My Most Recent Ride 2013 (Part VI in a series)

Went out with Betty on her Serian. A nice cool and cloudy morning, we started out slowly to let her legs warm up a bit. Around mile 10 we had her open it up a bit on the flats holding 16-18 mph. No problem at all.

Then we hit a fairly long hill that starts off pretty easy and just gradually gets steeper and steeper. No speed records here but she kept the pedals turning. A little break around mile 20 and we continued on with the road still climbing.

What's the best part about climbing...why the downhill of course! Now came the fun stuff, about 3.5 miles of screaming downhill. It wasn't long after that when trouble befell our little group. The per guy riding with us had a flat which was followed by two bad tubes. In the end I had to ride back to the vehicles and go back and pick him up.

Still a good day, Betty finished her longest ride ever with 42 miles!

 

Yeahthat is great! Way to go...next thing you she will be out there doing centuries!

 

Passed a few but no young ones. They haven't come out to play yet. Don't know why. Probably the rain.

 

perhaps they are afraid of the big bad wolf???

 

Rode again today. It is amazing how many miles I can rack up when it is not raining!!!

Anyway I was getting ready to ride and a guy who just finished his ride (on a DF bike) was loading his bike in the back of his car which was parked next to mine.

He asked me how I like my bike. Well he got a 10 minute answer. The part that really got him is when I said I did a century on a recumbent (my V Rex not my Strada) and I didn't hurt. THAT STATEMENT really got his attention.

Didn't convert him, but got him curious.

 

You go, Jon!

Been pretty sick the past couple days which slowed down my first blog post about Denmark. Finally got it done.

http://terii.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/craziness-in-copenhagen/

Lots of photos and long babbling description of the day.

Now to start work on Day 2.

Terii

 

I did One Helluva Ride last weekend. There were about 1700 riders on the various routes. It gets its name because the century route goes through He11, Michigan. The video starts as I turn left toward the day's first rest stop in Gregory. If I had turned right, He11 would be about 3 or 4 miles. (I did not do the century route.)

 

http://terii.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/westward/

There's the 2nd and last ride of the Denmark trip. The planned 3rd ride didn't happen thanks to gearing issues. Lots and lots of photos of Neolithic sites, a couple churches and some nice scenery as well as the long rambling ride report.

I'm planning on making a shorter post for the morning we came home just to share the stunning scenery of Møn's eastern end by sunrise and the white cliffs.

Terii

 

Went for a short ride. 4.19 miles. I'm aggravated as the chain went down when I unthinkingly shifted it once. The problem is it dropped right past the small chain ring to catch between it and the chain guard.

Took me 10 minutes to get it back on a chainring using a house key and an allen wrench to carefully lever it into place. I guess I'll be carrying the proper tools for that and get used to doing it often.

Sometimes I wonder if riding is worth the bother....

Terii

P.S. Added another post to share photos of the morning we started home. Sunrises and white chalk cliffs at sea side.

 

The rainy weather just does not want to leave Knoxville alone this year. It is cloudy more than it is sunny this year. Very unusual.

All this week we have 40% chance of rain. Luckily it is all in the afternoon and early evening. Since I have flexibility in my work, I am getting ready to ride by about 10:00 AM and get my riding done before lunch. Then I work through lunch and the afternoon.

So far so good. Racked up 20.2 miles today with just getting some misting which actually felt really good! We will see how the rest of the week works out.

 

Rode yesterday with Betty. Thunderstorms all around but we hoped to get lucky. It was a steady drizzle as we started but it was nice and cool with a breeze so not too bad. The rain started getting harder at around the 8 mile mark but Didn't last long.

The roads nice and cool we continued on with a nice cool breeze in our face. No traffic either cars or bikes we enjoyed our sojourn. Around mile 20 the road began to turn upward with a series of hills to climb. Betty will be the first to tell you she gets no joy out of climbing hills but she did well. And then of course the reward for the climb...the downhills.

A long flat back towards town with one brutal little hill we call Cardiac Hill. No joy here but she didn't quit and made it to the top. It took a lot out of her and we cruised back the last ten miles at an easy pace. No tailwind to bring us back home and the clouds cleared starting to be a bit warm. We stopped and watched the rafters on the new Whitewater course for a few minutes and then home. 45 miles, she extended her best a few more.
http://app.strava.com/activities/68859107

 

92 miles in 4 days

Ok folks since were are reporting our rides well I've completed 92 miles in 4 days and I'm tired like mad. Almost completed my first metric century this weekend. I got caught in I swear a monsoon rain conditions on the day. The point where my phone got killed and now I have to purchase a new phone. First night was like 14 miler, Second ride was like almost 20. Third day was like about 40 miles and that day got rained on. Saturday was a rest day. Sunday was a 20 mile ride home. Felt like 30.

 

I've learned the hard way to pack my phone in a Zip-Lok bag.

 

I use my backpacking experience on the bent. On the KATY Trail 6 day ride, I packed EVERYTHING in large Hefty zip lock bags. I also put trash can liner in my "water proof" panniers. So my stuff was in zip lock bags, in trash liner, in water proof paniers. No extra weight. One day it rained pretty good. I was wet but all my stuff was dry!

Even on short rides, everything is in zip lock bags. Keep like things together. Examples - (spare tubes and patch kits); (First aid kit); (Money, driver's license, credit cards and insurance card), (cell phone, notebook, pen). They are easy to see what is in them, they organize you, and they stay dry!!!

 

Went for a simmering ride this morning. Even at 5 am, it was muggy, sticky and unpleasant. Just a local river loop again. 5.06 miles.

More annoying than the humidity and warmth was when my rear gears started acting up again after 3 miles. That's the 2nd time... 3rd if you count the time they went south so bad just hours after getting it home that it was unrideable and I had to rush it back to the shop. Then a few days after that, it was back to sloppy.

Now, sloppy again... Ridable, but not smooth.

Not sure if there's something wrong with the derailleur that the shop isn't catching... or they suddenly suck. Or more sinister... someone's clever enough to rig the derailleur so it fouls up after several miles instead of immediately to milk me for cash.

Almost enough to make me want to scream and rip out my hair.

Still, at least I put in 5 miles. I'll be trying to ride as much as I can between now and next weekend to hopefully get out for an overnight tour. I'd go this weekend, except I feel out of shape and flabby thanks to being cycle-less for a week.

Terii