Still Summer?

Sunday morning hoping it wouldn't rain. It did.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining, just noting that we are nearly halfway through November, still riding in summer kit, and won't even be considering firing up the central heat for at least another week, probably two. Despite the warm temperatures, however, we still have the humidity, often manifested in the form of rain, to deal with, and as usual for this time of year, the daily forecasts are, to say the least, hit-or-miss.

Wednesday morning, the day after the election, I headed off "to get my fair share of abuse" at the WeMoRi with the Rolling Stones' "You can't always get what you want" in my head. The temperature was in the mid-70s, and the humidity in the upper 90s. I had somehow awakened early that morning, so despite being back on standard time, it was still pretty dark as I made my way down the right lane of Wisner Blvd., following the headlight beam shining on the road ahead of me. All of a sudden a big dead branch hanging down from one of the oak trees materialized in front of me. There was no time to react, other than to white-knuckle the handlebar and plow through it. I got whacked pretty hard on my helmet, shoulder, and left hand, the latter of which lost some skin despite being inside my glove. As the sweat started to infiltrate the wound, I began to sting. It pretty much stayed that way for the next few days, actually. Anyway, being earlier than usual, I rode east on Lakeshore Drive out to Elysian Fields, turned around and eventually merged into the rather smallish group somewhere along Marconi as usual. The pace was relatively moderate, and as a result I probably did more work and less drafting than usual. There's been a huge movie filming operation going on lately on Lakeshore Drive where all the big houses are, and they've been blocking off the westbound road completely. The group had already made one apparently chaotic early pass through that obstacle course, so when we got back to LSD there was some discussion about what to do. It seems that a consensus wasn't reached in time, so as we came around the traffic circle after the bridge, some people went all the way around and back over the bridge, while some, including me, continued on just to make a U-turn shortly thereafter. Anyway, that killed the momentum entirely, so that was that. It was windy as hell that morning, so no complaints.

Thursday's long ride was warm and a bit windy, but otherwise unremarkable. The speed was fast all the way out to the casino, but much slower all the way back. On the return trip, as we came over the levee at Causeway, I almost lost it when my rear tire went all mushy. It had maybe 20 psi in it at the time, so I had to stop and put in a new tube. I'd been running a latex tube in there for months, and figured something had finally punctured it and caused a slow leak, but my later forensic examination confirmed that the valve had apparently just not sealed when I'd topped up the air that morning. 

Friday's Friendly Friday ride was about what you'd expect with a 10 mph ENE wind - slow and plodding into the wind, then fast as you can go in the other direction.

Maurizio

So that brings us to the weekend. We were still in summertime mode on Saturday with the same 10+ mph east wind and the same mid-70s morning temperature, but at least there was a nice big group on hand. I don't think I ever hit the front, as there were ample horses up there to keep things quite fast enough. Surprisingly, things didn't get entirely out of hand on the long tailwind stretches, staying mostly in the 28 mph range, so all was well. I always have a hard time making an effort this time of year, so situation normal, I guess.

William

Sunday was quite a different story. It was still warm and humid, but the wind had started to shift around more from the south, which of course meant clouds and rain. The streets were quite wet as I rode out to Starbucks that morning, comtemplating the possibility that nobody would show up, which almost turned out to be the case. We headed out with a small group of about eight, which had dropped down to six by the time we hit Chef Highway. With only Chris, Apryl, Charles, Tim, and me, it was a collegial Zone 2 kind of ride, with the added bonus of lots of wheel spray from the wet roads. On the way back from Venetian Isles we finally got some actual rain, and by the time I was heading home my shoes were well-soaked, but thanks to the warm temperature it wasn't too uncomfortable. As I made my way down Norman Francis I was listenig to the sound of my tires on the wet road, not realizing that what I was hearing was actually the sound of my front tire slowly going flat. Fortunately I made it to the house just as the last molecules of air made their escape. I'd been running one of those cheap TPU tubes in that front wheel for months. When I examined the tire I found two nicely embedded pieces of broken glass, one of which had caused a teeny tiny puncture in the tube, which explained the slow, slow leak. I patched it with the special TPU patch kit and stuck it back in, and it's been fine since, so that was nice. 

Apryl, Tim, Charles, Chris, and me

Yesterday I got a couple of 35mm Continental Terra Speed gravel tires that I want to put on the 'Cross bike. Of course, they are tubeless ready, which just means that it's nearly impossible to coax them onto the narrow aluminum rim-brake non-tubeless rims I have on that bike. I don't think I could really go any wider with those rims, but at least these should roll considerably faster than the actual 'cross tires I normally have on that bike - assuming I can actually get them mounted. For now, I put them on the rims without inner tubes to let them stretch out a little bit before I try to put the tubes in them. Hopefully that will make it possible to get them set up without pinching a tube in the process, and will also make it at least possible, if not easy, to change a flat out on the road. Hopefully I'll be able to do a little bit of gravel riding over the next few months when the opportunity arises, although I'm quite certain it will just be a diversion and will never be my primary discipline, since I have absolutely no relevant skills.