Another glorious ride in to work! Sunny, a cool 60F I took the '97 Rockhopper with my lightweight commute bag (plus rain gear). The ultra-low gearing made climbing the hill over to the MUP a non-issue.

I decided to take it easy but I still carried a fair amount of speed down the Rock Island Line. The drop-bars and riding position are PERFECT! THere were still a couple of times I wished for a slightly higher top gear. When I bought the bike last winter I upped the big front ring to the largest I could find for the 94BCD crank...46 teeth. combined with an 11 tooth on the rear I get 110 gear inches with the 26" wheel (I think). Low gear is 22x28 for 21 gear inches.

The man who lies on the trail on the blind corner relocated himself to the rocky section off the trail using some cardboard sheets to make it more tolerable. Hopefully this works for him if he must be in this area.

The trail was moderately crowded and I did a fair amount of bell ringing (or honking) slowing, taking to the gravel shoulder or grass and other courteous behavior which gave me both a smug satisfaction and assuaged my guilt from behaving so badly on the trail last week. At one point there was a woman on one side of the trail with a small dog on the other side. Sure enough, it was a retractable leash and she was unsuccessful at reeling in her dog, so she finally hurried across to the dog's side of the trail.

There is a mini roundabout on the trail at the north end of America the Beautiful Park. I (and others) usually just make a left turn into the park, but in keeping with my smug etiquette routine I decided to take the slight right and do the roundabout in proper counter clockwise fashion.

I had slowed to 7 or 8 mph because the outer apron of the roundabout banks off-camber downward to a gravel path. But I felt my front tire slip down the much-too-steep apron. In that split second I could see my big 26" smoothies losing grip and me falling hard and getting banged and scraped on the dirt and gravel.

But that was all in my head and the front tire slid an inch but hooked up and I was able to steer back up onto the pavement successfully despite the pitch of the pavement and the angle of my approach. However, there was that sudden blast of adrenaline to contend with.

I arrived at the office refreshed and uplifted as a co-worker saw me coast past the "employee of the month" parking space I had garnered this month. He joked that I must park whatever vehicle I arrive in in the space.