November 28, 2020, Out and About on the Bicycles, My wife Jo is released from her doctor for "strained knee" so we finally got to ride again!

 Well 2 weeks ago my wife strained her left knee. Today we headed out to find a few local area flat roads and trails so she could finally get a miles on he bike again! We started from our apt. and headed south on the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail over to the Palmer/Mesa Greenway, through down town Co. Spgs., CO. over to the Shooks Run Trail headed back north, stopped at The Tastee Freeze Drive In for a evil (shared 1) order of chili fries, YUM! :) Then headed home via the Fontenaro St. Bike Lane to Wood Ave and too the apt. Here is a video of our ride:

November 25, 2020, A short ride on different Urban Trails in Colorado Springs, CO.

On Tuesday the 24th. it was COLD and WINDY with spitting lite snow at times. On Weds. lucky for me we got a much better day, 40 F, sunny with just a slight wind!! I decided I needed to get in a at least a short ride with Thanksgiving on Thursday! Headed out to hook up with several of the local area urban trails. The only downer was that Jo couldn't come with me as she'd still "recuperating"  from her "knee strain"! LOL, even though I'm still getting used to the "upright" seating position on my Electra Townie 21d. My last ride was a "recumbent trike" a lot different but the ride was still very enjoyable! Here's a short video of my ride:

"Out and About on the Bicycles", Urban Trails Ride

 

November 19, 2020- A stunning late fall day for a ride!

 Well bummer, JoLynn has a knee swelling problem and she can't ride but she told me to go for a ride anyway, love that women!! :) It's November 19th. 2020 and WOW, it's already 70 F by 9 AM.!! That's a rare day in late fall, it's usually 40 to 45 F so yes, I headed out for a "out and about" ride on different trails, etc. Had to peel off the jacket almost right away and riding in shorts in Nov. is a real treat!! Stopped along the Rock Island Trail heading E. for a protein bar and water break and took a couple of photos. Then headed down the South Homestead Trail over to the Bijou St. Bike Lane to get to downtown Co. Spgs. and over to the westside and stop at the Colorado Springs Bike Shop to see if they have my favorite "soft foam" grips in stock. Rats, none but I paid and they now have them on order for me. After that I headed home slowly on the Interstate Greenway, (we call it the Pine St. Trail) to pick up the Pikes Peak Greenway over the Popcycle Bridge and back to the apt.! It's so nice to be able to just store the "bicycles" in our 2nd. floor apt. instead of having to have a separate storage unit, that we had to have for the recumbent trikes!!! The weather for the rest of the week, low 40 F, with possible light rain/snow showers Friday afternoon and on Saturday, RATS!! :( Oh well gota get those rides when you can with old man winter coming up fast! ;)

 

November 15, 16 and 17, 2020. A couple more short rides!

 

On November 15, we got out and about on the bikes and headed over to Manitou Springs via different urban trails and back streets. It was a nice but chilly morning, I decided to shoot a video but didn't notice that the "supposed" waterproof case for the camera "lightly fogs" in the colder temps so most of the 2 hr. footage had to be scrapped, rats. around 16 miles RT for the ride, here's what's left about 23 minutes of the last part of the ride so it's ok to make FUN of the video, I won't mind! ;) 

Out and About on Bicycles November 15th. 2020

Well I rode the bike to a different local shop to have a sweet looking set of fenders put on, November 16th. it was only around 4 miles to ride it to the shop to drop it off so I just walked home. They were really busy so they didn't get them on till just before close at 5 pm. so I headed down to the shop in my 27 year old Ford Ranger PU truck and picked up the bike! These fenders really spiff the bike up! It wasn't in real good shape when I bought it as the photo they showed on Craigslist was in a LOT better condition than when I drove 100 miles up to get it! :( So I nicknamed it UD, short for Ugly Duckling but it's turned into a fair Swan with cleaning, adjusting and upgraded accessories added!!  Might have to rename it Phoenix! :)

On the 17th. I decided to do some errands and pay a bill or two via bicycle! Then since the day was a nice one, I rode over to the Shooks Run Trail, headed to it's current ending point at Fountain Blvd. then took back streets over to Cascade Ave. heading north and picked up the "Bike Lane" back to the apartment!! 9.95 miles in the 60 F sunshine, nice utility ride! Jo couldn't go as she strained her knee while on a 5 mile walk yesterday, BUMMER!! :( Hopefully she will be ok to ride by Thursday as it's last decent (a bit windy) day with the "rain" coming in for the weekend! :(  Till then, Take care, Ride Safe and have FUN! :)

November 10, 2020-The first RIDE!

 There was still some traces of snow, here and there on the parking lot of our apartment building as we got ready to take the "first ride", although be it a short one on our Townie 21d's. It was sunny, slight breeze and around 37F degrees, we headed out to take the bikes to Old Town Bike Shop for "tune up's" and to have some accessories added. It's been a couple of years since we've ridden two wheeled bikes but we headed out and took to it just fine as we rode over the the credit union first then down the Shooks Run Trail towards down town and headed over Cascade Ave. bike lane to take us to the bike shop. We got there, really do like the way these bikes cruise. We got there a bit before opening time but the service tech came out and wrote up our repair tickets for us then took the bikes in. We waited outside in the chilly sunshine for about 15 minutes. We were helped by the store owner, Jon Crandell himself to find a few the wanted accessories. Boy bike shops really have almost "bare shelves" these days due to Covid Virus's!! 

  We left the shop and walked the 5 miles back to the apartment, stopped and had a great lunch a local cafe, the sun was now much warmer, it turned out to be a excellent fall day. Now we just have to wait for the call saying their done and we can go pick the bikes up. Hope to get them by the weekend as it's suppose to get a bit warmer!! :)

November 3, 2020-WE ARE BACK!!! :)

 Well, sometimes things work out, not like you'd hoped but they, like life, change to meet the situations! We've now sold both the recumbent trikes and thought we'd be "without wheels" for a considerable period of time but we found great bargains on a couple of Electra Townie 21d used bicycles thru Craigslist in Denver and Fort Collins, CO. We decided to spend a portion of the sale funds from Jo's trike and get on a list to purchase two Electra 7d's, these are 7 speed "feet forward" bicycles, cruiser styles for just riding our area rail and urban trails. We had to be placed on a "Waiting List" as bike production is wayyyy behind due to the Covid-19 Pandemic so we started looking at the USED market here in Colorado Springs, it was pretty dead, decided to try Denver and Ft. Collins and found not only much cheaper but 21 speed Electra Townies and bought them!! We picked up Jo's on Tuesday the 3rd. in Littleton, CO. It has been sitting in a garage for almost 2 years and only ridden twice before the senior lady decided she didn't like riding a bicycle! It is decked out very nicely!

 We then found one for ME, yes I wanted a Step-Thru version, (ok, you can call it a girls bike if you must!), it makes it much easier to get on and off and the "feet forward" design let's you get your feet on the ground quicker!! We will pick mine up on Friday, Nov. 6th. up in Longmont, CO. It's much more basic but even the same color! So we will be out riding again soon after we get Old Town Bike Shop to give them tune-up's!

I'll be adding fenders, lights, bell, etc. when we get it home, I'll be getting either black or aluminum colored fenders for mine, LOL, so we know "who's is who's"! ;) Got a appt. for the tune up's on Tuesday, Nov. 10, then we can head out for a RIDE! As the title states, Out and About on Bicycles!