Day 6, a short day in the rain to Frankfort

July 17, 2021

Last night's room was the best room value of this tour, but it did have a few drawbacks. Before I went to bed last night at my usual 9 PM, I discovered that the most of the air conditioner's controls didn't work. I had two choices choices: high cool or off. High cool was making the room too cold, even when I went to bed wearing my buff, my usual merino wool long sleeved shirt, and tights. So I opted for off. That worked OK for most of my usual long night sleeping - 9 PM to 7 AM - but I woke up sweating at 6 AM and turned the air conditioner back on. I don't know if this affected my ride today, but I was feeling pretty creaky all morning.

I ate breakfast at a Dairy Queen which is a five minute walk north of the motel. That was a first for me, but the place was packed with mostly old men who were obviously regulars. Their breakfast platter was good and a good value and, as I ate it enjoying the interactions among the regulars, I heard a local weather forecast calling for a rainy weekend. That wasn't what the NWS forecast said, but I should have listened to the local forecaster.

I packed up and headed north on 127 just after 9 AM. Within minutes I felt light rain and it just kept getting heavier over the next hour. About five miles into my riding day, I was riding in moderate rain and, briefly, considered turning around. Just as it it had gradually got heavier, the rain gradually went away and, after about 10 miles of riding, the rain was gone and their were some blue sky showing ahead. I was wearing Rain Legs, a vest, and when the rain got heaviest, I'd put on my Frog Togs rain jacket.

Now I took it all off and dealt with the wet stuff - everything I had had on - as best I could. A few miles later my rear derailleur stopped working and I discovered that one of the straps that hold the Rain Legs on my body had wrapped it self in the cogs. After I stopped and worked that strap out of the cogs, the derailleur started worked again. Thanks to my rain gear and the warm weather, I was never uncomfortable riding on the wide 127 shoulders in moderate rain and moderate traffic. I did put on the bright green rain cover for my rear top bag on the rear rack.

I stopped in Lawrenceburg at a McDs for 'lunch' that turned out to be made from breakfast food because they had some troubles getting their regular menu to display. I had hotcakes, bacon, and a breakfast burrito along with my senior coffee. When I rode on, I accidentally headed into Lawrenceburg instead of north on 127. I did figure that out, but it cost me a couple of miles of extra riding. I seem to have confusion when leaving McDs.

Coming into Frankfort after 30+ miles, I was wiped out and decided a short day was called for. I stopped at a Days Inn and got a room for $81 which is pretty much par for this sort of place, Getting my loaded bike in here was tight, but workable. I switched batteries before I left this morning and I've already recharged the battery I used today. I'll probably leave that battery on for the rest of this tour because it has a better waterproof plug for he charging connector socket. I was riding using my new set of standards for assist levels. The rules are to not use assist on flat or downhill sections and to use the second level of assist on even moderately steep climbs. Interestingly, the lowest level of assist is most noticeable when starting from a stop - the system boosts the assist when the pedals start moving - and not very noticeable when riding up gentle slopes. The second level of assist - called tour - makes climbing quite noticeably easier. For reasons I don't really understand, switching off assist on the lowest setting when riding flat or downhill actually seems to make the bike go faster?

Coming into Frankfort. I was already starting to look for a motel

I made the seat flatter after I discovered that there was a silver colored quick release being used to lock it angular position. You can see it's handle in the first of these two images. There is a black quick release collar on the tube the seat post slides in.

And how it works by locking the seat pivot in the second image. Note the marks that have been made on the piece of metal that is used to stop the seat from rotating when the quick release is locked. The back handled quick release is used to lock the seatpost at the appropriate length for the riders legs. As you can see, my legs are nearly the shortest supported. You can also see the top of the channel that is cut into the seat post shaft to prevent it from rotating when its length of insertion is adjusted.

Today's ride: 33 miles (53 km)
Total: 221 miles (356 km)

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