Adjust your
own brakes
It was a
Saturday morning ride, and we planned a route longer than the usual morning
loop. A few miles into the ride, Jeff said something
was wrong. We stopped and looked at his
bike, and someone noticed his rear brake was rubbing. The friction was costing him some effort and
energy, and so we all got off our bikes and tried to be some help fixing
it. Brakes are simple enough, and with a
quick adjustment, and a few spins of the rear tire, soon the brakes were not
rubbing.
The rear tire glided past the brake
pads without touching. We continued and Jeff
kept right up with us. Toward the end of
the ride, Jeff said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I’ll be glad to
get home and get some rest.” Someone
rode directly behind him and noticed his back wheel was barely crooked, and his
back tire was rubbing the frame. We stopped
one more time to tighten up the quick connect, and this straightened up the
rear wheel. Jeff looked relieved. He said, “I knew something was wrong! Thank goodness, I was about ready to throw
this bike in the ditch.” Not long after
that, Jeff got his new bike!
Bedford Lake
Road
It was my turn to lead a club ride. So on a Saturday morning, we left Big Springs park on a 51 mile jaunt through the countryside. The route is still available on Ride with GPS...
The route is called, " Hills and Hollers" because it included every hill I could jam into the ride. One of the toughest climbs was at mile 27, Bedford Lake Road is a little country road that winds along beside a creek, past the driveway into the parking lot to Bedford lake, and then disapears into the woods. Jeff was cruising along in
the front with the stronger riders. At
the bottom of the hill, it gets really steep for a tenth of a mile, then levels
out to a steady climb. At the top of
this hill, there is a house on the right, and several dogs live there and will
give you a good chase.
This was the
first time for Jeff going up this hill.
He stood up and started pedaling really hard at the bottom, in the steepest
section. I remember telling him, “Easy
does it there, Jeff. it’s a long way to
the top.” He did settle back down, and
paced himself. He made it to the top,
and had some energy left in case the dogs came out. He thanked me later for letting him know to back off a little.
Flat Tires
and Coyotes
When we were
all at our strongest, we did a longer, tougher route on Fridays. We called it, Fast and Furious Friday
Fifty. We met at Raphael’s Pizza at 4AM,
and got back to town by 7AM. It was a
little crazy to believe we could ride fifty miles, and make it back on time,
but we always did. Jeff joined us on
several of these rides, and was always up for the challenge. One morning, Jeff had a flat tire on the road
close to the AEDC recreation area, under the big power lines.
We all gathered together to get it changed,
and it was still really dark. There were
thousands of stars out, and a small but bright crescent moon. It was perfectly
quiet, with no cars in sight. We moved
our bikes so the head lights were on the flat tire and wheel, and one of us
removed the wheel, and went to work replacing the tube in the tire. Then we
heard some coyotes howling in the distance, a minute or so later, something moved through the grass and tall
weeds under the power lines not far from us.
It was probably a deer or two, but your mind can wander at times like
this. Was that Big Foot?
Is that a guy in a hockey mask in the woods? We got the tire changed, and were happy to be
moving down the road again.