Week 36

Date
September 11, 2016

Distance
103 miles

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Week 36

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Weather

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.

Week 35

Date
September 4, 2016

Distance
201 miles

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Week 35

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Ride Report 
I had my first full day off for a long time, so I decided to celebrate with a double. I was hoping to go somewhere a little more exciting than Susanville, but late planning on a holiday weekend meant that my options were limited.

This route actually ended up being more fun than I thought it would be. Not a lot of climbing, but enough to keep things interesting. That last climb on Eagle Lake Road isn't all that difficult, but it certainly felt that way with 180 miles already in the legs. I was lucky enough to finish in less than 12 hours. That was my goal for the day, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it. There wasn't much wind today. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have made it.

August is over. I did 1,100 miles for the month, which isn't anything spectacular but is better than the 940 I did in July. It's been a weak summer, especially compared to last year. The good news is that things will pick up next summer. I'll have vacation time built up by then and I have a plan. I have to remember the lesson I learned in 2014: I want to make the most of being able to ride while I'm still physically able.

Meanwhile, this was a good way to end the summer. The days are getting shorter and the mornings are getting cold. Fall is a fun time to ride around here. I'm looking forward to it. You can be sure I'll be doing some Six Mile Canyon loops over the next month or so.

Week 34

Date
August 28, 2016

Distance
115 miles

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Week 34

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The missing part is here.

Weather

Ride Report 
This is a fun loop that I've never done before. It starts at the Hallelujah Junction, takes the back roads out to Janesville, then takes 395 (plenty of shoulder) back to the Hallelujah Junction. I wasn't too sure what to expect with the road conditions, which turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag. After I first turned off of 70, there was road construction in process and the roads are brand new and beautifully smooth.

New, smooth, and scenic.

After a while the construction ended and the roads were pretty rough in places. There was one very short section of gravel, but it was less than a mile and on a flat stretch of road, so it was easy to ride. There was a little bit of everything, which made for a fun day and turned out to be a good test of my new tubeless tires. I've been experimenting with tire pressure, trying to find out how low I can go. It's a weird feeling for me because I've been running narrow tires at high pressure for so long. (CyclingTips recently put up a  podcast on the subject here, which pretty much sums everything up.) I was running 75 on the rear and 70 on the front today. It was definitely a more comfortable ride, but it will take some getting used to. I keep thinking that my tire is going flat. I did another century the next day and I went up to 80/75. I'll probably stay close to there for a while just to get used to the feel of it. Then I'll start going lower and experimenting more.

Week 33

Date
August 15, 2016

Distance
103 miles

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Week 33

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Weather

Ride Report 
I switched to tubeless. I've been wanting to give tubeless a try for a while now and the recent string of flats pushed me over the edge. I'll do a full review in a few months, but for now I'll give my first impressions. The setup is Ultegra 6800 wheels with Hutchinson Fusion 5 Performance tubeless tires. I'm using Orange Seal for sealant and Stan's No Tubes valve stems for their removable valve cores. I'm not sure why Shimano doesn't provide valve stems with removable valve cores to begin with.

One of the main arguments against going tubeless is that it's a pain to set up. That was not my experience at all. Obviously different rim and tire combinations will give different results, but things went relatively smoothly for me. The big difference with tubeless is that you have to get the bead of the tire seated on the rim. It's not as simple as unwrapping the new tire, putting it on the rim, and airing it up. There are different tricks you can find out there, but in my case all I had to do was put in a tube and let it sit overnight. After I took the tube out, one side was still seated on the rim and the other side was expanded enough to get seated without a whole lot of trouble. All I needed was some soapy water and a floor pump. The night before I thought there was no way I was going to be able to do it without an air compressor. One night made a big difference.

After the tire was seated I deflated it, removed the valve core, and injected some sealant. Pretty easy. The whole setup process takes a little bit longer than just popping in a tube, but hopefully that pays off in the future by saving time from fixing flats out on the road.

As luck would have it, I actually punctured the rear tire on my very first ride. I probably wouldn't have noticed if not for the orange goo everywhere. I was riding east on 50 headed towards Six Mile Canyon when I felt something spraying on my legs. It almost felt like I rode through a puddle. A lot of orange goo came out, but I didn't notice much of a drop in PSI in the tire. The hole sealed up perfectly and I've probably ridden 80-100 miles since then without any issues. I'll inject a little more sealant this week just to be safe.

Orange goo from the first sealed puncture

The ride itself wasn't one to remember. I had stomach issues towards the end and had to stop a few times. I pretty much crawled up Gold Hill. Oh well. These things happen from time to time and it's been a while since the last time. Better luck next week.

Week 32

Date
August 8, 2016

Distance
101 miles

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Week 32

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Weather

Ride Report 
The flat fest continues. It's almost comical at this point. I got a front flat in the middle of the Mt. Rose climb.and there was no avoiding stopping to fix it this time. It was another thorn. That's it for the Maxxis Detonators. I'm ordering new tires this week.

I haven't done this route for a while. It's a fun one. It's mostly flat except for 3 climbs, but those 3 climbs are enough for a respectable 9,000-foot day. The whole route is scenic, but I especially enjoyed riding through the valley on 267. The tailwind was a nice bonus.

Week 31

Date
August 1, 2016

Distance
107 miles

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Week 31

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Ride Report 
It all started yesterday. I went out for a Six Mile Canyon loop and had an issue on the final descent. I was coming around a wide curve, heard a noise from my rear wheel, and the bike got wobbly on me. At first I thought it was a flat tire. I've had plenty of those this year. However, when I stopped to change the tire I noticed that it was rubbing against the chain stay. I had actually broken a spoke.

This was on my Easton EA90 SL wheel, which doesn't have many miles on it. I bought it last summer for Petoji and haven't used it very often since then. I'm bad about tracking the mileage on my components, but I'd say it has somewhere around 5,000-7,000 miles on it. Granted, those are some difficult miles (Petoji plus an Everest), but that's still disappointing. I'm only 138 pounds and I don't produce very much power. It's been at least 8 years since I broke a spoke and I think I only broke that one because the shop I went to did a terrible job of truing my wheel.

The EA90s are tubeless compatible, so it may be difficult to find a replacement spoke. That's a shame, because I was just getting ready to finally try a tubeless setup.

Anyway, today's ride was equally frustrating. I got a front flat towards the end of the Mt. Rose climb. I hate to stop during a climb, so I just rode the last mile or so with the flat. This one was caused by a thorn. The tire is a Maxxis Detonator, which I'm learning is not that great of a tire. I love Maxxis ReFuse tires, so I was hoping the Detonators would be almost as good but a little cheaper. Their ride quality is pretty good and their durability is decent, but I'm getting lot of flats on them.

Later on when I was descending Kingsbury I was getting this strange feeling like my rear tire was flat. I've had a couple scary moments with flat tires on descents, so sometimes I can be a little paranoid. Every once in a while I'll stop to feel my tire and it will be perfectly fine. Well, today I was just looking down at my tire and it didn't look any more squished down than normal. I took the descent nice and slow just in case. Just a few mile later as I was making the turn on to 88 the tire went completely flat. Was it going flat on the Kinsbury descent? Was my paranoia finally justified? Or did I just happen to get a puncture on the flat stretch of road between Kingsbury and 88?

I couldn't find the object that caused the flat, but it was probably a thorn. I couldn't even find the leak when I took the tube out and pumped it up, so it had to have been something small. Another strike against the Maxxis Detonators. Two flats on two different tires. Not a good day.

I know this stuff can be frustrating, but it's probably a good idea to take a step back and look at the big picture. Is it really that bad? It's the middle of summer and the weather is great. I live in one of the best places in the country to ride, especially in the summer. I'm healthy enough to ride as much as I want. I don't really have anything to be upset about.

Week 30

Date
July 26, 2016

Distance
100 miles

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Week 30

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Weather

Ride Report 
This was my second century in 3 days, so I opted for a flat first half of the ride and saved the climbing for the second half. I ended up doing 6 Mile Canyon, Gold Hill, and another 6 Mile Canyon loop. The weather was sunny and warm without a lot of wind. In other words, a great day to ride. The high was over 100, but I started early and didn't get to ride through much of that. I do remember that the last descent down Geiger was warm. There were parts where it felt like someone was blowing a hair dryer in my face.

July is over now and despite the great weather it was a weak month for me. Only February was worse in terms of hours spent riding. I did 942 miles, which doesn't sound all that bad. I'm still on pace for 1,000 miles per month as a whole. However, this is the time of year when I should be racking up extra miles to make up for November and December. I have a few excuses, but nobody cares about all of that and I'll work on doing better next month.