The end of riding for 2024 for me?

 Now that October  is here and we are losing daylight as we head into winter. As long as the day time temperatures are ride-able, my plan was to keep riding on the weekends. I've recently gone back to work, so my riding time during the week just isn't as available.

This week I only ended up with one ride. My wife had a meeting in Racine WI on Saturday evening, so we headed out earlier that day in order for me to get a ride in during the early afternoon. She mentioned that there was a trail that traveled along the coast of Lake Michigan. It is called the Lake Michigan Pathway and it covers about 5-6 miles of the coastline in Racine. I mapped out where I wanted to start and how much of the trail I wanted to ride.

Hanging out on the Racine breakwater jetty.

The waves were much larger than I had expected.

My starting was the Kids Cove Playground, just north of the marina. I headed north on the pathway to the point where the trail does a 90° turn and head west into a residental area. This portion of the trail meandered from the street level to the lower beach level. It was so fun to be along the beach and got to hear the wonderful sound of waves coming ashore.

Once I got to my turn around, I repeated the route back, this time passing by the playground area. I took a detour on my way down to the marina. I wanted to see if I could ride out on the breakwater jetty. I was able to get about ¾ of the way on the jetty, but the combination of the high waves and the misalignment of the cement blocks (which could cause damage to my wheels/tires) kept me from travelling the whole way to the Racine Breakwater Lighthouse. I'll have to leave that for another day, when I can walk that rest of the jetty and stay dry.

The end of the ride for today: a broken chain.

The M700, chain-less.

After getting back to shore, I started the ride around the marina. It was so great to see the boats and the variety of businesses in the area. I was enjoying the temperature and the blue skies we had that morning. All was right with the world, until it happened. I was trying to shift gears but I discovered I was not able to get into the gear I wanted. I stopped and got off of the bike in order to inspect it. Nothing looked out of order at the quick glance, so I got back on and proceeded around a large marina side multiple residence. It was on the other side it happened: my chain broke. 

Yep, the shifting problem I was experiencing was the chain starting to fail. It finally failed about 1,000 feet later from where I stopped to look at it. By the time I stopped and got off of the bike, the chain was laying on the path about 10 feet behind me. I went over to pick up the chain and gave my wife a call, to come pick me up. I loaded the bike into the Flex and we headed out to find a place for me to change out of my riding wear, as I was done for the day. 

We got home late that evening, so I unloaded the bike yesterday and put her into our storage unit here. I'm going to take this as my stopping point for my riding for the year. My plan is to get a replacement chain, but also invest some time into really cleaning up the old girl and giving her a long overdue tune-up. 

So as it stands, for 2024, the M700 and I rode a total of 257.4 miles. It has been far too long since I've put that many miles on a bike. Maybe not since I was in my late teens or early twenties! 

I'm looking forward to 2025. I'm going to continue riding as much as I can, explore more of the trails here in Wisconsin, and I hope to finally get the MS1000 ready. I'm already planning out what work I need to complete this winter on my two bikes and on my wife's Trek Navigator. I'm hoping that next year we will be able to get some rides in together. 

Looking forward to 2025!