Monday, September 22, 2014

Nobody Escapes the Red Miles (2014-09-20)

Finally managed to get something of a real ride.

I only got in about 12 miles on a ride starting in the morning until a seat post clamp bolt gave out and left me without a usable saddle, and thus a usable bike. However:

After that failure of a ride, I took that bike to my local bike shop, only to find out that my touring bike was ready to pick up.

More after the break…

The new crankset had a 26/36/48 set of rings on it.

And the new rear wheel had a DT Swiss TK540 rim.

I was pretty excited to have it back and decided to use the rest of the day to ride.

Outbound

I started at 13:00. As it is never a good idea to ride through downtown during the day, I just used the Lake Washington Loop (the actual route, not my normal Arboretum route).

And then I got on Rainier Avenue to Renton, then followed my usual route to get to the Interurban Trail at S 196th St. Once there, I realized that I had accidentally left my tube of anti-abrasion cream at home. After scoping out the area for bike shops, I rode to Cycle Therapy in Kent.

To get back onto the Interurban Trail again, I took S 259th St and discovered the continuation of the Green River Trail.

It was a fairly routine ride from there. I jumped over to the West Valley Highway in Algona, then headed to downtown Sumner for coffee. I felt like the universe was smiling at me as I had a tailwind the whole way down.

Inbound

To return, I basically followed my route in reverse.

That tailwind turned into a headwind and I fought and fought all the way back.

I crossed back over at S 196th St and continued north.

At some point, I noticed that my bar tape wasn't taped down properly at the end, so I had to stop for some electrical tape to fix it.

And then I proceeded to the Lake Washington Loop again.

I took the Arboretum route this time, then took Boyer all the way to the University Bridge.

There were a number of people walking along the BGT due to Oktoberfest, but otherwise the return ride from there was pretty uneventful.

It was nice having my touring bike back. In the end, I got in about 100 miles between these two rides, just shy of the 103 I had originally planned.

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