It turns out that the problem with getting my wheel being built before saturday's 200 miler is the lack of single speed hubs in this town. Half a million people in the metropolitan area and I couldn't come up with a bike shop that had a single speed hub. The wheel is being built with an old suntour flip/flop fixed/free hub. It has cartridge bearing so that makes me happy but the 36 spoke count is a bit much for the road bike. Even riding my road bike on trails frequently I have never had a problem with a 32 spoke rear wheel.
The Great Divide race is into it's second week and there are more people in the race than I would have expected by this time, though many are dangling below the pace that would allow them to finish within the 25 day time limit. Krein has updated the spreadsheet of the racers. I have found this page so fascinating that I plan on going back and putting all of the previous years into a similar format just to see what information i can glean about pacing, strategy and where people have problems,
Regardless of whether Jay Petervary breaks the record, wins or even finishes; one thing is for certain, his set up will be studied and copied by future racers. I expect that Jeff from Carousel Design Works will be extremely busy in the next year building bags for the next group of GDR riders. No rack is the future, especially for the front runners.
"Don't Train, Practice" Kent Peterson, Great Divide Race Single Speed Record Holder
I have mapped out the next three months of overnighters. It occurred to me that now is the best time to get a lot of the long fast overnighters in. It really puts the pressure on me to begin organizing my gear. I still don't have much in the way of a first aid kit. I need to have a better thought out tool and parts bag and I have not done much gas-n-go shopping. I really need to eat more candy bars and drink soda when riding. I should leave the house without any food or drink and make myself stock up on the fly. Economically it is not very smart but it would be good practice.
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2 comments:
great blog, keep the updates going as much as the training. much respect to the regimen!
I've often whined about the lack of selection for fixed/single components in Spokane. I believe there is wide open, albeit pretty small (for now), niche to fill in this town for urban, single, fixed, internal hub, commuter, cargo, etc bikes and bits.
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