Tom wrote:
On 2017-06-11, Joy Beeson wrote:

So I was on a long, straight north-south road, slogging into a high
wind in a very low gear -- and came upon a sign saying "reduce speed
ahead".

I'm not sure that it's even *possible* to ride any slower!


Perhaps my greatest frustration while commuting is riding into a strong
headwind on a slight downgrade and having to pedal hard just to keep moving
forward. Around here, Spring and Fall winds seem to shift such that I
rarely get a tailwind on either leg of the ride...

Tom

Headwinds obviously take some of the joy of riding away. It's somewhat like
doing a continuous climb.

But what always bothered me was more in my head during serious climbs, like
the Rockies/Cascades or Appalachians. One would work so hard heading
towards that pass, slowly gaining altitude, where every down hill didn't represent
a "free ride" but instead, more altitude that had to be made up! One's rebellious
mind would do calculations, knowing that pass was X miles ahead at Y thousands
of feet, and you just lost a couple hundred in that downhill!

The shorter the distance to the pass, my calculating mind would say that height
loss had to be made up over a shorter distance; i.e. a steeper grade to come! I
really came to hate seeing a steep downhill before a pass. Too much altitude
lost with too little gain towards the pass, that had to be made up.

To add insult to the thinking, an automobile, passing you going around a curve
where you *hope* the pass crest resides and your legs are about to enjoy a
nice easy coasting of perhaps some miles on the downhill side of the pass, but
instead, you hear the automatic transmission in the car ahead, that you can no
longer see, kicking down gears!

Not good!


SMH