Trans Iowa Tune Up Ride V2

A few weeks ago a few of us guys met up in Marengo, Iowa for a century loop and I had promised I would come up with my own little training ride. So, on Saturday, December 8th I will be sponsoring the 2nd ride of (hopefully) a series of Trans Iowa training rides.

I live in Gilbert, Iowa which is just a couple miles north of Ames. Anyone that would like to come is welcome to stay at my house on Friday night. We will plan on taking off around 7:00 AM on Saturday. There will be just one pass through town around half way so be prepared. The pass through town of Lehigh is very small and it only has a gas station/grocery store. The route will be roughly 107 miles and will have some major climbs. Not a ton of climbing, but the climbs we will do will be 1/4 to a 1/3 of a mile at 8-10 percent grade. Enough to feel it that is for sure!

Check out the route here. Leave me a comment if you would like to come.

Seeking Opinions

I am considering getting some wheels built. I will largely be riding gravel, some single track with few, if any drops, I need the rear hub to be able to handle gears and single speeding, I want it to be at least reasonably light and durable for the price. The Skunk River Cycles here is Ames has recommended these for around $400 built:

Salsa DelGado Race 29er Disc Rims
DMR Revolver hubs
DT Swiss SuperComp spokes

What do you think? They are recommending these hubs because it has a steel cassette body and they should be able to handle the wear and tear of a single speed cog.

Since I have such little experience on this stuff I thought I would ask you guys what you think. So what are your thoughts on this?

Paul

Hmmmmmmm?

Is it me or is Guitar Ted an actor on the side?

Riding just a bit

Went for a forty miler to the Des Moines River and back today (20 there and back). I threw the 32 X 17 back on and wanted to see how the steep hills around the river valley would be. Surprisingly, everything went well. I made it up out of the valley just fine. It was tough, yes, but not horrible. I fought the wind for the first 20 miles and it was good for me to have to push a bit as it wasn't easy. Of course, the ride home was a breeze. On a single speed I think it is even easier to ride the wind as you can't shift to make it harder. You just have to sit and spin and do a lot of coasting. I think I might throw on a 16 tooth cog now or move up to a 34 tooth ring. We will have to see.

Happy training.

Be thinking of my recovery as I am going in for snip snip surgeries on Friday! Hopefully I will be back on the bike soon! Any advice I will take it.

Trans Iowa Tune Up Ride!

Yesterday, Matt and I headed down to Margengo, Iowa to meet up with other crazies to do (hopefully!) one of many Trans Iowa Tune Up Rides. I rolled out of bed at 3:00 AM and picked up Matt at 3:45. We drove to Marengo and got there around 5:40 or so. We were riding shortly after 6 as my friends Jim McGuire and Jerry Boran drove up right at six.

This ride was going to be a good one as I had just ridden 57 miles the weekend before and had not gone over that since May and I was going to be riding my first single speed century. We took off at a moderate pace and the hills started right away. These hills are of the ideal size for riding. Most of them are steep, but not so long that you are hating them. Just enough to wake you up. We were heading northwest into the wind and I actually was pretty happy to finally do a ride the right way... ride into the wind and then ride the wind back. Unfortunately, I usually ride out with the wind thinking it is easy, until I turn around! While the wind was somewhat still at 15-25 miles per hour it wasn't so horrible that we were hating it.

The course was amazing with incredible views of the rural landscape. The company was awesome. A guy from Milwaukee was there who goes by the name Squidbuzz on the mtbr forums and he had a musical bike bag that was incredible. I think I just might be picking one of those up just for my solo rides. My friends wouldn't appreciate my musical tastes!

I can't say enough how much I am loving the Redline Monocog Flight 29er. This bike rocks! I am loving single speeding and am (as of now!) finding it easier to ride single speed than I thought it would be. I was addicted to shifting whenever things got hard and now I don't have a choice. I am finding that I am climbing faster than before and even the little bit of riding I have done with the bike I think I am getting stronger as well. I can't wait to really start riding to see what happens. Hopefully I will get more comfortable with a bit tougher gear so that I can go faster and not spin out on the pavement sections of my rides.

Here are some photos of the ride.


Here is Guitar Ted and Squidbuzz at one of our early stops. What an incredible day it was for a ride.



The course was running long the Iowa River so we were following a lot of curvy roads. In Iowa there just isn't enough curvy gravel roads and when you do find them we Iowan's think they are scenic! %^)



AWWWWWW the beautiful Iowa landscape!



Jim McGuire and Jerry Boran enjoying every minute of the ride! They were hammering it today!



The faithful steed! Loving the 29er single speed!







What B roads are suppose to look like!



The end of the road. We certainly didn't set any records, but we had a ball nonetheless!

Thanks to Dave Pals and Guitar Ted for organizing a great ride!

I am organizing a ride for Dec. 8 leaving from Gilbert, Iowa. We will have a 70 mile route, a 100+ mile route and a 150 mile route to choose from! Go large! Check the blog in the coming days for more details!

What I should be doing every day.

Tonight I rode into Ames to see Matt at Skunk River Cycles to set up our plans for the weekend. I rode around Ames some and enjoyed the trails. I put in about 2 hours of riding and then headed home. I have no clue how many miles I put in, but I sure had fun riding around the city. Jumping curbs just like when I was a kid.... and on a single speed. I now understand so clearly why people ride single speeds. I have yet to ride my Flight longer than 60 miles, but I can now see how people can ride singles for long distances. I guess I will find out on Saturday if I can be one of those people. Matt and I, along with Jim McGuire and Jerry Boran, will be riding the Trans Iowa Tune Up ride that my good friends Dave Pals and Guitar Ted. I hope that we have more than the six of us!

Happy training!

A Great Day for a Ride

Alex and I took off around 1:00 for a nice long ride. Here is the route. We took off going east with the 15-20 mph SSW wind. We were going about 15+ mph pretty comfortably until we had to head south. Alex is a lot stronger than me and with his skinny tire Cross Check he was on a stroll while I was pushing hard into the wind just to stay on top of the gear. After another turn going east we had a bit of a break. Another 5-6 miles south got us to Hickory Grove Park outside of Colo. I refilled my bottles and we were off again. My lunch wasn't digesting and the Ensure that I just downed was making my stomach upset so I told Alex that I had to take it easy or I just might hurl. Fortunately, within a couple of miles or so I was feeling a lot better all of a sudden, but my legs were still pretty tired. You can see on the route slip map that from mile 41-47 it was a constant climb. It wasn't steep, more like just a long incline, but going into the wind a bit was just taking my legs out from under me. I was pushing to stay on top of the gear, but it took a lot of work to do it. Being out of shape certainly doesn't help that is for sure! We rolled down a little hill around mile 47 or so and then headed north just for a bit and that gave my legs just enough of a break, until the next climb and I had to stand, but really had nothing left in the tank and was cramping up everywhere! I made it into the paved roads of Ames another 4-5 miles down the road and it was all better! Roadies have it so easy! %^)

We rolled into Gilbert just around 5:30. We ended up averaging 13.4 mph and rode 57 miles (Alex actually was closer to 70) which for me is pretty decent considering my fitness right now. All I know is that I could barely stand when I got home so I certainly know I got a work out in today.

Alex, thanks for going! I appreciated the company even though I don't talk much on rides. I can't wait to do it again!

Next weekend I am suppose to ride 107 hilly miles! Hmmmmm. I might be dropping a tooth on the single speed!