In Which I’m Blinging in the Rain

Checked on rain garden at MMU during today's bike ride.

I did not take the first ride with the new pedals, so I don’t have any reports yet on the number of falls or resulting injuries. I hope there are no falls, but I also recognize that may not be the most likely outcome.

But, I am joining the horse walkers.

On RAGBRAI, one of the distinctive signs that you’re entering a town, besides the distance appearance of a steeple, elevator or water tower, is the distinctive clack-clack-clack of bikers tottering around on their special shoes that have clips in them as they reach that busy point where riding becomes impossible.

I have not been a member of that horse walker crowd. Until now—because the pedals on my road bike were “crunchy,” the bearings wearing out, this week I purchased new pedals at the bike shop. I bought double-sided ones—one side is regular pedals that I can ride with regular shoes, the other is the clips for special biking shoes.

And, of course, I bought the bike shoes.

New pedals and new shoes. Will use them tomorrow, I think.

I have not gotten many miles in this week—weather is a factor and the week began with a rather fun non-biking interlude. My daughter had a conference in Des Moines, and my wife and I were taking care of our 2-year-old grandson. It turned into a two-day stay-catoin, and included a music program at the Hiawatha Public Library Monday and a trip to the Natural History Museum at the University of Iowa Tuesday. The grandson loves bike rides, and we managed to sneak a late one in on Tuesday, but mostly I didn’t bike much the first part of the week.

The weather didn’t cooperate much today. It had rained overnight and the street was very wet this morning, but I thought I might go for a ride on The Fancy Beast, the mountain bike I treat as my “winter beater” bike. Before I rode, I changed the pedals on Argent, my road bike.

I think Friday will bring the first clipped ride for CR Biker, and assuming I survive, I’ll update you on how it goes.

Anyway, I had been dreading the pedal change—in the past, at times, I’ve had a lot of trouble getting old pedals off of a bike. It turned out to be pretty quick and easy, so I was ready to ride by 9 a.m.

My plan was, because I knew it was supposed to rain again in the afternoon, to do a hill ride rather than a longer miles ride. I started by doing the hill tour of my neighborhood, climbing Bowman Woods Hill five times in five miles. But as I finished the final climb, rain pelted down, so I headed for home rather than campus.

Today's ride, The Fancy Beast, casting a shadow (a rare thing) before the first ride, and parked at MMU in the middle of the second ride.

And, half an hour later, the sun came out. I decided to gamble and did end up cycling to campus, where I did four climbs of the MMU Hill.

Besides the new pedals on Argent, I added a bell to The Fancy Beast, and was all set to ring it cheerily to warn pedestrians. Unfortunately, with the wet weather I didn’t do much trail riding today, and thus did not get much use out of the bell.

But I did manage about to bike about 15 miles between two rides, and although there was a clothing set change due to getting soaked in the morning, I still enjoyed the day.

And I look forward to the first “click it” ride tomorrow!

Tuesday afternoon ride with grandson--clouds reflected in C Avenue pond.

New bell on the Fancy Beast.

Top of Bowman Woods Hill, during second of several trips of the hill this morning.

Home after first ride--rain on the bell.

Two  views of C Avenue Pond and sky. Looking east at patch of blue and west at rain clouds that have just passed over.

Climbing MMU Hill, took a break for a few minutes.