During the wild flower season Shell Creek Road becomes a zoo with loads of cars and people. The rest of the year it's pretty idyllic for cycling.

Here's the link to my mom's flickr page. She's an accomplished birder here in SLO County. Liz https://www.flickr.com/photos/slomaggie/

Yes, on this bike anyway I probably ride 89-90% of the time in the middle chainring, so it’s no surprise it’s so worn. It’s not much of an impediment to do without it as long as the outer and inner are fine.

Thanks, Bob. A big relief doesn’t begin to describe it.

It’s a shock how different it is. Now I just have to find my climbing legs again. I put them in storage about a year ago.

You and me both. Its like night and day.

Glad to hear you're feeling good on the climbs!

Dodie here - first, really glad to hear your ablation seems to have done the trick. Excellent news. Secondly...I seem to spend almost all my time in the smallest front ring, using my lower 3-4 rear gears only. Any time my gears start slipping it is because of all the wear on that limited range of cogs, but the whole drive train then seems to need replacing. Is your middle ring your preferred choice? At least you can go up or down a ring until you can get a replacement of all of them.

Looks like a nice place to explore.

Lots of great photos here but the highlight of this post has to be the update about how well you’re feeling. So good to hear. That must be a tremendous relief.

An American tradition...

Chain rings... Guessing they are Al alloy. If possible SS replacement would be far more durable. My Al middle ring wore out at a little over 3k miles. Really worth the tiny weight penalty in return for reliability in my opinion.

Glad that great big heart of yours is doing just fine.

Yup. That amuses me too.

Repetitive nouns? :-)