Late September Ride

Man, what a beautiful day. Temperature in the 70s, light north wind.

I had to drive my mother's car down to Chelsea (44 miles away), and I decided to take a little detour on my ride home. So I rode to Dexter (along with dozens of other bikers), then along Huron River Drive to North Territorial Rd, then to Dexter-Pinkney Rd, MacGregor Rd, to Fox Point on Portage Lake, where my family used to own a cottage.

Coffee from my thermos while looking out over my boyhood haunts, then continued the ride around the lake and across on Pleasant Lake Rd, Doyle Rd, Morton Rd, to Stockbridge ,where I had a milkshake and an orange juice. Then continuing on Catholic Church Rd (so named because of the . . . catholic church), Meridian Rd, Jolly Rd, Dobie Rd, Hatch Rd, and home. A total of 64 miles.

It was lovely, but I have to say, I developed serious shoulder/neck pain. I'm afraid I'm going to need to put on a taller/shorter stem. I have resisted fussing with the Rambouillet (other than swapping seats on and off), but I'm afraid this is a fuss that I'm going to need to make. I have a Nitto Technomic stem lying around, so I won't need to buy anything. But I hate replacing stems, because you need to disassemble the handle bar--tape, shifters, brake levers--in order to get the bar out of the stem.

Well, I can use the opportunity to put on cork tape, I guess, so it won't be a total waste. The current tape (shellacked cloth) is getting pretty grimy.

I rode the Avocet Touring I saddle today. Not too bad, really. I've been riding an Avocet women's Touring saddle recently, which I like pretty well, except for the vinyl cover. The Touring I has a leather cover, which is more pleasant.

I was also wearing wool undies and nylon shorts from Rivendell. Pretty nice.