It looks as if spring may have finally unleashed itself on us. I’d complain about the rain, but hey, we have had some epic weather for riding, and at this point, really could use the rain, I suppose. Let’s see, the weather has been so great in fact, that as of this week, I ticked over 1000 miles, this year, already! Exact numbers for year to date:
Distance: 1070.9 mi
Time: 103h 47m
Elev. Gain: 26,844 ft
Rides: 39
I Likely won’t sustain this exact amount, life is busy, but I’m hoping I can keep up some good steam to keep going throughout the rest of the year. More importantly, I’m hoping my body can cooperate and not throw any random hard to heal blisters, or tendonitis my way, that’s where I need to keep thinking moderation. Maybe I’ll take it easy on the 50+ mile rides.
This week brought a few good rides, one after work quickie, then to the trainer for the 2nd, on account of the thunder and lightning. I can handle a little rain, but I don’t want to be electrocuted, that would probably be worse than the slow healing blister or tendonitis.
Then yesterday, Thursday, which I think has become my big ride day on account of knowing I won’t ride again until at least Saturday or Sunday, I decided to try a little bit of the hill climbing again. Starting with the haul up Mt Scott Blvd for my first 900 ft of elevation gain (I’d like to formally apologize to whomever was on their way to the cemetery in the funeral procession, and had to slow way down and pass me, those legs couldn’t go a
ny faster and I couldn’t get any further on the shoulder). While at the top of Mt. Scott, I flashed a picture of the view I’d just earned and did my usual social media posting before continuing.
Just a minute later, before I took off again (I was still recovering from the climb), my friend, Brian, replied back saying I should cruise down to his neigborhood on the other side of the hill. Well, I thought: “Sure, why not?”. After all, a little adventure and diversity from the regular rides is welcome, I don’t need to always mash the pedals after numbers, detours are good. After some navigational guidance, I found the ride-under-gate (‘bent advantage), connecting the route to the legendary SE Quail Ridge Dr., which I flew down, and met up up with Brian. He jumped on his ‘bent trike and we headed back up the same way, once again summiting Mt. Scott.
Yes, the SE Quail Ridge Dr. climb is a little nuts. It was touch and go in a few spots, but after some very slow pedal turning, I made it. Brian’s trike is setup for these hills far better than mine, he swapped out his cranks for a little shorter option, and it looked like he was easily spinning away next to me while I was leaking water at a rapid rate from the effort of turning my pedals around. Down the road, I may have to replace the smaller ring on the front of my trike with a better granny gear, however, I can’t really imagine taking myself up stuff that steep on a regular basis.
With all good climbs, comes the reward of an epic decent, and this one, heading back down the Mt. Scott Blvd side again, does not disappoint. After the first few sweeping corners, building speed, the pedals soon start to feel useless and you actually have to ride the brakes at times. After parting ways, I stretched out the legs for a quick, and mostly flat ride out to Boring and back. Rides like that, well, I slept great last night.
This was my first time cruising with another ‘bent rider, and it was extremely fun. Thanks for taking a spin with me, Brian. I’m hoping to carve out more time in the future for group/social rides, I’ve connected with the Oregon Human Powered Vehicles club on social media, but have yet to meet up for one of their planned pedals. Also, hoping to continue getting to know the RecumbentPDX crowd and get some area rides planned through that venue. They are doing great things with the shop and I can really get on board with their vision to continue growing the recumbent scene. Great people, and they have now generously jumped on board with a donation to our rideATAXIA NorCal event coming up the end of May, thank you RecumbentPDX, for being more than just another cycle shop!
Speaking of rideATAXIA NorCal, #imnotdeadyet is recruiting riders and donations to support this worthy cause! You can find all the details in my post here:
2 Comments
Hey man, I should point out that the shorter cranks don’t really help out on the climbs. The real help is the ultra low gears which come via the rear hub with internal gears (similar to: https://www.sram.com/sram/urban/products/i-3-freewheel). So, when I am in my smallest ring up front and my biggest ring in back, I can still drop *another* 25% by shifting the hub into low gear. As far as climbing, we’ve got to dream big, real big:
https://www.strava.com/segments/1385410
Last point, the shorter cranks *do* help relieve some knee pain since they require less bending and encourage faster cadence–hence lower torque. Also, I find that on descents I “wobble” less when pedaling and I attribute it to my legs making smaller patterns and consequently less weight getting thrown around.
I’d be all over the ride to Timberline if I didn’t have to worry about traffic! Yeah, I was approaching from the faster spinning = easier climbing. I really will have to look into a smaller granny gear cog on the front I think. I didn’t know you had an internal hub, they’re coming out with some pretty sweet ones at more affordable prices now. Utah trikes just did a video review of shimano’s newest one that would do away with my whole rear derailleur.