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

Went for a ride today with Loke since it warmed up so nicely compared to yesterday. I woke at 4:30 am and it was already warmer at 23 F than the high we had during yesterday afternoon. By 10 am-ish, it was nearly 28 and Loke and I were out the door, Jens carrying the trike for us.

I decided on 3 layers and pulled on the last two shirt layers on while outside so I wouldn't be sweaty before I even started pedaling. It drove Loke's nuts. He sat on his haunches, wagging his tail and started... singing is all I can think to call it. Sort of musical 'woo-woo' yodeling with a few yipes and woofs tossed in for good measure. I can't remember the last time he did that.

In short time we were off at a flat run as I surprised him by making an immediate right turn instead of going straight from our apartment. That boosted his excitement level even more and before I knew it, we were streaking down the slope of an underpass beneath a major road at 21 mph. Loke hasn't run THAT fast in over 3 years! I think he was happy with the direction because we haven't run that route in over 8 months.

My front tires only threw up snow occasionally as we passed Gamla Uppsala from the opposite way and Loke kept up a strong run. Once we hit the country side, the road was mostly frozen over with ice, but thankfully not too slick. I only spun my tire a couple times while climbing hills. Of course, part of it might have been Loke pulling like mad. I think the only time I had slack in the tether was the 21 mile plunge through the underpass.

While the furry one was happy, I admit, I got a bit bored with the ride once we hit the major road. There I had a choice between left and few more miles, or right and shaving off about 3-4 miles. Given the longer way had a whole lot of nothing but snow covered fields blasting with an icy wind, I decided to cut it a little shorter.

I'm not sure if it was better or not. The snow on the cycle path wasn't slushy, but it was as boggy as sand and my rear derailleur began to freeze! That was a first. I'd try to change gears and the shifter went fine, but nothing happened in the back. It got to where I had to shift my front to free it to change the rear.

Soon, we were zipping back through the underpass though at a slower 17 mph to finish the way home. 10.22 miles! Not our longest ride of the year, but more than the River Loop W/Extension. Loke's content and sleeping on his pillow and I feel good about the extra milage.

Hopefully the snow they keep saying will be here tomorrow will keeping holding off.

Terii

 

Went shopping

Car in Shop

 

Those five wheels burn less gas than the other four.

 

21F in London when we headed out on the recumbent tandem. 38 miles on the clock by the time we got home and the temperature had warmed up to a balmy 27F. If ever you have sat on the front of a tandem and felt you had done all the work this video will explain why !



Adrian

 

Interesting. A British posting with stats in deg.F and miles. The US should've converted to metrics decades ago for our own good and catch up to the rest of the civilized world. A re-post just to satisfy the engineer in me would be nice.

If I rode in those temperatures I wouldn't be able to read the instruments anyway due to hypothermic shivering.

 

Funnily enough in the UK the norm is to do temperature in degrees C but distance in miles, kilometres haven't caught on. I used F, as I guessed not that many people in the States would be familiar with Centigrade. But for the engineers out there it was around -6C when we set off, and for the physicists it was 273 kevlin ! Either way pretty chilly !

 

It's -9 deg.C here in Morristowen, eastern Tennessee at 0700h and 30 minutes from sunrise with a wind chill of -14 deg.C. Our coldest morning in a while. Celsius always makes it appear colder than Fahrenheit. That's why it's better to use when making an excuse for not getting outside today. But has been an unusually warmer and wetter winter until now.

 

ok got a very very cold ride in today sunday in dandridge t.n. only 5miles
then the SUN went down and it was even colder then when i stared lol anyway

KEEP ON RIDIN

 

Sunny...got in 1/10th of a mile before my fingers almost froze to my handlebars... forogt my winter gloves...what was I thinking

 

Great you're getting out, but maybe tether the gloves to your jacket?

Terii

 

I think I should probably get a set of mittens that have the string attached and run them through each of my coat sleeves...like little kids use to wear to keep from losing them.

 

It finally happened, the first snow of the year was on the ground this morning here in Tulsa. Don't think I'll ride today, I hate having to clean the bike up

 

6 miles today with an abrupt end. Details can be found on my post titled THUNK!! or even greater detail with a couple of pictures on my blog!

Terii

 

Not good...no snow here, but it is really cold! Williams truck wouldn't start and he couldn't go to work (diesel) had to wait until the temps reached about 38-40° (around 11'oclock) before it would start.

 

Too cold for me today. 40 degrees is my bottom limit and it wasn't there at lunch time.