67th outdoor ride of 2021 - Friday, June 11, 2021

 2021 mileage: 3122.2

I decided to stay home and work on music stuff this morning rather than doing an early ride, knowing that would put me in line for a hot ride midday. And that's exactly what played out.

When I began my ride at 11:00, it was brightly sunny and 81°, The only favorable thing was that the high humidity we had yesterday has moved out.

Consequently, I scaled back to just ride a round trip to Marsh Park (10.2 miles), in 1:04, by the end of which the temperature had climbed to 84° and was still on the way up.

Looking forward to another ride with my daughter Christy tomorrow, as we rode together also on May 2. That day we did a 10-mile ride (to Marsh Park and back) and it nearly did her in, but she wants to try a little longer tomorrow. I will only hope I can keep up with her youth and vigor. 😎

Relive video of today's ride

66th outdoor ride of 2021 - Thursday, June 10, 2021

2021 mileage: 3112.0

Today was yet another adventure-filled one in my riding life.

I started at 5:45 (sunrise was at 5:58), hoping to get in a good ride to Matthei (31+ miles) before it heated up too much. However,  when I rolled my trike out of the garage, I was dismayed to hear the left front tire (the wheel the dealer just replaced for me) flapping -- flat. This may well have been just a case of age, as it had been on there for quite a while.

Anyway, I came in and worked for a while to allow the light to increase a bit, and then went back out about 7:00 and changed the tube. I was wary, as I am still a mechanical neophyte even at this rather basic task for cyclists ... but it seemed to go OK, so I set off around 7:30, and breezed through the first 5 miles at quite a good rate of speed.

Then, though, when I got to Marsh Park, I saw that that same tire had gone flat again. I texted my good friend Dan Cogan, who has helped me with numerous mechanical issues (it's tempting to say "countless")—frequently, but not exclusively, flats. He lives not far from the park, and was soon there to help. As I told him via a note I typed on my phone, having already changed it once this morning, I was concerned that I was screwing something up, and I only had one spare tube with me.

My wife Michelle, who was raised Catholic, refers to Dan as Saint Dan, for his many kind and helpful efforts on my behalf. (Dan and I get a chuckle out of this, though, as he is Jewish.) He dug right in, and soon had it changed. With his eagle eyes (in contrast to mine—Michelle calls me Blindo, and I agree that it fits), Dan soon found the hole in my old tube, but was unable to figure out what had caused it. Given this, and my single spare tube, as well as the way the day was heating up, I decided to settle for simply getting home successfully, without going any farther ... this gave me a ride of 10.2 miles, in 1:05.

Relive video of today's ride

65th outdoor ride of 2021 - Wednesday, June 9, 2021

2021 mileage: 3101.7

After Saturday's ride to Matthei, when I had trouble with my wheel, I had to take the trike to the dealer in Dearborn and leave it there. I just got it back late yesterday afternoon, so my riding has been nonexistent in recent days,

This morning, however, I got myself out at 8:45 in 75° sunshine and rode the Packard/Platt Square (13.6 miles) in 1:24.

Today's ride also put me over a new mileage milestone for the year (3100), although it seems relatively insignificant in light of hitting 3000 on the last day of May. Yet I know it is one more significant step on my way to 4000, and my year's goal of 5000l

Relive video of today's ride

64th outdoor ride of 2021 - Saturday, June 5, 2021

2021 mileage: 3088.1

I had hoped to ride a round trip to Matthei Botanical Gardens today for the second straight day ... but instead was sidelined with a Saturday surprise.

I set off at 6:15, under 57° clear skies, and the early part of the ride went very smoothly. I got this picture just under a mile into it, at 6:20, near the intersection of Lohr Rd. and Ellsworth Rd., looking to the east.

Then as I neared Matthei, when I was about a mile from my turnaround point, it seemed to me to be riding harder than usual. I looked down, and the left wheel seemed to me to be badly out of true—that is, a wheel that is out of true (usually caused by spokes with incorrect tension) will become deformed and lose its perfect roundness, manifesting in a wobble as it rolls rather than a smooth roll.

When I have had a wheel out of true in the past, cycling-savvy friends have cautioned me against riding on it. So when I got to Matthei, I texted Michelle to briefly explain my dilemma and ask if she could pick me up. I hated to do this, at a bit past 8:00, knowing that she'd still be asleep. She was, however, a trooper, and threw on some clothes and came for me immediately.

Once we got her back home so she could return to bed, I put the rack on the car and went back to pick up the trike and take it on to the dealer in Dearborn. The technician who spoke with me emitted a WOW when he saw it, and told me that it would probably be Monday before they could even look at it, but just from a cursory glance he could tell that it was quite bad, and might not be able to be trued, but might need a whole new wheel. When I typed out a note to ask what would cause that, he said he couldn't be sure exactly, but it looked as if I might have hit something hard. However, this has not occurred.

The one thing that occurs to me is that Michelle has asked me to keep my riding off the road, and some of the walks near us are in quite ghastly shape, so I wonder whether the repeated jostling there may have caused a problem. But it is curious to me that it was fine through my long ride yesterday, and during the early part of today. Anyway, in the end, I'm grateful that things came out as well as they did.

Relive video of today's ride

63rd outdoor ride of 2021 - Friday, June 4, 2021

2021 mileage: 3072.5

After taking yesterday off in order to spend more time composing, today I got out early in order to beat the heat that's moving in (mid eighties this afternoon, and upper eighties tomorrow). Leaving at 6:30, I enjoyed a delightful temperature of 64° (which rose to 76° during my ride), and rode a round trip to Matthei (32.2 miles in 3:29).

Relive video of today's ride

62nd outdoor ride of 2021 - Wednesday, June 2, 2021

 2021 mileage: 3040.3

Today, with a slightly cramped schedule, I settled for a little baby ride, just doing a single round trip to Marsh Park (10.2 miles), in 1:05. It's cooled off some (67°) and was cloudy, but still very comfortable riding.

As I rode I listened to a playlist ol songs from the sixties that I created recently, inspired by my acquisition of an amusing shirt on the iconic Simon and Garfunkel song:

The Sound of Silence

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61st outdoor ride of 2021 - Tuesday, June 1, 2021

 2021 mileage: 3030.1

I had not been able to ride since Saturday. Sunday I had planned to clean my chain, but was unable to get it done due to mechanical issues, and then yesterday i was stil out of luck, so I rode on our stationary bike inside.

Today I figured I'd take one more crack at the chain, being well rested and with good weather and good lighting (midday) -- and to my surprise, it worked! So I should be good on that issue for the next few weeks.

However, the ride itself presented a challenge. Just less than a mile into it, shortly after I had turned from the sidewalk parallel to Lohr Rd. to the right, onto the one that parallels Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. and leads onto the bridge up and over I-94 ... my chain came off in front and got into a tangled mess around the crank. God knew I needed assistance, and He graciously provided it.  As I knelt beside the trike, which I had turned over on its side, and was trying my best to make sense of the mess, a pickup pulled up beside me, and a man called out his window, "You need help?" I turned my palms up and shrugged, and must have looked pretty helpless, because he pulled his truck ahead and then came back to assist me.

He certainly looked every bit the stereotypically mechanically adept person (rather than, say, a fellow academician 😎)—he looked to be about thirtyish, and was dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt with boots, and was smoking a cigarette. He knelt down beside me, and after I showed him my card, he knew better than to question me, so he began to work on it, talking to himself. "Oh, I see ... the chain's all wound around the crank ... well, this goes under here, and if we spin the rear wheel to gain a little slack, and feed it through here ..." Inside of 5 minutes, he had me all straightened out and then gave me a hearty handshake and a one-armed hug, and then insisted on pushing to help me get started up that sizable hill for the bridge over I-94.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, and I completed the Packard/Platt Square (13.7 miles) in 1:32 ... except that after the chain problem, I forgot to restart MapMyRide for just over a quarter mile, so it measured me slightly short.

At the end of the ride, I was also blessed by seeing my friend Doug Franklin, coming south on the Lohr/Textile Greenway back toward his home in Saline, as I was heading north toward my home.

Relive video of today's ride