Just got back from a nice 29 mile ride out into the western suburbs of Richmond, VA. Very nice ride... It felt great to finally get out there and stretch out in the drops for a little bit. No lower back pain, no sciatica, no anything. It was great!

29 miles in 1 hr 51 min for an avg speed of 15.6 mph. Below is a photo taken along Snead Rd in Manakin-Sabot, VA where the suburban road narrows a bit and goes into woods, well away from any houses.

I stopped briefly and am straddling my old C&V '85 Fuji when I snapped this photo with my smartphone.
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Did the 32 mile Brain Tumor Alliance Charity Ride, with my cycling team, this morning along Clearwater and the Gulf Beaches. Nice ride but it was hot, windy and too much traffic. There are two pretty mean bridges along the route and you have to climb them out and back. Yesterday's 58 mile ride didn't really help in getting me over those bridges as easy as I normally climb them, especially on the return leg.

15 miles west of Foat Wuth on the Unibagel late Saturday morning. Got hottish toward noon, mostly due to humidity. Not bad for late summer in Texas. Saw a few other cyclists too, more than usual on that rural route.

Stopped to chat with the fellow who gave me a lift home a year ago almost to the day when I had a flat and no pump. At the time I'd been riding again only a couple of weeks and could barely make 3-5 miles without exhaustion. He was kind enough to ferry me and my bike home. The tires I had on that bike back then wouldn't stay on the rims uninflated, so it would have been a long slog home three miles with a 35 lb bike on my shoulder.

Also gave me a chance to test my rim adjustments. First time in 30 years I'd tackled a wheel wobble. Was a bit nervous but the wheel held up just fine. Still a bit of a hop in the rim, maybe 1/8". I'll probably let the LBS tackle truing both wheels properly, so I'll have a good starting point.

If my replacement brake pads arrive from Amazon today I might ride again later. Definitely tomorrow.

3rd ride on my new bike. 20 miles at just under 14 mph on the Baldwin Rail-Trail. Getting my bottom and neck in riding shape. Felt pretty good. My first time on that trail and it was very enjoyable.

Friday - poured down rain in the afternoon but able to get in a 13 mile ride in the evening after driving home from work.
Today - first tandem ride since Midwest Tandem Rally two weeks ago. 23 local Screamer miles with my favorite stoker.

10 sunset and twilight miles from Kitty Hawk to Kill Devil Hills and back. First time getting my bike out to ride in the dusk with my wheel lights all lit up like a carnival ride. Took the very quiet and peaceful side roads packed cheek to jowl with vacation properties. Received lots of nice compliments on the colorful wheels from walkers and other riders alike.

Did the final mile in the pitch black (thanks to my Garmin Edge for keeping track of where I was and where home was) watching the moon rise up out of the ocean as a big, over-inflated ball. As I got back in our driveway I glanced out at the beach and noticed something strange about the waves. Just off the shoreline they were glowing a neon blue. Like black light blue. First time I've ever seen bioluminescent waves, so as soon as I carried the bike up the stairs and back into the house, I grabbed hubby (who grabbed his camera) and we went out onto the deck overlooking the beach, and for about 1/2 hour we just sat in the soft glow of the rising moon, mesmerized by the brilliant blue aura lighting up the waves as they came crashing towards the shoreline. Hubby got some gorgeous shots, too.

I have plans to make tomorrow morning a 30 mile ride day as the winds are forecast to be almost zero.

Yes, I rode today, a metric century in fact. It was the normal Saturday morning breakfast ride, plus I rode with a couple of other riders to get some bonus miles before returning home.

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Yes I did, though I'll admit it was to a friend's house 3 miles away and they took me to the dollar store to buy a bunch of really nice food items for a casserole dish, desserts and plenty of AA batteries.


Which was because I had a check for selling something I couldn't cash until Monday so it's my friend's money then.

rode about 16 miles on my normal lake route new phone did not get Map My Ride working. First time riding with a cadence computer kind of an eye opener trying to maintain a certain number helped my overall time (I think) Weather perfect

53 slow to moderately paced miles with my buddy Frankie. Temps were only in the low 90's but it felt like 110º while riding. Taking a day off tomorrow.

33 miles slow in the wind but glad for the sunshine.
rob

I completed the restoration of the 2006 Tarmac SL (S-Works frame) with a new SRAM chain for 20.4 miles.
(Ultegra chain rings, 12-30 cassette, Mavic Aksium wheels, Continental tires, textured bar tape, SRAM 1091 hollow link chain.) A little more than I originally intended to spend but hey, I have plastic. What a sweet ride.

2016: 3,915 Miles ♂ Total Miles: 13,536 · Tarmac SL 569m

I rode 36 mi. on Friday night, 33 on Saturday, both on the Gainesville Hawthorne Trail, and 31 today around the town of Newberry, FL. So just over 100 for the weekend. I'm averaging close to 18 mph, slowly getting faster.

I ride a Trek Domane 6.2 P1 with Di2. It's a sweet ride ☺️

If I were coming down from Jacksonville and wanted to ride about 20 or so miles, where would you recommend getting on?

What a day in Seattle!!!
 

Rode a trusty steed, refurbed by a friend recently.
Fresh grease is good.
Touched-up paint is good.

31 Screamer miles with my favorite stoker midday today. Mostly suburban roads.
Then 9 miles in the evening on my long wheelbase 'bent.
The plan is to bike to work Monday and then donate blood in the morning. Hope I don't run out of gas on the ride home. :twitchy:

About 36-42 miles Sunday night. App quit partway twice, but these rides usually run 36-42 miles.

Only intended to ride a few miles to adjust the cantilever brakes after installing new Kool Stop salmon pads. Very fiddly, these cantilever brakes. By the time I got them set right I ran into some folks on a group ride and tagged along for the night. Seemed like a good opportunity to be sure the brakes worked. Fortunately they did.

25.66 miles this morning at a pace that was much more work than the average reflects.
I decided that I will just keep plodding up the hills til I lose about 20#.
(Yeah, good luck with that.....)

Brakes just slow you down...............

20.9 miles on the Tarmac SL (my new favorite). Half of that with the Kiwanis Coffee Riders (the normal Monday group). Warmed up for three days, shorts and shirt. I don't eat McDonald's but I'm lovin' It.

2016: 3,936 Miles ♂ Total Miles: 13,556 · Tarmac SL 589m

This morning checked another item off my Bucket List: cycling from Kitty Hawk south down to Cape Hatteras National Seashore and back - a 40 mile round trip.

Now if ya'll are the type to hear "blah blah blah" when your wife chats endlessly about something she just accomplished, you can stop reading now. All you needed to know was in the top sentence. But...if you want to hear the whole story....keep reading.

Since the OBX is due for a few days of rain, and today was supposed to be among the nicest, it was time to clean the chain, pump the tires, and get on my bike for the long ride south.

I started right after breakfast, told hubby to enjoy his morning with the collies, and hopped on my bike heading due south.... directly into a SSE headwind. As in "straight in your face" 10 mph winds with gusts up to 15. Lordy! I zigged and zagged down some side streets looking for relief, but all the roads are aligned N/S and there was no escape from the headwind. None at all. So back out onto the highway which was the straightest route. I think I averaged 10 mph in the 'resting your arms on the handlebar to get a low profile, dropping your head, and just keeping the pedals turning' type of riding. At times when the winds became intolerable, and my speed dropped down to power walking speed, with my "fun meter" hovering just above the "unhappy face" zone, I debated turning around and going home. But this was a Bucket List item and the upcoming days were full of forecast rain, so I carried on, through Kill Devil Hills and their lovely big wide biking shoulders that are wonderful to cycle on, and then into Nags Head. Enroute I passed a house that had a pirate flag hoisted high, mocking me as it flapped and snapped in the breeze. I glowered up at the grinning face, and silently vowed to see the back of that flag when the homebound tailwind let me sail on by with my head high and a grin on my face.

As it was, my bike and I continued on, me checking out all the houses along the way. The route had a decent biking/walking path to ride on... if you were walking or just tootling along on a beach bike. There were too many blind driveways, and expansion cracks for me. So I tended to remain on the road, and thus kept out of the way of the many locals out walking their dogs or strolling in packs for group exercise on the path. Everyone was very pleasant, and it was a nice morning to be out. Only a few road bikes passed, speeding along with destinations in mind; the rest were comfy old beach bikes, happily out for a slow sightseeing tootle. Those I passed with a smile and a wave, receiving the same in return.

As my bike and I made our way further and further south into the Old Town section of Nags Head, taking the beach side road off the main highway, the houses along the beach began to sit on the shoreline again, rather than cower behind a huge sand dune. Their sizes also shrank, more congenial and far more visually friendly than the monstrous skyscraper impersonal "houses" planted in the commercial end of Nags Head. I rather liked southern Nags Head for that reason.

At the very bottom of Nags Head, and at the end of two hours, my bike and I had covered the 20 miles to the sign announcing I had reached the border of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The quiet beach road had now ended, taking a short jog right to join with the main highway which is the only road going through the national park. I posed my bike in front of the National Park sign for a photo to show hubby later. It was time to take a nice long drink, text hubby to let him know I'd made it, turn the bike around to face north towards Kitty Hawk 20 miles away, catch a tailwind, and ride home. Hooray!!

On the way back north - at easily twice the speed as the trip south because the wind very considerately had remained coming from the SSE direction - I saw three touring riders heading south with loaded bikes. All in their mid 70s. One single guy and later a married couple - all happy to wave and smile back at my wave and thumbs up. All riding very slowly into the wind. Time isn't their big concern; they'll get wherever they are going when they get there. Nice philosophy. I was also keeping my eye open for an ice cream place to stop and get a dipped cone...but sadly they had all closed at the end of the summer season. Ah, well. I texted hubby to let him know I was halfway home.

With the brisk tailwind my bike and I, even with my now tiring knees, made short work of the return miles, and I got home clocking 3 hours and 20 minutes for the 40 mile trip.

Hubby met me at the door with a grin and a hand dipped ice cream cone for me to celebrate. Life is good!

Bucket List item: Bike 40 miles from Kitty Hawk to Cape Hatteras National Seashore and back. Check!

19 miles today as a bike commuter. Donated blood in the AM so my load was lighter in the PM.

You can get on at Hawthorne and head west, or I understand Palatka has nice long trails as well, and they run west to Lake Butler or east to St. Augustine. Haven't tried them yet, but they're on my bucket list.

In any event, you're not obligated to do the entire trail, as there are numerous turnoffs, etc....

Oh, and tonight I did 30 around Newberry. Feeling consistently stronger, especially noticed it this evening.

That Domane is one sweet ride......

I got home from work, finished a few things around the house and jumped on my bike for a 14 mile ride. Got home right before dark. Wasn't as far as I was hoping to get but I got some more miles on my new Defy! Just a felt a little sore in my neck the last couple of miles but I'll toughen up. It's been a long time since I rode anything but dirt trails on my MB! Best of both worlds!