First ride of the year!

[itri]

DS and I met up with some other "mommy" friends this morning for the inaugural ride of the 2008 season. There ended up being 4 of us pulling trailers (we call it Bike with your Bambino ). For you Denverites, we did the Bear Creek Trail from Fox Hollow golf course east to where the trail is closed for construction. Only about 14 miles total, but hey, we're pulling kids behind us!

DS was cracking me up the whole time...he spent at least half of the ride yelling "WHEEEEE!!!", and every time we hit a bump, I would hear a "WHOA!" from the trailer. (He also likes to pull out the "whoa" when we're in the car and I have to hit the brakes hard )

It felt SO good to be back on the bike and made me start to get excited for triathlon season! And it was awesome to really get to know my new road bike...only my third time on it...

Oh yeah, and my girlie bits need to get callused back up quickly. OWIE!

 

[Little Lightning]

I ride that area all the time! I ride down the hill to the "Stone House" and enter the trail off Garrison.

One of my favorite early season rides is through Fox Hollow and up and over Mt. Carbon into Bear Creek park. Flat with a little hill climbing.

When I'm out riding I'll look for a "mommy brigade"!

What is your new bike?

 

[itri]

My new bike is a Specialized Dolce Comp. She's SO pretty!

We've never done west of Fox Hollow since we're pulling trailers and my understanding is that there's a pretty big hill that way! We've also done Clear Creek trail from Golden or Wheat Ridge, Platte from downtown, and Cherry Creek from either downtown or near Monaco. If you see a bunch of moms out on a weekday morning, it's probably us!

 

[Robyn]

Great job itri! It felt so good to get out on my bike on Saturday for my inaugural ride as well. And I was quite proud of myself for being able to do an on the fly brake adjustment. Most of last summer I didn't have my bike rack on my car so I didn't really take it anywhere but this year I plan to seek out some different trails.

 

[itri]

I'm so impressed by your brake adjustment...I'm a total bike dummy. I have a friend who was a bike mechanic for awhile and she's said that she's willing to put on a little clinic for our mommy biking group. I SO need it. If something happened to my bike when I was out, I would most likely have NO clue what to do!

 

[Solincia]

I'm so impressed by your brake adjustment...I'm a total bike dummy. I have a friend who was a bike mechanic for awhile and she's said that she's willing to put on a little clinic for our mommy biking group. I SO need it. If something happened to my bike when I was out, I would most likely have NO clue what to do!

I'm with you. The most I know how to do is adjust my seat, remove and add my tires, and pop a chain back on! Other than that, ummm... yeah... mechanics are our friends!

 

[Little Lightning]

I'm so impressed by your brake adjustment...I'm a total bike dummy. I have a friend who was a bike mechanic for awhile and she's said that she's willing to put on a little clinic for our mommy biking group. I SO need it. If something happened to my bike when I was out, I would most likely have NO clue what to do!

Can you or anyone else in your group change a tube if you have a flat tire? If you can't you need to learn how to do it. Wheatridge cyclery offers women's maintenance classes. https://ridewrc.com

Do you carry a spare tube, pump and tire irons? If nothing else have a spare tube so if you do have a flat you won't have to borrow one.

Besides changing tubes and cleaning and lubing my chains I don't do anything else to my bikes. They get a tune-up every 3-4,000 miles (once a year). If they aren't shifting properly or have a strange noise I will also take them in for service.

 

[Little Lightning]

My new bike is a Specialized Dolce Comp. She's SO pretty!

We've never done west of Fox Hollow since we're pulling trailers and my understanding is that there's a pretty big hill that way! We've also done Clear Creek trail from Golden or Wheat Ridge, Platte from downtown, and Cherry Creek from either downtown or near Monaco. If you see a bunch of moms out on a weekday morning, it's probably us!

There are 2 hills west of Fox Hollow. The 1st is a road that climbs then flattens then climbs. There is a nice long downhill into the park. From there you can ride to Morrison for lunch or go on, another hill, and connect with C-470 trail, or loop around and climb back over Mt. Carbon.

If you take the second route by the service buildings it is a path that goes up through the golf course. The climb is much harder but it's downhill then flat through the park with one climb back over Mt. Carbon.

14 miles is good for the 1st ride of the season pulling a trailer. I'm babying myself and won't be hill climbing for awhile so my first rides are around my neighborhood where is its flat.

 

[Robyn]

Yeah, I finally took a class on changing tires and other maintenence at Bicycle Village last fall and then went home and put my new slicks on my bike to practice. Oddly, I had more issues getting my front one changed than my back. The brake adjustment was pretty self explanatory when looking at it. There are little allen wrench screw thingies (a technical term for sure) that are loosened moved up or down and then tightened again which I did because the brake pad was rubbing on the tire as I rode. Then, on the front wheel the brake was set a little tight so I loosened the cable a bit as well. I tested the brakes riding on just the sidewalk for a bit to confirm that it was working properly.

 

[Little Lightning]

It felt SO good to be back on the bike and made me start to get excited for triathlon season! And it was awesome to really get to know my new road bike...only my third time on it...


Gale Bernhardt is going to be at Outdoor Divas in Denver tomorrow night at 6:30. She's a triathlete coach. She will be discussing training and working with multi-athletes.

She also wrote and excellent book on women's cycling. I'm not sure if it's still in print but it was an excellent resource for me when I got seriously involved in cycling.

 

[itri]

Can you or anyone else in your group change a tube if you have a flat tire? If you can't you need to learn how to do it. Wheatridge cyclery offers women's maintenance classes. https://ridewrc.com

Do you carry a spare tube, pump and tire irons? If nothing else have a spare tube so if you do have a flat you won't have to borrow one.

Besides changing tubes and cleaning and lubing my chains I don't do anything else to my bikes. They get a tune-up every 3-4,000 miles (once a year). If they aren't shifting properly or have a strange noise I will also take them in for service.

Theoretically, I know how to change a flat but I don't know if I would actually be able to do it should the need arise. It's kind of like driving a stick. I know how to, but don't have the experience to actually be able to do it very well. I do carry all the stuff necessary...spare tubes, co2, multi-tool, etc...

 

[itri]

Gale Bernhardt is going to be at Outdoor Divas in Denver tomorrow night at 6:30. She's a triathlete coach. She will be discussing training and working with multi-athletes.

She also wrote and excellent book on women's cycling. I'm not sure if it's still in print but it was an excellent resource for me when I got seriously involved in cycling.

Ooh, that sounds like it would be great. Maybe I'll see if I can go, although that's getting close to little man's bedtime.

 

[Little Lightning]

Here's step by step instructions. When I was inexperienced I carried instructions with me, just in case.

https://greenmountainsports.com/page.cfm?pageID=78

It's helpful to have a pump in addition to the CO2. Last year I helped a woman change a flat (she didn't know how). Not wanting to blow the tube we didn't get enough air in (we didn't know how to use the CO2) and had to use my pump to finish the job.

Also, practice on an old tire/tube.

 

[Kano]

Trailer and kid is FUN! Especially when it's DH pulling the trailer instead of me! First time we took our grandson out, he was elated with being along for the ride, and ESPECIALLY proud to show me -- as we're riding -- Gramma, look! I put a booger in this pocket right here!

Like, of COURSE I could see the booger? Naturally, I let him think so!

This year, we're going to be garage saling for a little bike to have here at our house for that guy, and trailering the younger one. I'm really starting to wish we had a "bike garage" so I could set one of my bikes up as a "trailer bike" so we could just be ready to go, and still have my car in the garage! (platform pedals on that one, since Xander goes pretty slowly yet! Down the block and back takes a good hour!)

Kano