Beautiful Day for a Ride

Lisa worked in the yard. Ian cleared out the gutters. I cleaned the back of my truck. That's how our Sunday started. Then Lisa and I decided to ride our bikes to our martial arts class. What a glorious day to be on a bike! These are the kind of days when I love Portland.

I know that I am not ready to ride in a century. My foot still hurts after about 20 miles. Or is too tired after 10 miles of riding, an hour of taekwondo then another 10 miles of riding? I think the latter. But I'm okay with that. I know I'm pushing it in other areas (i.e. martial arts).

I have new bike projects in mind. Lisa is okay with them, too. She has to be. A couple of them involve two of her bikes. This afternoon I was able to work a little on my blue bike and install the new Race Face crankset. Then I was able to readjust the front derailleur. Front derailleurs always give me a hard time. I'm glad this one went well. The beautiful blue sky inspired me to remove my front fender (rear had already been removed). I also finally got the rear rack correctly installed. Working on my bikes is such a pleasure to me. I really do love it. As frustrated as I can get, I can actually relax and just fiddle.

That's what I'd truly love to do for a living: fiddle with bikes and make people happy about their bikes again. What's so wrong with that?

First Things First

That's me coming down one of my favorite trails in Northern California. I love riding my mountain bike there. Not so much here in Portland. The only place I've found that is close won't allow bikers on the best trails. And those who "protect" the park do not seem to want to entertain the thought of letting mountain bikers have their own trails to ride and maintain.

Monday, April 6th Commissioner Nick Fish will hold an invite-only round table discussion on biking in Portland parks. The most notable will be Forest Park access. Hopefully there will be representatives from all sides of the issue.

I moved to Portland with the idea that it had great mountain biking close in. Not so. It has so-so mountain biking close in. But I know it could be better. More to come after Monday's discussion....