2 Days of Rest and Back on the Bike
First ride since the Pineywoods Purgatory. I wanted to ride yesterday but about the time I was going to get ready a rain storm moved through the area. The weather radar showed a line of storms moving from the north but magically as they arrived the wind kicked up and the rain only amounted to .09″ on my weather station. This was enough to wet all the streets and with the drop in temperature they did not dry out fast.
Sunday my thigh muscles were really sore from all of the hills in Lufkin. I don’t think I could have turned the pedals if I wanted to. I took the time to install the new pedals on my Motobecane 700 HT MTB, switch the tires to Performance Versa Trac 26 x 2.0 and remove the rear rack. The pedals (Shimano PD-M540) work much smoother than the old ones. I can unclip with a lot less effort and no sticking like the old ones. The tires run quieter and smoother on the pavement and asphalt on the greenbelt trails in Kingwood. With yesterday’s rain I did not go on any dirt today.
Kingwood has over 70 miles of trails but I only rode on 23.41 miles today. I want to see how the changes affected riding on the MTB and I have to say they were positive. One thing I need to fix is the front brake stopping. The disk brake grabs the disk firmly when I am stopped but when I am moving it slides and does not stop the bike like it should. I don’t want it too grabby or a header will be in my future. Using both brakes stops the bike smoothly. I have biked Kingwood trails 5 times this year.
Another reason I rode the MTB was the Stradalli chain is 3 links too long (I counted the old chain to find the difference) which allows the chain to slip in the smaller gears on the rear cassette. I ordered a KMC Missing Link “Opener” tool and extra Missing Link connectors but they will not arrive for several days. I can compensate by not using the smaller gears on the rear and use the “big” ring on the front. I will probably do that on tomorrow’s ride.
The trails were mostly dry but in places they were wet. Some places were covered in mud but the hardest time came riding in the shade with sunglasses with the trail covered in pine needles. It was hard to see the concrete trail with the pine needles. I thought about removing the sunglasses but didn’t. The trails are rougher than the streets, generally. I felt worked over from the bouncing and dodging the bumps which is a big difference from road biking. I think this may be one reason I favor road biking.
I am watching the weather in Marshall on Saturday. We may drive there for the Tour de Fireant if the weather is good. Today the forecast is 88 and partly cloudy with a 75% chance of rain late evening. If this holds we will give it a go.
Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.
