Taxes are done and in the post!
After a thorough cleaning this morning, I mapped out a route that would take me on a 40 mile circuit of Syracuse that included a number of stops. Having never toured by bicycle, this is my attempt to somewhat simulate the experience, without being fully loaded at this point.
Like Fernando at The Dirty Brompton, I've been slowly getting touring gear together. I'm a few weeks away from a trial run. I'll post soon with what I've put together so far. Gear lists beg to be shared!
A beautiful day filled with sunshine! The touring bag, while not filled, does have my iPad and some snacks for the ride.
Part of my route took me along the Onondaga Lake Park path. I didn't see as many people out as I thought I would.
First stop was Heid's for a hot dog with onions, mustard, sweet pickled peppers, and dill relish. Oh, yes... and a Saranac Adirondack Amber Lager. We do have to remember to fuel up when we ride, don't we?
Notice the complete lack of bicycling infrastructure? This is a busy section that was pretty easy to travel and led to a nice but short bike path.
Entrance to the path.
While I love to find these paths around the city, added together they cover very few miles and don't really go anyplace useful.
Now there's a sign of spring! It's the Ice Cream Man! For those of you with out this cultural reference, in the warm weather, an mobile ice cream stand drives around residential neighborhoods using music or bell to attract patrons (mostly children) to come spend their parents' change for frozen treats. As a child I would drop what ever I was doing to beg for money to get a ice cream. :)
Here's another section of bike lane as I ride toward the downtown part of the city.
Sharrows and a reminder to traffic that a bicycle may use the entire lane! Woot!
Shoulder is narrow here, and it's 4 lanes wide and not too busy. Bright sunshine!
I didn't rush during this ride but traveled what I think is more of a touring pace. I have found the using Map My Ride drains the battery on my iPhone pretty quickly, so I didn't use the GPS feature for this ride. I will need to come up with a better solution for this. I am considering buying a lithium ion battery back up system to see if that would help me keep my iPhone charged on these longer rides.
After the ride I was not as tired as I was when riding a few miles an hour faster for shorter rides. My right foot cramped up and gave me some trouble, and I wonder if that has to do with the shoes I wore. I'll try some different combinations to see if it helps.
Ride Stats
40.88mi
Distance
3:15:00
Duration
12.6mi/h
Avg Speed
3096
kCal
Looks nice out there! I'd definitely recommend an auxiliary battery for your phone. There are some small ones that give you a lot of capacity. I have a New Trent iTorch which works pretty well.
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