Korey Pelton's Cycling Blog

Do you want to be a hardcore bicycle commuter?  Do you want the ability to cycle to work in comfort no matter what the weather is like outside?  This can be quite a tough challenge to meet, but with the right equipment and clothing, it can be done, and all for under $100 bucks (assuming you have a touring, commuter, or mountain bike already)!

Here is the equipment and clothing list that I’ve used in my 3 years of bicycle commuting experience.

Clothing

1. Beanie - This is a thin, thermal layer of synthetic material that fits under your helmet for temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit or so.  Without it, you’ll get brain freeze!
2. Windbreaker - Cycling generates a lot of body heat.  A windbreaker is the only protection you’ll need in temperatures above 10 degrees F and can be bought online for around $20.  If you’re wearing a sweater underneath it, you’ll sweat to death, even on most winter days.  Be sure and buy a cycling specific windbreaker since they zip up closer around your neck better than the average windbreaker and are tapered so they don’t act like a parachute.
3. Rain jacket and pants - This is only necessary on rainy days.  They work great, even if you do look silly.  The whole outfit can be had for around $25 if you shop around online.  I recently got my rain jacket from Nashbar.com for only $9.99 and it works very well at keeping me warm and dry during a shower.
4. Pant leg Velcro straps - These wrap around the bottoms of your pant legs and keep them from catching in your drive train or on a water bottle cage.  They are $2 a pair.
5. Gloves - During cool weather, I use cheap gloves I bought from Wal-Mart ($8).  During cold weather, I use more expensive ski gloves I bought from Fred Meyer ($15 on sale).

Bicycle Equipment

1. Fenders - Fenders are used so that you don’t get sprayed with water and mud kicked up by your tires.  I commute to work in semi-formal clothing, so this is a must.  I use some SKS brand mountain bike fenders that I bought online for about $25.  If your bicycle doesn’t have eyelet mounts for fenders, you can go to your hardware store and buy p-clamps (sometimes they go by other names) and fasten your fenders to the clamps which go around your fork or seat-stays.  The only department I found these in at Lowes was the electrical department.  They are used in electrical work for holding wiring to walls or something.  They come with rubber strips, which are useful for mounting to skinnier frame tubing.
2. Studded tires - These are only necessary if you plan on winter commuting.  Ice is really the only surface you can’t cycle on with regular tires.  Trust me, I’ve crashed several times attempting to riding on ice with regular tires  :-)  Studded tires can range anywhere from $35 to $70, so shop around and see what works for your budget.  Last year, I used the low-end Innova tires which were about $35 a tire, but I’ve noticed that the steel studs are starting to show some wear after only one season.  A friend of mine bought Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires for a bit more money, and they feature carbide studs which last much longer and feel sharper than regular steel studs.

Anyway, there is the list of things that has worked well for me in all kinds of weather.  I’ve left out some general equipment, such as racks, baskets, lunch boxes and such, but I hope this list gives you an idea of what you need and why you need it!

My cycling buddy, tlp, and I were planning to do a ride which hadn’t turned out so well for us two years earlier (see tlp’s blog about it here).  But this year, we were in better shape and had more cycling experience, so we felt ready for riding from Pocatello to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, via Smith Canyon Road.

On Memorial Day Weekend, we loaded our bikes up with camping gear and set out on Highway 91.  I was riding my new Windsor Tourist touring bicycle and tlp was riding his trusty Surly Long Haul Trucker.  About 10 miles out of town or so, I heard a loud “tink” sound all of the sudden that came from the rear end of my bike.  Tlp recognized it as the sound of a broken spoke, since he had suffered from the same problem several times on his Raleigh One-Way fixed gear bicycle.  After inspecting the rear wheel spokes, we found that tlp was right.  We slowly cycled home silently, depressed about this set back.  I had the spoke replaced by a bike shop later that day.  At the bike shop, I purchased a universal spoke tool and 3 extra spokes, just in case this happened again miles from home.

We still had 3 days left of our extended weekend, so we set out again the following day.  And this time about 3 miles into our journey, I snapped another spoke.  It was on the drive side of the wheel, and so we couldn’t see a way of replacing it since the cog-set was in the way of threading a spoke through the hub.  We couldn’t afford to waste another day, so I decided to cycle home, transfer all my gear onto my mountain bike, and head out again.  Tlp agreed and we quickly cycled back to my place and made the swap.  My mountain bike had some old worn studded tires that I was getting the rest of their usefulness out of, but I didn’t have time to be picky!  I inflated the tires up to 70 psi and we set off again!

Cycling on the road all the way to Arimo wasn’t too bad, especially since my tire pressure was so high.  It was a nice day with a few clouds passing by and we enjoyed ourselves.  As we came to the entrance of Smith Canyon road, we took some snapshots and cycled on.  Soon, the road turned to gravel and I shifted down to my granny gear to take it slow and save energy.  Memories of this same spot two years earlier were in my mind and I knew I had better take it easy or I might suffer the same exhaustion that I had before.  Then again, it was only about 80 degrees at the very worst on this day, and the trip two years earlier had temperatures of over 100 in the sun.  I paused every few miles to pour some water onto my Sweat-Vac beanie under my helmet and this made the slow climbing up this trail easier.

Soon, we encountered an intersection in the road which marked the place where the road became oiled gravel, and this made the cycling easier.  Also, clouds had darkened and it began to sprinkle, which was very welcome.  The road became an ascending roller coaster ride as we pedalled over the hills, and then it became more uphill.  After what seemed a very long time, we apexed the 1800 foot climb and we smiled and laughed as we knew what lay before us.  We drank some water and sped down the 1800 foot, 4 mile paved decent into Lava Hot Springs.  After a good 10 minutes of going somewhere close to 40 miles per hour downhill, we cycled the rest of the way to Smith’s Trout Haven and setup camp.

The campground was more like a village of RVs, with a tent here and there.  Our nearby neighbor who was living in a camper with his family greeted us while drinking a beer and said, “hope you don’t mind living next to us, we get a little noisy!”  “Great.”, I thought.  I was hoping for a bit more secluded campground, but we were so tired we didn’t care.

We cycled back to town, bought some beer and delicatessen food, went back to camp, ate, and fell asleep.

The next day, we planned to drink beer and just relax.  We cycled to town, ate at a small restaurant, leisurely cycled around the scenic, old fashioned town, then picked up more food and beer at the local grocery store and cycled back to camp.  We then proceeded to drink and jovially talk while sitting in front of our tent.  That afternoon, low lying clouds began to crawl over the tops of the nearby mountains and it began to look like a real Memorial Day weekend.  In southeast Idaho, it rains without fail every Memorial Day weekend.  The next thing I knew, tlp and I were sitting in the tent eating our lunch while rain hammered the tent hard.  Puddles began forming in the tent from the water dribbling in from the seams while I took refuge on my inflated air mattress and tlp soaked the invading water up with a towel.  We were both pretty drunk so we laughed, ate some more and enjoyed the excitement.

After the rain stopped, we surfaced from our tent.  At this point, I had consumed quite a bit of alcohol, so I stumbled over to the neighbors camp with a couple of beers and began chatting with a guy who was about 20 years old or so.  Tlp joined us with his beer and soon we were chatting up a storm.  The guy we were chatting with was drinking from a bottle of Jagermeister and he offered me a drink of it.  After this, everything about this particular evening gets a little fuzzy.  But I do remember being half asleep in my sleeping bag in the tent, then quickly unzipping the tent door and tossing my cookies.  Note to self: stay away from the damned Jagermeister.  It is deceivingly tasty!  Oh, and to the right you can see an amazing discovery of mine: the bicycle wheel beer holder!  ;-)

The next morning, I got up, stepped outside, noticed my pile of puke, and went to the port-a-potty.  I came back and tlp didn’t look very happy.  He was complaining that I snored a lot last night, and he looked tired and expressionless.  I think we both just wanted to go home and recuperate from this expedition.

After I ate some leftover bread and cheese, we took down the tent, packed up, and started our journey back home at about 9 am.  Our spirits picked up as we cycled on up Dempsey Creek.  This part of the journey was very steep and felt about like 14% grade or so in some areas.  This was the reason why the trip down this side of the path was done at such break-neck speeds.  After grinding slowly up the steep road, it turned to the oiled gravel surface, and soon we reached the apex.  This direction was much easier than the other way since the climbing section is first, whereas in the opposite direction it requires a 40 mile ride to Arimo before the climb.  Next, we rode the awesome, but chilly, decent towards Arimo in the distance.  Pedaling home on the flat Highway 91 was easy and refreshing, and we made it home around 2:00 pm.

If you would like to read tlp’s version of this story, see his article!

I haven’t had the time to ride every weekend lately, and this chilly spring hasn’t helped get me out the door either.  But this weekend was fabulous and I was ready to go on an adventurous ride that would make up for lost time.  Click the map on the left to see where I went!  (courtesy, mapmyride.com).

I had driven through the Garden Gap coming from Robin, Idaho before, but I had never really ventured far beyond the gap.  After studying the map of the area, I found the route that will take you through the gap from the opposite direction.  This turned out to be a very interesting ride, and a ride in which I was glad that I had purchased a fat-tired touring bike beforehand.

After climbing the never-ending Mink Creek Road (~1500 ft. climb from Pocatello), you fly down the windy south side of the mountains while admiring the vast Arbon Valley and the snow capped mountain range on the other side of the valley (sorry, no pictures this time… I’ll take some shots next time, I promise!)   According to the map, it appears that the biggest mountain you can see on the other side of the valley is Deep Creek Peak.  After descending about 8 miles, you hang a left onto Upper Rattlesnake Road which is mostly an oiled dirt road (quite decent to ride on) which starts out pretty flat, then becomes a hilly roller coaster ride, and eventually ascends up to the gap.

Finally, you see the rocky gap in the distance and you do a 40 mph, winding decent through the 1000 foot rock walled gap, which is one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I’ve had in quite some time.  It is a truly euphoric experience.  The creek the runs alongside the road really perfects the whole scene, too.  It is a magical story-book area of Idaho.

After that, is the long, tiring ride home.  I was pretty pooped by the time I got to Inkom.  Then I got home, and guzzled my favorite recovery drink, Hamm’s beer.  Next, I looked with horror at my sunburnt arms in the mirror.  Hmm, yeah, I might use some sunscreen next time.  :-)

I have recently purchased an addition to my fleet of bikesdirect.com bicycles: the Windsor Tourist.  This is a touring style bicycle that currently sells for $599.99 at bikesdirect.com, however I hear that price will be going up soon.  Compared to other touring bicycles (Jamis Aurora, Surly Long Haul Trucker, Raleigh Sojourn, etc.) this bike is hundreds of dollars cheaper, but still features good quality parts and frame.

The reason I bought this bike was to have a bike I could take anywhere, yet was fast enough to get me where I wanted to go in good time on the road.  I already own a couple of road bikes, but those do poorly on dirt and gravel trails.  And the mountain bike that I own just won’t keep up with a touring bike on road ways.  Thus, the touring bicycle is the perfect solution.  The tires and rims are medium width, it has drop bars for a more aerodynamic riding position, and it has tire/frame clearance for fenders to keep yourself from getting mucked up.

After I assembled the bike, I put on some mountain bike sized fenders (60 mm x 26″, SKS brand) that I stole from a different bike of mine and they seemed to fit fine.  I had trimmed the stays of the front fender to fit my mountain bike which was too short to reach the fork on this bike.  As you can see in the photos, I used a bit of hardware to make this reach (I know, I’m such a cheap-o).  Next, I put on some SPD/flat combination pedals, which I think are perfect for a touring bike since I want SPD for road riding, but I don’t want to be clipped in on rugged trails.

I have ridden this bike for about 2 months now, mostly as a commuter bike.  Here’s my review so far:

Pros

• Very comfy ride.  Fat tires and the 4130 steel frame is nice and soft.  Speeding right over railroad tracks is pleasant.
• Pretty fast bike.  Much faster than a mountain bike, but not as fast as a roadie.
• The Tiagra STI shifters are very nice and effortless to use.
• The forest green paint on mine is quite handsome.  :-)
• The easy-to-turn derailleur adjusters on the cables near the handlebars are nifty and come in handy when you’re hearing derailleur or chain noise that you want to fix while riding.  It’s a feature you don’t find on many bicycles nowadays.

Cons

• The rear derailleur adjustments took a bit of tweaking to get it to stop making noise.  This was probably due to my own incompetance.
• The seat was pretty uncomfortable for the first couple of rides, but now it feels like it has “broken in”.
• This bike could use a bit more clearance on the fork and seat stay for tires and fenders.  I’m used to seeing more clearance on some other touring bikes I’ve seen (especially the Surly LHT).
• You can’t adjust cantilever brakes after you’ve had a few beers.  ;-)  They can be tricky, but this is the case for all cantilever brakes.
• The chain-stays could stand to be longer.  My heels brush against my saddle bags a bit.  Of course, I wear size 12 shoes, too. I’ll probably rig my saddle bags so that they hang back further.

Overall, this is a good purchase, especially if you aren’t looking to spend $1000 on a touring bike.  I will be riding this bike on a 100 mile round trip, partially off-road cycle-camping trip over Memorial Day weekend.  I’ll be sure to post the results of that expedition here!  Stay tuned!

And for your viewing pleasure, here is a photo gallery of this bicycle.  As you can see, I didn’t have time to clean the bike before hand.  Ah, well, all the dirt spots make it look more like a well-used bicycle.  :-)

Update, June 21, 2009 - I have encountered my first problem with this bicycle.  When I loaded it up with about 25 pounds of camping gear for a 100 mile cycle camp, I broke a spoke on the rear wheel.  After the spoke was replaced by a professional bike shop, I loaded the bike up again and broke another spoke on the same wheel.  Evidently, this was a machine built wheel and was not tensioned properly or something.  I am going to have the wheel completely rebuilt with new spokes by a wheel builder friend of mine.  Also note that this is a very common thing among many brands of bicycles and most often happens on the rear wheel.  Most bicycles nowadays come stock with machine built wheels and may require a wheel rebuild if a wheel wasn’t properly put together.

This spring, as any Idahoan could tell you, has been cold and miserable.  Everyone has been waiting for 70 degrees, but it is having a really tough time getting here.  As I write this, it is 1:00 pm on May 11, and the current temperature is 68 degrees.  Sigh.

On March 30, tlp and I did our usual weekend ride, attempting to reach Robin, Idaho.  But we soon succumbed to the cold, dark, gloominess and turned around  at McCammon.  On the way there, I took a few shots of the brown grass, dead bushes, and the clouds hanging around the snow covered mountains.  The Shire was looking much more like Mordor.

Tlp and I did this ride on Saturday, March 21, and it was a blast in two different ways: it was really fun and windy as hell!

We took Bannock Highway out of Pocatello which does a slow, steady climb of about 1500 feet on Mink Creek Road.  This was a pretty slow grind, especially with all the wind coming from the south.  However, it was very scenic with aspen trees, mountains, and snow all around.  After it seemed the climb would never end, the decent appeared.  Again, the cycling was slowed by the winds, which I estimate were around 20 mph with gusts to 35 mph.  I’d love to try this section again on a less windy day!

The area between the Mink Creek area and the little farming community known as Pauline is rolling hills with some flat parts.  Very scenic (sort of a big valley between snowy mountain ranges) and you get the feeling that you are really out in the middle of nowhere.  You get a feeling of peace and exhilaration at the same time.  I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.  ;-)

After Pauline, the ride turns back northwest towards Pocatello.  It was at that point that the wind turned from drudgery into a ton of fun!  Yep, top gear, the whole way back!  Woo hoo!

This ride took about 4.5 hours and was about 65 miles.  I’d like to try it the other way around the loop sometime.

I was dying to ride my new Windsor Tourist that I bought a month ago from bikesdirect.com (I’ll post pics soon!)  So yesterday, I set out with tlp to do McCammon and back.  The temperature was a balmy 45 degrees or so, but the wind was blowing steadily from the south at about 15 mph.  This made the trip to Inkom and McCammon terribly slow, but this gave me time to tinker with the Tiagra STI shifting on my new bike.

We stopped in Inkom, refilled bottles, and then cycled the hilly Marsh Creek Road to McCammon.  About 5 miles before McCammon, tlp and I started feeling pretty fatigued and hungry, so we ate nearly all my granola bars (you owe me big time, tlp!  ;-p), and kept going.  The part I love most about this leg of this route is the steep decent on Merrill Road; however the wind totally ruined this for me.  Sigh.

We stopped at the Flying J in McCammon and relaxed for a bit.  I pondered whether or not I should buy some food, but just ate my last granola instead.  On the way back to Inkom, as we had predicated, the stiff wind made 25 mph very easy.  We were able to sustain 30 mph at some point and it felt very good after the slow southward ride.

Stopping off at the Inkom gas station on the return trip was very welcome.  I was feeling pretty damn fatigued and my ass was sore.  I either need to get used to the new saddle, break it in, or get a different one.  I bought a bag of munchies at the gas station and scarfed a few handfuls and then we began the ride home.  Going east to Pocatello from Inkom wasn’t very thrilling; I was tired and the south wind was blowing our left side the whole way.  Yawn.

Ah, well, not a bad first-long-ass-ride-of-the-year.  Can’t wait to see how much better I can do next time.  I still have to put my front fender on and some SPD pedals.  Oh, and I’ll probably readjust the front derailleur.

Last Sunday, the 15th of February, the roads looked mostly dry, the temperature was 28 degrees Fahrenheit, and so I said, “good nuff!” and prepared to cycle to Inkom and back!  I was dying to get back on my road bike and do some hard and fast cycling.

Here was the clothing I wore (from the top down):

• Helmet with a thermal beanie
• Synthetic jersey, synthetic long-sleeve jersey, hi-viz windbreaker, ski gloves
• Merino wool long underwear and cycling tights
• Regular cotton socks and cycling shoes with shoe covers

This is a winning combo for winter cycling, except for one critical problem which I will talk about momentarily.  Ahem.

Setting out for Inkom felt great, but soon the wind blowing from the southeast slowed the ride way down.  It was a great workout, but the whole way I was anticipating the tailwind ride back!  The route I took on this ride was Bannock Highway and Portneuf Road out to Inkom and then Highway 91 back to town.  Bannock Highway and Portneuf Road are at a slightly higher elevation and are shaded by large hills, so I encountered some patches of snow and ice here and there on the road, but it was nothing to worry about.

I was about halfway to Inkom when the cold headwind began to effect one particular part of my body.  Yes, you guessed it, my penis was starting to freeze.  Every single other part of my body felt fine, but it’s that one area that seems to catch a lot of wind without much blood circulating through the area.  I decided to just tough it out until I got to Inkom.  By the time I got to Inkom, I was in quite a bit of pain so I stopped at the nearest parking lot, took my gloves off, jammed my hand down my pants and started to warm it up.  This also turned out to be painful, and I’m sure some passerbys were wondering why I was moaning with my hand down my cycling tights.  Yes, this was rural Inkom, Idaho were people dressed in cycling outfits are already looked at as freaks; so doing this ritual probably didn’t concern them any greater.  After about five minutes of drinking water and hobbling around the parking lot, I climbed back on my bike and started pedaling.  Thankfully the pain subsided.

The ride back was pretty great and speeds of 22 mph were easy with the steady tailwind.  By the time I was halfway home, I felt fine and soon I was back in town and feeling great from the high-gear ride home.

I did some searching around online for solutions to my problem.  I think my best bet is to just wear a couple more layers in the general area next time.  :-)

Last weekend I successfully replaced the freewheel on my Dawes road bicycle!  Here’s the full story.

Once upon a time at work, I was boasting to my coworker, John Bickelhaupt (who also happens to be a long time bike mechanic), that I had put about 3,500 miles on my Dawes road bike without replacing a single part except for tires and tubes!  He replied, “you mean you haven’t replaced your chain?  Oh, that’s not good.”  I gulped.

A bicycle chain should be replaced every 1,500 to 2,000 miles or so depending on riding conditions.  The dirtier the conditions, the faster your chain will wear.  Consult google for measuring chain wear and learning more about this important topic.  After measuring my chain, it appeared to have “stretched” a full 1/8 inch or so per 12 inches.  Yeah, not good.

So I cycled on down to Barrie’s Ski and Sports and bought a new bicycle chain (SRAM with the nifty little lock link).  They also suggested I buy a chain breaker, which came in awfully handy.  With the plentiful bicycle repair tutorials found online, I learned how to replace the chain and did so in a matter of 20 minutes.  I then hopped on the bike to test out my new chain and everything went well until the chain started slipping terribly on one of the gears on my cogset.  It was the very gear that I use most frequently!

After more poking around online, I learned that this is common if you replace a chain on a bicycle with a worn cogset.   Sigh.  After close inspection of the cogset, I noticed that my favorite gear had teeth that were triangular rather than the nice, square teeth on the gears that I seldom used. Yeah, this is what happens when you put 3,500 miles on a chain.  :-/

Previously to this adventure, I had learned that there are 2 types of cogsets on bicycles: freewheels and cassettes.  After determining that mine was of the former type, I looked around online and saw that I could buy one for about $25 at my favorite bike part shop online.  I then thought that instead of buying a new freewheel, I might be able to just yank the one off of my old Wal-Mart mountain bike that I had been scavanging parts off of for quite some time.  I took a look at the freewheel on the mountain bike and it appeared to be the same style of freewheel that my Dawes had.

Next, I shopped around locally for a freewheel remover and picked one up at Rob’s Ride On Bikes And Snow.  This is a small tool that you use with a wrench to unscrew the freewheel from the rear hub.  Specifically, the tool used most commonly to remove Shimano-style freewheels is the Park Tool FR-1 (see http://www.parktool.com/), and most of my bicycles use this style of freewheel.

Next I watched this youtube video on freewheel removal, grabbed my toolbox, and got to work!  The guy in the video recommends using an enormous wrench with the freewheel remover and now I know why.  After securely attaching my 12-inch wrench to the freewheel remover, I had to brace the wheel/tire against the metal railing on my front porch while stepping on the wrench with my foot and putting a lot of weight on the wrench handle before the freewheel finally budged!

After ensuring that the mountain bike cogset was only mildly worn and screwing it onto my Dawes rear hub, it suddenly occured to me that I was replacing a 7 speed freewheel with a 6 speed one and that it might not work so well with my 7 speed indexed shifter.  I smacked my forehead.  But during the test ride, it worked fine except that I had to shift a couple of clicks before it’ll go into the next gear.  Bah, close enough!  I now can torque as hard as I want and none of the gears slip!  Eureka!

I have yet to perfect the art of writing as life events happen.  Usually, life catches you up in events to the point where there is little time for writing about them.  Alas, I have now found the time to write about the memorable things I’ve learned about cycling in October and November 2008.  :)

Attempt At Cycling To The Top of Kinport Peak

Ever since I began this cycling craze portion of my life, I wanted to try out some serious mountain biking.  I had already given China Peak a try on my mountain bike earlier with some success, but now I wanted to give Kinport Peak a go!  So, in the second-to-last weekend of September, I set out on my mountain bike to give it a try.  This is a poplar time to explore the Kinport and City Creek Trail areas because the deciduous trees are showing their fall colors which makes riding or hiking the trails a very cool experience.  I rode up Lincoln Ave. to the start of the west trail that leads up to Kinport since I wasn’t in the mood for the up-and-down single track at the bottom of the City Creek trail system.  The uphill riding was pretty arduous since most of my riding has been on roads this year, but soon I got to a fork in the trail.  One path led downhill and the other went up, so I chose the uphill thinking that it would get me to Kinport quicker.  This turned out to be the wrong way and it was an extremely steep trail; it was at this point that I began feeling some pain in my lower back, especially when I was walking my bike up the horribly steep sections of the trail.  Eventually I discovered my folly in choosing this route, and then I did some white-knuckle downhilling back to the fork.  Between the terrifying vertical down-hilling and my lower back bothering me, I was pretty grumpy by the time I reached the fork.  Yeah, I’m not a very extreme mountain biker.  I’m more of a nice, safe, road and jeep-trail type.  But, don’t worry folks, my cycling tastes are constantly evolving, so eventually there’s a chance I may fall in love with <insert strange cycling style here>.

After getting on the correct trail, I encountered the steep section that is unavoidable to get to the top of Kinport.  And this is where I screwed up my back some more.  I shot some photos and turned back after reaching a section of the trail that was both steep and littered with fist-sized rocks.  I really don’t understand how people cycle to the top of this god-forsaken trail.  Yes, yes, don’t mind my negativity, for I am yet an intermediate cyclist.  Give this trail a try and create your own opinion.  :)

Needless to say, by the time I got home, I was in a lot of lower-back pain and this injury never fully healed for about 3 weeks.  Yeah, lower-back strains last a while.  According to some sources I found on the Internet, to avoid this problem in the future I might consider A) raising my handlebars a bit and B) trying some lower-back exercises.  Currently, my theory is to just give the finger to anything greater than a 15% grade.  Ok, I might still be a little bitter.  :(

The Two 92-mile Circum-Reservoir Trips

After a month or so of healing and waiting for a cycling-weather-friendly weekend to happen, I decided to hop on my favorite road-racing bicycle and do a ride I had never done before: ride around the American Falls Reservoir, the shortest route being about 92 miles.  I like to do at least one long ride once a year and so I thought this would do nicely for this year.  This route goes north from Pocatello into Fort Hall, then west across the Snake River on Ferry Butte Road, on to Springfield, then south to Aberdeen, then American Falls, and then back to Pocatello.  Yeah, you get to see lots of Idaho in this trip!  And at this time of year, you get the added benefit of checking out the giant mountains of sugar beets around Aberdeen ;) Ok, it is kind of a boring ride, but it has its own uniqueness and curiosities.

Attempt number one at this trip was disappointing.  The whole thing took me about 7.5 hours and I had to repair a flat tire twice while pumping up the other tire every 10 miles or slow due to a slow leak.  This wasn’t supposed to be happening to me since I supposedly found the holy grail to avoiding flat tires (tire liners).  Yeah, I was pissed to say the least.

After closer inspection of my tires and tire liners, I found that the problem was with the slippery tire liners sliding up on the side wall of the tires when trying to mount the tire/tire-liner/tube combo onto the rim.  It is literally impossible to keep the skinny, slippery liner laying flush against the tread portion of the tire.  My next idea was to buy some 1.5 inch wide mountain bike liners and put those in my 23 mm road tires so the liner would cover the entire inside of the tire.  Then again, I had already purchased a couple packages of the skinny road tire types, so I thought I’d think of another way.  I discussed it with my good friend and bike mechanic, John Bickelhaupt, and he suggested that I might try a little rubber cement to keep the liner in place until I got it all mounted onto the rim.  After giving this a shot, I discovered that rubber cement doesn’t bond to the tire nor the urethane liner at all.  I might was well use oatmeal as an adhesive.  After digging around in my basement, I found some automotive Seal-All brand glue that I used to use for fixing things on my old 1985 Volvo 240.  I was pretty desperate to get my tire problem solved, so I used a very thin coating of this stuff.  I made sure beforehand that it wasn’t the kind of glue that hardens into sharp crystals, since I knew that such a thing would eventually tear up the tire.

The very next weekend, I set out on the same 92 mile ride.  I wanted to prove to myself and to those reading this blog that it is possible to have a flat-less ride using road racing tires in territory littered with glass and thorns!  This ride was very pleasing indeed.  The wind was calm, I had no problems whatsoever, and I beat my previous time by like 1.5 hours.  Well, it appears that the glue and tire liner idea brings me closer to the zen of riding a road bike.

And now here is a more recent update to make this article even longer and more bloated.  On Friday, November 28, the day after Thanksgiving, I was riding this very same bicycle slowly along Highway 91, coming back to Pocatello from Inkom, casually chatting with my friend when all the sudden we heard a sound similar to a .22 caliber round going off!  After pulling over and giving the situation a closer inspection, I found that I had worn my rear tire down to the threads and it had finally succumbed.  Well, I was just happy that it had nothing to do with my bloody tire liner soap opera!  After using part of the blown tube to cover the 1-inch tear in my tire and inflating to about 70 psi, I was able to make it home.  The moral to this story is, do not become so preoccupied with preventing punctures that you forget to change your worn tires.  Or something like that.