New Bike - New Ride

What can I say... I'm really digging this bike (I do need to move the bell from left to right side)

Oh and one other note, check out the shifter pods, is this correct or backwards?  I had mine mounted opposite, w/ the shimano pods on the inside and the shifter bolting in from outboard the bike.  My right side shifting is opposite directionality than I'm used to which is not so bad but definitely taking some getting used too.

Technically I did get in a quick 20 min ride last night before starting my evening commitments but it didn't fully demonstrate the bike's capabilities.  That as on the ticket for this morning, or at least to give it a good run down.  The WABA Vasa Ride would have been an amazing shakedown but a Saturday early afternoon Wedding kept me from registering....  registration or not I decided to pop in and have coffee with friends Joe and Alli who were doing the event and escort them out of the Georgetown vicinity (not ride the route though!)

I met up with Joe and Alli, and many other like minded caffeine seekers at 0815 at Baked and Wired - WOW that place rocks. I had a goat cheese and onion biscuit that knocked my socks off.  Caffeinated and with the morning stomach grumbles out of the way we headed down to registration and started with the 0900 group doing the 30ish mile route.  I rode with the group up to Fletcher's Cove when they departed the trail for a series of road miles and got to see many friendly faces from the #FMCC crew out on their Halv-Vasa rides, I hope it was a fun trip for everyone involved!

Since I had a bit of time to spare I decided to keep pushing up the C&O Towpath from Fletchers and made it as far as Lock #8 before I had to turn around.  This is much further than I'd gone before on the towpath and I enjoyed the newness of the path and the newness of the bike.  The 32mm Col de la Vie tires did better than I would have expected on the towpath (though that didn't prevent the swap to 42mm EL Hetre's this evening!).

It was a fun ride and I'm happy to have logged some seat time, I also got the opportunity to play with seat angle, handlebar angle and height among other things. The bike continues to really impress and I have no regrets!  Enjoy the pictures.

Rower's taking a breather just short of the 14th St Bridge... I had to stop and get a shot cause you so seldom see them sitting still.  Damp and cool morning but a nice one that promised warming temperatures.

Agatha/Aggie... at Baked and Wired in Georgetown, still purple!

Allie and Joe at the WABA Vasa Ride registration

I had to get to it sooner or later... does this look like the rider/owner of a light urple bike to you? :) Well it is!

Rolling out on K St

After departing the Vasa riders further up on the towpath.

More urple bike porn... CdlV tires did awesome, I definitely felt the trail strongly but I felt sure footed which was enough for me. (don't expect to see them again soon though, the EL Hetre's went on tonight and the Nifty Swifty's are now on the Trek)

At the turn, I did a quick meander up on the neighboring street and checked out some fine looking real estate with river views before I headed home.  Blue sky starting to pop through.

Today's exploration... the 'Sycamore Island Club', founded 1885. It's sole access (aside from swimming or your own boat) is this awesome man powered ferry.  I need to do some research on this place.

Halv Vasa - WABA

My very first "Queue Sheet!"

One way to keep warm on a chilly March Sunday... ride 45 miles with WABA during their annual 'VASA' ride in conjunction with the House of Sweden!  This was my first experience with WABA and definitely a good one. The ride was well organized, reasonably priced and I was happy to see all the helpers out on bikes to lend a hand if need be.  The other thing I really liked about it was how 'business like' the start was, no long speeches, just sign in, line up and wait for the signal.  Really well run!

All loaded up.  

The serving of the Blueberry 'soup' at the House of Sweden

The reward at the end of the day was a nearly unlimited supply of blueberry soup at the House of Sweden.  Everyone was very friendly and the soup, was closer to what I'd call a cider but hot and delicious.

Joe is ready to Ride!  I was thrilled to have such a cheerful riding partner on this one!

This just seemed like something Erika would have liked.

Joe and I chose to the the 31 mile, 'Halv Vasa' distance and it proved to be the right choice for me.  The outbound leg was mostly hugging the Potomac River and steadily ascending up into the neighborhoods around Potomac MD.  There were two semi-sharp ascents but I managed to stay on the bike, downshift and  move along at a reasonable, if slow speed.  I was really proud of myself, I don't think I could have done this ride as well 3 weeks ago before all the commuting miles.  I'm definitely feeling stronger.

That being said, the 31 miles added to the to and from mileage added up to just about 45 total. Definitely the longest for me this year and right about my max single day mileage ever.  And I am definitely feeling it!  Based more on weather than anything else I've already thrown in the towel for tomorrow's commute but I'm excited to get back on the bike Tuesday.

More tomorrow about the new breaks I just installed at Spokes, Belle View today!

44.7 Miles (372.2 Miles Annually)