February 23, 2021- FINALLY a nice day for a RIDE after a week + of the DEEP FREEZE!!

It sure was nice to get a Teasing of Springs on Tue. the 23rd. we got in a nice 16 mile ride, mostly using bike lanes through out the city to ride up to the Starsmoor Center at the base of North Cheyenne Canyon and had to take off "layers" along the way!! Sunny, warm, just slight breeze, man, after the week long DEEP FREEZE this month it felt so good to get Out and About on the Bicycles again!

Here's our YouTube video of the ride, enjoy!!  

Alas, it's quickly gone, Weds. is partly sunny and very WINDY, only in the 30 F's and they predict SNOW by this evening clear thru Thurs. morning, 3-6 inches and cold for most of the next few days again, Spring in So. Colorado is still 30-40 days away, ARRUGH!! :(

February 14, 2021- Arrugh, we are banished to the Cycle Trainer due to the Artic COLD Front! :(

 

Well we've been in the DEEP FREEZE for 3 days and here in Co. Springs, CO. it's a balmy -5 F degrees and lightly snowing outside. :( It's been like this for several days and although I appreciate having a "in-home" cycle trainer but enough is enough!! LOL, well it's not stopping and looks like it will be Fri./Sat. next week before it MIGHT be decent enough out there to ride the bicycles! :( I know there's a LOT of us riders who are in the same boat with the current weather. We celebrated Valentines Day back on Friday 12, Feb. as it was a COLD but still partly sunny day. So we are treating today likes it's any other Sunday. I've done my AM. round on the trainer, with a set of warm up and streach exercises and lite workout with 5 lbs. dumbbells' after that. Here's a photo of my lovely wife of 40 years, JoLynn working away on the trainer, thank goodness for those folks in warmer climates that create YouTube bike ride videos!!! ;) 

If your stuck in this mess, you have our sympathy, here's hoping we all get a bit of decent weather by the end of next week so we can all be "Out and About on the Bicycles"! :) 

February 9, 2021-A very CHILLY Ride!!

JoLynn wasn't up to a ride so I headed out on my own, it was sunny and COLD, 25 F at the start but was "supposed" to warm up to 42 F, which it NEVER did! Even with a skull cap on it I was having a very cold forehead and could feel the chill in the air. Headed west on the Sinton trail then south on the Foothills trail up to the "31st. Overlook to take some photos of the Fusion!

Headed back down the street to get back on the Foothills trail and head over to the 31st. street bike lane to the Westside of town and a Wendy's for a small bowl of hot chili!! :) 

From there headed to the Midland trail back into down town, picked up a side street or two heading to the Colorado Springs Bike Shop to take to Rocky, the head tech about a different set of shifters for the bike. The clouds came in on the way home up the Pine St. trail and the final mile on the Pikes Peak Greenway to our Apt. The high never even got to freezing, only 31 degrees but still an enjoyable ride! Sadly the weather says we are heading into Deep Freeze from artic air for the next several days so I'll be stuck on the cycle trainer! :( Here is a Relive video tracing the ride: 

February 7, 2021-"THAR SHE BLOWS", that's what the WIND was doing to us on this ride!!

With Jo being a type II diabetic it's recommend that she has very little pasta in her diet as it has a LOT of carbs! So we don't normally make it for our meals but we both have had a CRAVING for some pasta so we decided to stop at our favorite place, call Panino's in down town Co. Springs. So we took the LONG way and headed out east first on the Templeton Gap Trail. There's on area where the trail goes LOW just a couple of feet above the drainage system heading N & S thru Colorado Springs. 

 At the north/south drain junction it was a LARGE sheet of ICE so we walked the bikes very slowly, (thank goodness for MTB style bike shoes!), over the ice and restarted the ride heading north. Decided that we didn't want to cross the ice on the way back so we headed up to Academy Blvd. and rode the sidewalk (hardly used by Peds!), over to Meadow Lake bike lane to Austin Bluffs, then took the other leg of the T-Gap trail back, 

Then down to pick up the side street over to the Templeton Gap Road bike over to Corona St. Bike Blvd. and over to the Willamette Ave. bike lane to the restaurant. BUMMER it was closed due to the Super Bowl, ARRUGH! :( We headed to a different Italian place and it didn't open till 4 PM. Ok, last resort we headed over the Pikes Peak Ave. bike lane to down town and the Red Gravy on Tejon St., YEA they are open! :) We had a Lunch special of salad and fettucine alfredo! It was a bit rich but tasted great!  Now it's been pretty windy for the ride BUT as we headed over the Cimarron St. bridge it was at full gale force!! I could just barely get up to the top in my lowest gear! Poor Jo got blown sideways a foot+ then the direction changed to a headwind and she was stopped dead in her tracks, had to walk the bike to the top to head down and join me!! :O We then headed north on the Walnut St. bike lane over to the Palmer/Mesa Greenway and had to fight the WIND all the way home, man are we worn out!! Still it was 50 F and sunny so it was worth "fighting the wind" and we got in around 20 miles RT for the day! Here is a Relive route tracing video of the ride! 

February 6, 2021-Updates, while it's COLD outside!

 

Well the last few days have been COLD and WINDY and today is the same sunny but low 30 F's and WINDY! So I thought I'd add some updates to the blog! We had a bit of upgrade done to both bikes, My RANS Fusion I bought used and it came with a pretty archaic "6 speed" 13x30 rear freewheel and a 30/40/52 triple chain wheel set (the middle and small rings were "elliptical" shaped not round!),  for a total of 18 gears. Now it's got a 13x34 rear 8 speed freewheel and switched to a "Mountain Bike" 22/32/44 triple crankset so the bike can CLIMB hills a lot better and there's much better spacing between gears and up to "24 speeds"! :)

Jo's Electra Townie 21d is now a "24d", also with the 13x34 8 speed rear freewheel. NOTE: she had a 13x34 7 speed MegaRange freewheel BUT it had a horrible "10 teeth step up from the 2nd. cog (24 th.) to the largest cog (34 th.) it was like from steady to "tricycle mode" so you could "spin out" easy!! Now she's got a better step up 30 th. to the large 34 th. cog!! We did also have to add a new 8 speed click shifter and also a 22/32/44 MTB triple crank set to gain make for easy climbing on the steep hills and grades around Colorado Springs, CO. :)

LOL, the photo is of our "GARAGE" which is in our "Front Room" of our 1 bedroom apartment. The bikes and trailers are on Plastic Rug Runners to keep the carpet from getting stained! Due to we've started having "expensive to fix" problems with our almost 30 year old Ford Range PU truck, I bought a used child carrier trailer and turned it into a "utility trailer" got to be able to get FOOD, etc. if the truck DIES!! :(  We also have the "Naked Cycle Trainer", ok I admit I'm "too LAZY" to have to take off and put back on all the "fancy and useless" PLASTIC coverings!! ;) Now if it needs a belt adjustment the cranks tighten, etc. I have "instant" access! :) It's looking like Sunday will be more Ride Friendly weather wise so we hope to get out and about on the bicycles! We both did our 30 min. workouts on the Cycle Trainer this morning, thank goodness for YOUTUBE video's of those riders that live in MUCH warmer climates this time of year! :) Well that's it for now hope your getting to ride a bit or feel better as we feel your pain, having to use the "Trainer" rather than RIDE! :( WINTER SUCKS, (well unless your RICH enough to have MONEY for a Fat Tire Bike and Garage to clean it up! ;)

February 2, 2021-Double TEST ride on a excellent day!

After finding a low priced used "bike child trailer", I took off all the "nylon" outers and removed the not needed metal pieces, I had the "platform" for my homemade utility trailer. After adding the "TUB" to be able to haul food and other big items, I got it all sorted and bolted down to the frame! With that, I did a seat change on my RANS Fusion. I ordered a Cloud 9 Comfort Crusier Saddle and got the new "Seat Plate" from RANS so I could fit this standard type seat onto the Fusion's seat post. Tuesday dawned bright and sunny with on of those rare days in Feb. that it was NICE, 60 F with hardly any winds! We headed back over to Manitou Springs and the "Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort", to drop off a special "bicycle" themed Stove Towel that my wife JoLynn makes (hand made from scratch) to Torri the owner as her youngest Son is heading with her up to Denver, CO. for sadly another "Brain Surgery" for Daniel. :( 

I hooked up the trailer to the Fusion and we set out, first riding the bike lane on Cascade St. into down town Co. Springs and over to America The Beautiful Park to pick up the Midland Trail over to the Creekside Trail thru Manitou. One really fine day out, had to stop to pull of "layers"!! Here's a photo of the "RIG" infront of the Lodge!

From there we headed over to the Swimming Pool Park, found a empty picnic table and had our Brown Bag Lunch. Watching and listening to Cheyenne Creek that flows thru the park. Decided to head to the Colorado Springs Bike Shop for some "Orange Sealant" (flat stopper) which we like the best to put into the "trailer tires". After shop headed home via the Palmer/Mesa Greenway/Pikes Peak Greenway. 17.50 miles, just LOVE these reprieves we get time to time from WINTER! :) Here's a RELIVE video tracing of our ride!