Monday, October 11, 2010

Bicycle Touring, Randonneuring, Motel Touring...

Whatever I'm doing, I'm doing it fast.  You can blame the many centuries, the multitude of gruelingly fast sixty five mile runs to Nyack and back, the ninty-five degree ride to Philly, or the love of smooth running cycling gear.  But really I just want to see my dad turn 60 with all of his brown hair - you know, just to make sure I can keep mine for another thirty or so years. 

West of Brooklyn by about 600 miles lies a tiny town on the shores of Lake Erie called Vermilion, Ohio.  We have endless bike trails, boats and piles of brown leaves to jump in.  Of course getting there by bicycle includes crossing Manhattan, a small knob of the lovely state of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and half of Ohio.  
Easy, right? of course, when you're taking one of the oldest transcontinental highways in the United States:  US Route 6.  Also which conveniently runs directly through Vermilion - kind of hard to get lost when I'll be riding the same road for 530 miles of a 600 mile trip.  But the route is the easy part; enter the Allegheny mountain range:
Luckily those old timers looking for Red Spruce and natural gas carved out a series of roads that conveniently followed river valleys and railroads - which tend to be flat - err at least gradually sloping - to avoid most of the major hills of Northern Pennsylvania.  But of course there will be one small challenge;  the Eastern Continental divide.  The highest point in the Eastern US separating the waterways from the Atlantic to the Mississippi.
Although that yellow dashed line is nothing compared to the red one but I think I'll be OK with this:

The bike of choice will be my Custom not-to-me Spectrum designed by Tom Kellogg and fabricated by Merlin Metal Works built with a mix of Campy Record and Chorus components.  The most badass thing about this frame is its relatively race-oriented geometry along with its extended chainstays (so I don't strike my heels on my panniers), rack braze-ons (to effortlessly attach a rear rack) and a beefy rear triangle (to support an extra load of supplies). This bike is fast, and by fast I mean I can easily pass your grandma in a 35mph zone (because she's actually doing 28).  I had to make only a few modifications to make this bike touring ready - I swapped the cranks for compact (50 & 34 chainrings) and switched the cassette to a roomy 13-29t.  Oh and did I mention its Titanium?  Comfortable and light... 

I'm headed out Thursday at a not-so-bright and early 6am from Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  I'll be leaving from Baker's Dozen on Manhattan Ave if anyone wants to join me for 20, 40, 100 miles?


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