Miles: 23.3
Time: 2:00:49
Elevation: 408
Average Speed: 11.1
Max Speed: 19.1
I set out on this ride about 6:30 PM with the objective of testing my new "Commuter Sandals" with platform pedals with toe clips. Since these pedals were already on my Fuji mountain bike along with my good battery powered headlight I took it after strapping on my quick release phone mount and smart phone running the Strava bicycle tracking app.
After going west on Amboy Road to Adobe into what I thought was a mild headwind I discovered the real wind was blowing from the East or NE... again. I plodded down to Valley Vista and then settled into tolerating the wind for 4.5 miles. At least it is mostly down hill to the end of Valley Vista.
There is still quite a lot of dirt on Valley Vista and Pinto Mountain Roads and this bike handled it much more gracefully than my other two bikes even though it has 1.5" street slicks mounted.
The first thing I discovered is that the strap on the phone mount will not clamp onto the thin mountain bike bars tightly enough to keep it from rotating on a rough road. I will try a slice of inner tube under the clamp to see if that will solve the problem. My other, bigger problem was that I did not think about how dark it would get before I finished the route. I did not take a backup headlight or my LED safety vest. By the time I got to the halfway point a bit before the airport it was dark enough to require the headlight. I stopped at the airport for a quick break and a photo or two then started west on Highway 62. About a mile before the turn north onto Utah Trail the headlight battery pack ran dry. The traffic was light and it did not present a serious issue at least on this stretch. The fog line is florescent and it was still glowing from stored sunlight and my taillight was working fine. When I turned onto Utah Trail it became a bit dicier.
The new pavement was pitch black as was the sky and there was no fog line. I did OK until cars came in the opposing direction then I was more or less blinded. All I could do was steer towards the middle of the road to make sure I did not run off into the sand shoulder and also be sure to not get far enough to the left to get in the path of the oncoming car. This gave me a somewhat nerve racking 7/8 mile until I got to Luckie park where there are streetlights. From there the last 1 1/2 miles was no problem.
As far as the pedals go, the toe clips seemed more comfortable than the SPD mountain bike pedals I have been using. The SPD pedals engage "cleats" attached to the soles of the shoes. This arrangement does not allow for any change in foot position during a ride. It is hard to know if tonight's test was "apples to apples" because it was quite a bit cooler than on the previous rides I have done in the sandals. I still got bad hot spots on the bottoms of my feet near the end of the ride. I got out of the toe clips and used the other side of the pedals the last mile or so. This was a great relief.
I think the long term solution may be to use combination pedals which have SPD clips on one side and a flat platform on the other. The "cleats" are recessed on SPD shoes so there is a flat surface to walk on or use to platform pedals. With such pedals I can alternate between the two sides as needed. This option is not available for road bike shoes and pedals as the "cleats" are bolted on the outside of the soles
which leaves no flat surface for walking or using standard flat pedals.
The other issue is whether or not I had more time on the light than I realized or if the battery is dying. The light could run for at least 2 hours if all is well. It only made it about 1/2 hour tonight. I will have to watch this closely and see if I can tell what is going on. Also I need to consistently take a backup light and my LED vest when I suspect I may be out in the dark.
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