Hello folks! Welcome to another Monday during this beautiful Three Speed October. How’s everyone doing out there? But first, this important note:
This is the last week you can start the Three Speed October Challenge. In order to complete the Challenge by the end date of Sunday November 3, your first week must start on Monday October 14th. This also means your second week starts Monday October 21st, and third week Monday October 21st. Please note that your first ride doesn’t have to be on Monday October 14th. You can do your first ride as late as Friday October 18th. So this means Friday October 18th is the DO OR DIE date. See this post for more details.
Also, since it has been asked: If you decide to start the challenge NOW, but have done rides on three speeds in the past couple weeks, YES you can use these rides towards the challenge! Also, I will keep the registration open until Friday November 8th, so if you didn’t get around to registering, or figured you had enough rides to qualify, you can still get in on the action!
Okay, let’s get on to things. As of noon on Sunday October 13, 2019, we have:
- 42 people who have registered for the challenge
- 20 people who have completed and reported their first week
- 7 people who have completed and reported their second week
I’m not going to share every bit of each report, but here’s some things that stuck out:
Enjoying week one, no spandex, gentle pace, makes a nice break !
Dave in Thunder Bay
A report from the aforementioned Dave (and Bev) in Thunder Bay:
We started week two with a change from our “around town” rides. We transported our bikes by vehicle to the hamlet of Silver Islet, a small seasonal community of rustic cottages located at the end of the Sibley peninsula outside Thunder Bay. Silver Islet was the site of a rich silver mine that operated in the 1870 to 1880 period (more information is available here: https://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/sleeping-giant-silver-islet-mine/ ).
After the closure of the mine, the community continued as a base for fishing and forestry, eventually becoming a summer cottage community. In the early days people and supplies arrived by ship from Prince Arthurs Landing/Port Arthur, now part of the city of Thunder Bay. There was no electricity or telephone connections to the town site until the 1990’s, although a highway was built to the hamlet in 1940.
A relatively short ride of 6.2 km (3.8 miles) with a 69m (226 ft.) elevation gain, essentially the main (only) road through the hamlet with a return loop along the highway. Even so, standard gearing had us grinding to a halt on some short steep climbs and relying on the “24 inch” gear:
However, “what goes up must come down” and we were able to use third gear on the last downhill, reaching 47.6 kph (on the Humber) without spinning out!
We encountered a brief rain shower near the end.
And Tim in Springfield, Ore. has some pics of his first week:
We’ve got some reports from 3Speed Seattle:
Three Speed October 10/7
Week Two, Ride One
Miles: 4
Monday, and it’s the start of my “weekend.” Which means time for me to head to the pool to get in some lap swimming time. My usual pool is the Evans Pool at Green Lake, which means I have to bicycle up Stone Way Hill (5% grade). Living at the bottom of Stone Way, I have to bike up said hill alot.
After my swim, I decided to add in a nice, leisurely ride around the lake before heading home. From the cloudy, windy weather, this might be my last non-raining day for awhile.
Three Speed October 10/8
Week Two, Ride Two
Miles: 8
On Tuesday nights, I frequently make my way from my place up to a pizza place on Aurora Ave to hang out with friends. This requires climbing Stone Way, circling half of Green Lake, and then climbing again.
Despite the weather getting pretty cold lately, I knew I would over-heat trying to gain elevation, so I stuck to a t-shirt for the ride up. I brought a sweatshirt to throw on for the downhill trip home, though! Got to catch a lovely sunset over Green Lake
Three Speed October 10/9
Week Two, Ride Three
Miles: 8
A bright, sunny October day meant a good day for me to bicycle to Ballard to visit my Captain. Of course, no matter how good the weather is, biking through Ballard itself is always a mess due to the “Missing Link” of the Burke-Gilman trail. I’ve finally given up on risking my life on Shilshole Ave and instead go two blocks up onto Leary Way, which is equally industrial but is 4 lanes, so the drivers are less homicidal.
A bunch of road construction means that Ballard is even more of a nightmare to ride through then usual, but I finally managed to make it. Then, on my way home, I paused at the grocery store to pick up a little friend.
And to close it off, here’s a selection of Instagram posts:
Society Of Three Speeds 