After not riding for nearly 2 weeks we were more than ready to take Rollin out today. Temps were predicted to go up to 86 with humidity building throughout the day, and isolated showers this afternoon. We got up at 7 AM, wanting an early start. Putting on sun screen, filling the water bottles, getting snacks, moving the car and checking trike tires, seemed to take longer than planned. We were on the road at 8:30 AM. It was a bit overcast which was fine by us.
We are still riding in our big gear ring, and using mountain drive for the hills that require downshifting. I emailed some pics to the Hostel Shoppe yesterday. Hoping Scott will get back to me on Monday with some suggestions. He did assure me that yes, a 66T gear ring is standard on GreenSpeed Tandems. Also suggested that we bring his business card along on our next tour, so if the mechanics have questions or don't believe what I am telling them, ( a 66T gear ring is standard on our trike.) they can call him. He will give them some suggestions on the best way to fix whatever the issue is. Love doing business with the Hostel Shoppe.
This idilic small town scene is what I was looking at while Tony was in the bank.
Our legs are stronger from riding Palm, even though we haven't ridden for 2 weeks. We only needed mountain drive twice on our way into town. Razzaque days in LeRoy, which was a very busy place today. The parade hadn't started yet, but folks were getting ready for it. By the time we were done at the bank, the sky was looking a bit dark. We debated on stopping at Pibbs to wait it out, but decided we would ride. We had our rain gear along, and passing showers were what was predicted, so it would probably pass quickly. We were down the trail about a mile when it started to sprinkle. By the time we got our rain gear on, it was raining more. As we rode on, it got heavier. It was our first time using our helmet covers, they worked well, but water still runs off the front of of my helmet like a waterfall. 20 minutes later, and drenched from the waist down, we arrived at the restaurant in Tustin.
Sunscreen, tools, snacks, tubes and other things stayed nice and dry in the Ortelieb panniers, until I opened them. When I unrolled the top of the pannier, some of the water that was pooled on top, ran down, inside. There really is no way to get it off of the low spot were it accumulates. Glad they came with Rollin and not something we bought extra. Maybe I need to be more mindful of how I roll them when I open and close them. If it continues to be a problem, I'll be researching waterproof panniers.
Hot coffee and a cinnamon roll sounded good. Shortly after our coffee the waitress returned to tell us it would be a little while until we got our root beer floats. Root beer floats?? We reminded her we had ordered cinnamon rolls. She asked if we wanted them heated, we responded with a smile, and said that would be wonderful. 10 minutes later, she brought us 2 cold hard cinnamon rolls. I went up to the counter and asked if we could please have them warmed up. Maybe she had a hearing problem? Not sure, but we were happy when our warm cinnamon rolls arrived at the table.
40 minutes later the rain had stopped, and we were on our way. Rather than heading home we decided to go up the trail a bit further. About 1 minute after we crossed 20 mile road I heard hissing. Oh no, a flat in the making. The air continues to hiss out of tour left front tire, while we quickly got off the bike and turned it around. It would be easier to change in town where water wasn't dripping off the trees down my neck. By the time we got to 20 Mile Rd., we had a full blown flat. We walked Rollin to the hardware store.
I took the rear rack bag and the side pannier off, flipped the trike on it's side and set to work.
The Comp Pools on Rollin come off a lot easier than the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires we had on Rosie, so I had the tire off in pretty short order. I quickly found the sliver of glass that had punctured the tire and tube. I put a bit of air in the tube and inserted it in the tire and around the rim. Now to pump it up. Since we run our tires at 90 PSI, the task is challenging, even with our portable Top Peak Road Morph pump. Part of the reason I bought that pump was because it has a built in gauge, but the number are so small and the pump at such an odd angle that I can't read it. Since we were by the hardware store, my plan was to get the pressure up to about 40 lbs and then use the hardware stores compressor to do the rest.
For some reason the Top Peak pump is very hard to get on the tub valves. My biggest concern was wrecking a valve. I only had one spare tube, so if that happened, I would have to rely on my patching skills, which still need some refining. Seeing that I was having a hard time getting the pump on the valve, a man stopped and offered to help. Even he struggled to get it on and off. I finally went in the hardware store and asked if they had a pump I could borrow. They did, and soon we were pushing Rollin around back to top off the tube. After expressing our thanks we were on our way home. I plan on using the tube I took off to practice both patching and getting that Top Peak pump on and off the valve.
We stopped to use the porta potty and met a fellow named Bob who had questions about Rollin. As the conversation progressed we found out that Bob was interested in touring, and was planning a cross country tour next summer. He was going to start in NH and end in OR. We shared our dream of pedaling to WA and the 3 of us talked about the pros and cons of touring for awhile. Then we took Bob's picture, he took ours and we parted ways.
With the rain over, it was getting hot, already 83 degrees, and a bit steamy. We made our way to LeRoy with ice cream on our minds. By the time we got to Pibbs it was lunch time, and with Razzaque Days in full swing, the place was packed. We sat up at the counter to have our goodie, asked to have our water bottles filled with ice, and headed out towards home.
Thankfully our last 4 miles were smooth riding and we had a good laugh about how our early morning, 18 mile ride had turned into such a long drawn out thing. Some days are like that.
Since finishing this entry we have ridden 2 more times, both were trips to church. The most recent was July 22. We took an early evening ride to the parsonage to help our new Pastor and his family unload the moving truck. So glad to have them join our church family. These 2 rides added 32 miles to our total mileage for the season.
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