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 Ride Stats
Time: 00:42:02 Distance: 9.22 miles Max Speed: 25.00 mph
Avg Speed: 13.10 mph Altitude Gain: 0 ft Route: home-work (Price Rd)
Weight: 235 Category: training: general - solo Terrain: Road: Hills
Bike: Fuji Supreme 700c Hybrid Club: Commuter Cycling Century
Weather Conditions: 56 degrees (feels like 56) Wind: SSW6 Humidity: 84% Partly cloudy (I'd say mostly sunny)

Time: 00:29:23 Distance: 6.64 miles Max Speed: 30.00 mph
Avg Speed: 13.50 mph Altitude Gain: 0 ft Route: work-church
Weight: 0 Category: training: general - solo Terrain: Road: Hills
Bike: Fuji Supreme 700c Hybrid Club: Commuter Cycling Century
Weather Conditions: 74 degrees (feels like 74) Wind: SSE20G29 Humidity: 43% Partly cloudy Sunset: 6:03 PM
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 I feel naked and blind.
As I left for work this morning I felt a little strange; I felt under dressed. My legs were exposed by not needing to wear tights or such. On top of that there was no need for a jacket or full head cover. The temp was said to be in the low 50's so I was a little tempted to wear tights or my rain pants just to help keep my legs/knees warm, but decided I could tough it out and I definitely wouldn't need them for the trek home. Wearing my (short sleeve) BJ jersey, I did don my arm warmers and full finger gloves, looking forward to the ride home (or in this case to church) with temps to be in the low 70's - the full finger gloves would be alright and the arm warmers would be stashed in a jersey pocket.

The ride after work was aided by a strong wind from the SSE, but that wind also caused damage to my bike. I had about a half a mile left in my commute when I reached the light to cross Lindbergh at Blake, coming out of Northwest Plaza. I dismounted the bike and propped it on its kickstand so I could walk a few steps over to the post and push the pedestrian/walk button. As soon as I pushed the button and turned around to return to my bike I heard the sound of my bike crashing to the ground, after being blown over by the wind.

Falling onto its right side, my immediate concern was with the rear derailleur - it appeared to be OK. Then I spotted one of my tail lights had come off from being mounted to one of the bungee cords used to hold my clothes bag on the rack. In fact that light's lens was already cracked from being dropped in my driveway a week or so ago after arriving home from that day's commute. The shocker, though, was that my rearview mirror was lying on the ground next to the light - the mirror had broken off, but the mirror is mounted on the left side of the handle bar and its the right side that hit the ground. The bike must have really hit the ground hard for that to happen, that and the headlight was jostled too and was pointed about 30 degrees to the left instead of straight forward. I finished picking up my debris and doing a quick inspection as the light was changing for my turn to go, so I hopped on the bike to finish my last little bit of my trek. I was fairly uncomfortable on that stint not being able to see the traffic approaching from the rear, especially on the little stretch of Fee Fee Rd that has no shoulder, goes up hill with some rough pavement most of the way. I kept checking where the mirror should be to see how far back that vehicle I heard was actually behind me, but there was not mirror there to help me out – I felt like I was riding blind. OK, half blind I could still see ahead of me.

To top it off, when I arrived at my destination I looked down to see that my commuter was dislodged from its mount during the fall,; oh well, I don’t think that last half mile or so will be missed in my stats.



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