I signed up to do the "Gravel Grinder" today, and yesterday I was prepping my bikes and tuning them up. While cleaning up the Willits (my mountain bike), I chipped some paint off the seatstays. There had been a little paint blister or two for a long time, but I never paid much attention to them. Somehow, and this is quite a mystery, I have several holes rusted through my both of the seatstays. I'm not talking about cosmetic little exterior rust spots, these are actual holes. Hard to describe in words, so here are some pictures:
Underside of seatstays (bike is upside down) showing location of rust holes.
A closer look...
Knife blade inserted into the biggest hole.
How the heck does that happen?! I've seen steel frames rust out before, but they were OLD and had been stored outside. And, they rusted out at the bottom brackets. This just makes no sense to me at all. I guess I'm going to keep riding it until it actually breaks (it won't break catastrophically, I've broken several frames before) or until I can afford a new frame (not anytime soon!). Pretty bummed about all that.
Back to the Gravel Grinder. The weather was crappy all weekend (mid 30's and raining), but somehow it managed to hold off for the 2+ hours I was out on the 30 mile loop. The loop is mostly dirt roads, and there were a TON of steep hills. It was supposed to be a casual, social sort of ride, but there were of course some racer-geek types up front. They didn't sprint off the start line, but they did take off pretty quick. Surprisingly, they never got all that far ahead of me. Of the 150 or so people that started, I think there were only about a dozen people back in the parking lot when I made it back. It's quite possible that those guys are super fast and were taking it easy though. On the other hand, I wasn't riding all-out (except on the climbs, when I had no choice!) either. After the first 8 miles or so, I was riding almost entirely on my own, and after about 12 miles, I only saw one other guy a ways ahead of me, who I eventually passed (I wish it was because I was faster, but he made a wrong turn and waited to ask me directions). I was expecting to be a lot slower than I was, and I think I heard some surprised comments when my huge carcass rolled up not long after the fast guys. Anywho, the 'cross bike ran flawlessly. The only thing I wanted was an easier granny gear. Granny gear on this bike is a 34x25, which sounds like enough, but man, I could barely turn the pedals on a couple of the hills. I actually walked a short section of one of them, and the guy next to me still riding was actually going slower! Some steep stuff.
Chrissy met me at the aid station, which was super nice of her. I know that watching a bunch of bike geeks whiz by can't be much fun, so I really appreciated it. They actually had bananas, PBR's, and whiskey at the aid station, but I didn't partake. Chrissy took a couple photos, so here they are:
Fresh snow on the Worcester Range. This view is along one of the few flat sections (before a big descent!) where the aid station was.
10 miles in and still smiling!
Off I go. I've never seen a picture of myself riding a bike from a distance. I'm huge! That's a 62cm cross bike and it looks like it has BMX wheels or something. Good times. If there were any prizes at this ride, I think I would have gotten "fastest fat guy".
Last but not least, here's a pesky red squirrel that keeps getting into one of our bird feeders. I don't know how many times I watched him fall off of it before he figured it out, but he's got it down now. So I took down the bird feeder. Sucka!
Enjoy it while you can you little varmint.
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