147th ride - 11/2/2015

I went to Dearborn this morning and got from Jack's Bicycle new shoes ("Specialized" brand) that clip into the cleats they put on for me in place of the pedals. (The old pedals were returned to me.) I was concerned about my ability to clip into them—a blunt V-shaped tongue on the underside of each shoe clips into a groove on the cleats, and you then push down to lock two pegs into place to hold it—so I had Richard take extra care to show me how they worked, and take time to explain the workings to me. But when I got home early this afternoon and put the trike back together, and put the shoes on and went out to ride, I was pleased to discover no problem at all. (Maybe it was just beginner's luck.) The first picture below shows the shoes, and the second, a closeup, shows one of the cleats. They are actually quite small—only about two inches square.

Also at Jack's, they had a second issue with which to deal. The center joint would not fold up, so that I could not transport the trike in the car as usual. But I was able to brainstorm a way to make it work, by putting one of the back windows down and letting the rear wheel hang out the window a few inches. At Jack's, they were somewhat befuddled initially, having never seen quite this condition before. But they gathered several of the mechanics together to brainstorm it, telling me that the clamp had become bent (though they couldn't say how), and soon had it working properly again.

It was an unseasonably warm and gorgeous afternoon, and I had to remove the fleece I'd worn this morning and don a t-shirt instead, to ride in sunshine in the upper sixties. I wanted to ride two round trips to Marsh Park, figuring I'd break the new clips in slowly—I'm certain they will provide a vastly more secure and comfortable ride as I get used to them, but I'm still in process on that. However, the second of two 'adventure' components today made me decide to cut it down to a single round trip, whose 9.5 miles I did in 55 minutes. 

The first 'adventure' was at the park, just after I had reached it and started back toward home. The left leg of my pants caught on my headlight and ripped it off of the bar to which it was clamped, so that it went clattering onto the trail behind me. This necessitated a stop, unclipping from the pedals (you merely turn the foot a bit, "like a ski binding"), and going back to retrieve it. Reattaching it was no monumental task (although anything mechanical is challenging for Dr. Borton,
thoroughgoing musician). But I was able to accomplish it, as well as reattaching my feet to the pedals ("good practice!" I figured), and then continued the ride.

When I got back to Ellsworth Rd. (near our home, and the point at which I turn around when doing consecutive round trips), the second 'adventure' component came into play. I noticed that the seat was beginning to wobble, so I stopped, unclipped my feet, and went to retrieve the large Allen wrench (a special size, that came with the trike) in order to tighten the clamp. But it was not there, in the zippered pouch on the side of the seat, where I keep a few tools. After double- and triple-checking, I decided I'd better head home, because I certainly didn't want to get miles from home and have a problem with the seat and no way of fixing it. When I pulled into our drive, I looked carefully in the area where I had assembled it a short time earlier, after returning from Dearborn, thinking perhaps it had fallen onto the ground. But it was not there, either, so I told myself (disconsolately) that I'd have to head over to Lowe's and try to 'eyeball' the right size Allen wrench, probably making several trips between there and home in order to 'trial-and-error' it to get the right size. (Sadly, without the wrench, I had no way of disassembling the trike so I could take it to Lowe's with me to make checking easier.) But then, when I put the trike away in the garage, and started to head into our home, I spied the wrench sitting on the trunk of our car, where I must have lazily laid it instead of putting it in the pouch where it belongs.

Anyway—the bottom line is that I think that I shall be much better off for riding now, and I look forward to proving that tomorrow morning.