Fairly short day today, only 71 miles. However the day started off badly. The rear wheel of my bike had been acting up for the past couple of days and this morning, as we were leaving the school it completely failed. The diagnosis from Peter the mechanic was the wheel had just worn out and and sealed bearings were shot. So my bike was out of commission. One of the staff members, Olga, was not riding today since she was manning the picnic stop. Peter pulled out her bike from the trailer, swapped out the seat and replaced her petals with mine and we were ready to go. The wheel repair would have to wait until this evening at Lake Placid.
We finally rolled out of the school at 8:15 vs. our typical 7:30. We were kinda in a rush to get caught up with the group. The three of us, Jim, Lauri and me pushed it a bit on the hilly roads. We reached the water stop at 23 miles, finding Greg and Andrew waiting for us to pass so that they could pick up the water jugs. They let us know that the next rider in front of us was a couple of miles up the road, so we filled up quickly and were on our way.
I wanted to make it a fairly quick day so that I would have time to have my bike wheel taken care of once we arrived in Lake Placid.
We pulled into the picnic stop at 10:45 at mile 40. Lauri checked her cycle computer, we had averaged 17.1 MPH. For us, 17 MPH is flying. We normally average 15 or 16 MPH.
We were out of the stop in about 30 minutes and pushing on to Lake Placid. In a hurry or not, Jim had spied the town of Saranac Lake at the 60 mile mark, just 11 miles from the end. Saranac Lake is a mountain resort town and we found a cafe call "Blue Moon" where we and several other riders pulled in for coffee and pastries. One of the customers took our photo for the local paper. Maybe we'll be famous some day.
The final miles into Lake Placid were more climbing but thankfully went fairly quickly. We arrived at the Lake Placid High School at 2:45. Where I quickly put up the tent and showered. I then found my bike and swapped seats and petals with Olga's bike, putting her bike back into the configuration it was before I had ridden it.
Jim and I then walked my bike to the nearby bike shop to see if anything could be done to get my bike repaired. The bike mechanic came to the same conclusion that Peter had earlier in the morning, the wheel had just worn out and needed to be replaced. This bike shop had the Campy freewheel assembly that I needed but not a wheel. As second shop had the wheel but not the freewheel assembly. So after a couple phone calls, I bought the freewheel assembly at the first shop and then brought it to the second shop to have the two parts mated and assembled on to the bike. I'm lucky the Sunday (Aug 12) is a rest day because I'm scheduled to pick up the bike a 1PM, ready to ride out with the group Monday morning to Burlington Vt.
Today's Photos
Happy Trails,
Brian
We finally rolled out of the school at 8:15 vs. our typical 7:30. We were kinda in a rush to get caught up with the group. The three of us, Jim, Lauri and me pushed it a bit on the hilly roads. We reached the water stop at 23 miles, finding Greg and Andrew waiting for us to pass so that they could pick up the water jugs. They let us know that the next rider in front of us was a couple of miles up the road, so we filled up quickly and were on our way.
I wanted to make it a fairly quick day so that I would have time to have my bike wheel taken care of once we arrived in Lake Placid.
We pulled into the picnic stop at 10:45 at mile 40. Lauri checked her cycle computer, we had averaged 17.1 MPH. For us, 17 MPH is flying. We normally average 15 or 16 MPH.
We were out of the stop in about 30 minutes and pushing on to Lake Placid. In a hurry or not, Jim had spied the town of Saranac Lake at the 60 mile mark, just 11 miles from the end. Saranac Lake is a mountain resort town and we found a cafe call "Blue Moon" where we and several other riders pulled in for coffee and pastries. One of the customers took our photo for the local paper. Maybe we'll be famous some day.
The final miles into Lake Placid were more climbing but thankfully went fairly quickly. We arrived at the Lake Placid High School at 2:45. Where I quickly put up the tent and showered. I then found my bike and swapped seats and petals with Olga's bike, putting her bike back into the configuration it was before I had ridden it.
Jim and I then walked my bike to the nearby bike shop to see if anything could be done to get my bike repaired. The bike mechanic came to the same conclusion that Peter had earlier in the morning, the wheel had just worn out and needed to be replaced. This bike shop had the Campy freewheel assembly that I needed but not a wheel. As second shop had the wheel but not the freewheel assembly. So after a couple phone calls, I bought the freewheel assembly at the first shop and then brought it to the second shop to have the two parts mated and assembled on to the bike. I'm lucky the Sunday (Aug 12) is a rest day because I'm scheduled to pick up the bike a 1PM, ready to ride out with the group Monday morning to Burlington Vt.
Today's Photos
Happy Trails,
Brian
Serendipity! I, too, had coffee at the Blue Moon in 2010.
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