Timberline Pathways mountain bike

Timberline Pathways mountain bike

Buck's bike, a Timberline Pathways is a 21-speed, and I had it in my van from our outing the previous day, so I got up on October 13, 2013 to see if another T-shirt day was in store. It wasn't.  I put on sweats and took his bike out for a run around my middle town route to measure it and have a leisurely ride. I immediately wished I had light gloves, but halfway through the ride, that was no longer an issue in the lovely sunny, brisk, morning.  Buck has an axe handle stuck along the diagonal bar, presumably for fending off attacking dogs, which, fortunately, I did not encounter. I found it to be a nice riding, roller, but his lowest range of gears did not work.  Therefore I took all rolling hills in the mid-range at the lowest gear.  It was no great problem; reduced the bike to about the level of my Schwinn World in these situations, which are not abundant on my town routes.  Measured the route to be exactly 15.0 miles and I did it in a leisurely 79 minutes.  It was fun--nice bike.

WI; Great River Trail; Marshland to Brice Prairie (18.3 miles)

WI; Great River Trail; Marshland to Brice Prairie (18.3 miles)

I took the Univega and threw it in the van, after calling my friend, Buck, to go on a trip. We took two vehicles up to Marshland on the Mississippi River's edge where the trail begins in earnest after the route comes over the river from Winona, MN.  We left our pickup vehicle at Brice Prairie, Buck positing that he thinks it was about 14 miles.  We got on the trail at 2:00 p.m. which is common with Buck. It took an hour to get him out of his yard, 45 minutes to drive to the area, a half-hour to eat lunch, fifteen more minutes to get coffee and finally I got him to the trail's start.  After 6-miles, we rolled into Tremepleau, and he felt we needed a halftime Jack & Coke.  We went into the Muddy Waters bar and watched most of the first half of the Badgers-Northwestern football game, while he had 2 Jack & Cokes to my one. Then we rambled on, finding the trail simply gorgeous, with the fall leaves turning and many little trestles and scenic ponds right along the trail, which is built on an old railroad bed.  What we didn't realize was that we had twelve miles to go, not six.  We were pretty ready to see the van when we rolled up.  Buck has a cobalt knee he got put in this summer but it held up well and we were real satisfied with the ride.  2 hours and 2 minutes rolling time, not a race by any means but very fulfilling. 

Schwinn World Ten speed

Schwinn World    10-speed

The Schwinn World.  Kind of a nice roller, but it gets really slowed down on the medium hills where you don't have a good run at it.  I took it out today on the Norwalk Area Short Town Route and slugged it out in 68-minutes.  I like the shifters on the top of the riser and the two-position brakes. It is a pretty comfortable ride but I wouldn't take it when challenging a group ride or anything.  It was one of the last few T-shirt weather days of the year and I enjoyed seeing the leaves turning. This is a "germ" bike, my nickname for private reasons, one of the medium lights in my flea-market fleet.

Diamondback Outlook

Diamondback Outlook

The Outlook is my other Florida bike, the second half of the 2 for 50-bucks each deal I got at a garage sale.  It included a few spare tires and tubes.  The Sedona is the other bike and I enjoy them both although I ride this one less.  The shifters are twisters on the handlebars.  It gets around the lakes and streets and highways here pretty well.
I went to take it around the Lake Dora short standard route and got a flat rear tire 1/3 of a mile out, thankfully.  Last year I got a flat on the Sedona 5-miles out and had to walk the darn thing back. 
Guess I need to put a new tube in the rear tire.

Lake Dora Short Route

Lake Dora Short Route

My Lake Dora Short Route, which I have been riding for a couple of winters goes along about the middle third of this picture on top, then cuts in to the highways like Old 441 and a couple of others and back home.  It's extremely scenic.  The first half, going basically to the edge of Tavares, is along North Shore Drive and has ultimate scenery and birds standing around on docks, etc. and minimum of traffic.  The return part has some traffic, but I can stay on sidewalks for some of it. 

I measured the route with the Giant Sedona and it is exactly 10.0 miles, garage to garage.  I did it in 48:13 today, in a moderate run.