Fantastic ride in this morning! Inspired by Smaug1 I rode my 20" Dahon Boardwalk folder to work. I also chose to take the south Greenway route I had balked at twice the last two weeks!

First the weather was just perfect... Clear skies and low wind. The internet and bike thermometer said it was 37F, but to me it felt more like 44-ish. And by the end of the ride it was 44F. Fall colors and leaves everywhere and the sun had just risen so the streets were in a soft, bright twilight while above it all Pikes Peak was ablaze in golden sunshine which later spilled down to the foothills.

I decided to start out with the first leg of my old South Circle route which I know I haven't ridden in 5 years since the old job ended. Nothing much had changed except Tia Juana Street had been repaved which was nice. I would then take Bijou Street all the way down to Prospect Ave where instead of continuing through the heart of downtown I would turn south and take prospect down further south...but that is where I copped out the last two times. So Instead I decided before the ride to make an earlier turn and ride through Memorial Park and along the lake there. And that was spectacular with the skateboard park, the ball fields, the Olympic Training Center velodrome, the geese and then the morning sun setting the lake ablaze.

The next decision would be a couple miles away at Dorchester Park. The more direct route would be to stay on Las Vegas Street to Tejon Ave and turn south to the Greenway Trail entrance...or even stay on LAs Vegas till it ends at the trail further on. But I decided to exit Las Vegas onto a short one block section of Weber I used to take that ends in an alley that takes me up to the sidewalk of South Nevada Ave and puts me at the Highway on-ramp. It adds a couple hundred yards, but it lets me relive my old route as far as I can.

I checked Google satellite view to make sure the sidewalk I needed to connect from there indeed existed, and it did. From there I hopped on the Greenway heading north and took the bridge to the highway underpass that spills out into the Walmart parking lot a few blocks south of the office on 8th Street.

The big surprise was that the total length was 7.45 miles instead of the 9 I was expecting. It took 34 minutes which is about 4-5 minutes slower than my usual shorter routes, and the 8.5 mile trail to trail route. I averaged 13.1 mph which is a little faster than my more direct routes, but not as fast as the limited interruption trail-to-trail route.

The 20" folder is such a normal experience compared to the 16" folder, and when I'm stretched forward on the tips of the bull-bars the riding position is very road-bike like.