Onegun

Oops! Forgot to post this until I read about zzOtherlandzz mosquitoes.

On the Friday ride I posted about, I stopped to eat lunch just north of the Pithlachascotee River bridge, (about 3 miles south of SR52). Since I was planning to eating a sandwich, I leaned the bike up, took my gear off, and sat down on the park bench there. I no sooner pulled my sandwich out than I felt something stinging my legs. I looked down and they were covered with these tiny winged insects that were a quarter inch long or bigger.

I jumped up and stomped all the beggars off my legs, geared back up and took off. I knew there was another rest stop with a picnic table a mile away just south of the bridge. So I rode/stopped there. It was the same story, just not as bad. I had to eat my sandwich while walking around so they wouldn't bother me.

Today my legs have about a dozen itchy, swollen red spots all about a quarter inch in diameter. Not a big deal, cause that kind of crap doesn't bother me much, but thought I'd warn anyone rides that way to just keep on riding until you get to an alternate rest area.

We've run into this before at a favorite rest stop near the water on the Pinellas Trail. Never a problem, then one spring day we got swarmed by the same biting *something*. Thirty days later there was no trace of them.

What were they? Biting flies? Deer flies, (which live on blood), are a suspect, although that would mean the red spots were an allergic reaction, and I am generally not allergic to anything but ignorant people.

Some sort of small bee, (we used to call them sweat bees), with a venomous sting would fit the symptoms, too. But, who knows? I didn't take the time to study one closely enough to identify it. Knee deep, alligators, swamp.

So just a word to the wise, and it might be a general warning for this area of Florida and any rest stop near any of the rivers and creeks. For a month or so, anyway.

qcpmsame 

Onegun,
Welcome to the land of the eternal insect infestation, even if you are a native! They sound like deer flies but I'm like you with the red marks form the bites. Too small for a sweat bee, it seems, but maybe a different subspecies I don't know about. I'd encourage everyone to wear a DEET based insecticide starting now, with all the insect borne illnesses going on it just makes sense to me. I can't ride fast enough to outrun them so I guess it is OFF! for me.

Bill

Ronno6

I went for a nice 36 miler thru the fern farms of Emporia , Piersen and Seville Florida.
I rode my 27" frame Cannlndale ST400, Babe the Blue Ox. Beautiful cloudless day with a
moderate NE breeze to blow me home.
I stopped at a roadside sno cone stand for a Tutti-Frutti sno cone. Yummy on a warm day!

RonH

Thanks for the warning.

I'm all for bringing DDT back. It seemed to work just fine in the old days.

zzOtherlandzz

We were at Mosses Creek riding the new mountain bike trails a few months ago and were being attacked in the parking lot by red gnat looking things. I'm not sure what they were but they were biting the crap out of us. Normally the gnats just annoy me flying around your face and all of that but these things were biting my legs like crazy. A lot of horses get ridden on this particular trail & load and unload in the parking area.... Maybe that had something to do with it. They weren't bad out on the actual trail itself,,, thank goodness.

Yep rode yesterday.... (tuesday) ... 10th day in a row with a ride for me. Ended up with 50.07 (had to do a few laps in the parking lot to get 50 lol). Kind of 2 separate rides, what we call the pre-ride tuesday ride.. and then the normal tuesday evening ride a half hour after the first one. LOTs 0 fun!!

RonH

I wasn't in the mood for hills today so drove to SR50 and rode the Litespeed south from there. Got to SR52 and decided to turn around after reading about the bug infestation just south of there that Bill told us about.
Managed a paltry 35 miles.

Onegun

Ron, it appears to be just by the water. Rode yesterday with Maggi and a friend of hers who's been off the bike for a couple of years. Did 25 miles with a stop in Crewes Lake Park. When we rode out onto the wooden pier over the water and stopped, the same*whatevers* started showing up. So we rode off the pier and stopped at the train station for a break, (200 meters from the water), and no sign of them.

qcpmsame 

They sound like what we in NW Florida call "No see 'ums", not sure what the actual genus and species are but the little devils can take over an area. We have had to put off work in some areas of our construction job sites on the various Naval Bases here, you cannot just spray any insecticides when on the bases. Sorry you have had the run ins with these evil creatures, just a part of Florida life.

Bill

Onegun

No, Bill, these were between a quarter inch long to maybe half inch. They ain't "no see `ums" but I'm familiar with those, too. Being a Florida native, most flying blood suckers don't even bother me, but these things stung and left a welt not unlike a fire ant.

Bill

Onegun

Uh, no wonder you had to get up so early for an 8AM ride. It's now at 7AM! Great. As soon as it's nice enough to ride at 8, they start at 7! I see how they roll now! They're EXTREME!

Well, I set out to ride up to Extreme and help you shoulder that heavy burden, but I left my house at 7 thinking the ride was at 8. So almost as soon as I got to the trail and started heading north, they blew by me heading south. I chased for a while, but OFS set in so I had to settle into my own pace and didn't roll up on them until they had stopped at SR52.

That's when I saw you didn't make it today, and it was me who had to ride sweep. That's right coach! I wasn't last! I was riding sweeper!

Rode back up to my jumping off point, (Lawless Road), with Z and another guy, handed the Lantern back to Z and rode home. Nice ride, and nice to be out at that time of the morning again! 25 miles for me.

RonH

Got up "early" today and headed down to the US98 parking area. Got there around 9:45AM. That's early for me.
Rode south to County Line Road. Lots of rides out today. Stopped for a gel and then headed north. Stopped at SR50 and got water and had another gel. Struck up a conversation with a guy (looked to be 50-something) who rode a SS bike from Brooksville along US98 and down the Suncoast Trail. He was trying to decide if he wanted to retrace his route of just follow SR50 back to Brooksville.
He was giving my Felt a good look and had several questions about it. After 20+ minutes we parted and I headed back to the car.
It was getting WARM the last 3 or 4 miles and it was wearing me down. Rode a total of 40.5 miles.

Ronno6

Yup. Only 18 miles though.
Darn clicking noise in drivetrain is driving me crazy!
So, I came home and installed a new crank and BB.
I had planned to head out again, but it's RAINING !!
Test ride may have to wait til tomorrow.

Onegun

I rode yesterday for 22 miles. Had something of the same issue as Ronno6 with creaking that *sounds* like it's coming from the drive train. However, over the years I've learned never to assume. The last two times I had a noise that came from that direction and/or was in time with my pedaling, it turned out to be:
A. Dry leather straps on my shoes rubbing against dry leather uppers and making a creaking noise. Fixed with leather dressing.
B. Headset spacers, (even though the headset was in proper adjustment), creaking against one another. A little grease between spacers fixed it.

That last one really threw me for a couple of weeks because the 1/1000 play, (or whatever), was coming from the fork, not the bars. So it even creaked when I rode no hands, cause you still move the bike side to side somewhat even no-handed!

From years in shops, I've seen/heard "drive train" creaks come from saddles, seat posts, rims, handlebars, shoes, cleats, pedals and of course, broken cranks and frames.

Don't know if I've fixed mine yet, but I treated my shoes and re-greased those headset spacers just to eliminate them right up front. I intend to ride tomorrow and we'll see!

Onegun

Rode Thursday for 30 miles. No big deal, nice day, and swung thru Extreme Bikes to bench race with Z for a few minutes. Good ride, but it's starting to get hot early now. So, before long, rides are going to have to be completed prior to Z opening up! Aarghh!

RonH

I got out earlier than usual today (8:30). Headed down to the US98 trailhead of the Suncoast and was greeted by a "Trail Closed" sign so I drove down to SR50. Rode north from there and found that the trail isn't closed -- yet. I'm guessing that starting Tuesday (after the long weekend) it will be closed between mile marker 40 1/2 and 41 1/4. They've paved a path for the large equipment and dump trucks to get from the roadway to the retention area they're enlarging. The trucks and equipment will be driving across the trail.
So you can ride north to about the 40 1/2 mile marker.
The construction folks told me the trail will be closed for a few months.

It started getting kinda hot when I headed south. I rode a whopping 24 miles.

zzOtherlandzz

Yep.... After I got healed up from the ankle sprain and then the flu RIGHT after the ankle sprain I decided I would try to ride for 30 days in a row.. It is national bike month... Here is what I have so far.... My own made up rules... Ride for at least an hour a day...

1 5/5 38 miles
2 5/6 24.75
3 5/7 39.25
4 5/8 17
5 5/9 24.90
6 5/10 16.25 Mountain bike
7 5/11 15'ish 1hr on the bike
8 5/12 41.25
9 5/13 8-9 miles .. Mountain bike 1hr 11mins
10 5/14 50.07
11 5/15 11 miles on the mountain bike.. Just a tad over an hour
12 5/16 40.35
13 5/17 27.88
14 5/18 15.98 miles
15 5/19 33.37 miles
16 5/20 16.28 miles mountain bike, Caravelle Ranch
17 5/21 8 miles (1hr 11mins on mountain bike) Dunns Creek
18 5/22 18.25 miles
19 5/23 24.34 + 1/3 mile walk on the dirt to house... SAG Support shut ringer off.. LOL
20 5/24 14.03 1hr 2 mins on the bike headwind the whole way back from Palatka

Total so far... 484.95

RonH

^^^
+1 on the good riding.



Decided to try something different today so drove over to the Withlacoochee Trail and rode north from Inverness. Lots of riders out today. The weather was very nice -- not hot -- even though it was after 10AM when I got on the bike. Stopped at the north end of the trail and had a gel and filled my water bottle. Had a nice ride south to the car. Stopped at the Hernando trailhead and had another gel and got more water. The wind was blowing just right so I could smell the wonderful aroma from the Chicken King. YUM!!!! It still wasn't hot when I got to the car.
Rode a total of 34.7 miles.

Onegun

We tried something different, too! Maggi said she wanted to take a tandem out! Took the Trek north to Extreme bikes, a 27+ mile ride for us, and she did fine. Cool. So maybe we're OK to start getting some tandem miles in now.

Ron, sad to say, but Chicken King is not the establishment it was before it burnt down and got bought out. Honestly, IMHO, Publix deli chicken is better than Chicken King now. What a shame. My mom lives off of 200, and our family had been eating there for decades. But no more.

It does still smell good, though!

RonH

Gotta disagree Bill. My wife and I found the Chicken King last year (Feb-Mar 2012). The place we were renting was about 1.5 miles from there. We stopped there many times and thought it was the best chicken in these parts. Since we moved here we make the long trek from *****assa to Hernando a few times a month. We went there last night for supper. YUM!!!
The food must have been out of this world before the fire.

Onegun

hehe! Well, to each their own! Then again, it may well be that those who eat in get the fresh cooked stuff. We always do take-out and go back to my moms with it. The stuff they gave us the last three times we tried them were as dry and tasteless as something that that had been under the heat lamp for 7 hours.

Under the previous owners that never happened, and yes, it was out of this world, so it was quite a let down.

zzOtherlandzz

Rode Monday at Santos with 5 friends.... An AWESOME day!!! My longest mountain bike ride to date (with no pavement).... We ended up riding 33.5 miles... Lots and lots of fun... I was whooped when I got home...

parkersdad

I road 6 miles to work and will be riding 6 more in about 30 minutes.

RonH

^^^
Kudos. Bike commuting is a great way to get some extra miles during the week.

RonH

Took the Litespeed to Extreme Bicycles this morning for a tune-up. First one in a few years. This evening I'm getting a long overdue fit on the Litespeed. Haven't had a fit since I bought it in 2001.

Ran into some rain on the way to the shop. The clouds were gathering off to the southeast but checked MyRadar app on my iPhone and decided to go for it. Rode the Felt south to SR52 and the sky was REALLY dark so decided it was time to turn around. Rode less than a mile north and it started sprinkling. Decided to stop at a shelter and wait it out. Put the bike on the table and I sat on the dry side. Then the rain started. Waited about 15-20 minutes and checked the radar again. LOTS of rain still coming so decided to tough it out and headed north. Finally rode out of the rain about 8 or so miles later. Sunny and windy for the rest of the ride to the shop.
Rode a total of 28.8 miles.
Got home and hosed off the bike and sat the shoes and bike in the sun to dry. Tomorrow is clean and lube the bike day.

RonH

Rode the Litespeed south from US98 to Extreme Bicycles. Gave Z the thumbs up on the tune up and fit he did on Wednesday.
Then headed back to the car. Had to get home to do my Friday errands.
The wind was terrible as I headed south but I had a nice tailwind (although the wind wasn't as strong) as I rode north.
Rode 31.2 miles.