“flying” solo

We’ll I  guess i really wasn’t flying more like grinding but you get the point.   With DK less than a month away May needed to be solid month of biking.  That was the plan originally after Platte it was going to be cross bikes  all the time with some some road miles thrown in the mix. With Platte being canceled, I did get out for gravel adventure with JP last Saturday.   This weekend was time to double that distance, and if meant that  I would have to do this solo so be it, Ideally I would probably just go on mr. mod’s ride but  I figured hey lets do this 130 miles on a  single speed. The route could be called tour of Elkhorn and platter river valleys.  Omaha==>Arlington==>Yutan==>Ashland==>South Bend==> Springfield==>Omaha.  Good mix of some roller couple nice climbs about 20 miles of absolute flatness between two rivers with some sandy sandy gravel.

The ride started off easy enough no wind I did see Karen Douglas in morning running on 132nd street.  Sweetness nice to you, rest of the ride was standard with 2 dog intervals around mile 27 and 30.  Then I lost my direction sheet right before Arlington, crap this is not good, I had to backtrack and find it. Well good thing it was only 2 miles from Arlington the route could continue.   The next section of to Yutan was flat   and sandy and uneventful i zipped through Valley, though about Joshua and Ali counting corn and proceeded to on through. In Yutan I went to grocery story and got some food. The only bad part of the ride happened on vine st in front of the store.

I was just eating my food seated on the curb minding my business. A big diesel truck pulls right next to me  the guy gets out and asked me  “do you own the sidewalk?” WTF? dude? I”m just sitting here eating and you could park anywhere in the metropolis.  Then it became apparent what was happening, he was picking up his mom from the grocery store. Content of the shopping list case of natural Ice. Way to milk you mom’s retirement pension…. I’m sure she very proud of you…( end of the rant here)

Trip to Ashland was pretty tame, downtown of that town is pretty sweet looking by the way.  After Ashland I reached for my sheet only to find it done again, dam it, I see bar mounting bag for one of those puppies in my future.   With help of the Iphone, i found my way to south bend.  From South Bend is was whole shot to Springfield and then home sweet. I was gone total of 9:30 hours. Moving time  8:44.  Miles 129.6 Looking at the phone and looking for the map took some time.

This was first time I used Google maps for extensive directions with turn by turn for biking it worked out well. I think the only mistake was the name of one street and that’s it.  Nutrition no problem, bike fit good, new tires great. Now to the bad. Look at the picture below. Yes that’s a salsa Delgado cross rim with giant crack in it.  last 2 weeks I was hearing clicking noise and I couldn’t locate it. It only happens under load this would explain the click, single speed torque  would make that broken piece move enough to make the noise. I will be calling salsa for warranty replacement.  After 4k miles  this? it seems to me like bad design as I noticed couple more crack on the drive side spokes.

Better to find that now then middle of nowhere Kansas

Finally, after my ride I drove to watch south vs. Creighton prep state semifinal. I’m not that much into cheese Disney movies or those long drawn out espn stories about triumph and impossible odds.  But here we were at Creighton stadium with classic class struggle more than just soccer futbol match. On one side you have rich white kids from affluent families on other hand team full of Hispanic minorities.  And guess what South won  in shootout. I have feeling that whole south Omaha including MK and I will  be there for the final Tuesday night.  The kids sure are great futbol players.