128th ride of 2020 - Tuesday, 10/20/2020

 2020 mileage: 3378.9

ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK

A fitting motto for today! This morning I returned to Dearborn to pick up some new pedals from the dealer (ones into which I could clip my shoes, thus giving me a more secure attachment to the pedals than I had yesterday). Following my return, I accept a very kind offer from my friend Jim Alvey (who I met at Marsh Park while out riding a couple of years ago) to come over and help me get the new pedals on.  I accepted his offer because I am pretty much hopeless with anything mechanical. By the time I got back from Dearborn (where they don't open till 10:00), and we got the pedals on, the day was bleeding away fast, and I got my ride started at 12:15 in 51° weather.

The more secure attachment felt so great, and I was sailing along, anticipating a ride of nearly 14 miles ...  when a whooshing sound told me that one of my front tires had gone bad. There was nothing I could do about it, as I had not yet obtained any tubes for the new trike (and would have been unable to fix it anyway), so I chained the trike up to a sign, contacted Uber on my phone (as Michelle, though home, was teaching), and returned home to put the carrying rack on our car, head down to get the trike ... and return to Dearborn for the second time today.

They soon had me fixed up with a new tube (and a couple more that I bought as spares), but by the time I got home at 4:00, all the spirit and initiative was gone from me, so I decided to let it go for today (although I strongly felt as if I should ride more). At the dealer's, the technician showed me the culprit—a tiny shard of glass that had gotten wedged into the tire's tread but made it just far enough through to puncture the tube.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

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