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"It's like morning in Miami." If I never experience that first-hand, I won't be disappointed


Last night I looked forward to a real rain ride. The forecast was for pretty strong rain between 7 to 9am, hitting our ride head-on. That's a whole lot better than riding in light rain or drizzle, the muck that makes a mess of your bike, turns the road into a slip & slide and gains you no cred.

Well guess what. We got messy bikes, slippery roads and no cred. Just light drizzle, fog up on Skyline, and worse, it looked like later in the day it was going to be pretty nice. Once again a wet one that didn't hit. Worse, it was warm enough that the humidity was pretty uncomfortable; like Kevin (the pilot) said, just "like morning in Miami."

Just a few brave souls this morning, myself, both Kevins and JR. Very easy pace as we were all on bikes we'd rather not be on; our "rain" bikes that just don't ride as nicely as a full-on race machine. Let me tell you, if you don't think there's much difference between a nice 20 pound bike and a super-nice 16 pounder, you simply have no idea. Those of us on $3000+ bikes are spoiled, terribly spoiled. Our "race" bikes (which are rarely, if ever, raced) don't just ride, they glide. On my "rain" bike, if I let up on the pedals, it comes to a stop (or seems to). It feels like you never get a chance to rest. And yet... after half an hour or so, you get past that, you go into a version of what I call "mule mode", where it just doesn't matter, you're out there on a bike, self-propelled on two wheels, and life is pretty good. Just takes a while to get to that point.

But, if it's really wild & nasty out there, different story entirely. It's fun! There's a good reason you're on your "rain" bike. So maybe now you understand why I look forward to really nasty conditions, or really nice, and that stuff that's not quite nice enough for your good bike? That's the worst!
Post date: 2013-06-25 23:19:33
Post date GMT: 2013-06-26 06:19:33
Post modified date: 2013-06-25 23:20:25
Post modified date GMT: 2013-06-26 06:20:25
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