Wednesday, April 4, 2012

1.5 Month Break

Wow, it's been a long time since I've ridden. I almost felt like the trike was starting to get rusty.

Not really, but I'm sure the Speed felt a bit neglected. Glad I took her out for a spin this past weekend. Isn't it still called a fleet when there's only two trikes? The wind was ridiculous, but I kept the flag on there anyway.

There hasn't been this much sun in quite awhile. After a month long hiatus, I was getting a bit nervous getting back on the trike knowing that the trek would be over 30 miles. My body wasn't ready. I hadn't run on a treadmill or done any physical activity in a long time and here I was about to embark on a long ride.

I always here about Skyline College, but I've never been - until today! We rode quite a bit. To get there, we took none other than Skyline Blvd and for those who know it, it's more of a freeway than anything else.

Lots of it was uphill and from the looks of it, it's not exactly the safest area to be riding. Cars traveling at 50 + mph easy. Apparently not everyone made it. This was the second area of flowers we saw on the shoulder. There were times were merging was a bit worrisome and even moreso when my mirror became loose.

I lost complete use of the left (the most important one) mirror. I literally had it hold it with my hand to position it in order to see vehicles coming up. I've been too cheap to buy a replacement, but I think tonight might be the time. A mirror is so valuable especially at times like this.

Although I made it back in one piece and probably 1,800 calories lighter (actually shows when I look in the mirror). I really have no way of counting, but my buddy here in the green trike lost about that much. Good stuff! I was working hard this ride. I felt like 70% of it was uphill. In terms of time, it was definitely at least that. Distance-wise, I'm sure it was 50/50.

Unfortunately, both my water bottles never made it back home. I haven't read of any other reports of it, but both Paul and I experienced our water bottles flying out of its cage when mounted on the rear frame. It happened to me three times as I was riding through high speed turns. The last time, I didn't even notice it was gone until I reached back an attempt to hold it in place. To my surprise, I had already lost it! Ugh, those things aren't cheap.

Looks like I'm buying three things tonight:

1. Mirror.
2. Emergency brake lever.
3. Replacement water bottle.

Paul's Expedition has the emergency brake levers I want. That rubberband thing I've been using isn't cutting it. I hate having to reach over with the other hand to engage it.

This is my first time posting using my Macbook Air! Loving it. It's nice to be able to use a full size keyboard. All the keys are spaced out perfectly like they should be. The 9 year old Dell 700m had to retire (although I still use it on occasion - not all the files have been transferred over).

If you want a cool convenient way to transfer files remotely from one computer to another and keep everything in synch, use the link below to get your own Dropbox. Basically you get a folder that appears on all your computers that are accessible from each. Click here and both of us will get free additional space! It's a Free cloud service.

Yup, here's my shameless plug:
http://db.tt/lPg7WVpJ

1 comment:

  1. Brian, This link is for you. It's the latest post on my blog inspired by your lost water bottle.
    http://bentupcyclingjournal.blogspot.com/2012/04/secure-them-water-bottles.html

    ReplyDelete