Resetting The Controls

Image credit: Sonya Looney

One week ago I was burning up in 100°F heat, and now it's freezing in the mornings and I am wearing my woolen stuff back here in Iowa. What a weird transition.

Not to mention that I spent an entire week off from work in a city that is so unreal, it hardly seems as though any of it happened. But....of course, it did. Now it's time to reset the controls to "normal" and get back into the groove.

Of course, that means getting back to work where I have some Salsa Cycles Mukluks to assemble, and I suppose some emergency repairs that were held back until I got there. It also means that my projects I put on hold for a bit are going to get taken care of and I've already started doing that.

I spent much of Sunday in recovery mode from the 3GR and the long slog without sleep before that. I also got down into the Lab and straightened out a couple of bikes, swapped out a handle bar and stem, a seat post and saddle, re-charged a tubeless set up, and most importantly, fixed the Orange Crush. It had the rear tire go down last weekend just before I left to go to Interbike.

Back to riding shape.

I took a look at the inside of the tire, since I had a sneaking suspicion that there may be no sealant in the tire. Well, there almost was none! The inside of the casing was wet, but that was about it. Not enough to seal up a small cut.

I figured out that through my efforts to get the tire to seal up, I blew most of the sealant out in atomized form. But however that happened, I only got enough sealant in the tire at the end of it all to seal up the bead and no more. So, when the casing sprung a small leak, there was no reserves in the tire to deal with it.

I mixed up a nice, big thick batch and reapplied the sealant to the tire. A shot of air from my small compressor set the bead, and no more leakage. Now I have a reserve to deal with any future issues too. Roll on! Next up for this rig is some longer rides, maybe one of which will be a recon mission for the next Trans Iowa.

Then I also have a long term goal and it may or may not involve the Orange Crush.

Call of Duty

That goal is to finish the Dirty Kanza 200. I have attempted this event three times and never gone further than halfway. I ain't gettin' any younger, so now it is time to buckle down and get this outta the way. That's another post, but for now, I have to start considering which bike to use, and I think the ole Fargo Gen I is the front runner here.

The past GTDRI was a rehearsal tryout for this rig. Even though I have taken it to Kansas before, I wanted to figure out how I could utilize my vast array of water bottle cages to get rid of a hydration bladder and still ride in extreme heat. I want to go as minimalistic as possible into this event, but still be self-supported. (Yes- I know that the DK 200 allows support, but I don't do things that way.) The GTDRI showed me it is possible to get the job done on the bike, but I still need to think a few things through.

I'll detail out how things go in future blog posts, but for now, this, the S24O, and a couple of other things along with Trans Iowa V9 recon are on the menu. Getting back to a steady schedule is too.