Day4: Indianapolis to Kokomo IN

Monday June 17, 2019

One night in Indianapolis extended into two and then three. The first day would have been dangerous to ride - all hell, including half a dozen tornados, broke loose in this part of Indiana. Yesterday was very good riding weather, but we were having such a good visit, none of us wanted to cut it short. Today, I rode in mist and one short period of moderate rain which got my to put on part of my rain gear and then quickly take it off after I rode north out of the rain. I considered stopping in Tipton, IN after 35 miles of mostly easy, but often boring, riding. In the end I rode on to Kokomo, my original destination at 100km or about 62 miles. The physically worst part of the ride was along section of IN 19 heading north from Tipton which was in the middle of being resurfaced by first being covered with very small gravel which, after being pounded into the road surface by traffic is coated with thin layer of tarish stuff that bonds it to the old surface that it only slightly smoothed out. The result is a very rough surface that 'beat my butt' even with low pressures in my big tires. The fact that my butt was sitting on a new to me seat didn't help.

On the second day of this tour, where I did even more steep climbing than I did on the first day, something started clicking with every pedal revolution during hard climbing, On the third day it was clicking with even fairly gentle climbing. I though it might be a problem with my seat. My new friend Jim had a seat he had tried and not liked which was so similar to my Terry Fly that I could use to try to determine if the problem actually was in the seat.

I replaced the seat on my bike with it yesterday and the click went away. Jim offered to let me ride on using that seat and carrying my old one and I thought the clicking problem was solved. The clicking came back after about 20 miles ;-{ and I ended up riding that rough section on a seat my butt wasn't well broken in to. My butt survived that section. Fortunately I'd spent a lot of time getting that seat positioned properly before the rough section. I guess I'm now broken in to that seat. Unfortunately, it is looking like the click may be a problem within the Bottom Bracket so I found a bike shop in Kokomo to visit tomorrow. It is a recumbent dealer and it seems to be the only serious bike shop tn town.

Finally, and speaking of Jim and help with bike problems, I discovered that my bikes front shifter - 80's Suntour Power Ratchet non-indexed front mounted on a shimano bar con mount - was screwed up when I started out this morning and Jim helped me disassemble and reassemble it this morning. He is a good mechanic and was a big help.Next morning: I woke up feeling very groggy this morning and am taking it easy before I ride. This day has lots of places where I can stop for the day.

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