Sign I’ve Not Yet Turned into a “Real” Bike Rider

Tuesday night, I went out to the garage to mount my new tires on my bike. The old tires had great, but bald as cue balls, and I was eager to run the new rubber.

I decided to start with the back wheel, since – what with the cassette and rear derailleur – it’s messier than the front. Though I removed the old tire quickly enough, I then wasted 45 minutes trying to get the (very, very tight) new tire on the wheel. When I finally succeeded and put the wheel back on the bike, I realized that I’d installed the tire backwards – with the tread direction running opposite to the actual direction of the wheel’s rotation – and that the fully-inflated tire rubbed against my rear fender. Off came the wheel again, so I could take off the fender (two minutes) and reverse the tire (five minutes!). When I inflated the tire, I discovered that I had somehow punctured the tube. Take off the wheel and the tire again, remove the ruined tube, install a new tube, remount the tire, remount the wheel. I probably would have harmed myself if, after all that, the wheel didn’t turn, but thank goodness, it did.

Having learned my lesson from the hour’s struggle with the real wheel, I needed only fifteen minutes to install the new tire on the front wheel – oriented correctly and without ruining another tube.

I’m not eager to do any further wheel work anytime soon.

Signs I’m Turning into a “Real” Bike Rider

I was excited all day about the trip to my bike shop to get my machine back after its spring tune up.
I (semi-ironically) call my bike a “machine.”
I tested several saddles last year and chose one based on comfort and weight.
I call a seat a “saddle.”
I talk about “time in the saddle” when I ride.
I call the shop where I bought my rig “my shop.”
I (semi-ironically) call my bike a “rig.”
I am recognized by voice when I call the shop.
I bought new tires after being out-descended by my riding partner on my last ride.
I care about being out-descended.
I turned down the shop owner’s offer to put my new tires on my rig so that I could do it myself.
I bought a floor pump so that I can adjust tire pressure by 5-psi increments.
I can tell the difference between 45 psi and 50 psi.
I washed my cleats by hand after my last ride.
I prefer one brand of cycling shorts to another, and my bib knickers to either.
I own a pair of arm warmers, and understand their function.
I can go faster, further than I could last year at this time.

Note: The biggest sign that I’m not yet a “real” bike rider is that I only have one bike.

Gravel Miles

Off in the Distance, A Wall

I hit the roads with my cycling friend Joe today for a hoped-for 60 miles of gravel. We came in near that mileage, with four hours in the saddle. The conditions were magnificent: windless, relatively cool, mostly sunny. We hit some interesting roads, too: an outbound route of endless rollers and the occasional wall, nice connectors running between small prairie lakes, and – most memorably – a “low maintenance road” that was little more than a mile of thick mud. I jammed up both wheels – twice. We probably needed a half hour to navigate that section, and almost that long to knock the mud out of our cleats when we finally stopped, a few miles later, at Franke’s Bakery in the tiny town of Montgomery. The kolacky went down easily.
Franke's Bakery (Montgomery, MN)

The roll back home put us mostly on pavement, but we made excellent time back to Northfield. I was surprised at how good I felt – but as Shannon reminded me when I got home, “You should have felt good. You weren’t riding into 35mph winds!” I realize that that’s true. I also realize that it’s time to break out the sunscreen.
Proto-tan - in MARCH?

Glorious Gravel

Ride Road

Today I left work early to ride for a couple hours. Conditions were pretty much perfect, so the outing promised to be great. I was surprised by just how great I felt, though. I did a simple out-and-back 30-mile course (flat in the first and last thirds, fairly hilly in the middle) in a hair under two hours, for an average speed that well exceeds the speed at which I was riding last March. I hope this bodes well for the gravel centuries later in the spring. Even if it doesn’t, this was a great time.

Plus also, I got both some excellent helmet hair and great pad marks on my forehead.

Post-ride Head

(Cross posted to my gravel-riding blog, Think Gravel.)

In the Bag

I’m not much for great clothes (except maybe shoes) or fine food and drink (except maybe pizza and beer), but I do like bags – backpacks, shoulder bags, fanny waist packs, and so forth. Over the last few years, my collection had grown steadily, so in January I resolved to cut back. I gave away a waist pack from Lowe Alpine (nice, ancient, and unused), then used a great Carleton listserv to sell an LL Bean backpack (nice but unused), an Eddie Bauer attache case (nice but unused), a Mountainsmith daypack (nice but unused), and my custom Timbuk2 messenger bag (nice and used, but too small). The Timbuk2 has been my mainstay for a couple years, the bag I strapped on my back every day for the ride to work. The bag never quite worked for me, though: I was always squeezing necessities (iPad, lunch, gym clothes) into it or leaving them out.

So while it was a bit tough to give up these bags, the sales garnered enough money to buy a new custom messenger bag from a new San Francisco bag maker, Rickshaw. The new bag arrived today. It’s much less tricked out with pockets and such than my old Timbuk2 bag, but the simplicity is nice, the construction seems solid, and it appears to be plenty big enough:
New Bag

Countdown to the Almanzo!

Today, I was supposed to compete in the first of two ski races this winter, the 26k classic race at the City of Lakes Loppet in Minneapolis. I was scheduled to ski the 42k classic race at the Mora Vasaloppet next weekend. When I registered for these races last summer, I was very, very excited to be doing two races, including the marathon-length Vasaloppet.

Then arrived the horrible winter of 2011-2012 happened. The lack of snow kept me from training and hurt both races: the CoLL race shortened and staged on a short loop in Theodore Wirth Park earlier today, and the Vasaloppet was canceled outright. I didn’t even bother to go up to Minneapolis for the CoLL. I have no ski fitness at all, and skiing laps on a golf course didn’t sound appealing.

Trying to put a positive sporting spin on the day, though, I did go for an hour-long gravel ride – kicking off my training for the Almanzo 100 on Saturday, May 19.
Gravel Ride

It was a solid ride – not long, by any means, but I averaged just over 15mph and, most importantly, I felt pretty good, except for my frosted toes. I can’t wait to do some serious training over the next three months.

Christmas Gravel

If Mother Nature respected my wishes, She would have blanketed southern Minnesota in snow six weeks ago. In fact, I would have been happy with snow six days ago. But we’re still snowless here, so I figured that a solid gravel-road ride could stand in for my three-year streak of skiing on Christmas Day.

Christmas Gravel

It sure did. The bright yellow sun and 40°F temperature were nice; the 20-mph westerly wind and my disturbing lack of fitness were less so. But any time spent riding is time well spent! The gravel was dry and pleasingly fast, the lack of clouds or foliage made for endless vistas, and there was plenty of fresh cold air to inhale.

Fall Gravel

Wednesday, I took the day off to do a long gravel ride, my first substantial bike outing after the Almanzo way back in May. I had initially intended to do an all-day century, but then I decided that my legs probably couldn’t handle a hundred miles of gravel cycling. Luckily, the guys down at my bike shop had just done a nice 50-mile tour in my neck of the woodsa ride I hadn’t been able to do at the time, but that seemed like just the ticket for Wednesday.

And it was. On short notice, a friend decided to come along for the ride, which made the day a lot more fun than a solo half-century would have been, especially during a few intermittent sprinkles and a stiff wind at the end. I wound up riding 57 miles in five hours, which felt just right for the day. And the route itself was great: quite a few miles of gravel roads I knew, but even more on roads that were new to me – including two stretches of “minimum maintenance” road that were really glorified trails. The first was steep, but doable:
Shady Lane Trail

The second started easy and finished hard, with a badly washed-out section that we could not ride (but that others can!):
Bow Trail

These tough sections were more than balanced out by a lot of rolling gravel roads that were tiring, but not brutal.
County 49 Boulevard
We did make a stop at the meat market in Nerstrand, Minnesota, to refuel with some beef jerky that my partner kindly shared with me. Delicious! I hope we can do some more gravel riding next year…

It’s a Wonder

We’re all not killed on the roads every day.

Yesterday, in the course of a couple blocks of my ride home, I saw a woman who didn’t look up from her cell phone for the better part of a full block, another woman who hurtled through a three-way stop at about 35 miles an hour, and two guys in their pickups parked side-by-side having a chat in the middle of the road. A few blocks later (after I checked to make sure my helmet strap was tight) I saw a teenage girl drive a good fifty feet while using both hands to put her hair in a ponytail and then two kids on bikes zoom straight out into the road without so much as checking for traffic.

Almanzo 100 – The Essay

After finishing the Almanzo 100 in May, my thoughts turned – as they do – to writing something about it. My two-part race report was a start (May 16 and May 20), but I was lucky enough to be able to turn those blog posts into something more like a real essay, one that’s just published in XXC Magazine, an online and print publication on long-distance dirt and gravel cycling. I’ve been an avid fan of the magazine for a couple years, so it was especially nice to be able to see my words actually appear in the magazine, which – as you can see below (and in this standalone viewer)- is beautifully edited by Jason Mahokey.

Riding to the Pool

Today was a Very Big Day for bike-riding at our house. After a week’s hard work, Julia mastered the ability of starting all by herself, meaning that she no longer needs a parent to help her start, go, or stop. She wins the day’s Overall Achievement Award.

If anything, Vivi did even better. She’s been trying to ride on two wheels for over a week now, and she’s been making some good progress. But in about half an hour this morning, she turned herself from a soon-to-crash wobbler to a smooth solo rider – first from one driveway to another, then half the block, then the whole block. She wins the day’s Perseverance Prize.

And after the morning’s accomplishments, the girls decided that they wanted to ride to the pool, which is a bit over a mile away. I was a bit dubious that their little legs could go that far (especially after one bike session already), but I figured that I might as well go with their enthusiasm.

So by gum, they did ride to the pool – in their swimsuits and helmets. They only stopped when they had to stop (corners, driveways, etc.), and both of them did great. (I walked, so that I could help Vivi as needed.) After 45 minutes of splashing in the pool and some dinner, we headed back home. They did fine there too, though tiredness made Julia a bit unsteady and Genevieve ready to walk the home stretch.

Still, I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of the girls. They worked so hard at learning to ride, and now they are!
Riding to the Pool