You Snooze You Lose

I overslept a bit today and then went riding before the snow melt.  I totally forgot about the Dirty Kanza 200.  Well it sold out.  I am not surprised endurance events like this, the NUE, and now the UltraCX are becoming more popular every year. That downside is what draws me to the TD and other ultra endurance events.  No registration no fee, and the option of racing when I can.

Note the butt print

Seatpost Bag

I finally sat down at the sewing machine this week. I was amazed that I spent a solid two+ hours making it.  Most of that time spent getting the zipper pull back on after pulling it too far. The zipper is sewn into a separate piece of fabric. I think next time the center portion will be one continuous piece. and I learned to cut the triangle bits with curved corners, I think it will sew easier and look better. I even added a bit of the grosgrain stuff over the seams.

I made a little gas tank earlier w/out much planning and learned a good bit.  I've applied those lessons to the tank you see now.  This I think is good enough for the TD, it will just hold my tools and tubes next to my seatpost.
I have a pattern ready for a frame bag for my commuter bike. Once I sew that I think I'll be ready to make small things to sell.

Why I do it

I was asked why I was going back to the Tour Divide for the third time, the best answer I could give was "why not".

I just went through all my TD photos today. Each one elicits a flood of emotions. I can look at each photo and tell you how I felt that day, what song was going through my head, what I was thinking, what body part ached, and what I smelled.
I couldn't all of that into words though(and not for a lack of writing skills).

To many of you these photos are just miles and miles of endless roads.
To me they represent hard earned memories.

What a single cyclist does on a Saturday night

I have three wheels to build up. Front and rear for my cyclocross bike and a a singlespeed for my belt drive. All use Chris King hubs, DT Swiss revolution spokes, aluminum nipples, and Stan's Crest rims. And 3x lancing of course.

My wheel building kit is complete, and nice and tidy.
Nipple driver and starter in the lid
Spoke wrenches, spoke prep, tensiometer, and chart in the base(not pictured foam separator).

The Bicycle Museum of America

Oddly enough New Bremen(middle of nowhere) OH houses The Bicycle Museum of America.
I made the trek up through corn fields and old adorable townships in the middle of said fields on a nice cold day.
It is worth the trip and the three bucks admission.
They have boneshakers, penny farthings, 1950s cruisers, head badges, wodden bikes, monowheels, some modern bikes, and there were even a few belt drive bikes.
I'm not sure what was my favorite, but if you forced me I'd probably take the pedal boat motor thing.
This first thing I saw was this 30+ lbs pump pedal bike, which had a jammed chain...which I fixed.

Monowheel

My new Tour Divide bike

The gentleman running the museum let me have free reign of the basement which was filled to the brim with bikes, I started counting, but gave up..

more photos here.

Broke a Belt

After about 1700+ miles I broke a belt.
I think I had the tension too high.
So yes, it can happen, fortunately it happened in Cincy instead of the middle of nowhere.

New T(ys)ools!

Cycle Sport and Tri in Loveland went out of business and my brother raided the place.  We missed out on the work stand though because Al ran out of money.
Park TS-2 work stand(gotta check if it's centered
Park spoke wrenches
Park WAG-5 dish tool
Park TM-1 tensiometer
Wheelsmith tensiometer(gotta get that adjust/repaired)
Park TW-6 torque wrench
Park CRS-1 crown race setter
Park RT-2 headcup remover
Park HHP-2 bearing press

Damn near a full shop.