Last-Minute Flatlands: Kermit Rides Again

 

Kermit, ready for the holidays

25 December 2023

The last week of work before the holiday break was a mad rush for everyone. I wound up with no time to list a Saturday ride, let alone come up with a route for one. 

Tom rescued me by offering up one of his New Egypt routes, the one with fewer hills and more cattle. Still in the lab at 6:30 p.m., waiting for a timed thing to finish, I listed the ride from a dumb terminal tablet I use to keep track of our mouse colony. In my haste, I set the ride for the previous week. At 7:00 I fixed it.

I'd listed the ride as a slow, social B, adding that B+ riders should go find something else. By Saturday morning, the ride was full, the final two registrants being folks who either did not read, or chose to ignore, the final line of my ride description. 

The reasons I wanted to go slowly were several. First, I would be on Kermit for the first time since the summer; and second, several of our riders were coming off the disabled list.

Tom, who is currently on the disabled list, met us at the start to say hello. He was on his way to do some waterfowl photography. 

I would say it was warm for December, but I don't know what that means anymore. We were riding in the high 30s to low 40s under heavy cloud cover. There was a little wind that we were able to ignore. People behaved. 

The cows were out on Brynmore Road, and they had calves with them. They were mostly gathered by the pasture fence, ankle-deep in runny mud. Whatever works for you, cows.

The deli and coffee shop combination at the intersection of 528 and 539 seems to satisfy everyone, but I need to find a second worthy rest stop in the flatlands. Some other ride leaders like a large blueberry farm not too far away, but I've never liked the place as a rest stop. There's nowhere to sit, no indoor plumbing, and the coffee isn't worth mentioning. It's the sort of place I'd go with my car to buy all the pies and a crate of berries. So, for now, it's Charleston and the deli.

I like how Tom front-loads his routes. We traveled almost 30 miles before the break, leaving 13 for the ride home. We had a bit of a tailwind then too. 

We got a little spread out after the break. I came in at the advertized pace.

Kermit and I have over 47000 miles together. This year, however, we've had less than 700. When my back started hurting, it was Janice who I fixed first, and I stuck with her until two weeks ago.

As much as I hate to admit it, Kermit is harder to ride than Janice is. I found myself more out of breath on the small climbs than I would normally be if I'd been riding Janice.

The ride felt harsher, too. That's something, considering that Kermit is steel and Janice is carbon. I figure it's down to the wheels. Kermit's are aluminum; Janice has carbon. 

The one thing that makes absolutely no difference is the shifting. Kermit has decades-old Shimano Ultegra and DuraAce components. Janice is Shimano Di2. People crow about the smoothness of electronic shifting. Well, Kermit runs like a, uh, well-oiled machine. The difference I feel between the two bikes is not at all the shifting. 

I suppose I'll take Kermit out when it's safe to work harder, like on a relaxed ride when there's nothing big coming up the next day. I took Janice out for a muffin run on Sunday, and I could feel how much more tired my legs were than they have been on Sundays lately.

I want to keep one foot in the Luddite world, but Janice is not making that easy.