Shade: One of the upsides of following the Paseo del Bosque south toward Rio Bravo.
Yesterday’s ride sort of got away from me. But in a good way.
I felt like riding a light bike for a change, and since I hadn’t been aboard the Nobilette for a while, it got the callup. And off we went to the Paseo del Bosque.
Now, my usual practice is to roll out and down Tramway, slip under Interstate 25 onto Roy, then bear left at the roundabout on 4th to Guadalupe Trail, which meanders over to Alameda and thence to the bosque trail. This prelude takes around an hour because as a elderly gentleman of semi-leisure I am rarely in a hurry.
The clouds are pretty, but don’t do much to damp the UV on the homebound leg.
From the Alameda parking lot I spin casually down to Interstate 40, nodding, waving, and smiling to no particular purpose at all the stone training faces floating grimly over aero bars like participants in some penitente balloon fiesta.
At the interstate underpass I’ve generally had enough of that, so I pull a U and head for the barn. This is good for about 40 miles, depending on which route I take home.
But yesterday, being on a sub-30-pound bike for a change, I pressed on past the interstate, down to Rio Bravo Boulevard, where the curious can ride an extra-credit loop that tours ’Burque’s industrial underbelly. This I skipped, my curiosity in such matters having been satisfied some time ago.
Joyless watt-watchers notwithstanding, the Paseo del Bosque is one of Albuquerque’s jewels. It’s as flat as flat can be, a real rarity in these parts. And if you’re lucky, you’ll have a slight headwind down and a tailwind back.
I was lucky, and so I didn’t even notice I was doing a half-century until I was coming up on Juan Tabo via Bear Canyon Trail. At the end of the day I wound up with 54 miles under my bibs.
Perhaps best of all, I missed the news that Dealie McDealio is shopping for another land of opportunity. I’d recommend that Greenlanders stick with Denmark until they can arrange for independence. Dude is a notorious slumlord who won’t even keep up the property he’s managing now.
Tags: Dealie McDealio, Greenland, Paseo de Bosque
Mad Blog Media 
August 17, 2019 at 8:06 am |
I hope someone asks the Greenlanders what they think.
August 17, 2019 at 8:17 am |
According to The Atlantic, the Greenlanders “get to decide on any international union their state joins.”
It’d have to be a pretty good deal for them to jump ship. The Danes kick them an even bigger subsidy than the one Uncle Sugar lays on us New Mexicans.
August 17, 2019 at 9:09 am |
The round part of the lollipop is a little depressing. it’s a stark change from the scenic beauty of the bosque land. One day I will return to ride the bosque, not on a weekend though, and bum around the trails surrounding “La Casa Del Perro Loco.” Double Cross for the pavement and Niner for the dirt. Easy sleazy.
August 17, 2019 at 7:51 pm |
Yeah, it’s something of a cold shower, eh, Paddy me boyo? I haven’t bothered with it since the last time we rode it. We have a lot of bike trail in ’Burque, but not all of it is pleasing to the eye.
August 17, 2019 at 8:46 pm |
If memory serves, and it seems to be serving everyone but me lately, we came up a rise to a bunch of cyclone fencing. You, Herb, Khal, and I stopped and took some pix at that spot, I think. Anyway, I’m glad we did the “whole lollipop” when we had the chance. Maybe next time the weather gods will smile on us and we can get some “dirt time” in.
August 18, 2019 at 5:35 am |
These frog-stranglers we’ve been getting have done a job on the trails.
I’ve mostly been riding the road lately, but when I got the Voodoo Nakisi all squared away I took it out for a short shakedown cruise around Elena Gallegos. Man, a lot of those trails have taken a hammering.
Now we’re in the throes of a brief heat wave. Not as toasty as y’all get down to Sierra Vista, but warm nonetheless.
Maybe this week I’ll mosey down south, see what it looks like between Piedra Lisa and I-40. I could do with a change of pace.
August 18, 2019 at 10:06 am |
Yep, the trails down here get beat up during the monsoon. Hot here as well, with heat advisories out for Tuesday and Wednesday. Rainfall totals for the monsoon are 1/2 of normal, and we keep setting record high temperatures.
Just came back from riding in Ramsey canyon. Very nice, and I had a healthy coyote staring at me from across the road while sitting on the meditation bench eating a Clif bar. Someone that lives up there put up the bench with a little statue of Buddha sitting on it. The bench is under a mesquite tree with a view of nothing but mountains to the front. Someone stole the Buddha statue according to a note taped to the bench. I hope they bring it back.
August 18, 2019 at 11:56 am |
Supposed to get close to 90 F in the City Indifferent today. I just rode in from a two hour Tour de Points North. It was pleasant enough but I still ran outa water and so scooted home without my last intended loop through the snooty Campanas subdivision.Besides, I would have had to put on a nicer jersey to ride in that neighborhood.
August 17, 2019 at 11:06 am |
“elderly gentleman of semi-leisure ” is that the same as old fart
August 17, 2019 at 12:08 pm |
No. It is, however, the same as “lazy old fart.”
August 17, 2019 at 10:45 pm |
Ah, Patrick Me Boy, spell is “Phart.” At least it looks noble!
August 18, 2019 at 5:36 am |
That’s Olde English, right, Bruce? Or is it Gaelic so?
August 19, 2019 at 5:43 am |
And now this late breaking bulletin. I just had to use a presto tube in a schraeder hole. And without the little conversion grommet. Desperate times here when your LBS is closed on Sunday. I did same on a xc tour back in the day. It ended badly but I didn’t have duct tape then to wrap around the “skinny” valve. For five bucks you can place your bets as to how long I’ll get away with it this time.
August 19, 2019 at 9:58 am |
It will work until the next time you attach a pump or pressure gauge. My bet is it will then fail at the base of the stem where it joins the tube.
What do I get if I win?
August 19, 2019 at 1:41 pm |
First you have to kick in your five bucks! Then we’ll announce the rules and fine print. You guys are dead on about the pump being the murder weapon in a case like this. Just last week I broke off the inner stem of a presta tube. After the tears dried I remembered that I actually had replacement presta valves left over from The Days of Sew Ups and Glue in your Hair. They’ve been in a corner of the tool box for 35 years! And yet, one fit nicely into a modern clincher tube.
August 19, 2019 at 12:23 pm |
The duct tape trick should work if you are careful. Like Pat says, if you put a pump or pressure gauge on it, don’t let it stress the base of the stem too much.
August 19, 2019 at 7:06 pm |
I always thought that is why they put the nut on that threaded presta valve stem. So, I always use it.
August 19, 2019 at 7:14 pm |
I always keep that nut handy because occasionally I’ll flat a deep-section wheel only to find I have a short-stemmed spare tube. Threading that nut onto the valve stem helps me get a firm connection to the minipump.
I should start carrying a spare valve core too. I’ve destroyed a couple of those at inopportune moments.
Shit, I keep adding bits of this and that, I’ll need a sag wagon following me around on training rides.
August 20, 2019 at 12:32 am |
Hmmm? I’m still trying to figure the problem out. Somewhere in the past I suppose I put a presta tube in a schraeder valve rim. I don’t recall if I had problems. But I don’t believe I did. If I were to do it again, I’d place some kind of a reinforcement on the inside of the rim to more securely hold the valve and protect it from shear force. I’d probably use a dollar bill folded in half and poke a hole in it for the valve. As for filling air in the tube, I’d obviously need to hold the valve to get some air in the tube. Then as the tube inflates, the air pressure should push the valve securely against the edges of the rim hole. The dollar bill would help keep the tube around the valve from trying to push through the rim hole. But perhaps I’m confused about the issue and experiencing an aged brain phart…. I’ll have the steal my neighbors shraeder valve comfort bike and do some experimentin’.
August 20, 2019 at 12:46 am |
Schrader valve rim? Where do these come from? Who builds wheels with them? Why? Many years ago a client needed to pump up his tires. For some unknown reason he’d reamed out the holes in his rims and installed tubes with Schrader valves on them! We had nothing that could put air in ’em. I scratched my soon-to-be-bald head wondering why on earth someone would do this? His answer was when it was time to top up the air pressure he went off to a local gas station. I guess it never crossed his mind to have a bullet-proof, lasts-forever Silca floor pump with the simple push-on chuck? What is so complicated and difficult about that?
August 20, 2019 at 5:45 am |
Throughout parts of America and especially in small towns you’d be pretty challenged to find a presta tube at the local Ace hardware but as we’ve learned on tours, various Schraeder tubes await your arrival. And just because a bike is aged and out of date well hell…we love em all. But I agree with you on the Silca floor pump. I just replaced the hoses and gaskets on two 40 year old pumps which now work just fine again. Sure it takes a few more strokes to achieve inflation but what’s the hurry? However I never liked the old Silca frame pumps even though they often were available to match your bike color. Ya had to get a Campy head or take your chances with those damn things. Wouldn’t hold up for squat beating attacking dogs.
August 20, 2019 at 7:00 am |
OK, got it – for a loaded touring bike riding around in rural ‘Murica it makes perfect sense, though that’s far from what this guy was doing. Having a cheapo adapter so a Presta valve can be inflated with a Schrader chuck would have made a lot more sense in this fellow’s case – but what do I know?
I was a guy perfectly content with a Silca frame pump (with Campagnolo metal head of course!) for decades, especially if it was painted-to-match. I got one of the new ones https://silca.cc/products/impero-ultimate-frame-pump for myself and liked it enough to get one to color-match for the wife’s GIOS. Have yet to try it on any dogs as Italian canines are not much interested in cyclists – unless you’re between them and the sheep they’re looking after!
Disclaimer: Silca is an official supplier to CycleItalia/Piedmont Cycling Resort.
August 20, 2019 at 11:16 pm |
Silca frame pumps were part of the mystique of riding back in the day. Or was it part of the mistake? They worked fine but I have not seen one in a while.
I still have the orange Silca floor pump I bought in grad school in the mid eighties. I’ll probably have my wife bury me with it some day. Absolutely bulletproof. I have a larger generic pump I bought at a bike shop as it pumps way more air per stroke, but the Silca is a classic and as you say, rebuildable.My Park floor pump lasted about a year and I had to fix blown hoses and seals. That didn’t endear me to Park Tools, although I have a drawer full of stuff from that company as well as a work stand.