Carbon Trace

Except for the wind gusting more than 20 miles per hour it was a pleasant morning to ride to work. The wind made my 2.25-mile ride downtown a bit of a chore. I sit upright on my Redline R530, so my body acts like a big sail.

I brought my raingear today because the forcast called for it. Sure enough, it was raining when I left class to head back downtown. And still windy.

All road conditions offer unique challenges, so I don’t want to suggest that rain and wind present more problems than a sunny calm day. The challenges are different. Roads get slick when they’re wet. Wind — especially gusts — can knock you off line. So this is a day for taking it easy. I’m never in a hurry when I ride (one of the reasons I ride in the first place). So taking a little more care is not such a big deal.

Again I’m wishing my Redline had fatter tires. Maybe the Redline people will read this and take note

Boneheaded maneuver of the day: There’s a 1-block stretch of sidewalk I ride just outside my house (I’m about to whip out the big rationalization here) running along Fremont. I ride that short bit to get to the next residential street to the north of my house because it intersects with another north-south street that I like better than Fremont during rush hours. I usually avoid riding on sidewalks.

Familiarity breeds complacency. It’s a flat sidewalk with a completely open sight-line between the two streets. So I was riding behind my daughter, as I’ve done nearly everyday for more than four years, and paying attention to something she was doing when — all of a sudden — (you knew that was coming) there’s a piece of firewood on the sidewalk. Too late to maneuver, I had to ride over it. That could have been a nasty spill.

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