What a glorious day today was for a ride!
I went out at 11:00 in beautiful 63° sunshine, hoping to ride four consecutive round trips to Marsh Park for the first time since last July 9. It was my first opportunity to ride in t-shirt and shorts during 2017. One reason for the desire to ride that far is that it would have put me over 600 miles for the year. But, listening carefully to my body, I could detect some mild discomfort in that left knee again about halfway through the third round trip, so I decided to settle for three, and completed the 26 miles in 3:05.
Another factor in my decision was a couple of minor mechanical/logistical issues I battled. First, my water bottle cage sits horizontally on the trike boom (the major front to back tube of the frame), as shown in the picture below (I have a picture of it empty, and also one of it containing the water bottle). Sitting horizontally as it does, gravity does not help to keep the bottle in place, as it did on my former regular bike, where it was mounted on a diagonally positioned tube. Occasionally, the water bottle works its way back and drops out, and at those times I am thankful for my good hearing, as I hear it clunk onto the ground, stop the trike, and go fetch it. Well, this happened today, on my third trip toward the park, as I was crossing over one of the boardwalks. But by the time I could go back for it, it had rolled off, over the side, and was no longer visible. After a moment of searching, I was able to locate it, and I took note of where it was and decided to wait and retrieve it on my way back from the park.
It had fallen off on the side facing the road, and while I could get it easily from the road area, I could not retrieve it from the boardwalk. So I checked carefully and waited until traffic was clear, and then rode the short stretch of road down to where it was, pulled well off the pavement, and retrieved the bottle. As I was headed back to the trike, a driver breezed by in a silver mini van, a young man who was evidently not kindly disposed toward cyclists, and leaned on his horn to show me his displeasure that I should have stopped there (even though I was in no way impeding traffic at all), extended his left arm out the window, and flashed me a generous one-finger salute.
Anyway, that was one issue. The other was that during my third time at the park, I stopped the trike, set the brakes, and went to sit on the bench for a moment so I could text my family to let them know how it was going.After I got up, though, and went back to where I had left the trike, it was gone. I panicked, thinking that someone must have made off with it during my very quick trip inside to use the restroom (which was unlocked today for the first time since October). But, whirling around, I quickly spotted it, some 40 feet away. The brakes have not held consistently for several months now, and they had chosen this occasion to give way, allowing the trike to roll backward down a small hill.
Anyway, it was still a good ride, for which I am grateful, and now believe I will probably be taking tomorrow (Easter) as a rest day, since we have a very full day planned.
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