More Rides on the Nishiki and a Rack

Now that I put the handlebar stem riser on the Nishiki Maricopa I've been riding it more. I've missed riding a road bike -- compared with a mountain bike or my Lectric XP, it's a lot more responsive and faster rolling.

On the 4th, I put it on my truck's bike rack and took it to the SEPTA Spring Mill station, which is an entrance point to the Schukyll River Trail. I took it west, doing 17 miles round trip. That's the longest ride on a conventional bike I've done in over 30 years.

This morning I got out and did about 8.4 miles on the same trail. It was a lot hotter and more humid today so I made sure to hydrate like crazy before, during, and after the ride. The heat and humidity were draining, despite that.

About midway, I stopped under the overpass for I-276 to drink water and slurp down a Clif Shot. If you click to enlarge you can see that I had two water bottles on the bike for this ride (I put the tool canister in my pack for this ride). The one on the down tube is a 33 oz. Zefal bottle filled with half strength Liquid I.V. hydration mix while the one on the seat tube held plain water. I drank about half of each on the ride and finished the straight water after I got back to my truck.

Train tracks parallel the SRT at this point and this train was there. The locomotive was LOUD underneath the overpass.

Hydration afterwards at home was a bit tastier ;) :

Since I've been riding it more I ordered a Planet Bike Eco rack, which is the same one I have on my Trek 820. This will allow me to mount a rack trunk to hold my tools and snacks, etc. I have another Lixada trunk on order, the same as on my Lectric XP. The rack and a replacement seat post clamp with mounting eyelets arrived yesterday and today. I installed it tonight.

It came with an L-bracket that allowed me to mount the Stupidbright tail light that was strapped to the seatpost.

For the price the Stupidbright tail lights are hard to beat. They use a single CR2032 lithium battery and have three modes: solid, fast blink, and slow blink. When blinking they are visible a couple hundred yards away at dusk. Because the Schukyll River Trail has a lot of sections that are in heavy shade, I like to run it along with a Planet Bike Spok front light so that I'm more visible. Both are really light and small, taking up minimal room on the bike.