a ride at dusk

I cannot remember the last time that I was out riding after dark, on purpose. It was probably in the 1990's though. First thing is that I only own dark shields and that further reduces any chance of seeing anything at night. More importantly though, I hate cleaning the bugs that get splattered over everything...

Friday 9/30 I wanted to get out for a ride in the afternoon as it was again unusually warm, but work kept interfering. Finally at 17:00 it was either mow the front yard or get out for a spin. The grass keeps growing but there are only so many rides left this year.

It was actually darker out than this picture would indicate, and there was a pretty cool sunset in progress behind me, which you can just get a hint of looking at the windscreen, but the phone/camera washed it out.

The temperature was only around 55 when I went out and dropping fast as the sun went down, but I managed 70 miles over an hour and a half and got home just as it was getting really hard to see. The pace was slower but I had to ride. As a bonus, because it's been so cold at night, there were very few bug strikes to deal with.

The end of summer (?)

I was unable to get out riding last Sunday morning for various reasons (ie GDF'n work), but the weather forecast said we would luck out and get a couple exceptionally warm days for this time of year early in the week. So I planned to get away for a lunch time ride both days.

Monday was actually hot as the temps ran up past 80 degrees and clearly the day called for perforated leather. Having been bundled up and dealing with frozen fingers and a fogging faceshield the prior couple of weekends, this was indeed summer's last hurrah.

I got out and tried a couple variations on a route I use frequently when I have about 1 hour to ride, discovered a couple new roads and went past a lake I had never seen before.

It was so warm out I would have needed to remove a lot of gear to stand around more than a minute or so, and I was short on time to get back, but for a little  while, it felt like July again.
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Today was in the mid-70's and perfect, though clouds were building. Big, scary clouds announcing the next few days of rain that were coming. I added in two more roads I had been meaning to explore from yesterday and ended up with a nice 50 mile loop. But with the clouds and lower temps, and the smell of dry leaves, there was a strong impression of autumn moving in.

I went past a farm with some seasonal stands out front and decided to loop back for a quick pic. There was a gentleman on a tractor eyeballing me so I first took a couple pics of the signs listing prices of items for sale.

Subterfuge, I thought. I turned around to find a woman standing there... She had come outside and was asking if she could help me, but I had the feeling she was more concerned about her produce than how many pumpkins I would be buying and, what -- sticking in my jacket for the ride home?

A little small talk and I was able to grab the pic I wanted and take my leave.

This Sunday it may or may not stop raining long enough to possibly get up out of the 50's. But I had two nice runs to cap off the warm weather season.

On any Sunday. Again...

After a successful Friday ride with a couple guys 2 weeks earlier, I decided that I really needed to get back into the Sunday rides and this was the day. 4 of us met up and we went out for a run through the eastern foothills.

The pace was quick but there was a lot of concern for the potential of coming around a corner and finding a washed out section of road from all of flooding after nearly two weeks of rain and the occasional hurricane. And we came across a few areas where cones were deployed or road reconstruction had occurred.

Only real issue throughout the ride was a rear tire that went flat after crossing a long section of sharp gravel down as a temporary road patch. My buddy was able to recognize the feel of the tire going flat and pulled over without incident, and as luck would have it, we were only a few miles from his house, so he grabbed a ride and went home for his truck, hauled back and unloaded the S4, fired up the 851 and we continued the ride.

2 of us had to head for home after about 100 miles completed due to the time of day at that point, so that wrapped up my return riding with the regulars. Looking forward to the next time I can get out. With a predicted nightly low temperature of 40 degrees by next weekend, time is running short again.

Where has my summer gone?  Oh, right...