Pay Attention to Phone Rain Notification Bike Ride
Today was one of those days that I should’ve paid attention to the rain notification on my phone. I started the bike ride at 11:55 and the notification said expect rain at 12:45. My plan was to the bike the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route but that changed to bicycling the “Atascocita – Walden” route for 23.21 miles. It was cooler than I prefer at 68 degrees when I started and I tried to compensate with a short sleeve t-shirt under the long sleeve thermal jersey and topped off with a short sleeve jersey. I chose to wear shorts without leg warmers and for the first 2 or 3 miles I wondered if that was a bad choice but my legs warmed up enough that I didn’t feel the chill.
Yesterday I picked up the Stradalli from Bike Werks in Kingwood. They replaced the headset bearings. The bottom bearing was a rusted mess and the cause of the “index” spot when I turned the handlebars. The top bearing got replaced as well but was not as bad. As I began the bike ride I could a BIG difference in how the bike steered. Turning the handlebar was so smooth. I started to notice how much a twitch the handlebar back and forth as I ride which the “indexed” bearings did not allow. Jeremy said he had a hard time getting the bottom bearing race out of the headtube due to the rust and was concerned it might come out but he worked it free. The bearings were the original ones that came with the bike over 19,623 miles ago. Next up I need to check the wheel bearings. The wheels appear to spin freely but new bearing might improve that. I might have the bearings on hand from planning to install them on another set of wheels.
The bike ride went as planned until I was on the W. Lake Houston Parkway bridge over the San Jacinto River when I felt a few rain drops but none showed up on my Elemnt screen. I was 8 miles into the ride and I hoped the rain drops were scattered and I could bicycle away from them. Instead I rode into more rain. By the time I reached FM1960 I knew the route was going to change. Rain drops were laying on the Elemnt screen obscuring the readings some and my legs were getting chilled from the drops hitting them. The road wasn’t wet yet but the damp pavement was starting to be more than the dry places. Biking into Walden the rain continued and the road got wetter. The S 13 mph wind with the wet was making me chilled and I sped up thinking I could ride out the moisture but not to be the case. I biked into a steady light rain and crossing FM1960 going north on Atascocita Shores Drive I got wetter and colder. Shorts were wet, shoes were wet and jerseys were wet.
My next goal was to ride to W. Lake Houston Parkway and ride north of the river with the hope the rain would not be there but it was. By now I was wet and chilled hurrying to get home. I stopped at Kingwood Drive to wait for traffic sitting under a tree for shelter but it was wet and dripped water on me. After a few minutes the traffic had a break and the cars waiting in front of me went across letting me follow too. From there it was a little over 2 miles to home and I pedaled quickly to reach the garage and out of the rain. So far my glass lenses were not too covered with rain drops and it stayed that until I finished the ride at 1:39.
Drying off the bike I took some weather screenshots on my phone and went inside to dry off and take a warm shower. Tomorrow the rain should be gone and the temperature could hit 80+ degrees again. I have a Meetup.com ride scheduled for 9 AM with a couple of other bicyclists saying they will meetup. By then today’s bike ride in the rain will a faint memory, I hope.
Links to RideWithGPS.com and Strava.com.
