Monday, March 16, 2009

First Ride of the Year

Lucky to Get Out

The weather was beautiful and my weekend was pretty filled up with activity. My father-in-law was in town and we dragged him all over. So I figured I wouldn't be getting in a ride. Hey, it's only mid-March...

So I was surprised yesterday when after church my wife asks me "Are you going for a ride today?"

Um, OK. :-)

So while my wife and her father bonded over roasting a leg of lamb, I went for a ride.

What to Wear

It was sunny and in the 50's. I had seen people riding earlier in the day dressed like it was in the 30's. I was tempted to wear shorts, but I went with my long bike pants instead. I also decided to wear a feather weight thermal under my bike shirt. I didn't think I would need anything more

It turns out I had just the right amount of layers on. Any more and I would have overheated. Any less and I would have been chilly.

Gearing Up!

Gearing Up
My Bike, originally uploaded by Martinator.

I put 105 PSI in both the front and back of my Continental Grand Prix 4 Season Road Tires. I figured I would ride them a little soft given the road conditions. There was a lot of sand and stuff on the roads. It was good decision and I think my ride benefited from the lower pressures in the tires.

GPS Issues

Within the first mile my GPS device shuts off all by itself. I had to stop to get it restarted. What a pain! It stayed on though for the rest of the ride.

This is a pain so I finally Googled "Garmin Etrex Legend mysteriously turning off" and found this in a MotionBased.com forum: "Garmin mysterious power-off symptoms explained"

"Vibration of the unit causes a relative motion between the front and rear halves of the case, perturbed by the mass of the batteries clamped into the battery box, which effectively causes the battery spring tabs to scrub the circuit board power connection pads, abrading the conductive material off of the pads."

Maybe I'll have to crack that puppy open...

WinterWalk.org

WinterWalk.org
WinterWalk.org, originally uploaded by Martinator.

When I hit Holliston, I ran into the WinterWalk.org walk for Homelessness event. It was a real nice day for a walk.

Slow But Steady

I had absolutely no issues with my rear derailleur on this ride. I was having a lot of problems with it at the end of last season. So I guess my non-fix fix back in February had worked :-)



1 comments:

sarah said...

Nice to see you got out for a ride! I agree, a little lower tire pressure is good this time of year. I'm still enjoying the cross bike's softer feel for most of my rides.