Results tagged “Cycling” from NoMuse

The city of North Salt Lake recently ripped up a section of my daily commute route that was in dire need of repair. The road was closed for about six weeks during which time the macadam was stripped, the underlayment was reworked, and silky smooth asphalt right out of Disney's "Cars" was laid. The city finally finished striping the road and I was giddy to find a proper bike lane -- a lane that includes directional arrows for those salmon-like cyclists who can't seem to figure out on which side of the street they should ride. Good on ya, NSL!

As I am a masochist, I managed an expensive and last minute entry into the 2008 Lotoja Classic (beware of Flash). The race, or ride in my case, is a 206 mile course from Logan, Utah to Teton Village north of Jackson, Wyoming. I'm a little scared and a bit apprehensive.

Because life is busy, I extended my morning commute to include a 10 mile climb up Emigration Canyon to the peak of Small Mountain. The ride up the canyon is verdant, peaceful, and a high point in my day. The summit overlooks Little Dell Reservoir. The view begs me to roll down the far side and out towards East Canyon. I'm hoping to do an out-and-back from our home to the West Entrance of East Canyon State Park this coming weekend.

Interstate 84 to the north is under sufficient lane moving and rebuilding construction that bicycle traffic is unsafe to say the least. But, as soon as construction is completed in late September, I'm looking forward to riding a loop from home through Emigration Canyon, over Small and Big Mountains, around East Canyon Reservoir, past Morgan, down into and through Davis County to return home.

If I ever get on a bicycle again after September 6th.

photo: ©2008 Kevin Winzeler for Zazoosh.

The Cycle Salt Lake Century is one of the early supported rides of the year. I signed up in order to practice some group riding and to see what riding 100 miles was like. And, the ride was a blast!

I spend nearly all of my cycling time riding solo. Even so, I picked up the general idea of riding in a peloton quickly. I still have plenty of room to improve my micro-speed adjustment so as to reduce or eliminate the yo-yo effect as the speed of the pace line varies.

I wound up riding with segments of the group with whom I registered for the ride and with ad-hoc groups that seemed to be pacing more comfortably for me.

I experienced some minor mechanical difficulties with my front derailleur, but a quick tightening of the derailleur cable at one of the support stops returned full access to my chainrings.

I'm totally looking forward to riding this century again next year.

Nothing gets a day off to a proper start quite like running over a sharpened bit of steel and slashing the sidewall of a not inexpensive tire. The explosive and sudden decompression of the tire startled me to say the least. I stopped, evaluated the damage, and spent several moments searching the intersection for the shank. As I don't generally carry a spare tire in my kit, I was awfully glad that I connected with the makeshift caltrop a couple of blocks from our house.

I'd been tracking mileage on this pair of tires so that I could make a slightly less uniformed decision the next time I needed to buy a pair of tires. I ran down to Bountiful Bicycle and picked up a replacement -- before they opened for the day. (Brady, Taylor, and the rest of the crew always seem willing to do the bit extra to keep me pedaling. I cannot recommend the shop strongly enough.)

After replacing the tire, I returned to my regularly scheduled bicycle commute -- late, but thrilled to be rolling.

Photos