Day 2
My favorite part of camping is making coffee in the morning. I don't know why?
But assembling my little stove, waiting for the water to boil, dumping in my instant coffee (usually instant anyway) and taking my first sip while listening to a quiet campground, always feels good.
I didn't sleep well last night so I was up extra early. But that's okay. I am happy. Because I know, now, that I DO still like bike touring, and camping, and being really tired from a hard days ride, and making coffee while the sun rises, while the rest of the campground is asleep and the birds chirp their morning greeting.
After breakfast I noodled back to the Sacramento train station for my train home, mostly retracing my steps from yesterday. While riding I thought about the new bike...
What I like:
1. I seem to have dialed in the saddle and handle bar position perfectly. With the bars and the bar ends I have multiple hand positions. I wasn't sure about the flat bars but the whole cockpit will be excellent on more demanding, off road, terrain.
2. I changed the stock tires to these tires. They will be excellent for a trip with paved and unpaved surfaces such as those I have in mind in Spain. The stock tires are knobby, 27.5"x2.4". I have trip plans for those as well but that is for another time.
What I love:
The disc brakes! I have never had disc brakes. But, in the past, I have been on many descents that required me to stop to cool the rims. Not having to do that will be great.
I still love the Long Haul Trucker for strictly paved roads. But I admit, this will be the one area that will be hard to go back to.
Things to work on.
1. Gearing. I am using the stock gears that are a 1X up front and a giant pie-plate cluster in the back. It's not terrible for now and I will ride it for a while but I think I will eventually change to a double up front and a more traditional cluster in the back.
I thought the issue would be in the lower gear range but it seems to be just the opposite. I was close to the biggest gear the last 2 days, and that is on a flat trail when I am pretty out of shape and not pushing big gears. The range between the top end might be irritating in the long run when I want to make gear changes at smaller increments?
It also seemed extra hard to get the rear wheel back in place after I changed the tire. Maybe there is a trick to it that I need to learn?
2. This isn't bike related, but I tried some new Ortlieb fork mount packs. The size is great for a short trip like this. But the clamp didn't seem very secure and partially un-hitched itself a couple of times. Not ideal when the bag is inches from the front spokes. I will see if I can do something about that.
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