3GR Report- August Daze

That's Ron on his C'dale.

August- The "Dog Days", they say. Usually, they are right, but this weather has been anything but "usual" this year. Last month we were getting blasted with heat, and now it seems that we are experiencing the early throes of Fall-like weather. Have we completely skipped over August humidity altogether? One would think so.

Well, an update of sorts is in order on the Velocity/Clement X'Plor USH tire odyssey. I have the rear sealed at about 70%, I would say, and the front is just not co-operating what so ever. Time is pressing, so I think I am going to abandon the project for now and run tubes. I just don't have the time to devote to the success of tubelessness on those wheels and tires. My comment now would be that the USH just isn't amenable to being set up tubeless. Too irregular in the bead area to seal correctly. I could get this to work, but it would be a major time suck, and as stated, I don't have the time.

So, I chose the Fargo Gen I as the steed for the day. I hadn't ridden it since the GTDRI back in July, and the Bontrager XR-1's just needed a shot of air and I was on my way. Unfortunately, the fettling with the Orange Crush put me off the back in regard to time in the morning. I was running a bit late getting to the start of the ride. It worked out okay though, as the only other rider, Ron, was also running a tad late and we were off and rolling by about 8:45am.

Big Hawk

The weather was cool. The sky was clear to start with, and the roads were dry, with nice patches of new gravel here and there. Not much of a wind at all either. Quite a great day to be out, actually, and the multi-use path on the way out was rather busy with recreational cyclists and walkers.

Ron and I were chatting so much that I hadn't pulled my camera out at all until we were almost as far North as we would go. At one point, we scared up an enormous Hawk. It was screeching and acting not at all too pleased with our presence, which is unusual. I whipped out my camera and snapped a few images. Then we saw why the screeching was taking place. The Hawk was calling to its mate, who was flying in to see what the commotion was about. I guess it wasn't really all that concerned with us at all.

More conversations, more patches of chunky, fresh gravel. It seemed as though the ride was short, but in fact we were on a bit of a casual pace compared to weeks past. Eventually we got back to Cedar Falls where Ron took his leave of me since he had a longer ride period plan than what we had taken up. I went in for my usual Cup of Joe's goodness. Then I checked into a plan I have for something that might be going on for Trans Iowa V9.

Can't talk about that just yet, but the plans are just in the talking stages right now anyway. Not much to say at this point.

Finally, a note on the next two days: I will be heading up to Northfield, Minnesota later today and tomorrow I will be hitting up the Salsa Cycles demo to see and maybe ride a few of the newest 2013 offerings. Stay tuned for my report. Due to this, a post for Monday and Tuesday may be delayed a bit.