I usually make a detailed plan in advance for our bike trips, mainly for my mental security.
Yesterday, just before leaving home, we changed the first plan to ride at Sonoma Valley Regional Park, we decided to try riding to Forestville from Sebastopol via West County Regional Trail!!!
Our new car Honda Fit could be loaded two bicycles easier than previous Toyota Corolla for Mr. WhP. I was pleased to hear that.
Warmed up a little bit in the Ragle Ranch Regional Park,
we rode Ragle Rd. to Mill Station Rd. to Barlow Ln. to Occidental Rd for catching onto West county Regional Trail.
Last time we just crossed Ragle Rd. so we didn't think about how busy this street is.
I got nervous whenever speeding cars passed by, but I had a much worse experience later.
Finally reached Mill Station Rd and after crossing, we were going to turn right on Barlow Ln. Then Mr. WhP goofed up to read the sign and called me to ride back because I passed our turn he thought.
We both were not awake. Finally we realized the sign shows a turn 400FT ahead. I rode up again with whining a little bit.
Occidental Rd was very busy with huge trucks but has a nice bicycle lane for a while and if I and he paid attention well we could have turned into the trail smoothly and no problem.
But when my eyes caught a car evilly parked on the bike lane, I got distracted by raging and missed to see the gate of West county R. Trail. (Nothing is good about getting mad. I should remember.)
I had to swerve around the car, and a mean and nasty car driver blasted his horn at me, so I really got mad. When Mill Station Rd changed to a share road and narrow, I got really scared and frantic. So I u-turned by foot to calm down.
At that time we both didn't know what happened. When we walked back to a wider intersection, we stopped and checked the map. We were totally confused.
A friendly cyclist who was passing by offered to help us, but we were so embarrassed and no thanked. Thanks so much for your kindness.
We still were talking to each other.
The second cyclist who was going to turn and saw us, rode toward us and offered his help, I felt he was Superman on a bike and asked his help. He looked at my map and listened to me patiently,
and told us that we need to go back and cross the street to get to the trail.
He kindly offered to lead us into the trail, so we followed him. Thank you very much for your kindness!!!! for taking your time so much.
After we all got into the trail, he told us another way to get back instead of just taking the same route. That was very good information for us later, which saved us a lot. The cyclist left like the wind; he flew away and disappeared from my sight.
We reached familiar Graton Rd. Last time we went East to go back, this time we went West to find the continuous trail.
From here we rode the first time, so my heart was pounding a little.
Amazing long wooden bridge,
Sweaty long up-slope,
A complicated intersection, but we were lucky to hear this kind cyclist's information,
Turn right here and turn left the 1st street,
Then, you will see the trail gate on right.
We rode through more bridges and slopes, and we got the end of the trail at the sign of Pajaro Lane.
We turned right on Pajaro Lane, and saw nice subdivision houses of Forestville. Unfortunately I had no information about Forestville yet, so we just turned back. Next time we want to try riding in Forestville.
We took Hwy 116 from Occidental Rd to Mill Station Rd and back to the Ragle Park.
On the way riding the two way Bike lane on Hwy 116, we dropped by the fruit store and bought nice looking figs which were delicious.
We had fun very much from this 15.6 mile bike trip.
Last night stretch exercise seemed not enough or couldn't erase the fatigue, we both were sensationally tired this morning. I wanted to ride a short distance, but we just couldn't do it. Anyway that might have been a good idea, tonight we both felt back to normal with just a minor neck or thigh pain.
Yesterday I rode to check how my Novara J. was fixed by Mr. WhP. That was excellent, especially after pumping up the tires, the ride was so smooth and comfortable.
So I attempted to ride with as fast a cadence as possible after warming up, and almost made the new record to finish 5 miles within a half an hour (instead of 40 minutes as usual)!
Afterwards I was very comfortable and energetic, but later I got butt and knees heaviness and pain. So just before going to bed, I did an exercise with TV's "Sit and be Fit". Felt much better.
And this morning I woke up with a cramp in my left calf, then back pain.
Ate Breakfast, worked in the garden, now feel much better. Still my shoulders are stiff though.
For my diet I should ride at least a little bit, but not so fast today. But I'm not sure if I will do, because my spirit wants to have a rest today.
In the middle of the last ride on the Novara I noticed suddenly a feeling like a heavy weight on the pedal, but I thought that I just got tired. But I felt the same thing at the beginning of this morning's ride, Mr. WhP tried to fix it on the end of the street. It got a little better, but wasn't completely solved.
We finished our morning ride of just over 5 miles and came back.
Mr. WhP stayed in our garage and worked for a while. Finally he finished. "What happened?"
He said:
The front brake shoe was dragging on one side of the rim
and couldn’t be stopped by loosening the cable. The problem was caused by the
spring on one side being a bit weaker than the other. The tension needed
adjustment; one click more tension evened out the brake shoe position and got
rid of the dragging.
Unfortunately the temperature went up so much this afternoon, I couldn't go out to check my pedaling soon.
Hope I can ride it much better tomorrow.
Last month, June riding:
Jun. 01, 5.60 mi., ave. 9.0 mph, max. 18.2 mph, 0:37:19
Jun. 02, 6.60 mi., ave. 9.3 mph, max. 18.7 mph, 0:42:33
Jun. 04, 5.40 mi., ave. 9.3 mph, max. 18.5 mph, 0:35:10
Jun. 06, 5.60 mi., ave. 8.9 mph, max. 19.5 mph, 0:37:22
Jun. 07, 6.10 mi., ave. 8.0 mph, max. 16.8 mph, 0:45:38
Jun. 08, 6.00 mi., ave. 9.1 mph, max. 17.7 mph, 0:39:36
Jun. 09, 5.60 mi., ave. 8.6 mph, max. 19.4 mph, 0:39:24
Jun. 10, 8.03 mi., ave. 8.1 mph, max. 20.7 mph, 0:58:44
Jun. 13, 5.79 mi., ave. 8.9 mph, max. 19.2 mph, 0:38:41
Trail on Novara
Jun. 14, 5.53 mi., ave. 7.4 mph, max. 17.1 mph, 0:44:20
Jun. 16, 10.39 mi., ave. 8.6 mph, max. 18.4 mph, 1:12:03
Jun. 17, 5.57 mi., ave. 8.2 mph, max. 17.4 mph, 0:40:21
Jun. 18, 13.90 mi., ave. 8.1 mph, max. 19.6 mph, 1:43:14
Jun. 19, 5.65 mi., ave. 8.4 mph, max. 17.4 mph, 0:40:16
Jun. 21, 5.60 mi., ave. 9.1 mph, max. 19.2 mph, 0:36:35
Jun. 22, 5.63 mi., ave. 8.9 mph, max. 19.6 mph, 0:37:53
Jun. 23, 6.43 mi., ave. 8.9 mph, max. 21.2 mph, 0:43:10
Jun. 25, 8.18 mi., ave. 8.8 mph, max. 18.0 mph, 0:55:36
Jun. 27, 6.55 mi., ave. 9.2 mph, max. 19.4 mph, 0:42:17
Jun. 28, 6.10 mi., ave. 8.7 mph, max. 18.8 mph, 0:42:22
Jun. 29, 5.67 mi., ave. 8.7 mph, max. 16.2 mph, 0:38:51
Jun. 30, 3.00 mi., ave. 7.2 mph, max. 11.4 mph, 0:24:34
June Monthly Total: 142.92 miles, 16 hours 35 minutes 59
It was the almost end of my morning ride on the Schwinn Folding bike two days ago. After over 5 miles riding in our community, we had a stop for drinking water and we were going to loop around to come back home.
I started and noticed a big noise from my bike, wondered why I didn't change gears, so it should have a smooth move?
So stopped and tried to pedal again, the movement was strange. My front tire was wobbling? I gave up to continue the course, and slowly rode back home.
At garage Mr. WhP examined the folding bike.
He screamed, " I've never seen a broken spoke! But it happened! And not only one but two spokes!!"
I was shocked. I was going to start using the Schwinn for another training, but I can't any more. According to him, repairing spokes might cost about one hundred $$$. We had to give up.
I checked my record:
We got the Schwinn Loop from our neighbor in June, 2015. Since then I rode 86.3 miles in 2015, and 117.02 miles in March this year. Plus my last ride on July 20th was 6.1miles.
Total 209.42 miles the Schwinn gave me the memorable ride!! That was very nice spare bike for me!!
I felt some new era opening for me. How I can make the new era?
