My Most Recent Ride 2015 (Part VIII in a series)

Beautiful Day For a Leisurely Ride

But, instead, I ruined my own plans and went racing up and down
the hills around the neighbourhood... like a speed-crazed Rat Terrier.

Even stopping to yell at the dogs that chased me, I sprinted
13 miles at an average speed of 18.5mph.

Calm breezes, no clouds, low humidity, 78 degrees Fahrenheit and courteous drivers equaled a beautiful day.

 

Steve,

You gave an excellent ADHD report.

Now for my slug report.

Yesterday was drop dead gorgeous!!! Rode around in a circle for 20 miles. 14 MPH average. Got passed by 3 DF riders but I didn't care. With this new slow and long type of riding, my back feels great so I don't plan to change.

Yes my report is B O R I N G compared to yours. But we are both out and having fun.

What about others???

 

I just want to can this weather and use it all year long. Sunny. No humidity. 75 degrees. Light breeze. PERFECT!!!

Rode my loops today. Had an obstacle course in that they had part of the road close off for maintenance. So had to wait for flag man to let me through. Luckily very little traffic so it didn't slow me down much.

Get out and ride people. The weather can't get better than this.

I am excited in that in 2 weeks I will be down in Florida for 2 weeks and will ride along the coast. CAN'T WAIT!!!

 

Many rides over 4 consecutive days. I soooooo need a day or two of rest, but probably have a few more days of rolling before I can get a rest as Jens has been working so much.

Sadly, nothing more than River Loops. *sigh*

Terii

 

West New England trip

In 2 weeks will be doing many rides in Cuyahoga National Park, Niagara Falls, the Adirondacks, Lake Champlain (Vermont), possibly Cape Cod Nat'l Seashore, Monongahela Nat'l Forest, Montreal, and Toronto during leaf peeping season. Unfortunately I can't find a rental with a trailer hitch so it'll all be riding in a car.

 

WOW!!! That sounds like a ride of a life time. Take some pictures (which I know you will do) and post them here. If you are ambitious, put together a ride story and post it in Epic Rides (click here). We can use some new stuff there!!! I would be very interested in reading about it. I hear the Lake Champlain is supposed to be one of the top 5 rides in the country, but have never gotten up there.

 

Curiosity ‘moooooved’ them.​

Hi all! I have been riding. Today was 12.10 miles in brisk, autumn temps under bright blue skies with a break in the rain. Loke wanted to go like he was 5 years old rather than 10.

Having a few issues with getting the fairing mounted, but I think I can make it work. I'll have time to work on it tomorrow. Hopefully I can finagle it. A few more weeks and I'm gonna need it.

When I started this morning's ride it was 42 F though it warmed quickly to about 53 before I'd done 2 miles.

Terii

 

I am from that area although I now live south of Tucson. I can hardly wait to read about your ride. I didn't have a trike back then, but every summer my husband and I would go on a tandem trip like the one we did counterclockwise around Lake Ontario or the time we tried to make it around all the fingerlakes. You will have a wonderful time. Biknchick

 

Another beautiful day today to be riding a bent. Only 12.1 miles. Here is why.

I changed it up today and dug out my ol' trusty V Rex. Dusted it off, filled up the tires, re lubed my chain and off I went. There is a reason I love this bent. Behaves and is just fun to ride. This is my "goto" bent when I ride by rail to trail on aggregate surfaces (Erie canal, C&O Canal, etc.)

I was going to ride my greenways today. Well the KUB (Knoxville Utility Board) had a different idea. I started on one into UT Campus but had to turn around because KUB was putting in sewers under it.

Oh well, turned around and decided to detour around it. So I wound up into the UT campus itself, went down about 3 blocks and dove back down to the greenway. Guess what? Also blocked. Grrr.

So I turned around and went the other way on the greenway, over the bridge and headed towards Island Homes. This time it was not KUB blocking traffic, but a contractor building new apartments by the river. They had the whole road block off.

I gave up and headed back. As I was crossing the Gay Street bridge and looked over and saw a swarm of water bugs. I have never seen these before here. Here is a picture of them.



Hope others are enjoying this early fall weather on their bents!!!

 

Oh, that is a nice photo.

 

Last Ride of the Week. Probably. Maybe.

Yesterday, the new brake and shifter cables arrived &
so they were installed.

Today, with my back yelling at me, I went for a short afternoon
ride.
Rain is forecast for the next few days, so it was either test the
cables and stuff now or sulk even more than usual while it rains.

Nice riding weather, but my heart was just not in it.
Still, I'm pretty glad I got my ride in... and my back feels better.
Recumbent seats do that for me.

 

Well I am in Florida and today was supposed to be my first riding day. We had a Tropical Depression leaving 5 inches of rain in 1 hour. Never seen it rain this hard before.

Scratch that bike ride so I went to the Fitness center and did the treadmill instead. (Not nearly as fun.)

 

Panorama. Can just make out the cathedral and castle to the far left.​

An unexpectedly great ride today!

The weather has been incredible lately. Absolutely gorgeous mornings (posted some dawn photos from atop the grave mounds in the last blog post) and I've even gotten out to ride for some of them.

Today was one of those. Had Jens drop me off at the garage as he headed out for work. I hitched up the trailer so I could run a few shopping errands later and then Loke and I did a 3 mile jaunt that ended with us at the apartment.

As I tried to relax for an hour to wait for closer time for the shops to open, Loke made it clear that leaving him at home was not going to float. Every time I so much as blinked, he lurched violently to his feet to scramble to the door. I swear he must have sensed that I had intended to leave him. He was just going to have to come with me and languish outside the shops as I ran in to pick up what I needed.

That turned out to be a bust. The cycle shop didn't have the studded 20 inch tires or winter weight shoe covers and the home textile shop didn't have cheap fleece blankets for me to make into a fairing cover.

I headed out to do the usual loop back toward home which would have given us an additional 12 miles to add to the 3 we'd already done. Along the way though, I spontaneously turned left instead of right at one spot and toodled off deeper into the Swedish countryside in the opposite direction of home. My goal was a stretch of road that I've not ridden in years, but has always been a lovely stretch in any season.

It did not disappoint. It follows the direction of the river on the east side with glimpses of the dark water across the wild pasture. At this time of year, the trees on the opposite bank are starting to turn so there were hints of yellow with the occasional burst of orange.

The road came to an end and as I crossed the river, I had another flare of spontaneity. There's a cycle path which runs along the west side of the river just a few hundred yards from where I'd crossed it and goes all the way into downtown Uppsala. I've ridden the northern 2-ish mile stretch countless times, but the far southern 2 or 3 miles, I've done exactly once and that was back in 2006 during the first weeks with my first trike.

I wasn't sure I could make it onto that portion of the path as it starts with a very steep climb on a gravel surface. I'd had a hard time pushing the Trice up that first time. The Sprint doesn't have as much traction and I was dragging a trailer. Surprisingly, I made it. The rest of the way was an utter treat. The path was as lovely as I remembered and parts of it I had completely forgotten so it enchanted me anew.

Wound up home with 20.20 miles, plus 2.98 miles earlier. My knees are a bit unhappy with me, but I still feel pretty good. Loke is content and performing his best impression of a rug. Not a bad way to spend a day. Home less than 1.5 hours between 8 am and 5 pm.

There is one problem with such spontaneity. The only camera I had for the gorgeous autumn scenery was my iPhone...

Terii

 

Terii,

I had the opposite kind of ride today. I am in the panhandle of Florida. Temps mid 80s, sunny and LOTS OF WIND!

Got out yesterday and rode 28 miles. Did the same today but a different route and direction for 21 miles. I mentioned before we had a tropical depression which dump a TON of rain on us. The road I was going to take to Fort Pickens was flooded for over a mile. Cars could go through it but I didn't want to take my bent through it so it could spray me with water the whole way.

Winds are up to 25 mph. I was listing most of the ride just to be able to keep going. Didn't go fast but the views are incredible. I'll take some pictures on post them later.

 

Had the day of Florida days today. Simply drop dead gorgeous!!! Sunny, high 70s, no humidity.

Rode to Fort Pickens and back. I'll attach some pictures of today's ride to make you all jealous. 28 miles. Had me smiling the whole way.