khuon

I am a field engineer (amongst wearing other hats) for a software company and I rarely get a chance to ride when I go to customer sites. Last week, I had a chance to drive down to Hillsboro, OR instead of driving. I knew one of the customers was a cyclist too so I decided to bring my bike with me and we arranged to ride together after work. Well, things ran long that day and it's started getting dark early. By the time we started the ride, the sun was already beginning to set. I did remember my lights though. Anyways, he decided that we would take a route that would bring him close by his house (he commuted in that day) and would peel off halfway through leaving me to finish the loop back to their offices where I would load back up and then head for the hotel.

From the outset things were bad. I had to quickly change in their restroom and was in such a rush that I put my shorts on backwards so after walking halfway back to the parking lot, I had to return to the restroom to remedy that situation. Then I hurriedly prepped my bike by mounting my lights which I don't normally have in place. I guess I wasn't careful enough because as we pedalled out of the parking lot, I heard a clank and looked back to see one of my blinkies bouncing along the pavement. I stopped to retrieve it.

After about the first mile, I noticed that my riding partner was always pulling ahead at every stoplight and had to wait up for me. I couldn't understand why I was riding so badly and failing to keep my speed up. After about eight miles, I noticed that my speed was dismal. I was pushing no more than 16MPH even trying to sprint. At the next stoplight, I noticed that my front brake felt tight so I checked my wheel and discovered that the brakes were rubbing. I realised that since I was in such a hurry to mount my lights, I had placed the bracket over the front brake cable (normally I pass the bracket in between the cable and the bar) and constricted its bend. My brakes are set up tight enough as it is and any amount of deviation from the natural bend will cause them to compress. I backed the release off a bit and that allowed the pads to clear the rim. After that, my speed improved considerably.

When we reached the halfway point, my partner described the route I would need to take to complete the loop. It was also getting dark so I decided to change out the lenses of my sunglasses for clear lenses. I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention because after he bid me farewell and I headed off on what I thought was the right way, I missed a crosstreet and ended up lost. I kept riding hoping to find a familiar road or landmark. At about mile 25 of what was supposed to have been a 20 mile ride, my lights started dimming so I stepped them down to conserve power. On the good side, I was now able to push 20MPH with no problem. However, without full lighting, it was a little scary.

I eventually made it back after spotting a major street I recognised on the leg out. As I pulled up to my Jeep in the parking lot, my battery finally went dead and I had completed nearly 40 miles. On the good side, I had ended up circling around the whole town of Hillsboro and saw my hotel on the way back so I at least wouldn't get lost getting to it from the customer's offices. The bad part was that by the time, I checked in, took a shower and was ready to eat, it was 10PM and all the restaurants had closed. However, I was booked into one of those extended stay hotels and thus my room had a microwave, fridge, stove, pots and pans, dishes and cooking implements. I located a grocery store and was able to buy food to cook. Unfortunately, I was eating dinner at midnight.