April bike activities included 23 days of riding all on the road. I rode one organized ride on April 1st in Iowa Colony at the zuhne Education Expedition. The days I did not ride were because of weather. A couple of days the weather was not enticing enough to get on the bike, I wimped out. This is the most monthly miles so far this year. I rode my Cervelo Caledonia bike 18 of the rides and my Lynskey Helix on 6 rides. Usually the rides are not so many on the Cervelo. Typically in 7 days I ride the Cervelo 4 times and the Lynskey 3 times. My goal was 700 road miles and I surpassed that with about a week left in the month. Four of the weeks ending in April were 200+ miles. The one exception was the week ending April 9th when I did not ride 3 days that week. Each ride has video clips on the Texbiker YouTube channel.

How did April 2023 compare to the previous 4 years? 2022 goal 650 miles actual 993 miles, 2021 goal 600 miles actual 915 miles, 2020 goal 612 miles actual 938 miles, 2019 goal 600 miles actual 817. April 2023 actual miles (852) lower than 3 years but the goal was the highest (700).

One maintenance event during the month when I replaced the rear tire on the Cervelo I installed last month due to a flat and moved that tire to the front wheel. The rear tire now is a Continental GatorHardshell 700x28c and the front tire is a Continental GatorShell 700x28c. I moved the tire to the front because that tire gets less wear due to weight distribution. I ride the Gator tires because of the road debris and low number of flats I’ve had with the tire models.

I spent a number of rides testing saddles. I bought a Velo Senso TT+ saddle because I wasn’t happy with the comfort of the BiSaddle installed on the Cervelo. I added the “flat” insert to the BiSaddle riding it a few days and the reverting back to the Velo saddle. I ordered a Fizik Antares Versus Evo R3 Adaptive saddle on Saturday and will try it when it arrives. That is a 3D printed saddle I found on sale. A number of reviews say it is very comfortable.

Year to date biking mileage is ahead of previous years since I’ve used GPS bike computers and upload the data to Strava. Missing the days in April narrowed the difference between 2019 to 2022 to double digits. 2019 is the closest. Prior to 2019 the YTD mileage is much bigger.