As I walked out the backdoor I realized the rear tire on the Canyon Endurace was flat. At first I thought about changing to my Lynskey R300 but after setting all the sensors in the RWGPS app I didn’t want to do that again. Turning the Canyon around I went inside to find out what caused the flat. Looking at the tread area on the outside nothing showed up. Removing the tube and pumping it up didn’t reveal the cause either though an old patch had a big bubble. I filled the bathroom sink with water and looked for air bubbles. The old patch was the culprit. I tried tearing the patch off to replaced but the glue held on tight. A new tube was my solution. Installed the tube, aired up the tire and got ready again. The troublesome patch.

Yesterday my Bolt computer died meaning I had to find an alternative until a replacement arrives. With the recent problems I decided to order a backup computer. I didn’t want to spend too much and found the Lezyne Macro Plus GPS HR at Planet Cyclery. It includes GPS and an app to configure it. While the order works it way here I learned how to use my FitBit Versa 2 watch on YouTube. As a backup I used the RWGPS app too.

Rolling to the end of the driveway at 11:41 AM I pressed the FitBit Bike Exercise start icon and then the start button on the RWGPS app. The FitBit started right away but the RWGPS app didn’t look good. During the ride on the “Kingwood – FM1485 – Kingwood” route I stopped a couple of times to check on the RWGPS app and it wasn’t working but the FitBit was right on target. After that I ignored the RWGPS app. I checked on my ride progress by flicking my wrist and the Versa 2 screen showed me the distance, speed and a couple of other stats. At the 2:20 PM finish the FitBit showed 32.37 miles while the RWGPS app said 1.6 miles. Tomorrow I will use the FitBit and not the RWGPS app. Maybe the Wahoo Fitness app will do better. I donwloaded the ride data from the FitBit web dashboard and imported it into Strava, SportTracks, and RWGPS. What the FitBit Versa 2 recorded during the bike ride.

The sky was littered with clouds and the weather report warned of scattered rain but I made it to the finish without getting wet though as I went in the backdoor heard rain hitting the patio cover. With the cloud cover the temperature stayed in the low 90’s and the wind was light. Weather as I rode: start 88 (74% humidity, 78.6 dew point), partly cloudy, wind E 4 mph. Finish 92 (62% humidity, 77.4 dew point), mostly cloudy, wind E 7 mph. My legs powered me to the north without too much trouble and after making the u-turn north of Caney Creek under US59 the wind generally helped me unless I rode to the east.

Without a computer I didn’t know how fast, how much power, and heart rate I was doing. Periodically checking the FitBit worked for distance and speed.

Today’s ride was important to position me to reach 200 miles for the week on tomorrow’s ride. I am up to 174.19 miles and I plan on biking 31+ miles tomorrow putting over 200 miles. For the month I am ahead of the pace to reach 700 miles. This table shows where I stand.

Link to my Strava bike ride activity.

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