July 1, 2013
Hey, Wait for Us!
We chose to begin this year's cycling a little late in the season, so as to be able to get things in order at the farm. But now, the cross America cyclists and the cross Europe cyclists are half done their treks, and we are still cooling our heels.
This got driven home, here in Missoula - home of the Adventure Cycling Association - as we hung out in REI, getting Laurie's bike in shape for riding the Hiawatha. Here was one fellow, an Australian, headed east, and there, two on recumbents, also heading east. In fact, the place was swarming with touring cyclists. They were desperately buying improved tents or trying derailleur repairs, etc. All would be back on the road in an hour or two.
In an hour or two, though, we were just back in the gear strewn living room, moving stuff from A to B to A. We know pretty soon "home" will be a distant memory, but right now it's being on tour that that feels like the distant memory.
Oh well, Friday will come.
The kids did get to bask in tthe touring thrill, as we picked them up from school with the full WeeHoo rigs. They got to show their friends and teachers all theirr equipment, and get ooo'd and ahh'd over. Then finally we sailed off, hoping desperately not to wobble into a dumpster or something before we were out of sight!
One of the bits of gear we have been shifting around is tires. We thought we would move from 406-40 Schwalbe Marathons to 406-47, part of a fatter tire evolution. We started touring with 406-35. But, when we opened the box from Niagara Cycle, we found that they had jammed the tires into a too small space. As a result, the tires are way out of round and the sidewalls have some creases. General opinion seems to be that these glitches will iron out once the tires are installed and kept at maximum permitted pressure. On the othe hand, these are Marathon Plus - notoriously hard to install at the best of times, because of their stiffness and the 406 (20 inch) small size. We decided to stick with 406-40 Schwalbe Greenguard. We have too much planning invested in these trips to gamble right now with possibly gimped tires.
Here's a shout out Kit Wennersten, who is currently crossing the U.S. He sold us the 406-40s from an ad in Crazyguy. They arrived in pristine condition, beautifully boxed. Take a lesson, Niagara Cycle!
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