The end of September seemed to arrive so quickly. To wrap biking this month I decided to ride to the north on the Kingwood – FM 1485 – Kingwood route. I didn’t start as early as I desired because the temperature was in the low 50’s when I got up and the sunshine took some time to get it warmer. While I waited I ate breakfast, checked emails and watched stage 4 of the Cro Race on GCN+ till there were 28 km left (I finished watching after the ride). By then it warmed to almost 70 and I rolled the Lynskey Helix bike out the back door starting the ride at 9:46 AM. Counting today’s ride I biked this route 9 times this year on 3 different bikes. Today’s 32.28 miles wasn’t the longest ride on the route but it was the highest overall average speed. At one point for a couple of miles my overall average speed was 14.9 mph. I was back home at 12:05 PM.
The wind was light but it seemed stronger as I rode north and over Caney Creek before making the u-turn under US59/I-69 to head back to Kingwood. Into the headwind I built my average speed to 14 mph riding north and increased that with the tailwind riding south back to Kingwood. The 35×13 gears dominated my selection for the ride with 1:23:48 out a total moving time of 2:13:50 according to the AXS.SRAM.com ride report. I made 21 RD changes.
At TX 99 on the northbound frontage road I saw men helping a man who lost an engine from the trailer he was pulling. This was good. A Montgomery County Deputy Sheriff’s cruiser was behind with the lights flashing and the deputy drove the pickup back to get closer to the engine on the road. Then another man stopped and the three of them got the engine on the trailer. I suspect the man was taking the scrap to the recycling place farther along the frontage road.
This was a test of my cool weather riding kit for tomorrow’s Pineywoods Purgatory though it will be colder and earlier than today’s ride. Today I wore shorts, a long sleeve poly T-shirt and a short sleeve jersey over that. Tomorrow I will need leg warmers and a thermal jersey at least with the temperature likely around 50 at the 7 AM start. This is below my threshold of 60 but I want to ride there. Today’s biking weather: start 69 (humidity 53%, dew point 51), fair, wind N 5 mph; finish 76 (humidity 38%, dew point 49), clear, wind E 7 mph.
September totaled 1003.1 miles, the third month this year with 1000+ miles. I have not done that before in a year. I did not ride 2 days or the total miles would’ve been even higher, maybe the highest month ever. The longest ride was September 10th at 51.7 miles. Year to date I biked 7,738 miles, the most YTD miles of any year. Retirement, good health and good weather allow me to do this.
