I tried very willfully this morning to get my DT Swiss wheels booted up tubeless. I had non tubeless Michelin tires. I doused the rim and tires with windex and tried to wreak havoc with the air compressor, but they were not having it. I gave up and threw some tubes in my wheels… something I haven’t done to a mountain bike in quite some time. It should be interesting to go mountain biking tomorrow with 40 PSI in my tires!! I shipped my carbon hardtail from last year to Albuquerque for the holidays.
As I was saying before, rain is rare in these parts, but it refused to let up today. My mom helped me get psyched for my ride with some Turkish coffee and chocolate pudding cake. I also thought of tough ass Danielle Musto and the picture of her in her full on face mask to go ride where it actually IS cold and wet.
It wasn’t too bad out – just wet and constantly sprinkling. It wasn’t even that cold. As it were, I was fine in my Mountain Hardwear Gortex jacket (that Jeff got me for my bday, thanks), knee warmers, and Swiftwick wool socks. I put plastic bags around my feet inside my shoes, which was fine for light rain.
(I actually took this after my ride when I was soaked…)
It was definitely a change of scenery from my mountain roads today on the bike paths of Albuquerque.
Most of them are by ditches… but there are also some really nice ones by the river.
I was actually enjoying the change in weather until….
I saw dark, heavy clouds and ahead of me, the road had seemed to disappear in fog. Suddenly, big drops started pelting me followed by 35 mph winds. The drops started to hurt a little more. It was hailing tic tac size pellets at 35 mph, beating against my body. I started sprinting to the gas station in the distance.
Some accumulated hail.
I crouched behind a building to protect myself from the wind and hail. It wasn’t letting up, so I went inside the gas station to keep my core temp from dropping too much and caught up on some Thanksgiving phone calls. 20 minutes later, I hopped back on the bike and was FREEZING!
I started riding at faster pace to keep warm when my legs completely cramped. Eventually my legs settled, and I enjoyed the rest of the ride in the light sprinkling rain.
Of course, the sun started to peak through the clouds as I got home.. By the end of my ride, I was wishing I had some booties. I was definitely wringing water out of my socks.
Time to eat!!! Nom! Nom! Nom!
It was dry here in Fort Collins…. Your honey went zooming by me and my wife a couple of times up the hills.. He is quite fast.
Ahhh, I know that bike path well…as well as those ridiculous hail storms that come outta nowhere!!
haha. Yeah! I got so sick of that bike path when I lived in NM, but now I love it. I think I like doing the typical road rides as much as riding on the trails. Is that blasphemy?
Does anyone else have any experience with this?