Further down the frame I added more staples to my kit including an advil supply for me and chain lube for the bike. The oversized saddle bag now sports a similar amount of clothing to what I expect to carry. Dropping down the frame reveals new shoes and pedals.
Summarizing there is reasonable weight addition and changes to my two main contact points with the bike. A logical man would ascertain the gravity of those changes. Me I just jumped on the bike and took off like any other Sunday.
It's Sunday because Saturday was lost to crud generally characterized by GI, body ache, and headache. This follows up a migraine on Friday morning. So yeah, mileage shortage this week.
Setting out on Sunday it didn't take long for knees and ankles to protest the angles of new shoes and pedals. My old pedals were Speedplay Frogs. They were a decade old. The large amount of "float" originally attracted me to those pedals. Float is generally freedom to rotate the foot laterally on the pedal. Frogs touted a large amount of float. I want to say 15 degrees or similar. The new pedals are the age old SPD. They are what the vast majority of rider use. They allow less than 5 degrees of float. 15 >> 5. So my hips knees and ankles were immediately unhappy. I stopped at the first convenient park bench to manually adjust the cleats to an angle that better fit my pedal stroke. Even after adjustments I felt myself pushing against the float limits at both extremes. Apparently I move my foot around on the pedal. This is going to take some getting used to.
The other by product of this is impeded steering. With clipless pedals when locked onto the pedals it becomes natural to steer the bike with body weight and foot position. Significantly limited float significantly affected my bike steering as well. I had on near miss of running off the trail.
A bit further down the trail one aerobar slipped down the tapered handlebar and went into freefall. I was concerned about this when I first saw the handlebar. I'm not sure I'll be able to mount an aerobar on it. The bar may have to be changed out.
So I'm riding down the trail with one aerobar flopping loose, still learning the new bike balance, and subconsciously wrestling with extremely limited float of new pedals. My heels were fighting left and right like bottled bees. Amid all of this my playlist runs out. And then it happens.
Mind distracted by music, balance distracted by new load, feet distracted by lost freedom, orientation distracted by a lone aerobar dangling off the handlebar. Every sensor was aloof for one critical second. In that second the bike veered right and the front tire planted in soft trailside gravel. I went over the handlebars. Pavement was sliding by just inches in front of my face.
After the sliding stopped it took another minute for the reeling to stop. The visual of asphalt sliding by underneath my nose was surreal. My left shoulder was planted against the ground bearing the brunt of something enough to be painful already. My right hand screamed in pain already. Something hurt further down my body back toward the bike but it was too far removed to properly inventory.
First a shoulder roll. A broken bone would have prevented that so I'm off to a good start. I disentangle my left hand bring it into view. No obvious problems though the wrist is tender and my Garmin wrist watch is missing. On my right hand blood is dripping from under the fingernails of my pointer and middle fingers. I scraped the tips off on rocks or asphalt, bent back the very short fingernails, and lacerated last joint on something. My left quad is throbbing a bit. Amazing no road rash from the pavement. I marvel at this for a bit. I clearly saw asphalt sliding by but I wasn't covered in roadrash. My ShowersPass jacket seems good at keeping both rain and asphalt out. There is one hole worn through the fabric that, when readjusted to normal fit, sits right atop my left shoulder to let rain in. That is a small price compared to the averted road rash.
The iPhone was protected by its Mophie battery case. I found it about ten feet further down the trail. The Garmin wrist watch has a strap pin bent beyond repair and wripped out of the watch bezel. Both aerobars are flapping loosely around the handlebar. Otherwise things appear in order. After gathering everything up and sorting it away as best I could I took another minute to inventory the scene for any other cast offs. I pack the gear and my wounded pride on the bike to continue the ride.
I stopped by home to remove the aerobars and see to a few things. I also took advantage of Ibuprofen I'd just added to my kit. Wire cutters helped snip away some wayward lacerated skin. I need to get full finger gloves with good venting for protection in warm weather riding. I might add medical scissors, wire cutters, or similar cutting tool to my kit.
With the dangling aerobars removed I continued riding. Originally I planned to cover new ground today but my jolted confidence was much happier with the old familiar ATT. I made my way to the southern end and around to the water dam to enjoy the peaceful sound of running water for a bit.
Heading back north a bike lane led me into Research Triangle Park. These plastic poles are a fairly recent addition to bike lanes across bridges in RTP. I really like them. It is a visible barrier to vehicle traffic and an attempt to keep the bike lane a bit safer. Admittedly I've already found poles in the bike lane, likely launched there by a high speed impact with a car bumper. Still the visual dividers are nice.
Today was short of the 100 miles I'd hoped for and the weekend far short of figure I'd hoped. At least there were miles today and there will be more tomorrow. Shaken, and a little stirred as well.
Goals for this week:
* gps repair
* New aerobars
* more work on bed roll
* figure out how to fit maps and tracks on GPS
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