Cycling and other musings
79 miles, 1686 feet climbed
Another day with less Interstate, more frontage roads. I had two flats while on the Interstate, one a 1-inch nail which deflated my tire in a second, the other a slow flat from a tire wire. A SAG van was close for each, allowing me to use a floor pump to bring the tire pressure up to a full 100 lbs rather than the 70-80 lbs I can achieve with my fame pump.
Continue reading “Day 13: Grants to Albuquerque, NM”66 miles, 886 feet climbed
Much less time on the Interstate made for a more peaceful day, with one exception–five miles of bad road, as the expression goes. That was part of the otherwise nice frontage road which was in the process of being refreshed. It was at the stage where the top layer had been ground off, leaving teeth marks from the grinding tool. Extremely buzzy at the handlebars, to say the least. Going faster helped a little, but not much. The one bronze (not going to silver here) was that it proved the vibration reducing capabilities of my Cane Creek eeSilk seatpost, purchased after riding a different kind of bad road on the 2019 America North tour. My arms and wrists were feeling every little diviot but my butt wasn’t feeling any of it.
Continue reading “Day 12: Gallup to Grants, NM”93 miles, 1873 feet climbed
Just about as long as yesterday, with 1000 feet more climbing. The climbing was gradual, though, just constant. Add a time zone change and 45-minute rail crossing delay, and I just had time to clean up before dinner.
Continue reading “Day 11: Holbrook, AZ to Gallup, NM”96 miles, 807 feet climbed
Today was a fast day, the first half downhill the second uphill, though less steeply so than the downhill. Some felt aided by a tailwind but it felt more like a crosswind to me. Almost all of it was on I-40. I’ve now concluded that Arizona’s Interstates have even more tire debris than California’s something I thought impossible. Plenty of flats to go around.
Continue reading “Day 10: Flagstaff to Holbrook, AZ”47 miiles, 4849 feet climbed
I knew about today’s climbing because Melanie and I drove both up and down it about 10 years ago on a trip to Sedona. My memory of it was steeper than it turned out to be, though. That’s not to say that it wasn’t a significant effort as we were gradually ascending the whole day with a few brief descents along the way. And once we reached the top of the last climb, it was essentially flat into Flagstaff.
Continue reading “Day 8: Cottonwood to Flagstaff, AZ”44 miles, 2674 feet climbed
More climbing in the west, with a kick-ass downhill to finish. For days like this, I’m going to start adding the elevation profile, copied from my phone’s app that downloads the data from my bike computer.
I apologize that there are no photos of Jerome, a former mining town, now a tourist destination. I seem to gravitate to the natural scenery, unless there is some irony involved.
Continue reading “Day 7: Prescott to Cottonwood, AZ”60 miles, 5709 feet climbed
Half the miles and nearly twice the climbing from yesterday. Getting to the first climb up to Yarnell was a slight, steady climb at a 1 to 2% grade. The climb itself ranged between 3 and 6 %. Following a transit of the Peoples Valley, we had a rolickin downhill; I saw 40 mph for a few seconds and was cruising in the 30’s.
Continue reading “Day 6: Wickenburg to Prescott, AZ”113 miles, 3051 feet climbed
The first 30 miles or so of today’s ride were again on I-10, with plenty wide shoulders and the usual truck tire shrapnel to dodge. Then we veered northeast on Hwy 60 towards Wickenburg. Hwy 60 has the occasional turn but is mostly dead straight, with much less traffic than the Interstate.
Continue reading “Day 5: Blythe, CA to Wickenburg, AZ”69 miles, 2457 feet climbed, weather: comfortable to start, warm but not blazing hot, at the end
Today would have been a 99 mile day but for road construction, which made a 30 mile stretch of I-10 impassable (well, seriously unsafe) for us. Staff had to shuttle us between the second an third SAG stops. There we no complaints about the reduced mileage, especially when we saw the work zone (photo below). And I had no flats to fix.
Continue reading “Day 4: Indio to Blythe, CA”90 Miles, 1998 Feet Climbed, Weather-overcast/cool to begin, sunny and warm, but comfortable at the end
It looks like we’re going to have unseasonably moderate weather for a while. Today started cool, which made the major climb on highway 79 into Banning easier. We grouped up on the western border of the Morongo Tribal Reservation. Going through the reservation avoided a nasty alternative route. The tribe insisted that we go through as a group, not individually.
Continue reading “Day 3: Moreno Valley to Indio, CA”