53rd ride of 2019 - Thursday, 07042019
2019 mileage: 2371.6
After being out of town for the last 4 days, I was eager to get back to riding today. But it is supposed to be blisteringly hot, and very humid, so I knew I needed to ride early, and thus I began about 6:30, when it was 68° and still quite tolerable.
I planned to ride again to Baker Rd. (Dexter). However, the stretch going past Bethlehem Cemetery, on the west side of Ann Arbor (on Jackson Rd., a little west of where I-94 crosses it) is rapidly becoming a sort of Bermuda Triangle of triking for me. That's where my disastrous broken seat bolt occurred a couple of weeks ago (just a few tenths of a mile west of the cemetery). And this morning, about 100 miles east of the cemetery, I came upon a spot where the sidewalk was blocked. It didn't quiet cause what I would call a disaster or a calamity, but it was quite disquieting. Evidently, a car had run off the road during the night and pushed the guardrail into the sidewalk. (I was riding from east to west; this picture shows the scene the other way, looking from west to east.)
I thought I could get around it by riding on the hill around the side of the obstruction—but I was wrong. On the hillside, the trike rolled over, throwing me into the damaged rail. I was not injured by this, but my trike was. When it struck the ground, the metal of the handlebar snapped: this picture shows the broken bar laid on the seat afterwards, with the broken support post visible at the end of the orange V-shaped piece below it.
I felt very foolish laying there for a couple of minutes like a turtle on its back—with the cleats on my cycling shoes clipped into my pedals, I couldn't get out or up quickly, but persistence eventually paid off.
Anyway, I had to contact Uber again for a ride home (grateful for this option), and once I got home, I put the rack on our car and went back and picked up the trike. So, it'll mean yet another trip to the dealer tomorrow for a new handlebar.
After being out of town for the last 4 days, I was eager to get back to riding today. But it is supposed to be blisteringly hot, and very humid, so I knew I needed to ride early, and thus I began about 6:30, when it was 68° and still quite tolerable.
I planned to ride again to Baker Rd. (Dexter). However, the stretch going past Bethlehem Cemetery, on the west side of Ann Arbor (on Jackson Rd., a little west of where I-94 crosses it) is rapidly becoming a sort of Bermuda Triangle of triking for me. That's where my disastrous broken seat bolt occurred a couple of weeks ago (just a few tenths of a mile west of the cemetery). And this morning, about 100 miles east of the cemetery, I came upon a spot where the sidewalk was blocked. It didn't quiet cause what I would call a disaster or a calamity, but it was quite disquieting. Evidently, a car had run off the road during the night and pushed the guardrail into the sidewalk. (I was riding from east to west; this picture shows the scene the other way, looking from west to east.)
I thought I could get around it by riding on the hill around the side of the obstruction—but I was wrong. On the hillside, the trike rolled over, throwing me into the damaged rail. I was not injured by this, but my trike was. When it struck the ground, the metal of the handlebar snapped: this picture shows the broken bar laid on the seat afterwards, with the broken support post visible at the end of the orange V-shaped piece below it.
I felt very foolish laying there for a couple of minutes like a turtle on its back—with the cleats on my cycling shoes clipped into my pedals, I couldn't get out or up quickly, but persistence eventually paid off.
Anyway, I had to contact Uber again for a ride home (grateful for this option), and once I got home, I put the rack on our car and went back and picked up the trike. So, it'll mean yet another trip to the dealer tomorrow for a new handlebar.
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