83rd ride of 2017 - Tuesday, 6/13/2017

Total mileage for 2017: 1390.3

Today I was happy to be able to ride much earlier than yesterday, so that it was still (relatively) cool. However, the day's AQ (Adventure Quotient 😁) was high.

I was hoping I could ride three round trips to Marsh Park today. After the adjustments they made on my trike yesterday (new caliper, new front tires, tweaked the alignment, and lubed the chain), it rode much better, and I was able to fairly fly along—at least, relative to my usual performance. For the first time ever, I was able to do the first 10 miles in an average speed of above 10 mph, and, in fact, at mile 11 my average speed was 10.1

But then it all fell apart. Just after mile 11, on my second round trip., I had to make my 90° left turn onto the trail where Lohr intersects with Textile. Normally this is no problem, but today I was going faster than usual, so I braked to make the turn. Or, I should say, I tried to brake.  There was no right brake whatsoever, and as a result, I piled into the turn at a much higher rate of speed than was advisable, and rolled the trike. Happily, at that location, it meant I landed comfortably, right in plush grass.

Two women—one in a car, one on a bike—were alarmed at my fall, and stopped to ask if I was all right, and if they could do anything to help. But I assured them I was fine, and righted the trike and continued on. Soon thereafter, though, I noticed the lack of a right brake (which hadn't occurred to me during the incident upon cornering). Given this, I felt it unwise to push on for a third round trip (I could still stop using the left brake, but this was obviously suboptimal), so after leaving the park that second time I headed back home, put the rack on the car, loaded the trike onto it, and headed out for repair.

By text, my friend Doug gave me his "two cents worth," which was that I shouldn't have to pay for this problem when they had just done extensive repair to it yesterday in Dearborn. I agreed with this, and had already considered it, but as I told him, if I could get the work done locally, I'd rather spare the longer drive—listening to my (considerable) gut, that was the message I seemed to be hearing. So I took it our local bike shop, Wheels in Motion, over on the east side of Ann Arbor.

There, after I described the situation to them, they quickly detected that the right brake lever was snapped off. I concede that this could have happened at the time I rolled the trike; however, given the lack of braking that i experienced heading into the corner, I suspect that it broke somehow (who knows why?) during the portion of the ride before that.

At any rate, the brake levers (which only come in pairs, so I'll have two new ones) were $19 total, and the labor is $10 for each side. I would prefer not to have to pay this, of course, but given my gut feeling about the drive to Dearborn, it seemed worth it. What would have been a stronger factor was revealed to me only after I had already agreed to have them do the work—they said they were now scheduling for Thursday, so I'd have to leave it, but there was a decent chance it would be done sooner, and they'd text me if so.

So, at any rate, I rode consecutive round trips to the park, for an addition of 18.1 miles, in a few seconds under 2 hours. It was still a good time, but slowed up considerably in the second half, as I rode cautiously, conscious of my impaired braking ability. When I began at 9:00 a.m., it was 81°, and when I finished, a bit past 11:00, it was 88°.