Author: lpaulriddle

  • This morning’s ride

    Being that this may be my last ride for a week or so, considering the weather forecast, I decided I’d depart from February tradition and try to do a longer morning ride.  I took the fixed-gear and rode out to the park entrance at Ilchester Rd, but the Grist Mill Trail was still too snow-covered…

  • Riding while the riding’s good

    Trying to get my rides in while I can this week..  more snow forecast for overnight into tomorrow and then again this weekend.  Conditions this morning almost identical to yesterday, maybe a couple degrees warmer.  We may have rain/snow for the afternoon ride home, so I packed some rain gear. I rode into the park…

  • Repair Stand

    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…

  • Happy February

    We got around 5 inches of snow on Saturday, so I kicked February off with a ride very typical of February.. snowy and salty.  The roads were actually in really good shape until I got to UMBC.  Mostly clear of snow and ice, and not too much salt.  In the park, the access road was…

  • Road Bike

    Took the road bike this morning.  Since I took the fenders off this bike, I’ve been trying to only take it out on dry, sunny days, which are hard to come by around here this time of year.  With cloudy skies and a “chance of sprinkles,” today’s weather isn’t what I’d call ideal for taking…

  • Back to normal

    After Monday’s wild weather, I’ve had a couple days of uneventful, almost boring rides to and from work.  The weather has been in the 30s and 40s for the most part during my rides, although today it was a bit chillier at 27.  I’ve stuck with the fixed-gear all week because the roads are still…

  • Weird weather

    OK, so I wimped out Friday and took the car to work on a day when the weather ended up pretty good.  History has shown that when I wimp out on a ride, 9 times out of 10 I end up regretting it, and that knowledge helped get me on the bike this morning, on…

  • River bank repair

    With bad weather threatening for tomorrow, I decided to do a longer ride this morning.  I rode out to New Cut Rd, then River Rd, then through the park.  Today, part of River Rd was down to one lane for construction work.  It looks like they’re doing some sort of restoration/shoring up of the river…

  • Never a dull day..

    You never know what kind of weather you’re going to get in winter, and this morning was a perfect example.  We got a “surprise” light frosting of snow/sleet/rain overnight.  No mention of it whatsoever in yesterday’s forecast.  By the time I had to leave, the system had moved out, but the roads were still wet,…

  • Squeak

    I dusted off the road bike for the start of the work week.  I hadn’t ridden it in two weeks.  Yesterday I tightened up my rear derailleur cable.  It took a full turn and a half of the barrel adjuster to get it to shift onto larger cogs without hesitating.  Anyhow, it paid off –…