Sunday, December 22, 2019

Woods ride on the Winter solstice 12.21.2019


I am not much of a mountain-biker or trail-rider, mainly because I prefer road-biking and I don't want to expose myself to a lot of Lyme-disease ticks or chiggers. But after a few frosts, I do like to get out to enjoy the woods, and riding some not-too-challenging trails is a good way to do so. I mentioned this to my bike-club buddy Jim C, who is still racing MTBs in his mid-70s (!), and he said 'Anytime.' So we picked a day. I chose the trails behind Batsto historical village in Burlington County NJ, because I'd ridden there before, and knew they are not too technical for me. Lots of single-track, but not a lot of log-jumping, with no monster climbs or screaming descents.

As before, I took my 1990 Schwinn High Plains, a made-in-Mississippi rigid-fork chrome-moly lugged-frame (with spider paint!) bike that was quite respectable in its day. The bike found me a few years back when a friend, who'd bought the bike off Craigslist for his son to ride to work, asked me to sell it for him on CL, as his son was not interested in it. After having it listed for $125 for several weeks with no bites, I asked if he'd take $100 for it, not telling him I'd be the buyer. He said OK, so I 'sold' it for him and gave him the cash. Weeks later, I told him I was the buyer, and hadn't wanted any special consideration. I like riding a vintage bike, and at the rate I'm going, I won't be doing a whole lot of MTBing, so why spend the money to upgrade?

[EDIT: It finally occurred to me that my sore shoulders were being caused by riding my rigid-fork Schwinn on some technical single-track. I stopped riding that bike for a while, and eventually (6 months +/-) the soreness went away. So I sold the bike!]

The day was cold enough (mid-20sF at 9am) to discourage others in our circle from joining us, but I was layered and wasn't uncomfortable, altho I did sweat too much and took note of that for future reference. Despite the cold, still it was Saturday and there were at least a half-dozen other riders in the Batsto parking lot also making final preparations to head out on the trails. Jim knew several of them, and one 'marveled' that I was going to be riding the old (hey, it's 'vintage'!) non-suspension Schwinn. He was diplomatic about it, and I didn't apologize for it.

We headed out, with the intent of doing the 19-mile Orange trail. At the split, Jim kindly suggested that we could take the 8.5-mile Blue trail, then ride it again in reverse if we felt like doing that much mileage. I figure he saw how inexperienced I was, and was giving me an 'out' for the longer distance. So I chose the Blue trail. And since we had both driven a long distance to ride, I decided at the end, yes, let's ride it again in reverse, which might have surprised Jim. By the last few miles, I felt jelly-legged but kept turning the pedals, and I wound up having a good 2+ hour workout and a memorable ride that left me smiling.

At one point, my right-side (platform) pedal must have clipped something unseen that was sticking up, and that sent me off into the brush.  But I wound up still upright and straddling my bike; JC complimented me with a 'nice save.' Cool.

When we started out, a guy Jim knew started with us. Those two promptly opened up a gap just riding their usual pace. Jim waited up for me, then gapped me again. After several of these sequences, he let me ride in front of him, so I could set my own pace and he could keep an eye on me, I figure.
On an early pause, Jim asked what tire pressure I was running, as he'd noticed I was 'deflecting' over every little obstacle. I told him I was running 50 lbs psi, and he replied that he was running 20! So I promptly aired down a bit and noticed a difference in the ride. Later I aired down a bit more, but maybe too much, as I had to work noticeably harder at pedaling. But now I know to start out around 30psi (my weight / 6).

Jim also told me I should try picking out and taking the outside line on the turns (unlike what I thought race-car drivers did) in order to keep my momentum and ride more efficiently. I tried it and really liked it. It also made it easier to correct my line mid-turn, if necessary, by simply leaning more. So I think I learned a lot. Thanks, Jim! I am looking forward to getting out there again.