Passage retro-fit and throw back shake down route

I have been making use of the Schwinn Passage for about a month on the original back wheel and with a old black on black tire.  Not pretty but functional.  That changed this week.

This is the old wheel that got out of true and won't go back.

New and true rear wheel after some extra grease and a spin in the truing stand

And finally the new wheel with all the goodies; tire, tube, rim strip and free-wheel transferred over.

My shake down cruise was around Lake Sammamish and the route starts in the park.

I rode this route allot from 2000-2010, I worked in the area during most of that time and had cyclist friends who were also nearby.   When I first starting riding the lake I thought the route was hilly, later I realized that to a fit cyclist this is a rolling route with inclines not hills.

With that in mind I challenged myself to keep the granny ring up front clean and only ride in the middle and big rings.  On the west side of the lake I held true to the challenge and full disclosure I was expecting to ride on a trail on the east side of the lake that would avoid some of the longer and steeper inclines on the route.

This wasn't a death march so a coffee shake stop was in order at the midway point.

As I started toward the west side of the lake I passed one of the many Microsoft Campuses where I used to work.  I was there during the Nisqually Earthquake in 2001

As I turned onto the trail to start down the east side of the lake I thought "wait a minute this used to be gravel not asphalt".  Not complaining just thought I would ride some gravel today.  Its been 7 years since I was on this route and things change.

Along the path there are some green spaces like this marshy area on the edge of the lake.

A little farther down the road I hit a wall, trail closed! Back on the road and maybe not avoiding the east side inclines after all.

After a few klicks on the road I thought I saw an open area on the trail side of the road and sure enough the trail was open and it was gravel.

There are some very nice views of the lake from the trail and a number of rather large houses.

Another nice thing about the trail is it has regular areas of shade whereas the road is mostly in the sun.

I knew I was getting close to the end but when I saw a lay-by with benches I stopped.  I was starting to feel the ride.  In part it was the fact that this ride was nearly double what I had been doing and in part it was a lack of proper pre-ride fueling.  I found myself starting to catalog my aches and pains rather than enjoying the lovely trail and beautiful day:

• Crick in neck
• Ache in right shoulder moving into upper arm
• slight tightness of right hamstring
• overall fatigue
• aches and pains in the "sit area"

So I hung out on the bench for a few minutes, stretched and counted my blessings that I was on the flat trail and not the rolling road or what was merely a "I'm tired and running out of gas" feeling could have turned miserable.

A little more time in the saddle and I could see the end of the lake which meant I was almost to the park and then I just had to traverse from the east entrance to the west entrance and I was done.  A little over 22 miles (36 km) later I can knock this ride off the goals list for the week.  Because of the varied terrain I did more shifting than on any previous ride and the bike performed well and the rider did OK too.

Once upon a time a very fit much lighter me with allot traffic breaks did this ride in under an hour and 15 minutes but it took a bit longer today.  Next week I head back to work and I won't have time for this sort of midday midweek fun.  Ride. Smile. Repeat.