On the ride home today, I cut through the middle of the UMBC campus and stayed off the roads as much as possible, sticking to sidewalks and watching for pedestrians. Never my first choice, but it kept most of the salt off my bike. The rest of the trip home was uneventful. It’s much lighter out during the ride home now.. if I leave at 5, it’s still twilight when I get home around 40 minutes later. The darkness is a cool novelty in November, but it starts to get a little old after a while. So, no complaints.
I received a Park PCS-9 repair stand as a birthday gift last month, and already can’t figure out how I got along without it. It’s great to be able to just toss the bike up on the stand after a ride, clean off all the road grime and oil the chain. It seems to take half the time it used to, the stand puts the bike at a convenient height, and there’s no need to flip the bike upside down on its handlebars.