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

I hope to come, its on my calendar, but i hope to have a twin to "red" instead,,lol

Tadpole I had to take a double look at what you had in your hand in the first video I thought it was something else..lol

Great vids!

 

Yep, I know I've been scarce. I have done a bit of riding though. Loke and I went out on another tour last week. The wind was BRUTAL. The leftover of the hurricane that battered NY.

Only managed 20 miles the first day, of course, I did a lot of stopping to read maps and about 20 minutes or so talking with a very nice man when I stopped to ask about a cloister ruin in the area. He gave me directions, then about 10 min later, he caught up to me on a touring bike. He said he decided he could use a ride and thought riding with me might be fun. It certainly moved us along quite a bit faster. Loke in particular decided he really wanted to run while we had company.

It even turned out the man had studied the cloister's history quite extensively as well as wrote a short story about it which ended up in an anthology. He was a writer by profession, journalist who was enjoying his retirement by living in the country side and hobby writing.

I thought it was incredibly nice of him to come check on us.

I pitched my camp near an old runestone rather than near a barn like I wanted to. I knew no one was going to kick me off the runestone ground, but I probably should have risked the barn. The runestone sat on the edge of a field with a clear blast of the wind right on us. The barn and trees near one end of it would have given us quite decent wind block. Instead it was a miserable night. Even Loke was unhappy. I froze in spite of wool thermals, an air pad and thick sleeping bag. It was about 10 degrees warmer than my first tour camp night but I felt MUCH colder.

The next morning, I was just so stiff all I did was grit my teeth to cover as much ground as I could. I decided the ride was finished when the terrain began to dictate where I went. Turning back when I'd find myself at the top of a hill because I'd have to come back up it on an out and back or refusing to go look for a grave mound or runestone because it sat on a gravel road. Loke on the other had was running good and dragging me like crazy. He hardly ever does that. Still only so much he could do with 16% grades, me and a heavy trailer. :

Another deciding factor on giving up the ride was the noise coming from my rear wheel. Gears grinding and clattering while shifting erratically. I thought maybe I'd smacked the arm on a stone while navigating one of the gravel roads.

Tuesday, Jens had to go for a job interview in Stockholm, so he took my trike to a bike shop that had said they'd be quite happy to work on it. They had it ready the next day. It rides GREAT now, shifts silky smooth and is as quiet as a trike with chain tubes can be!

Now if the weather lets up, I might risk another stab at a tour.

Terii

 

I think it is so cool to look up all these historical ruins and be able to camp there. Nothing like that here in Tennessee. In fact, if I camped in the middle of nowhere I would probably hear banjos playing, smell "sour mash" a boiling and wake up to the end of a shot gun!!! And I bet that would happen too if I camped at Buddy's place!!

 

Between you and buddy ithere is a guarentee that I will bust out lauging at some point.

Rode 35.5 miles this morning with the DF group. I thought it was supposed to rain but it turned out to be a wonderful morning.

 

We were supposed to do 50 Miles on Skyline Drive this morning. We started out in foggy misty conditions but it wasn't bad. Ten miles in it started to downpour and the Ride leader and Skyline Drive Vet (Buck) called the ride saying it was getting to bad. Buck probably has more miles on Skyline Drive than any living person so he knows what he is talking about. So we turned tail and headed home

21.5 Miles
2500 Feet of climbing

10.7 average..lol

I did keep my front chain ring in the second ring for the entire ride. I think its a 34 or 36, but i was happy about that. I may not need a real small granny gear on whatever new bike i get.

 

Fifty Mile Friday, er, Saturday

Yesterday I set out just after lunch planning on a fifty mile ride. I had mapped out a route from my house in Oak Ridge to the Knoxville greenway just off Sutherland at around 23 miles, originally planning the ride for Friday, September 23. The plan was to ride to the greenway, do a few miles along the greenway, then ride back home. When the weather forecast for Saturday looked quite a bit nicer than the forecast for Friday, I decided to move the ride.

The only thing that had me concerned about the ride was crossing Western Avenue, which is a very busy street. The first route I worked out crossed Western at a stop sign. After studying the options a little more I figured out that I could get across Western at a traffic light if I used Ball Camp Road. So that's that I did.

I even managed to ride some on a greenway trail in the neighborhood of Badgett Field getting from Pleasant Ridge Road to Ball Camp Road. While on that trail, I encountered a very large and loud dog. Thankfully, he was on a chain so he couldn't encounter me too closely.

A lot of the ride was along Clinton Highway, which climbs a big hill from Anderson County up to the Anderson/Knox county line at the top of the hill. Of course, rolling down the other side was great fun. From Clinton Highway, I angled off to the right on Pleasant Ridge and followed it for a few miles.

I intended to turn right on Bradshaw to get across to Ball Camp but turned about a block early and wound up on the grounds of a school. From there I found my way onto a small greenway that eventually got me out on Ball Camp near Badgett Field. After getting across Western on Ball Camp, I turned down Ed Shouse, went left on Middlebrook, right on Lonas, left on Hollywood, and that took me right to Sutherland, which parallels the longer Third Creek greenway.

As I was riding along Hollywood, which has a couple of big hills, I thought it perhaps should be called San Francisco Drive because it reminds me of pictures I've seen of San Francisco with its steep streets.

There's a nice little produce market at the corner of Sutherland and Hollywod called Strawberry Fields. I stopped in there and bought some bananas and muscadines (grapes native to the US southeast). From there I rode down Sutherland to Riversports to try an return some shoes I had brought with me. They declined to take them back since I had worn them outside, so that didn't work out. From Riversports, I rode back the way I'd come about a block to get on the greenway across from Cox Street.

I rode a mile or so eastward along the greenway. There were lots of other bicycles and runners out. It was a very beaautiful day. Just after crossing the creek, I stopped at a park bench and had a little picnic of muscadines, a banana, and one of the oat bars I had baked for the occasion the night before.

After the picnic I headed back the way I had come. Since the greenway parallels Sutherland, I was able to stay on the greenway all the way back to Hollywood to start the ride home.

The hill on Clinton Highway at the county line seemed even bigger on the way back because I was tireder but I eventually got to the top and then was able to enjoy rolling down the other side.

The whole way, the other folks using the rode (mostly driving cars) were courteous and careful. At one point, I encountered a fellow walking toward me along the edge of Clinton Highway. I was riding on the right, so he was walking on his left side of the ride, as was appropriate. The shoulder was very narrow at that point so one of us was going to have to get out in the traffic lane so we could pass each other. When he saw me pulling out, he at first stepped away from the traffic lane, but then waved me back toward the edge of the road and stepped out in the traffic lane himself. Since he could see the oncoming traffic better me (he was facing it while I was riding away from it), his choice made some sense. All the same I thanked him and told him to be careful as I rode by.

I arrived back home at five minutes to six, having been out for about ten minutes shy of six hours with a little over 51.5 miles. My bike computer said I had been pedaling for about 4.5 hours.

That was yesterday. Today, walking along the Alcoa greenway, I met fellow riding a blue Edge Koosah. He introduced himself as Don Bonser. He told me about building his own home-made recumbent before getting the Koosah.

 

Rode 15.7 miles today. Took my Bachetta Strada. With me being so high off the ground, and the wind really blowing, I felt like a kite!!!

Great day though I could have use less wind!!!

 

I got hit with a nasty headwind coming down the road while heading toward the Tellico Plains visitor center...nasty. Felt Like I was being pushed backwards.

 

Picked Jezzy up from Mark's about a week ago, but finally got a chance to ride her Saturday. Felt really good to be back in the saddle again.
Adding two Big Apples up front to match the rear made a dramatic difference in the comfort of the ride. Don't know how many miles i rode Saturday, but Sunday afternoon i remembered Mark also added a new computer. I have a total of 89.6 miles for the two days.
Now it is going to be hard to get my work done down here with the ride bug all over me again.

 

Gee I don't have to worry about that. All I have to do is get off of my fat *** and go and ride. Now that Bumble Bee is ridable. Thanks to a new friend from TT's web board. Hey Gene you need to get your happy self up here before the snow flys I dusted you on my blue broken down coldness. You have to come up here and let me dust you on my Black and Yellow hotness. Granted it's only an 8 speed. But it's not the trike it's the rider right. lol. :lildevil:

 

Rode Red today. Beautiful day. Warm. Sunny. Took my bent to Cherokee Blvd to ride loops. Lots of joggers. (Very pretty scenery. I sometimes even looked at the trees and river too!)

Anyway, was riding around, caught one wabbit who commented "nice bike" from his Diamond Frame. About 12 miles into my loops I braked to go around a roundabout and a horrid noise came from my front wheel. I thought I had a fast flat front tire and was all of a sudden riding on my rim. NOT MY BRAND NEW RIMS!!!!

Stopped. Go off my bent and felt the front tire. It was fine. I looked at my brakes and low and behold one of my brake pads was missing. So when I hit the brakes, the metal housing was pushing against the rim making an awful sound.

I looked around and couldn't see my brake pad. So I rode the loop 2 more times looking for the brake pad but didn't find it. I could only use my back brake now.

So took my bent to Greenlees and found out that the screw that holds the brake pad in place was missing. That is why the brake pad slid off.

Anyway, got new brake pads and a new set screw. Kept the one old brake pad as a spare along with a spare set screw if I ever need it again. First time in my life that happened. Did it ever happen to anyone else here??? Or am I "special"!

Rode 15.7 miles today. Cut it short to get my bent fixed.

 

Rode a stretch of horrible chip seal that ended with a short steep downhill to a stop sign crossing on a busy highway. Coming down that hill I discovered that one of my back brake pads had vibrated off. Fun times!

On the negative gravity brakes the pads are basically just held on with friction. so now I use a drop of elmers glue to help hold em on.

 

Thanks for the reminder, both o' y'all, that from time to time?
Even brakes are important.

Nope, it's never happened to me: my pads have always been
together and I've always done a careful -if sometimes quick-
walk around check... like pilots do their pre-flight walk around.

 

I use brakes as little as possible, so sometimes I'll be several miles into a ride before first time use. That's not a good time to find that there's a brake problem that should've been caught in the pre-flight checklist.

Jon, R U sure the housing didn't score the rim?

 

Lok-Tite,nuff said....