Test Rides 2 & 3 (Errands and Gravel)

Test Ride 2: Errands

Since I am set on becoming more of a bicycle person I figured I should try doing some local errands by bike. I wanted to stop by the garden center to discuss some landscaping I'm thinking of having done. Remember how I said in my last post that I needed some more practice with the clip-in pedals before I'd feel comfortable out on the streets? Well, forget I said that. The destination for my second outing involved riding through Seven Corners, a traffic-choked mega-intersection near my house. The good news is that it went without a hitch. In fact, this ride was not very eventful, so I'll summarize it in brief: rode down Roosevelt St. past the cemetery. On the streets I missed my nice, big bar-end mirror, and was using a tiny helmet mirror  instead. I was so busy fiddling with the helmet mirror that I forget to pedal on an uphill and almost toppled over.  Speaking of hills, jeez, the local streets are both really hilly and full of potholes - things you don't notice as much when driving them in a car.

I was a little anxious about having my feet clipped in in traffic. Had to detour to Cherry Street to cross Route 50. Left the bike sitting outside at Meadows Farms and was so paranoid about it getting stolen that I could barely concentrate on my business. I mean, the darn thing cost as much as my first two cars combined (caveat: not an inflation-adjusted number). Rode to Westover, then home. Total distance: 5-6 miles. Verdict: the old beater hybrid bike might be better for this sort of riding.

One more point: if I'm going to do more urban road riding I need to overcome my New Yorker's habit of buying black clothing. My black running pants, black jacket, and black helmet were probably not great for maximizing my visibility on the streets.

Test Ride 3: Experimenting with Gravel

OK, the thing about an adventure bike is that it's supposed to be a Swiss Army knife - able to handle road riding, rough roads, commuting and so on. It was time to put more of these capabilities to the test. I mapped out a nice country ride, adapting (shortening, that is) a route published on MapMyRide by a cyclist named Vincent Ng. I do not know Vincent, but I know someone who rides with him (that's how I stumbled upon his posted routes) which gave me confidence in using his route as a basis. 

Early Sunday morning I drove out to Leesburg, parking my car at Loudon County High School. Based on the number of road rats in perky jerseys clogging Dry Mill Road, Leesburg seems to be a popular cycling destination, but I had the parking lot to myself. I got my gear ready and was soon on my way! I had a printed set of directions (cue sheet) with me, but a combination of my inexperience at this sort of navigation and some out of place road signs meant that I was going to wind up having a somewhat different ride than planned.

Up Catoctin Circle into Fairview Street. Left onto Old Waterford Rd., which soon turned from pavement to hilly, twisty gravel. Whee! Leesburg may be only 35 minutes from home, but it's a different world. This was a real country road, complete with farms, livestock, and lovely rural views. Mixed in with the cows and the farms here and there farmland was being churned up into housing subdivisions. Pavement will surely follow. Sigh. As a total newcomer to gravel riding I'm not ashamed to say I took it slowly - low gears up the hills, riding the brakes back down. The bike was sure-footed throughout; it's the rider who was uncertain. The Gangster has a shorter wheelbase than my other bikes and so felt quite lively throughout the ride, but was still comfortable.

On Old Waterford Road

Old Waterford Road ends in the town of Waterford, which I had not previously heard of. It's a quaint little town with lots of structures from the 1700's and 1800's. Quiet, well-kept. My planned route was to go down the town's Main St., but I made the first of several navigation mistakes and instead headed along High St. into Clarke's Gap Road.

Riding back in New York exposed me to a lot of things, but I never had to worry how to handle courteous drivers - it just never came up. What I experienced today was that about half the drivers who came up behind me as I rode in this area would slow down and pace me for an extended period rather than just passing me, even if the road was otherwise empty. I wasn't sure if there was some signal I should have been giving to tell them that it was OK to pass, so each time this happened I'd just ride on, squeezing as far to the right as I could get, and eventually they'd pass me.

After a while I realized that I had made a wrong turn but decided to continue on, giving myself the opportunity to try out a little road riding. Clarke's Gap Road was a big street but it was still pretty scenic and I enjoyed getting some speed up. At one house a couple of unfenced and unleashed big dogs ran along barking at me, but fortunately they didn't pursue me. I continued on Clark's Gap Road to its intersection with Rt. 9 in the village of Paeonian Springs, another place I'd never heard of. There I turned around and retraced my steps to Waterford.

When I got back to Waterford I knew I should just continue on back to Leesburg. I had gotten in the length of ride I had planned and my knees were beginning to get that weird ache they get when I ride (this is a recurring problem - not related to this particular bike - that I need to solve!). But, I had had a taste o' the gravel and wanted more. I figured out where I had gone wrong in my navigation and when I got back to the intersection in question took the correct turn, heading down Main Street as originally planned. As I mentioned before, Waterford is a quiet little town. There's not much commerce left on Main Street - a general store (closed on Sundays), some artists' studios. All the other buildings served as residences. There is an old mill there and a building with a sign saying "Jail" (I guess from the looks of the place it's not in use as such any more). Of course, there's also a historic marker for some Confederate unit.

I always think of Loudon County as being an affluent right-wing Republican bastion intermingled with rednecks, but I wonder if Waterford is an exception. The most common car I observed in town was the Prius, and the one car I saw with political bumper stickers was all Democratic. Maybe it has to do with town's Quaker origins. In contrast, just a few miles away as I rode past Rogue Hollow Farm on Old Waterford Rd. I noticed that they were flying the Confederate flag. It's possible that news of Lee's surrender hasn't reached these parts yet.

Past town it was back onto gravel on Clover Hill Road. Old Waterford Rd. had been a solid, compacted road whereas this one was loose gravel. The bike still held on fine but it was a little slidey, the only place on the ride I wished for something wider than my 35mm tires. It was a ways up this road that I made my second navigation error - but I swear this one wasn't my fault! I had planned to ride a loop of Clover Hill Rd. into Loyalty Rd.  which winds back into Waterford, but the road signs at one intersection were a little twisted and I headed by mistake down Creek Lane, which soon dead-ended. Since I didn't know at that point what exactly I had done wrong to get me to the dead end, rather than explore further I retraced my steps back into Waterford. I explored for a little bit, riding the streets of the town before taking a stretch, snack and potty break at Waterford School.

Then came the final segment back to Leesburg. Since the outsides of my knees were starting to hurt in earnest I decided to take it as easy as possible. It's amazing how slowly you can go on a bicycle and still stay upright! I also tried to focus on making use of the full pedal stroke, pulling as well as pushing. But I kept going ... finally, on the last long uphill before getting back onto pavement I did need to stop for a second to give my knees a break.

Riding back through Leesburg I continued to take it easy. I think I was riding at about 7 or 8 miles per hour at that point. My knees were hurtin' bad. When I got back to the car I finished the 100 calorie pack of almonds I had started as a snack at Waterford, accompanied by the remainder of the mug of coffee I had left in the car and the rest of my water from my water bottle. My watch stopped during the ride and the MapMyRide app had gone into pause mode, so I don't really have an accurate accounting of time or distance. In fact, when I first got back I thought it was about 40 minutes earlier than it was; It was a little disorienting when I started the car and saw its clock - and realized the true time. Reconstructing my track on Google maps I get about 24.5 miles of riding,  over a time period of somewhere between 2.5 and 3 hours - I think.

My knees and my watch may have been in less than perfect condition at the end of the ride, but the good news is nothing else hurt: my butt wasn't sore from the saddle, and my back and neck were fine despite not being used to the drop bar bike (not to mention the jostling of the rough roads).

The high school parking lot was much more full when I got back. There were a number of signs for the "Free Life Church", which appears to hold services in the school. I'm not sure that's consistent with my concept of separation of church and state.

As I pulled out I felt a nice feeling of contentment, even though I had to deal with a pack of road rat cyclists in colorful outfits on Catoctin Circle riding three abreast, taking up the whole width of the road. Jerks clogging up the roads - this kind of behavior is why, even as I ride more, I will likely continue to grouse about cyclists. That notwithstanding, riding the back roads was a whole lot of fun, and the bike is great. Now, to figure out how to beat this knee pain thing ...