Had a great ride today on my bike. I didn’t expect to get another nice, warm day to ride outside, but today was in the low 70s and sunny through the ride. Storms came through later and it’s supposed to get chilly again tonight, but for one October Friday, it was summer again.
Today’s ride was one that I do fairly regularly. Starting from my house in Marine City, I ride up through East China Township, St. Clair, and St. Clair Township to St. Clair Middle School. Then I head back south, riding through downtown St. Clair and back down M-29 and the local rail-trail back home. 23 miles in an hour and 44 minutes for an average of 13.2 mph. It’s mostly bike paths with some lightly traveled neighborhood streets.
There was a brisk wind from the southwest the whole ride, about 17 mph with gusts into the 30s. So I flew on the way up and had to grind a bit against the headwind coming home. But it was too beautiful a day to pass up.
The ride might not have happened if I’d been able to set up my indoor trainer this week. I got a Wahoo Kickr on Wednesday, but I neglected to notice that it has an 11-speed rear cassette installed as standard, and my hybrid Trek has an 8-speed cassette. Basically, the rear wheel comes off the bike and the trainer replaces it, so the number of gears has to be the same. Fortunately, I was able to find a Shimano 8-speed cassette on ebay (ordering from Amazon would have taken three weeks) which should be here on Monday, so for the time being I put the bike back in my shed, intact. So it was available for today’s ride.
I don’t mind riding in the cold, but eventually it gets a bit risky with unexpected ice patches. I’m going to get my old Schwinn mountain bike set up to ride outdoors once the Trek comes in to be on the trainer, so I can still get some more trail rides in before the end of the year.