hilly trio with ken g

Part of the reason I didn't add the five miles to yesterday's long ride to make it an even hundred was that I wanted to get out on Ken G's ride today. Ken does a hilly ride from Hart's Cyclery on Sundays in season, and I like him, and I like to drop in at the store afterwards (although it was busy enough today that I didn't have to assuage my guilt by spending any money).

Ken doesn't have a lot of miles in for the season, but still: he's fast and strong enough that I would have thought we'd get more than the three riders we had: besides Ken and Me, there was Bob (and in the only picture I've got, he's turned away from the camera). But we went anyway. Ken had been setting up this route with his daughter before we left, and evidently she kept urging him to make the ride longer, because she thought the roads were pretty.

She was right, and it was a good ride. I was surprised that I felt as well as I did, given the workout I got yesterday. Ken got a couple of good sprints in (he can clean my clock when he's in shape). We did Alexsauken Creek road the other way (I always come down into Lambertville from there), and the covered bridge, and then to Stockton, where we stopped (I caught a cute kid getting a lesson from his father). Along the way, we saw a number of the Anchor House riders on their training ride, have various levels of fun and success.

From Stockton, we came mostly straight back. Part of Pennington-Harbourton is milled for repaving, and Ken gave us the option of doing Poor Farm (also the other way from the way I usually do it), but I pleaded tiredness, and luckily, the milled road wasn't that bad (or maybe a new saddle is doin' its job).

I developed a brake chirp in the rear wheel. When I got home, I cleaned up the rim and the pads, and while I was at it, I cleaned the chain, broke down the cog and cleaned that, removed the cranks and cleaned and lubed them, and checked the torque on the bottom Bracket (which was correct). I've still got the brake chirp. Might be time to just change the pads, eh?

Pics. The first are just the barns and the railroad end in Pennington; I've passed 'em a number of times, and I just love 'em.

The bikes in Stockton:

That family caught my eye.

Ken, and the back of Bob's head. D'OH!