(7 / 13) + Fixie = 60

Yesterday afternoon was a bike maintenance afternoon.  I took the time to replace the chains on the Kona and the Fixie.  Both were significantly worn and the Fixie chain never recovered from the drenching it got on my trip to Ocean City in early June.  The Kona chain was a new design for me, and it went so easy that I don’t know why I didn’t use that type before.  It would have saved me about $30.  The hardest part of the process was “breaking” the new chain to get it to the right size.  They don’t want those pins to come out, do they?

With the new chain on the Fixie, she rode quite well this morning.  It is always amazing to me how great a new chain or a newly cleaned and lubricated chain feels on the bike.

We had a large group meet at the Rusty Bridge.  Mike B met us there on the beginning leg of his planned two day trip to Delaware beaches.  He will do back to back centuries camping along the way.  He has a nice day for it.  Clouds have rolled in and they are moderating temperatures, at least around here.  It was nice to ride until nearly 10:30 this morning without worrying about the heat.

We all made it down to Annapolis for breakfast without any significant incidents.  My left foot did come unclipped at one point and my heel hit the rear spokes.  None broke, but it moved my cadence sensor just enough that it was not recording when I hit the peak speed on the approach to the Naval Academy Bridge.  We had a slower pace than usual this morning, which is tougher in the gearing I have set up on the Fixie.  It is actually more work to go slow.

On the return we still kept the pace down.  By the time we got to the Rusty Bridge, only Ravi and I were still riding together.  We rode into Glen Burnie city center, then it was a solo ride for about the last 30 miles.  The loops at the airport were uneventful.  I stopped at the 7-11 at mile 50 and grabbed water, orange juice, and a Snickers.  After that break, I was simply on auto pilot getting back home.  My legs were hurting some.  It has been six weeks since I’ve done this many miles, and it shows.  I need to keep putting miles on these legs or October will be an epic collapse.

No animals were injured or killed on this ride.

In a couple of weeks, a group of us plan to do an overnight 200k  on the Eastern Shore.  That’s the best way to ride in the summer.  It will be a 7 pm start time, finishing somewhere around 3 or 4 am.

This Ride: 59.7 miles
Month: 141.4 miles
2012: 3,097.1 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 16,950.8 miles