Saturday morning ride

James and I rode with the Bike City group ride this morning. It's normally 12 miles but it was cut a little short because the Berryhill Park bike trail section was covered with mud in the usual spot. Anytime there are heavy rains that section will get a thick layer of mud in a couple of different spots. Several people have gone down on their bikes there. It wouldn't be so bad if it was a straight section but this occurs where the trail curves. I hit it a couple of times while running this past winter and I was having to penguin walk to get through it without falling. Petra called me yesterday afternoon to ask if I wanted to go to the Little Rock River trail this morning but I'd already read that it was flooded in several areas on the NLR side and I needed to get some housework done that had been piling up while I was sick (still need to get to the cleaning but soooo not motivated).

James test rode a 2006 Marin Venezia road bike this morning and we ended up putting it on layaway at Bike City. He had been test riding several different bike brands and decided that he liked the gearing on the Marin bikes better than the Specialized. It was a tossup between the Venezia or an '08 Portofino but the Venezia has better components so he shouldn't need to upgrade for quite a while. I'm lusting after the women's Treviso that the Marin rep. had sent into the shop (he's spending several days in AR starting tomorrow to try to get other bicycle shops to carry the brand) but I need to keep my Portofina for now to try to get more proficient on the bicycle. The Treviso retails for $1,140 so definitely need to do my learning (read mistakes) on the cheaper bike.

Mr. Tom did join us this morning, this is the first time since he had taken a spill on his bicycle last fall. He told me today that he ended up having to get 14 stitches. We also had a family join us today with a couple of younger girls--a 9 1/2 year old and an 8 yr old. It was their dad's birthday and he said that he wanted them to ride with him this morning as his b-day present. They did really good, although the 8 yr old tired out towards the end so I rode with her at the back of the group.

Afterwards, Bill adjusted my bike and the bike James put on layaway and we went for a short but faster ride since I didn't get much of a workout with the group. I'm starting to get the hang of adjusting the back gears but for now I'm just leaving it in the middle ring on the front (my bicycle has a triple).