Cedar River Eagle, April 22, 2012

Last week Esther and I dusted off our tandem and went for ride.  After a few mishaps, we did eventually get a ride in that week.  We knew though, that we would like to make adjustments and so we went on another ride this week to try out some dffferent equipment.  In particular, we were trying out a Selle Anatomica Titanico leather saddle for Esther to replace her Brooks B17s Imperial saddle.  We were also trying out Keen Commuter II clipless sandals.

I am happy to report that both worked quite well!  Esther liked the new saddle which is much more compliant than an unbroken in Brooks.  Although I had to tension the saddle a bit from the get go, it seems to work well and we will see how it holds up in the end.

The Keens were to replace the flexible sneaker-like hiking shoes that she was wearing.  These sandals allow you to use SPD style clipless pedals and still are very walkable.  Although we only used toe clips this time, maybe next time we can use some Time ATAC pedals.

Starting at the Renton Community Center the early afternoon sun was filtering through the tree lined trail.  As we started, I had a nagging feeling that something was missing.  It finally hit me.  I did not have my Garmin GPS with me!  As those of you who ride with me know, I like to collect the data for the rides – now how am I to know how fast we were going and how far?  What about saving a trail map to that I know what rides Esther and I did?  After going through several option such as using the phone to track my ride, I settled on one.   The one best option?  Just ride and enjoy the ride.  Hard to do initially, but with Esther’s good company, it proved to be just fine

The ride out towards the direction of Black Diamond was smooth and easy.  Bikers riding along, but not blasting by.  Walkers enjoying the sun and keeping track of their dogs.  Lots of families with kids on bikes – there is hope for the next generation yet!  We felt like we could just ride on and on so that was nice.  Coming from the east coast, it still amazes us that we can see bald eagles just flying around.

(If you look carefully you can see the white tail feathers.)

Not knowing how far we went, we decided to get to a good stopping point and turn around.  Don’t want to overdo it now even though it was so effortless.

Turning around, we hit a headwind.  All…the…way…back.  No wonder things seem so effortless.  As the miles rolled by, I was getting hungrier and hungrier.  Doesn’t a nice steak sound great at this point?  Melrose Grill helped to address this portion of the ride:

Looking forward to seeing what the next trip will be!

–Tailwind

(Still need to have some data so here is a reconstructed GPS route for this ride.  The route is correct, the average speed is my best estimate, but the speed at any given point would not be accurate.)