I had a productive bicycle day for once! I took Curtis’s bike over to the bike shop to have his front wheel fixed, so it is true once more! I’m still not entirely sure what we did to it to make it so wobbly, but hopefully it won’t happen again. Although, the fix was relatively quick today since there were not too many people at the shop.
After returning home, I got out my bike and my new cycling computer, the Cateye Strada with cadence (thanks Curtis!). The installation was pretty straightforward, but it still took me about 30 minutes to do it. And I don’t have the cadence set up correctly yet. There’s supposed to be less than 3mm distance between the sensor on the chain stay, and the magnet on the crank. The current distance between them is probably about 20mm, so I need to figure out a way to rig it so that they are closer together. I’m thinking I can wedge something between the sensor and the chain stay. I might play around with it later tonight or tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes. Has anyone else had this issue? What did you do to fix it?
I was planning on a 30 mile bike ride, but cut it short because (as always) I didn’t want to get caught out too late. I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this before, but part of the reason I’m so cautious is that shortly after Curtis and I got our bikes, we did get caught out after dark without lights. We were about 6 or 7 miles away from home, and it was cold, dark, and miserable. That was the worst ride ever, and I do not wish to repeat it. Thank goodness we were together, if I had been alone, I would have been even more freaked out. Anyways, I cut tonight’s ride to about 20 miles. Here are my stats (I love knowing exactly how fast and how far I went!):
Distance: 21.16 miles
Time: 1:30:36
Average Speed: 14.0 mph
Max Speed: 26.8 mph
I’m still having trouble keeping my speed up on the second half of the ride. I really need to work on pacing myself in the beginning of the ride so I don’t wear out my legs too quickly. Today, I had a slight disadvantage because my legs were quite sore from yesterdays weight lifting, but I still should have had the foresight to save some energy and strength.
Stronger, Faster, Longer 
#1 by Susan on May 20, 2009 - 10:02 am
Still an awesome bike ride!! I’ve only ever biked in the dark on my way to work at 5am. It’s along main roads that are pretty well lit and are completely deserted at that hour (kinda fun actually…)
I may be picking up a bike computer today. I’ll let you know if I run into a similar issue!
#2 by Amy on May 20, 2009 - 10:44 am
Nice workout! I hope you like the computer. I have no idea how you hook up the cadence part as the guys at the bike shop installed all of that for me when I bought my bike. Good luck!