New Seat Coming and Group Rides

I was finally able to get my bike from my sister's house in Danbury, CT yesterday.  Coming back was a beautiful ride.  It was a little chilly starting out, so I threw on my jacket, and near the end it started to get a little overcast, but nothing really came of it.  To top it all off, it didn't take anywhere near as long as I thought it was going to take, given the amount of time it took me to get down there.  The icing on the cake was the fact that I wasn't anywhere near as sore as I was on the trip down.

Still, I'm getting a better seat for the bike.

Or, I should say, I ordered a better seat for the bike and now I'm waiting for it to come in.  According to UPS, the new seat should arrive on Sept. 8th; which means that I will be able to break it in that weekend when I ride the route for my group ride on the 17th.  (I'll post more about the seat, and some pictures, after I've installed it.)  Hopefully I'll be able to get someone to come with me, so that I can test it out in a "group ride" situation.

Speaking of; I had a good ride today (not great, since it didn't last that long).  I met up with another member of the Wetrowest Riders group I'm a member of.  Brenda was experienced leading group rides: me not so much.  She offered to teach me the ropes so that I'd be ready for the 17th ride to Mt. Greylock.  We met up for breakfast in Arlington, then headed out Rt. 117 for a bit so I could get a feel for leading rides.  Overall, she seemed to think I did all right.

I'm still nervous about the ride, since I have to do a lot more planning (this is an object lesson in riding the route far in advance of the actual ride, several times, so as to not be as nervous about the route), but I should be ok to lead the trip, particularly if Brenda gets a friend of hers to come along who has a headset, and can ride sweep.

Note: For those who are unfamiliar, a "Sweep" is the last rider in a group, and is the one who makes sure to keep the stragglers from getting lost or separated from the group.

As I do not have communications gear yet, and I have to lead the ride, Brenda has offered to be a relay rider to communicate with the sweep rider and let me know when the sweep has everyone rounded up if we have to stop for some reason.  That alone makes me feel better.

The two last major pieces of setup I have to do:
1) Figure out all of the stops that we will need to make and communicate them, and some basic instructions, to the rest of the riders in the group
2) Prepare a small prep talk for the day of the ride so everyone is on the same page.

This should be a blast.  I can't wait.