My buddy John led me on one of his old rides this past week,
and it included some roads I’d been on before as well as a few new ones.
During the ride I thought about what are the main
ingredients of a good ride. And for me, they are a relatively smooth surface to
ride on, plenty of climbing, and a limited number of cars.
On John’s ride I followed him down a two-lane semi-suburban/rural
road that seemed to be a well-used short cut by local drivers. It had plenty of
cars and trucks zooming by on it and limited shoulder space to ride on. I
remembered that local cyclists told me on a ride in the same area a few years
ago, that this road was avoided by cyclists. Why? There were several incidents on
it where cyclists had been hit by drivers, and one in particular had been
killed. The driver had been texting and drifted into a cyclist riding on the
side of the road.
When I caught up to John, I asked him how long we’d be
riding on this road, and told him of its bad rep among local cyclists. He
didn’t know of any such rep, and said he’d ridden on it at least 40 times
without any problems from cars or trucks.
“Not much room to ride,” I said.
“You must have a low tolerance for cars,” he said.
I got the feeling he thought my concerns were a bit much. John
doesn’t worry at all about riding along with a steady stream of high-speed
cars. No big deal for him. But, I admit, it is for me.
Still, he’s told me stories of being practically shoved into
a ditch by a semi tractor-trailer while climbing a winding, steep two-lane road
in the region. “The truck was literally inches away from me, I was scared
shitless.”
He vowed never to ride up that road again, just because of
the miniscule amount of space for a cyclist. I know the stretch and have ridden
down it no problem, but couldn’t imagine riding up it. Going down, you can see
ahead and keep a good line at a pretty good clip. Going up it, you’d have to
crawl along, with little maneuvering possible as cars and truck rumble by too
close for comfort.
That, in a nutshell, is my problem with riding along for
long stretches on roads with lots of cars going by at high speed. It’s just too
close for comfort. So I pretty much stay away from those rides, and concentrate
on ones that are rural enough to keep car encounters at a minimum. It has pared
down my list of rides. But for me, enjoying the ride without a constant worry
of being hit by a wayward driver at high speed, is worth it.
Apart from that, constantly rough roads can kill the fun out
of a ride for me. I’m just not a fan of hitting road bumps, cracks or ruts,
some of them that jar you unexpectedly because you can’t see them, when you’re
banging along on a fast descent. I’ve been on a few rough road rides, but don’t
really seek them out anymore. Hey, all roads have a little rough going here and
there, and that’s no big deal. But when it’s a constant bang around, jarring
experience? Better for a mountain bike, not a road bike.
Hey, not sposed to
rain…
I was going to stay off the bike on my second day off since
I’d ridden the previous two days. It was cloudy and cold outside, and just
seemed too much of a gloomy scene to deal with. So I told myself I wasn’t going
to ride. Which is when the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. Then, I
thought, well hey, if the sun comes out, it’ll be great out on the bike. I’ve
seen it happen many times. The sun burns a hole through the clouds, and pretty
soon it’s a sunny day. So that’s all the motivation I needed. I got out on the
bike.
But the sun went back behind the clouds and only came out
for short hazy periods as I pedaled toward the 25-mile halfway point of the
ride. Then the clouds seemed to be winning and it was pretty much a gray day as
I rode. Then at about the 20-mile mark, I felt a drop of rain. Now this is when
I realized, hey it might start to dump. And I’ve got about 30 miles to go. Not
a great feeling! So I had started out with high hopes of a ride in the
sunshine, and now I was feeling increasing drops of rain. The pavement absorbed
more and more wet drops as I rode the five miles to the halfway point where I
stopped under a snack-bar ramada out of the wind to have some snacks.
It was plenty cold enough, in the low 50s, with some wind
that would be in my face on the way back. I didn’t sit down, just kept moving
my arms to stay warm and pretty much ate my snacks as fast as I could. On the
Weather Channel app on my phone, I checked the Doppler radar for rain and, hey,
it showed big blobs of green (rain clouds) heading right over the stretch of bike
trail I was heading into. Waitaminute, I remember the Weather Channel reporting
zero percentage chance of rain for the area for the whole day! Supposed to rain
the next day. Oh man...
So I got back on the bike making up my mind to: Ride hard to
1) stay warm, and 2) get through the rain as fast as possible.
As I took off, the sprinkling was starting to increase and
before long, my front tire was wet. I didn’t know if it was really going to
start dumping, or if it would just be light rain all the way back. And maybe if
I got lucky, it would stop altogether.
My tires were nearly fully inflated, so I looked for a dry
spot on the trail under a tree and stopped to let about 10 pounds pressure out
of each tire. I took off and decided to embrace whatever level rain was in
store. I rode hard and it turned out, the rain only amounted to light
sprinkling. It was enough to slick up the roads, but thankfully it never turned
into a brutal downpour to endure. So I made it back with a good workout, and
not too wet. Hosed the mud off the bike, wiped it down, done deal. Glad I went
out. Great ride!
Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you
get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely and, most importantly?
Have a blast.
-- Mark Eric Larson
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