Big Weekend Ride Report

A word about the reason for this past weekend’s events.  Multiple Sclerosis is a wicked and evil disease.  It slowly cripples its victims.  The National Multiple Sclerosis Society uses these Bike MS weekends as a major fundraiser.  Funds from the events go to research for treatments, and a cure.  I sincerely hope that each and every one of you will join me in supporting this effort.  For more information, please go to the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation Georgia Chapter.

Now on to the fun and game!

On Friday, Chris, Curly, Candy and I rode down to Pine Mountain.  Chris and I chose to haul all of our worldly goods and possesions (not really but it sure felt that way!) behind our bikes.   The plan was to drop the trailers once we got to our destination in Pine Mountain.

The Trip Down:  It was a nice ride.  We’re happy to report that it was largely an uneventful trip.  The four of us got under way at about 9:00 A.M. on Friday.  We took our time on the way down.  This was partly because Chris and I were pulling trailers.  (I admit it, I was a bit overloaded.)

The route we chose was about 50 miles from Peachtree City to our lodgings in Pine Mountain.  We arrived in town a bit too early to check in, so we went in search of food, and had a great lunch.

Check in had a minor glitch, but the nice folks at the Pine Mountain Chalets  straightened that out with a minimum of confusion.

After check in, it was time to head back into town and pick up our rider packets.  Then to the street party, and dinner!

(Does it sound like food is a big part of our day?  You betcha!  The calorie requirement for a touring cyclist is absolutely incredible.)

Saturday 105 Miles:  We chose to ride the long route on Saturday.  It is a tough ride under any conditions.  This past Saturday was especially challenging.  The heat came on early and kept on coming on.  I got behind the hydration curve.  I’d been having a pretty good ride through the morning, but by early afternoon, I was pretty well toasted.  I withdrew in good order at the mile 93 break point.  Sometimes it’s best to chose to “live to fight again another day.”

Sunday “60” miles:  What a difference a day makes!  Sunday dawned a bit cooler, and with a lovely cloud cover.  It stayed a lot cooler on the course.  I chose to ride at a bit less strenuous pace, and enjoyed a really nice morning on the bike.  Lot’s of smiling faces all around.

This ended the Cox Atlanta Bike MS event.  We finished up the ride to the cheers of the wonderful volunteers, and packed up the weekend.

Of course the four of us who were doing the weekend tour style had a slightly different experience.  We saw the rest of the crowds leave.  We saw our friends and cabin mates climb into their cars and drive away.  Then we settled down and relaxed for the rest of the day.  We had a pleasant dinner, and retired for the night.

Monday, The trip back home:

It was ind of strange to be down there, at the Pine Mountain Chalets, and see no other riders.  We had the place pretty much to ourselves as we prepared to ride into town for breakfast, and then ride back to Peachtree City.

The weather favored us wonderfully.  It was blessedly cool!  We actually started out in arm warmers and vests.  More, the cool didn’t go away quickly.  The morning stayed cool, and a delightful wind came up to keep us cooled off as we rode.  In fact this was the best riding day of the four.

We chose to take the route over Pine Mountain, and turn north via Warm Springs.  We made a slight detour on top of Pine Mountain, and rode out to Dowdles Knob, to enjoy the view and the park.

Generally, all four of us agreed, we were pleased to find that we weren’t overly tired.  We all felt the effects of being on the bike for four days, but no one was suffering.  Call it a great weekend of super high quality cycling.

Friday Follies ~~ In the Meantime…

Two quick notes:

First:  As you read this (Assuming always that you are reading this sometime during the day on Friday 10 September) I am somewhere south of Peachtree City, on the road, pulling a trailer with way too much stuff, on the way to Pine Mountain.  In other words, I’m having fun!

Second:  On Monday, I’ll be doing the inverse of the above.  I’ll be hauling that trailer back home.  So…  I will be taking a brief hiatus from posting on Monday.  Regular posts will continue on Tuesday 14 September.  (Maybe, I’ll even talk a bit about the weekend.)

 How I got ready for this weekend’s Tour, and Rides.

I don’t remember exactly how the idea germinated and took hold.  If you’ve been reading this blog, you might actually have a better grasp of that than I.  The concept was simple.  “Let’s ride to the Bike MS weekend, do the rides that weekend, and ride back.”  Like I said, the concept was simple.  The execution turns out to be a bit more complex.

The Practical Considerations:  Of course the idea of riding to and from Pine Mountain, in order to get to and from Bike MS seemed simple enough.  I’ve done the trip numerous times in the past.  But the thing is, I plan to stay down there in between.  That means spending nights in some kind of lodging.  It also means I need to have stuff  with me.  What stuff?  You know.  Clothing.  Toiletries.  Bike maintenance supplies.  Stuff.  And so there had to be a way to get the stuff down to the event and back.  Just sort of naturally, I had the thought,  “I can do that with the bike!”

So naturally, I announced that as a goal.  Of course I hadn’t thought it through completely.

But it’s not quite that simple:  I could use my touring bike to haul stuff.  It’s good at that.  But, I want to have a nice, light weight, reasonably fast, fun bike to use for the weekend.  I hit on a solution.  My utility trailer will hook up to almost any bike.  I could pack the trailer with the necessary clothing and gear, and haul it behind the preferred event bike.  This is analogous to hitching an Airstream behind a Ferrari .  Turns out that it seems a bit ridiculous, but it’s doable.  Sort of…

Implications:  You see, on a self-supported tour, I’d be carrying a fair amount of stuff, but for this four day adventure, I’m actually carrying more.  The thing is, I plan to stay in a decent accommodation.  I want to have fresh riding clothing for each of the three days (not counting the trip down).  I want to be able to put on “civvies” for those times I’m not on the bike, but am being sociable.  I want to be able to use the bike as transport while I’m down there.  Every one of those statements implies  something.

Take for instance, the “use the bike for transport” idea.  That one implies that I’ll be riding around Pine Mountain in the dark.  That means adding lights, batteries, and reflective gear to the load.  That’s just an example.

The approach:  I’ve done this the way I usually recommend it be done.  I made a big list.  I included everything that I thought I might want.  I pulled all that together and weighed it.  Then I started subtracting the things I thought I could really do without.  It’s still a beast of a load.  It looks kinda like this…

S'welp me, this is gonna be fun to pull over Pine Mountain!

But once uncoupled, I’ll have the magic bike available.  I’ve done some practice riding with this load.  It’s a tough pull, but doable.  Should be interesting to see what it’s like to drag this down there, a trip of about 60 miles.  Then do a century on Saturday, a metric (approx 65 miles) on Sunday, and drag the trailer back (over the mountain, no less!) on Monday.

See you on Tuesday.

Thursday Thoughts ~~ What Johann Thinks

This is Johann.  I am writing for today, the blog post.  This is because Road Dragon is being very busy making prepared for big weekend tour.

Road Dragon tells me to make a post about some kind of thinking. I am writing to say you should be thinking about this one thing.  This thing is simple.  Do it right!

I am seeing many things, when I am looking at so many of you.  You are riding the bicycle.  That is good.  But so many dirty bikes!  Has there been a rain storm today?  No?  So why is the bike dirty?  Old bike is okay.  Old and dirty is not so good. 

What about the tape on the handle bars?  Why is that so bad looking?  Some wear is okay.  This shows that you are riding the bike.  Big gaps, and raggedy tape is not good.  Did you just crash?  No?  Then why is the bar so messy?

You have bag for under saddle?  Good for you!  Good to have necessary things in right place.  But I see so many bags all wrong.  Bag is all faded from sun.  Very good.  This means the bike is riding.  Bag is wearing out.  Why?  Bag is loose.  Why?  Make it to be fixed up.  Where is self respect?  Loose and wear out bag makes noises.  It rubs shorts and wears them out.  Maybe one day it falls into wheel and makes the crash.  Make it to be fixed up nice.  If not fixed, get new one.  Okay?

I am not understanding this.  I see nice gloves, but not so nice helmet.  This is a very silly thing.  Blisters can be healed.  Busted heads not so much.

Another thing is the clothes.  So some peoples wear just what they wear.  This is okay.  It is good that they get on the bike to go someplace.  They do not have to wear the uniform.  Other peoples are wearing the bicycle uniform all wrong.  Let me tell you some things.  The jersey is never tucked into the shorts.  Do not do this.  Nobody is wanting to see the shorts waistline.  The jersey does the work better when not inside the shorts it is.  Also, it is important, do not wear the onderpants with the shorts.  The shorts have the pad.  Onderpants just make the awful feel and saddle sores.  Wear the shorts with out the onderpants.  This is the right way for wearing the uniform.

Some peoples ask me about the arm warmers.  They say,  “Johann, is the arm warmers under the sleeves or over the sleeves?”  I say, it does not matter for the arm warmers.  Just keep pulling them up.  Only when it is too hot, you push the arm warmers down.  This is not a problem we have much in my country.  Only two days, do we wear the arm warmers.  The other times it is too warm, or it is too cold for the arm warmers.  You peoples in Georgia have good fortune.  You can wear the arm warmers many days.

One thing more, and Johann goes away.

I see many of you when you ride.  How is this that I do not see you make hand signals?  You think car drivers read your minds?  Please.  Use the hand signs.

It is very simple.  Just do it right.

This is Johann.  Thank you.

Touring: What have I got myself into?

The PLAN is to ride to Pine Mountain this weekend for the Cox Atlanta Bike MS event.  I’ll describe elsewhere, how I intend to do this.  But suffice it to say, I am now wondering if I can pull this off.  That’s not unusual.  Every tour event I’ve ever done has had this feeling about it.  It comes on just before the event.  Doubts.  Can I do this?  What have I forgotten?  Did I train enough?  Is the rig too heavy?  Should I leave more out?  Should I carry more spares?  Will my legs handle the loads?

I see this in lots of other folks too.  I think it’s sort of natural.  We look forward to an event.  We plan for it.  We work to make it happen.  And then, close to start time, we begin to have doubts and worries.

Some of this is performance anxiety.  The “Am I going to screw up and let myself and everybody else down?” kind of worries.  Some of it is the “Night before Christmas” kind of anxiety.  Some of it is, for athletes, a product of the necessary shape of training.

Wise athletes, and all coaches know that training must end.  It must end a good bit before the event.  If not, the athlete will not be well rested.  But that leaves the athlete with a problem.  He or she has been dedicated to following a rigorous training schedule.  Athletes are accustomed to having little time, and working under demanding loads.  Suddenly, training tapers off, and time, free time, is available.

Two temptations occur.  The first is to go out and do something!  The second is to worry.  Both are unhelpful.

In my case now, as in the case of a lot of adult amateurs, there is really little to worry about.  This is a fun event.  There is absolutely no pressure to perform.  It’s just that I’m in the habit of preparing for demanding events, with set goals.  Worse, now that training is over, and resting is the rule, I have time to worry.

And that, in a nutshell, is what stops a lot of us from truly enjoying the recreations we pursue.  We’re in the habit of setting and meeting goals and expectations.

The cure?  Simple.  Sit back.  Take a deep breath.  Let the worry go.  And now go out and have a grand old time with it.  In the long run, it doesn’t matter whether it’s glory or goof, and both make good stories for Winter “bench racing.”

I'll let you know how it goes.

Autumn is Coming

Thanks to a lot of media induced misinformation, many folks miss the point of this time of year.  It is not Autumn yet.  Autumn begins on 21 September.  We have now moved into late Summer.  That said, it is most certainly possible to feel the advance of the seasons.  I have actually done several early morning rides in arm warmers.  We had us one blister-hot mid-Summer.  It’s noticeably cooler now.  The days are noticeably shorter too.  It is time to prepare for Autumn and for the Winter that is surely coming.  With that, I should like to announce the kickoff of the Maintenance and Project Season.

Late Summer and early Autumn is a good time to catch up.  The Summer vacation insanity is mostly over.  The Back to School Hubub has settled down.  The Holidays are still off beyond the horizon, not yet looming large.  This is a time of year to do a lot of things so that Winter will not catch us off guard and unprepared.  It’s a good time for fairly serious maintenance of bikes and equipment.  It’s an auspicious interval for seasonal projects.  And if done right, one will line up some serious indoor work to be done later, in January and February, when it is very dark and cold out.  Here are a few suggestions from my own list.

Projects:

• Give the home shop a good cleaning and organizing.
• Find the trainer and all related indoor spinning gear ~ clean, lube, prep
• Inventory Fall and Winter Gear, inspect for wear, begin to replace what is worn or non-functional.
• Evaluate maintenance needs for all bikes and schedule work
• Build up the “Winter Bike.”

Maintenance (Each bike gets the following, as needed):

• Tune up, including adjusting brakes, shifting, truing wheels, adjusting bearings, clean, lube chain, proper inflation and inspection of tires.
• Test all lighting systems.  Schedule battery replacement where necessary.
• Schedule heavier maintenance on bikes that need it.

Longer Term:

• Schedule that big “Winter Bike Building Project”
• Start getting the Winter clothing out and ready.
• Plan shop upgrades and equipment maintenance.

Holiday Stuff

So it’s Labor Day.  No, I’m not about to go into a long rant either Pro or Anti the subject of Labor Day.  Others have beat that one to death.  Frankly, I don’t much care why we take this as a holiday.  I’m simply glad that it is, and that I work for nice folks who observe it.  It’s a day off, with a good chance of good weather.

When I was a kid, Labor Day had a different meaning.  It meant that it was time to go back to school.  That didn’t make it my favorite holiday.  Now, at this point in time, kids return to the classroom in early August.  So for them, Labor Day is a welcome break.  It certainly is for me.

I’ll be doing what I like.  That means, I go out and ride my bike.  Likely, I will do so without a definite plan in mind.  Seems to me that this holiday is a good one to dedicate to just rambling, aimlessly, and seeing what there is to be seen.

There is one particular form of observance that Labor Day marks for me, and I suggest it to any cyclist.  This is the beginning of the Maintenance and Project Season.  I’ll take some time tomorrow to explain that.  Why wait until tomorrow?  Because I am going to go celebrate Labor Day now.  Mostly by not working.

Friday Follies ~~ Born to Climb?

I’ve always had a fascination with high places.  As a child I climbed absolutely everything that could be climbed, and many things that shouldn’t have been.  I can’t explain this, but I was (and am) fascinated by heights, and by the process of attaining them.

I’ve spoken of my “first real bike.”  It was a glorious Schwinn cruiser.  When I received this thing, my family was living in a series of relatively flat places.  Sometimes I would encounter a hill.  Occasionally, I would have to get off the bike and push it up one of these.  They weren’t particularly large, but the coasting down was fun.

When I was just 15, we moved back to the homeplace, in the mountains of Virginia.  The town of Staunton, to be exact.  (If you are curious, use Google Maps.  Find Staunton.  It’s almost due west of Charlottesville, in the Shenandoah Valley.  Now use the terrain feature.  You get the idea.)   Flat, Stuanton is, emphatically, not.

This presented a problem to me as a bike rider.  These were honest to goodness hills.  I could simply not get up most of them.  Even if I stripped all of the excess stuff off of the bike, I could not ride up most of those hills.  This was when I entered the “running phase” of my life.  I could run up, or down almost anything.  I also did a lot of climbing in the mountains.  I climbed everything from small rocks to major ones.

Then I discovered bikes with gears.  I don’t mean the old two speed “kick-back,” or the three speed Sturmey-Archer, but rather bikes with derailleurs and ten gears.

The first one of these new fangled things that I had was pretty crappy.  But it could climb stuff.  Not well, but possible.  (I would later learn that lower gear ratios actually were possible.)

Eventually, the idea occurred to me.  I could ride up some of the mountains!

Now I had already been taking my old Schwinn into the mountains to coast down fire roads, and bash around on trails.  But this was a new idea.  I think it was spawned by finding out about European road racing, through finding an old copy of a cycle sport magazine.  Anyway, it opened an new realm of possibilities.

Just a bit east of Staunton, is the town of Waynesboro.  Just to the east of Waynesboro is Afton Mountain.  The pass at the top of Afton, was then, an intersection betweent he northern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Skyline Drive, and US-250.  In those days, the Interstate Highway System was under construction.  The interstate over Afton Mountain, would not be started for several years.

I loaded my bike on a car, drove to Waynesboro, unloaded, and started my ride.  My intention was to go up US-250, then a three lane road, to the Blue Ridge Parkway, then ride the Parkway a bit, and return.

The climb was awful.  It was long.  I was overgeared.  It was hard, hot, slow, sweaty, and I had to stop fairly frequently.  But I made it to the top.  I cruised the wonderful road, south along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I stopped at one of my favorite overlooks and ate the small snack I’d brought.  Then I turned around to head back.

Remember, this is taking place in the late 60s.  And I did say the bike was pretty crappy.  It was, even by the standards of the time.  And trust me on this one, the best that was available then wasn’t all that great.  We just didn’t know it.

Okay, the shifting was problematical.  The gearing didn’t have nearly enough range.  It wasn’t high enough or low enough.  Brakes were awful.  And speed wobble was common.

As I turned onto US-250, and began my descent, I didn’t know how much I didn’t know.  Books have been written about performance cornering and braking.  I hadn’t read them.  I had no idea what was about to happen.

I do not know how fast I was going.  Reliable, solid state cyclecomputers were still science fiction.  It’s safe to say I’d never been that fast on a bike before.  At first it was wonderful.  Then it started to shake, shimmy, and rattle.  There was a turn coming up.  I felt like I was going too fast.

After three good strong applications, my brakes faded to almost nothing.  The pads had gotten hot enough to start melting.

Obviously, I made it down off the mountain.  It wasn’t pretty.  It was terrifying.  But I survived it.

Gradually, I learned.  Slowly, I got better equipment.  For a long time, I hated climbing on the bike.  It was too much work.  Later, when I was racing, I had new reasons to hate it.  There were other riders who were so much better at it.

It took a long time for me to come to a couple of realizations.  I had to learn how to climb.  I also had to learn that, while I would never be as fast as the light climbing specialists, I actually enjoyed the process.  With those lessons, climbing became a joy, and the mountains a wonder.

Oh yes, I’ve since learned how to descend too, and that is a real blast!