Training Log Archive: veinbuster

Tour de Pierre stage 11
Casper Wyoming

The hotel was at 1580m and surrounded by big highways. Last night I had walked Mrs around my ‘worst case’ loop up the hill from the hotel. I did a couple of laps there and felt traffic was light enough I could shoot downhill under the interstate and see what was there.

It turns out a bit of abandoned industrial and a modest sized residential area. The bright sun was low enough that it made visibility tricky in spots, but there was very little traffic so it was a nice relaxed ride at altitude. This was the first day I really noticed the struggle for oxygen - the highest I’ve been by about 200m. Sadly just under the mile barrier.

Testing mountain trikes in Colorado Springs. Tests spanned about 2 hours. No idea what distance might have been. Tests were in a short loop with pavement, fist sized rock, grass, curbs. Pictures are on 2 phones. I’ll get them later.

Azub TiFly X: 3x26” wheels. 1x12 gearing. The handling of this trike was really good. Turning circle 2 3/4 parking spaces. I still find the titanium leaves make more contact than I would like with my calves. 15 years from now it might be hard to get in and out of the seat. Gearing was suitable for off road, but would be a bit low for my tastes on rail trails or asphalt.

Azub Fat with 18 speed pinion. I mostly tried this to get a feel for the Pinion. While the Azub has nice flexibility, I’ve always preferred the handling of the ICE Full Fat. The Pinion has a really good range and the twist grip works fine, even though I’m generally not a fan of twist shifters. My only beef with the Pinion, is that changing it out mean replacing the boom in addition to the drive train - perhaps not tragic, but there might not be a resale market for that expensive component. Range doesn’t feel much different than the Rohloff, but gears are closer together.

ICE half fat: 3x29”. Rohloff + Efneo 3 speed crank. I really liked the handling on this trike. The mild suspension handled bumps well - certainly a different league than my Greenspeed. Turning radius about 2 1/3 parking spaces, which seemed much tighter than I remembered the fat equipped trike handling. I like this setup a lot. This trike, however has a strange seat, that while comfortable doesn’t lend itself to removal. That makes it quite a bit less useable to me. It also has single side braking, which I could get used to, but I have liked being able to brake either side. I’ll price out those changes to see how it compares to doing a new build. I probably wouldn’t spring for the Rohloff at full price. Maybe a 1x12 with a speed/mountain drive or the Efneo, which give less total range but the smaller jumps might be more manageable. I might also go with 650 on a custom build.

C • Offroad trikes 1

Tour de Pierre stage 10
Helena Montana

Mrs has some ‘emergency’ work to do at our next stop so I committed to finishing today’s stage by 7am. Sunrise was a bit late at 5:50 here so I got the first few km in before it came up.

I found a nice compact loop with hardly any traffic so stuck to it. A nice little climb, then a descent into a hard right where I had to merge with the early cars heading to the interstate. It made for compact intervals.

I was surprised at the elevation: 1250m, because we descended for what felt like forever to get to town.

Still working on our lemonade.

We got to our hotel and no one was there. The owner had left keys for 6 people checking in - none of them us. A call got ‘you can stay in room 8 tonight, but we’re full after that’. Next door had a room for 9.

We went to Invermere to visit the town and postpone deciding what to do. Mrs favoured not giving them any money. I favoured giving her at least one night of an incredible view.

While we toured Invermere on foot, the hotel called to say my reservation had been cancelled. I assured them we had not canceled and that I had all of our correspondence (the interchange had left me concerned, mostly about the likelihood of a season price change). No: it had been cancelled, but he didn’t know why. I went over and he showed me his book with ‘Peter’ scratched out. No sorry. No acknowledgement of a mistake.

I took the room for the night. We had a really nice dinner. We have a spectacular view. We’ll go somewhere else today.

C • Ugh 2

The essentials before g ttin J off to the airport

Tour de Pierre stage 9
North Calgary

I tried the north, east and west paths, all of which dead ended pretty quickly. My fantasy was to do laps around the airport while friends and family where taking off - maybe someone would see the tiny cyclist in the bright orange jacket.

After exhausting the paths, I opted to take one quicker run up to the airport. Maybe it was fate because there was an elder couple in a BMW lost on the wrong side of the airport. I told them I didn’t know what the best way might be, but told them what I would do. I checked when I got back to make sure it was right - didn’t even think to check my phone while I was talking to them.

C • Missed you! 1

Tour de Pierre stage 8
Touring Canmore

There was only one option left at the roundabout, so straight through it was. It turns out this is a new development under construction. The road was rough and there was lots of concrete hopping because cross walk stones had been laid but the asphalt not poured. Good thing I had the cross bike.

Once in town I just wandered with a right on red philosophy to see a bit more of what was there. It didn’t take long to come upon some gravel trails, so I followed them - in both directions, on both side of the river. Don’t tell Flight it made me wish I had brought us a couple of new Rubys. Lots of wildlife that didn’t give a hoot about be to photo.

At 20km, I tested my ability to reorient myself and get back to the condo. I had 3 very different rides here with only the tiny stretch to the roundabout in common. I think that’s ok by this year’s rules.

A more relaxed schedule today. My muscles need this.

Tour de Pierre stage 7
Legacy Trail

This is among my favourite ride. It was a cool start at 7C so I wore the only base layer I brought. I needed it and could have used full gloves for a while.

A couple of km through town before I found the trail and headed off to Banff. Most of the climbing was gradual for the net 100m elevation westbound. Riding with the sun coming up meant a few stops to capture the mountain views. There was one climb that took a good effort to get up.

I took a short pause in Banff to eat my snack before looping back for the descent. Along the highway, the big trucks gave me a tow from time to time. One noticeable climb on the return and one trick downhill that I came close to missing a turn and riding off the path into gravel. Even with the quick ride back I was late for breakfast next door.

Nutrition: 1/2 Tailwind, 1 Bounce bar

Bit of a mountain hike with Mrs and J at Grassi

Note to self: don’t mess with the compression program.

My upper thigh still has some abrasions from my really long ride. To protect it I’ve been moving the glue around a bit. The last 3 days I did not fold down the 5cm of uncompressed top. Turns out that put an edge on a chamois seam that put a sore on my butt cheek. Back to the 25 year fold down and we’ll see hot a couple of longer rides go.

There might be a measure of more consecutive days on a regular bike than nearly ever. No such problem on a recumbent.

Tour de Pierre stage 6
Canmore East

This was the planned Flight, NF ride amended for my limits and the need to drive two cars to Canmore.

But first: yesterday I picked up a 11-32 cassette to replace my 11-26. NF installed it before work, but my small derailleur collided with the 32. Flight arranged for a long cage derailleur, which NF put on late last night, and some cable patching and bar tape adjustments. Shifted fine, but noisy so he declared a new chain was in order - but later.

I drove out about the time Flight and NF started. I brought a giant cake and J who would babysit the cake until it could find a fridge. I started east when Flight reached Cochrane. She warned of a headwind, so I decided I would go half way and wait for them. It was a fast ride out, even with a sheep stop: 1:15 for the 35km. But...I could shift into the 28 or 32 so I basically still had a 11-26 but an 8 speed instead of 10. Not a problem for this ride.

I ate all my food and drank most of my Tailwind. I had been riding with my back bladder and drinking plain water from it while riding. I did learn that it isn’t a good fit on a road bike. A charm walking or on the fattie, but too tight on my right shoulder on a road bike so my right hand went numb after about an hour. I as glad to have the 1.5 litres rather than an extra bottle in my back pocket.

After a long break, I started to find the flies and bees annoying so texted Flight that I would start back. They were 5km away and I guessed they would catch me about 10km into my return. If they didn’t catch me, we would meet half way (for me) at a gas station to get them more water. They made the catch after 16km. 1km from the gas station.

NF looked at the derailleur and noticed the cable had popped out of a channel. While I hadn’t remember a big descent outbound, we did hit one long one with a good stretch of 7%. I was glad to have the 32 and NF noted I was the only one spinning up.

Beautiful day for a ride. I feel pretty good for 3 hours on a traditional bike.