Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Fall May Be the Best Biking Season

Fall may be the best biking season because...

Trail Leaf

No Bugs

This needs to be addresses first because it is the most important quality about Fall. With the warm weather of summer comes the swarms of little buzzers biting at your legs as you try to perform the quickest flat tire fix of your life. Luckily those buzzers are long gone come Fall and you don't even have to deal with them. Nope. You don't have to preplan your stop breaks to be super efficient because of the ensuing onslaught. You can stop when you want. Have a snack. Check out that strange rock formation you've remarked about all summer.

Bike on Fall Trail

Perfect Temperature

Gone are the long hazy humid days of summer. Welcome are the temps in the 70s with a pleasant warming sun. Perfect.

The Fall Outfit Next to the Work Shoes

Not too few layers. Not too many layers. Just the right amount of layers. Only in Fall.

Dry Trails

New England riding has many great features- rock gardens, massive flocks of roots, and tight windy trails. Those same wonderful features become your nemesis when you add moisture. Considering this summer was like the wettest in history (or close to) I'm pretty sick of wet trails. I'll gladly take what Fall gives me.

New Rear Brakes

Dogs are Always Welcome

Another reason I dig Fall is because dogs are always welcome along. There's no worrying they'll overheating. There's no trying to keep the bugs off them (ha! you say- what foolishness is this? I swear the bugs were so thick this summer that Misty would regularly be accosted by swarms of 500 at any given moment). Also, it's a lot easier to grab a bite to eat afterwards since they can relax in your car and you don't have to worry about it being too hot.

4 comments:

Red Bike said...

The trails are anything but dry here; but I do love it when the leaves turn and start to fall.

Jeff Moser said...

Yeah, we're loving Fall out here! Cooler temperatures, and lots of traction. We ride in decomposed granite (sand) most of the time, and it becomes perfect when wet.

kate said...

yup, you're on to something there. but over here we just drift from a damp summer to and even damper winter!

Betty Mountain Girl said...

Jeff- Sounds like your conditions are ideal in the Fall!

Red Bike and Kate- not looking forward to our winter either- I keep hearing mentions of enormous amounts of snow for us. I don't mind snow, but come March I am pretty sick of it. In the meant time, I'm soaking up this nice riding weather though!