Nice day today in Southern New England: lower 50's by noon, so it was time for a longer ride than
I've been doing outside. I figured out a route which was mostly a loop, with just a little bit of
repeating a section, so I could see something different. It was also my first ride of the year
with just cycling shorts, though I did take along some tights in case I needed them to keep my
knees warm.
The weather-guessers were predicting a sea breeze to kick in during the afternoon, so I planned my
route so that I should be going with the wind most of the way, and especially for the final 8 miles
or so, but it didn't work out that way: it clouded up, and that prevented the sea breeze from
developing, so the final northbound stretch was a part crosswind and part headwind all the way. The
ocean temperature is still in the upper 30's, so along the coast it was quite a bit cooler than even
a mile inland, and my fingers were a little cold, but nothing severe.
I did find that I won't be doing parts of that route on a weekend again unless it's an early morning
ride. Part of the route was along a section of 4-lane limited access road where a local LBS runs the
summer TT series, and it's quite nice riding on Monday nights when there's not much traffic. A nice
Saturday afternoon is a very different story. The on- and off-ramps have sections of rumble strips
near them, which can be quite rough with 120psi tires, and many of them are very beat up, with broken-
up concrete, asphalt patches, etc. Most of the road is in quite good shape, so I spent a lot of time
on my aero bars working on my TT form and my cadence. However, the Saturday traffic prevented me
from moving over into the lane to avoid the bad sections, and I hit a couple of the rougher ones
rather too fast, causing my first on-the-road flat. It's probably a pinch flat, though I haven't
bothered to fix that tube yet, so I don't know for sure.
I was off the highway onto a city street before I noticed the front tire getting soft, so I rode
with my weight way back for a block or two until I found a parking lot where I tried pumping it up
to see if it would get me home. Half a mile later, it was obvious I was going to have to stop every
five minutes or so to get it home, so I pulled over again and swapped out the tube with my spare,
and finished up the last 10 miles or so of the ride with only 60psi in the tire, which is about the
max I could get out my mini pump with the energy I was willing to expend. I just kept my weight back
a bit more than usual, and took it slower over rough pavement sections.
I definitely need to get a mini-pump with a higher pressure capability (easier to get to high
pressure, that is). From what I've read here, I may look into a Topeak Road Morph, but other
suggestions are welcome as well.
Overall a very nice day to ride, with lots of motorcycyles out, and a few other cyclists as well. I
think I want to get some leg warmers though. When the sun went behind the clouds, my knees started
complaining a bit about the cold, but I was almost home by then, and finished with just over 29
miles in at a 16.1 mph moving average. This also ended up being my longest solo ride ever, so that
was kind of cool, too.
--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!
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