Safe Shelter for the Trike

It's been way too long since we've been out on any of our people powered vehicles.  The weather has been snowy, icy, freezing, and the roads are scattered with salt, gravel, mud, etc, along with various other assorted excuses.  Jacque's not much for cold weather excursions without benefit of a flamethrower powered heater, but even I have not been out in at least a couple weeks. 
Maybe today....
Meanwhile, our precious Terratrike Recumbent Tandem has been sitting out in the weather.  I need to build a cycle garage, or better yet, a REAL garage with room for both dino powered vehicles and bike/trikes.   For now, I cleared out a bunch of weathered wood from under the deck to make room for the trike to park partially sheltered from sun and moisture:

Right next to the emergency generator for the house.

Only 16 Miles Today. Still Pooped

South Bosque Ham Radio APRS/GPS Tracking
Jacque and I are gluttons for punishment, or enjoyment, whichever way it occurs, I suppose.  The Recumbent Riders of Albuquerque had scheduled a ride on the southern leg of the Bosque Trail to look for Sandhill Cranes, which tend to flock on harvested hay and other fields in that area and of course are interesting to watch as they feed and fly around in groups large and small.
We (that is, "I") neglected to RSVP the leader of the pack to let them know we would be appearing for the ride, but we arrived early and saw all the  other recumbents in the parking lot a couple hundred feet away getting ready and thought we had plenty of time to join up with them before they departed on the group ride.  They were rolling out at speed as we approached and only a single hanger-back was there in the departure area as we approached.  He asked if we were going to ride with the group; we told him yes, and he rode off to inform the group we were bringing up the rear.  We caught up with them just south of Tingley Beach and followed them around 8th street to detour around the currently blocked bike intersection at Bridge Street so we could all continue further south on the trail to the big fields where the birds congregate.  Jacque and I  currently only manage to average about 7 MPH, and we fell behind a  bit from the group and almost immediately lost all contact with them.  We rode south several more miles, thinking they normally stop for breaks and allow slowpokes like us to catch up, but we never saw them again.  Usually one of the group is designated to ride in the rear to make sure no one gets too separated from the group, but no such thing occurred today.  We finally stopped for a rest break and decided since they didn't seem that interested in keeping us with the group, we'd turn around and ride over to Old Town for some lunch and a shopping break.  We were feeling a bit neglected but decided to call the leader on the cell phone to eliminate the possibility of them deciding to mount some sort of search for us since we had lost hope of mixing with the group ride.  The leader said they had turned onto Second Street and ridden south.  I did not realize until later today - after looking on the map - that if they took Second Street south they had turned off the main trail and lost us almost immediately, and the reason we never saw each other again was because we were on completely separate roadways, separated by a mile or so.  Had they had a rear-guard person let us know they'd made that early turn we might well have stayed with the group at least part of the time.
Oh Well.  No Biggie.  We ARE a bit slow and clunky with all our gear and out-of-shape leg muscles, and we like to stop frequently for potty breaks, snack breaks, and Tinkerbell doggie breaks.  So it's likely better for us to not try to ride with the speedier group in the future and continue having fun on our own.  We stopped at Tingley Beach on the way back toward Old Town for a potty break and laughed at a seemingly new sign that now appears above the bathroom entrances:

Then, after many Ooohhs and AAaahhs at Tinkerbell and the Recumbent Trike, we left Tingley for the last couple miles to Old Town for lunch.  By now I was getting a bit bushed, but looking forward to some good Old Town-style Mexican Food for our late lunch.
I mentioned previously about the lack of service and attitude at The La Hacienda Restaurant on the Old Town Plaza, so again, please take a hint and don't patronize them until they sell out to someone wanting to operate a restaurant with real service there.  We again went to The Quesadilla Grille and had a great meal, with me chowing down a Frijoles Refritos con Queso Quesadilla and Jacque with a Spicy Ranch Salad.  Both meals were great, with great service, and since we ate on the outdoor tables, no complaints were received about the sweet little lapdog Tinkerbell sitting in one of our chairs.  A guitarist was playing rockin' Christmas songs for tips in this same placita so we chipped in for his tip-stocking too.  All in all a great respite and meal.

After all this the day was well spent, and very enjoyably so.  We rode back to where the Ford Exploder was stashed and loaded up the trike on the roof, went shopping for gas, groceries, and supplies, spent too much money, and came home exhausted.  Hard to imagine a more enjoyable December Day.

Beginning Battery Voltage:  12.6        Ending Voltage: 8.4 (This old gel cell battery is getting TERRIBLY weak, gotta spend some bucks and replace it!)
Lowest Temp  51 F      Highest Temp:  73 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  16.82
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  4.0 MPH                                 6.2 MPH                    14.7 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
  4 hours 10 mins                    2 hours 42 mins        1 hour 28 minutes

21-Miler: What Balmy Christmas Weather

Great APRS/GPS Ham Radio Tracking Today
Friday was such a beautiful day.  I've been trying to stockpile firewood all week and set all that aside since we were going to the Albuquerque LDS Institute to cook lunch for the weekly Friday Forum.  We have been lax with our coed trike riding in recent weeks so we loaded the trike up on the roof rack and took it with us for an afternoon ride in the Big City.  After another tasty lunch of Jacque's cooking we changed into grubbier clothes and took off on a ride.... the weather was even warmer than we expected.  The forecast had  called for a high temperature of maybe 55 degrees and by 2 PM it felt like it must be 70.  I was wearing a turtleneck long sleeve absorbent undershirt and only wore my thin reflective vest over it.  With that torso covering we rode over 20 miles, with an hour and a half after the sun went down, and I never got too cold.  It was more like early fall weather.  VERY NICE, in other words.
We like our global warming.  We did not encounter any floundering polar bears along the way.
We did encounter many other cyclists, including one couple on a tandem upright, a diamond frame upright tricycle with 26 inch wheels, and several recumbents. 
Our legs are out of shape, and we broke no speed records on this ride, but it was - as always - great to be out and about under our own steam, looking at the surroundings and deep breathing the air (as in Huff, Puff!)
About the time we got to the Montgomery underpass on the Bosque  Trail, we approached a couple of women struggling with a flat tire.  I gallantly offered to help and got the difficult tire removed and the tube replaced and pumped up.  Jacque laughed when I assured her, after we rode away, that I would have helped them even had they been ugly....
This set us back another half hour or more.  We had planned to get back to the car before or right about sunset but we'd now burned too much daylight and the sun set, right on time, about 5 PM, just as we arrived at the southbound return leg of the ride at the North Diversion Trail off the Paseo Del Norte trail.
After the sun disappeared, we were chagrined at how many cyclists had no lights at all, even though much of the trail is not lit and the darkness total in many areas.  At least half of the after-dark cyclists had no lights, which is frustrating.  Even as fellow cyclists we cannot see un-lighted riders when they approach us until we are right on top of each other, making for scary last-ditch avoidance manuevers as they loom out of the darkness, not always completely on their side of the trail.
I forgot to set my insulin pump to a lower rate for the ride so I started losing steam the last hour of the ride and had to stop for a snack once, and ate another while riding a while later.  The weather was cool enough that I didn't consume nearly as much water as usual.  I had two bottles and had half of one left when we got back to the carrito.  Usually I empty them both and another and borrow some from Jacque's water stock along the way.
Later today, Saturday, we plan to ride with the Recumbent Group for their "Sandhill Crane" ride along the Bosque.  Details afterwards.

Beginning Battery Voltage:  12.9        Ending Voltage: 8.0 (Ouch)
Lowest Temp  55 F      Highest Temp:  77 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  20.9
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  4.7 MPH                                 6.4 MPH                    22.1 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
  4 hours 28 mins                    3 hours 15 mins        1 hour 13 minutes

Christmas Twinkle Light Parade!

Jacque and I dressed up the trike with LED Christmas lights and took it to Albuquerque to ride in the Nob Hill Twinkle Light Christmas Parade later this evening.  What Confusion!  What Crowds!  What a solid mass of confused people!  What FUN

The weather was quite balmy for the first of December, although I did start to get deeply chilled toward the end of the parade because we were moving too slowly to generate any internal heat.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  4.21
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
2.1 MPH                                 3.2 MPH                    14.6 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 59 mins                       1 hour 19 mins         39 minutes 56 seconds

Thrilling Thursday

Thursday's APRS/GPS Tracking Actually Worked!
This is a day late and a dollar short, as the saying goes, but whatever.
Jacque and I are sputtering back to regular activity on the trike, and Thursday our ride was much more pleasant - at least for me, having knocked some of the rust off my lazy leg ligaments.
We rode again up to the Post Office and then on up to the Triangle Shell Station for a snack break.  The weather, again, was beautiful, although it was very close to sundown on the return leg, and since THAT direction is largely downhill, got a bit chilly screaming down along the pavement.
Tinkerbell, our Terrific Traveler, has begun a small nasty habit of groaning and whining as we chug along, especially if we are crawling slowly in Gramma Gear.  She doesn't seem to mind when we're going faster, even at speeds that make Jacque's eyes pop wide open in terror, but she really gets irritated when we are going at more normal speeds, especially when in lower gears huffing uphill.  Which irritates US, so we're trying to get her to knock it off.  Even with that small irritant she's still too much fun to leave in the car or at home with boring Old Dog Radar, the Gruesome Graying Greyhound.
For some reason my tracking system had not worked the last couple of short trips we've ridden, but Thursday it seemed to work fine.  It had been mounted behind Jacque's stoker seat in a seat-back pouch that was crammed in under the front of Tinkerbell's riding cage, which is metal in construction, and this may have been preventing the GPS from working correctly.  I had moved it up to MY seat-back pocket sleeve which is more in the clear so perhaps that's the reason it worked well.  We'll keep a watch on it for the immediate future.
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.0        Ending Voltage: 12.7
Lowest Temp  44 F      Highest Temp:  70 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  4.97
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
3.2 MPH                                 5.9 MPH                    23.3 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 33 mins                       50 mins  33 secs       42 minutes 27 seconds

Thanksgiving, Vomiting Virus, and Other Excuses

Reasons (I.E., Excuses) why we haven't been human-powering anything recently:
1) - I underwent cataract surgery on my left eye on 16 November, Friday.
2) - Doctor's orders included a restriction on exercise for the next 10 days after the operation.
3) - On Thanksgiving Day, Jacque awoke with the dreaded Norwalk or Vomiting Virus, with violent diahrrea and vomiting that lasted a blessedly short 48 hours.
4) - The day after she started feeling better, Sunday morning, **I** awoke with the exact same symptoms which kept me horizontal for 24 hours and in no mood to ride the day after (Monday last).
5) - We sorta kinda thought we might ride yesterday, Tuesday, but didn't quite get around to it.
We paid for all this inactivity today.  We did the most simplest ride we know of, though energy-sapping:  Riding the almost 3 miles to the Post Office and back.  My legs were stiff, STIFF, almost all the way to the Post Office.  After the short break of mailing our outgoing stuff and viewing our single piece of incoming junque mail, my legs were warmed up and felt much better.
We are having trouble trying to hate this warm winter.  Yes, it freezes at night, but just barely recently, and the daytimes have been relatively warm and sunny.
Something is wrong with my GPS/Tracker/APRS Ham Radio system.  Gotta go work on that....
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  3.54
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
4.4 MPH                                  5.9 MPH                    26.8 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 48 mins 28 secs                    35 mins 55 secs         12 minutes 33 seconds

Back on the Trike - 7 miles and We're Bushed

Today's Short but Effective APRS/GPS tracking via Ham Radio
Jacque and I have been sorely missing rides on the trike so we loaded it up on the roof-rack and took it down to the civilized road and pedaled up to the Post Office and then on up the rest of the short way to the Triangle Shell Station for a short soda/lemonade break.
We were shocked, SHOCKED, to find how out of shape we were and spent most of our westbound / uphill time in grandma gear wishing there were a few more lower gears than that.  BUT, we made it up the looooooonnng hill to the Post Office and then on up the last half mile or so to the Triangle Shell station where we normally consume a refreshing beverage.  Lemonade for Jacque and Diet Coke for me.
By the time we saddled up and started for home it was clouding up again and getting CHILLY.  Especially so since going back toward home is largely and wonderfully downhill, but at almost 30 MPH it REALLY got cool-ish.
But we made it fine, and have a renewed determination to keep more regular at riding so we don't run out of steam so soon.

Beginning Battery Voltage:  12.7        Ending Voltage: 13.0 (Weird batt behavior)
Lowest Temp  59 F      Highest Temp:  73 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  4.28
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
2.6 MPH                                 5.8 MPH                    28.5 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 37 mins                       43 mins  59 secs       53 minutes 43 seconds

32 miles and I'm Bushed

Poor APRS Tracking Today
I had a lunch date today with some former co-workers and current friends, Mark K5LXP and Tai AE5HS.  So in spite of the cold I decided to ride the bike there and back.  Jacque was driving to Tijeras at the same time anyway so she offered to give me a lift there and let me and the bike go from there.  That saved me a long hill-climb and about 9 miles on a 26-mile (each way) trip.
I was layered up and very glad of it as I rode into Albuquerque via Old Route 66 in the cool breeze.  But it was GREAT to be back on the bike again rolling under my own steam.
When I got through Tijeras Canyon I was sufficiently warmed such that I removed my outer jacket and skull cap and switched from padded ski mittens to full-fingered bike gloves..... and almost immediately my fingers got too cold so I switched to my gun-mittens that have a velcro pocket that covers the fingers to keep them warm but easily fold open at the fingers so that such things as gun triggers, radio buttons, etc, can be operated.  They were not so suffocating as the ski mittens but warmer than the thinner gloves so I had happy hands from thenceforth.
I realized about the time I got to Albuquerque that I had not turned on the beacon function on my handheld Kenwood TH-D7 tracker radio, so any tracking started late, and then it didn't seem to report very many positions.  So it only tracked about 7 miles out of the twenty-something miles each way. BAH
My blood glucose was distressingly high during the trip into town, and was 227 - still way too high - when I arrived at the restaurant.  I worried that my insulin pump's infusion site was boogered and not actually getting any insulin into play.  I didn't have any way to change any of this on this trip  so I just set the pump for the high BG and hoped for the best.  I also didn't eat a whole lot, less than 40 grams of carbs, worrying about the elevated BG.  After lunch as I was pedaling back toward home I thought I'd better check the blood glucose again to make sure it wasn't too high and it was too LOW for comfort, even though I'd just eaten.  The BG reading was 107 or so at that time so I ate some stashed cookies and rode on.  Before I left the city limits I'd stopped at least 3 times from feeling woozy and finding the blood sugar was 50-something.  Each time I ate some more and kept riding, and just couldn't seem to get enough carbs in me to keep the BG up where it should be.  This, even after backing the insulin pump way down to  avoid insulin reactions.  So evidently the pump is working well but I did not dose it correctly earlier in the day.
I took one of these breaks at the Eubank bike underpass and as I was eating my snack, a fellow walked out from the underpass looking like a street-person, and when I turned around to watch him pass he had disappeared.  I spotted him climbing up the bank towards the Eubank off-ramp from I-40, a popular spot for panhandlers.... he had somehow scaled the chain link fence that was over 6 feet tall.  When I looked at the fence a bit more closely I spotted an opening that had been ripped in the fence for evidently just this purpose, panhandling access to the aforementioned intersection.  As I walked closer and looked at it to see if it had been cut with wire cutters, it evidently had been a joint in the fence that had been opened up by panhandlers..... and it had a PADLOCK hanging on the fence, to refasten it closed, obviously an attempt by some nervy panhandler to restrict this access for his own use.   I've heard that panhandlers are quite jealous and protective of their favorite "Spots", but this was funny.
Coming eastbound, mostly gradually uphill, I was running out of steam.  I called Jacque and asked for  a rescue mission and she appeared a half hour later and I was saved.  Again.  I need to ride more regularly to keep my stamina up, though I'm finding it difficult to dedicate entire days to longer trips.  I love cycling but I have other things to do, unfortunately.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  32.71
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
6.6 MPH                                  9.3 MPH                    23.2 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 4 hours 55 mins                    3 hours 30 mins        1 hour 25 minutes

Been Gone a Week, Glad to be Biking Again

Very Short Jaunt Tracking Today
We waited too late to go for a trike ride today so I jammed on the 2-wheel 'bent and rode to the Post Office to send off a couple bills.
I was surprised at the strength I felt in the old legs this afternoon - I guess 6 days off is a decent break without losing all my strength.... maybe.
There were a lot of walkers and dogs on the trail today, and on the way back from the Post Office I encountered a rather attractive lady with two dogs..... who looked absolutely HORRIFIED that I would deign to be on HER trail interfering with HER doggie waking.  So I did what any decent Christian would do.... I got huffy and detoured over to the main road so I wouldn't encounter any of "her type" again for the rest of the trip home.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  5.50
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
6.3 MPH                                  8.6 MPH                    25.1 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 52 mins                                  38 mins                     13 minutes 42 seconds

Went to Vote Early - On the Bike, of Course

Monday GPS/APRS tracking
Jacque set the example by voting early so I decided I would too, but I wanted to ride the bike down to the early voting center in Tijeras.
We had a couple bags of surplus junque to take to the thrift store so I dug out the olde bike trailer and strapped the stuff on.

I watched the trailer in the rear view mirror and it seemed to be riding stable with no problems.  As I rode down our rocky goat-path road toward the pavement of Frost Road, however, I noticed some loud banging coming from the trailer, and as I coasted down the last hill toward the pavement, I noticed something fall out of the trailer so I stopped.  I noticed broken glass and some items evidently having torn through the plastic container bag.  I unstrapped the bag, and sure enough, a large hole had torn through.  Rather than risk having more stuff rip through the bag, I disconnected the trailer and hid it in the trees and rode on to Tijeras to vote without benefit of the trailer.  I could always deliver that stuff later anyway.
Stopped at the local East Mountain Video store to return a DVD we'd rented over the weekend, then finished coasting the mostly downhill slope to Tijeras.  The wind had come up so strong I had to pedal much of the way.... DOWNHILL.  Disgusting to have to exert oneself to go downhill.  BAH
I was pleasantly surprised at the voting center:  I had to answer several questions about my identity, such as my address, year of birth, etc, all of which are readily visible to the official manning the computer database of registered voters.  New Mexico Yellow-Dog Democrats have fought against all proposed measures for implementing voter ID to prevent voting fraud for years. 
Just a week or so ago, however, someone prominent loudly complained when he went to vote early and was denied the privilege because someone ELSE had already voted using his name.  The outcry about this has been substantial, and evidently this simple method of ensuring you are actually who you claim you are - withOUT requiring any form of ID - is the result.  I thanked the official for so questioning me.   The ballot form was long and complicated, and as I slowly filled it out, I overheard one potential voter FAILING to answer the identity questions.  She claimed she "Just Couldn't Remember" such things as her home address, year of birth, and other "complex questions".  They didn't let her vote, thank goodness.
On the way home, uphill, I was surprised when a small motorcycle slowed next to me and matched my slow uphill speed parallel to me as I climbed a few hundred more feet.  The operator wanted to talk, so I pulled over and we chatted. (I was on the bike trail next to North-14).  He said he'd seen me a couple days ago again riding down in Tijeras and wanted to know all about the recumbent, how many gears it had, what the electronics stuff was, etc, etc.  He seemed suitably impressed.  He was an older guy (Probably almost as old as me) and finally rode off, leaving me to my slow 6-something MPH climb up North 14.  Thankfully on this return leg of the trip the wind was mostly at my back.... a much more pleasant direction for the wind to be blowing.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  18.86
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
6.5 MPH                                  8.8 MPH                    32.9 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
2 hours 54 mins                    2 hours 7 mins           47 minutes

Weather Getting Colder but We're Still Riding

Friday's Cold APRS/GPS Track
We again cooked a noon meal for the UNM LDS Institute group yesterday.  As usual, I baked a huge pile of homemade cookies (this time Peanut Butter, with 2 chocolate chips on top of each cookie) on Thursday to minimize the kitchen contention on Friday.
As usual, with Jacque's great cooking (Menu:  Fresh-Made Pumpkin Soup and whole wheat bread twists) we got lots of thanks and comments about the good food.  We both remember the ever-hungry college years and are happy to provide some fresh homemade tasty eats for the college crowd, who are a great bunch of young people.  I was going to refer to them as "KIDS" but decided not to.
After the Friday Forum Feed, we changed into our biking clothes and layered up a bit since it had been cold and breezy the last couple of days, and it was still  very cold outside even in the UNM area of Albuquerque and in spite of it being 2:00 PM.  Bright and sunny but breezy and cold.
I wore one of my expensive long sleeve turtleneck underlayer  absorbent cycling shirts and it was great... I had to take off the outer light jacket when  I got warmed up and assumed I'd regret having the turtleneck on  but it felt great all the way through the afternoon ride.  The sweat-wicking feature worked great in this weather.... when it got cooler I noticed the black sleeves absorbing welcome heat from the sun and when it got warmer it was just comfortable, evidently successfully wicking away the perspiration.  It never got really warm at all, so we were glad we had on the layers.
We again rode to Old Town through Albuquerque's downtown plaza and then over to the Bosque Trail.  We turned north and as we approached the underpass at I-40, we turned right  on the trail instead of left and rode parallel to I-40 for a couple miles, just cruising a route we've never ridden before.  It dead ended just shy of Rio Grande Boulevard, and when I pulled out the ABQ bike map it showed another path connecting on the other side of Rio Grande, but the idea of crossing Rio Grande without benefit of any bike lane deterred us.  So we turned around.  This time, we did actually go under I-40 at the underpass but Jacque had never yet ridden the "New" memorial bike bridge across the mighty Rio Grande river so we decided to try that - I had ridden it before on my recumbent 2-wheeler.  With our 10 and a half foot trike length we were unsure if we could even make the hairpin turns approaching the bridge but with wide turns we actually made it, and with the ever important help of Grandma Gear, we climbed the long grade up the bridge to the other side of the river.  Even at our slow crawl in super-low gear we could feel the infamous multiple rough bumps of this wonderful but bike-unfriendly bike bridge.  When we reached the other side we stopped for a break and got warm from sitting in the sun in the lee of the bridge abutment for the first time during this ride.
Then we hoisted the hind end of the bike and arm-stronged it around the other way (Of course no room to turn around otherwise) and rode the long almost-a-mile length of the bridge eastbound and slightly downhill, riding the brakes all the way to prevent being thrown from the saddle by the rough surface and horrible concrete bumpy joints of the bridge.  Then we got back on north-bound Bosque Trail and rode a few more miles.  We originally planned to do our 'normal' loop up to Paseo and then east to the North Diversion Channel Trail south of Balloon Fiesta Park and then back south to UNM, but it was still very cold and now 4:30 PM and I worried we could not get back to the vehicle before dark if we continued the loop, even though we were within a few miles of the halfway point.  We decided, with me being the biggest worrier, to turn around and just retrace our route.
It turned out to be maybe a BIT shorter to get back, but the long climb up Tijeras back to UNM was not enjoyable at the tail end of a longish ride.  Going the loop as we normally run gives us mostly downhill for the last leg of the ride:  A much more enjoyable ending for a ride.
I recently robbed and reprogrammed the tracker from my recumbent 2-wheeler, so now we have temperature and voltage datum --
Beginning Battery Voltage:  8.6 (Uncharged from last ride!)   Ending Voltage: 8.0
Lowest Temp  55 F      Highest Temp:  73 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  18.53
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
4.8 MPH                                 7.3 MPH                    24.4 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
3 hours 50 mins                     2 hours 33 mins        1 hour 17 minutes

Didn't Quite Make 50 Miles

Partial GPS/APRS Track Today, Tracker Broke
I had a luncheon date with another ham radio friend in Albuquerque today, so I planned to ride all the 26 miles each way on my trusty 2-wheel recumbent.  This would have made the day my first 50+ miler but I ran out of steam (and daylight) on the way home.
As can be seen on the above tracking-link, my tracker quit just west of Tijeras on the way into town.  I was whizzing along right nicely, thank you, and riding in the smoother road surface instead of the shoulder of Olde Route 66 since there was no traffic behind me...... and just before I entered the mild hill-climb of "Dead Man's Curve" which goes under I-40 just a couple miles east of Albuquerque, I thumped into a vicious pothole in the MIDDLE of the main roadway.  The bike survived, no head-over-handlebars (almost impossible on a recumbent), no bent wheels..... but WHAM and my radio/GPS mounting bracket separated, leaving the electronics dangling by the antenna and power wires.  I pulled over - hoping the electronics still worked.... the GPS was still alive but the radio, which transmits the GPS positions to the internet, was dead.  It seemed to not receive any power from the wiring harness, though it worked on its internal battery.  Since the handlebar bracket was in pieces, it  could no longer ride there, but I strapped it on the rear pannier with a small bungee and left the GPS running so I could get the speed and distance data recorded.
I had never ridden to this area before so I googled the "best" bike path via maps.google.com.  Surprisingly enough, the directions proved effective and safe, with less than a mile or so on north San Pedro and Osuna and Seagull, which led me directly to the  Buffet King parking lot without any interaction with Academy, which was wonderful what with all that heavy traffic there.
I met Randy, K5RHD, at the relatively new Chinese place called Buffet King.
We had a great visit and a tasty meal.
I must have miscalculated my insulin dosage since my blood sugar was sky-high after the meal in spite of having just ridden 26 miles with only one oatmeal bar good for 29 carbs.  So I cranked the pump up to warp speed and resumed my ride in reverse, headed for home.  I calculated I'd be home by about 4:00 PM or so, but what with all the stops and long pulls up the canyon in "Grandma Gear" it was just after 6 PM and I was still about 4 miles of hills away from home.  Along about this time Jacque called, insisting on bringing my car with the bike rack on the back, so she could take me the rest of the way home without my riding in the dark, which really worries her.  I am not at all afraid of riding in the dark;  I carry lights on my helmet front and back and have a bright flasher on the back of the bike.  I've ridden many uneventful miles in the dark, and the last few miles of tonight's journey had bike paths separate from the roadway all the way to our goat-path turnoff.  But I was BUSHED by this time, and though I'd hoped to ride all the way home for a first-time daily total of 50 or more miles, I was done and happy for Jacque To The Rescue.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  46.11
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
6.4 MPH                                  8.6 MPH                    32.6 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
7 hours 10 mins                    5 hours 20 mins          1 hour 50 minutes

Terrific Trike Tires, What a Treat

Tuesday I installed 3 new tires on the trike:  "Cheapies" from WalMart, at twenty bucks apiece, with claimed Kevlar linings in the outer tire casing.
These tires are somewhat larger than the original tires, so I had to use the drill press to drill extra mounting holes for the fender struts so the tires would clear the fenders without rubbing. 
Yesterday, Wednesday, we took it for a test ride.  Just like with a car, the trike rode noticeably smoother and quieter with the new tires.  Since the tires are slightly larger, I noticed two things:
-I have to be more careful with the hand grips on the front steering:  My knuckles tend to rub the spinning wheel if I wiggle my fingers too much.  Fortunately, this does not result in any harm (so far) or I'd be missing some meat on both hands already.
-Low gear is not as "low" as it used to be.  We get VERY familiar with "Grandma Gear" (lowest possible combination of  rear cassette gears AND front gear rings) when climbing hills, and the larger tires make for less torque when climbing now. 
Oh Well.  Guess we'll just have to get used to it. 
This makes 3 rides in a row wherein none of the tires went flat either during the ride or afterward.  Woo Hoo.
For this test ride we rode up the usual 3.5 mile route to the Triangle snack-stop for a treat.  Unfortunately nothing they had that I was interested in was free from hydrogenated fat... supposedly a major factor in dementia and alzheimers...... what was I talking about?  Oh Well.  I did have some home made chocolate chip cookies in the pannier made with olive oil, which taste better than store bought goodies anyway.  But I was SO in the mood for a fried apple pie.  We'll have to make them ourselves, I guess.  It's getting to where if you want to eat healthy you cannot safely eat ANYTHING you didn't grow or cook yourself.  BAH
Since we took off this time without the benefit of my beloved GPS, radio, and assorted electronics, I have no GPS or other data.  Bummer

Triple Threat.... John Rode with us Today

Today's APRS/GPS/Ham Radio Tracking
Our oldest son, John, came over yesterday (Sunday) and stayed the night with us.  Today we decided to do a tandem-trike ride to Edgewood and back and invited John to ride Jacque's single-seat Catrike along with us.  He agreed and we finally got all saddled up and on our way about 11:00 AM or shortly after.
He seemed to be running low on energy about 6 miles into the ride and Jacque invited him to switch rides with her:  She would ride her own trike for a while and John could ride back seat and stoke for me on the tandem.  We soon learned both found it easier to ride on the tandem instead of single self-propulsion.  Very interesting.
We had an uneventful ride over to the Edgewood Wal-Mart.  Since doggies are not allowed to come inside for shopping with us, Tinkerbell remained in her basket perch atop the back of Jacque's trike-seat, strapped in so she couldn't jump off and wander around.  She's such an attractive little doggie that I always worry about leaving her alone for any time at all.... I worry someone might dog-nap her.  After leaving her alone for 15 minutes or so I went outside to check up on her.  She was safe and sound, but as I walked the 50 yards or so from the store door to her, I saw a car approach her slowly and roll its window down.  I sped up my pace to forestall any ulterior motives, and as I closed in on them the lady in the open window asked me "Are you the owner?"  I answered yes, and she asked "Is it Okay for me to photograph her??"  We get such requests constantly, and I cracked, "No problem, she only charges a dollar a photo."  She asked "Really?  I have the dollar...."  I laughed and said no, I was kidding.  But she took 2 shots of Tink and handed me $2.00, which for some reason I did not refuse.  I'm trying to convince Jacque we could make a few bucks selling photo-ops for Tinkerbell, especially in her bike perch.
After a snack inside Wal-Mart, we saddled up again and started home.  Jacque soon tired out pedaling by herself and when we slowly passed her on one hill John stuck out his arm from the stoker-seat behind me and laughingly offered her a "pull".  She grabbed hold and, surprisingly enough, it helped her up the hill without seeming to place much extra load on us.  We actually did this for several miles and hills and helped each other.... proving, I suppose, that 3 can help each other cycling as much as 2 can.  It worked so well I'm thinking we need to carry a light duty tow strap with us for such occasions.
The weather was cool and breezy today, turning into a really nice biking/triking day.  John didn't slather on enough sun-block and is suffering tonight, and of course we all have sore legs, but that's just part of the romance of self-powered machinery....
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  24.9
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
5.8 MPH                                  8.0 MPH                    32.9 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 4 hours 18 mins                    3 hours 7 mins          1 hour 11 minutes

We're BAAAAACK. With Sore Legs

Today's Tiring Trek Tracking via APRS
Today Jacque had an 8:00 AM errand that only lasted an hour, so we loaded up the trike on the roof-rack and planned to take at least a short ride when she got done.

We decided to park at Balloon Fiesta Park and ride down to Paseo and then west to the well-beloved-by-all Bosque Trail.  It was still cool and likely in the 60's when we started out but soon we warmed up and the weather today was about as perfect riding weather as ever provided by Heavenly Father.
We rode first along westbound Paseo (on the bike path) and then south at the Bosque Trail intersection.  A few miles south we noticed some cyclists off the side of the trail taking photos and realized they were watching a near-tame COYOTE, just a few feet off the trail, lying there looking at passersby as though he was  a dog on a leash.  We assumed he must have been sick or injured to just sit there and let humans get within mere feet of him and take pictures.  We didn't stop or slow down, just continued as far south as Mountain Road, AKA "Bicycle Boulevard", then east on that nice avenue to Old Town where we looked around for a place to eat breakfast.  We spied the likeliest looking restaurant on the plaza, the La Hacienda Restaurant, and quickly sat down in their outdoor serving area happily with Tinkerbell in our laps.  There was a small line waiting at the door, and we were informed the restaurant wasn't yet open.  The restaurant signs said clearly "Hours:  11:00 AM to 3:00 PM" and it was already 11:20 so we were confused.  I walked into the adjoining gift shoppe to ask what was going on, when the doors to the restaurant opened by a nice young man as I walked up.  He showed me where to find the necessary all-important restrooms and said "Fine" when I told him we were waiting in the outside seats for service.  When  I returned to our seat after visiting the 'necessary room', Jacque went inside for the same purpose.  However, when she returned she had unpleasant news:  The restaurant staff had told her "they weren't serving yet" though the cafe was open and several of the wait-people were sitting around in the booths inside chatting with each other and doing nothing.  I have no idea if the cook was not yet on hand, or WHAT was going on, but the owner must have been on vacation or doesn't check on his employees because they allowed all present customers, including US, to leave without so much as an offer to bring us a menu, a drink of water, or any verbal hint of just when they might decide to start taking orders, much less serving food.  We left, hoping to find a restaurant really serving food.... and just around the corner, inside a less visible placita inside the Old Town Plaza, was The Quesadilla Grille.  Not only were they open, and had outside tables so we could bring Tink to eat with us, they had actual warm bodied waitresses that SERVED us promptly and without question.  AND - The food was GREAT.  The appetizer's toasted chips and salsa were wonderful and I could easily have filled up on those alone.  Their guacamole salad was fabulous and the quesadillas were great, chosen from a surprising variety on the menu.  Go to Old Town and try them  out, but stay away from the La Hacienda.
After a great breakfast, we waddled out and saddled up the trike again and discussed where to go from there.  We'd parked the trike locked to a lamp-post right on the main plaza, and of  course we happily dealt with the usual admirers of Tinkerbell and our wonderful Tandem Recumbent Terratrike.
I wanted to do another loop of downtown and return back to theBalloon Park via the UNM area bike paths and the North Diversion Trail, as we have done before.  Jacque was more interested in going on down the Bosque Trail so we did.
The weather was now warming up but still just chilly enough to be very pleasant.  We rode as far south as we could, finding we could actually ride UNDER the too-narrow obstacles blocking the path from vehicles at Rio Bravo:

 Truth be told, many of the entrances to the Albuquerque bike trail system are unfriendly to anything other than normal, short, small 2-wheelers.  Tandems, trikes, anything a bit wide or long, and some manhandling - not to mention dismounting and often just giving up and turning around - is required.
At this particular gate we could not fit in the narrow key-slot path going around the gate.  We found, however, by removing our bike flag and antennas, and by  me leaning over sideways, with Jacque talking me through the gate, that I could go UNDER the crossbar -which alowed us to continue southward.  Just a few miles further, however, and the ripples, cracks, and other disruptions to the pavement required us to turn around and give up the idea of riding the entire southern leg of the bosque trail.  This area is obviously not on the city's priority list for maintenance of any kind.  We always find it rough, cracked, and potholed, without patching or other maintenance, but this time the buckles in the pavement were just too much, throwing us off balance and worrying us that our tires would blow out or the wheels break or bend if we kept going.  We traveled just a mile or so south of the tortilla factory adjacent to the path and gave up and turned around.  BAH
We had a good trip all around.  Just as we traversed the Central Avenue Underpass we encountere two interesting items:  A Greenspeed recumbent trike rider and a tandem with an attractive young couple from Los Alamos driving it, and they were highly interested in our Tandem Terratrike.   We rode parallel with them for a few blocks, dodging the crowd of oncoming walkers and riders going the other way, and challenged them to pull over at Mountain
Road so we could let them try out our trike.  We stopped, they alighted upong our trike, and rolled away.  They returned in a few minutes, wide smiles aplenty, and we told them about our Albuquerque Bent Rider's Club and the monthly rides and invited them to come along sometime.  Hopefully we will see them again.  They have lived in Los Alamos for 24 or more years, and lived there at the same time as I did back in the 80's and 90's but of course we had never previously met.
As we returned north, hours after our journey south, we spotted Mr. Tame Coyote on the OTHER side of the bike path, again only a few feet away, this time being FED by a cyclist stopped and tossing tidbits to him.  We're a bit alarmed by such a critter being unafraid of humans, what with our already-coyote scarred Tinkerbell on board, but maybe this critter is a long term attraction along the Bosque that we just haven't noticed before in our many trips.
When we finally got back to the vehicle we were BUSHED.  No wonder:  Look at the miles.  Likely the longest human powered trip we've ever made up to date.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  38.82
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
7.4 MPH                                  9.9 MPH                    21.4 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 5 hours 15 mins                    3 hours 54 mins         1 hour 21 minutes

Cold to the Bones, Brrrrr

Very Windy Nasty Cold Day Tracking via APRS and Ham Radio
This morning we had been asked to help clean our Edgewood Chapel;
So, we had the bright idea to ride the trike over there since we'd just done it a few days ago.  Bad Idea, at least with the minimal cold weather gear we took with us today.
The weather forecast had called for possible showers, and we awoke to sunny skies and gusting wind.  We figured the weather would warm up as the sun rose higher in the sky so we saddled up and rode East.
The wind was brisk and cold but as we climbed hills headed toward Edgewood, I warmed up and had to stop to take off my windbreaker jacket.  I was wearing a long sleeve denim shirt and an undershirt beneath that and stayed fairly comfortable until we had to stop to re-install the rear wheel.  The trike has a quick-release spindle on the rear wheel, and I like these type spindles, since they make it really easy to pop a wheel off for fixing a flat or other maintenance.  This is not so appealing when it comes LOOSE by itself after a few dozen miles, and it has happened to us at least 3 times since we got the trike.  Being stopped while working on the trike with the wind howling through my armpits chilled me through and through.  As we resumed the ride to Edgewood Jacque noticed my right front tire was starting to sag.  I aired it up with a jolt of CO2 and we made it to the Church building.  Jacque had complained of the cold all the way through, in spite of having more layers on than I had.  It took her a while to thaw out inside the Church.  We had arrived at least an hour late and the other volunteers had obviously already been there and done a fabulous job of cleaning the building... not a speck of dust or trash was anywhere to be found.   So we just took a break and waited to  warm up a bit before riding home.  When we exited the building and mounted the trike, the #@@@%&?## right front tire was almost flat again.  Jacque lugged over a large rock to use for a jack-stand to elevate the wheel off the ground and I broke the tire bead and removed the tube, looking for a spike and a hole.  This was a new tube installed less than a week ago, with a recent patch on it from a flat just a few DAYS ago.  I couldn't find the leak, nor was I able to find any sharp pointy objects in the tire itself.  The last couple of Presta tubes I've dealt with on the trike had air valves that canNOT be removed from the tube.  Which makes it nigh unto impossible to inject any flat-preventive slime into them.  This tube was one of those, so I finally gave up on it and installed the Green Slime tube I'd recently purchased from Wal-Mart "Just in Case".
Used up another $2 worth of CO2 cartridge to inflate it.  The wind was STILL very cold and howling and I was chilled throughout, like TOTALLY.
Jacque had been instructed to remain in the building out of the wind while I repaired the tire but she was still cold and reluctant to ride again.  I talked her into riding up to Wal-Mart, only a little over a mile away, to take another break, get a bite to eat, and maybe purchase some cheap outerwear layers to get us better sheltered from the mind and body-numbing wind.
The cold wind was blowing right into the entries of the Wal-Mart facility and since we had Tinkerbell the Wonder Dog with us, we could not take her inside.
So I waited outside with Tink, both of us shivering in the howling wind and bright sunshine, while Jacque bought some pullover layers to wear.  Tink and I migrated into the shopping cart area to get out of the wind a bit, but it was still bitterly cold in there, and we continued to shiver.  Jacque traded places with me while I went inside and bought a chicken sandwich from McDonald's inside Wal-Mart.  By the time I got my sandwich and returned Jacque had talked the shopping-cart man into allowing her and Tink to sit inside the actual store next to the game arcade room which was empty, and due to constant customers coming through the door, was STILL numbingly cold.  Jacque borrowed a couple bites of my sandwich and decided SHE needed sustenance too, and by the time she got back my enthusiasm for riding the trike back home was BLOWN AWAY.  We called several friends, none of whom were home, it being Saturday, but we caught our dear friend Mary at home and she smilingly came to our rescue and gave us a ride back to our parked SUV, after which we drove over to Wally World and loaded the trike on the roof rack and brought it home.
We got back shortly after lunch but were amazed at how whacked out we were.  After hot showers and building a fire in the wood stove we finally regained some sense of normality and, later in the evening, decided to go see the movie ARGO.  It's not blindingly accurate in the details but still is a gripping edge-of-the-seat flick.  Go see it.  Hug the next Canadian you meet.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  14.19
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
5.4 MPH                                  8.5 MPH                    29.7 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 2 hours 36 mins                    1 hour 39 mins          56 minutes 58 seconds

27 Miles and We're Tired

Today's APRS/GPS Track
Jacque and I had a lunch date with Paul N5DBB today so we saddled up and rode the trike over to Edgewood for the meal at the  East Mountain Grill.
Jacque's salmon salad was unpleasant to the taste so she asked for another dish to replace it.  Paul and I enjoyed our meals with gusto.  I had the Taco Salad, which hit the spot.
When we left the restaurant several visitors ooohed and aaahhhed over the trike and, of course, Tinkerbell.  Several watched us as we kitted up, put on our helmets, plugged in the electronics, and rode away.  We didn't make it out of the parking lot before noticing a wierd grungy sound from  behind Jacque, which turned out to be ANOTHER FLAT, this time on the rear.  This tire received a new tube only last week, and upon disassembly, no leak could be detected.  HOWEVER - This time we had Tire Slime in the panniers and we weren't afraid to use it.  I squirted almost half the bottle into the offending tube, double checked the tire for any splines or thorns or other sharp objects, and inflated it with my next to last CO2 cartridge.  We reassembled the trike, repacked everything, and resumed our ride.  Jacque had committed to helping a friend work on her new computerized knitting machine, so we rode to her home in southern Edgewood and spent a half hour or so poking around in the complex machine.  Then we started the even more tiring journey home.
Evidently the tire slime was working because we experienced no further tire troubles.  The weather was deteriorating rapidly and we wondered if we would get rained on before we got home, but the darkening skies held off and we made it back to the parked vehicle unscathed and unsoaked.
We are MAYBE a bit over tired tonight.  Of course, what we planned to be an early afternoon return home turned out to be almost all day and we had a half hour of daylight left when we got back.  But, Hey, a bad day on the trike under our own power beats a lot of other so called good days.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  27.59
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
6.0 MPH                                  8.0 MPH                    30.1 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 4 hours 37 mins                    3 hours 25 mins          1 hour 12 minutes

Another Day, Another Flat

APRS - GPS Trike Tracking
What with Jacque being on call for jury duty, we decided to ride early today just in case she was notified she had to show up for an afternoon court session.
We put the trike up on the rack for transport down to the paved road.  We double checked all 3 tires and they seemed just fine.  We rode up to the post office and then up to our almost-every-day break-stop, the Shell Station at the intersection of North 14 and Frost Road.  We had a nice break for 20 minutes or so and then rode on toward the video rental store to return a video we've had for 3 days now. 
We hadn't gotten more than a couple hundred yards when Jacque noticed my left front tire was sagging, so we pulled over.  We must have just run over a thorn on the weed-infested bike trail next to the road, since it was now visibly going flat in a hurry.  Another local cyclist stopped to help, although he had no tools with him.... and I was needing a wrench large enough to removed the 1-inch nut on the front axle.
I found a nearby rock to use as a jack-stand to hold the wheel up off the ground.   I tried using my largest Gerber-tool pliers tool but it did not have sufficient grip or leverage to do the job.

I had the CO2 inflator tool to air up the tire, but it would be a waste of the 2 bucks these cartridges cost - since the tire was losing air so fast.  Jacque offered to hike back to the Shell station and see if they had any "Green Slime" to sell us.  After she walked off, I realized I could actually remove the flat tube and repair it without removing the wheel.  I was surprised to find this tire had a Kevlar liner in it that was supposed to prevent such problems as this.  No thorn or sharp object could be found in the tire, but when I blew up the tube with a burst of CO2, the hole was found quickly... it was in the corner of what appeared to be a kink in the tube.  It may have been the Kevlar liner, where the ends overlapped, that caused the kink.   About the time I got the tube patched, Jacque arrived with a nice bottle of slime that the owner of the nearby motorcycle garage had GIVEN her.  Yes, it was partially used, but it was most welcome.  With our penchant for flats aplenty with this machine we are losing my distaste for tire slime.  However, the tube in question here had a Presta valve stem that could NOT be removed.  So I could not get any slime injected into it.  Remounted the tube and tire, and it seemed to be holding, so we continued our ride toward Marco Polo Hill and the video place.  The rest of the trip was uneventful.  But be forwarned:  All 3 trike tires will henceforth be filled with slime, by hook or by crook.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  10.00
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
3.2 MPH                                  6.5 MPH                    25.3 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 3 hours 31 mins                    1 hour 32 mins          1 hour 33 minutes

Tiny Tuesday Trek

APRS Tracking of the Trike Today
I worked on the trike this morning while Jacque was gone to her sewing club.  I removed the wheel with the horribly flat tire:

The fine fellow we purchased the trike from had thrown in 3 or 4 extra tires with the trike along with 3 new inner tubes.  We have used up all the tubes, so I patched this one, and it seemed to hold OK.  The existing tire was very thin and light duty so I replaced it with one of the spares that had thicker sidewalls and tread in hopes it would ward off thorns in the future. 
Later this afternoon I suggested we should take the trike out again so as to make sure it still worked OK, so we did.
We have decided never to ride off road again with this trike:  It is too valuable, and not a good off road or rough road vehicle.  We haven't had much trouble with its low clearance undercarriage, but the strain on the chain, gears, and tires, just seems too much to deal with, not to mention the lack of traction the single rear wheel exhibits when climbing grades on sand, rocks, and gravel.
SO.  This trip down our rocky goat path is the last we plan to make with the trike.  It will have to ride on the roof rack of Jacque's exploder over unpaved territory henceforth.  We made it back home from the Post Office, just barely, and nothing broke or went flat, so we're happy campers.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  5.57
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
3.7 MPH                                  5.8 MPH                    27.6 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 31 mins                     58 mins  0 secs         33 minutes 0 seconds

Minimally Mundane Monday Madness

Today's Very Short APRS - GPS Tracking
About 4:30 this afternoon Jacque and I decided we needed to at least make a mail run on the trike.
I noticed the left front tire was a tad bit soft when we left, but we had only gone a mile or so when Jacque noticed it was almost FLAT.  I dug out our CO2 inflator and a cartridge and FOOSHED the tire back up good and hard, but we decided to forget the ride and turn around and make a run for home in hopes of getting there before the tire went flat again.  It's a good thing we did.
This makes for flats on all 3 tires on the trike within a month's time.  Very frustrating.  The tires are very thin as are the tubes.  We now have a couple thorn resistant and a couple more "green slime" tubes on their way to rescue our situation via Amazon .
By the time we got to the base of our gravel & dirt & rocky mile of  goal path leading to our house, the tire was flat again.  I used the rest of the CO2 cartridge to reinflate it but it went flat, again, within a hundred yards or so.
Dragging it back up the hill was tedious and tiresome... riding this rig is SO much easier than pushing or dragging it.  With the left front tire flat, it was very difficult to drag, steer, etc.  Finally made it home;  will patch the tube tomorrow.  Since tubes are so cheap ($7 or so including mail order shipping) we seldom patch them any more, but we are out of tubes until the UPS guy shows up at our delivery point in Tijeras.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  3.37
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
2.8 MPH                                  4.6 MPH                    24.7 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 12 mins                     44 mins  42 secs         27 minutes 20 seconds

Saturday Slumming

APRS and GPS Tracking Route Today
As is normal lately, today's title has nothing to do with what we did, I just like the alliteration thing.  So Shoot Me.
In spite of being a bit tired from our 27-miler yesterday, Jacque decided she wanted to ride down to Cedar Crest to run a few errands.  In spite of knowing I would not be able to get anything else done, around the house or otherwise, I decided to go with her on the tandem.  Glad I did.  As usual, it was exhausting but fun.  All kinds of nice comments and instant friends everywhere we stopped, and a few others withOUT stopping.
A mild scare when we attempted to cross North-14 to enter the Triangle Grocery parking lot:  We couldn't move.  When  Jacque looked it over the second time, she was horrified to see our rear (driver) wheel had come loos and flopped slaunch-wise in the bike frame.  Luckily nothing was bent or broken, and I only had to release the already-loose quick-release lever and realign and retighten the wheel.  Working fine again.  Thank You, Heavenly Father.

Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  10.78
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
3.0 MPH                                  6.3 MPH                    23.1 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 3 hours 35 mins                   1 hour  43 mins         1 hour 51 minutes

Another Fabulous Friday Fling

Friday's Roundabout APRS Tracking
Fridays are turning into some of our favorite days so far.  It's a lost day for doing anything to or at the house, since we have to arrive at the UNM LDS Institute by 9:30 or 10 AM to have time to heat up or cook the Friday Forum Food for the students.  But, watching these young folk eat and interact with each other is a real pleasure - and also saddens us a tiny bit since all OUR kiddos are now middle aged and no longer eligible to mix with this age group.  We DO have at least one granddaughter in this age group.... sigh.
To counteract any guilt for reaching such advanced age, (at least in my case, Jacque is refusing to age), we take the trike on the roof rack in hopes the weather will allow us to take a ride after the lunch activities are over.

Sure enough, yesterday was again beautiful so we changed into our silly looking biking duds and took off down Martin Luther King Blvd, through downtown, to Old Town, but didn't stop in Old Town this time.  We had already eaten too much of Jacque's Posole, ice cream, and chocolate chip cookies hand mixed and baked by Yours Truly.  So we felt no need for our usual ice cream break in Old Town and headed toward Mountain Road which is now pleasantly signed as "Bicycle Boulevard" and used that route to intersect the Bosque Trail and rode south from there.  Even though it was Friday, there were few other cyclists on the roads and trails at this time of day.  We rode as far south as Bridge, where we stopped for a drink-break at our favorite attraction along the Bosque Trail:  Sonic Drive-in
Since there are narrow hairpin obstacles blocking the bike trail just south of Bridge, which are not easy to navigate on a normal 2-wheel  bike and excessively difficult (requiring lifting, grunting, and struggling to avoid vulgar language) for even  a 2-wheel recumbent, we decided to not even TRY getting our ten-foot trike through such difficulty.  Normally, street entrances to bike paths are blocked to vehicles using simple vertical posts spaced about 3-4 feet apart, which just BARELY allows trikes such as ours to squeeze between and continue riding.  Why the South Valley end of the Bosque Trail requires such more difficult entries is a question.  It occurs to me it must be to prevent motorcycles and scooters from accessing the trail, which of  course is an occasional problem everywhere in the area, not  just in the South Valley.
ANYWAY. Be forwarned.  Although we love Sonic, the dirt path leading to the Sonic entry has mats of ICK! GOATHEADS! that cannot be avoided, especially with the wide stance of our trike.  Sonic could improve sales markedly by paving and maintaining that short pathway, but it's part of the Rio Grande Irrigation District, so it's highly doubtful they care about Sonic's business prospects nor our personal revulsion for goathead puncture vine problems.
When we got back to the trail, we took 20 minutes or so and elevated and rotated each wheel carefully, pulling all thorns and stickers found in the tires.
There were several of course, but none seemed deep enough yet to penetrate the too-thin inner tubes inside.  We have "thorn-proof" tubes ordered online and coming from Amazon, but when on the trike it's doubtful we'll make that transition to Sonic again.  Too much trouble.  BAH
We turned north and rode up towards the Paseo bike pathway, intending to ride up to Balloon Fiesta Park just to look around and enjoy the RV cities that spring up each year for Fiesta.
The Paseo Path is where David Anderson was crushed by a lunatic sppeding driver 2 years ago, and a memorial bike and lots of flowers mark the spot.  Jacque was a juror just last week in the court proceeding that convicted the killer of careless driving, so we stopped and she described some of the grisly testimony and photos she had experienced during the trial.
One might think that a sentence of careless driving and a sentence of 90 days in jail is a frivolous price to pay for killing another human being with a car as a result of speeding and ignoring traffic laws, but if you follow bike vs. auto incidents at all you realize it's seldom any charges against drivers who kill or injure cyclists are filed AT ALL, much less a trial, and even more rare for a driver to suffer any punishment.
Afterwards, to make sure we could call our Friday afternoon and evening a "Date",  we went to see the movie "Won't Back Down", about the  Parent Trigger Law supposedly allowing parents to take over failing schools and implement changes.  Apparently this law has never been successfully implemented in spite of several attempts around the USA.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  27.07
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
6.3 MPH                                  9.0 MPH                    25.7 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 4 hours 17 mins                     3 hours  1 min         1 hour 16 minutes

Wednesday Wild Wide, er, Ride

The Usual Boring APRS Mail Run Tracking
Since Jacque was still on jury duty yesterday (Believe it or not, it was a Cyclist Killer  Trial, they found the druggie perp guilty only of careless driving), Tink and I went for a 2-wheel ride on my recumbent.
I just zip-tied a spare bike basket on my front luggage rack and put Tin's padded seat inside and strapped her in, and away we went.

I needed some transmission fluid for the RV, so we went first to the Post Office and then on up to the Triangle Shell Station for the fluid.  Then a quick return home on the largely-downhill run going east on Frost Road.

Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.2   Ending Voltage: 12.8
Lowest Temp  77 F      Highest Temp:  84 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  6.27
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
4.2 MPH                                 6.7 MPH                    30.6 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 29 mins                     56 mins 14 seconds    32 minutes 46 seconds

Solo Spin Sans Sweet Spouse

Mail Run Map Tracking via APRS
I dug out my spare Handlebar Microphone Harness today and found it would fit on the new TerraTrike.  Jacque is on Jury Duty this week so was not able to accompany me, so Tinkerbell and I took off without her for a test ride.
Everything seemed to work fine..... except for the empty stoker seat.  The resulting lack of weight in the rear does not allow climbing hills off the pavement:  The least amount of dirt or gravel allows the single rear drive wheel to spin out.  Since the route away from the house down to the paved road is mostly downhill, it didn't present much of a problem.... at first.
We had a relatively uneventful ride to the Post Office and Tink got her usual share of OOOhhh's and AAaaahhh's and passing vehicular slowdowns to have a look at her, etc, etc.
On the way home from the P.O., which is largely downhill, I found the trike was much more stable at speed without Jacque in the stoker seat.  No twisting or steering sensitivity or fishtailing on this trip, and I let it all out just to see if it really was more stable.  It was...... but not as much fun as having Jacque in the stoker seat screaming and squealing with delight as we roar downhill enjoying gravity.  Then, of course, upon arrival at the base of our uphill goat-path unpaved road, I could not climb the mildest grade without spinning out and grinding to a halt.  I had to dismount, repeatedly, trying to muscle the trike uphill, first backwards, then forward.  Going forward is not too bad since I can just push it uphill holding on to the rear cargo bracket, but the untended front wheels eventually (usually shortly) start turning themselves toward the ditch or the undesired side of the road.  I finally tried pulling it forward, by holding one of the front crank pedals.  This worked much better, as the front wheels tended to follow better without interference, but it hurt my back bending down so low.  I finally removed the belt from my britches and used it as a towing strap, attached to the front crank pedal, and VOILA.... much easier and painless pulling.  I did have to stop and suck oxygen every few hundred steps but at least it didn't feel like I was inviting heat stroke or heart attack.

Tinkerbell doesn't mind being pulled  while supervising carefully:

The Captain would MUCH rather be pedaling than pulling:

Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  5.59
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
2.2 MPH                                  5.8 MPH                    27.4 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
2 hours 30 mins                      57 mins 56 secs         1 hour 32 minutes

Trike Trip Toward Towm

Today's Tracking via APRS
Actually, it was a Trike Trip AROUND Town, but I couldn't resist the alliteration for the title ----
Yesterday, Friday, was a full one for Jacque and me.  We left early in the morning to be at the Albuquerque LDS Student Institute in time to whomp up a huge pot of Jacque's famous Green Chile Chicken Stew, 3 pans of fresh home made biscuits, and a HUGE Jacque Apple Pie for their weekly Friday Forum (And Student Feeding).  It was shortly after 1 PM by the time we got that completed, and we had loaded the trike on the rooftop carrier in hopes the cloudy weather would allow for a bike ride.

When we looked outside the skies were overcast but calm, with no threatening dark clouds indicating rain.  We decided to unload the trike right there in the parking lot and ride to Old Town via city streets and decide where to go from there.  Martin Luther King boulevard has a decent bike lane and the traffic was not too bad to downtown.
Trouble struck almost immediately.  The new front chain I'd just installed was skipping gears every few seconds and would occasionally jump off the front crank gear.  We made it to the downtown plaza before deciding to pull into the plaza, out of traffic, and see if adjustments or repair could be made.  The front chain was sagging very low and seemed too long.  We found a brick bench to elevate the rear wheel on the trike and pushed and pulled on the chain trying to figure it out.  It appeared too long and I finally dug out my multi-tool and broke the chain and removed one link, meaning one "innie" and one "outie" link for almost an inch and a half of shortening.  With this now missing from the chain it was TOO TIGHT. so tight as to not allow the remaining links to be rejoined together.  So, the removed link(s) now had to be pressed back in with the tool.  Now, again, the chain was too long and saggy and the slack would again result in odd loops while pedaling that lead to the irritating and dangerous gear jumps and skips.  Fortunately I had taken photos of the idler gears when taking the old chain off, and I reviewed the one involving the spring loaded idler under my seat.

I noticed this idler, while spring loaded, did not move or change tension or position while pedaling or even sitting still.  I removed it and looked it over, and wow, there was actually an adjustment nut on the back that allowed for increasing the spring tension.  I cranked it several degrees stronger and reinstalled it and VOILA!  The idler now kept the chain almost tight, and moved back and forth to maintain better chain tension while pedaling at various speeds.  I put the trike back together and off we went, with the chain now performing almost flawlessly, with only a very occasional jump.  What a difference new chains made!  When we first got the trike it whirred, clanked, and ground loudly along, very jarring mechanical wearing sounds.  With these new chains front and rear the trike now runs quietly and smooth.  Very nice improvement.  We rolled on through downtown, relying on Jacque's memories of the area streets, until we reached Old Town, not very far distant.  We enjoyed a nice ice cream and lemonade rest break while passers-by made innumeranble comments about the trike and the Tinkerbell trike-doggie.  Between Tink and the Tandem Trike we have lots of instant friends.
Then we rode on down Mountain Road, now signed as the very pleasant-sounding "Bicycle Boulevard", to the Bosque Trail and rode north on that very pleasant route.  When we finally got to a rest break at the Paseo underpass, I suggested we take a roundabout route back to the gas burner by riding the Paseo Trail trail over to the North Diversion Channel Trail and then south back to the UNM campus where we started from.
We are just WAY THRILLED with this trike.  We get less tired, we get in fewer arguments, we feel each other's strength and effort as we cruise along, climb hills, make jokes about each others' grunts, groans, and farts, and just generally have a great time.  Even though this ride is NO lightweight, and we carry a lot of weight and JUNK, our combined efforts seem to blend and pay off.  Unlike the tandem bike-E we tried a few years ago that led to frustration, fights, and Unenjoyment, this thing is a BLAST.  What a hoot it is to pull together and love it.. and each other.  /MUSH
Even after racking up almost 22 miles  for this loop around town, we had enough time and energy left to go see a great WWII war movie:
Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed
Which is a blood-and-guts war movie with a surprising human twist.  You should go see it.  It's been woefully under advertised but has superior acting, scenery, and story lines.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  21.65
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
5.2 MPH                                  8.8 MPH                    20.9 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
4 hours 12 mins                      2 hours 27 mins        1 hour 45 minutes