My trip is getting closer and closer - and it definitely feels real! And my "to do" list is finally getting smaller instead of larger.
I took my first ride pulling the trailer this week. It handled exactly as I expected. It slowed me down on uphills - which is the same thing panniers do - but it didn't change the handling of the bike once I got it rolling. I only got a couple of strange looks as I rode around here on bike and trailer. The one thing I noticed is that I do have to be careful in traffic, since the trailer is further into the lane than the bike is. I can't fit through as small a space as I can without the trailer... A couple of times I actually had to look back to make sure it was still there!
Today was to be a short ride followed by a big bike-cleaning - I wanted to clean and re-lube the bike that I'm taking on this trip, plus the others that I've been riding all spring. I'll start with a clean bike, and I'll leave my other bikes clean at home - waiting for me to return to ride them again. It's a good thing I planned to clean bikes, because at a minimum I had to clean the Air Glide. I left for my ride in bright sunshine. A windy day, but no hint of what was to come. About half-way through my ride, the skies turned dark gray and then just opened up. I was riding with lakes in my shoes within a couple of minutes. I've done my share of riding in the rain - both while training for trips, and during trips. Here's hoping this wasn't practice for my trip.
As soon as I got home it stopped - which gave me an opportunity to clean one bike before it started pouring again. Since I was cleaning bikes outside, I had to wait an hour before I could get to the other two. All done!
