Seeing My Friends Off At DALMAC… The Hard Way
Over the last several years, this morning would go as follows: I’d already have everything packed into the camper. I’d have clothes packed and ready to go into the back of my wife’s SUV and the bikes ready to get loaded on the camper. Doug would show up and we’d load his bike up and head down to the MSU Pavilion to roll out for another DALMAC. I’d take a ton of photos along the way and recount the journey here.
Not this year. This year, we had a tough time with the logistics and by the time we got that straight and we were ready to sign up, I’d been laid off and we had to wonder if this was the best time to spend $700 plus gas and food on the way home and snacks on the way up. It just didn’t make good sense.
So this year, we’re heading down to see everyone off before we head into my wife’s office for a little volunteering on my part and work on hers.
For the most, I’m really quite okay with this. Things are what they are and I don’t feel a need to make it into a bigger deal than it is. On the other hand, there’s definitely a little twinge of sadness that we’ll be missing out on the stories with friends and walking to get ice cream after dinner… there’s definitely part of me that’ll miss being there.
What I am thankful for, however, is that I’d rather ride with my wife. If that couldn’t be, I’m happy to not go.
And that’s a happy, good place to be.
Prepping Our Tandem for Gravel Season
I’m almost, but not quite ready to get the tandem ready for gravel season. The mornings are decidedly colder, our breezes are switching from the south to the north, and it’s that time of year. We’re not done on the road yet, but the end is nigh.
So, to get ready for this, I’ve got the gravel wheels 90% situated. They’re squared away with the exception of the brake rotors. My buddy, Chuck had to shim his out 0.2 mm, so I was anticipating the same. As it turned out (I wrote the opening yesterday morning but found time to work on the bike later in the day), I can cheat the brake caliper setup a little bit so they both fit, but the clearance is pretty tight. I just may end up ordering a shim for the gravel wheels. I haven’t decided yet, though. Second, I’ve got to set the mud guards on the bike so they’re easy on, easy off. The goal is to be able to install or remove them in less than five minutes. If I can make that happen (and it should be doable), I’ll be able to change wheels and add the fenders quickly enough it won’t matter if we switch back and forth a few times while the temps drop and rise. The problem I ran into is that Co-Motion painted the bosses on the frame for the fenders and I A) can’t force the bolt to start and B) don’t have a tap to clean the threads out. That’ll require a friend who has a tap… and I’ve got one. Oh, and I almost forgot! The 45mm wheels are too wide and tall for the fenders to fit even though the fenders are made for 50mm tires. We’re going to have to go down to gravel 40s, or something in that neighborhood, so the tires and the fenders will fit…
There’s only one issue after that. Well, one issue in two parts. The chain, as far as I can tell, has to be 118 links with the 11-40 cassette we’re using for gravel. It needs to be 117 for the 11-32 cassette we use for the road. This isn’t too big a problem, it’s just not as tidy as I’d like it to be… oh, and I have to adjust the set screw (not the hi and lo limiting screws) so the jockey wheels don’t crash into the cassette teeth in the lower gears on the cassette.
Gravel on the left, road on the right…
I tried, rather unsuccessfully, to adjust the derailleur so it’d shift to that 40 tooth cog with the 117 tooth chain but it’s simply not possible without the teeth of the cassette hitting the teeth of the jockey wheels.
So that begs the question, do I get a new cassette, an 11-34 to match the road cassette for rides in our neighborhood, only pulling out the 40 for strange lands or do I switch the chain when I switch the wheels?
I think for now I’m going to opt for switching the chain and wheels because I want that extra two low gears for climbing dirt hills… for those who don’t know, gravel road hills are decidedly, sharply steeper than paved hills. Having the two extra gears is worth switching the chains… and it just so happens I have KMC missing links, which are reusable. For just such a reason.
So, for the time being, until I can pick up a tap, the rig is ready for gravel…
How Many Cycling Miles A Week Do I Need To Lose Weight?
I placed a ball cap my last company gave to me atop my melon after two months of consistent days on the bike to find it was too loose… and I don’t mean a little too loose, I had to move the strap in one “button”. The hat was loose.
I didn’t make the connection at first, but now that I’ve got the gift of hindsight, I realized I’d been riding a lot more of late. It was head fat I’d lost. HEAD FAT!!!
February through June, I was lucky enough to get out when I had a spare hour or two in between work… I managed a paltry 142 miles in February and a preposterous 112 miles in March. April wasn’t much better at just 234 miles, almost exclusively on the weekends. May started looking up with 334 miles and June was well shy of half of my normal mileage at 348 miles… to put that in context, a normal May is approaching 1,000 miles and a June should be north of 1,000.
Then I was laid off, on the 30th of June.
July 1st marked my fattest day on this planet – and I don’t even know how heavy I was. I was too afraid of the scale. I’m going to guess 210 to 215 pounds. My normal summer weight is 170.
I did two things on the first of July. I quit eating out as much and I picked my miles up considerably. July was 613 miles and I should beat that in August. Again, normally I’d be racking up around a thousand miles a month in the heat of the summer, but I’ve been busy with other work around the house and doing a lot of volunteer work for my wife, and that has limited my ride time.
After some normal high-mileage weeks (150+), I checked the scale the other day and I’m down under 195. I’ve lost around 15 pounds in just two months.
If I eat like a sane human being, which I’ll be the first to admit isn’t always easy, I can drop weight when I start hitting that 20-miles a day mark in a month. When I’m averaging three or four, I might as well start telling donut shop lies about why I’m overweight.
Speaking of donut shop lies, I had a funny moment the other day. I was talking with someone and weight came up, along with all of the normal excuses. I waited for them to finish with their laundry list of reasons and simply said, “I’m lucky. My reason is simple; I eat too much of the wrong $#!+.”
It really is that simple. Oh, I can make it complex with a bunch of other reasons, but I do better when I concentrate on what I can change that will make a difference; ride more, eat less. Was ever thus.
To Mud Guard, Or Not To Mud Guard? That Is The Question!
We had fenders, or mud guards as the cool kids say, on our first tandem. We’ve since gone without and haven’t had any issues other than a few dried-on worms that have bugged me when cleaning the bike.
However, our tandem came with a matching set of mud guards that might work with our gravel wheels (I have a feeling some fabrication/modification might be necessary). I don’t thing there’s any question, if we’re riding the bike on gravel, I want fenders on the bike to keep the cleanup to a minimum and to keep the bottom bracket bearings as safe and clean as is possible. There’s nothing better than mud guards for that.
In fact, on our old tandem, we’ve been caught out in massive rain storms (on paved roads) and I barely had to wipe the bike down afterwards. Everyone else was stripping their bikes down to get the grit out.
I got the gravel wheels ready for the season (I still have to see if I need to shim the rotors, there’s a fair chance I will), so I’m going to have to take a few hours next weekend to fit the wheels to the brake calipers, then work on getting the fenders mounted so we’re ready for gravel season. The morning temperatures are saying gravel season is right around the corner!
Well, I suppose that’s good news for my Tasmanian friend…
I Don’t Know About A Day Off, But I’m TIRED!
My wife and I have been putting in a driveway extension for the new camper. Actually, after three and a half yards of 23A crushed limestone and a yard of fill dirt and a half-yard of crushed concrete, we’re finally done.
It was all hand-shoveled into place and leveled with a lawn tractor and roller.
In the middle of that, our neighbor had a tree taken down on the edge of our property line and the first half came down on our yard and the losers who knocked the tree down didn’t clean up after themselves. I’ve got trenches in the yard and about 2,000 twigs to rake up… amidst enough poison oak to have me itching till 2034. I only started on that. It’s going to take a minute to get through that mess. The neighbor lady is a very good friend of ours and a kind old widow – there’s no animosity over what happened. Well, not directed at her, anyway.
On top of all of that, my in-laws are dealing with the final vestiges of covid before they move back in.
Oh, and I’ve missed one day on the bike in two weeks if memory serves. I don’t know how I ever had time to work, though I’m going to have to hurry up with these projects. It doesn’t appear I’ll have much time left unemployed. Fingers crossed there.
Oh, and on top of that, it’s time to get the gravel wheels ready for the tandem and clean the drivetrain… I’ll have more tomorrow… if my arms work after today! Chuckle.
No News is Good News Pt 785
I stopped listening to the news on the radio in March of 2022. I stopped watching the news on the television years before. I reported that here shortly after the decision was made to stop the news altogether sometime in March of 2022.
I have to tell you, after a year-and-a-half, I’m a much happier guy.
It’s comical to me that most people think their brand of news is above “the game” they play with false news and only giving one half of the story. The vast left-wing conspiracy is famous for this. The vast right-wing conspiracy simply ran with it.
The truth is found in a mishmash of Fox News and CNN/CBS/NBC/ETC.. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to see things from the other perspective and it’s been quite enjoyable.
Anyway, whatever you believe, try a little time not being right. It’s quite glorious and freeing.
Why Does Tubeless Feel Like More Work Than It’s Worth?
I was all fired up and excited to try out tubeless tires for gravel roads on our tandem and with gravel season just around the corner in a few weeks, I figured I’d get our gravel wheels out and give them the once-over.
The tires had long gone flat after having set in the garage for the last couple of months, so I started this little escapade by pumping them up. The front wheel held, but the rear wheel flatted in a matter of minutes. Not to worry, I thought! I headed to the Trek store to pick up some sealant and a presta adapter nozzle so I could use my.
Back home, I squirted some sealant into the tire, re-set the bead and went to air it up with the first compressor. That wasn’t getting the air in fast enough, so I tried my trim gun compressor. Same thing, and sealant had blown out everywhere.
And that’s exactly how long it took me to realize what an unholy crock of shit I’d gotten myself into.
Look, I’m sure I was doing a few things wrong and if I’d watched a YouTube video or two I might have gotten it right, but that’s just the point. I’m a pretty astute bike guy, and if I can work on tires with the knowledge I’ve got, with two different compressors, and it still doesn’t work out?
I just can’t see how it’s worth the headache.
So I started getting the wheel set for tubes. I pulled the tire off and the tubeless tape was a mess. Bunched up here, peeling away there, dried latex in two or three spots… no wonder it was a mess from the beginning. Now I’m wondering just how bad the front tire is because that thing goes flat in a matter of two days.
For the time being, until I get my head wrapped around this a little better (and maybe pick up some better tools), I’m sticking with tubes. They aren’t perfect, of course, but they aren’t the mess that tubeless can be, either.
Have A Look At This…
This is my friend from Ireland. He’s a talented documentarian and his newest is worth the watch. Enjoy.
Here’s the post that goes along with the video…
Getting My Year Straightened Out…
I was looking over Strava for the beginning of the year when I was working in Lansing. It took me quite a while to get into a rhythm… well, no, I never got into a rhythm. I shoehorned in miles where I could. Through June I had just barely 1,000 miles – that’s March, April, May and all of June. 1,032 miles. My average June is a little more than that total. Same for May.
I’ve rebounded since the first of July and have managed to add another 1,400 miles to that total and I’m starting to look a little less like a sausage in my kit. It’s amazing how little walking does when one eats like I was still hitting 1,000 miles a month. I walked all day for work, but I packed on the pounds like a bear getting ready for hibernation.
I’d been given a ball cap by the last company that I used to wear when I didn’t have my hard hat on and I went to put it on the other day… it dropped over my eyes it was so loose. Friends, I lost head fat over the last two months. What a mess.
Anyway, I’m back on the horse again and cracking out the miles at a decent clip. I have no clue what I’ll end up with for the year, but it looks like the year will end better than it started.
Fingers crossed.
After talking with my wife yesterday, it’s time to get the gravel wheels ready for the tandem… it’s almost that time of year!
A Fantastic 2023 A100
We had more riders pre-registered this year than rode one of the seven routes of the Assenmacher 100 last year – the weather report last year showed rain on the third Sunday of August for more than a week and right up until an hour before the ride… and the day ended up being partly cloudy and wonderful.
This year, they were calling for it to be hot and sunny – standard fare for a Michigan summer, so pre-registration was up.
The volunteer part was smoother on the front end. Normally my wife and I have some late nights on the days before, but things worked out pretty well for us – and my wife put into affect some time savers at the end of last year’s ride that really paid off this year.
My wife rolled out a little earlier than I did because she had setting up to do and I had to tend to my Trek. I left about 20 minutes later, my bike in the back.
Setup was pretty simple and I helped with registration right up till it was just fifteen minutes to roll. I kissed my wife and told her I loved her and pedaled off with a new crew. This year we had Trek of Grand Blanc show up with their store manager and a couple of mechanics who addressed bike issues and brought their lineup to show prospective customers. They did an excellent job getting (or keeping) a few bikes on the road… and this year’s lineup was drool-worthy.
I wasn’t riding with the fast crowd this year, for the first time.
The start was casual, a little too casual for my liking but I settled into it quickly. Unlike other years, there was laughter and talking and catching up… all of that stuff you can only do three words at a time at 25-mph. It was unnerving, yet… fantastic!
Then the A Group buzzed by. At first, I wasn’t going to bounce. By the time the middle of the pack had gone by, I was itchy. Before the last of the As was by, I was out of the saddle and latching on the the back of the A pack.
It was as I expected, fast, fun and a lot easier than 21 to 25-mph should be because I was so far back in the group. Normally, I’d be in the front ten because it’s a lot smoother but a little more work. The back, at least this year, was pretty fantastic.
We caught Mike and Diane about five miles later and they jumped on the back as we cruised down the road. We were about ten miles in and cruising was easy and fun. At twelve miles, we pulled into the first rest stop and parted ways with the A group for the day. We waited for the tandems and the rest of our group to show up, maybe ten minutes or so before rolling out again.
The gang caught up and we headed out, 20% of the ride already done. We had most of the headwind up front and kept the pace at a civil 18 to 20-mph. We talked the whole way, even when Joe and I were taking a long-ish turn up front we were talking about how cool it was to be on a ride where you could actually have a conversation at the front of the group.
We took long turns up front and short stops at the rest stops and made our way around the 65-mile route. Mike was having fun the whole way – and that really did a lot of our hearts good. Mike’s had it rough in the last five or six years, so it was nice to see him in a big group having fun.
Toward the end, about six miles left, I’d worked my way to the front and Mike sidled up and said something to the effect of, alright young fella, it’s all you all the way in. At first I was going to take a few of those miles and head to the back… but thought better about it and took the challenge. I stayed up front to the parking lot.
Having volunteered for a bunch of rides, I can say there’s no such thing as a perfect event. The Assenmacher 100, with its few minor flaws, from reports, was as close as we get, though. It was a fantastic day, though a little hot. We ended up doubling our turnout from last year, so it was decent turnout with only a minor hiccup here or there.
I never would have guessed you could have as much fun without hammering the whole way. The 2023 A100 will go down as one of my favorites.
Fit Recovery 