Weird TNUA
The weather turned nice as the day went on today. Nice, in Rochester, means there’s some sun. Nice, for a cyclist, means little wind. It was still only in the 30s, but it was nice on both counts.
It had dipped to freezing by the time I left the Tuesday Night Urban Assault ride tonight, but only my left big toe was cold. What’s up with that? All the other toesies were fine. Just the one was cold—and very angry with me for being so. Very strange.
Today I was asked by no fewer than four people, “Don’t you get cold just wearing that?” I was wearing what’s become my standard cool-weather gear—long-sleeve and short-sleeve t-shirt, jeans, and a fleece jacket. I finish that off with sneakers, just one pair of socks, my less-ventilated summer-weight cycling skullcap, and both pairs of cycling gloves.
I wear the two pairs of gloves because the half-finger ones are solid backs, but the full-finger ones are mesh backs. I didn’t really know what to buy, or what I was buying, when I bought them, so I got them exactly backwards from what I should have. Oh well. You’d think that my fingertips would get cold, but so far, that’s not the case.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I feel cold for the first half-mile to a mile. Then I’m warm. By the time I get here, I’m unzipping things.”
Anyway, TNUA.
The weirdness of TNUA tonight was partly the ride and partly me. I’m not riding enough during the week lately to stay in shape from week-to-week. I felt great at the start of the ride, and the “burn” in my legs had just about burned-out by the time I got home.
As for the ride, 53 of us tonight, yet Scott took us through the U of R for most of the night. I’m not sure what his reasoning was, but we were bunched-up all night long. Maybe he felt we got too strung out last week. Maybe he felt we needed some practice riding in a tight group in a confined space. Maybe there were complaints that last week we got too far out if anyone wanted to drop. Who knows?
Whatever it was, I didn’t care for it. Too many bikes in too little space meant that there was very little room to pass, so I spent much of the night pedaling lightly at an uncomfortably slow cadence, so that I didn’t run over the riders ahead of me. When there was space and opportunity to drop the hammer, my legs were “stuck” to the slower rhythm and I really had to work at it to get my cadence, power and speed up.
But take these complaints in the context of last week’s ride, which was perfect for me. Any ride this week just wouldn’t measure up. And any ride is so much better than no ride at all.
I liked being out in the just barely freezing cold. I liked getting my lungs acclimated to working very hard in it. And I liked being part of a group that does stuff that’s fun and comes easily, but that the vast majority of the population would consder to be very hard to do. It’s sort of our little secret.
We had a couple of new TNUAers tonight. One guy took over my old postion of DFL. But what a trooper. At one point we had finished counting-off, noted his absence and were turning around, when into the lot he pedaled. And he didn’t complain that he got no chance to rest.
We also got a whole group of roadies from Park Ave Bike Shop. I hadn’t seen them on the ride before. There were a couple of really nice-looking rides in the group. And we had three fixies by my count. Possibly more because I overheard some riders calling it an invasion of fixies.
Anyway, I left a little early, again due to limited battery life on the NiteRider halogen headlight. Well, that and I just didn’t feel like doing another repeat on Wilson Blvd. And I was hungry. And I had to pee.
By the numbers
- 53 riders
- 4 flats
- 1 low-hanging branch to the face
- 32 degrees Farenheit
- 5 MPH winds from the SE
- 01:39:13 Riding time
- 02:30 Total time
- 21.09 Miles
- 12.7 MPH avg speed
- 26.1 MPH max speed
- 50 RPM avg cadence
- 120 RPM max cadence
- 50,200 total pedal revolutions.
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:51 pm EST
I did my own TNUA this week (nah, it was a TNRide only) but it was fun. Get yourself an L&M Arc and head out on your own
November 23rd, 2006 at 12:25 pm EST
I just plain can’t afford a HID. The Light & Motion ARC costs more than my bike did. Although admittedly, I’ve spent nearly twice the bike’s purchase price on additional equipment (racks, fenders, lights, etc.) and replacing components (seatpost, saddle, cassette, pedals.)
In the group ride situation, I also think the HID is just too bright. They’re damned annoying in some of the close quarters we ride in, and when we regroup, they’re such a pain, that the ride leader makes people turn them off. And of course, the life-expectancy of a HID bulbs is based not on burn time, but on/off cycles. (The replacement bulbs are pricey enough that owners groan when they go, then show up the next week with halogens.)
That said, I am seriously considering a HID for the road bike when I build it. What I like best about the Hope Vision is that it mounts permanently to the stem faceplace. I’m sick to death of quick-release everything, and the mounting location keeps space free on the bars. The battery clips-in underneath so there are no wires hanging all over, nor any mounting straps or hardware to mar the bike’s finish.
Meanwhile, I’m hoping Santa will bring a second battery for my NiteRider TrailRat.