Winter and Bikes

In my last post I said that in Michigan biking was a 7 or 8 month activity. I have to make a correction. For me biking in Michigan is a 7 or 8 month activity. Last Saturday I was running on Hines Drive (since for me at least, running is a 12 month activity) and I saw bikers, at least 20 of them. I saw more bikers than runners or walkers. It looks like biking is a 12 month activity after all.

In my last post I also touted the First Dozen ride in Dearborn. I'm going to be more careful in what I say. There was a winter storm on New Year's Eve in Michigan. I drove home from visiting with friends at 1:30 AM, taking M59 and Telegraph and it wasn't a pretty. But because I talked about it, I now had to do the First Dozen. The mayor of Dearborn (who lived 2 blocks away) was supposed to start us off, but he was a no show (not an election year for him). Since my wife didn't talk up the First Dozen, she could stay at home like a sensible person, but not me. There were about 100 people there and the roads were 95% clear. Still some slush but no black ice - better than I deserve. I didn't need sunscreen and, with the snow sticking to the trees, it was a winter wonderland. I hadn't ridden my mountain bike in months. (The air pressure in my tires was 20 when I went to pump up the tires.) When I tried to use the gears on the back wheel, they didn't work. I could only shift the front chain ring. Fortunately SE Michigan is flat and a couple of gears spaced far apart sufficed But boy did my toes get cold.