Sorry for the quality of the photo, it was taken with my phone….
Had to turn in my ballot for the primaries before the polls closed today, and the weather was pretty good, so I thought it would be a good time to get a second ride in. I put in another 40 miles this evening, and had a great time. Started by heading over to the county elections office, then I had to fill up the bike. I planned on getting some parking lot practice in, but when I got to the parking there are a bunch of bumps now, from all of the big trees growing under the pavement….so I need to find a new parking lot.
So, off I went!! I had a brief encounter with wildlife shortly after I took the photo. There was a young deer on the road when I came up a hill. Slowed way down, and it bounded off into the forest. Kept going slow up to the stop sign that was on the down side of the hill. About that time the back end started to feel a little light, I think my mind was playing tricks on me, because it seemed to corner the same.
My route was mostly country roads through pasture land, until I started heading back home. Then it dropped down into a canyon, across a creek, then back up the other side. Unfortunately there were cars in front of me that had me a little distracted. I’ve been sticking to roads I know fairly well, so I’m not surprised too much by what the road does. Though, the roads feel a bit rougher on the bike than in the truck.
I need to work on being smooth through corners, I was sawing a little on some corners. I really noticed it in a 25 mph zone with a couple sets of back-to-back s-curves. Good thing it that it is easy to change line on my bike without upsetting it….at least at the speeds I was going.
Before my ride, I picked up a pair of Tourmaster overpants, and a pair of Shift Chaos gloves. The overpants are pretty good. The knee armor fits well, and doesn’t float around to where it shouldn’t be. I’m not a big fan of the hip padding, not affixed to the pants well, but at least it is there. The price wasn’t that much more than kevlar reinforced jeans, so I think they’re a decent deal. The person at the shop had suggested some kevlar reinficed jeans and wearing some strap-on armor under it for warm days, wondering what everyone thinks about that.
The new gloves are shorty gloves which are a lot easier to get on and off than my alpinestars, but I don’t think they fit as well. They seem to let enough air in to keep my hands cool, cold tonight. There is hard rubber over the knuckles for the ring and pinky finger, foam padding for the fore and middle finger knuckles, with some foam and accordion stretch panels on the fingers proper. The palm is leather and faux suede, with some foam padding under the suede. The padding feels a little weird, but it isn’t uncomfortable. One thing that I really like about the gloves is that they actually go over the wrist and don’t just stop right at the wrist like many other shorty gloves I tried on. For the price (about $40), I think they are a great product.
So that’s 80-90 total so far…..
Nate