Monday, March 22, 2010

Afternoon Ride 03-22-10

It was beautiful today, temperatures were in the high 60's with lots of sunshine. Perfect swarming weather for gnats. I realized this within the first hundred yards of riding on the Trinity Trail. My Sweaty skin insured that every gnat that hit me stuck fast. When I neared my destination I pulled over and spent a fair amount of time brushing them out of my hair corners of my eyes, pretty much everywhere. I was being really careful not to smear them on my clothing. I also relearned an important lesson, wear eye protection. Needless to say, I took a different route home.

We had some heavy rain the other day so I wasn't too optimistic about being able to cross the river. I was surprised to find the crossing was mostly dry although you can see that the water is high and will flood the crossing during the next rain.

Trinity Trails improvement progress: Cement has been poured. I'm sure that they'll be adding some form of railing soon.

I stopped at Barnes & Noble and picked up the most recent issue of Bicycle Times and enjoyed a high priced iced chai beverage at the co-located Starbucks. This issue of BT appears to have several articles on loaded touring. Interesting. You can see my new U lock in the photo. I had never used one before and I quickly discovered that I didn't know the best method for securing my bike. I thought that you enclosed the frame and rear wheel to a fixed object but I couldn't get that to work. I'll do some research.

Spring has sprung. Texas Redbud tree.

3 comments:

  1. Looking at the trail re-do, I think there may be a major issue with it. There's that little outlook. That will draw pedestrians of the worst kind: loiterers who move around without moving.

    Then look at the trail: a wall on one side and a steep drop-off on the other. Not a lot of room for error.

    Now... put a cyclist doing 15-25 mph on that path, and a looki-lu pedestrian on that outlook platform, just kind of hanging out, maybe two or three of them chit-chatting.

    ....


    ....SPLAT!

    (It's only a matter of time until this ends badly.)

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  2. I did a short ride on my albatross bar bike on Monday. It was delightful. I understand it was better today, but now I'm in Denver watching blizzard conditions and wondering if I'll be able to come home tomorrow.

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  3. Doohickie-You're absolutely right about the overlook. That will require some low speed riding. I will say that it's going to be better than the way it was. I was always worried about somebody drifting into my space while crossing under University.

    Pondero-You sure get around. I was just looking at the photos of the snow on Jon's blog.

    http://grinderswheels.blogspot.com/

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