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.

Touring Test Ride Outlook & Details

As of this writing, the forecast for Sunday is partly cloudy, high near 90 degrees, 10% rain chance. Widely scattered “pop up” thundershowers may be expected.

A quick word about forecasts. Folks, this is north Georgia. If the forecast rain chance is 0%, then you can figure you have about a 30% chance of getting wet in a two hour afternoon ride. If you cancel on the threat of rain, you just aren’t going to ride much. (grins)

This is a test of your ability to handle carrying your load, with your gearing, under likely weather conditions, and with a good bit of climbing thrown in. So use some of that cargo weight you need to carry to pack a rain jacket and maybe a helmet cover and cycling cap.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I’d also strongly recommend carrying a good strong (spf 45+) sunscreen. Apply liberally before the ride, and plan to re-apply somewhere around the middle of the trip. We will be starting at 1:00 PM, with old Sol nearly directly overhead. If it’s overcast, you can get on nasty “surprise burn.”

Plan to carry plenty of water. Remember, you can use water (if you have it) for drinking, and to dowse yourself for cooling.

From previous posts, you should have a pretty good idea of what to bring and the kind of pace we’ll be keeping. To this I’ll add, this will likely be the first really warm ride for many of us, so we’ll want to keep the pace very moderate. I see no sense in racing like demons, while risking injury or health.

Upcoming Test Rides:

I’d like to get in a good longer ride and maybe a mountain workout to boot. So I’m thinking of doing two more “Test Rides” before we actually go.

So how about this? In addition to this coming Sunday's Touring Test Ride to Pine Mountain, I'm adding the following two Test Rides.

65 mile Audax Tune Up Loop
Date: Sunday 21 June
Start/Finish at Bicycles Unlimited
Start Time: 11:00 AM
Course Conditions: Hilly and rolling
Pace: Relaxed Touring ~~ Approx 12 mph rolling average
Weather Minimums: We’re going
Requirements: Be there. Wear a helmet. Ride the bike and load you will bring to the tour

Dahlonega, GA Triple Gap Loop
Date: Sunday 5 July
Start/Finish: Walmart Parking Lot, Dahlonega
Start Time: 9:00 AM
Course Conditions: Mountains
Pace: Whatever gets it done
Weather Minimums: We’re going
Requirements: Be there. Wear a helmet. Ride the bike and load you will bring to the tour

There! By the time we’ve done all that we ought to pretty well know whether we are ready for Cheaha or not.

Looking forward to seeing you Sunday.

Test Ride Cues and Such

Here’s the cue sheet for this Sunday’s “Touring Test Ride.”

Miles Leg Turn Comment
0.0 0.0 L out of store onto GA-85/74
6.8 6.8 R bear right onto GA-85 alt
17.2 10.4 S traffic light in Warm Springs (stores)

20.7 3.5 S summit of Pine Mountain
22.4 1.7 x reverse course
24.1 1.7 S summit Pine Mountain

27.6 3.5 S traffic light in Warm Springs (stores)
36.2 8.4 S Cross GA-109 (stores)
37.6 1.4 L onto GA-85/74

44.8 7.2 FINISH!!!


By now, some of you (ones who are a bit familiar with Georgia geography) will have figured out that this ride is going to be, in a word, hilly!

That’s right. It’s deliberate. The idea is to find out if you are geared for the trip. Please do this right. Bring the bike you intend to ride. Have it geared the way you expect to ride it. Pack it for the actual Tour. (maybe even add a little bit of weight) Then see how you do. If you get stuck, you won’t be that far from help.

If you need to make changes, now is the time to find it out.

Do plan to ride this in whatever the weather brings. There is no way to know what we will experience in July.

This should be both educational and fun!

Touring Test Ride

Remember, the venue has changed!

Same day and time, Sunday, 7 June, at 1:00 PM (sharp). But the Location changes.

We’re going to meet in Gay, GA, about 22 miles south of Peachtree City.
GPS cooridnates: N 33 05.558 W 84 34.429

To find the meeting location, travel south on GA-85 until you come to the traffic light in the heart of Gay. Continue through the light. There is a service station and store on the left, just at the intersection with Flat Shoals Rd. There’s room to park in the gravel at the apex of the station property. Let’s meet and depart from there.

WHY? We’re still going to do a 45 mile ride, but we want to make it a good sound test of our ability to handle climbing with a touring load. So we’ll head due south on GA-85 to Woodbury. At Woodbury we’ll shift to GA-85 Alt, and proceed to Warm Springs. Once we’re in Warm Springs, we’re going to climb the famous Pine Mountain “wall.” We’ll come back the same way we went out.

Conditions: The ride will go rain or shine. Sunscreen strongly recommended. Helmets required.

Pace is what you make of it, but I’d like it if we stayed together and rode in a relaxed fashion.

Stops will be where and when they are needed. There are plenty of facilities in Warm Springs. Do remember the store in Gay is pretty unreliable, especially on Sunday.

Cue Sheet: I’ll put a cue sheet up on this blog tomorrow.

Some Organizational Notes

It’s basic, we are planning to ride to Oxford, AL, via the summit of Cheaha. We’ll stay overnight in Oxford. Then we ride home. That means we need to book hotel rooms.

The “Rally Point” in Oxford is on Elm St, GPS coordinates are
N 33 36.134 W 85 49.895

This is just off of AL-21 (also listed as Quintard Dr.) The following are hotels very convenient to the rally point.

Hotel Accomodations:

Comfort Inn
138 Elm St.
Oxford, AL 36203 (256) 831-0860

Motel 6
202 Grace St.
I-20 at AL-21
Oxford, AL 36203 (256) 831-5628 Fax (256) 631-5628

Hampton Inn Anniston/Oxford
1600 Hwy 21 South
Anniston, AL 36203 (256) 835-1492

Econo Lodge (AL434)
25 Elm St
Oxford, AL 36203 (256) 831-9480

I see no particular reason, other than price, to patronize any specific one of these, and I am not recommending, or discouraging anyone from using any particular hotel. This info is provided for convenience only.

That said, I’m willing to act as a “clearing house” if any of you want to double up on rooms. If you do, contact me, at The.road.dragon@gamil.com and let me know that you are interested. I’ll need permission to share your email address. Then I will email any and all who have indicated a similar intent, and you all can then make your own arrangements.

As for services hear the rally point, there are quite a few. These include a convenience store, and…

• Waffle House, just south of Elm St, on Northbound side of AL-21 (Quintard Dr)
• Pizza Express at the rally point on Elm St.
• Outback Steak House, from Rally Point on Elm St turn left on AL-21 (Quintard Dr), then immediate right onto Elm St. Approx 100 yard, Elm forks. Take right fork onto Mill St. and follow Mill St for 0.2 miles to the restaurant.
• Fried Chicken. I saw this when I was scouting the ride, but didn’t get the particulars.

On the tour, we will ride to the rally point. Once we reach that, we will all go our several ways, check into hotels, get food, sleep, and go to the rally point in the morning. Departure from the Oxford Rally point will be at 8:00 EDT. (Remember, Alabama is in Central Time Zone)

Is this starting to get real to you yet?

Mount Your Climbing Gears!

Where we
A) Discuss the theory of gears and climbing
B) Explain how to improve your particular configuration
C) Propose a slightly radical solution to the problem of bike type and gearing.

Below you will find the sections I just listed. I invite you to read or skip the theory as suits you. You will find a set of headings describing the most common road bike gearing configurations. Go to the one that matches your bike to see what you could do to possibly improve your bike’s climbing capabilities. And last, I invite all of you to read and consider the “Radical Proposal.”

Theory of Climbing Gears:

Nomenclature:
Crankset: The assembly including the crank arms, pedals, and the big gears at the front of the bike.
Chainring: one of the big gears on the crankset.
Cassette: The cluster of gears at the back of the bike.
Cog: One individual gear in the cassette.
Tooth: On of the pointy spikey things on a bike gear.
Tooth Count: How many teeth a gear has.
Gear Ratio: Divide the tooth count of the cog into the tooth count of the crank. The number that you get is the Ratio. It tells you how many times you will turn the rear wheel for one turn of the crank. The smaller this number is, the lower your gear is.

This is fairly simple. A lower gear is an easier gear. It’s slower, but it takes a lot less power to turn it. We’ve discussed the idea that you will be carrying more “stuff” on the Cheaha Two Day Tour. That means you will be lifting that stuff, along with your bike, and yourself, up every climb on the ride. Turning a higher rpm (cadence) into an easier gear, will make your day a lot more pleasant.

When you are climbing, you are lifting you and your bicycle (and anything that the bike is carrying) up as well as moving it all forward. The faster you are going forward, the faster you are going up. It’s the lifting that is the difficult part. Lifting mass higher and faster requires more aerobic capacity. That’s the heart and lungs part. If you had perfect legs, you could use just about any gear, and simply slow down until your rate of climb matched your aerobic capacity. The thing is, you don’t. No one does. Being able to turn a lower gear, at a higher cadence keeps you from fatiguing your leg muscles. Slowing your rate of ascent keeps you from going anaerobic. Lower gears let you slow your rate of ascent, while keeping leg effort down, and cadence up. This is a good thing.

Example: Let’s suppose that you have a bike with a lowest gear combination of a 39T chainring and a 25T low cog on your cassette. Further, let’s assume you are riding a bike with 700c wheels.

Your gear ratio is 1.56 to 1. That means you turn the rear wheel 1.56 times for each complete turn of the cranks. At a cadence of 90 rpm you will be doing 11.0 mph.

But suppose that on a particular long climb you find that you are starting to go anaerobic at any speed above 10 mph. Well, to slow to 10 mph, you have to decrease your cadence to 82 rpm. (You can’t downshift, as you are already in your lowest gear.) And the problem is, you must go slower, because you are already anaerobic at this speed.

So you slow down further, and find that at 8.0 mph, your heart rate and breathing rate are high, but comfortable. But now your cadence is down to 65 rpm, and the strain on your legs is getting pretty high.

If you had a 27T on your cassette, you would be doing 10.2 mph at 90 rpm, and 8.0 mph at 72 rpm. Better, but still not great. That’s a lot of legwork, and this is a long climb.

So what if you had a 30T chainring to go with that 27T low cog. Now your gear ratio is down to 1.11. You find that at 90 rpm you are going 7.8 mph. Your heart is not racing, breathing is easy, and your legs aren’t working nearly so hard.

That’s why you want lower gears!

Just incidentally, I’ve found from experience that a low gear ratio of 1 to 1, or less is nearly ideal for this type of riding.

Bike Improvements by gearing types:

“Standard Road Double”
2 chainrings by 9 speed rear.
Chainrings = 53T – 39T
Cassette = 12 – 25
Lowest Ratio = 1.56 to 1
This bike could benefit from a switch of the cassette to a 12.27 for a low ratio of 1.44 to 1. Or, change the crankset to a compact double 50T – 34T. This configuration can yeild the following results.
12-25 cassette ~~ lowest gear ration is a decent 1.36 to 1.
12-27 cassette ~~ lowest gear ration is better, at 1.26 to 1
But there’s an old trick that’s possible with this driveline. Replace the cassette with a mountain bike 11-32. This will require replacing the derailler with a long cage model, and replacing the chain with a longer one. Now let’s see what that does for us.
With the 53T – 39T and a 32T low gear ~~ lowest ratio is 1.19 to 1. Note that this is even lower (at less expense) than using compact double and a 12-27. Cool.

“Standard Road Triple”
3 chainrings by 8 or 9 speed rear.
Chainrings = 52T – 42T – 30T
Cassette = 12 – 25 or 13 – 27
With the 13 – 27 cassette, this bike would have a low gear ratio of 1.11 to 1. Getting there, but it’s possible to improve. If a mountain bike cassette of 11 – 32 where installed (along with the necessary chain and derailler changes) the low gear would be 0.94 to 1. Now that’s getting there!

Compact Double:
2 chainrings by 9 speed rear.
Chainrings = 50T – 34T
Cassette = 12 – 25 or 12 – 27
This isn’t too bad. The lowest ratio, with the 12 – 27 cassette would be 1.26 to 1. Just a bit high for the kind of riding we are planning. But that 9 speed rear lends itself nicely to the replacement with a mountain bike 11 – 32 cassette. The new lowest ratio is 1.06 to 1.

Compact Double:
2 chainrings by 10 speed rear.
Chainrings = 50T – 34T
Cassette = 12 – 25 or 12 – 27
For our purposes, this is a “problem bike.” That crank, along with a 12 – 27 cassette, would yeild a low ratio of 1.26 to 1. This is “doable,” but still a bit high. The problem is, at the time of this writing, there is no lower 10 speed cassette. Mounting a 9 speed cassette creates huge shifting problems. Replacing the shifters, as well as the derailler and chain, would do it, but that becomes prohibitively expensive. The thing is, attempting to do a make over on this kind of bike really doesn’t make sense. You mess up a perfectly good bike, at great expense.

For that matter, some of the possible mods I’ve discussed above, just might not appeal to you. You have a bike. If you like the bike, there are reasons for that. Why risk messing it up? That leads us to…

A Radical Proposal:
Why not get another bike? I often make the case for owning two (or more) bikes. The increased reliability and utility of a two (or more) bike stable are strong arguments. But, if you are considering touring, commuting, or other utility cycling, and you don’t want to mess with your (or mess up) your current ride, this is a good time to consider.

Further, some of the modifications I’ve listed above actually come close to the price of a new bike. Interested? Read on.

Giant makes a line of bikes they call the Defy and Avail. The Defy is the men’s version, the Avail is the women’s version. These are a bit more relaxed geometry than their more racing oriented bikes. In effect the Defy/Avail are already “light tourists”! They come with a road triple and an eight speed 12T – 26T cassette. They have the eyelets and brazeons to mount racks and fenders. The entry level bikes (Defy 3 and Avail 3) in this series are priced at about $800. The next better bikes (Defy 2 and Avail 2) are priced at about $1000.

If I were considering this, I’d plan to get the Defy 3, replace the cassette with an 11t – 32T mountain bike part, and replace the chain and derailler at the same time. (I’d keep the original chain and cassette for later use. But sell the derailler.) The addition of a rack (possibly fenders), a few tweaks, and presto! For a price of about $1000 to $1200, my new light tourist is ready to go tackle Cheaha! It’s an idea worth considering.

Next week we'll get into more on test riding and training, along with some more organizational details.

Training and Testing for a Group Tour

The basics of the Cheaha Two Day Tour pretyt much decide the shape of the ride. We’re going to go about 114 miles on the first day. That day will include the ascent up Cheaha Mountain between mile 80 and mile 100. Then there’s a 14 mile descent and trek into Oxford, Alabama. The second day we will be riding back home, about 97 miles. Both days will have their share of hilly terrain.

I’d like to get on the road early enough to ride in the cooler part of the day, and to insure that we have ample time to do the trips in daylight. Consider, this is a self-supported tour, so we will all be riding fairly heavy bikes. That means that we should plan on a rolling average of between 11 mph and 13 mph. This translates to a first day of between 8.75 and 10.5 hours on the bike, or a total of 11 to 13 hours. We can go faster than this if, and only if, everyone agrees to accept a higher pace.

I, for one will not readily go faster during the first half of the day. I’ve found that early enthusiasm leads to a long and painful day.

So how do we each get ready for this?

First off, get your bike ready. Install the equipment you plan to carry. Pack your bike. Weigh the whole shebang. Then go ride it! Now you know what you will be working with. Start riding regularly with a load just like that. (You don’t have to carry exactly what you will be doing on the tour, but weight the bike down to match touring trim.) In fact, add some weight!

That’s right, add some additional weight to your load. Do this gradually over a period of about three weeks. This lets you gradually get used to the whole pack. Your objective is to test to see if you can maintain the needed average speeds, over hilly ground, for a prolonged time. If you are faster, well and good. Now test to see if you can slow down to the expected group speed. (This last, surprisingly, can be oddly hard to do.)

While you are at this fitness training and testing, be testing the equipment you plan to carry. Make sure it all works, and that you can use all of it. (Remember, there is no absolute guarantee that you will have help on hand when you need it. Expect the best, plan for the worst.)

To aid in all of this, I’ll be doing some group “Touring Test Rides.” Expect more info on these soon. (How about a mountain stage as one of these? Anyone interested?)