At the "sweet spot" on the bike path (betweeen the Hahn Arroyo and N. Diversion Channel trail intersection and the underpass at Montgomery, about 300 yards) I stopped the bike and switched the radio over to 444.150 MHz and dialed up the remote base back at home, over the mountain, to the NM Breakfast Club on 3939 KHz.
It was at the end of the net and not as many "rag-chewers" were on dominating the frequency with long winded descriptions of their hemorrhoids so I was able to quickly check in, give my bicycle mobile weather report, and shut down the remote, return it to 146.58 simplex, and pedal on the rest of the way to work.
I don't know if the cold makes it worse, but I was AGAIN particularly annoyed by the wooden planked bridge surfaces we face when riding the Albuquerque bike trails. They actually LOOK nice and picturesque and probably are not bad to WALK over, but riding a BIKE over them is sheer torture.
I often complain to BikeABQ, one of the local bike clubs that interacts with the city, that we should force the designers of bicycle / pedestrian bridges to actually RIDE THEIR BIKES across these bumpy rattle-y things.
I'm convinced if they did, or if they actually used them for regular commuting like many of us, they would be designed withOUT the bumpy wooden planks. A few of our bike bridges have relatively smooth concrete surfaces instead of planks and they are much easier to deal with. When you approach a wooden bridge, you must brace yourself because for some reason most of them have a sharp ridge on each end that sends a tremendous shock through your handlebars and frame as you hit them, and then it's Mr. Toad's Wild Ride as you cross the bridge, at any speed, with everything on the bike going WAGAWAGAWAGA (Translation: ThumpetyThumpetyThumpety). Occasionally you will hear the sad sound of something falling off the bike and going either down the ditch bank or ringey-dingey-doo down the path into the weeds, usually never to be seen again. I have lost radios, batteries, flashlights, and stuff I never could figure out, to these rumble strip monstrosities. The North Diversion Trail used to run alongside Chappel, on the West side of the diversion channel, with NO feeder ditches to cross. Then the City in its infinite wisdom decided to build a new bike trail on the EAST side, where there are multiple feeder ditches to cross. Thus the east side had multiple wood plank bike-eater bridges and the west side had none.... you may well guess I didn't have to try the vibrator bridges more than once to convince me to stay on the older path on the west side. Of course, then the aforementioned Wisdom City bulldozed up the old, smooth riding path and hauled away the asphalt. So I then just rode in the street for a year or more until I got the recumbent and realized it didn't oscillate quite so badly on the wooden bridges. I hate mixing it up with cars and gravel and cement trucks on Chappel but I also hate being rattled silly so many times every time I ride that section of the trail. This morning was especially aggravating. It may be the bike is cold and stiffer as well as the warped, frozen wood boards. You'd think if they just absolutely HAVE to have wooden plank surfaces they would sand or surface them a couple times a year at least to smooth the warped edges and ease passage across them. NAH - bicyclists are too few in number to worry about. They spent a fortune building those pathways and consider us ingrates when we complain....
The bridge at the end of the North Diversion Trail at Balloon Fiesta Park is a funny one: Though concrete-surfaced and smooth to cross, it has a loud "CLANK" that occurs AFTER you ride over it. Never figured that one out, and it doesn't make any difference which way you approach it... "CLANK!" immediately AFTER you cross it, often making you jump and think someone must be right behind you.
Morning Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 7.45
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
08.5 Mph 10.6 mph 19.6 mph
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
53:10 mins 42:26 mins 10:59 mins
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