Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Beautiful morning for a ride, sort of...

I got up this morning determined to ride.  The weather is a bit cooler since we had some thunderstorms yesterday, so that shouldn't be an issue.  I got the bike out, noticed the tire were soft, so I spent the next 10 minutes putting air in the tires.  Its amazing to me how quickly they loose air here.  In less than 2 weeks, they went for 75 lbs. of air down to 45.  That's just crazy to me.  I guess its the combination of heat and the low humidity which leave the rubber more porous or something.

Anyway, once it was all aired up, I head out on my usual morning route - West on my street to Quarterhorse, north on Quaterhorse to Pebble, East on Pebble to El Capitan and South on El Capitan to Mackanos.  The my street was fine, but as I made the turn onto Quaterhorse I found 3 to 4 inches of gravel, dirt and other larger stones on the road.  This lasted a good 75 feet up Quarterhorse.  I successfully navigated the obstacle, but decided I really didn't want to push my luck riding through the debris multiple times.

I continued on around the circuit, but when I got to Mackanos, I detoured to the street south of mine and commenced to riding around the block.  The streets were fairly clean and I was making pretty decent time. The drawback to riding this shorter course is that it becomes boring going around and around the same block.  I continued on making 9 circuits with little issue but as I was going around the 10th time I noticed that my back wheel had developed a significant wobble. Again.  The last time I rode I ended up cutting it short due to a wobble, which I had thought I had corrected, but alas, it seems the fix was but a temporary one.

I carefully completed the 10th lap and brought the bike into the garage and turned off its lights.  I wasn't ready to stop yet, so I grabbed my old bike and proceeded to ride another 2 laps around the block.  I only completed 2 laps for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that I had yet to mount the new lights on the Univega and it is still very dark at 5:00 in the morning.  The second reason was that I was running out of my allotted 1 hour exercise time.  I must say I enjoyed riding the Univega once again, but the riding position is so very different from the Diamondback.

So, I have decided that I need to have a professional look at the spoke situation on the rear wheel of the Diamondback, and that I need to get the lights mounted on the Univega so I can ride - NO EXCUSES.  I really do have to thank Fizzhog for his most recent post as that is what was the last bit of motivation I needed to get my butt out there and riding this morning.  His line "Ride your bike. Never put off any length of ride for any reason ever." is what did it.

Get out there and ride!

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