Ride of Silence

The Pedalers sponsored the local Ride of Silence last night. I was pretty concerned that we might miss it, because a strong set of thunderstorms passed through town just before we were to leave for the ride start, and one of the maxims of the happy stoker handbook is "Do not make a 9 year old ride in the wet and cold." Fortunately, although it remained cloudy and gray, the rain held off and the roads even dried up a bit. We were a couple of minutes early and no one else was there, so I was worried for a moment, but then people started to show.

The ride itself went pretty well. Near the start I over shifted past the big ring on the tandem and threw the chain. Fixed it quick and didn't mess with the front gears again in flat Frederick. The rest of the ride passed without incident, although it was an interesting exercise to not communicate with the stoker. The most noise on the ride was from the clicking of clipless pedals at the numerous stops encountered in city riding. The tandem lends itself to the wide open country roads rather than the urban landscape, I think.

14 riders took part.



Photo courtesy of the Frederick Pedalers.