Getting Ready

April 8, 2008

Today I rode with a group of 20 friends in the morning. There are a few former racers and most riders are over 60. This not a slow ride on a flat course we average 20 mph for 30 miles. Well, two 15 mile rides with a stop at Starbucks. It is a fun ride. My ride went very well today and even though the ride was about 1% of the distance across America it helped my confidence. (It is interesting to think that by doing this ride every week for two years, I would ride as far as my cross-country trip. Many riders have done this ride religiously for 5, in some cases 10 years. Just think about it going across America in 2 hr pieces ridden, once a week.)

My only trouble was caused by changing my tires yesterday. As I started out the back brake squeaked and the bike didn’t track like it should have. Luckily, quick stop to reposition the rear wheel fixed the problem. I have decided to ride Specialized

Roubaix Armadillo tires this year. Based on today’s ride the give a good, responsive ride and maybe I will not get four flats on the first day, like I did last year.

I am also using Mavic Ksyrium SSC SL wheels. I have ridden with these wheels for 6 months and I like them a lot! I would normally be reluctant to use any wheel with ‘esoteric’ spokes, but these are the same wheels that the tour leader rode last year. The other reason for the new wheels is that they came on the Roark custom bicycle I purchased last summer. We stopped in the Roark factory in Indiana during last year’s ride. After taking a good deal of ribbing over my ‘prehistoric’ bicycle last year (it was only built in 1983), I decided to buy a new bicycle. As I was impressed with the Roark operation and all three leaders on last year’s tour rode Roark bicycles, I decided to buy one too. After 6 months and a little over 2500 miles, I am still in love with my new titanium bicycle.

Other changes for this year include a Garmin GPS unit and a bell. Boy is the GPS a cool toy. I can load the entire route across America into it. I can display road or topological maps. It can compute and display everything you could imagine, with the exception of cadence (how fast I pedal). Technology is wonderful. However on Sunday, I forgot to turn it off when I got on the train after my ride to Davis CA. All of the sudden, I noticed that my average speed was increasing rapidly and that my maximum speed was 80 mph. As for the bell, I have come to the conclusion that a bell is the best way to warn pedestrians, joggers, dog walkers, and casual cyclists of by presence behind them. As for people with Ipods, there is some chance that they will my bell, and I believe that a speaker system with a train whistle would be overkill. I also do not want them to drop dead from freight in front of me.

So, I guess I am getting ready for another adventure.