Vermont to Switzerland
Less than a week to the NE Flèche 2009. Our team is down to 3, we swapped some gear and ran through a pre-ride checklist last night. Brevet cards have arrived. Final route tweaking and gear selection is ongoing. Hoping for mild temperatures and sunny skies. Night shakedown ride will happen this week.
I’ve been putting off the rigging of my Edeluxe for some time – the Ixon IQ I run for short rides is plenty bright and has good run time – and comes on and off the bike quickly for errands and stops around town. Our Flèche is two weeks away – and I’ll need all night light – so I finally broke down and clipped the wires to the proper length and got the Edeluxe up and running. The light is simply outstanding – test runs in the morning and on the MUP late at night have really impressed me.
Mounting the light has been a bit of an adventure. I use a Mark’s Rack for my rando bag up front. The Mark’s Rack doesn’t have any fittings for front / low light mounting (save for the goofy tab on the end of the rack). Previously I ran dual E6 lights from the lowrider bosses – but with only one light (the brightness of the Edeluxe easily surpasses dual E6s running full steam downhill!) – I want to minimize wheel shadow as much as possible. I purchased the fork crown mount with the light but can’t run it with the bag, debated the lowrider mount, thought about mounting it euro style to the skewer, and purchased a Terracycle mount that works on the fork. None of these felt right (the Terracycle mount comes closest – and if I remove the rack this will be the system I use).
Rummaging through my parts bin I came up with what should have been obvious – use the spare bolts that come with the struts for rear mounting the Mark’s and get the light just below my bag. To do this I had to track down an M6 coupler nut – an email to a friend brought a link to McMaster-Carr (and plenty of time browsing all the cool hardware they sell). I had hoped for the coupler in stainless – but the black oxide variety is the proper length to keep the light tucked under the bag with enough clearance to the strut. I added lock washers towards the strut and a serrated washer towards the light. After some positioning play all seems well. Plenty of light, minimal wheel shadow, and so far rock solid. The mount will get a good workout this weekend – the usual suspects are planning 75 miles of dirt – 3 long and steep climbs, 3 covered bridges, views to the Green Mountains, ADKs, and the lake.
Flèche Teamate Patrick and I rode the Westfield 200k in the heat on Saturday. 126 miles, limited traffic, plenty of climbing, temps in the 90’s with a beautiful route from Westfield to Shelburne Falls, a side trip to southern Vermont and then back via Shelburne Falls and some lonely mountain roads. The ride took a bit longer than I had hoped – but climbing in the heat mid course was brutal. I opted to snag a few extra bottled waters from McCusker’s Market when leaving the lunch control – they were gone before I began the descent to Conway. I struggled with the heat, some soreness in my left quad, and numbness and pain in my right hand. New things – but pain is not unexpected when on the bike for so long. The hand pain should be remedied by adjusting the Ergo lever position and how the cable exits to wrap the Nitto Noodle bars. The muscle pain is most likely due to this being the longest ride of the year… Patrick played with the lead group for 2/3 of the ride. He rolled in about 2 hours ahead of me. I finished the last 20 stronger than I rode the first – so despite the heat and being off my better pace – I feel good about the ride.
I just discovered Bike Route Toaster. So far I love it – the two main features I was looking for was the ease of use of GoogleMaps and a cue sheet generator. Bike Route Toaster uses the GoogleMaps interface but with the option of disabling the ‘Auto Routing’ feature so you can sketch over trails, short cuts, bike paths, etc.!!!! The Cue Sheet generator is editable, exportable to several formats and allows you to view the location of the cue and edit the information. Add in elevation profiling, export to several different formats including GoogleEarth, and a friendly interface and it will be a nice addition to my route making toolkit. If you register you can save routes and pick up working on them where you left off and / or make your routes public. So far its just what I’ve been looking for…
I’ve been working on mudflaps for my rando rig on and off for the past two years, never really coming up with anything I liked, or that was durable. The stair tread / scrap rubber version works well enough – but on narrow fenders the rubber doesn’t quite conform to any particular shape – and it tends to flop around a bit adding some fender rattle to peaceful noise of rolling down the road. The Surly is fit with Planet Bike Cascadia fenders – and as I was studying the Surly for ideas I discovered Planet Bike sells replacement mud flaps. My Honjo fenders are the narrow version, 35mm width – so I ordered up a pair of the Cascadia Road Mudflaps. $5.00 + shipping (I added a Superflash Stealth to my order) and it included the snap locks for mounting… about as expensive as the rubber tread I bought!
They couldn’t possibly fit… could they?
Like a glove. I need to drill mounting holes for the quick snaps or a removable bolt – and I need to get a test of them on a wet road. The Cascadias mount up a bit short on front coverage – but with the extra length of the Honjos I should get great coverage!
The usual suspects have built a solid team for the Northeast Flèche 2009, have scouted, mapped, and controlled a route, and sent in our application. The ride is patterned on the Flèche Vellocio that has run in France since the late 1940’s. The modern ACP Flèches USA is a 24 hour team randonneuring event that takes place each spring with groups of 3-5 randonneurs embarking on rides of a minimum of 360 kilometers over a period of 24 hours. There are subtle rules about control points, brevet card verification for proof of passage, two hours maximum stopping time at any one control, and the need to document your location at the 22 hour and 24 hour mark.
The spirit of the ride is simple – head off into the day (or night) and keep moving as a team for 24 hours. Most routes are designed as one way ‘arrows’ targeting the regional destination where all teams meet. The Northeast rides have historically ended in Westfield, Massachusetts – teams from Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and New Hampshire all point their wheels to this location. Routes are devised by each team – so groups may try to get in as many miles as they can, while others ride the minimum required for certification (note that everyone gets ‘credit’ for the same 360k). All savor the time on the bike and the chance to tell the sometimes epic tales that come from being in motion through day and night in all weather over varying terrain.
We’ve called our route a ‘Green Mountain Ramble’. We plan to leave from Burlington and head south along Vermont Route 100 to Ludlow (passing through Waitsfield, Warren, and Killington). After dinner in Ludlow (and as night falls) we climb to Grafton and then cross into familiar territory at Saxton’s River and on to Putney where we will have a planned two hour sleep control at the West Hill Shop. As the moon rises we head into Brattleboro, cross into New Hampshire and flow down the Connecticut River Valley to Northfield, Massachusetts (for late night coffee at a friend’s), Amherst for breakfast, and then on to the finish in Westfield.
Anxiously awaiting an order with Acorn Bags. I’m hoping to get the Boxy Rando Bag and a matching Medium Saddlebag. I’ve been looking for a way to carry my gear up front where I can access it on the move. I have an Ortlieb handlebar bag that works well enough – but I hate the mounting mechanism and it keeps the weight far too high for my liking. I think the Acorn bag will be a great addition to my rando gear. It will ride on a Nitto Mark’s rack, and I’m working on a way to mount my new Schmidt Edelux. (photos from the Acorn website)
My training is way off pace. I’m stressed by the thought of even getting on the bike. I should be on the rollers. I should be focused on losing weight. According to my rough plan I should be hitting my 4-5 hour long rides starting next week – and I honestly don’t even want to ride to the grocery store. The weather has been craptastic – especially when I had my wake up call hard fall a few weeks ago. We’ve been traveling all over this winter, the whole family has been sick (I’m currently battling bronchitis and influenza A), the billable work hours are piling up (and in this economy I’ve been taking most work that comes my way).
Getting the picture. Excuses, excuses, excuses.
But honestly – it just doesn’t sound like fun anymore.
I have 2 main goals for this coming season – qualify for and finish the Endless Mountains 1240k, and enjoy the NE Fleche with our VT team of usual suspects (if we ever get confirmation on its specifics).
Jen doubled down on my EM 1240 goal. I have 3 chances to complain about it – anything from “I’m too slow, I’ll never finish” to “It’s impossible” or “I can’t ride…” No more complaining – or we cancel. And she doubled down on the weight loss, anemia, and asthma that I’ve been a horrible manager of. A good kick in the pants for sure.
Becoming a dad, trying to work part time to help with the family budget while being day to day care provider for our little one has proven more challenging than I could have dreamed. Its also been incredibly rewarding – far beyond the challenges. I just never thought it would be so hard to stay motivated. (One aspect of training I am making great strides in is sleep deprivation – the little one has been sick and going through problems with sleeping… so bring on the late night riding – I think I’m ready)
Looking for some inspiration (aside from lusting after new bike gear) I downloaded David Rowe’s The Ride of Your Life. I’m already pleased and I’m not quite through the introduction. I’ll report back as I progress. As much as I want to tear through it – I just hate reading a ‘book’ like this on the screen. Might have to sacrifice some recycled newspapers and print some of this out…
Hoping to ride the southern half of the 200k route this Sunday. We are promised good weather… everything is shades of yellow, orange, and red – hopefully we’ll have a bright blue sky. More pics here, here, and here. The image above is of me climbing a short 15% grade during the first 1/3 of the ride. The real climb starts after a steep pitch to a stop sign – and then a left turn into the wall.
John, Patrick, Jim and I did a test run of the northern half of a 200k Dirt Road Permanent I have been planning. We covered ~75 miles of the northern part of the route. I was cooked and the gents did well to get me back to town.
The route was 60% dirt, with plenty of sharp rollers and a few long climbs. The grades ranged from steady 5% to an 18% wall about two thirds into the route. Temps were in the 50s and even though I was dressed well (in Ibex wool) I had a persistent chill most of the day. The foliage was peak at the higher elevations – colors simply stunning. We’re hoping to ride the southern half of the route this weekend – colors should still be peak – and if we get some sun and clear skies we might get a view to the ADKs.
