Training Ride

Met up with Tim and David of River City Cycling Society fame for a little gravel training route that they had put together. I put Beast back into gravel form, reflipping the bars, removing fenders, rack and remounting the knobby clad wheelset.

We left out of New Castle, KY and headed East. Our first stretch of gravel came within a mile or so of starting lazily grinding past cow pasture and alongside a creek. This was good gravel, well packed, not washed out or potholed. That lasted for about 3 miles.

Then the road ended in the creek.

After exploring options and consulting GPSes, we made the decition to follow the course, remove shoes and wade across. This is followed by much bushwhacking and hike-a-biking.After about an hour of this we finally emerge at the bottom of a pretty steep and long gravel road. We pull the weeds out of our machines and start climbing....soon we're all walking again, as we either ran out of traction, gears or umph.

We ride along some of the rolling paved roads on our way to the next section of gravel, wondering if there's going to be more of the same, or if we'll get rideable sections.

Shortly we find out, as we hit section number 2 and it's chunky. embedded baby-head rocks, mud holes and more. I figure there are two ways to ride a road like this: balls out or slow. I go with the former and go for it. Beast is in its element, huge tires absorbing the terrain and floating over everything. Strong frame never for a second letting you know it was anything but willing and able to take whatever you're willing to. Sprung Brooks allowing for comfortable and smooth seated climbing. A paved watercrossing brings the chunky stuff to an end and it smooths out to fast and slightly soft gravel.

We emerge in Lockport and ride through, stopping to check out the old lock on the Kentucky River. We continue on and cross over to Gratz, hoping for some lunch. No such luck, we start climbing a steady 3-5% for the next 5 miles it seems until we hit Monterey and pausing to ask a local where we can find food, finally get to some lunch. Best chili cheese dogs I've had.

Coming back in we intend to hit a section of gravel, but it seems to have been rerouted, long ago. We see where the bridge is, but not were the road is. Figuring it's still there, as we can see a house on the other side of the creek, we circle around until we find it. This is a nice section of gravel, pretty flat, well tended, with only a few mud holes to move left or right or center to avoid. Somewhere along he I seem to have punctured. A pinhole it takes me several miles of having trouble keeping up to realize. I add some air hoping it won't leak out too fast, but stop to change the tube as we pass back through Lockport.

We then backtrack the smoother gravel section of the road we'd ridden to ride into Lockport, and then turn onto a section we'd not traveled yet. The first two miles of it was probably the most technical of our riding all day, with not many workable lines to get through, massive mud holes that couldn't be ridden around. Somewhere in here my chain swallowed a rock. I spent the next 3-4 miles with a bike that would skip or shift every 3rd pedal stroke.

When we arrive at the main road, and knowing that it was paved the whole way back, I stop to fix the chain, finding the busted link and removing it and replacing with a quicklink. I drink the last of my water as we roll out knowing that I have 8-10 miles left and not being thrilled about it. The extended distances of riding with mechanical difficulties have worn me out, as has the overly aggressive position I've been in for over 7 hours at this point.

This was by far the most epic ride I've done on Beast, and exactly the kind of riding it's been set up for. It's really too slow for more civilized gravel and a bit too aggressive for much longer rides. A different set of bars may correct the aggressiveness of the positioning, but not much can be done to get the gearing any higher or the ride more compliant. The new bike will be better for those rides.