124th outdoor ride of 2021 - Tuesday, August 31, 2021

2021 mileage: 3949.5

This morning I felt overwhelmed with gratitude to God that the ride simply went smoothly and with no problems. I rode the Packard/Platt Square (the same route as I was trying to do during my problematic ride on Saturday) under sunny skies (72° when I began at 10:30, and 77° when I finished), for a total of 13.8 miles in 1:24.

Relive video of today's ride

123rd outdoor ride of 2021 - Monday, August 30, 2021

2021 mileage: 3935.7

Today's ride was ... interesting.

Yesterday I was glad to have the day off. In the morning, I accompanied U of M oboe professor Nancy Ambrose King playing my oboe solo Death and Resurrection at our church, and it had a very technically challenging piano part for me to deal with (drat that composer!), so I was happy to rest the remainder of the day, as I've practicing very diligently and working awfully hard in preparation for that over the last several months.

After Saturday's incident with my chain coming off, and wrapping itself around my axle and the rear tire, as well as destroying the derailleur, I took the trike to the dealer in Dearborn this morning for replacement of the derailleur.

Starting off on my ride at 1:00 in 80° sunshine, everything was going beautifully. But then it got interesting, and unnerving (to say the least). Three quarters of a mile into the ride, as I descended a hill on the sidewalk on the east side of Lohr Road headed toward the intersection with Ellsworth Road, I squeezed the brakes ... and nothing happened. I gulped, said a quick prayer, and looked left and right, but relieved to see no traffic approaching from either the east or the west, I glided safely across. (As always, I had been prepared to take any necessary evasive action -- for instance, riding off the sidewalk and overturning the trike in the grass. But this was not necessary.)

You can bet that for the next few miles I tried the brakes numerous times. However, for some reason unknown to me, the incident at the intersection seemed to have been a one-time aberration, and by the time I turned around at Marsh Park, I felt no longer any need for concern.

Also, this was my first-ever round trip to Marsh Park in less than an hour. MapMyRide measured it at 9.9 miles rather than the usual 10.2, and I don't know why ... I didn't vary my route any. But it felt good to make such good time.

When I finished, it was a pleasure to see our neighbors and friends Dan and Kim just coming out of our building as I was going in.

Relive video of today's ride

122nd outdoor ride of 202

2021 mileage: 3925.8

This morning's ride was a frustrating one, capping off an unusually light week of riding. I am accompanying the U of M oboe prof at our church tomorrow in a performance of an oboe solo I wrote in 2018. My piano part is very technically demanding, so I've been keeping the riding light this week anyway, in order to conserve both energy, and time to practice. And as well, we're dealing with the hottest sustained stretch of weather this year to date. So I did a brief (problematic) ride on Monday, a more respectable one on Wednesday, and otherwise haven't ridden.

This morning I set off just past 8:30 to ride the Packard/Platt Square (13.6 miles), and got 3 miles into it when disaster struck. After coming down a sizable hill, I picked up speed and evidently gained some slack in the chain, which caused it to come off and get wrapped around the rear axle and the back tire somehow, as these pictures show, yanking me to an abrupt stop. After studying the mess for a moment, it seemed clear to me that this was a problem much better to deal with at home, so I texted Michelle to come pick me up, and once we got home I put the carrying rack on the car and came back to pick up the (locked) trike.

After getting it home, it was such a mess, I confess that I felt total uncertainty over what my course of action should be, but I contacted my friend Dan Cogan, who has helped me out of many technical issues in the past. He was free to come over, and upon arrival, he was staggered, saying, "I've never seen this before!" But digging in, he was able to extricate the chain mess, and then determined that the derailleur (the mechanism that shifts from gear to gear) was bent. After asking my permission, he bent it back, and then, after things seemed to be OK, I took it for a brief trial ride around a loop of our complex (about half a mile). Dan was amazed that it had worked, even to a degree, but emphasized that I need to get a new derailleur put on. That will wait until Monday, however, since at noon it is already a sultry, humid 85° with a heat advisory.

Relive video of today's ride

122nd outdoor ride of 2021 - Wednesday, August 25, 2021

2021 mileage: 3922.8

I did not ride yesterday, as the oboe professor at University of Michigan, Nancy Ambrose King, is playing my oboe solo Death and Resurrection at our church on Sunday, with me as her pianist, and my whole focus for the day was on our afternoon rehearsal—I didn't want to dilute that at all.

This morning I began by airing up the tires in my old trike (my backup, which was my regular ride before I got the new one last October). I usually ride with them at about 70 psi (pounds per square inch), but they were down to about 30 after my not having ridden the trike all winter and it sat untouched in our garage for the last 10 months. Given this I feel extremely fortunate to have been able even to get safely through a slow two miles on Monday.

With the proper air, though, it rode very nicely, and I went around the Platt/Packard Square plus a concluding loop in our complex (13.9 miles) in a speedy time of 1:25.

One unfortunate occurrence, though, is that my keys seem to have fallen out of my pocket sometime during the ride, so now I will begin the lengthy process of reassembling what I need.

Relive video of today's ride

121st outdoor ride of 2021

2021 mileage: 3908.9

As a riding day, today was replete with adventure. I set off just past 10:00, intending to ride my frequent ride of almost 14 miles ... but I only got about a mile and a half down Lohr Rd. before I heard a loud PSSSST from the back tire, followed by sluggish handling. It had blown, and since my recent problems with that tire, which uses a larger size tube than the front ones, I had used up the only spare I had. (I've ordered others from Amazon, but they've not yet arrived.)

So I texted Michelle, who came promptly and happily to pick me up, and after returning home I put the carrying rack on our car and went back down to bring the trike home. I thought I was out of luck, until she reminded me that when I got my trike last October, I kept the old one as a backup. VOILA!

Upon returning home, I dug it out of the back of the garage, and blithely (AND STUPIDLY) set off to ride. Stupidly because, although it's been sitting unused in our garage since October, I didn't think to check the tires. By three quarters of a mile, I could tell that a problem was brewing .... as demonstrated by the audible WHUFF of the tire as it rotated, and the sluggish handling. So I turned around and made it back home (slowly but safely, as it turns out).

That trike also fails to turn nearly as adroitly as the new one does, which almost caused me to run off the sidewalk on a couple of turns, The picture here is one Michelle took of me on it 4 years ago, in August 2017.

At any rate, I sort of feel as if I should "suck it up" and go air up the tire and try again. But two unsuccessful attempts have sapped me of my ambition, so I'm going to let it go until tomorrow, allowing a sad total of 3.6 miles in 31 minute suffice for today.

Relive video of today's first ride

Relive video of today's second ride

120th outdoor ride of 2021 - Saturday, August 21, 2021

2021 mileage: 3905.3

I am keeping my rides intentionally on the short side these days, in order to preserve energy and time (to practice) for an upcoming piano performance. (Next Sunday, I am accompanying the oboe professor at U of M in an oboe solo I have written, at the 9:00 a.m. service.) So, even though I generally prefer to do a longer ride on Saturday, this morning I kept it light, and just rode a modified version of the Platt/Packard Square—one that took me by Pheasant Run Apartments on Stone School Rd., where Michelle and I lived from the time of our December 1993 wedding until we bought our condo in the spring of 2004.

One interesting incident occurred, about 3 miles before I finished. I passed a woman who smiled, and then told me in a friendly voice, "OH! You have your banana bike out today!" Now I know that recumbent trikes are an uncommon and unusual sight (with even the word 'recumbent,' meaning "designed to be ridden sitting up with the legs stretched out in front" being quite unfamiliar to the vast majority of people), but I had never before heard it called a "banana bike"! 

At any rate, I had an enjoyable ride of 13.4 miles in 1:39, reaching a new mileage milestone (3900) for the year.

Relive video of today's ride

119th outdoor ride of 2021 - Friday, August 20, 2021

2021 mileage: 3891.9

This morning when I set out at 7:45, it was with every intention of riding the round trip to Baker Rd. But it was already warm (68°) and quite humid, with those conditions only destined to worsen.  I hate to admit it, but I simply was lazy and didn't feel like battling the heat and humidity. So within a few miles, I allowed myself to be tempted by the prospect of a shorter ride. (Though I find this excuse to be weak, flimsy, and insufficient.)

Additionally, the college football season begins two weeks from tomorrow. Pondering that, I thought it would be fun to ride by Michigan Stadium (nicknamed The Big House by legendary sports broadcaster Keith Jackson several decades ago), so I made the changes necessary to bring that about.

This gave me a ride of 7.4 miles (in 1:02).

Relive video of today's ride.