Did you ride today?

Today I rode my Sun X1-SX for the first time in a bit. It's had a lingering brake problem ever since I had the rear wheel rebuilt: the brakes shriek like [email protected] souls. They are towed and adjusted perfectly. Several wrenches have said so. I thought today that I'd solved it until I applied moderate braking force on a high speed descent and the howling began. Crap. I am sick of dealing with this.

I think it will go back in tomorrow and I will simply cut my losses and have a whole new wheel built using the original unit as the donor. The new one has been nothing trouble and at this point I'm done with it. That'll teach me to take the cheaper way out.

On a happier note, I forgot how much I love rolling on my X1. It offers a wonderful sense of relaxed floating over the pavement and can just hammer the flats or a descent. I hit 39mph on my biggest descent, spinning up to 150rpm. I should be able to do a little better than that, but it's been a minute since I rode this bike and my nerve frankly faltered going into the chicayne at the base of the descent. I wanna try it again and see what 'spun out' really looks like with the present drive train.

On another silly but happy note, I now have mileage posted for all 5 of my bikes in Strava. Those goose eggs were just embarrassing to look at. No more.

Edit: 17mi.

Today I rode the X1 recumbent to a local shop with its OEM rear wheel voile strapped to the back. I intended to chuck the existing rear wheel and have the original rebuilt. That wheel was replaced with a machine built unit from the internet after its braking surface ruptured.

The rupture looked cool, so I hung it up in the garage. The internet wheel was professionally rebuilt following multiple spoke failures. Double walled rim, heavy duty spokes, it should be bullet proof. Perhaps it is, but the shrieking is unacceptable.

The wrench talked me into trying something less expensive and did indeed succeed in eliminating the brake shriek through sanding the braking surface (anodized black aluminum) and adjusting the tow. This made me very happy.

I'd expected to leave the shop on foot for a short walk home. Leaving instead on my bike with functional, quiet brakes was wonderful. I extended my ride. Sadly, the quiet braking lasted about 10mi. Then the squealing came back even worse than ever. My prior conclusion was reinforced: I'm done with this wheel.

Disappointment and an incoming t-storm sent me to the light rail for the trip home. I managed to time my arrival at the station to perfectly match the let-out of a baseball game. I enjoyed parts of the ride, but almost wish I'd stayed home and played a video game instead. 30.5mi.

Yes.....but no pedals and 4 wheels

Today I had a rather odd ride: first, I went out on the fat bike for a quick 8mi spin. I'd meant to do quite a few more, but once again, just couldn't seem to find my legs. It was pretty windy, but nothing special, just annoying. Nevertheless, I just couldn't seem to get warmed up. Then I realized that I'd made that [email protected]$$ amateur mistake and left all of my water at home.

Temps were only in the low 70's, but cycling without water is just a non-starter for me. I turned back and headed home. Hit 30mph on a descent and got yet another "high dB warning" from my Apple Watch, which spits them out literally every time I exceed 30mph on that bike. Yea, the tread really is that aggressive .

Once home, I put the fat bike away and hydrated pretty heavily. I started feeling stronger and decided that 8mi simply wasn't enough. I got out the BikeE recumbent and headed out for a 2nd ride.

WTF? Where the wind about killed me on the fat bike, I hardly noticed it on the 'bent. On the one hand, this is far from a surprise. On the other, it's not like I haven't ridden the fat bike in the wind before. It was harder, but not this much harder by any stretch. It wasn't that much wind: 10-15mph, gusting to maybe 20mph. Minimal for here.

I'll have to figure that out. Another 20mi on the 'bent left me happily tired and wishing for more miles. That's the way it should be. Total of 28mi on the day. Good times, and a pair of rides I needed.

What a day for a ride! After an all-night rain, we awoke to rain forecast to last all day. In the event, it proved light to moderate with very little wind. Temps in the mid-40's. In other words, great weather for a rain ride! I donned layers and the rest before heading out on the fat bike for a change. Normally my touring bike and its full coverage fenders are the right answer for these conditions, but I just finished installing mud guards on the fat bike and they hadn't been fully tested yet.

On most rain rides, I thrill to the hiss of my touring bike's tires on the wet pavement. I missed it today, but the sound of Surly's Bud & Lou tires plowing through the frequent puddles and occasional outright pond made up for a lot. The tread makes a kind of ripping sound going through water of any depth. Their hum was undiminished by the damp.

I was feeling really good about my clothing choices, even after my legs started to feel damp some 45min in. No biggie: my insulating layers all work whether wet or dry. Then my feet began feeling just the slightest bit wet. Then wetter and wetter. By an hour in, I could wriggle my toes and feel water sloshing inside my boots 😟.

At first, I thought they were less waterproof than claimed. Then I realized that water was simply flowing from my now sopping wet insulated leggings beneath my hiking gaiters, and right into my boots. Because they actually are waterproof, the water didn't run back out again, but simply accumulated.

This was somewhat less than ideal. My feet were warm for the moment, but that clearly was not going to last. Too bad: up until then I'd been contemplating a much longer ride. I took a different turn and began making my way home. The new route carried me on a street adjacent MUP where I managed to time things such that I wasn't splashed by any of the automotive traffic.

The stop lights were out at the intersection where I usually cross the 6-lane arterial road to enter a local park. Not today. It's only a 4-way stop, but the chaos going on at that intersection was something to behold. No way I was trying to sneak through such a mess. I proceeded to parallel the road on the MUP. The next intersection's stoplights were similarly out. Not as crazy there as the previous intersection, but still too much like playing Frogger for my taste.

The third stoplight try proved to be functional. My feet felt much too heavy at stops. Oh, yea: the water. By this time, wriggling my toes resulted in a distinctive sloshing sensation. Feet moving slowly from chilled to cold. The route took me past a local greenway where a pair of normally dry underpasses had become raging rapids. Not even vaguely safe to ride, necessitating a couple of quick detours.

A third underpass, separated from the angry torrent, proved flooded as well but only with standing water. That is usual for this underpass. Believing I had judged the depth correctly, I decided to ride through it. That is how it came to be that I immersion tested my Ortlieb frame bag.

The water proved deeper than I'd expected by feet, not inches. By the time I figured that out, it was too late to do much but buckle down and mash those monster tires through the water. That got harder when they all but vanished.

There was no current, but it was vastly deeper than I'd expected. Toward the middle, my knees vanished beneath the water on every down stroke. The water didn't quite make it to the top of my frame bag, but more of it was immersed than wasn't. Funny thing was, my feet didn't feel much wetter coming out than they did going in. I suppose that says something.

I made it home without further misadventure and was smart enough to remove my shoes in the tub, where the water sloshing inside was easily dumped. My legs were totally soaked - apparently my insulated pants are no longer waterproof. Still, I remained insulated and semi-warm, though that was changing quickly over the last few miles.

18mi. Great ride. Sorry I couldn't stretch it out further. I just love days like today.

Today I took the fat bike and rode 5mi to a local state park where a group I've been working to join up with was putting on a multi-sport day. What fun! The group is called Adaptive Adventures and it is dedicated to helping people with disabilities to participate in sports.

I am qualified by a bum arm, the end result of an injury sustained at birth. The fact that I ended up with PTSD thanks to one of the attempted surgical repairs on my arm means that I'm double qualified.

In this case, they brought a portable climbing wall and not one but two huge trailers full of every kind of bike imaginable. Had the state park's reservoir been a bit warmer, they also have a trailer full of kayaks and similar watercraft.

I was interested in the climbing wall, but never made it that far: the bikes diverted me . I rode a delta trike and was impressed with its comfort and maneuverability. Then I tried a tadpole trike with fat tires and straight fell in love. It was a 1x11 and was just a party to ride. Within the first mile I got comfortable riding on two wheels: if you go fast, then turn hard but not too hard, it's possible to lift the trike's inner wheel. It appeals to my inner 12-year old.

I'm sure the trike's 26" wheels and high center of gravity helped: the 'normal' trikes with 20" wheels were much harder to get up on 2 wheels. Not impossible, but harder. Descending through tight curves on one of those would take guts, and really good balance. Sure would be fun, though .

One of the trikes, my favorite after the fat tire beauty, was actually a 3x3x9: meaning it had a 3x9 drive train, but with a 3-speed IGH installed on top of it all. That trike felt like it would climb trees. Not fast, but it's not like you can fall over if you go too slow on a trike. Work out the math, and you find that it's got 82 speeds. Depending on gearing, that can look like spinning @ 100rpm while climbing at 1.5mph.

It was the first 3x3x9 I've ever ridden, and I'm unsurprisingly in love. I look forward to playing with it again in days to come. I ached to make a speed run, but thanks to wildfire smoke from Canada, the Denver area's air quality was literally the second worst in the world today. Ever since Covid, my lungs don't handle crappy air quality well.

As for the fat tire trike, I'd so love to take that thing off road. What fun it was, even on pavement.

They also brought a DXT Drift Trike. For those who haven't heard, this amounts to an adult version of a Big Wheel, the 70's era kid's delta trike. The adult version has a standard 20" inflatable front wheel with hard plastic rear wheels. Ride fast in a straight line, turn hard, then ride the drift. Soooo much fun!

I acted as a buddy rider for a few other participants and generally had a great time. At the end of the day, I fired up my lights and rode home. Thanks to Strava's tracking features and Mrs. Newleaf's utter awesomeness, I arrived home just in time to enjoy a grilled ribeye steak and baked potato. Mrs. Newleaf absolutely rules. Just sayin' 🥰. She is simply the bomb.

All that makes for 20mi on the day. Such good times.