My Most Recent Ride 2011 (Part IV of the series)

Saturday morning Cades Cove ride

Engineers...................don't leave home without one!



Bill, I made an additional lap after you left and actually found a person you missed having a discussion with on our previous lap together!

Have a nice weekend!

 

Nice jersey!!!!

 

I liked the bear!!!!! Get him a RRI jersey!

I am gonna order one one of these days...right now I have saved up for vacation.

 

Nice video of the skinny little black bears foraging by the carless Cades Cove loop!

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My girlfriend recently won a custom Felt cruiser:




It's very nice, for what it is:
single speed;
coaster brake;
aluminum frame;
sprung saddle;
threadless head set;
integrated kick stand and big fat balloon tyres mounted on big, fat aluminum rims.

I rode it around a little bit... and could barely handle it!
My bottom was telling me that the seat was a torture device, for me.
On top of that?
I could barely pedal it in a straight line!
Geeze! Here I thought I was a smoooth spinner....

I know what was happening: I was unconsciously trying to steer
the cruiser with my legs, just like I do with my Sofrider.

See, our bikes are a wee bit different:





But isn't her New Belgian (Felt) Custom Cruiser a beauty?

Makes me smile just to look at it.

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Did over 20 sweat-full miles this morning,
sharing the road with selfish drivers:
even the lone bicyclist was in my lane,
coming at me in the apex of a blind curve.

Fun ride, nonetheless.

 

Good Ride today that we cut short due to a suspected nasty storm. 36.3 Miles 2,100 feet of climbing average speed 14.2

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/345648

Looks like Ward is gonna break away this week while I am gone. I hope all of you have good riding in the week ahead!

 

Well I decided since the greenway was open under the Henley Street bridge to ride to East Knoxville and back. Greenway is indeed open. Nice for a change. Rode 15.6 miles and was 92 degrees when I got back. I am ready for this heat to break!!!

 

Sunday was an easy metric on the Dragon. Taking it pretty easy riding with Liner we were holding around 15.5 or so on a route with just a couple of short climbs. However as we are coming back in to main post I see a target. A guy on a Time Trial bike (A beauiful Ridley) with aerobars and a rear disc. He was even wearing a time trial helmet. I was after him before I could think.

I was a bit disappointed in him. We were on an perfectly flat road with no wind and he was only running 24mph. I held 28 until I reached him. I slowed down and said hi and he just sort of looked at me. "Nice bike", I said. Then I put the hammer back down and walked away from him. When I had a good 100 yard lead or so, I turned around and went back to find Liner. He was doing pretty well and wasn't very far behind.

So we dropped it back down to conversational speed and moseyed along. About 5 miles later you come to a divergence in the road. The shortest route is a brutal short climb with 9-11% grade, the next section is a bit longer with a more gradual 2-3% grade. We took the steep climb and low and behold he took the longer one. As we neared the stop sign he passed right in front of me again.

He was running slower now, probably about 21 which made my pass seem much more dramatic. I didn't slow down to talk, I just yelled "coming round" and powered by somewhere between 26 and 27mph. Another short climb ahead I was up and over never loosing my momentum which he dropped waaay back. I again turned around and went back to find Liner closing the gap on TT man.

But, as we were now about 52 miles into our planned 64 mile ride we scaled it back down and went about our business. Ended with 64 miles and a 15.7 average and about 2300 feet of climbing.

Last night I planned on riding another metric, but Mother Nature had other plans. 30 miles Into The Ride the heavens unleashed with a fury. I have never seen standing water on this road and it was raining so hard that my RD was in the water. I pulled over when the Lightning strikes began hitting all around. Ten minutes I sat under some scrub trees while lightning hit in the forest all around me. Usually you see a strike and can count the seconds before you hear the thunder. These were coming almost simultaneously and I have never felt like I was under attack before. Forty...fifty....I don't have any idea how many strikes in those few minutes. Finally, they moved over and past me, so with the rain coming down in torrents I pulled back out on the road because I had to get back before darkness fell.

No idea how fast I was moving, visibility was just about nil. Looking ahead towards the river I could see another line of lightning strikes about 5 miles ahead. Probably hitting around the river. The problem that was where I was heading. Maybe I could make my turn before it moved closer. Didn't make it . As I made the turn the lightning began literally hitting the fields on either side of the road I was now on. I was about as scared as I have ever been. No trees for about 1/2 mile so with gritted teeth I kept pedaling until I made the tree line where I immediately sought shelter.

So shelter. I saw a strike hit a tree about 50 feet away from me. Close enough that I could see the smoke rising from its trunk. Again I was awed by the sheer number of strikes. Good luck was on the way, some GI's that had passed me early in a van took pity on me. They stopped and waved me over opening the back of the cavernous caravan which I quickly threw my bike and myself into. The gave me a ride to a gas station where another fella with a truck and a bike in the back gave me a ride off post to where the riverwalk started. By now the rain was just a sprinkle and the lightning was in the distance. With my thanks to my benefactors I finished up my ride. 45 miles with a 16.7 moving average

 

Glad you were able to tell that story!!!! I had a similar experience when backpacking with the Boy Scouts at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimmaron New Mexico. Our first day out and we got caught by a HUGE storm. We spread out under a canopy of trees and squatted as lightening was all around us. That was an experience I will never forget!!! I am glad I am still around to be able to tell the story too!

 

Wow! That must have been quite the experience. I too am glad to know you are alive and well to continue kicking DF butt (at least the snobby ones). I think your guardian angel was keeping a close eye on you, perhaps even sent the GI's before you headed into something worse. Glad you are safe.

Willie G & I got stuck in a T-storm with lighting and high winds once on the Natchez Trace. We were pretty creeped out too and even though we were already soaked, we hid in the bushes/trees until our SAG support could get there. We just knew a tree might come down on us though...wild...

 

Now THAT'S an electrifying story.
I know how terrifying that is... all those wild amps and volts running rampant.

My favourite part of your story, Ward:

is the part where you found yourself in pursuit before you consciously
decided that you would give chase!
I so empathize with that....


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This morning I had a nice, quick ride:
21 miles with an average speed of over 17mph, for once.
I was probably showing off my speed potential to the
group of four cyclists that I kept passing every four miles or so:

-we were on the same route, more or less, but we were traveling in the opposite direction.

 

Great story Ward but a bit scary. I recall that happening one time when my youngest son and I were on a bike vacation. Needless to say, we got soaked.

Then Sunday afternoon I took off on the bike planning on a quick 20 miler. Half way into the ride the rain started. I had seen it coming but was hoping I could get to a friend's house before it hit. Well, I quickly turned around and went as fast as I could go. Ran out of the rain in about 3/4 of a mile and stayed ahead of it all the way home.

Funny part is that I had been watching the radar and it appeared we would get nothing. After I got home it still showed nothing on the radar but it rained quite a bit.

This radar thing for the rain is crazy. Sometimes it shows nothing and it rains but most times it shows rain and we get nothing. Not sure but I'm thinking because warm air holds more moisture than cold air that the radar cannot detect the difference and when it gets really humid it shows rain rather there is rain or not. Anyway, I did not get as wet from the rain as I did from the sweat.

 

Yep Steve, thats the way the greyhound brain works. Rainy again today so I'm sitting it out, a bit gun shy perhaps.

 

Out of work at a reasonable time, went out looking for that metric again. Found it! 63.5 miles 3 hours 42 minutes total time with a 17.8 moving speed. Very flat only 1670 feet of elevation gain. Pretty bland ride today...thankfully!

 

While out working on my bicycle yesterday, I remembered to look at the average speed, before resetting the computer.

It was indeed over 17mph: it was 17.8mph.

Nice.

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I "Googled" 'Ridley bicycle'.
Very, very pretty machine!

Nice catch, Ward.


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Stupid bike:
if only it were a Honda... but since it isn't,
certain tasks need to be done periodically.

Yeah, this isn't a ride report, not exactly, so
let's call it a, "Post Ride Report."

Yeah!
That's the ticket!

-Now the derailleurs are doing their things again without any more
than usual finesse (I miss the old-fashioned friction type derailleur controls,
but the click-controls are so handy when they work!)

-Now the scars on my rear foam wheel covers are painted.

-The wheel bearings are adjusted to-a-fairthee-well.

-The threadless head set is, well, set.

-Brake components lubed, polished and adjusted.

-Suspension pivots cleaned, lubed and adjusted.

-Spoke tension is fine, as usual: the wheels are mostly roundish.

My bike is ready for the rest of the Summer!

 

My Wife told me Monday that today should be the best riding day of the week. So after an 11:00 AM meeting at my office, I changed clothes and was off for a 22 mile lunch ride. Still warm but the humidity was tolerable (under 80%). Great day to ride.

I have mentioned before how the Knoxville Greenway is all torn up with construction. Well one of my favor sections when I ride West through the Ag campus at UT has now opened back up. It was again flat and newly paved. Heaven!!!!