In Which I Take the Plunge in New Light

Jan. 24--A snowy, slow morning commute. All of my rides recently have been on The Fancy Beast, my mountain bike.

Jan. 24--Same street, framed by my bike. Like my fancy rubber band system for holding the computer?

January 2023 is over. Did I ride more this month than in 2022?

Yeah. But not impressively so. In 2022, I rode 115.3 miles in January. In 2023, I rode 130.8 miles. So I gained 15.5 miles.

Well, a gain is a gain. As I age, I’m finding I’m a bit less cold tolerant, and to be fair, the fierce arctic cold snap we had in the second half of January this year, which cost me about a week of riding, is just the kind of thing that can happen at this time of year. Any miles at all in January, particularly a few more than the year before, thus counts as a win.

And it is now February. I rode 7 miles on Feb. 1 to start the new month. With clear, sunny days and a white snow pack, the light lately has been very pretty even if the temperature hasn’t always been biker friendly. The wind chill was minus 3 this morning, but with enough bundling, I was OK to ride. The days are slowly getting longer, the sun is slowly climbing in the sky, and we’re slowing starting to exit the dead of winter. With luck, maybe we’ve seen the coldest weather we’ll get. Hope I’m not jinxing it.

Jan. 24--We had snow on the weekend, and someone made and dressed this snowman, seen on my ride home from work. Closeup below.

Besides wind chills in the double digits below zero Fahrenheit that cut into my bike riding time, I’ve also struggled with some mechanical issues. My Elemnt computer stopped communicating with my phone, and I sent a “help me” message to the company. They responded with a couple of helpful emails, but their fixes (restoring factory settings and reconnecting) did not solve the problem—and to provide further help, the Wahoo company wanted a copy of my original sales receipt.

Which I never had. The computer was a gift. It was from my wife, so I suppose at one time the receipt was in our house, but we’re talking about a gift given more than a year ago. I don’t know about  you, dear reader, but no, neither I nor my wife catalog all old sales receipts, so help on the tech problem came to an end.

Well, no more ride maps for me. I may try to reinstall Map my Ride on my phone. At least the computer unit does still measure speed and record miles ridden.

Jan. 29--Waiting for the light at the corner of C Avenue and Collins Road. It's cold, but the winter sun is pretty.

A flat tyre, however, caused even more havoc. I purchased a tube for my hybrid bike and proceeded to change out the old tube to fix the flat. I’ve changed hundreds of flat tyres in five decades on two wheels, but this time, when putting the wheel back on, I accidentally popped off the nut at the end of the axle. Meh. But before I got it back on, part of the axle came out and the wheel started giving birth to ball bearings.

Never in my 50 years of serious bike riding and incompetent bike maintenance has that happened before. I was having a rough day when this particular disaster happened, and it did nothing to improve my mood. A simple tube swap has become an expensive problem that will involve a bike shop before the hybrid is rideable again.

It was a Sunday, I had too much work to do for school that week, and I had gotten a late start on a cold bike ride to campus. Lucky I have three bikes.

Anyway, so I was in a bit of a sour mood—but it lifted a bit later one. It happened to be the Sunday after the Saturday when RAGBRAI announced their route. It’s the 50th ride (51 years of RAGBRAI, but 2020, so it’s actually the 50th ride). It will go through Ames, Des Moines, Tama-Toledo, Coralville and end in Davenport—none of those places are terribly far from Cedar Rapids. It’s not as great as if they actually rolled through Iowa’s second city, but I’ll take it.

I was thinking about how I would sell the idea of my rejoining Team Joe to my wife, when she said, sans any prompting, once she saw the route: “Why don’t you go ahead and register?”

And I did. I took the plunge. CR Biker’s awful day of computer glitches and ball bearing escapes ended on a happier note. I’m registered as a rider for RAGBRAI 2023.

Image posted on Facebook by RAGBRAI, the 2023 route. Not sure I'll go all the way to Sioux City, but I may start in Ames or Carroll. In any event, I registered as a rider this year.

It just got a bit easier to meet my higher miles goal for 2023. I’ll gain a few hundred in July—and I now have incentive to push it when nice weather rolls around. I know from personal experience that the main prep needed for a RAGBRAI is as much saddle time as possible. Yes, train on hills. Yes, work on distance. But most of all, get your butt in gear and in shape for long sits on the seat..

In the depth of winter, 2023, for me, is looking a little brighter. As long as my ball bearings stay in place.

Feb. 1--It's not exactly spring, but at least in late afternoon as I get ready for the ride home, for once I don't need to turn on my lights.