Test Rides

I rode slowly, carefully, down the dark and quiet streets toward the lakefront.  I could feel the cool October air blowing through the new crop of hair on my legs and made a mental note to do something about that. The Orbea was still sporting its Rolf race wheels and 6-Gap cassette, since it really didn't seem worth the considerable effort to swap out cassettes and wheels one-handed at the end of the season. 

It had been almost three weeks since I'd smashed my right collarbone and I had decided it was time from a little test ride out to meet the Saturday Giro.  I figured that the five and a half miles to Starbucks would be a good start, providing I took my time and stuck to the quiet streets.  I was surprised how well it went, actually.  The first broken collarbone, back in 2008, was still quite painful after five weeks, but this one felt quite different.  I rode for a long time with my hands on the tops with no complaints whatsoever, and eventually slid down onto the brake hoods where I was equally comfortable.  The only discomfort came when I changed hand positions, so for the most part I just didn't do that with my right hand. Of course I was still wearing the x-brace.  On the one hand, the brace definitely helps stabilize the whole collarbone and shoulder.  On the other, it makes it difficult to reach upward and forward with my right arm (which is pretty much its intended function).  Riding more on the tip of the saddle than usual seemed to help a bit. So after the Giro rolled out (it will be a couple of weeks yet before I'm willing to risk getting in the middle of a group ride) I headed back home to formulate plans for the next week.

I didn't ride on Sunday, and instead took a long walk and did some work around the house. I'd had the electrician over during the week to change the routing of the house's electrical service.  For reasons lost to history, the main service to the house came in to one corner, and from there three separate wires, in places devoid of insulation, wrapped around the back of the house, through three separate porcelain insulators, across the back shed roof (that used to be the back porch) with only about four inches of clearance, to the opposite corner where they finally entered conduit and came down to the meter located mid-way down the length of the house on the opposite side of the drop.  It was basically an electrical inspector's nightmare.  We are starting on an expensive remodel of the kitchen and this was basically step one.  Anyway, on Sunday I fabricated some sheet aluminum sections to seal off the holes left in the antique aluminum siding where the meter had been.

So this morning was test ride number two. I was aiming for twenty miles on the levee bike path, which is always especially quiet on Mondays. This time I was going to try to get just a little bit of exercise without going too fast or taking any chances.  It worked out fine, although I was feeling pretty paranoid as I rode the last mile or so down Carrollton Avenue in traffic.  I have a followup visit with Dr. Savoie tonight (7 pm!), so I'll wait until I see how that goes before making plans for the rest of the week.