Friday, November 27, 2009

4,000 miles, this bike, this year

Today was a good reminder that there are conditions in which I will not ride. Despite my earlier proclamations that it is not cold that ends the season for me, the truth is that cold is an issue. Today was pretty cold.

But I have the gear. Here's what I looked like today as I left the garage (TOPWLH was required to make an appearance out of doors in her occasional role as photographic assistant). When I am actually riding I can pull the balaclava up a bit more and even cover that tiny bit of bridge of the nose visible in this photo. I can ride covered up completely.Note the Windstopper shoe covers. Today felt like the last ride and although I do not want the season to end I guess I am finally somewhat resigned. Today came too close to freezing the water in my water bottles.

If it was last ride at least I made a point to go and check what the long shadows would look like where the cows are resting.As usual, they look very stately and very sedate in repose.

I got all the way into Saint Paul and rode up onto the Marshall Avenue bridge. I didn't go all the way across (there's Minneapolis over there, don't you know?). This picture is looking upstream towards the University and downtown Minneapolis.Based on that photo I am going to declare the fall leaf colors to be past peak.

But today I rode past 4,000 miles on this bike, this year. It is a nice milestone but it wasn't as important to me as the other recent accomplishments. This isn't the first time I have had that many miles on a single bicycle in a year, in fact it isn't even the first time I have done it on this bicycle (I have four such years all together, so far). This is the second time I have done it on the LOOK. As I stated above, it feels quite a bit like the end of the season here. If it is the end the final accounting would show LOOK odometer 18,156, automobile odometer 17,834.

1 comment:

Santini said...

I like my Pearl shoe covers quite a bit. They keep that whole ankle area warm. I see you've gone with the lobster mittens -- I still use gloves. Big, fat ones. I do a double layer on my legs when it's below 40 -- my AmFib PI tights, plus a Gore wind pant.

4,000 miles on a single bike in a single season is excellent. It's a number I won't reach even in total on the 3 or 4 (or 5) bikes that I've ridden throughout the year. So a bow, sir. Good job.