Where did you ride today?

WAS supposed to be raining today so expected to sit at home and watch the WBB championship game. But it clear off enough by lunch time I decided to go out on the roads. Needed gas so rode 1.3 miles to the station to fill up. Then went the long way home for a total of 18 miles. I would have gone a lot farther but the rain returned so I turned right instead of left and came back home. This time I did not take the trailer since I feel good about where I am with that.
 
A bright sunny day... for most of the day. Not a cloud in sight at least. A bit windy though. So I went for a ride. I combined parts of a few different routes I usually like to take and ended up with about 94 miles today. I'm calling this ride my Eclipse Ride since I was still riding when the eclipse was starting in my area.\

I made a viewing board to see the eclipse since I didn't have solar glasses. I poked a 1/8 inch hole in one side of a large box, put some masking tape over it and used a sewing pin to poke a very small hole in the center of that. This made for a much cleaner hole for light to pass through. Aiming that hole at the sun during the eclipse revealed an image of the sun and moon on the opposite side of the inside of the box. I was able to see a very clear image and at maximum eclipse for my area the sun was reduced to a very narrow sliver like a slim crescent. That crescent started out on one side and gradually moved to the other side as the moon moved past. Who says you don't remember stuff from elementary school? During the eclipse it looked really strange outside. The sky was clear and the sun was out but it was a subdued light. And inside the house it seemed like a very overcast day.
 
Last week I told my wife that I'd be able to take my bike and trailer and pick up more stuff at the grocery store. She replied that it's not likely I'd ever want to do that.

Today she wanted me to take all the soda cans in to the redemption center at the grocery store and pick up a few things while there. You guessed it... I took the trailer to go grocery shopping.
I only had the trailer 3/4 filled with the empty cans (we had been collecting through the winter) going to the store and the groceries barely filled up 1/4 the storage of the trailer. Other than the 24 pack of water I bought I could have fit it all in the under seat storage box. The store is about 1.5 miles away from home but the round trip took about 24 miles to complete. :biggrin:

I filled the gas tank while I was out and calculated that the bike is getting 56+ mpg, mostly without the trailer behind. I had calculated on the earlier tank closer to 51 mpg but there was a wicked head wind in addition to the trailer behind me. But still about as expected.
 
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rjs987 said:
Last week I told my wife that I'd be able to take my bike and trailer and pick up more stuff at the grocery store. She replied that it's not likely I'd ever want to do that.
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I agree with your extremely reasonable wife. Your rationalization for both a ride and a trailer sucks... even if it's true. :rofl1:

Of course, she ment you need a bigger trailer if you want to go to the grocery store to get beer and ice for other riders. :thumb:

Tom
 
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Nothing wrong with pulling a little trailer like this one... if I really don't even know it's there most of the time. This trailer is plenty big enough for 3-4 big bags of ice and several cases... If I don't have it packed with anything else. 140+ L for the current model of this trailer. The original company said 166+ L.
 
Tedbrogden said:
Down to Midland, TX and back today. 550 miles but no pretty scenery to show for it unless you like oil wells.
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If you ever fly over Midland you cannot believe all the well sites visible from the air and at night all the tank battery flares burning. Love those oil wells and natural gas plants that have allowed a retirement that keeps me on two wheels. Managed to work in that area for many years and not suck up any H2S so still here and kicking.

Drill baby drill!
 
Another sunny day up to 74F. We were told to expect lots of clouds to block out the sun but there were very few clouds instead.
My wife has been trying to buy a new swimsuit and with Amazon you know that means ordering a lot and returning a lot... especially in this case. So today was another trip to the UPS store to return a half dozen items. 2 miles to the store, and another 36 miles home for a total of 38 miles today. My wife decided to stop wondering why it took me so long to get home from 2 miles away so SHE went shopping... again.
 
Another bright sunny day with temps up to 86+F. I usually don't open the vents on my riding gear until 86 and I was just about to stop and do just that... but I didn't so it was a warm ride today. I did take out all the wind liners from the gear at least. We expect one more day of this heat wave and then rain Tuesday and temps dropping to mid 50s F after that for several days. So enjoying it while it's here.

I needed to finally take my used oil to drop off at Walmart. 3 jugs have been sitting in my garage for a long time. Since my wife insists I use the JD riding lawn mower at least every other time I mow the lawn I also needed to fill the 5 gallon jug with gas. But I decided to go "old school" and strap everything on the back seat instead of using the trailer. I didn't want to get oil and gas all inside the trailer. I know, I could have put in a plastic sheet to keep it clean but the smell...

I didn't take everything at once since it all really didn't fit at once. So I strapped on an old milk crate to take the oil jugs first and dropped those off. Then came home and strapped on the gas jug and went to fill that up. Then came home to drop off the gas jug and took off on a little ride just because I felt like it. I do feel like there have been several months that I haven't gone for a ride as often as I would like so now I feel like I can get back to that... now that certain projects are done. And, no, the cold months didn't slow me down as much as usual since I ride in cold weather anyway as some of you know.

Today I rode a total of only 30+ miles.

Here are the oil jugs strapped on... Yep, old school style...

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Here is the gas can...

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And here is a very popular newer playground we took our grandkids to once and they loved it. A lot of stuff you can't see below the fence. The entire playground area is sitting on a very soft rubber cushion. Those are 4 towers, 3 of them are 3 stories high and the taller one is 4 stories high. No adult other than a stick figure can get into that one since the access is just WAY too small for a normal person. My youngest granddaughter made it up to the 3rd floor of that one and couldn't get down and I couldn't get up to help her so another kid assisted. Good on her. Passed this on my ride today.
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Went to a friends house 12 miles away from home to check out helping them mount a deck umbrella. Took me 65 miles to get there however. :biggrin:
It was another bright sunny cloudless day with temps ranging from 75F up to 80F by the end of the ride. Expecting thunder storms to start around midnight and continuing all day and into the next morning after that. And with temps dropping into the mid 50sF for several days after that. I did the same route last year once but today I did it in reverse. A lot of riding 55 mph roads with a little bit of everything else from 20 mph school zone up to 70(+) mph Interstate. The AK performed flawlessly as usual. Stopped to fill the tank and put 2.67 gallons in the 3.85 gallon tank. Calculated this tank gave me about 57.7+ mpg. Total miles today ended up being almost 82 miles all the way around. :D
 
Went to help my wife's friend install that deck umbrella today that I pre-checked on a several days ago. Hooked up the trailer to take the tools and supplies I needed to brace the post where she wanted it installed. Rode 28 miles today.

On my way home I kept hearing a sound that wasn't happening on the way there. At home when I unhitched the trailer and pulled it to its parking place in the garage I could easily hear that sound again. So I set the trailer up off the one wheel and gave it a spin. Sure enough, sounds like bad bearings to me. Already ordered a new set of All-Balls bearings from Unigotrailers.com. Hope they arrive soon so I can get them replaced on the trailer wheel before FerrySTOC.
 
OldMcClelland said:
Sorry for no photos, but I shook the Winter dust off Elwood and had a lovely 58 mile loop for my first ride after the season of mud. It wasn’t dark enough to test the new lights that I put on. i’ll make a separate post with my new Farkles.
Rob
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i was going to post my tuesday ride and i have pic's but my phone decided to resize my pic and the files are too large to upload
 
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