Rebuilding the Flying Bike

"Ventoux", my Salsa took a little flight a couple weeks ago. I needed to replace the rear rim (Campagnolo Ypsilon) & have been having no luck on eBay. I just scored a wheelset from California, with the Campy rims & Bullseye hubs. As near as I can tell, Bullseye & Phil Wood both pioneered cartidge bearings in bike hubs (a very good thing). Now, to find a Campagnolo NR/SR front brake.

Group Picture

Here's a picture from the end of the brevet. From left to right, the KeRNeL, Steve, Larry, yours truly & Russ. Notice the look of utter exhaustion on my face, whereas most everybody else looks like they're ready to ride some more.

300k ride report

I woke up Saturday at 4:45 am. I rode my bike the two miles from my folk's house to the start point (Holiday Inn Express) in Fremont. I was greeted by Larry, the brevet administator. The KeRNeL came down from Sioux Falls, along with his friend, Russ. I looked at the bikes that everyone (a total of nine cyclists) brought & was surprised that most were riding state of the art racing bikes with minimum spoke count wheels. It was a hint of what was to come.
At 6 am, the ride began. Everyone else took off like a shot. We had a tailwind, so my group (the KeRNeL, Russ & I) were moving at what I thought was a pretty good rate (we completed the first century in about six hours), & yet the other group steadily pulled away. We arrived at Meadow Grove (turnaround point) tired, but still feeling OK. Once we turned around, the suffering began. We were riding mostly into the wind with the temperature steadily rising. By the time we got back to West Point, we were shot(mile 154 for me). When we rode into the Casey's (check point), we found Larry & his friend, Steve, waiting for us. They escorted us the last 35 miles back to Fremont, with their powerful lights blazing a path through a construction zone. We pulled into the hotel at 11 pm, 17 hours after we started.

The numbers from the Cateye:

miles 193.21
time on bike 15:18:51
avg. speed 12.62 mph

A special thanks to the KeRNeL & Russ for helping me to finish, and to Larry & Steve for guiding us home.

300k tomorrow plus an update

Well, tomorrow is a 300k brevet in Fremont. It starts in Fremont & goes to Meadow Grove & back. For those who don't know, a brevet is a ride that has control points, where you must have your ride card signed. It is time structured, with the control points only open for certain time periods. It is not a race, so slow guys like me can participate. I am not prepared for this ride. I've been very busy at work, so my training is way off schedule. This will be one of those "gutcheck" rides.
As far as the roofrack fiasco, eDBiLLy has been contacted by the roofrack maker & has taken our bikes to two bikeshops for estimates. This has been an interesting process, as my Salsa is outfitted with old school Campy components (not too easy to find). Hopefully, this situation will be resolved shortly.

Ironman, you are cruel!

eDBiLLy & I began our trip to Lakeville around noon on Saturday. Everything was going great until about 6:40 pm, when somehow, the Yakima rack on eDBiLLy's Jetta decided to eject at 70 mph. It landed in the ditch, still with both bikes attached. This was a rack less than a year old, professionally installed! Both of our bikes need to be fixed, but thankfully, no one was hurt. The really bad thing is eDBiLLy's Jetta has the back window knocked out, with a whole bunch of paint missing off the trunk.

Props to the Trans Iowa racers!

Just a brief wish of good luck & no rain to the TI racers. eDBiLLy & I signed up one year for this race & then came to our senses (well, eDBiLLY did). It takes a special breed to endure these kind of conditions.

Ironman 2004

I've done the Ironman once before, in 2004, with the KeRNeL & eDBiLLy. The day started out with sleet, & ended up with our bikes covered with earthworms (they were all over the road)! The ride was billed as a century, but ended up being 109 miles. At about mile 101, people started pulling off to the side of the road & calling their friends to come & pick them up, because they had ridden 100 miles! Anyways, here's Ironman 2004 summed up in two pictures. The first pic is of eDBiLLy & I near the beginning. We were optimistic that the sun would come out & it would be a nice day. eDBiLLy had just gotten his Langster & I was riding my trusty old Guerciotti fixie. Now for pic #2, taken at the end of the ride. We got back to the motel & it was time to scrub the earthworms off our bikes! They were hanging down like globs of raw hamburger! The weather forecast for Ironman 2007 looks promising, so hopefully we won't have a repeat of 2004, but if we do, that's what makes cycling so much fun: the adventure.