A bike ride....little road, little dirt, squeaky seat, and a straight shot up Virginia St.

I think the title kinda lays it all out there.  I went for a bike ride on Saturday morning before it got too windy.  It was ridiculously warm and sunny....and Rose was already on wind hold.  I didn't really have a plan so this is the shape the route took.

Basically, I left home with no idea where I was going.  So I cruised down to the whitewater park and then South on Arlington.  Why....because it has a bike lane....so yes, people do use them if you put them in.  This left me climbing up Skyline Blvd., but not before I was treated to some bicycle art in a yard down by the golf course!

It's in good enough shape that someone should buy it and fix it up into fighting shape.  Anway, I climbed the hill up to Horseman's Park and decided a little dirt would make things better.  So I grabbed the ditch trail over to Manzanita Lane.  I saw about 15 people running just on this little section....nice. 

 Then it was some downhill fun back towards town.  The problem was, I developed some type of squeak in my seat....that made noise every pedal stroke.  Supper annoying and I didn't have a multitool (yes, I was unprepared) to fix it.  Solution....redirect the ride to my favorite bike shop (Great Basin Bicycles).  Never mind that it's about 5 miles south of where I was.....  Somehow, I managed to get there and even swung around past Harrah's Ranch.

The guys at Great Basin kindly let me tinker until the squeak was resolved thought to be resolved.  Which was good of them because they were slammed with training classes and repair work.  I guess the crappy winter is good for someone!

Since the wind was picking up and blowing due North, I decided a straight shot home might be nice, so I headed up Virginia St.  I was also curious to see how it was to ride the length of Virginia since it's been in the news as a corridor study.  There is a bike lane along much of it, but it does have places like this (by home depot and whole foods)....

where the bike lane disappears without warning, leaving you in the mix with traffic or to ride in a 6 inch wide gutter.  So, yeah, it really isn't ridable unless you really will take the lane in certain places.  As you get farther north, there are many places where the right lane is bus (or bike) only.  However, these lanes come and go and morph into right turn lanes, so the chance for an incident with a car is pretty high.

Also by this time, my "fixed" squeak had returned so I detoured by my old employer (Reno Mountain Sports) for the use of an allen wrench.  This time the fix was good and my journey continued through mid-town (where bike lanes were recently nixed from the plan).  Fortunately, traffic speeds in midtown are pretty low and the single lane allow you to mix with traffic without too many problems.

I contemplated stopping by Public House or Craft for a beer, but it didn't happen.  So in the end I just rode home and puttered around the brewery and did bikey chores.  Later, a trip down to the Reno Homebrewer rounded out the day.  Hopefully, your weekend produced some random things you enjoyed too!