126th ride of 2020 - Wednesday, 9/23/2020
2020 mileage: 3362.7
Today's ride was significant in several aspects. First was the weather. Early this morning I was wearing a hoodie, but but the time of my 11:00 ride, I had to change -- it was 71° and sunny (climbing to 77° by the time I finished), and I rode in t-shirt and shorts, exulting in this reboot of summer!
Second was my route. I rode a round trip to Matthei Botanical Gardens, but rather than taking my usual route, I went there by going up to Gallup Park, and then taking the Gallup Park Pathway over to Parker Mills park, since the Gallup Path which had been torn up for repaving is now good to use again, and then coming home I did my more usual route, down past Washtenaw Community College, but then abbreviated it by avoiding the jaunt south to Textile Rd. These changes gave me a total ride of 27.5 miles (a bit shorter than usual), which I did in 2:40.
Most notable of all, however, was a mechanical issue I had on the way home. When I was about 5 miles from finishing (roughly halfway between Carpenter Rd. and Platt Rd., following along Packard), my seat suddenly shifted, and when I stopped to check it, I could see that the clamp or bracket holding it in place had broken. Initially I thought I would have to text Michelle to come bail me out, but as I looked at it and considered it, it seemed to me that I might be able to set the seat back where it belonged, with my more-than-ample weight holding it in place, even though it was not fastened securely, and make it home safely if I rode carefully, not pushing for time. Happily, this plan worked.
I'm pretty sure the break occurred as a result of metal fatigue due to age. Since getting this trike in June 2016, I have ridden it just shy of 20,000 miles.
After getting home safely, I took the trike to the dealer, Jack's in Dearborn:
Whenenver I say, "I took the trike," it needs to be noted that, unfortunately, I am not able to load it easily into our vehicle, as many of my fellow trikers do, with an SUV (for instance). Instead, I have to back our car up to the garage, and then get out the custom rack we have that fits into a bumper hitch bracket that we had installed. After wrestling the heavy and awkward rack into position I have to lie down on the ground and, using a rachet wrench, install the threaded pin that holds it in (not bad on a sunny and warm day like today, but a real joy if precipitation is falling and the ground is wet).
After getting it to Jack's with no problem, I hoped and expected that it would be a relatively easy fix with a stock part. But after I showed them my note, and they looked at it, they exclaimed, "WOW!" Evidently the break was considerably worse than I had realized, and they told me they would order the parts today, but they'd take roughly a week to arrive.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure this kills my dream of riding 5000 miles this year. After today's ride, I would have to average 16.54 miles/day to make it, which would have been a stretch, but doable. However, by next Wednesday that figure will have crept up to 17.61, so that I suspect I will have to fall back on my secondary goal of 4500 miles, suggested by a friend.
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