The weather is actually getting warmer, this morning was 20°! I was curious when the last time was that I rode in 20° in the morning, only to discover that I haven’t ridden in weather this warm yet!!! Granted, in July there were a couple of mornings at 19°, but mostly 17° was as warm as it got. No wonder I was sweating so much this morning… And it’s the end of September?
The ride was pretty good. I met up with Brian again this morning about 1/2 way through Juniper. We rode together again ‘till my climb up to the single-track where we split ways. Riding with Brian is cool, but a slower pace (he loves his granny gear!). In the end, my ride was about 2-3 minutes longer than normal, but whatever!
The weather was a bit odd. I left the house and there was heavy cloud cover, and rain both in the valley to the north and towards Rose Hill (west). However, Juniper itself was dry. As we came out of Juniper, it started drizzling a bit on us about ‘till the end of the pipeline section but that was about it. Later, as I rode up to the Peterson’s Creek valley, it actually looked like the clouds were breaking up and there was a pocket of blue sky over the city. However, that “pocket” has since been enclosed… 
Looks like we’re in for some more rain today!
I managed another NO STOP ride this morning! This is awesome! I made the single-track portion with a bit of difficulty. I did unclip for a second, but regained my balance and kept riding, so I say that doesn’t count as I never actually stopped… The creek crossing and the climb up the west bank was really good. Controlled, perfect speed/momentum, and almost an easy climb out of the creek. Pretty sweet!
I had to shed the gloves as I started climbing up the Tom Moore trail. Now that I see that this was the warmest morning this year, it makes sense! The only problem with doing that is that I don’t have anything absorbent to wipe the sweat off of my face…
Anyways, I’m loving how good the bike is riding lately. Everyone I ride with makes me realize that I have a very low rolling resistance bike, a bike that loves to keep any momentum you give to it! It seems like whenever I’m riding with anyone else I’m constantly on the brakes to keep from gaining speed and pulling away from the other rider. I didn’t notice that much with Rob in Yellowstone, though, so I’m not sure what it is exactly. The differences that I can see attributing to this would be that Rob and I both have hardtails (everyone I ride with here in Kamloops are on full suspension rigs), and both of our tires are medium width, where Brian, Phil and even Dave all have super wide downhill tires. The tires are probably the biggest factor, as wider, heavier and beefier tires would be slower for sure. Glad I’ve noticed this now, as I’ve always wanted to buy some big, fat tires. Now I will think twice and probably stick with something between 2.1 and 2.3 to keep the rolling resistance down.
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