Milestone

Most of my riding comes in the form of commuting. On the weekends Heather time becomes the priority. Of late, the priest at the Church where I assist has needed to be out of town much more than planned so my Sunday morning rides there and beyond have also been curtained. Of course, there was also the issue of Billie's chain. Anyway it was beginning to seem the 10,000 mile mark was never going to be reached.

Sunday I did my preachy thing and the other errands that needed to be done. It was rather hot here. It was only 95F but the heat index was over 110F. This was a bit high for us to load Heather's bike and my skates in the car and head for a trail. Ah, but it was the perfect opportunity to see how my hot weather gear stacked up.

When it gets this warm my gear changes a little bit. I leave the textile pants on their peg and take down the vented cordura pants instead.

Yep, these are snowmobile racing pants. I wear a set of hip pads and strap on knee pads underneath them. I have an insulated pair made by the same company that I wear during the colder months and liked them so well, I bought these.

Vents open.

I use an evaporating cooling vest when I'm not commuting. When I commute it gets things too wet.

I'm still learning how to use this. I think I've padded it dry but then it takes two days for it to hang dry after my ride. Oh well, better that than . . .

I wear a long sleeve wicking shirt under the vest.

No big name brand, but it does its job.

The goal was to visit my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter out in St. Charles. I took a photo of the odometer before I began.

I planned my route so I could stop at Creve Coeur Lake and drink a liter of water.

Then it was over the Page Avenue Extension to St. Charles and my heart's destination. This was the fastest I've ever rode on Billie. Before the chain change I was lucky to hold it at 40smph*, but at one point I was holding 50+smph while moving up a slight grade. Once downhill I breached 60smph. To say I was pleased would be a major understatement.

Alma likes her shoes.

The cutie.

After a nice visit it was back over the Missouri River and home.

And how did the gear do? Excellent. I suspect I wouldn't be able to convince all the riders I saw wearing cut-offs and sleeveless tees that I was quite comfortable.

Now I can stop saying Billie has almost 10k miles on it and begin saying she has over 10k miles. Yay.

*Symba Miles Per Hour. I've never done an actual check of the Symba's speedo, but suspect it is optimistic. That said when I go past those "Your speed is:" things I'm always at or above what it indicates I'm going.