Sunday Final Preps

Wherein we anticipate some and clarify a bit.

Weather outlook. Looks like a nice day with a fair chance of getting wet sometime during the afternoon. There’s now a 30% chance of widely scattered T-showers.

The temps will be mid 70s to mid eighties. Yup, looks like rain jacket and sunscreen.

I might add, the only way to learn to ride in weather is… Ride in weather and learn. Better to do it close to home and under more controlled conditions.

Training clarification:
In previous posts I’ve recommended that we each start riding with a heavier bike than we actually plan to take on the Cheaha Two Day Tour. The observant reader will remember that we suggested packing the bike, making any modifications necessary, doing a trial pack, and then weighing the load. From that, you could determine how much weight you would be carrying.

Here’s a bit of that clarification. The “load” did not mean weighing the entire rig. Your bike, water, bags, etc are the base. They won’t change. The “load” is what you will be packing.

I suggested that, for training purposes, we then load the bike to a bit heavier than the intended packout, while looking at pairing down the “load” weight. This is a good strategy, but like most things in life, it can be carried too far. I’ve had a couple of comments that indicated that folks were thinking in terms of an increase in total weight, and that increase was in the range of 15% to 20%.

Personally, I would go with a higher percentage of the “load.” But not of the total vehicle weight.

Example:

• My bike, with pump, fenders, lights, computers, and bag weighs in at something like 35 pounds.
• Add water and the basic vehicle weight comes close to 40 pounds.
• My trial load tips the scale at 15 pounds.
• Loaded bike then weighs 55 pounds.
• 15% of loaded bike is 8.25 pounds
• 25% of load is 3.75 pounds
• So adding 3.75 pounds to my target tour weight brings the training weight to a svelte 58.75 pounds.
• The sharp eyed among us will quickly see that this is a good bit less than 63.25 pounds.

What’s the point? Trust me, on a longer ride every pound counts. Admittedly this is a different mindset than the speed demon gram nazi who is looking for grams of weight.

Incidentally, for purposes of comparison, a penny weighs about three grams.

Gratuitous Hint: On a tour, try to spend your coins. I’ve found that I can accumulate a pound to a pound and a half of change in a busy day of distance riding. Spending it helps keep the dead weight down.

100 pennies weigh 300 grams or about 10.5 ounces
A one dollar bill weighs about 0.25 grams

What we’re getting at is that you don’t need to over do the increased training weight bit. Remember, if you are carrying one or two extra pounds, you will be carrying them all day long.

Can’t wait to get on the bike for this one! Looks to me like a truly great day, and a really nice route.