That was just fun to look at…and the GPS Track from Ride with GPS
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Author: John
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PDX StravArt
Peter created this route and with the COVID-19 virus “Stay Home” in place the roads were clear enough to be save on a few places that are usually EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, today I just sprinted the heck out of them while lights were holding cars back so it was safe enough for an Urban Commuter experienced with traffic. Fun route to just ramble through Portland and lots of neighborhoods I haven’t been in some time. A couple of gravel roads, but nothing the Atlantis can’t run on.
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Ramble to The Arrow Coffeehouse
Today’s Ride was a Ramble to The Arrow Coffeehouse where I was able to purchase a coffee and baked good off their site and have them set on the front porch while all of us stayed 10 feet away from the porch and each other. So nice they are trying to make it. Give them some love and drop by.
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Setting Up Shop in the Spare Bedroom
I don’t have a GF at this moment AND I have setup my bike room in what was the spare bedroom. The situation is causal, not causality. BTW, it is hard to think of it as anything except a bike room now.
Of course I KNEW that I would eventually be maintaining my bikes here as opposed to the basement. First, the basement floor is hard to clean and the bike stand was always in the way. So I purchase a section of black roll vinyl flooring from Home Depot to prevent grease and what not from falling off my bike and damaging the floor. I purchased the 24″ wide roll and ran it down the center of the room.
This was WRONG!
I should have covered the entire floor and the walls, any similarity to a “padded room” is merely coincidental.
Those flat MTB pedals scrape everything. Last night, as I switched to clipless pedals, trying to rid myself of recurring knee pain. I dropped the pedal and it landed, as everything does, exactly 1″ over the edge of the mat and left a character mark (dent) in the soft wood floor.
It is a mark that perhaps will indicate something to someone someday, or perhaps I will sand it out, or perhaps the floor will get replaced. What I know is that it won’t be the last mark in the floor, and it isn’t the first I have caused.
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Rails to Trails MTB track along Klickitat river. @petebikes suggested that the Salsa Woodsmoke could be overbike; however, I wanted to test frame bag and a few extras. The quad lock slips, but is manageable…the second feedbag is finally useful although I really have to think “Not-for-Nalgene”…the Revelate Tank bag requires constant watching as comes open a lot and stuff always flying off…the custom frame bag from Rogue Panda is absolutely excellent. Important to keep it closed on car in the heavy rain.
In the end, it wasn’t overbike as a number of rocky sections existed…I pounded home with real joy and abandon on the way back to the trail head and ended up 8th on a hour long Strava segment. I should have eaten again part way down as my legs just gave out.
It seems there is a subtle push about what to use your bike for, more speed, faster trips, more technical, tracks and just like running…farther, faster, higher, longer…FOMO is a huge motivator. But really, there exists a solid argument for just getting out there and establishing the pattern of keeping rolling.
Woodsmoke @ $12.63/mile and Soma @ $4.23/mile so, still not up to whatever a car goes for but it is early days and I haven’t even complete one year with them.
I noticed that Western Bike Works has a Sunday ride called Rock Creek Roll Call and thought last Sunday that it would be a decent ride to get me back in the saddle. I knew that after a month off the bike due to illness I really didn’t have the legs or stamina to pull this off in a group. The weather made it work, I started the day putting my fenders on the bike so was too late to catch the group start and off I went. Ran out of steam when I finished the penultimate climb and so when I finally hit town at a crawl, the torrential rain capped the day. Was pleased to get my leg back over the bike and onto the ground without falling over. 🙂 I have to be in better shape by finishing!
Relive ‘Rock Creek Roll Call on my own’
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Ride Celebration – Falls Creek Hike/Bike
I rode in the area of the Falls Creek Trail (and Ice Caves)
It was a couple of weeks ago, but I was stiff the day after it.
The thing I noticed most was that I totally ran out of water and food. Still learning about Mountain Biking and the calorie count.
This affected me most on the downhill as my legs turned to rubber and I was forced to really dial back my speed as I started to make numerous mistakes. Oh well it was so fun to be out with @petebikes and I learned a lot.
Gear Note: I immediately went out and purchased a Katadyn BeFree Collapsible Water Filter Bottle from REI
Under the giggles category was I had the bike pressure set to 26 and 30 and that is simply too high and I was bouncing off stuff. Thinking 22/24 for next time.
Until then, and later 🙂