Thursday, August 24

Record time?

Well I'm about ready to head for bed in sort of record time. Tomorrow evening David and I are headed on a little overnight adventure on the Colorado Trail. No real plan, just ride as much as we can and if we get tired stop and sleep a bit. I've got around the first 140 miles worth of notes along with me, 2 spare sets of batteries and I've got to be back at the house by about 4pm Saturday.

As usual I have to make sure all my gear is ready plus experiment some. I figured out why my 2:1 gear make the freehub stiff. The cassette lockring touches my tugnutt. Oooops. At least I finally figured it out and I'll machine the tugnutt later. I didn't feel like messing with it tonight though so I swapped my 20t cog back on because I know that doesn't rub (it sits closer to the bottom bracket). I also put on a new chain (PC-58) and threw the extra links and powerlink in my saddle bag. I don't really want to break a chain in the middle of the night with no extra links. After swapping the cog, tensioning the chain and re-adjusting the rear brake all seems to be running smoothly. Sweet. Now I guess I'll see how the 1.8:1 gear feels after running 2:1. I was curious how the harder gear would feel tomorrow but I will have to wait for another ride.
Pictured above is my pack for the trip. That's pretty much fully loaded except filling up my bladder inside it and closing it up. Without water it weighs a little under 6 lbs including sleeping gear, a stove, extra riding clothes, food, first aid, etc. I'll try to post a full gear list when I'm back since I'm going to run out of time now. This is the lightest I've ever traveled overnight so we'll see if I'm prepared and warm enough. I'm not carrying anything else along except that pack, my standard bike clothes and bike tools/spare parts in a saddle bag. Plus I stuffed my minipump in the pack too. Amazingly enough I can go lighter and warmer with a few changes but that will have to come later as I didn't have time to buy/make them yet.

Off to sleep! Report when I return.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What are you using for a sleeping pad, sleeping bag and shelter(if any).

Very curious.

Brian(aka Donkey on MTBR)

Anonymous said...

I hate it when the lockring touches the tugnut.

Chris said...

Brian,

I'll get around to posting a gear list in my next blog entry. For this trip I brought a torso length tapered blue closed cell foam pad, a Montbell waterproof/breathable bivy sack and no sleeping bag. In place of the sleeping bag I had a synthetic insulated pullover (patagonia micropuff) along with my possum wool hat and hooded windshirt. I also had dry sleep socks and an extra pair of tights which were not much extra warmth unfortunately.

For my next trip I will exchange the pullover (11oz) for a lightweight down sleeping bag (11oz) and the tights (8 oz) for a modified patagonia micropuff vest (~7-8oz with hood). This should keep warmer down to much colder temperatures within the same space/weight parameters.

Chris

Anonymous said...

check out an mks tensioner like the scorchers use. Might have to ream it a bit and trim down the inside lip but works well

FixieDave said...

Chris your setup was very cool..

I've been geeking out on that backpacking light website... very cool

Anyway i'll catch you later