10th ride of 2020 - Tuesday, 3/17/2020 (my 63rd birthday)
2020 mileage: 1103.2
I took yesterday off, as Michelle and I went hiking and exploring at Marsh Park. I had hoped that today, I might be able to ride 63 miles (for my 63 years). But, owing to various difficulties I've been dealing with, I decided a couple of days ago to scale that back. Once I began today, I had hoped to ride to Matthei Botanical Garden in the very northeast part of Ann Arbor. To get there, I would have taken sidewalks up to Gallup Park, through it on the Gallup Park Pathway to Parker Mill, and then back west from there on the trail that parallels Geddes Rd., until I could strike the trail that runs up to Matthei, paralleling Dixboro Rd. I've never found it before, but I'm pretty sure I know where it is.
However, as a trifecta of problems beset me today, I cut back even from this plan, and rode the Platt-Packard Square, a ride of 13.6 miles in 1:50. This was a ride about which, I suppose, I don't quite have to be ashamed, even though it is far short of what I had hoped to do. And the weather was lovely—I waited until 1:20 so that the day could heat up somewhat, and rode in nice, sunny conditions, 43° when I started, and 50° when I finished. My cloth gloves felt great, and I was sure glad I had them.
The above mentioned trifecta? (1) I still have not learned to pay close enough attention to my equipment, as the cord connection my battery pack and phone pulled out of the phone a couple of times during the early part of the ride. I thought I got it worked out after that, and was doing fine until the last 2 or 3 miles of the ride, when it then pulled out two more times. (2) The MapMyRide app on my phone was acting up, About 3 miles into the ride, I discovered that it was not turned on (though I had started it when I began), so I restarted it. But then a few minutes later the vocal feedback (telling me my speed and distance) stopped, so I assumed the app had quit again. I just kept going, knowing that I could figure distanced on the basis of past ride, and do a reasonably accurate estimation of the time. But when I got home, I discovered that it had recorded the ride after all, but was just inexplicably not giving the vocal feedback. (3) Most troublesome, there were mechanical issues with the trike. Numerous times (although not consistently throughout the ride), I'd be pedaling against a certain level of resistance, and then for a few seconds the resistance would disappear almost entirely, so that my pedal rotation went very fast. I could not figure what was causing this, and for much of the ride, I wrestled with the possibility of breaking social distancing protocol, and taking the trike to the dealer in Dearborn tomorrow, even though I knew Michelle would strongly disapprove of such a decision. However, this condition improved late in the ride, to the point where by the end I felt OK about not taking it to the dealer.
I wondered if this could be a chain issue of some sort, and I realized that I have never lubed the chain (though I've had the dealer do it a couple of times), so I just Googled this and was told that it should be done every couple hundred miles. I have lube for it in the garage, so I'lll make it a priority to do this bit of maintenance tomorrow before I ride.
I took yesterday off, as Michelle and I went hiking and exploring at Marsh Park. I had hoped that today, I might be able to ride 63 miles (for my 63 years). But, owing to various difficulties I've been dealing with, I decided a couple of days ago to scale that back. Once I began today, I had hoped to ride to Matthei Botanical Garden in the very northeast part of Ann Arbor. To get there, I would have taken sidewalks up to Gallup Park, through it on the Gallup Park Pathway to Parker Mill, and then back west from there on the trail that parallels Geddes Rd., until I could strike the trail that runs up to Matthei, paralleling Dixboro Rd. I've never found it before, but I'm pretty sure I know where it is.
However, as a trifecta of problems beset me today, I cut back even from this plan, and rode the Platt-Packard Square, a ride of 13.6 miles in 1:50. This was a ride about which, I suppose, I don't quite have to be ashamed, even though it is far short of what I had hoped to do. And the weather was lovely—I waited until 1:20 so that the day could heat up somewhat, and rode in nice, sunny conditions, 43° when I started, and 50° when I finished. My cloth gloves felt great, and I was sure glad I had them.
The above mentioned trifecta? (1) I still have not learned to pay close enough attention to my equipment, as the cord connection my battery pack and phone pulled out of the phone a couple of times during the early part of the ride. I thought I got it worked out after that, and was doing fine until the last 2 or 3 miles of the ride, when it then pulled out two more times. (2) The MapMyRide app on my phone was acting up, About 3 miles into the ride, I discovered that it was not turned on (though I had started it when I began), so I restarted it. But then a few minutes later the vocal feedback (telling me my speed and distance) stopped, so I assumed the app had quit again. I just kept going, knowing that I could figure distanced on the basis of past ride, and do a reasonably accurate estimation of the time. But when I got home, I discovered that it had recorded the ride after all, but was just inexplicably not giving the vocal feedback. (3) Most troublesome, there were mechanical issues with the trike. Numerous times (although not consistently throughout the ride), I'd be pedaling against a certain level of resistance, and then for a few seconds the resistance would disappear almost entirely, so that my pedal rotation went very fast. I could not figure what was causing this, and for much of the ride, I wrestled with the possibility of breaking social distancing protocol, and taking the trike to the dealer in Dearborn tomorrow, even though I knew Michelle would strongly disapprove of such a decision. However, this condition improved late in the ride, to the point where by the end I felt OK about not taking it to the dealer.
I wondered if this could be a chain issue of some sort, and I realized that I have never lubed the chain (though I've had the dealer do it a couple of times), so I just Googled this and was told that it should be done every couple hundred miles. I have lube for it in the garage, so I'lll make it a priority to do this bit of maintenance tomorrow before I ride.
Comments
Post a Comment