I had resolved to ride my bike to work today. As I was getting ready, I decided to try something new. The result was a commute which generally looked like this:
Sometimes the trail was much harder to see and covered with downed trees. I spent about half the ride on roads and the other half on sections of the Rivanna Trail. In the 1+ hour commute I certainly didn’t set any speed records. But if the cuts on my arms and legs are any evidence, it was an adventure!
Sadly, probably not one that I will do frequently as it took me about 2-3x longer than commuting on the road, but it certainly made for a fun Saturday ride.
Last week I had a little incident on my bicycle which resulted in a punctured tire. I haven’t had a chance to look at the tire until recently, and was surprised to find that it wasn’t simply a pinch flat in the tube. There was a hole in the sidewall too! (This caused a few more blown tubes as I had missed the hole when checking the tire).
So, even if I’d had a spare tube that night, it might not have done any good since the new tubes just kept popping.
Yesterday I finally talked myself into commuting to work on my bicycle. My first two years in Charlottesville I think I biked to work roughly half the time. In the last year, I’ve done it only a handful of times. Having access to a parking lot sure makes you lazy.
I had been meaning to get back into commuting to work and did so yesterday. Kinda.
The ride to work in the morning went well, no issues and I didn’t feel too horribly out of shape for biking up hills with a backpack on (I need a lighter laptop!). So far so good. After work I rode over to meet some friends for trivia night and to wrap up discussion on this year’s Huskey Research Exhibition. Also went fine.
Around 10pm we concluded trivia (coming in 8th place out of at least double that number of teams) and headed out. Less than a half kilometer after getting on my bike I felt a stiff jar, heard a loud pop, and then a short hiss as all the air leaked out of my front tire.
I immediately stopped the bike and gave the tire a quick inspection.. no sign of damage. But the tube was definitely flat.
Ordinarily I would have pulled off the tire, replaced the tube and continued on my merry way. But, as I was preparing to leave the house in the morning I thought “Oh, I should grab the spare tube”, then thought “Nah, I’ve never had a flat while commuting, it’ll be ok”. My commuting incidents are usually more spectacular than a flat tire, so I didn’t bring the tube.
Oops.
Fortunately a friend was able to pick me up and drive me home, so it ended up alright. I will certainly think twice next time I consider leaving the spare tube at home..
Around 11:00 last night I was in my office packing my bike panniers and suiting up for the bike ride home, when I was wondering why I had refused the ride home a friend had offered me.. It was fairly cool out, and definitely dark. The ride home would have been much quicker, warmer, and easier than bicycling. But, for some reason I opted to bicycle.
About halfway home, I remembered why I ride…
.. It’s for the long uphill section where, for twenty seconds, there are no cars… you have the road to yourself. The only thing you can hear is your own breathing. The only thing you can see is the small patch of road ahead illuminated by your light.
And then, you turn off your light and you see the highway stretching ahead, lit by the moon.
26-27 Sept was the 2009 Bike MS event. I wrote briefly about this fundraiser in the past. Thank you to all who donated!
The morning got off to an interesting start, with cool weather and rain on the drive from Charlottesville to Buchanan (site of the race). However, the weather looked ok as we pulled into town. We did the final registration, then hopped on our bikes just in time of the final (delayed) start. There weren’t very many people riding, some having started during the previous wave, others completely bailing on the event (out of 80 who signed up, only 30 actually showed up).
Andre, Charles and I did a 50 mile loop, while the others did a 25 mile ride. I won’t go into the gory details, suffice to say it was cool weather (mid 50s) and rainy for most of the ride. That made for some interesting riding. We briefly got lost (due to my inability to read signs 
) which tacked on another 6 miles, but hey, what’s a charity ride without getting lost? 
There were plenty of rest stops along the way with food and drink. The ride was quite well supported! I hadn’t done a 50 mile ride in at least a year, but I managed to make it through, probably due in large part to the frequent “refueling” points along the way.
Once we finished the ride, we were treated to a nice fried chicken dinner! Despite the rain and cold I had a great time. I’m definitely looking to go back next year to ride and support the MS Society.
