I met the main cycling goal I had set for myself for June: to ride over 400 miles for the month. I ended up riding a bit over 410 miles. I would have had more, but I had a migraine or something like it on Saturday, and didn’t ride that day.

I was planning on riding on the road one day this weekend and mountain biking the other day, but since I didn’t get to ride on Saturday, I ended up scrapping mountain biking in favor of a long road ride on Sunday. I’ve been digging road riding more recently, although my interest seems to alternate between the two.

It took me a while to figure out what route to ride. I ended up settling on the Hobbieville Ride, which is a Bloomington Bicycle Club route, although I was riding solo. The length was about what I had in mind (it says 46.05 miles on that Routeslip route), and it goes through an area where I hadn’t ridden before. It looked like a lot of fun. I posted a video at the end of this post, scroll down to watch it.

Unfortunately, I did not adequately compare the cue sheet with the map, and had some problems. The cue sheet doesn’t indicate that Church Lane changes into Victor Pike almost immediately. I figured I was going the right way (and I was), but it was a little unsettling. Victor Pike was pretty interesting, it went through some industrial and farm areas, and then had a big climb up to a Victor Oolitic Stone Company limestone quarry. Even though we have hundreds of quarries around here, they always fascinate me, as they look like their own small worlds, almost like stumbling upon a forgotten city. I knew I was at quite a high elevation and got a glimpse of what looked like a good view, but it was obstructed by some huge stones. I stopped to see if I could get around the stones or climb on them. I was able to simply walk around, and I was greeted with this view (click to see other sizes):

Victor Oolitic Stone Company limestone quarry

Another problem I had was that a lot of streets had no signs, so I had a lot of difficulty figuring out which way to go at a couple of different times. In particular, I went the wrong way on Rockport Road. Actually, I made a mistake I often make — I went the right way, second-guessed my instincts, and went back the other way. I ended up calling Sarah to have her double check the map. She confirmed my suspicion that I had gone the right way the first time. My mistake added about six miles to my ride.

I went by the fire station that houses the Indian Creek Fire Fighters, and the Indian Creek Community Park. I stopped at the park to rest and see if I could find a water source to refill my water bottles (I didn’t). On a side note, I just found this page about a township trustee who has been trying to shut down the fire department. I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty pissed off if an official I elected decided it’d be a good idea to shut down the fire department and contract the work to a further department with a 20-minute response time (instead of 6 minutes).

The route took me across a bunch of farms on some pretty crummy roads. It was pretty, but not as pretty as my rides near Morgan-Monroe State Forest. However, people in this area were extremely bicycle-friendly. Not only did I not have trouble with cars, I got a lot of waves, smiles, nods, and even a couple of thumbs-up!

On State Road 54, I passed an awesome tiny library, the Eastern Branch of the Bloomfield-Eastern Greene County Public Library. I wanted to take a photo, but I didn’t really have time, and I didn’t want to stop. But I thought of Sarah and made sure to tell her about it when I got home. Maybe she can get a job there.

I found myself on State Road 43 for a stretch, with a fun descent, numerous climbs, and a sighting of some kind of squirrel-like rodent that I think might have been a groundhog. I’m not sure. I rode into the wind from this point until I got home, approximately the last 10 miles of the ride. I made yet another mistake and missed one of the signs to stay on 43, going straight instead of turning left. I climbed a bunch more hills, finally finding a place to refill my water bottles — a tire shop that was closed, but had a vending machine.

My missed turn had further repercussions, as I ended up having to ride back on State Road 45, which isn’t bad on the east side of town. But where I was, it was a 2-lane, busy road with speed limits around 50 mph, with no shoulder. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but I did OK. As I rode along, though, into the wind, I could feel the rear end of my bike moving laterally a bit with the wind gusts, and realized that the pressure in my rear tire was very low. I stopped to fix it.

I pumped up the tire as much as I could with my mini pump (which, I discovered, sucks) to see if I could find a leak. It seemed to be mostly holding air at this point, so I decided to go ahead and ride on it. It had a leak, but a slow one. I rode a few more harrowing miles on 45, got into town, and followed my usual commute route home.

I haven’t investigated the leak further. I need to do that tonight. I think I’m going to buy some replacement tires. I may or may not need them yet, but I do think these tires are getting pretty worn, with over 1300 miles on them.

I patched my inner tube last night. The flat seemed to have been caused by a small glass shard I rode over, which was still embedded in the tire. I removed it. The inside of the tire feels smooth, so I’m hoping it’s OK.

I really don’t have a lot of confidence in my patch job — I used a glueless patch, and it seems to be holding for now, but I think it might be leaking slowly. It’s really hard to tell. I think I’ll probably replace the tube tonight just to be sure, and get some glue-type patches for future flats. Everything I’ve read says the gluey patches work better. Of course, I didn’t bother reading that stuff before I bought the glueless kind.

I usually make coffee at night and chill it in a pitcher, since I like iced coffee. I make enough for several days. However, I forgot I was out of coffee and didn’t make any last night. So I ended up going through the Starbucks drive-through (which I’m now calling a “ride-through”) on my bike on my way to work this morning. They were really cool about it and said they hadn’t had any cyclists ride through for a while. They didn’t even know that a type of mug they carry fits in a water bottle cage, and were interested to learn that.

I rode around Lake Lemon last night, which I have wanted to do for a while (see the Bikely Route here). I had ridden on South Shore Drive, which goes along the south side of the lake and across it on a causeway, several times (see this post), but hadn’t ridden North Shore Drive yet.

It felt great to ride — I hadn’t had a real ride since Saturday morning, and my road mileage has been weak lately. I love mountain biking, but I’ve been missing road rides, and they also tend to help my fitness level more. It helps that it was a beautiful evening, it rained earlier in the day and was a bit cooler as a result.

I brought my camera, but mostly only took photos of parts where I hadn’t ridden before — except these four shots.

The first two are on Tunnel Road, which takes you to Riddle Point Park, or to South Shore Drive. The last two are Lake Lemon from near the Little Africa Wildlife Viewing Area, and the Loveland Farms Sausage Shack. I’ve never ridden by the sausage shack when it was open. Hopefully someday I will and I can get some sausage.

North Shore Drive was a lot of fun, it’s hillier than South Shore, but still fairly easy for the most part — although there was one hill where I walked a short portion. It wasn’t a long hill, but it was pretty steep. It’s one of only a couple of hills in the area where I’ve had to walk. Usually, I can spin my way up almost anything, but it just got a little too steep for me. Maybe next time I’ll make it. You can’t actually see the lake from most of North Shore Drive, but it’s still pretty scenic.

The ride back from North Shore Drive was pretty as well. In hindsight, I probably should have ridden across Lake Griffy on my way back, as I was pretty close to it.

This morning, I got ready and was about to ride to work when I found my rear tire was flat. I pumped it up to see if I could find a leak, and I did find a slow leak and something embedded in my tire. It must have happened at some point on my ride last night, and I didn’t notice because it was only leaking slowly. I didn’t have time to fix it; instead, I changed my clothes and drove to work. I’ll have to deal with the flat tire tonight. If there’s any doubt, I’ll probably replace the tire as well as the tube, as the tires I have (Kenda Kontenders) are the ones that came with my bicycle, and I don’t think they’re that great anyway. Does anyone have suggestions for a good tire, just in case?