Fixes, Fog, and Flats
I finally got around to addressing that silly issue of the rim tape on my bicycle that has rim brakes. I had made a half-hearted attempt a couple of weeks ago, was put off by how difficult the whole thing was proving to be, and gave up.
Then, the motivation and tools I needed fell into my lap. And by that, I mean that I received a bike repair stand as a Christmas gift from my mother (this makes it easier to pretend that I know what I’m doing), and then bought some Goo Gone.
Eleanor Roosevelt supervised while I attended to the eight stickers that needed to be removed. Even with the Goo Gone, this was an endeavor and I’m pretty sure I rendered useless the sticker scraper that was included with the adhesive remover. Eventually, I got the hang of things and moved from the rear wheel, to the front one, using a rubber band to stabilize the wheel so it wouldn’t wobble back and forth while I was working on it. Is there a correct way of doing that? Someone let me know.
Once the old reflective stickers were removed from the rim, I did my best to clean off any remaining residue, and then SMARTLY applied reflective stickers on the inner black portion of the rim. You know, the part where my brakes don’t need to be.
Removing the rim tape was all the preparation I needed for a gravel ride on my road bike, right??? Polly, from Girls Bike NYC, and I have been talking about getting some rides in together, so she planned a little New Year’s Eve ride out to Shirley Chisholm State Park. I’ve ridden to and past Shirley Chisholm lots of times, but never realized how expansive the trails inside the park are. Polly shared a picture of some of the gravel in the park and from what I could see, it looked pretty packed, so I figured my road bike would be able to handle it.
I met Polly at her place down in West Midwood, and we headed South, through Sheepshead Bay, where we connected with the new bike path on Emmons Avenue near the start of the Shore Parkway Greenway.
Sound on if you want to hear me express my love for the new bike lane. Apparently, these are the things that excite me now. We had a foggy ride along Shore Parkway, but not without incident! Polly had a flat on her rear wheel, so we posted up for her to make those repairs, while I helped a passerby adjust the seat height on her new bicycle. This is only the start of Polly’s mechanicals for the day, and I was relieved, because usually that’s me (sorry, Polly).
We got to the entrance of the park and were already soaking wet. It wasn’t supposed to start raining until 4 PM on this day, but you can see that was a lie, and when dressing for the ride that morning, I opted to skip wearing any rain gear. Dumb.
In the past, I’ve only ridden around the parking lot of this park, usually to find a bench to sit on while I have a snack or refill my water. Who knew there was so much more to explore?! I mean, I should have already surmised this, but here we are.
We hung a right after our entrance into the park and hit our first portion of gravel.
LOL.
I wouldn’t have necessarily called this, “packed gravel,” but I can’t blame Polly because she didn’t realize either! We started it off with some CHUNKY gravel, which was challenging and scary, because neither of us were used to the movements associated with riding on a surface like this and uh… my road tires didn’t make it any easier.
But, we wound up having SO much fun riding through the park, and just screamed every time we almost died going down a hill. Or in my case, when riding up a hill.
The fog prevented us from seeing much of anything, but lent a spooky, fun vibe, as we rode through the park. It also provided a nice backdrop for Polly to fix a flat on her front wheel…
Polly and I didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into, but it wound up being a fun, adrenaline-filled ride. Before wrapping up our trip through the park, Polly had to make another fix to her front wheel! But she still looked cool doing it.
As we made our way back home, we came full circle, stopping at the spot where Polly got her first flat, so that she could make one final flat repair on her rear wheel!
We didn’t have the best weather for all of these mechanical issues, but Polly is a pro and we were always back up and running in a few minutes. Also, apparently the Continental Gatorskins on my road bike can handle all that chunk we rode over because my tires remain unscathed.
This 37-mile ride with some gravel and a friend was the best way to end the year. So, time for the 2022 recap.
My die-hard fans (LOL) will remember the two cycling goals I set for myself last year:
Complete my first century ride
Ride at least 1,500 miles
I accomplished neither.
But that’s okay! There were (multiple) unforeseen injuries, too many kittens to deal with at one point, and some life events that I never could have predicted. Despite not accomplishing those goals, I ended this year having ridden to so many new places, having seen so many new things, and having FINALLY made some actual cycling friends.
Hopefully I eat less shit in 2023.
