We rolled out from the Banks Trailhead. The folly of taking the fixie was soon apparent. Carol has been riding much more than I have, and my 14-15 on the flat lead in was woefully slow for her. This was one of the last times I saw her today!
It wasn't a race, but I guess the guy taking up the rear always says that!
As the trail tipped up slightly, I slowed down significantly. My 14-15 mph morphed into a 7-8 mph. It was an out and back route, so I figured I would just keep plugging along and when Carol came back through I'd turn around and follow her back. It was a nice day for a ride. At home it reached 89F, but the shade from the trees, a little elevation, and closer to the coast all helped to keep it quite comfortble.
As I pedaled along, I was thinking, as hard a time as I had keeping up with Carol going up the incline, my fixed gear bike would be much slower than Carol coming back down. I figured the best plan would be to turn around before I saw her. Now the only problem was deciding where to turn around. I summited the path at Tophill and continued down toward Vernonia a short distance until I got to the signs warning of 11% grades ahead to bypass the Horseshoe Trestle. On a good day I can pedal just over 8% on the fixed gear bike. Today wasn't going to be one of those days. As the paved path dipped down, I followed the old railroad grade instead. It can generously be called a path. As I neared the trestle, the path had been intentionally blocked with fallen trees. I parked the bike and walked the last 20 yds.
After looking around the old trestle a bit, I turned around and made my way back toward Banks.
The downhill ride went more quickly, but I was glad that I had turned around when I did. I didn't have gloves on and my hands were getting sore. The fixed gear bike has very limited hand positions and I couldn't find any way to alleviate the offending pressure. I haven't ridden in cycling shorts in years. Today the liner in my shorts were biting me a bit. Fixies have to be pedaled, there is no coasting, and no giving a rest to the "saddle interface".
By the time I got back to the Banks Trailhead I knew that I had made the right choice to cut the ride shorter. Carol would get just a little over 40 miles today. I would get 24.
But we both got snacks and a beer!
900 feet of going up.
.......Road Bike........Rollers.......MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ......24.................0.................0.....................0............24
Jan.........0.................. 0..................0.....................0..............0
Feb.........0..................0..................0.....................0...............0
March.......0.................0................0.....................0...............0
April.......0.................0..................0......................0...............0
May.........0..................0................80....................0..............80
June........63..................0................59....................0..............122
July........86...................0................78....................0..............206
August......24..................0.................0.....................0..............24
YTD.........199...............0................218.....................0.............417
