My First Flat!

On Saturday I took a ride out to Jonesborough and back. It's not a long ride - around 12 miles or so round trip.




Not much to report on the ride. It was sunny and in the low 30's. I did spot a bike rack in the Woodcraft parking lot! That's the first bike rack I've seen on this side of town. Makes sense though, there's a bike lane along that stretch of road.




This morning I discovered that the Fuji's rear tire was flat! Completely flat. I hadn't noticed a problem when I was riding the day before, so maybe it was a slow leak? I pulled thd wheel off the bike and found this:




Can you see that? A teeny tiny little sliver of wire. It had poked through right in the center of the tire into the inner tube. So I pulled thd tire and tube off, found the hole and patched it with Slime Skabs .




This package had come with the Terra Trike and had been laying in my tool since.




They're quite easy to use. Just scuff up the area on thd tire where thd patch will go, peel off the patch and stick it on.




I've got her all back together now. We'll see how the patch holds up.

Getting Muddy

On Sunday The Husband and I finally got to go on a ride together! It's been months since our last ride. The temperature was in the upper 50's (F), and the day started out with blue skies. But by the time we got ourselves out the door it was overcast.




The day before it had rained. HEAVY. And the creek that the Greenbelt follows had overflowed on to the path leaving many spots like this:




Long stretches of mud, about 2-4 inches deep. And long puddles too.







We had a blast riding through it all! The bikes got filthy:










For the most part we stayed clean and dry (yay for fenders!) My boots got some mud spray, probably from riding too close behind.




I didn't have any problems riding through the muddy stretches or through the water. My husband mentioned that he experienced some fish-tailing on the trike. But over all both functioned just fine.




Riding through the puddles cleaned off some if the mud, but when we got home we still had to hose the bikes off. Oh, they were filthy! But it was fun. :)

Subsurface Adventuring

This past Sunday I got a chance to try out something I've wanted to do for a long time: Scuba dive! Recently a scuba shop opened up near me, and they offer FREE introductory classes. I had to jump on that opportunity.

It's a very scaled down class. Just teaching the basics, enough to put you in the deep end of a pool and let you swim about for about an hour.

They taught us how to add and release air from our vests to determine our buoyancy, how to breathe, the importance of constantly breathing, and not holding your breath, especially when ascending/descending, and how to clear water out of the mouth piece, should it come out of your mouth underwater.

Then we all went under and followed the instructors to the deep end of the pool and played around! They had a hula hoop down there to swim through, some toy torpedos to throw around. We tried out a "egg and spoon" race with ping pong balls that we would try to keep under the spoon. We did hand stands and flips and blew bubble rings.

I had a blast! Definitely worth getting up early for on a Sunday.

Cold Saturday Ride to Nowhere

Just felt like I had to get out and ride. Anywhere. It was a chilly ride, in the low 30's, with cloud cover, some wind and snow coming in.

Most of yesterday's snow had melted by mid afternoon, but they're calling for another 1-2 tonight. You can see some coming down just over those hills!

Rode out to the lake. It's really low. Seems like every time I go there it's lower.

If you look really closely there is a little cold duck swimming near the bridge. :)

As usual, when out riding in the cold I'm fine. Usually just a bit warm. But as soon as I get home and settle in I get COLD. It doesn't help that any part of me that has surface fat seems to radiate cold! I'll get in and change clothes in case what I was in is sweaty, pile on warm things, fix a hot drink, find a feline to snuggle, anything but here I am, an hour later and I'm still cold! How do you warm up after a cold ride?

First Snow! But No Bicycling.

We got our first snow today! Not much, just about and inch, but snow just the same! I was all excited and ready to get out and tae the long way to work this morning, but sadly it was not to be.

First thing I discovered was that my U-lock had frozen shut! Also, my break levers and shifter as well. My front wheel was also frozen to the porch! In a panic I went to the kitchen and put a cup of water in the microwave thinking that I could melt the frozen parts. But, then I learned that the temperature was not expected to get above 30, so everything would just re-freeze while I was at work, leaving me with the same problem. Hairdryer! I rushed to the bathroom and got the hairdryer, and was able to free up the front wheel, rear break and u-lock, but by then I had about 10 minutes before I needed to be at work. So I brought the Pashley in to thaw and started my walk to work.

I'm not sure I would have been able to ride up and out of my parking lot. There might have been only about a half an inch of snow covering it, but there was a sheet of ice underneath! Later I learned that a neighbor had made several attempts in their car and kept sliding back down before finally giving up and going home.

The street was fine once out of the parking lot, and I had a lovely walk down the hill to work (I work just at the end of the street, only about a half mile from home). But once at work I got to thinking. Like a lot of you, I would LOVE to be able to replace my car with my bikes. And I do get to use my bikes as my primary form of transportation. But here's my thought: If I leave the car out in the rain all day, and at night that rain turns to snow and everything freezes, the brakes and transmission don't freeze. I don't want to have to bring my bike in for fear of it not functioning in the morning. Is there a way to prevent frozen brakes and shifters? I suppose I can try towel drying those parts and drying out the u-lock before locking up for the night. I had thought for sure that if this bike could function fully incased in ice then the Pashley would with just a little moisture. Ah, well, lessons learned then. :)