May 15th, 2018:  Ride Report

	I rode Felix to work today.  It was my first commute since last 
summer, and first ride of this length on my folding bike.  All told, it 
was a great experience and I got a few puzzled looks from other cyclists, 
too!

I was out of breath a couple of blocks into my ride, partly because I'm 
out of shape, but mostly because I haven't been concentrating on my 
breathing.  I have a subconscious habit of sort-of "half-whistling" when 
I'm doing things, which is especially bad when I have a favourite song 
running through my head and I get really into it.  Once I concentrated on 
breathing properly and listening to the world around me, I was fine.

The ride through my area was nice.  Quiet and uneventful.  No cars, no 
buses, no trucks.  I saw another cyclist turn onto the road a couple of 
blocks ahead of me, but she outran me pretty easily.  Not that it's a 
race, mind you.  Neither my bike nor its rider are built for speed :)

I had a couple of cyclists pass me on the multi-use path along the 
Assiniboine Forest, one of whom (an older guy) studied my bike as he went 
past and smiled, another (younger wannabe racer) shot me a look that said 
"What the Hell..?  What's wrong with you?" and sped off.  The second one 
seemed annoyed that I'd caught up with him at the crossing.  But, I didn't 
say anything and kept going.  If your ego is so fragile that you're 
threatened by an out-of-shape 45-year old man on an even older folding 
bike, perhaps you should seek therapy..?

I hit my halfway point a little later than usual (30 minutes as opposed to 
my usual 25), but strangely enough, I didn't feel like taking my 
traditional 2-minute break.  I noticed I had a rare green light at this 
intersection, so I pedalled harder and ACTUALLY MADE THE LIGHT for the 
first time ever.  I'm marking this one on the calendar!

Once through, I decided to carry on.  Unfortunately, both my regular route 
and backup routes to the next bike path were blocked due to 
construction/infrastructure repair/urban renewal, but thankfully the city 
hasn't started work on the backlanes yet.

I hit the next bike path ten minutes later than normal (detours...), and 
halfway along I had a bit of trouble.  There's a stretch along the 
northbound Berry St bike sharrow that I've dubbed "The Moon Landing" as 
it's in rather poor repair.  It is much how I'd envision the surface of 
the moon, only paired with Earth's gravity.  The trouble hit as I was 
bouncing along and my seatpost dropped!  Either I used too much grease to 
lube up the seat post, didn't tighten the clamp enough, or some 
combination thereof, but the seat bottomed out suddenly and slammed my ass 
into the saddle.

Not fun.

I had to pull into the next curb-cut with my knees hitting my chest as I 
pedaled.  I fixed the seat as best I could, tightened the clamp, and had 
to pull over again half a block later as the seat started swiveling 
side-to-side as I rode.  This time, I pulled the seat up a bit more, 
tightened the bolt and seat clamp as tight as it would go, and got back on 
the road.  Had no problems after that.

The rest of the ride went smoothly.  Crossed the busiest highway in the 
city without stopping (caught a rare break in traffic) and sailed into 
work an hour after I started my commute.

Strava tells me the entire trip was 17 Kilometres, which makes sense as I 
had to make a couple of detours.  The trip took just over an hour, which 
also makes sense as I'm riding with different gearing, a smaller wheel 
size, I had to stop a couple of times to fix my seatpost, and I'm old and 
out of shape.

Last year's record for the same trip was 35 minutes on Juggernaut, my 
usual commuter.  That was with no construction, 26" tires, multiple gears, 
and being in better shape (and probably a decent tailwind).  I figure with 
a bit more riding time, I can get my commuting time down to around 45 
minutes on Felix.

--

Folded, Felix doesn't fit under my desk.  I folded him anyway, and leaned 
him between my desk and the office laser printer.  My boss keeps ringing 
the bell (a Portland Design Works "King of Ding II") every time he walks 
to the printer, and I'm guessing that's a not-so-silent approval..?

Environment Canada has put out a wind warning for this afternoon.  
Apparently we're expecting 70 KM/h winds from the West, so it looks like 
I'll have a 70KM headwind for most of my ride home tonight.

I'll treat it as a character building opportunity.