Machka 

Tell us all about your cycling this weekend!! Got autumn photos yet?

Kabuki12

I was not sure about this weekend as the air quality has been bad from all the fires. I got up and checked outside Sunday and it was nice. Overcast skies and cool , I did not see any ash on the car. I did my 35 miles and it felt good. I didn’t ride last week , it was 109 at my house.

oris

Same deal here in the Inland Empire. The ash and air quality has been bad lately, I had to skip a few usual rides during the work week.

I usually ride at first light on Saturday mornings but went out on Sunday instead due to some family obligations. Since the air quality hasn't been great so I kept it short at 25 miles but rode some local hills and climbs to get a good workout in. Otherwise it's been nice to have a little cooler weather compared to the previous few weeks.

bikecrate

Not much bike riding opportunity lately. I was back in the Ocala Nat Forest for a whole week of vacation and was dreaming of some extra riding miles. However, family obligations, house projects and rain ruined those plans. I did do a nice Labor Day ride for 42 miles and another one on Friday. The heat has broken ever so slightly. Still hot and humid, but not as bad.

caloso

All of my rides for the last week have been on Zwift. AQI here is terrible and not likely to get any better soon.

canklecat

Last week was soggy so I had an excuse to stay indoors and finally put together a carbon fiber frame a friend gave me last year. It's been sitting in a closet while I procrastinated, thinking it was beyond my ken as a mechanic or ability as a rider. Turned out to be remarkably easy, even with the internal cable routing. Diamondback did some clever tricks to make internal cable routing easier. I just slapped it together with a mishmash of components from the 1980s-'90s, just to see if it worked. Everything went together fairly easily.

I rode 20, 32 and 38 miles, Friday-Sunday, toting extra tools in the saddle bag and jersey pocket, stopping occasionally to adjust stuff. Highway crews are on a tear, literally tearing up roads and laying down the roughest, sharpest chipseal I've ever seen. I've had two flat tires on every ride the past week. PITA. Until the roads are resurfaced I'm switching to heavier puncture resistant tires and thicker tubes.

Beautiful weather, tho'. Mostly sunny, temps ranging from warmish to coolish. A couple of weeks ago I couldn't carry enough water to get through a 50 mile ride without dehydrating: two 24 oz bottles, a 2-liter hydration backpack. But this weekend a single bottle lasted me every ride, with some left over. But we'll have another hot snap before autumn really settles in.

Wish I could claim the 18 lb crabon fibber made me faster than on my 24 lb steel bike, but... nope. No joy. It feels lighter on climbs. But we don't have any continuous climbs long enough for the weight difference to matter. And I don't race anymore so the slight advantage in handling, weight and stiffness don't matter either. Glad I found out the cheap way, thanks to a generous friend. Now I won't wonder whether I'm missing anything with a multi-kilobuck bike.

Still, it's fun. Can't complain, even sitting along the roadside fixing flats.

I spent a little too much time on this every ride this weekend.

Psimet2001 

I "put on" a gravel event for my team. Gravel is one of those disciplines that can be done with proper social distancing. I pulled up an old route that used to be one of the "HUGE" events in this area. It was a little known route from 2016.

The beauty of this event is that it was always run at night. So we did that same and started at 5:45. It had rained all week but stopped about an hour before the ride. This left us with gravel roads that were soaked. Some had little actual gravel on them so they were just hardpacked "dirt" roads. Made of a lot of fun in the dark. This is our third ride like this in the last 3 weekends. Last weeks was worse with a planned 1600 ft of climbing turning into 2600 in 40 miles. Not much for most people but we are complete flat landers. Give us a headwind instead.

Clipped_in

The mornings are crisp, and the mountains are getting colorful. September is such a nice month to ride! I had a buck Mule Deer jump out and cross the road ahead of me during a descent that caused me to brake pretty hard. All okay, however.