So last night Steve Barlow and I met at Bud’s place because Steve wanted to try a range of bents and so we let him have a go at the v-rex, the nimbus, and the corsa. He was very wobbly and couldn’t ride at first, but once he figured out to let go of the death grip he was gold. And sold. He’s putting his fixie up for sale to try and get himself a corsa. When he gets used to it, we’re all SCREWED. He’s so freaking fast on his road bike as it is. If he had the time, he’d be a cat-3 I expect.
He’s a tinkerer as well as rider, having made a home-made LED light that’s close in brightness to the light and motion arc-lion I have, and after having talked about Bud making me a disc wheel for my tica, showed up with his own version, which was made out of that sheeting that goes over light fixtures. Heavier, but seemed to do the trick. It had to have added 2mph to his cruising speed, and kept him fresher on the bike at his regular pace.
Anyway, we had a good ride. We started at around 6pm and opted for the 40 mile route in able to get back to Cedar Hill and hit the dairy queen. Lights came on after a nice big hamburger, and we decided to just roam around the area willy-nilly. We found where a few neighborhoods ended and did a lot of climbing to get back to the route. We did 2-3 small circles around the 67 access road and lake ridge and such to end up with 79 miles, finishing at 12 and chatting till 12:30. around a 17mph pace. I’m exhausted today because I rode with no mix and no electrolytes, which was a bad idea. I had plenty of gel so I could keep the calories going though.
Traffic was essentially nonexistent at these times on a Sunday, and what was there gave us a W-I-D-E berth. Much wider than normal, probably due to us riding side-by-side and having such bright headlights, and his planet bike superflash and my borrowed fenix ld-2 in blinking mode.
Riding at night is fantastic, and this is a good route. With a good light you can see the road well, and it cools down tremendously. Less traffic. You don’t pay attention to your speedometer much, and you slow down a bit and smell the roses. The night looks and smells different.
We’ll likely do this again sometime in the next month, and if you’re interested, you can come and we can do just small 15 mile loops on very good light trafficked roads. A simple headlight and rear blinkie will do, and Steve and I can light up the road all by ourselves. It’d be a great intro to doing night riding, and you don’t have to commit to doing any real distance, since you can quit after one loop if you like. We can even cut loops short if you get nervous.
Any interest?
Some pics and video
Freshly laid chipseal. Only goes a quarter mile but boy was it rough!
This dork rides with a helmet mirror AND a fanny pack!
Pretty church 20 miles in:
Road ahead and road behind
Video of Steve testing out his new aero wheel disc:
Some shaky video, but is a good demo of how bright the planet bike superflash is at dusk: