29 May 2006 - Long weekend

It was nice to be home after the long hours, not in the saddle, of driving! Julie and I left Nathaniel for the first time on Thursday morning to drive up to Boyne, MI for the 24Hr race this weekend. Without Thane or the dogs we were able to fit everything into the car. This would make the gas prices a little easier to deal with. We managed a total round trip avg of 27mpg. Our trip started at 5AM with an arrival time at our 1st destination, Dexter Bike shop, at 11:30AM. Arriving it was discovered that my parts for the new 1FG, Cannondale Single Speed bike, were not yet in. The frame arrived over a month ago, and I immediately requested to have the needed parts ordered to build the bike. Well, they weren't ordered until last Tuesday! Murphy was glad to help as well, as the wrong single speed cogs were ordered and the frame was never checked and it came without the eccentric bottom bracket shell!!! Luckilly I took along my Scalpel to be used as the 2ndary bike, but now it was the main and only bike! Friday night we stayed with our friends Robin and Shari, along with John, at their cottage on Higgins Lake. It was then just a short 1hr drive to Boyne Sat morning. The set-up of camp went smooth with Julie's help, and I was able to get everything assembled on the Scalpel and eat a sandwich before the start. Everything went great at the start. I was leading the Solo Single Speed class, as well as all of the Solo classes while riding easy and walking about 4 of the climbs! After completing lap 3 I had a very comfortable lead. Even though I was walking portions of the trail I knew my legs would burn-out if I did not down-gear a little. So, Robin was nice enough to help me change gears while Julie helped find tools/parts and prepare some food for me. Then all heck broke loose! The smaller gears did not work out with the chain lengths. We tried every combination possible! As 2nd place rolled into the pits it had been 30 minutes. He rolled out and we discovered that we would need a 1/2 link, I didn't even know that such a thing existed! We finally found a match of 44/24 but the chain was as tight as a piano wire. I got rolling again to later have to stop just a couple miles in to tighten the chain ring bolts as they were working loose due to the chain being so tight. I somehow managed to make it through the lap without anything breaking, and Julie had actually acquired a half link! But the damage was done...for me the race was over and now it was just for fun. It took almost 1-1/2hrs to get out on that last lap with the gearing issue. So, I took another break and decided to eat and associate with friends that we haven't seen since before Christmas due to our relocation for work. Upon darkness setting in I began setting up the bike again using the 1/2 link and re-installing the singulator on the Scalpel. I ended up running a 32/17 on a lap departing at about 11PM. I had a blast powering out a 50 minute lap flying by the other riders out on the course. It was a lot of fun. Darkness is my favorite time to ride, and I'll claim to be the best in the dark with the results to back it. By 3AM the leader of my class packed it in, but I was takin a nice long nap. I was then awakened by thunder and lightning with a downpour of rain at dawn. Then everyone racing began packing it in, except for just 2 riders who chose to continue. My sister also came up with her kids, Brenden and Taylor. We met with them for breakfast and then I went into the waterpark with them for about 2hrs before Julz and I headed home. It is a nice waterpark, but at $40 per person it is a rip-off! Hopefully the kids got their mom's money's worth. Then it was on the road again back home. We left around 11:30AM and made it home with a couple of stops by 9:30PM. Today we took Thane on his first bike ride in his new Burley trailer. I bought it from a guy in MI off the MMBA BB for just $150. It has been used very little and is in great shape. We rode to Wally-world and bought a flag for it and I mounted it when we got home.