Week 41

Week 41

Date
October 11, 2016

Distance
102 miles

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Week 41

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Ride Report 
Foliage was killer this week. Check it out:

I even saw some deer. It was a beautiful ride today.

I'm officially "homeless". I'm not exactly out on the street, but I don't have a home, either. I'll be in hotels for the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll be all set by December. Right now I'm in Carson City, which isn't a huge change. My new place will hopefully be more of a change. Nothing's official yet.

Tubeless update time. My new rear tire is a Hutchinson Intensive. You may be wondering why I went with another Hutchinson. It all came down to price. I got a good deal on this tire and couldn't find as good of a deal on another brand. I don't have many miles on the Intensive yet, but it made a good first impression. It definitely has a more durable feel to it than the Fusion did. The Fusion had a more supple and grippy feel to it. That's expected. You're going to give up a little something in exchange for durability. So far there are no cuts on the new tire and it pretty much looks as good as new. That's already a difference from the Fusion. I have high hopes for this tire. We'll see how it goes.

Week 42

Date
October 18, 2016

Distance
101 miles

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Week 42

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Ride Report 
It was quite a week as far as weather is concerned. It started out super windy. Then there were 3 fires in the area. Then it rained for a few days straight.

The biggest fire was the Little Valley fire, which burned near Franktown Road. If you pay close attention to my routes you'll know that I ride in that area very often. It's pretty popular with cyclists, and I see other riders out there all the time. I know cyclists can be annoying to local homeowners, but I've never had an issue with people out there and motorists give me plenty of space when they pass. I wish everyone out there the best.

You may notice that just one week ago I was whining about not having a home, but at least my home didn't burn down. Just another reminder that we should appreciate what we have while we still have it.

Anyway, this week's ride was a lot like last week's ride (super scenic), and this time there was snow to add to the scenery. It looks like the foliage is past its peak but it's still pretty damn awesome.

Week 40

Date
October 4, 2016

Distance
103 miles

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Week 40

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Sorry for the late posts over the last few weeks. There's a lot going on.

First of all, there was a little snow in the mountains, but most of it melted before I could get a good picture.

The best I could do.

The end (of the year) is near. It's October, there's snow, and the week number is up into the 40s. Summer is over and it's not coming back. We have to hope we made the most of it and try to do bigger and better things next year.

Quick tubeless update: The Fusion is officially dead. I got a huge cut in the rear tire descending Highway 50 and had to put a tube in. I'm not even upset at this point. I was riding the Fusion way past its useful life. The final mileage for the rear tire was 1610. I'm going to keep the old front tire on and get a new rear tire. Usually I would swap the old front tire to the rear, but I know it won't last long back there. Plus, I want to start testing a new rear tire and the only real way to test durability is on the rear. More on that next week.

Here's the biggest news: This was my last century from the home in Reno. I moved out on the 11th, which was a sad day for me. I'll focus on the cycling side of it since this is a cycling blog, after all. I lived right near the intersection of Mt. Rose and Geiger Grade. I could get to the top of Geiger in under 10 miles and to the top of Mt. Rose under 20. There was also an easy commute to Reno and almost all of the roads had bike lanes. As far as I'm concerned, it was the perfect place to live in Reno.

I'm not religious. I'm not even spiritual. But I do realize how lucky I am. The sad part is that it seems like I have to lose something before I fully understand. It happened that way with my hip. I never fully appreciated how lucky I was to be healthy until I broke my hip and all of the sudden that was gone. Luckily for me I was able to bounce back from that, so much so that I recently set a PR on Geiger Grade. Now all of the sudden I don't live in the perfect spot in Reno and I can better appreciate how lucky I have been for the past 4 years. I lived a fortunate life, and most of that had nothing to do with any of my own decisions, actions, etc. In fact, it was probably in spite of them.

But here I am, passing through a tunnel of life. I can't really see what's on the other side. I can only hope it's as good as the side I've been on up until now.

Week 39

Date
September 27, 2016

Distance
103 miles

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Week 39

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Ride Report 
There was a high of 90 degrees today. That will probably be the warmest day of the rest of the year. I soaked up the sun and did an easier route with just 2 climbs.

How about another tubeless update? As mentioned last week, I'm not happy with how fast these tires (Hutchinson Fusion 5 Performance) are wearing out. I've put 1,425 miles on them and I should have thrown them out already. Here's one example:

Granted, Hutchinson never claimed these would be long-lasting tires, but less than 1,500 miles is ridiculous. They do have a nice feel and great grip. I will give them that. However, their puncture resistance isn't good (I stopped counting after 10. Who knows how many smaller ones I didn't notice.) and obviously their durability is lacking. I'm glad I got these on sale, but even on sale they weren't cheap. Like I said before, the big problem with road tubeless right now is that there aren't a lot of different tires to choose from, and most of them are expensive.

The good news is that I'm still happy with my tubeless experiment as a whole. I only had to stop one time to put in a tube during those 1,425 miles. That's better than I was doing on standard tires and tubes. Not only that, but I've been able to run lower tire pressure, which really does make for a more comfortable ride. If I can find a good, durable tire I will be very happy on tubeless. I don't see myself switching back.

Week 38

Date
September 25, 2016

Distance
100 miles

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Week 38

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Ride Report 
Three climbs this week: Spooner, 6 Mile Canyon, and Gold Hill. Did I mention that I love Six Mile Canyon this time of year? It hasn't changed much since last week. The trees are mostly green with some yellow.

I had another tubeless issue on Monday. I got a puncture that was too big to seal. I had to stop and put in a tube. This was bound to happen eventually. It wasn't really that big of a mess to put a tube in. (Taking it out later that week was.) My main concern was getting another flat with the tube. As mentioned, the tires I got aren't very puncture resistant. They're also wearing out super fast. More on that next week.

Anyway, a couple days before this week's ride I took both tires off, cleaned them out, and patched a few of the bigger holes. They make specific patch kits for this, but I just used a regular old patch kit that you would use for a tube. We'll see how that holds up. I also took this as an opportunity to switch from Orange Seal to Stan's. I wasn't necessarily unhappy with Orange Seal, but I wanted to give Stan's a try for comparison's sake.

So far so good. The patches are holding up well and I didn't have any noticeable punctures today. I guess Stan's will have to wait another week to get the chance to prove itself.

Week 37

Date
September 18, 2016

Distance
100 miles

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Week 37

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Weather

Ride Report 
The weather was great this week. It felt like summer out there. It was the perfect day to do some climbing. I started with Geiger, then did a Six Mile Canyon Loop, Gold Hill, and another Six Mile Canyon Loop. That wasn't quite 100 miles, so I rode on Mount Rose up to the point where the bike lane ends to finish off the ride.

I love Six Mile Canyon this time of year. I've probably said that 100 times already, but it really is a ton of fun riding through there when the leaves are changing from green to yellow. Today the trees were mostly green, but you can see the yellow starting to poke through.
 

Tubeless Update: I had my worst flat yet this week. I was doing a little 1-hour ride after work and got a bad puncture on the front. I'm not sure what I hit, but it was something that made a big cut in the tire. It wasn't sealing very well at all. It would get sealed up, then I would hit a bumpy stretch of road and it would open back up again. The good news is that I was still able to ride home (~5 miles probably) without stopping to put a tube in. The bad news is that this cut is probably one that I'm going to have to patch. It seems like it sealed up over night, but I might as well patch it up just in case.

Sealant can't fix everything. That's the worst-case scenario, to get a cut that is too big to seal. But if that happens you're pretty much screwed either way. A cut like that definitely would have punctured a tube. Then you have to hope that the cut isn't so big that it completely ruins the tire. That doesn't happen very often, but it's happened to me a few times in the past. It doesn't happen to me very often because I tend to run sturdy tires. Here's where the real downside of tubeless comes in. Tire selection is somewhat limited. I recently found out that there's a Maxxis ReFuse tubeless tire, which I will definitely try this winter

Week 36

Date
September 11, 2016

Distance
103 miles

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Week 36

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Ride Report 
This was another wind avoidance day. At the end of the year I should go back and count how many times I've done this route on a windy day. I've timed my ride pretty well on windy days lately, and today was no different. I got started later than I wanted, but the wind didn't really pick up until around 2:00. I'll consider that a win. I had good luck with the wind last week for my double, so I'm willing to pay the price for that this weekend.

Fall is coming. The brush is flowering.

Meanwhile, I'm starting to get used to the lower tire pressures I've been running with tubeless. I went with 80 in the rear and 75 in the front today. That seems to be the sweet spot for me right now. I went as low as 60 for some of my 1-hour slow rides and that felt like I was going too far. Most of the roads I ride are pretty smooth, so I doubt I'll be going that low on a regular basis. Either way, it's been fun to experiment and I still haven't had a flat that has forced me to stop.