My Most Recent Ride 2012 (Part V in a series)

OMG! Have you ever left the door so wide open?!! I hear Buddy already headed yur way full tilt on his trike, guaranteed to fit thru the door no matter it's size. Grab yur sweet tea & run while u can!

 

This is chocked full of miracles. Number one, making friends with someone
dressed like this. Number two, offering sweet tea to encourage this creature
to visit your porch where anyone can see it. But the miracle of all miracles is
getting Jon to actually take a full 10 minutes off the bike to chat. Jon did
you fail to see the third mayo jar that was labeled.....Sweet Tea $3.00 a jar?

 

Saturday's ride went to the Chesaning Showboat restaurant for brunch, then back to Williamston.

For Serenity: the final sprint:
Once we cross Williamston Rd, which is about 2.5 miles from the end of the ride, everyone starts jockying for position. Pulls become shorter but everybody packs more tightly because while they don't want to sprint immediately after a hard pull, they want to be *close* to the front. Cruising speed slowly goes from 20 mph to 22-23 mph. Usually the main sprint starts about 1/2 mile from the final sign.

Monday, we were a good mile from the end and still only doing 18 or so, when one of the guys, who'd been wheel-sucking the entire ride, peeled off the back and went off the front. Of course all the sprinters followed, which was about half the pack. I thought about it for a few seconds, then decided to un-gap myself and join it before they got too far out in front.

Having ungapped myself, I got behind them doing about 28 mph. Drafting at that speed felt good, but it didn't last long because the original sprinter ran out of gas pretty quickly. After that we started shedding riders one after another, with a pause after each used-up biker fell off - because after all, they all wanted to suck wheel at that speed, not be the next to be used up! So, I took over. Unfortunately I'm a rotten draft. They tried to latch on, but nobody made it. I held 28 mph for a bit, then settled in and concentrated on spinning without using up my legs too soon. That got me up to 32 but I was starting to run out of air. By the time I got to the small rise, the others were almost 100 yards back and not only was I taking air in great gasps, my legs were on fire! I HAD to back off, to 26 mph. But after a few seconds of relative rest and topping the rise, I was able to push back to 28 mph for the finish. The others were so far behind me I could barely make them out in my mirror.

I might have had trouble with them if they'd worked as a team, but it was every man for himself. Under those rules I can beat them almost every time!

 

Bwah hahahaha:s5: sounds like so much fun! Thanks for that little lift there John, nothing like a little sunshine after a heavy rain. (it really poured here today). I can only imagine the sounds of groaning agony from those guys as their energy just gave out. hee hee...just too good to not enjoy.

 

Another tour that turned into a fully loaded day ride.

Loke came with me, but seemed fairly sluggish most of the way. Even when it was mostly cloudy and a bit on the nippy side.

It was a nice ride though and I felt much better physically than I did on the last one. A large part of that I know is the terrain. 90% of the ride was on pavement, the rest on graveled bike path and varied between flats with a nice balance of up and down hill. The last time felt like mostly climbing not to mention miles and miles of slightly boggy dirt road to drag the trailer through.

Finding a place to camp even in a country with 'right to use' laws can still be quite difficult. Especially when Loke started flagging (even more) and I began to feel desperate. I took a turn toward a castle I passed on my first (successful) overnight tour because at least I somewhat knew the territory. The castle grounds also host an equestrian center and the staging area for the show ring provided a place to camp.

I called Jens to discuss if he thought it would be legal for me to set up there. He felt it would be okay, so I was willing to give it a go. While setting up Loke's shelter, a horde of teens descended on the site. It appeared I'd picked the local smoking/drinking spot for the bored youth of the town.

Loke was too wiped and it was too late since I didn't have lights on my trike to move on. I really didn't feel like sitting in the middle of a drunken party, staying awake to keep an eye on my things. I called Jens.

About half an hour after Jens was on his way, the kids left. I was not about to call the hubby again and say 'never mind'. Patient and supportive as he is with my touring (even my failures), that might have snapped him.

It turned out to be a fairly busy ride though and, of course, there will be a full report coming on my blog with photos in a day or two.

Terii

 

Ride report posted on my blog. LONG just to warn you. Detailed description of the 15 min of near disasters and the odd conversation with a man yelling at me about Loke.

Terii

 

Doc and I did 35 miles with the Monday Madness group from Jonesboro this morning, Flat, slow and easy ride. Only real excitement was Doc trying to trackstand at a red light and fell over in front of lots of folks. He skinned his elbow and had a severe injury to his pride!

 

Have never heard of anyone successfully trackstanding a recumbent.

 

Ha, me either, Doc was on a carbon road bike! Didn't look like he damaged the bike any.

 

Rode 23.8 miles today on my Strada doing my loop. Passed 3 DF riders. No one passed me.

Very warm and humid day but the SUN was out instead of raining like we have had many recent days, so I am not complaining.

 

Faster... Faster!

Between my Olympics-watching addiction and modifying the
bikes' chain stay, well, I've been off of my bike for a while.

This morning the weather was perfect for a bike ride,
the bike is back together and
nothing Olympic was very appealing.
So I went out for a spin.

Out of shape... wow.

But due to the modified chain stay, the Bottom Bracket
is much, much stiffer now.
More power, if you can call my meager wattage "power", gets to
the pavement.

Did I mention that I'm out of shape?
Yeah, well, I spent a lot of my energy huffing and puffing
-and sighing and panting....

Even so, my average speed was 17.3 miles per hour.

My off-the-top-of-my-head estimate is that my bike is
now about one mile per hour faster than it used to be,
and it's much quicker uphill now.

----

My bike is a Cruzbike Sofrider, and the bottom bracket is
triangulated in exactly the same way that the bottom bracket
of a Diamond Frame (standard safety bicycle) is triangulated.

The design really makes the bottom bracket of my bike as stiff
as a diamond frame bike and that makes it efficient.

What I did to my chain stay was make it as stiff as I possibly
could, to maximize the drivetrains' efficiency.

I'm very pleased.

 

Doc and I did the Paragould to Rector ride this morning, mostly flat 54.4 miles. We had a slight headwind going up then as fate would have it, the wind did a 180 and we had a tough headwind coming home. Doc was feeling bad the whole way home, so we were riding slow. He thinks he is a little dehydrated from the last 3 days riding and just needs some rest, We still averaged 15.2 mph for the trip, and that was with us limping along the last 10 miles!

This is probably the first trip in which I completely ran out of water. I thought my 50 oz, camelback would suffice since we stopped at a store in Rector and I drank a 32 oz Gatorade! It was 93 when we got home with a fairly strong South wind.

 

You two are tuff.

I did 38 miles today on the Lightfoot Greenway. Average moving speed 25mph. Hit 40 on level ground one time. It was 100 degrees here. Didn't
drink any water......didn't break a sweat. I Ain't lyin'.

 

Woohoo Buddy!! You keep that up and we will get you in the Olympics!

 

And since I can vouch that u don't lie, all I gotta say is that u do crap like that much more and your widow will be hosting us at the Funny Farm while we cast lots for your stable of bikes. I call dibs on the new trike.