My Most Recent Ride 2010 (Part III of the series)

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Heh - heh heh...

nice!

Those bicyclists looked slow!
-they were not in the drops;
-low pedaling cadence;
-no drafting and
-they looked tired.
Besides, you guys on your lowracers made 'em look slower yet.

This is what I do differently, when presented with
a similar target-of-opportunity:
-speed up far enough behind so that my target(s)
cannot hear gear changes and
I ring my thumb-operated handlebar-mounted bicycle bell
to signal my presence.
*Ring!-Ring!!*

Muahahahahaaa....

...

"Greyhound mind,"
you say?
I resemble that.

Let me just say that it's a good thing that I no longer ride
motorcycles for a living;
it's a wonder I survived, riding motorcycles for a living!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

I had a GREAT 15 mile ride at lunch today. It was cool (high 50s) partly cloudy with some wind. But the best part of all is I didn't have a FLAT TIRE! So far, no flats with my new Marathon back tire. We will see how long that lasts.

I must admit, I am riding in the road and not the shoulders right now too!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

A nice little ride today, 16 miles. Columbus has opened up a little bit more of the Riverwalk that runs beside one of the old Mill dams.
This first picture shows the Chattahoochee flowing south over the old spillway with the Dam's old power station on the left. In the second picture you see the new portion of the Riverwalk winding between the power station and the Eagle Phoenix Mill which has been converted into Condominiums.
The last picture shows the hooch below the spillway.

This spillway and another above it are going to be taken out over the next few years in order to recreate the original rapids.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Oh, that looks like a nice little place to ride. However, I am curious do the breaks in the concrete cause many issues for you? I know the one side of the bike way in Townsend here that is made with concrete really sucks! Doesn't make you want to go fast that is for sure.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

The concrete only last for a few blocks before giving way to smooth blacktop. There is even a few sections of brick pavers, which I avoid when its wet.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Ah, in that case, it must be quite nice. When you are out do you see many other recumbents or is the majority the DF crowd?

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

For many years there were only two bents in town. Myself with my highracers and one other fella with a Tour Easy. In the last year there has been an explosion of bents. There are either three or four Bacchetta's, an Actionbent, and at least three Catrike's. I have ridden a few times with most of them but we havn't been able to get anything going like a group ride.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

The season is winding down for me. Hilly Hundred is coming up this weekend, then after that I'll be done with evening rides except for the occasional nite ride on my hybrid. This evening the weather was great, so I was going to do a club ride. Trouble is, nobody else showed up, so I rode alone. I could have done that from home!

Anyway, no spoke magnet on my training wheel, so the speedo didn't work. I noted the time and took off. The SUN was warm, which is to say the air was a bit nippy! I wore tights and a windbreaker. But the winds were mostly calm, and I just did a nice aerobic pace, pushing a bit harder on the uphills and recovering on the downs. There were quite a few hills, but they were all 80 feet or less, and nothing to get me out of my big ring. The fall colors are starting to show, so I enjoyed the display of yellows and reds against a brilliant blue sky. I was feeling decidedly tired by the time I hit the last few hills, and I had to downshift an extra gear or so from what I might have done earlier in the ride.

I pulled into the parking lot and noted the time. It was 58 minutes and my timing was perfect - the sun was just setting. Once I got back home, I put my route into RideWithGPS.com and discovered it was exactly 22 miles. That made my overall average 22.758 mph! Not bad!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Yea, not bad at all. Good going.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Rode my 20 mile lunch greenway ride yesterday and two good things happened!


1. No flats!!! This is after I put on the Schwalbe Marathon back tire AND quit riding in the road shoulder and on a particular piece of sidewalks that usually has some broken glass on it because it is the way the drunks in Knoxville head towards the homeless shelter. I also discovered I was putting 26 x 1.0 tubes in my 26 x 1.5 tires. (You have permission to call me a bonehead!) My recumbent sage Bill Gillette suggested I go to Hostel Shoppe for find properly sized tubes with Presta ends (since my rims are drilled out for Prestas). So the tubes came today and I am replacing my back tube which is the one I am having all the problems with. I hope this solves my major flat tire issue!

2. I met 2 bent riders. They are a retired couple who ride this particular ride EVERY DAY and I have never met them before. I was surprised we didn't bump into each other before now. The lady was riding Buddy's favorite ride a P-38. The gentleman was ridding a Vision Lightening. Both nice bents. They told me they are snow birds and have two bents they keep in Florida. Boy that sounds like MY type of retirement!!!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Nice evening ride yesterday of 37 miles. Started around 6 but had some mechanical issue's (the hub on my front wheel unscrewed from rest of the wheel, easily fixed) so it was about 6:45 when we got started good. 64 degrees with a pretty strong wind that was hard to place just where it was coming from. The Riverwalk was packed with walkers so we didn't really get any speed going for the first 8 miles.

We rode out 18 and stopped at a bridge over a nice fast flowing stream to get the circulation back in our feet. A quick bite and we were headed back in with the sun now behind the trees we turned our lights on. Within 10 minutes it was pitch black dark with no moon but there was plenty of light around the airfield on post and we watched a pilot practice touch and go landings as we rounded the field.

I really like riding at night it changes everything. Back on the Riverwalk we now had to it ourselves as the temps had dropped into the mid 50's. As we neared the marina we spotted a couple of foxes playing in a field next to the river. They scampered off pretty quickly when my headlight hit them.

Nothing fast, just some high cadence spinning drills. The one-legged pedaling I have been doing has smoothed out my spin significantly and its pertty easy now for me to sustain 120 and higher.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

From my post last month: Undersized or oversized tube for the size tires you use?
You weren't riding on tire tubes; yu wuz ridin' on overinflated balloons just waitin' fer a pin prick. Nice to be right once in a while.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Ahh, Fall!

Fewer bicycles are on the roads, the humidity is lower and so's the temperature.

The Sun is lower in the sky though, up here in the Northern Hemisphere.
That just means that my rides take place closer to noon:
last Tuesday evening, riding the leg home with the setting Sun
blinding my eyes, it was sometimes a matter of faith on my part,
assuming that there was a road under my rolling wheels.

Oh, the ride?
Very nice.
No loose dogs, and no more than the usual stop-sign runners/right-hookers.
Twenty-eight miles, concentrating on a high spin-cadence in lower than usual gears, for an average speed of only 15MPH.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Riding up the hill out of my subdivision on my way to work earlier this week, I found myself singing (to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat):

Spin, spin, spin your bike
Gently up the hill
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Down is such a thrill

Be careful out there!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Rode again on Friday. But before I started, I replaced the 26 x 1 generic tube with a 26 x 1.5 Schwalbe tube. The tube cost $10 but you c an tell it is a much better quality tube. Filled the tire up to 100 pounds and took off. The bent felt like flying with the lower rolling resistence due to higher back tire pressure.

And most importantly... NO FLATS!!!! I think I found my problem and a proper size tube and new back Schwalbe Marathon tire seem to be the fix!!