Part 2: Prologue

On 5 July I fly to Lexington KY to resume my TransAm journey.  It has been just over a year since I completed Part 1.  My goal for Part 2 is to reach Pueblo CO, which is just over 1400 miles.  My companion from Part 1, Rob H,, made it to Pueblo in 18 days, averaging 80 miles per day.  I don’t know if I can average that many miles per day; it will depend on wind and weather.  If I average 65 miles per day I will likely end Part 2 in Wichita KS, which is about 1000 miles.  I am apprehensive about riding for hours on a flat, straight Kansas road into a headwind.  My cycling strength is in climbing hills; I am not as strong on the flats.  

Based on my experience crossing the Appalachian mountains in Part 1 I made some modifications to my touring bike, which I have named Rhaegal after one of Daenery’s  dragons in Game of Thrones, to obtain a lower climbing gear.  There is no worse feeling when climbing a steep grade than to downshift and realize you are already in your lowest gear.  My lowest gear was a 22-28, which is a ratio of 0.786 or 21.7 gear inches (gear ratio times wheel diameter). I good low gear for loaded touring is 20 gear inches, so I changed out my cassette to obtain a low gear of 22-34 (0.647, or 17.8 gear inches).  This necessitated changing my rear derailleur to accommodate that large a cog (22 + 34 = 56 total teeth).  While I was at it I also changed my chain.  The other modification I made was to my brakes.  Last year I learned that I did not have enough braking capacity for steep downhills.  My bike has cantilevered cable pull brakes and I had to apply too much pressure to the brake levers when descending.  I changed the brake pads, cables, and added in-line adjusters to allow me to make fine brake adjustments.  The final modification was to change out the front rack for a Tubus Tiara so that I could use my Ortlieb front panniers.  

Over the last few weeks I rode every day to get ready for this trip.  I wanted to get my hands and butt used to long hours on the bike and to condition my legs.  I am taking 9 days off from riding while I visit my daughter in Zurich Switzerland, which may provide a good recovery before I start Part 2...we’ll see.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Part 2, Day 6, Carbondale to Chester IL

Image
64 miles, 5:25 riding time, don,t know clock time today, 11.6 mph avg, 1329 ft ascent We got a late start today from Jack’s house.  I think we got started around 10:00. Our first task was to find a grocery store to reprovisiom.  Bike touring is all about managing hydration and calorie intake. Today our route would take us through a 38 mile stretch with no services. We chose to take the Mississippi levee alternate route which would take us into the River valley. I was surprised at the amount of water; there’s a lot of flooding. Farming in a food plain is full of risk.  The white mound between the silos are sand bags. About 20 miles in we came across an intersection with 3 road closed signs.  We decided to proceed and found out the signs were not kidding...nowhere to go but back.  We backtracked 3 miles to the Bottoms Up bar and grill to get advice from a local. Cristy told us the water was only 6 inches deep on one road, so we backtracked again and decided to go through the water; Crist
Read more

Part 2, Day 13, Eureka to Valley Center KS

Image
67 miles, 6:33 riding time, average 10.2 mph, 1614 ft ascent We got an early start today, leaving the city park in Eureka at 0600.  It was a nice park with a municipal pool, so we really enjoyed swimming and relaxing at the pool after yesterday’s ride.  Today our goal was to go off-route to Duane’s Aunt and Uncle’s house in Valley Center.  Duane is planning a rest day, and as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I will end Part 2 there.   The route out of Eureka was on Highway 54, which I described in my last post.  There wasn’t much traffic early in the morning, but the wind was blowing at about 20 mph from the SW with gusts of up to 30 mph.      There wasn’t anything to block the wind; this is wide-open country. This is a PANO photo from my iPhone. A disadvantage of front panniers is that gusting wind creates a force that turns the front wheel and causes me to swerve slightly.   When big semi’s pass they also create gusts that have the same effect.  The road was long and straight, so I c
Read more

Part 2: Day 1, Berea to Springfield KY

Image
79.8 miles, 6:41 riding time, about 10 hrs clock time 11.9 mph avg, 4065 ft ascent The day started at 0600 when a friend of Steve H’s named Shunnan arrived at Steve H’s house to ride with us,  Steve’s wife June drove us from Lexington to the same place in Berea where I left off last year (yes Rob, no gap!) The ride west from Berea was very green with rolling hills; much like riding in Maryland or Virginia.  This part of KY is about horses and farming.  The contrast with Eastern KY is striking; I did not see any billboards for rehab centers and the houses were very suburban until we got a ways from Berea, and even then I did not see the signs of dire poverty I saw in eastern KY.   I had beeen e-mailing a fellow Westbound TransAm rider named Duane who started his ride on 16 June.  I knew he was in Berea on the 4th of July so I was hoping to connect up with him.  At one point Steve, Shunnan and I missed a turn and as we were riding up a hill along come two cyclists going the other way.  T
Read more