Last time I rode with Dean and Janis, it was on this same course (well, Dean has recently modified it slightly to avoid a dawg from hades), but it was significantly
This morning, starting at 7 ... fan-tas-tic! Not hot, not too humid, no noticeable breeze, excellent riding companions. It would get warmer, but never felt hot. The humidity probably dropped as the temperature climbed, but although it felt more humid later on, it was never "central NC humid." The breeze arrived after a while, but was mostly either a neutral or quartering tailwind. The excellent companions remained excellent companions.
What makes for excellent companions? Ready laughter at your stories, ready stories to make you laugh, consistent and dependable riding at a pace you can handle, and you believe it when they say they look forward to riding with you again.
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Low morning sun and little traffic all the way to Erwin / Dunn.
Chatting all the way.
Arrive turn-around control at 9:30.
Share more old and new stories while at the control.
Ride a few miles back to the control in Erwin.
(This place looks familiar ... as if I had stopped here twice last weekend.)
Head out of the Erwin control at about 10:30 -- we had not been in any particular hurry.
Fun on the rollers.
I absent-mindedly changed gears somewhere on a downslope;
I had been trying to ride as if on a 39/15 single-speed.
Change back to the 39/15. It was fun, and interesting.
Janis "reverse-dumped" Dean and me for the last 5 miles or so.
I think she wanted to be alone in her 40/32 purgatory. (Or is it 42/32?)
Post-ride, I tried to count the teeth in JayJay's small chain ring.
I may have skipped a tooth, or double-counted one.
Did not want to TOUCH that thing.
I suggested to Janis that if she cleaned the drive system, it would shift better, etc..
Dean agreed with me.
A short lesson on basic cleaning.
How does someone with an R-26, and counting, not know something about cleaning the drive system?
Still love ya', Janis.
I gave her the remnants of a bottle of orange citrus based cleaning fluid.
Next thing I know, with a clean drive system, JayJay'll probably be too fast for me.
Anyway, back to chain rings and cassettes ...
JayJay's easiest gear is 40/32. Mine is 30/25.
She could hardly believe that my granny is easier than hers.
One last thing ... thanks to Dean and Janis for keeping me on course,
And letting me ride with them.
'Till next time.
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Edit: I forgot to work into the text something similar to the following:
R-10, C-15, M-27, P-1.
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May-22:
Get 'Er Dunn 102 km Permanent Populaire; 66.0 m.; 4h,45m in-motion; 13.9 mph; elapsed time: 5h,35m.
Q-1 tot: _23 rides; _1822.2 m.; 123 hrs, 05 min; 14.8 mph.
Apr tot: __7 rides; __793.8 m.; _52 hrs, 28 min; 15.1 mph.
May tot: __5 rides; __575.8 m.; _39 hrs, 52 min; 14.6 mph.
YTD tot: _35 rides; _3257.8 m.; 219 hrs, 27 min; 14.8 mph.
(Today's ride was actually 0.07 miles further than yesterday's.)
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Janis has friction shifters which are a lot more forgiving of a "less than sparkling" drive train. Glad you had a good ride.
ReplyDeleteHey, BB -- "less than sparkling" barely begins to "touch on" the outskirts of a description of JayJay's drive system. (I suspect that you knew that, therefore the quote marks.)
ReplyDeleteI received an e-mail from Janis last evening ... the jist was that she used up the remaining contents of the bottle / can of cleaning fluid that I gave her, so she went out to acquire more ... and discovered that her "chain rings and cassette cogs are NOT BLACK! ... [but are] silver and sorta gold ones... Who knew??"
We must count again. Methinks J has more than 32 teeth on that cluster.
ReplyDeleteI didn't count the pie plate teeth; took JayJay's word for the 32. It was more-than-enough to deal-with the small-chain-ring.
ReplyDeleteI'll leave it to her usual riding partner to count the pie plate. At least it should be clean, now.