As I mentioned during yesterday’s short post, I was able to log another 200 mile week last week. All 200 miles were on local pavement, dirt and gravel roads and all were completed atop my new Trek Boone 5 Disc with a smile on my face (except for the times that I was dealing with a craptastic headwind.
I have now logged 420 miles on the Boone since I picked up a little over two weeks ago and I have to say I really couldn’t be happier with the bike. The only change I have made to the bike is to swap out the Bontrager 32c cross tires for WTB’s fast rolling, dirt road hungry Nano 40c tires (with tubes).
The only issues I’ve had so far have been a popped spoke, and for a while the disc brakes were making a slight tweeting noise when coasting which made it sound like a 20 pound,carbon fiber Sherman tank. The popped spoke came as no real surprise to me; hell, when I started riding Michigan gravel on my Jake The Snake I think I popped three spokes in the first month before the wheels finally got tensioned well enough to handle the abuse. The brakes just needed turned out a bit and all is good with them now–no more Sherman tank sounds!
Rural Michigan is a mix of dirt, gravel, pot holes… and exposed wooden beams?
As with all my bikes, this bike is a better bike than I am a rider, or maybe that’s just 43 years of Catholic guilt telling me that I am unworthy of such luxuries? Either way, the Boone is a fantastic bike and I am completely comfortable and at ease when riding it.
I could blather on and on about the bike; how compliant it is, how light it is, etc., etc., but I won’t. For as great a bike as it is, I am more pleased with the fact that I’m feeling good on the bike again and more motivated to ride my bike than I have in a long time.
Nearly all of last year my back felt like it was a twisted pretzel, especially when riding my cross bike. This year, my back is feeling better and more importantly my mind is feeling better. Some of that is of course due to feeling good on the bike, but a lot of it is just a newfound motivation. There were times last year that I would go a whole week and maybe do three short rides and would often find little enjoyment when doing so. It got to the point that I would skip a ride for any reason whatsoever.
Yesterday was a prime example of my newfound motivation: I went to B-Man’s 11 AM soccer game, cheered him on and took some photos as steady winds blew across the field that were strong enough to carry away camp chairs. When we got home around 12:30 I was hungry and thinking that skipping a ride would be no big deal, even though I knew I only needed to do a 36 mile loop to top 200 miles on the week. Sitting around watching soccer just felt like the right thing to do. But…
The next thing I knew I was shoving Fig Newton bars in my mouth, filling up my water bottles and looking for a clean jersey. I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of the wind, and it did indeed suck for half the ride. But I knew it wouldn’t be the first time I rode in crap headwinds and cross winds and it surely wouldn’t be the last. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I embraced the wind, but I did tolerated it, got in the 36 mile loop and hit my 200 mile goal. At times I found myself cussing out loud as the pedaled into the headwind, but I also found myself almost giggling as I pedaled the 10+ miles of pavement home with a tail wind, hitting speeds of over 35 MPH (on a cross bike with knobby 40c tires!).
The coming week will most likely see less miles as there is a variety of things that I need to do and Wifey is in California on business. I find that I don’t enjoy venturing too far away from home when only one of us is around, you know, for the boy.
However, there WILL be miles and I’m looking forward to more time out on the dirt roads and finally hitting some singletrack later this week.
Later.
All photos taken by me in and around central Michigan whilst riding Friday and Sunday.