Paul and Greg came over today and joined me on a 40 mile ride from home. I rode the Nimbus, and Paul wanted to try out Rose’s Stratus, but it ended up really being too short for him. He had to leave the seat much too upright and his tailbone was killing him by the end of the ride.

So, it was the ride of the gimps: “Tailbone” Paul (from riding too upright for 40 miles), “Mangled Foot” Greg, and “Chemo Kid” Bud. But it was a fun ride, and I really enjoyed being able to get out and do 40 miles, today. Thanks y’all, for not dropping me like a bad habit on the ride. Wait……… maybe that’s because I was the only one who knew where we were going….

Peggy, Steve, Ken, and Rick joined me on my 53 mile Kennedale – Briaroaks route today. We left Sonora Park around 10:00 am. It had already started to warm up by then, and within a short while, it was truly a beautiful day for riding. This is mostly a quiet, scenic route (with a few crazy drivers thrown in at the beginning and end), and the roads were great, as was the company.

The only part of the ride I didn’t enjoy too much was the downhill rough curve I tried to take too fast at mile 33. I was on my left side and skidding, instantly. It’s the first time I’ve ever gone down at speed on the Corsa, and another reminder of the need to pay attention at all times when riding. I knew this curve was rough, and had always slowed down for it before, but just didn’t think this time.

I knew I had some serious road rash on my left butt cheek, but I had no idea how much of the rear of my tights was gone. They should never have let me go in the Subway after the ride…..lol. I have road rash all the way across my rear, so I must have finished the slide on more than just my left side. The road rash on my left forearm and thumb are less severe.

We ended up with 52.3 miles, at a 14.3 mph average, and did 2,355 feet of climbing. It was my first ride of more than 25 miles since my surgery. I’ve developed consistent exercise induced asthma since the surgery. It happens whenever I ride hard. I start my chemo next Friday, and I’m betting I’m the only patient in the chemo room with road rash from a bicycle crash.

Today’s route

Can I keep it?

Fedex delivered box 1 yesterday, and box 2 today. It’s a Performer Roadster carbon fiber and aluminum lowracer. Actually, with a seat height of 15 1/2 inches, it’s too tall to really be called a lowracer. I guess quasi-lowracer would be more accurate. The seat and bottom bracket height are both over 1 1/2 inches taller than Performer’s specs show them to be. The bike is made with two different sets of wheel sizes (559 and 406 or 622 and 451), and the fact that mine has the bigger wheels may explain this discrepancy. The seat and bottom bracket are 2 1/2 inches taller than those on a Baron.

I bought mine from Steve Delaire at Rotator Recumbents. Like China Mascot, Performer builds excellent frames, but has been known to install componants that are poorly chosen, mismatched, or just plain wrong. I figured Steve rigging it would eliminate most of that, and he did a nice job. I asked him for an OC setup, and the riser and handlebars he installed work really well on the bike. The idler setup he used seems excellent, too. The only booby trap that escaped Steve’s eagle eye was the rapid rise rear derailleur paired with a Sram Rocket shifter. For those who haven’t used a rapid rise derailleur, they shift backwards from every other derailleur you’ve used. Paired with the Rocket shifter, 1 is the smallest cassette cog, 9 is the biggest. I might could get used to that except for the fact that I have the same Rocket shifter on my Corsa, and having the same shifter work backwards on one bike from the other isn’t going to work.

I did my first 25 mile test ride this afternoon. Slow speed handling on the bike is outstanding. On my first try, I did a turnaround on the narrow Joe Pool dam road, without unclipping and without sitting up. I have yet to wobble on the bike. It came with the standard heavy FRP seat that Performer and China Mascot use. The seat seems too large for me, and isn’t that comfortable. Still, even with the seat I’m not too fond of, the bike’s ride is surprisingly good. On the rough Joe Pool dam road, it was at least as good a ride as my Corsa. I have a carbon fiber seat ordered for it. I won’t be able to really fine tune everything until I receive that seat. With pedals and seat pad, the bike weighs 26 pounds (unofficial bathroom scale weight). The carbon seat should lower that by 2 pounds.

As tall as the bike is (relatively speaking), it may not be as fast on race day as I’d like. But, I can already tell it’s going to be a blast to ride.

This afternoon, starting from my driveway, I rode 9.8 miles in the neighborhood on the Nimbus, averaging a blistering 12.9 mph. Why bother blogging about such a short and slow ride, you ask? It was my first ride since losing the upper half of my left lung to surgery on December 20th. They removed 40 staples from my side yesterday, and after a few minutes trying out the stationary bike, I decided I could ride. It felt great to be back on the bike.

I’ll be going back to work on January 18th, but I’m not supposed to do any lifting until February 1st. I plan on just riding easy for a while, and not pushing it until I’m a lot further along in the healing process.