It's Wednesday today and the big ride starts on Saturday morning. The plan is to take off at 9 a.m. and ride as far as Gooding, ID - a distance of about 120 miles. Hopefully everything comes together in time to make that happen.
The last few weeks I've been working on getting my stuff together. Primarily this involved setting up the bike. The bike I'm riding was built by Mark Nobilette. I bought it last winter from my buddy Sky who was moving his bike shop (VeloCult) from San Diego to Portland, OR, and needed to lighten his load. I've put several rides on the bike, but getting it set up for a 900 mile ride required a few additional adjustments.
When pedaling for this many miles setting up the bike for comfort instead of speed is the objective. Being mildly uncomfortable (which usually means being a bit more aero) is acceptable on a day long ride, but not so much on a long ride. Having a sore upper back on day two or day three isn't going to get me through nine days on the bike. After making several "fit" adjustments and putting in several 40-45 mile rides testing my position and I think I'm all set.
The bike needed a few changes/additions. I'd been running a standard double Campy crank on the bike. The chain rings were 39/53 which again is great for a single day ride. But if we hit a steep hill on day five I'm not sure my legs are going to be too happy turning over a 39x28 low gear. Luckily I had a 'cross bike that has a crankset with 34/50 rings. A 34x28 gear sounds a lot better to me! However, losing the 53T big ring is kind of sad. To help gain back a little speed on the high-end, I mixed and matched a couple of Campy cassettes to get an 11-28 cassette (something that Campy does not offer - at least in 10-speed). Using the lower half of an 11-25 and upper half of a 12-28 yields a wide-range cassette that doesn't have gaps that are too large.
Next was the saddle. I needed a saddle that wouldn't make my butt hurt after several long days. The obvious choice was a Brooks saddle. I tired two different Brooks models that I own and unfortunately I wasn't able to get the saddle positioned correctly due to the relatively short rails (that limit adjustability) on the saddle. Time to look elsewhere... I found Selle An-Atomica, a US company that makes saddle very similar to Brooks (they don't look quite as nice) but they have super long rails that allow for great saddle positioning. I ordered a saddle from the manufacturer and installed it. I think it's going to work!
Lastly I need a means to carry a limited amount of junk while on the bike: extra tube, repair kit, rain jacket, a little food, and maybe some sun screen, a digital camera, and a tripod for my GoPro camera. I had a Nitto front rack and an old bag that I had planned on using. The rack fit fine. The bag however, which fits fine on a rear rack, was too long for the short front rack and would not stay secured. Oops, time to find a new bag. Luckily, Bike Touring News in Boise had the perfect bag in stock. Easy fix! While there I ordered a spare 650B tire to carry with me. The Nobilette has 650B wheels, which are ideal for the type of riding we're doing (at least I hope they are) but are somewhat hard to find in an urban area, and I'm guessing will be impossible to find in rural Wyoming. Having a spare - just in case - seems like a good idea.
So it's late Wednesday night, the bike is ready. My legs are as ready as they're going to get. I have two more days to get the rest of my gear packed. I think I'm running ahead of schedule (for me), I'm just waiting for something to go really wrong and make the last 48 hours really stressful.
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