Sunday, November 1, 2015

Still Cycling

    Yes, the leaves have turned color and gone, but I'm still cycling.

    As I've repeated in many posts I set a minimum of 1000 km (625 mi) of cycling per summer. When  I meet that minimum, I keep on going.

    I don't know when I reached the 1000 km mark, but I'm still riding. I'm well over 1100 km. I rode Friday. It was 7 C (43 F). I cycled 15 km.(9.3 mi).  If it doesn't snow I will keep on cycling. I can ride as long as it's above freezing.

    Clothing is the hardest decision. It's not throw on all the clothes you have and away you go. I don't have a problem with keeping warm. Cycle a few Km and you will be warmed up. I find the wind whistling through the helmet vents uncomfortable so I wear a cap under my helmet. Oh yes, I wear gloves.

     My biggest challenge is with perspiration. I find most shells do not breathe enough to clear the perspiration. I wear a very light jacket underneath a fleece and find this keeps the perspiration off and I stay warm. I know wearing a shell underneath is backwards but it works for me.

     Now a 1000 Km (625 mi) a summer sounds like a lot but it's not. I probably ride at an average of 20 kph (12.5 mph) . That means it takes me 50 hours to ride 1000 km. That's not much time. I find that other things in life get in the way of riding steadily. This summer we had a long spell of hot weather. It didn't cool off enough in the evening to ride. I had to ride in the morning. Before I figured this out I'd lost riding time.

    Sometimes we have snow at this time of year. Not just wet snow but the dry winter snow. Sometimes we have minus 10 - 15 C for temperatures. It's not smart or pleasant to ride in these conditions.

    So I will hope for more decent weather to keep on riding.


   Now I can't persuade anybody to take my picture on the bike. I have photos with green leaves but that doesn't go with this post. so here's a photo of my bike behind a snowbank. However, make no mistake about it. I don't have snow now.