Club Riding

    I wanted to get a good ride in on my Trek before I put it under the knife for an upgrade.  I was a little apprehensive since the bottom bracket had been giving me so much trouble, so I made a couple of last minute adjustments to it and motored out to the meeting place of a weekly club ride.
Rain was forecast and came right on schedule

but after about 20 minutes of waiting it passed on through

and just left us with some wet pavement and cloudy skies.  About 6 of us decided to brave it and took off right on time. The sky was still murky and threatening but we took a good natured stab at it.  As usual somebody had to comment on the old bike.  "That looks like the original TREK!"   When I  told him I bought it in '86 he was impressed.  I was a little surprised this time, nobody mentioned the leather saddle, bar tape or (gasp!) downtube shifters.  Maybe they just couldn't take it all in.  I was wishing that I hadn't removed the fenders now that it was raining,  I didn't mention that since it might have just been too much for that crowd.
   I hadn't been doing many of these rides in the past few years because I had lived far enough from town that they were just plain inconvenient.  What I like about club rides is simply that they lift me out of my comfort zone and make me ride faster.  Riding primarily in traffic and on solo tours one tends to fall into a cadence for slower all day riding, and not the 2 hour burst of activity that club riders experience. It's all good, but I look at the club rides as a chance to socialize with people who don't think bikes are weird and shake up my routine a little, kind of like interval training, on a very irregular basis.
  The ride itself was pretty good.  We rode a few miles the I and a couple who came together peeled off to a less challenging route and did about 20 miles at a moderate 16-18 mph.   They, like me, were not ones to make work of their recreation and we were at least able to maintain a conversation for the route.  The others went off on their own little hammerfest to challenge some hills.  I was fortunate the Trek held together, the BB didn't tighten up and I didn't have to be dropped to nurse it back to the car.  I'll be looking forward to another  ride with them in a couple weeks after I've given the Trek it's overhaul.   I can't imagine the comments I'll get then.