Congratulations on your birthday and your longest ride!
In a private email I told you to stop writing about getting flats or you
would surely be changing tires again soon. See, I told you so. From now
on, don't even think about that word ;-)
As for me, I never carry tire irons. I can usually just push the tire off
the rim. Keep the rim upright and roll the near side of the tire away from
you while pushing down toward the ground. It's really simple and usually
takes all of about 15 seconds. I'll show you sometime if my instructions
here aren't clear. Oh, and you can also use the end of your quick-release
skewers in a pinch.
Wow, you amaze me with your ability to ride so fast for so long... and by
yourself no less. Oh, and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on the
1/10 of a mph for 100 miles. From my perspective you rode a 5 hour century.
Nicely done.
I went out for a ride Saturday morning after taking Peter to his first
soccer game (he had a blast). I left around 10:30 and figured you probably
had at least 30 miles under your belt by then. I ended up doing 72 miles,
but averaged only 17.3 mph. I must have had a headwind coming and going.
;-) Sure wish I could have ridden in your draft.
Glad you had a nice ride.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Seth Dillingham" <
seth@macrobyte.net>
To: "TruerWords" <
TruerWords-site@free-conversant.com>
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 11:38 AM
Subject: [tw] Ride #94: A Beautiful Day for a Century [Msg#5700]
> <
http://www.truerwords.net/5700>
> --------------------------------
>
>
> Somewhere around mile 60, I felt "bump bump bump" and saw something stuck
> to
> my front tire. Uh-oh. I stopped to check, it was the spring from
> clothespin,
> and one end was fully embedded in the tire. When I pulled it out, all the
> tire's air came with it. (Well, it wasn't quite THAT fast, but it was flat
> fairly quickly.)
>
> When I packed my jersey pockets before leaving the house the second time,
> I'd
> left my tire levers on the shelf. I made do with the little
> nozzle-tightening
> lever on the end of my frame pump, and a piece of smooth metal I found on
> the
> side of the road, but it took three times longer than it otherwise would
> have.
>
> At 99 miles into the ride (still on Route 2), my average speed was exactly
> 20.0 miles per hour. It was coming down, though, because at 83 miles (at
> the
> friend's house) I was at 20.3.
>
> To my utter disgust and amazement, it clicked down to 19.9 mph just
> seconds
> before I hit the hundred mile mark. I couldn't believe it. (I'd been
> watching
> the average speed on the computer. When I saw it drop to 19.9, I switched
> to
> the trip odometer... I was at 99.8x miles.) If not for the flat tire, or
> the
> stop at that gas station, or any of a dozen other little moments, I would
> finally have completed my first 20 mph century. How annoying.
>
