To Ride or Not to Ride

 

The weather forecast is part of any ride preparation. The temperature, precipitation, and wind forecast determine what I will wear the type of route I will do and even if I will go out for a ride or not. I try not to ride in the rain so if it is raining or there is more than a 50% of some heavy rain I won't go out for a ride. I will in some cases push the boundaries to get a ride in which is what I did this past Saturday. 

Laura had scheduled a ride out of Lambertville for Saturday. The forecast was 60 degrees with a 30% chance of rain. Most of the forecasts had the rain holding off until late afternoon. However as I left my house to drive to the ride it started to drizzle. I thought I would drive through it based on the radar but it only got heavier as I headed towards Trenton. I almost decided to turn around. As I went through the tunnel into Trenton the rain stopped and it got brighter. When I got to Lambertville the roads were dry but it was still overcast. By the start of the ride it has started to drizzle again and there were several bands of light rain on the radar. At that point Laura decided to cancel the ride. I might had made the same decision had I been leading as you always want to err on the side of caution. You don't want to worry about keeping 9 people safe while riding on the road in the rain. 

However Pete had suggested that maybe we could just ride up the hill from Lambertville and at least try to get a few miles in. If it started to rain harder we would turn around and head back down hill. I join Pete along with Ricky, Martin and Brad? 

We didn't followed the plan route Pete just winged it as we headed up Seabrook. He kept us heading mostly north along the ridge. We did hit a few patches of drizzle but nothing that actual got us wet or caused us to turn around. We even saw some patches of blue sky and sun especially as we got closer to Frenchtown. As we kept going we didn't know exactly where we were. When we crossed Rt 12 we knew we were above Frenchtown but kept going. Then I recognized a few roads on Laura's route so I loaded the route and followed it as it took us along the ridge then downhill to Rt 29. 

The clouds were getting a little darker then so instead of continuing to follow the route to Milford we headed back to Frenchtown where we had a rest stop at the Bridge cafe. From there we decided to just head straight back on 29 as that would be the quickest way back if it started to rain. 

The rain never came and when we got to Lower Creek road we headed up it and then up over Sandy Ridge and eventually down Alexauken to Lambertville. We ended up with 47 miles and 2100 ft of climbing so more or less what the planned ride would have been. We definitely got lucky with the rain. It could have easily gone the other way with us getting caught in a drenching rain but in this case the risk was worth the reward.

Paradigm Shift

Since I started riding I have always uses some type of pickup truck to get to a ride. First is was my Ford Ranger then is was the Baja. It each case I had a rack in the bed of the pickup that I would mount the bike to. It was a fork mount rack meaning I would take the front wheel off the bike and attach the front fork of the bike to the rack. Like shown below in my Baja

 

It worked well and even when I got a thru axle bike all I had to do is get a different fork mount to put on the rack. The new car is an SUV which means I don't have a bed for my normal rack so I had to switch to a hitch mounted rack. I didn't have to do much research on which hitch rack to get as everybody I know has a 1Up rack and loves it.  It's a sturdy rack that attaches the bike by securing the wheels so you don't have to worry about scratching or bending the frame. 

 

Of course this requires a hitch to be installed on the car so I had that done this past Wednesday. I had the Stealth Hitch installed. I chose this hitch because the other hitches I looked out required a piece of the bumper to be cut out and I didn't want to cut up a brand new car. The Stealth Hitch does require a small hole to be cut underneath the car so that the hitch receiver can be attached but it is not visible and the hitch receiver can be removed when I don't need the bike rack so you won't even know that a hitch has been installed. 

As with any rack you always worry that the bike will fall off. With the old bike rack in the bed of the Baja I didn't worry much because worst case the bike will just fall into the bed of the car and I won't lose the bike. With a hitch rack if it falls out of the rack its going to be bouncing down the road. 

I will say the 1Up rack is very secure. As long as you attach it properly to the hitch and make sure the bike is locked in, there is no possibility of losing the bike. When I loaded the bike for this Saturday's ride I left my house then stopped in a parking lot about a mile from my house just to make sure the bike was secure after a few bumps in the road. The new car uses a camera at the back of the car for the rear view mirror and when the bike is in the rack I can just see the rear seat in the mirror so I can monitor the bike as I drive along. 

The rack was really steady and the bike didn't seem to move much driving along. The new car and bike rack are a lot different than the Baja so it is going to take a while to get use to everything. I like the new set up and know the new car, bike rack should be able to take me on any ride I want to go on.