25 miles
And I decided today was not a good day to go back road riding.
I left the house at about 9 AM this morning and it was certainly chilly, but felt fine. Once I got out of town I was bombarded by wind that damn near instantly froze me to the bone. Sitting still it's fine, but at 55 mph, BRRRR. I ended up putting on both my riding gloves and some cotton gloves I had just to keep my finger tips from freezing off. The fresh batteries I tossed into the GPS unit were also dying. Thankfully I packed two extra sets of batteries, but they were from the same pack. I was a bit worried that the rest were bad as well.
Regardless, I endured. I figured I'd only have to put up with it for an hour or two until the sun warmed things up. After about 20 miles I finally turned off asphalt onto a gravel road. Everything was looking good. The road was wet, but not completely washed out. 4 miles later, the gravel road turns to dirt road. At this point I'm a bit worried. Once I got onto the dirt, it wasn't too bad. The tires were picking up mud, but were cleaning off enough. It was slick, but nothing unmanageable. 200 feet later, the tires are full of mud and now it's SLICK. I'm holding about 15 mph with my weight back as far as I can get it and the bike is just all over the place.
Once I got to the base of the hill, everything went wrong. The bike started to wobble, I slid off to the edge of the road, and that's all she wrote. Face, meet mud. The spill wasn't bad at only about 10 mph and I only slid a few feet. After unpacking the mud from my left hand grip/guard and clearing out the tires, I decided to call it quits. This trip can wait for a dryer weekend. Warmer too. ;)
The real trick was getting back up the hill. I was crawling as slow as I could in first gear, but for that bike it's about 5-8 mph. At that speed it's damn hard to walk a bike when your boots weigh about 10 lbs a piece with all the mud. Thankfully, I only had to go about 50 yards and I was back on gravel. Then I got to unpack the wheels again as the front was beginning to drag and make steering impossible. Then a quick sprint up to 60 mph got the tires all cleared out and I was good to go. 8)
Then I got to meet what I originally thought was my head wind. Turns out it was a tail wind so I got to eat a face full of wind, the mud on my hands and knees causing me to slow down to reduce the wind chill. It's been two hours now and my knees are still cold. >.>
So, I get to spend my afternoon cleaning out my riding boots and washing the bike off. Yay!
Lesson is, don't go riding dirt roads the day after a 2" rain.
I left the house at about 9 AM this morning and it was certainly chilly, but felt fine. Once I got out of town I was bombarded by wind that damn near instantly froze me to the bone. Sitting still it's fine, but at 55 mph, BRRRR. I ended up putting on both my riding gloves and some cotton gloves I had just to keep my finger tips from freezing off. The fresh batteries I tossed into the GPS unit were also dying. Thankfully I packed two extra sets of batteries, but they were from the same pack. I was a bit worried that the rest were bad as well.
Regardless, I endured. I figured I'd only have to put up with it for an hour or two until the sun warmed things up. After about 20 miles I finally turned off asphalt onto a gravel road. Everything was looking good. The road was wet, but not completely washed out. 4 miles later, the gravel road turns to dirt road. At this point I'm a bit worried. Once I got onto the dirt, it wasn't too bad. The tires were picking up mud, but were cleaning off enough. It was slick, but nothing unmanageable. 200 feet later, the tires are full of mud and now it's SLICK. I'm holding about 15 mph with my weight back as far as I can get it and the bike is just all over the place.
Once I got to the base of the hill, everything went wrong. The bike started to wobble, I slid off to the edge of the road, and that's all she wrote. Face, meet mud. The spill wasn't bad at only about 10 mph and I only slid a few feet. After unpacking the mud from my left hand grip/guard and clearing out the tires, I decided to call it quits. This trip can wait for a dryer weekend. Warmer too. ;)
The real trick was getting back up the hill. I was crawling as slow as I could in first gear, but for that bike it's about 5-8 mph. At that speed it's damn hard to walk a bike when your boots weigh about 10 lbs a piece with all the mud. Thankfully, I only had to go about 50 yards and I was back on gravel. Then I got to unpack the wheels again as the front was beginning to drag and make steering impossible. Then a quick sprint up to 60 mph got the tires all cleared out and I was good to go. 8)
Then I got to meet what I originally thought was my head wind. Turns out it was a tail wind so I got to eat a face full of wind, the mud on my hands and knees causing me to slow down to reduce the wind chill. It's been two hours now and my knees are still cold. >.>
So, I get to spend my afternoon cleaning out my riding boots and washing the bike off. Yay!
Lesson is, don't go riding dirt roads the day after a 2" rain.