Mar 17 - the only one moving

It was another beautiful day in paradise; another bicycle ride. The wind, although predicted from the ENE, was really ESE but that didn't matter. I headed north to see the spectacle that would be Daytona on the final weekend of Bike Week.

I wasn't disappointed. Heading north, I was often engulfed by a noisy peloton, drafting with the traffic. South of Daytona, bikers were heading home with their duffel bags on the backs of their bikes. In Daytona the traffic was light on US 1 but much heavier in Tomoka Park, bikes heading in both directions. If North was home, those were heading out and away, enjoying the park drive rather than opting for I95 or US 1. Eastbound on Highbridge, the professional photographers were still there, catching the bikers going by and hoping that many of them would check their websites later and purchase pictures.

Once back into Daytona heading south, the traffic was building and then mostly stopped. For a couple of miles around Main, I was the only traffic moving. Had that been US 1 by Destination Daytona a couple of years ago, I could have sped by on the shoulder. It was slower going with the traffic lights and curb because many of the bikers were too close for a high speed roll-by. Regardless, I was moving they weren't. Of course I was breathing a lot of second-hand exhaust ...

Being St. Patrick's Day, I did see a lot of green. I also saw some red backs on the biker chicks, testimony to the great weather. Bike Week, St. Patrick's Day, Spring Break ... busy, busy, busy.

Earlier in the day Sandy went out and picked up shrimp, which we'll be having tonight. She later went out and got tuna, which we had last night. Small guys, the pieces of tuna were only 3" across. Small is good ... and also tasty !

Sandy finally opened the blood pressure monitor that she'd bought, finding her BP at 130 / something. Mine was 105 / 70, if I recall correctly, slightly more than the 100/something that the paramed had found. Speaking of the paramed, she's due back on Wednesday to do the EKG that should have been performed the last time !

First thing in the a.m. I checked the coolant level in the X5, something that I hadn't done in a month. It was down a cup or so, which I topped up. Obviously I'm still getting what I would call "sweat" where the lower hose meets the radiator. I went online and almost placed an order for the hose -- not an expensive part -- but didn't do anything.

I did more research and lo and behold, found others with the same problem. However, it's not something that would be corrected by replacing the hose ! The hose includes the hard plastic couplers at either end and part of that coupling at the rad-end is where the temperature sensor plugs in. Ah ha ! Others with this problem report that the temperature sensor has an o-ring that becomes brittle with age. Ah ha ! I can either order a new sensor, in the $30 range that includes the o-ring or, get this, simply replace the o-ring with one 5/16" ID, 9/16" OD and 1/8" wall. Hmmm ... should I go for the $30 fix or the $.05 fix ... hmmm.

Also, the DIY reports that with the cap on the rad, there is little to no fluid loss involved with pulling the sensor, replacing the o-ring, and re-inserting. You can guess what I'm going to do in the next couple of days ... maybe even today.

I hate plumbing though. Now I'm considering doing some plumbing on the X5.

In yesterday's blog I reported replacing the cartridge in the kitchen faucet. I was so, so close to throwing in the towel on that one. The plumbing underneath the sink is a mess of tangled plastic & braided connectors which would also need replacing. Being old and crappy, disconnecting those and pulling the Control, which is a separate part, was not fun. I didn't have high hopes that they'd re-seal ... but they did. Dismantling the control was also a challenge, brass notwithstanding, years of mineral deposits make that difficult. I wasn't sure that some large o-rings would still seal ... but they did.

Local yellowfin tuna, leftover brown rice, fresh local organic broccoli ... a great meal. I followed that up with a romaine salad with cherry tomatoes out of our garden and mint out of our garden and Newman's Own Balsamic. Later I (and Abby) had an apple.

Earlier, we'd watched a couple of episodes of Law and Order on Netflix. After my salad, I watch an episode of The X-Files on my laptop, netflix again.

This coming week, Bev and Bruce are supposed to come for dinner. On Friday, Jeffrey, Sara and Emma arrive. Tomorrow or Wednesday, I'll do a 200k.

More on the biking front - I've sorted out the Fleche with Jim Wilson. Leaving 7am on Saturday the 7th, we'll finish at 7am on the 8th. I've got 4-5 people on my team, including Hamid and Keith. The finish point is at Floral City, close to Crystal River. Teams will end up there from Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Tampa and Gainesville, meeting for breakfast.

There are a lot of rules for the Fleche, yet another concept borrowed from the French. In France the teams converge in Paris. In the U.S. they converge at a point of the RBA's choosing. We ride for 24 hours, a minimum of 360k. Now we could ride much further than 360k -- and further than my planned route of 400k -- but it's supposed to be a team/group ride, not necessarily striving for distance. Other rules are that you have to ride at least 25k in the last two hours and cannot stop at any one point for more than 2 hours.

That means that we can't ride like the wind, stop at a motel and sleep, then finish up. It requires some careful planning, monitoring speed and distance so that you don't finish too soon. Teams are comprised of a minimum of three and maximum of five. At least three must finish to qualify. Also, it's "machines" ... that could be five tandems.

Why ? Well, doing PBP, a 1000k brevet, a Fleche and 5000k in total distance in the four year period around PBP qualifies you for a particular ACP medal. I only need the Fleche -- as does Hamid.

Onward ...