Sunday Ride - 12/14

Wow! What a difference 10 degrees makes. Today's ride was warmish. I had on a base layer, winter weight jersey (Sporthill Summit top) and the Pearl Izumi InsulaTour jacket...just the right combo for a long ride. Just one little problem. When you leave for the ride at 3:08 pm on a mid-December day, you haven't left yourself enough good daylight for a long ride. Had to settle for a 17.5 mile ride...was hoping to do 25 miles but that ride will have to wait for another December weekend day with temperatures above 40. Perhaps we'll get one soon but times running out I'm afraid.

So today I had my first self inflicted "incident" related to riding on a fixed gear bike. The loop I rode yesterday and today has a short downhill section on which I typically attain 33 mph while coasting. Knowing this, I used a little brake action yesterday to make sure I could handle it on the fixie. Today I decided no brakes...oops, little mistake. These old legs couldn't handle the RPMs on this section and my foot slipped off the pedal (yup, no clipless yet on this bike). I also learned that you need absolutely perfect timing to reengage foot to pedal at high speeds (moderate and low speed too) and I have the marks on the back of my legs to prove it. Plus it's hard to keep one foot on while the other is off at this speed, so the cars passing by must have done a double take when they saw me flying down the hill with my legs out straight and the pedals moving. Oh well, I survived that little incident fairly unscathed so I'll just chalk it up as a lesson learned. Thankfully, the rest of the ride went without incident.

Ride Stats

Bike: Fixie
Distance: 17.5 miles
Time: about 70 minutes
Average Speed: approx. 15.0 mph
Next scheduled ride: next weekend
Temperature at start: 42.1 F
Temperature at end: 40.8 F