New Stuff Rides

Giro Ride heads out along Lakeshore Drive

There's nothing quite like that first ride with a brand new cassette, new chain, and new tires. Well, except for that first ride on an whole new bike - something I've actually experienced only a few times. Anyway, although the old stuff wasn't quite at the end of its lifetime by my admittedly low standards, riding out to the Giro Saturday morning felt amazingly smooth and quiet. The Giro Rides themselves, Saturday and Sunday, seemed fairly sedate by Giro standards, probably thanks to the relatively calm wind. Perhaps another factor was that I'd been off the bike for two days after my COVID booster, so my legs were pretty fresh.

Monday's usual solo ride up the levee was unremarkable except for the unavoidable realization that the days are getting shorter and hence the morning rides are getting darker for longer. On Tuesday I got held up by a train crossing Oak Street, but fortunately the rest of the group waited the extra three or four minutes. The ride was a fairly fast one, which I find pretty stressful in the dark. Despite the powerful headlights everyone has, pedestrians seem to appear suddenly even at the moderate 22-23 mph speeds we usually settle upon. At this time of year we're all the way out to the big dip around LaRose before it feels light enough to turn them off.

Well isn't that just great...

This morning I headed out to meet the WeMoRi under a starry sky and with the temperature down around the low 70s. As usually I hovered around Lakeshore Drive at Marconi until I saw the lights coming, finally merging into the group between Lakeshore Drive and RE Lee. We turned onto RE Lee and I slotted into the draft somewhere in the middle of the group behind Big Rich as I started to recover from the acceleration. A moment later - SLAM - I hit a big crack in the concrete, in the dark, probably one I've flatted on before. The rear tire went immediately flat as I eased out of the group and coasted to a stop just past the entrance to the USDA Southern Regional Research Center where four or five cars were lined up waiting for the gate to be opened. As I removed the rear wheel Geoff rolled up and helped out by providing some light and conversation. It was dark enough to keep me from having a good look at the tire, but I knew it had been a pinch flat so there wouldn't be anything stuck in the tread. I just pumped it up with CO2 and hoped for the best. Hearing no explosion, I backtracked to Marconi and hovered around there until I saw lights coming and turned toward the lake. Four or five riders came streaming past, obviously fresh from contesting the Backdraft Sprint, so I latched onto them fully expecting the rest of the group to come up to us momentarily. We turned onto Lakeshore Drive and as we approached the bridge I took a pull up to the top of the bridge. Then I pulled off and coasted a bit, planning to get back into the middle of end of the group. One problem. The group wasn't there. There was a pretty big gap and I was now stuck in the middle, so I just rolled along and waited to be sucked up by the main group where I remained.

When I got home I figured I'd better check the tire, bring it up to proper pressure, and put a fresh spare and CO2 in my bag. That's when I saw the slash in the tire with the tube trying to push its way through. I was pretty pissed since that tire had maybe 150 miles on it. Luckily I had another new tire on hand, and I'll probably boot the slashed one. I really need to get a few people together one morning and fill in some of the holes on the WeMoRi course. It's getting to be a rare occurrence to finish one of those without someone flatting.