not a single ride, but two short and one long ride on the southern Oregon Coast. tagged along with some lifelong friends on a golf trip - i don’t golf but a round of golf takes around the same time as a nice long bike ride, and the refreshments and entertainment after are compatible!
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Ride 1: pouring rain, around 40-45f, mud, sticks, branches, pine needles, etc on the roads. my route included a short stretch of US-101, which has a shoulder suitable for bikes but unfortunately said shoulder was covered in some sort of very slimy, slippery bright green moss. in the wet conditions, i fell twice going in a straight line with nearly no traction whatsoever! Following that, i got off the big road for a serious of steep windy forest roads which had terrible paving conditions, huge potholes, totally covered in mud etc. a very challenging ride, which i cut short at about 28 miles, essentially as soon as i could figure out a safe way home! turned the creo’s motor on a few times on very steep sections, although the limited traction had me leery of any major efforts!
among the best of the road conditions!
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a very dirty bike, but not as dirty as it had been before a downpour rinsed it off.
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Ride 2: the weather cleared a bit, and i set off for a longer ride to the nearby coastal town of Coos Bay and back. A few of my selected roads turned out to be unpaved, so it wasn’t as much of a loop as i hoped. while the roads were still wet and dirty in spots, it was a beautiful day with changing skies, some sunlight, and even rainbows! total distance, 62.62 miles (a metric century!) and 4,429 feet of elevation in a bit under four hours. no battery usage at all - although there were rolling climbs, for the most part roads in this part of the world have been built with shallower grades than around San Francisco.
better conditions!
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The Oregon coast, and rainbows!
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Everything is so green!
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Bridge over one of many Sloughs around Charleston and Coos Bay
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Ride 3: an easy inland loop ride for a lovely morning. Unfortunately i misjudged the weather a bit, and although it was partly clear and not raining, i rode through a fast section of cold mist and found my hands very, very cold… going from cold to painfully cold to some mixture of numb and painfully cold. not much choice but to soldier on, but shifting and braking became clumsy, and when i arrived back at the hotel, I could not unclip my helmet for over 15 minutes. the normally easy act of squeezing the plastic clip was impossible - no matter how/what i tried my fingers could not generate the small force required! it was comical!
beautiful wetlands
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chilly mist
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all in all, an interesting couple days of riding.