Wet Saturday

Last night I overhauled the front brake on my rain bike. The middle portion was flopping around, and it wouldn't disengage- so it would rub on the wheel after each time it was used. The Park Tool website walked me through it- again. Their site is truly an internet treasure.

I considered watching a bit of the TdF at a local theater, but it was a time trial- not exactly the most exciting thing to watch. Rather, my wife and I planned an early ride. We finally started at nine, since I'm always fiddling with something last minute. We rode around the lakes and picked up the Greenway, headed east to the trail by the LRT, followed the LRT to the river, headed toward downtown and pickup up the commuter line. The sky was very cloudy, and we debated whether to toss in the Hopkins loop. She said it looked like one of those days when it would be cloudy all day, but never rain. We went for it.

We stopped by a ball field to take a brief break. It looked like rain was imminent. My wife believed we were past the point of no return, that we were better off continuing the loop- rather than turning back. We finally reached the Greenway, or whatever that leg of the trail is called by the Supervalue warehouse, and headed east. As we rode, it became darker and darker, especially in the north. As we approached Calhoun, it was dark as night. Streetlights came on. We could smell rain, and then we felt the drops. We cut through the lot to follow Calhoun, and the sky opened, releasing pouring rain. We took off to the south side of the lake, and then cut around to pick up Xerxes. We were completely soaked, could barely see a thing, and were essentially running without brakes (no big deal for me riding fixed, but my wife had her road bike).

We finally made it home and watched a bit of the weather on TV after we showered. You'd have thought it was the storm of the century, judging by the coverage. It was just a summer thunderstorm. Later I went down to clean the bikes. It was a quick task, since the rain had largely cleaned both of them.

I think it was the most rain I'd ever ridden in. It was actually rather fun. Then again, we were only riding home. My shoes will probably stay wet for a week!