Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Bow Tie Metric 100km randonneur ride 2.09.2022

I went back for a repeat of this Permanent course, ridden in November, but this time I brought along two buddies, and I even remembered to bring my camera! Having the camera along meant I didn't have to do (non-)artist's renderings at the photo controls this time. Much more convenient. And Rick and Jim coming along meant I had cyclists to watch in the far distance ahead of me. Thank goodness they use blinkies.

Just as in last month's metric century, my thighs were protesting along the way. I'm not riding enough, I guess. Plus there was a fair amount of elevation on the course for this flat-lander - over 2100' of climbing. On top of that, I had changed out my rear derailleur cable recently, but hadn't run the shifting thru all the gears when finished to see if I got it right. I found out during some hill climbs today, no, I didn't get it right. I couldn't shift to my two lowest gears, and I wound up walking up a couple hills! *urk*

[Edit: Seems the problem was I hadn't tightened the rear derailleur pinch-bolt to spec, and the cable loosened up.]

The Garmin behaved itself today. Also, I learned how to lock the screen so it doesn't jump around to other views for no apparent reason. Nice. And Rick had an allen wrench that fit the Garmin mount, so I played around with different angles in order to get more ambient light on the screen at times. My Lezyne multi-tool has allen wrenches, but not the size I needed today. First time that brand has left me feeling let down.

At one point I saw laying on a quiet country road a fresh clean baggie with something in it. Shortly thereafter I saw another, then a third. It looked like the contents were a few smooth stones and a piece of paper with green printing. It occurred to me that maybe these were religious tracts to be found and read, with the stones added to keep the baggie from blowing away. I might have stopped to satisfy my curiosity if I wasn't already off the back.

It was a chilly day to start, around 33F, but the wind was light early on, and then it warmed up some. Pretty good riding day for February, actually.

Pics, route map and profile here:

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/82865464