I rode five miles from my home to the Riverfront Trail which parallels the Mississippi and goes north out of the city for about 11 miles (12 miles if you cross the bridge to Illiniose at the end of the trail. Counting the ride across and back over the bridge round trip is about 34 miles. I'm good at math.
This is also the first ride I've done on my new bike after putting a lot of work into it. The bike is a 1986 Trek 400T Elance that I bought (for too much money) on Craigslist late last fall. It had a stuck seat post that took me probably two hours to remove. I will always check to see if the seat post is fused before buying any other bike. It's a great black and silver Reynolds 531 lugged steel frame with the usual scratches and paint blemishes.
The work/parts I put into it include: Brooks B-17 Honey saddle, MKS Touring/Cyclocross pedals, stainless steel toe clips with leather straps, Panaracer Pasela Tourguard 32 mm tires, Nitto Technomic deluxe stem, Nitto Noodle bar (42 cm I think), Tektro brake levers, Novarra black brake cables, Shimano brake pads, Cinelli cork bar tape coated with six or seven layers of one of the coolest words in the English language - shellac, repacked the grease in the hubs and head set, and cleaned and lubed the chain. I also tried to true the wheels, but they didn't get much better. Jaime gave me one of her best Christmas gifts ever this last season: an Ostritch handlebar bag with rain cover. I had to buy a decaleur for it, but won't be able to fully use it until I also get a front rack. The final touch is a Japanese made brass bell that has a ring so lovely that it would make even Merry Poppins envious.
I also bought some Velo Orange fenders, but they don't fit very well (at all) with the 32mm Panaracers on there so they are not on the bike yet. Because of this and the fact that I need to update the wheels anyway I've been considering converting the bike to 650b which would allow more clearance for big tires and fenders. But I'm really happy with it the way it is now though so I think I'll hold off on that for a while.
The next post will discuss the actual ride.
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