“Reverse Dumped, Again”
Upon arriving at the gathering point, JayJay’s first comment was: “I didn’t check the weather forecast yesterday; but I did this morning. It is supposed to storm sometime after 11 or 12; maybe I should have cancelled on you guys.” Threatening to "dump" us even before the ride began!?
JayJay’s second comment: “Oh, no! Dean is using his ‘fast bike’ today.” Dean claimed he'd used his "slow bike" the previous day doing a 200 with JayJay's usual pedal-pal, Andy ... but that he would need his "fast bike" to keep up with JayJay ... or something like that.
Fast or slow or only bike, quiet drive systems or noisy, tired or fresh, we left the gathering point to pedal over to the start control in plenty of time, and were ready to roll for real in advance of the 8 am start time. Usually, JayJay may have pedaled off for the start prior to the start time, but Dean and I are likely to be running a minute or two (or more) late.
We three all started together. The drive system on Dean’s “fast bike” was quiet. After having lubed it, my drive system was quiet, too. JayJay had liberally lubed her drive system, but it was still making significant noise ... I probably shouldn't write that ... she was concerned all day that her bike was bothering us ... I just thought it was singing a song. (She didn’t cuss me out too badly for having gotten her to clean it a couple weeks ago – and with no gunk to keep things quiet any more, … )
Humidity had filtered back into the area Saturday evening; one of us was lamenting that she hadn’t ridden 200k the previous day; one was happy to have done a 100-miler the day before; one was happy in his knowledge that he’d made his R-53 the day before. There may have been a bit of a tailwind for the first half of the ride, but it wasn’t noticeable; it turned into a noticeable head-breeze the last half. The trip to Coats, Erwin and Dunn was enjoyable and reasonably quick. Certain shutters seemed to be reflecting the light on a slightly different wavelength as compared to two weeks ago. Janis practiced pedaling circles on Old Stage Rd; I practiced riding in the drops (pausing just a moment to let The Irregulars put their jaws back in place), riding with just my arms on the flat section of the handle-bar, and practicing one-legged pedaling (one thing at a time in turn). I’m not sure what Dean practiced.
Dunn control turned around. Erwin control done. Building heat. Clouds gone. That was not in the forecast. (Well, Dean had checked at least three different forecasts – I think he indicated that WRAL seemed to have the revised forecast correct, whereas “weather.com” and the US Weather Bureau had not.)
Riding behind JayJay, I noticed that her rear derailleur / jockey wheels were in perfect alignment with her second-smallest cog, but the chain was riding noisily in her middle cog (only five cogs in that 17-34 cassette). When the slope eased a bit, she shifted to the second-smallest cog, and everything was then in alignment (as well as one can tell while riding). Later, I was again behind JayJay and I noticed and commented on the same phenomenon; suddenly she shifted and everything was again in alignment; JayJay informed us that she had not shifted that time – the bike had shifted on its own.
JayJay also informed us that she could no longer get into her big chain ring / small cog combination. I foresee a lot of love coming to that drive system in the near future. Or none at all. It may be more effective to find a more modern used bike and invest in that bike / drive system than to invest in all new components, cables, etc. for her current bike. I think she mentioned she is also having an issue with one of her brakes – I might be mis-recalling that. I hope she can fix or replace soon with a cost effective solution as JayJay’s laugh is infectious.
At least the laugh is infectious until she “reverse dumps us.” Which she did with about 8 miles to go, after we’d all enjoyed a 15 or so minute break under a shade tree near the top of long grade. Under a shade tree, with a nice breeze blowing – very nice. But JayJay “reverse dumped” Dean and me, while standing there under the shade tree. So … Dean and I rode on and finished. And JayJay rode her last 8 purgatory miles solo. Can’t blame – when I’m in purgatory, I often want to be alone, too.
Luckily, cycling purgatory memories tend not to last very long. JayJay and Dean were soon examining the various butterflies visiting Dean and Debra’s garden, and everyone was happy and satisfied with their “P” ride. As best I can determine … P-18 for Dean (actually, he got his P-ride in four days earlier, so today was just a bonus, or credit toward some unknown goal) … P-6 for JayJay (and maybe progress toward some unknown goal) … P-2 for me (but I'm not counting).
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Jun-05:
"Get 'er Dunn" Perm Populaire; 65.7 m.; 4h,54m in-motion; 13.3 mph; rando elapsed time: 5h,30m.
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: _10 rides; __894.1 m.; _63 hrs, 45 min; 14.7 mph.
Jun tot: __3 rides; __181.7 m.; _12 hrs, 35 min; 14.4 mph.
YTD tot: _43 rides; _3691.8 m.; 248 hrs, 57 min; 14.8 mph.
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