Yes, we certainly did ride today. I show that we did 39.6 miles, Carlisle, Concord, Sudbury, Weston, Lincoln, Concord, Carlisle, and maybe a few places I didn't know existed. First, some pics:
me, shebornpeddler, cmolway, zipp2001
Did anyone lose a cow tunnel around here?
Here it is!
sherbornpeddler tries it for size
lit up with flash
Gentlemen, it was a pleasure meeting and riding with you. bikinggrrrl (at least I think that's who it was) even showed up by car but we had already hit the road so the conversation was brief. The weather was great, the roads wonderful. The ride was great!
As the pics show, there was an old steel bike, a new steel bike, an old CF bike, and a new CF bike. The most Star-Trek-ish was Zipp's, which he said was 1993. I would (humorously) have said cmolway was a funny way to spell chrom-moly, but no, he was on CF.
For me it was challenging, ah, a lesson in humility. Not the distance but the speed. We started west for the cow tunnel at a breakneck pace and I usually take an hour to warm up! Plus I'm not used to keeping to anyone's pace but my own, and these guys were flat out fast. Even more, normally I would have stopped to eat once or twice during a ride like that, but no, we just kept moving. By quittin' time breakfast was long ago. cmolway and zipp2001 kept running ahead and returning so they must have run 10% further than I did. And every time I'd get up a good speed someone would blow by me a zillion mph faster. Wow! Hats off to the three of you! I think cmolway said we ended with an average speed above 16mph.
We had a few technical glitches. I threw my chain on a chainring upshift. Somehow the chain came off the RD too and ran under the rear wheel. The wheel stopped and scrapped the chain along the pavement for 10 ft. Fortunately I didn't go down. About 2 inches of the chain are now very shiny! I threw the chain twice more but not so dramatically. Eventually I adjusted the FD stop screw. I've never had this happen before. It must have been the proximity of CF that caused it, I am sure. (I guess it's time for some maintenance.)
[sherbornpeddler asked what I was bothering to use the small chainring for anyway, (admitting some gamesmanship). I told him I should never have switched from the 60-tooth chainring to the 72.]
cmolway got a flat late in the ride, and the replacement promptly went BANG! Fortunately a quick patch on the first tube held okay. sherbornpeddler had no trouble and zipp2001 didn't run low on dilithium crystals.
By ride's end the temperature had climbed above 60degF and bicycles were in bloom everywhere.
Let's do it again. Longer if you wish, but at
my pace this time!
