Comfy ride

Luckily his new cassette was delivered earlier than we expected, so we had a comfortable ride together today.  The weather was still nice and warm in the afternoon.

When he was riding the Schwinn Folder, I couldn't pedal full speed freely.  Because I know very well that feeling on 20'' tires compared to 26'' and limited gears. 
But yesterday he found it much easier riding on the Folder.  And he seemed not to mind riding it.

After he installed the new cassette and rode his Portal, he was amazed by the easy pedaling.  Yes, we older people need an easy riding bike.

When a car passed by, I chased as fast as I could.  Of course I couldn't catch, but it was still fun to ride fast on the flat road.

Since earth worms incident..

That desiccated earth worm incident warned my bicycle technician.  Mr. WhP started to check the chains on our two bicycles and he thought we needed to replace them.

He replaced the chain on my bicycle with a new one.  That work went well.  But when he changed his chain, the new one ran and shifted very smoothly, but when he pedaled a little hard, sometimes the chain slipped over the sprocket teeth.  He concluded that the sprockets were worn out and needed to be replaced.  It will take a week to receive the new sprocket cassette.

So he rode our Schwinn folder today instead of his Novara  Portal, and he got small back ache afterwards.  But he could ride, that was better than no ride.  In addition as he rode he got to feeling better than at the beginning.  So he will be OK with the Schwinn for a while, I hope so.

So far I'm very lucky with my Novara Jaunt.  The ride with new chain was pretty nice today, it seemed like.

New tire trial ride

Accidents always make me wonder/think even just a puncture of my bicycle tire might cause one.  Since I can't fix it by myself, I felt sorry and felt frustrated on the last trip.  There must be more advanced tires or convenient stuff to fix punctures.  Unfortunately I can't understand any mechanical ideas, so my job is just pounding to ask Mr.Wh to find out.

And he did it for me!  Thank you, honey!!  The other day these new tires and tubes came.

Yesterday he worked to replace our old tires with new tires.  So I was excited trying out my bicycle today!

New tires made the whole bicycle look new.

After riding, I said:
New tire is grippy, rolled very well.  Changing tires made this difference, now I know.  I'm spoiled completely.  

What he said:  These tires have a puncture resistant belt built in, and the new tubes have special sticky stuff with fine fibers to quickly seal punctures by oozing out and congealing.  Time will tell how well this works...

My Schwinn revived!

Last month, July riding:
Jul.  01,    6.51 mi., ave. 9.5 mph, max. 17.6 mph,  0:40:42
Jul.  02,  10.82 mi., ave. 9.3 mph, max. 16.8 mph,  1:09:25
Jul.  03,    5.68 mi., ave. 9.0 mph, max. 16.9 mph,  0:37:31
Jul.  04,    5.59 mi., ave. 8.3 mph, max. 17.6 mph,  0:39:55
Jul.  05, WALK  2.4 mi., ave. 3.0 mph, max. 5.0 mph, 0:48:39 
Jul.  06,    5.92 mi., ave. 8.4 mph, max. 14.5 mph,  0:41:42
Jul.  08,    6.03 mi., ave. 8.2 mph, max. 18.5 mph,  0:43:51
Jul.  09,    5.52 mi., ave. 8.3 mph, max. 17.4 mph,  0:39:43
Jul. 10,     5.22 mi., ave. 7.8 mph, max. 15.7 mph,  0:39:58
Jul. 13,     5.85 mi., ave. 9.5 mph, max. 18.9 mph,  0:36:56
Jul. 14,     6.08 mi., ave. 9.1 mph, max. 18.8 mph,  0:39:49
Jul. 15,     5.51 mi., ave. 8.8 mph, max. 18.8 mph,  0:37:08

Jul. 17,     6.10 mi., ave. 8.4 mph, max. 17.3 mph,  0:43:25
Jul. 20,     6.10 mi., ave. 7.7 mph, max. 15.5 mph,  0:47:11
Jul. 21,     5.69 mi., ave. 8.8 mph, max. 20.0 mph,  0:38:19
Jul. 22,     5.59 mi., ave. 8.9 mph, max. 19.6 mph,  0:37:18

Jul. 24,   10.45 mi., ave. 8.8 mph, max. 16.5 mph,  1:10:18
Jul. 26,     5.70 mi., ave. 8.1 mph, max. 18.8 mph,  0:41:54
Jul. 27,     6.01 mi., ave.10.7mph, max. 19.2 mph,  0:33:38
Jul. 28,     5.83 mi.,ave. 10.3mph, max. 20.3 mph,  0:33:43 

Trails + roads on Novara
Jul.  30,     15.60 mi.,  ave. 8.6 mph,  max. 19.2 mph,  1:49:35  


July Monthly Total:  130.89 miles, 15 hours 22 minutes 01
 
Because Mr.WhP searched on Internet and found a special tool and parts with very reasonable price luckily, 

my old folding bike, Schwinn was revived!

So I rode the Schwinn very happily.
I couldn't hear the strange noise which I heard before at all.  And riding was much more reasonable, I thought.

In fact 4 spokes were broken instead of 2!!  

When I heard it from him, I was frozen for a while to imagine what if I rode very fast on the long down slope when the 4th spoke was broken!!??

Thank God!  

Testing DBPower in the neighborhood.

Felt tired and uncomfortable, but we went out for a ride.  This is the time to test the camera.  
He set it on his helmet at right angle, so it came out well.  But on my helmet the camera took only the sky most of the time. agrrr...

I took some pictures of my computer screen playing DB Power camera record.

It was quite hot, so there were not so many cars or walking people on the street.

But  a squirrel suddenly came out to across the street, as we were passing by.

A bicyclist was crossing too.

Temptation toy

Hate to bring up the same subject, but allergy symptoms have occupied our bodies this year.  We're still struggling not only physically but also mentally.  And mentally I lost.  I depressed down to h....

Worse thing is the same kind of terrible pain came back as I got on my right knee 4 years ago after I fell from my brand new bicycle and the handle dropped on my knee.   Recently I found the right leg is 1/4'' shorter than left one.  So I put sponge in my shoe to cover the sole of my right foot.  Seems better.

Only sticky allergy invasion made my hearing ability worse. agrrrr....

Luckily, a deliverer came earlier than we expected.  We purchased a bicycle camera which is cheaper than GoPro.

DBpower  sj4000

First we put it on the handlebar to try out.  That sent too much vibration to the screen.  

So we put it on the helmet.  

Luckily two camera holders for helmets were included, so we could switch it between us.  That's very handy.  We tried using it in our neighborhood riding.  The video came out very nice.

We just need to look above our heads ahead of time so as not to crash the tree branch hanging.

I hope my plugged ears will clear out soon and my physical strength will come back, so I can go do some trail riding again.

Getting used to the Facial shield.

We got Bike Caps too.  Since I took off the visor from my helmet, I really need it.  This way I finally could feel better with the facial shield. 

He wants to use just helmet and the shield together.

Because we both got terrible allergies, the shields helped us by keeping wind off our faces.  Bugs seemed to see the shield and dodged away.

Exhausted, but tried the face shield.

It  was very windy late morning today.   So the face protector was perfect for avoiding drying my eyes.  Even bugs avoided crashing into the shield.

But our helmets are a close fit on our heads and the protector was so oversized and hard to put together.  The blue frame kept sagging so that I couldn't see the view freely as I used to.

But the idea is still great.  So I will keep working on it.  Somehow ....

In spite of our exhaustion we felt fortunate that we still could  ride. even though that's less than 4 miles.

I asked what Mr. Wh thought about the facial protector.  This is his answer.
 

The face shield is effective against bugs and stuff falling from trees.  In 70 degree windy conditions it didn’t fog.  It also affords a little protection from the wind drying your eyes.

It’s a bit tricky to fit under the helmet because there a little bumps on the sides of the helmet that hit the band on the face shield—the band can’t go under the helmet without making the helmet too loose, so the bumps tend to push the shield down too much.  If I just keep pushing it back up (like I do my eyeglasses) it works well enough.

I conclude that it is a reasonably satisfactory accessory, and a good value.

Even a small insect flying..

When I was riding quite fast, a flying insect crashing onto my face was really painful. The impact was quite shocking for me.  

The other day I just happened to see some cyclist was wearing face cover on Internet.  We were talking about it.   Then Mr. Wh. found for me to order.  "Sport Shields" $24.95 each.

I'm looking forward using it tomorrow!

Riding in the rain!!

I had a small back ache in the morning, so I couldn't go riding while the rain stopped for a short time.  He went and enjoyed 2 miles riding then the rain started.
After eating I felt much better, it might start soon, but I want to go!  We both put helmet covers on, and started riding.  Gosh it started again!  But I ignored it and kept riding.  
The rain was soaking in more and more, and my legs were getting colder and colder.  When I saw the cyclometer showing over 3.5 miles, I decided to stop.

I could ride more, but I was worried about catching a cold.
Next time when I ride in the rain, I should be wearing all nylon or synthetic, I thought.

We took a good hot shower afterwards, but my body didn't forget the feeling of having gotten cold a while ago.

This old body can't take riding in the rain so long.