Local area ride, oh the pain of WINTER!! ;)

Saturday the roads still had quite a bit of Ice and Slush on them but by late afternoon it was drying up. We waited to 10 AM on Sunday as it got down to 20F and needed to WARM UP before we decided to ride! We figured a lot of the trails in Co. Springs would have more ice and snow on them due to the shade of trees and bushes so we decided to just ride the local roads around Security and Widefield where we live. Since it was a late start we decided to head out to lunch and taco bell was the choice of the day. After a good $1 menu triple layer nacho and couple of soft tacos we headed south along Widefield Blvd. down to ride the C&S road to the turn around point (ie: the closed the road access out to Hwy. 85/87) and turned around and headed back into Widefield to ride up to Widefield Park, stopped there for a break and then as it was around 2 PM. we headed back to the storage area and tucked the recumbents away! 13 miles with a lot of high clouds but still some sunshine here and there, with temps in the 50F+ so it ended up being a ok day to ride! That's good as Thanksgiving week is NOT looking good at all, very cold with snow a couple of times during the week, RATS was hoping for T-Day ride but we will have to wait and see! :)

Changes Part 2, the Movie, LOL!! ;)

Well looks like I'm changing rides again, at least kinda! We were trying to sell our TT Rover Tandem Trike on consignment at our local recumbent dealer here in Colorado Springs, CO. Being WINTER is not the best time to sell any kind of recumbent and there's been NO interest after a couple of months. The shop get's 30% of the money and after 6 months they get 40% well that wouldn't leave me enough to get a E-assist system for JoLynn's trike anyway so I've decided to just have them convert the tandem back to a single trike for ME!  The neat thing about a Terra Trike Rover Tandem is that you take a single Rover trike and "ADD" a Tandem extension kit to it to make it a "tandem". So you just take out the "extension kit" and you've got a single TT Rover Trike! :)

I will be going back to riding a TRIKE hopefully by the end of this coming week, (Nov. 30th. ).  We are having to move into a much smaller place, very soon and won't be able to afford a separate storage unit! This is due to both of us are going to be "living" on just our tiny Social Security Retirement by February 2020! We need to sell the Bike E and just have the two trikes! The Rover Trike is nicely upgraded it's now has a 10 speed rear derailleur with a 11x42 cassette and a Efneo 3 speed IG drive unit up front for a total range of 30 speeds!! The brakes were upgraded to shimano hydraulic disc brakes, etc. Ya it's still just a Terra Trike Rover, slow but comfortable. Photo's when I get it and can get a ride in, the weather here is not looking great for Thanksgiving and the weekend after, RATS!!

A brown bag lunch ride

On Tuesday,  Nov. 19th. we had one of those lovely Indian Summer type days, it got up to 70F with just a bit of breeze and clouds for the morning and early afternoon. Decided it was too nice to ride the exercise trainer so I got the Bike E out and headed up to pick up the Sand Creek Trail via the Hancock Expressway/Boychuck St. bike lanes from Security. Picked up the Sand Creek Trail heading north to Wild Flower Park for my brown bag lunch stop and a restroom break.

After eating I decided to ride up to Sagebrush Park on the trail, rode around the park and headed back south on the trail. The clouds were coming in high and thicker over Pikes Peak so I headed down the trail back towards the storage unit for the day! Enjoyed the 15 mile ride, locked up the bike and the storage unit and walked home!

A nice view of Pikes Peak from the picnic table at Wild Flower Park

Just a plonk around ride

Weds. Nov. 13th, was a nice day so I headed out for a short ride! Decided I didn't want to ride the dirt trail along the Pikes Peak Greenway I took to back streets and bike lanes over to the Southgate area, the up the bike lane on Cheyenne Blvd. to the 8th. Street bike lane over to Mc Donalds for lunch. Headed up the Greenway to America The Beautiful Park in down town Colorado Springs, CO. decided to head back as the sun goes down by 4 PM. so I headed back the same way. Put the Bike E up and walked home. It was a sunny but breezy day with lot's of leaves flying around! :)

Stopped at a covered picnic table for snack and to watch the leaves blowing around!

LOL, a selfie, SCARY!! ;)

Riding The Pueblo River Trail

We got to do one of our favorite rides on Saturday, we loaded up the truck with the bike and the trike and headed 40 miles south to Pueblo, CO. and Lake Pueblo State Park to ride the the Pueblo River Trail! It's a trail along the Arkansas River from the Lake Pueblo Dam thru Pueblo, CO. up to the campus trail for USC-Pueblo. The total trail is over 20 miles long a mix of open mesa, light forest and urban settings. We start at the Pueblo Nature Center/Cafe. We decided to concentrate on the portion heading East from the center up to the Lake Pueblo Dam and Fish Hatchery. The trail is paved and it's a older 8 ft. wide trail but it's flowing and flat in most places. We got to the Dam and turned around to go have lunch at the cafe but found out it closed down in June, Rats!! So we headed West on the trail down to where you can pick up a main street going towards down town and the Pueblo River Walk. We decided to see what was up on Abrendo Ave instead of heading down town and found a great little Italian Deli and Store had a excellent sub sandwich! It was 2:30 PM. so we headed back down the trail to the truck as it starts getting dark by 4 pm. anymore! We put in 18 miles at a fantastic, 70F and Sunny with just a slight breeze of a day!! On the
way back the sun was making the river "SHINE" what a great fall day for a RIDE!

My wife JoLynn on her, "new to her" Trident Stowaway I Trike

Here is a link to the video we took of the ride:

Local area road ride

We took a road ride around Security/Widefield  and Fountain Mesa so JoLynn could get a bit more riding time on her Trident Stowaway I trike.  Our original goal was to end up south in Fountain, CO. have lunch then head back to Wal-Mart on Hwy. 85/87 to pick up her prescription. We rode thru Security and then the back edge of Widefield heading down a mellow country road, to pick up 85/87 heading south but ran into a gate barrier on the old RR crossing side but with the "barrier" there was hardly and traffic so we headed east up the road to Fountain Mesa to find lunch. I was trying to keep her on flat roads to start with but it's a pretty good hill we had to climb (5% grade) min. so it took a while for her to get to the top with the "standard" triple chain wheel gearing on the Stowaway. We will have Angletech put a MTB crank set on it asap, 22/32/44 instead of  the stock 30/40/53 crank set so she can climb hills easier!! She got to the top of the hill and we headed to a Culver's for their fish sandwich and salad, then headed back down the hill and over to the Widefield RR crossing 85/87 to get to Wal-Mart. From there it was back to the storage unit as the sun was going down fast!! :) Here is a You Tube Video of our ride: