It’s official!
Not that I rely on it too much, but the 15-day forecast calls for only one night of below-freezing temps—tomorrow night—so it looks like the winter riding season is over for me, even though there’s still snow on the ground.
And not a moment too soon, AFAIC.
Today I stripped and detailed the Portland. Then I took the studs and the 16-27 cassette off the “winter” wheelset, replacing them with the bike’s original 12-27 cassette and the cyclocross tires, creating an “off-road” wheelset for the three-seasons. And I replaced the broken fender.
The only winter wear and tear seems to be to the rear cables (both shifter and brake) and the rear brake caliper seems a little rough. Then again, that caliper has never seemed as smooth as the front one, so it may just be the problem, not the salt.
Cables I expect to replace anyway, so I’ll only have to sort out the rear caliper. I was going to replace the cables today, but decided to wait a couple of weeks to see how wet the spring is. It’s the wet that attracts and holds the dirt.
When I do that, I’ll replace the chain. If I wiggle and force it, I can fit the .75% side of the chain checker into it. Only 240 miles to 2,000 and it’ll be fine until then. One of the few items that wasn’t in the storage bin when thieves took my spare parts, was a nice new 10-speed Ultegra chain.
Summarizing the 2007-08 winter:
Dec – Mar
70 Rides
458.82 Miles
34:52:24 Ride time
Those figures include all rides where the bike was wearing studs, which was about half of my total rides and hours for the period, and about 40% of the miles.
Lowest temp ridden: 4°F, -16°C. That was also the lowest temp ridden in the 2006–07 season and about the coldest it got here in both years.
The Portland turned out to be everything I’d hoped for in transportation for the winter. And it exceeded my expectations on rec rides. I never expected to chase MTBers off-road through the snow, and to out-climb some of them, but we did it several times. Skinny tires rule!
The forecast highs are in the 40s and 50 for the next two weeks. Some of those days will be rainy, but it’s sure going to be nice not having to put on all those layers before going out.
It got into the lower 40s yesterday under sunny skies. It was pretty windy, but still, Yellow Bike and I got out for a few miles with the club. This particular ride was map 178, Ellison Park to Mendon Ponds Park. Mendon Ponds is a favorite destination, and map 178 takes a slightly different route to it than I usually ride—a hillier route. I’ll have to remember it for my hill training.
I was pleased with my pace, averaging 16.3 MPH over the 30 miles. Part of this route takes the same roads as the ride I led last July. I was delighted that on the same bike, with same gears and even with the heavy winds, I was a full 2 MPH faster than last July. Hills I struggled with last July were non-issues yesterday.
It means that I continue to improve, even when I don’t otherwise notice it.
Now that it’s just four months from riding the Rockies, I’m going to have to knuckle down and do some serious training. I’ve decided to get a new cyclometer with altimeter to track my climbing and a heart rate monitor.
I’m beginning to understand how the different heart rate “zones” relate to different aspects to training. I have a sneaking suspicion that I don’t ride hard enough a lot of the time—at least not hard enough to improve at the rate I need to for the Rockies.
Plus, my lights interfere with my current cyclometers. I like them otherwise. I had been saving for a Garmin Edge 705, which adds GPS and mapping to the feature set, but I can’t justify the extra cost. And it’s having bleeding edge software issues.
I was delighted to find that Blackburn, which made the cyclometers I own now, has addressed the interference issue and has put a few other upgrades into its new line. So on payday this week, I’m going to order the new Neuro 6.0.
It uses the same cadence sensor and wiring harness as my current Delphi models, so I don’t have to change a thing there. The unit is supposed to automatically sense Bike 1 and Bike 2, so near as I can tell, I’ll have to buy one extra wireless speed sensor, and I’ll be able to use the one unit on both bikes.
