Ride the Rans!!

"Ride the Rans!" was the rallying cry at the end of our 43-miler this morning, but the beginning had Dave and I taking advantage of an open Saturday. We went out early to beat the heat, using River Rd. and Rose Island Rd. to get some "easy" miles in and to let me try some mileage out on the Quickbeam. While I waxed poetic about the QB from my Lawrenceburg trip a couple weeks ago, I'm still trying to get a feel for its capabilities, and my own capabilities riding it. River Rd. is table-top flat, and Rose Island is about the same but with a few rollers just for good measure; both provided the means to stretch the early morning legs.

Our route started at 7.15 and took us through Seneca and St. Matthews before linking up to Lime Kiln via Rudy Ln. Once on River Rd. We were greeted with an empty path and morning sunrise sunshine. Ah!!! Below are the bikes by the tracks in St. Matthews. What is not pictured here is the bizarre sight of a small raptor almost attacking me, talons bared (sic). It flew off but scared the beejeebees out of me. Not something you would expect so early in the a.m.

early morning light

Bacchetta and Quickbeam

Our first significant obstacle wasn't the terrain nor the weather; it was entirely man-made and contentious to boot. River Rd. crosses Harrods Creek at a quaint one-lane bridge (it used to be a two-lane bridge before cars metastasized, requiring a reduction to one lane). Of late it is in horrible condition and the State condemned it, much to the dismay of the many yuppies that live in Prospect and western Oldham Co. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. It's well closed to autos, but it seems bikers are jumping the barriers and using the newer portion of River Road for futher training. Glad I don't have to worry about it on my commute, but it did lend us a nice 2-3 mile stretch today of very limited traffic, almost like a bike trail.

condemned Harrods Creek Bridge

Rose Island Rd. is old-school bucolic riding. I began riding here some 10 yrs ago, and although there was a bit of traffic, it reminded me of some river roads I had ridden many years ago in western St. Louis. Now, of course, there are several new developments and traffic is picking up, making it a bit more tenuous for bikes. I'm sure, before long, they will be flattening it and widening it so the SUVs fit and the soccer moms don't have to think while they talk on the cellphone while scheduling their Pilates workouts.

Rose Island Rd., "green tunnel"

Dave on Rose Island Rd.

After a little excitment with Dave's lack of attention paying (ask him), we turned back and took a very short side route down toward the river side (pic below). Also, here we decided to do a little bike swapping. Dave hadn't been on the QB, and I had only briefly ridden his Bacchetta. I think he found the short time quite nice, noting that the QB is really damn smooth, and its larger size fit him better than his short stay on the Bleriot last year. I also enjoyed the stability over the twitchiness of the Rans. I also noticed that, one back on the QB, the seat felt like it was going straight up my @#@$, but that disappeared a mile or so later.

old man river

historical house next to Harrod's Creek, owned by first African-American family in area

We finished up using River Rd. to link to Mockingbird Valley Dr. and then back through Seneca to Breadworks, where coffee and scones finished a very pleasant morning. This ride gave me 170m for the week, which is more miles than I had in February or April. The heat has set in, though. I got sufficiently hot yesterday on a 23-miler through the parks, and today I didn't drink as much as I should. It's time to adjust to the real summer conditions.

house hidden behind meadow

the 'Ville downriver

Oh, and Dave implored me to ride the Rans some this week. He has mentioned purchasing it, and maybe it's time to ride the damn thing or just sell it. Once observation I can make is that, after having ridden his, I needed to move my Rans seat much farther forward, and I did. I was way too stretched out.