first winter larry & new shoes ride

One of the signs of autumn is the change in the rides available from the Princeton Freewheelers. Many of our fair-weather leaders don't ride when the weather gets cold, and the list is noticeably shorter. However, this is the season when Winter Larry comes out, much like Punxsutawney Phil, to lead his Sunday rides. Today was his second of the season, but the first on which I planned to ride.

Larry's rides are about 40 miles, and we regularly get back by about 12:30 PM. I like to add miles, and I got an email from Laura OLPH asking if she could tag along. Well, of course! We met at Bagel Street, then drove around to Cliff H's office to park. We took a five-or-so mile route into the Cranbury Knapp's bike shop, Larry's preferred starting point.

Larry brought us down to the Wawa in Harmony via Bergen Mills, then back via West Freehold and Perrineville, via this route. It was another lovely autumnal day, for which I was overdressed after being clod yesterday (I shed a layer and my full-finger gloves at the stop; I had tights on, but some of our number rode in shorts). But the thing that, I think, generated the most comment were a new pair of shoes I was sporting. I'd decided to try SPD pedals; my Look Keo's can only be accessed from one side, and the SPD's don't have a wrong side. However, bike shoes can be expensive (it's not impossible to pay $300 for a pair, and road shoes can be hard to find at less than $100). I found these BMX shoes, with a plate for the SPD cleat, real cheap at Blue Sky Cycling (I think; they're not available now).

Warning: they're not for those afraid of color:

After you're done looking at that screaming electric-lime-green sole, you might note the elaborate lacing pattern on the upright shoe. These five-hole shoes came with laces that are 48" long, and I had to find a lacing method that used up some of the lace so I wouldn't wind up tripping on the loops. Would you believe there is a website devoted to ways to lace up your shoes and sneakers?

A windy day, especially on the way back. Thirteen left; one dropped off, and another went home off the ride route. On our return, Laura gamely allowed me to decide how far we'd ride back to the parking, and I went for a route that added almost ten miles. That brought us within less than two miles of 100 Km for the day, so we did a loop around Plainsboro to add miles... and added a few more than we'd expected, as Laura told me about her experiences when living in town, and then how much it had changed since she had been here. We did find our way back to the cars, though; Laura was more right in her directions than she knew.

And there are worse things to do than push your bike around of a sunny October Sunday.