in the distance. The few minutes of sun we had this morning caught their helmets. Instead of turning right, I rode ahead to see who the group was.

Shout out to the dozen or more Boy Scouts from Troop 93 from Kinsman, Ohio!
https://www.scoutlander.com/publicsite/unithome.aspx?UID=36708

The lads were on various low end 'mountain' bikes...mainly of the big box store variety...but, they were doing well as they climbed a long grade to meet me. They all carried backpack/hydration bladder gear and all were on flat pedals with tennis shoes. Yes, Virginia, you can conquer the world in cheap athletic shoes on a cheap bike with flat pedals when you are 12-14 years old.

All wore proper cycling helmets. None wore any kind of gloves despite the morning being a little chilly. Myself...I was wearing light long fingered gloves.

Manly men, they will be!

The boy in the lead was doing very well and stopped to wait on those he had dropped. I never did see a troop leader, but the boys assured me there were adults riding with them. I was impressed with their polite speech and all that I spoke with were in good spirits.

The troop had travelled by vehicle convoy from Kinsman, Ohio to spend the night at Camp McKinley ( http://www.buckeyecouncil.org/Camping/CampMcKinley ) and had set off this morning for a lunch at some restaurant. The troop had made about 5 miles from the camp when I crossed paths with them and that was some hilly terrain they had covered. None of the boys in the lead pack knew what the name of the restaurant was or where they were headed. Mileage was not on the menu today! Whatever they rolled was whatever they rolled!

 

[Weatherby]

The alarm went off at 02:15. The coffee pot trigger was set for 2:00 with hi-test drip.

The ride started at a balmy 43F but of course the low of 37F wouldn't be for several more hours. I love riding my bike at that time of day, once I mount the guts to throw the leg over the top tube. It is quiet from humans but the animals and birds are making noise and moving when my lights pierce an intruder's hole into their world. A slight headwind slows progress but the cool air moves in and out with that certain rhythm that puts me at that certain ease.

Nature calls as I go over the mountain crossing the Appalachian trail to the ski area and of course I walked thru the brier bush to do my business. I did not notice the impressive streaks of blood down my leg until it got really light out but by then, the coagulated red stuff would not come off. Nice.

It was a beautiful, long ride on/over pot holes. Terrible roads thru beautiful landscape. Smugly bombing down old Mine Shaft pot hole road, I bunny jumped land mines down a 15% gradient, crossed the bridge, and made a right onto the most glorious trout stream NFS road where four masters of the universe were discussing the fine art of fly fishing. As I slowly rolled by......PSST. Flat. One of them says, you just went over this little rock right here. In case any poor soul is reading this, do not buy Schwalbe Pro One Tubeless tires. This is the second flat in a week going over what amounts to a pebble. Third flat in 600 miles on these POS tires. So, I dismount and spin the tire allowing the Orange Tire sealant to do its magic. One of the four gentlemen offered to put me in his truck and take me to get it fixed, his buddy says "this ain't his first rodeo, he's got it covered"....I thank them...Got my pump out and topped the tire up. I was not going to let that ruin the ride on the most beautiful valley imaginable. One of the last times I was here was taking my then 15 year old son to a 3 day overnight shotgun instructors course. Good memories. Imagine a 16 year old teaching younger teens gun safety. Imagine my great uncle serving in WW2 at that age....was he crazy to lie about his age. Maybe. I suppose the average free shitter would think I'm crazy to let my son shoot guns let alone ride my bike 187 miles and 12,000 feet of climbing.

It just occurred to me. Riding my bike wherever, whenever, and for whatever distance represents freedom to me. No license. Just go.

TrainingPeaks has me at a -75.5 TSB today. Time for a couple easy rides with my better half.

 

[Uawadall]

A messy 40 mile 5 borough bike tour alone. I'm glad my friends didn't come along though, it was pretty dangerous. Mixing 20-30,000 once a year, weekend riders and steady cyclist together with a down pour of rain isn't pretty,lol..I was bumped twice. One lady slid into me, but luckily I was paying attention and kept both our balance. Another guy bumped my wheel when I was passing going uphill. I take some blame for it, but he was going at a snails pace and must have speed up the second I passed him. Luckily it wasn't at a very fast speed and he was totally fine. Guess I should have been more patient, but it was hard being clipped in at 3mph going uphill..

I spent most of the day learning how to ride through deep puddles and learning how to anticipate the actions of other cyclist. I definitely have to shore up my weaknesses and get more experienced with riding with crowds. This was basically my first ride in pouring rain, my bike needed a good clean and will also need new brake pads. Just got a pair yesterday and the back pair is withered away. The shop must have sold me the cheapest of cheap brands.

Word to the wise, these events aren't good for roadies. If you want to do a tour like this, use a mountain bike or an old road bike. Way to much braking and riding at a slow crawl. It wasn't all bad though, it was nice to see New York City on a bike. Here's a photo