It is very rare for the Rochester Hills PCT Bicycle Club to take off a weekend, but that is exactly what we did on the second weekend of the month, September 10 and 11, 2005.  Even though the third weekend of September was also extremely busy we managed to squeeze in one ride on Saturday September 17, 2005. 

I hadn’t heard from anyone through the end of the day Friday so I thought we probably wouldn’t be riding for a second weekend in a row.  Early Saturday morning I was downstairs changing 25% of the water in my large fish tank when Pete called wanting to ride.  He told me he had talked to Steve and they were both ready and waiting for me.  I told Pete I needed to finish up what I was doing with the fish tank, but then I would be ready to ride as long as I got back by 12:30, in time for Max’s soccer game.    

I quickly finished up what I was doing on the fish tank and changed into a wicking shirt and shorts.  It was a little cool outside, around the high 50’s.  I also wore a light weight wicking zipper jacket, but I didn’t need it for long as the temperature continued to rise.   

I rode over to Pete’s house and he was just putting on his Genius dew rag as I pulled up.  Pete was complaining that the brake was dragging on his rear tire.  I happened to notice a broken spoke flopping around on his rear wheel and I pointed it out to Pete.  I reminded him of his club nickname, “Spokes”, which he got from his old bike which was missing quite a few spokes.  It took a while but Pete finally broke a spoke on his current bike, the Trek 7300.  Pete wanted to get the broken spoke fixed right away so this gave us a destination for the ride, the Rochester Bike Store (RBS).   

First stop was Steve’s house to pick up Steve.  After a couple minutes Steve was ready and the three of us were on our way.  We went down Dutton hill to PCT.  We planned to take the trail into town and then cut over to the bike store before stopping for an early lunch.   

The right side brake lever has been broken on my bike for a few months and previously while at the bike store I pointed it out to them and asked what it would take to get it fixed.  They told me that Trek had a problem with these levers breaking prematurely and they would replace it under warranty, but they would have to order the part because they didn’t have any in stock.   A couple days ago we had a message on the phone that the brake lever part had been delivered and I could stop in to get it fixed any time.  So, while Pete was getting his broken spoke fixed I planned to have them replace my broken brake lever.  RBS is a great place.  They do a really good job taking care of their customers, I highly recommend this place if you ever need a new bike.  

They took our bikes in right away to make the repairs.  While we were waiting around for our bikes we met Al from California.  Al was a very friendly gentleman who recently came to the area from California.  He brought in his three wheel recumbent bicycle to the bike store to get new tires.  After we introduced ourselves to Al we started talking to him about his unique bike.  Pete asked if he could take the three wheeler for a test ride.  Al was happy to let Pete try it out.  As Pete pedaled away Al yelled out to be careful going around the corner, he was concerned that Pete might tip over if he went too fast making a turn.  I told Al that I hoped he had good insurance.  Luckily, Pete returned after a couple minutes and it appeared he didn’t have an accident or damage the bike.  Steve wanted to try it out as well.  Al is not a tall person and the three wheel bike is set up for his short legs.  When Steve got in the seat it was obvious he was going to have a major problem trying to ride this bike due to the length of his legs.  Steve only rode it in a very small circle just to get a feel for it.  I took a couple pictures of Al and his bike, see the bottom of this story for the pictures.  We spent a few minutes talking to Al about his bike and biking in general.  At one point Pete was just being himself, as only Pete can.  Pete asked Al if he was concerned about motorists being able to see him while riding the three wheel recumbent since you sit so low.  Then Pete said it probably isn’t a problem since the motorists can probably see the sun’s reflection from the shine off Al’s head.  I know Pete was just joking around and I guess Al took it as a joke as well because he laughed at Pete’s comment.  We enjoyed talking to Al and I gave him a club sticker and told him to check out our web site.  I asked him if he minded me taking a couple pictures of him with his bike with my phone camera, he said no problem at all. Al was  a good guy and I’m sure it would be a pleasure to have him join us on a bike ride.   

It didn’t take the guys long to fix both my bike and Pete’s spoke.  After a short wait we were on our way again.  Since I needed to be home by 12:30 we had to make a decision about where to eat lunch.  If we stopped at a fast food place we could ride a bit longer before stopping.  If we wanted to eat at Hamlin Pub then we would need to head straight there to stay on track time wise.  We picked Hamlin Pub and headed directly to the Pub.  It was relatively early, just a little after 11:00 am when we arrived, but they were open and already serving lunch.  We sat down at a table and ordered sandwiches with our diet cokes.  

After lunch we headed straight home.  It was going to be tight on time, but I just made it at 12:30.  I pulled into my driveway with about one minute to spare.  I had just enough time to change my shoes and jump into the car for the trip to Max’s soccer game.  

Following are the statistics from this ride, 16.4 miles, 22.0 maximum speed, 11.0 average mph and 1 hour and 28 minutes of time on bikes. 

On Sunday September 18, 2005 I went over to fellow bike club member Tom's house to help him with our yearly chore of replacing the rotten floor boards on his front porch.  Barry came by when Tom and I were about half way done and gave us a helping hand.  I was really glad Barry stopped by, he was a big help and made the job go much faster.  I got to Tom's just a couple minutes after 8:00 am and we finished around 12:30 pm.  Even though it might not look like a big job, it does take time to properly measure, cut, fit and then screw each board in place.  We had a pretty good routine going.  I did all the critical measurement and cuts.  I had Tom and Barry doing the install including drilling and fastening the boards in place.  The hard part of this job is the removal of the bad boards without damaging the good ones that need to stay in place.  I worked up a good sweat during the demolition phase, lucky it wasn't hot out or this part would have been even more difficult.  Tom also worked hard during the removal part.  We didn't find the remains of any animals under the porch this year, like we did last year.  Once we finished up the job we went to the Beef Carver where we had a nice lunch with all the senior citizens in the local area.  In addition to the few pictures I took on the Saturday bike ride I am also including a few from Sunday.   
David Lindquist