It's August! Riding through the heat.

[north woods gal]

Not at my best, either, Crankin. I'm fighting off a seasonal change cold and pollen and insane humidity between storms, but I still ride, of course. Oh, well.

A couple years back, I switched to all flat bar bikes because it was too hard on my body switching back and forth between drop bar bikes and flat bar bikes. If that flat bar is causing any pain issues for you, you can change to a different handlebar. Looking at the specs on the Ariel, the stock handlebar only has 9 degrees of sweep, back. That's not much. Lots of options, now, for handlebars that sweep back, more. More sweep in the handlebar my make it more comfortable for your wrists. It's helped me on some bikes. Have a Salsa bend handlebar on my Krampus with 23 degrees of back sweep. Very comfortable. My touring model Salsa have a Moluku handlebar with over 30 degrees of sweep. It also offers different hand positions. Very comfortable for long rides. Be sure to explore different grip styles, too. That can also help. I use ESI foam grips on a lot of my bikes and they do help reduce buzz. (Have your shop put them on, though. They can be real buggers to get on the handlebar.) Lastly, I always use good padded gel MTB gloves (not the skimpy gloves some road bikers use) for my riding and they also help.

More storms in the forecast for the next couple days, so no long distance rides away from home. Will do laps around the local roads so as not to get too far out in case I get caught in a storm.

[Crankin]

I seem to be able to develop tolerance for this. I've had this happen to my right hand out of nothing. I rarely switch my hand position on the road bike, so I am trying to do that more, too.
I cannot withstand *any* padding in my gloves. In fact, I have to search far and wide to find unpadded gloves. I get extreme squeezing feeling and pain from just a tiny amount of padding, so that is out. Trek stopped making the gloves I had worn for years, so I finally found some from Giro.

[north woods gal]

Managed to get out and ride a bit between storms, but in some very humid air. Relative humidity was in the 70s with temps in the 80s. Did 14.8 miles on the single speed Gunnar, then came home and exchanged it for the new Pugsley fat bike for another couple of trail miles. Called it quits just before the next batch of rain hit.

Well, looks like another single speed coming my way. I wanted another Log Lady to set up as purely a trail bike. That would give me two Log Lady MTBs, one LL for gravel and pavement and one for the woods. No way, though, to get a complete bike, now. I actually got the last complete bike in medium and there's rumors that All City won't be making any more of these delightful single speed racing MTBs. I did manage to snag a new frame set, though, by trading off my ECR. Got enough for the ECR to pay for the new frame and get started on my new Log Lady build. This will be my first custom build, by the way, so definitely a learning experience.

Why another single speed steel MTB? Well, I'm finding that going single does all I want in a bicycle, for one thing, and I do have geared fat bikes when I need a lot of gears, anyway. For another, I want to stay steel and I want to stay under 25 pounds for the sake of handling and ride quality. About the only way to keep it under 25 pounds on a steel MTB is by going single speed. Lastly, since my trail riding now no longer includes log hopping, boulder climbing, barreling over roots and, especially, no longer includes any jumps (all the fun stuff), I no longer have a need for the current slack geometry trail bikes. Nope, the more upright and pedaling friendly traditional XC MTB geometry is a better fit for my riding, now, and the Log Lady, after all, is pure racing XC geometry. Also, XC MTB geometry makes for a decent gravel and road bike - basically a road bike with flat bars. Close enough, anyway.

[north woods gal]

Did manage to barely squeeze in a ride of 12 single speed miles of pavement riding between storms, yesterday, on the Log Lady. Had hoped for a break for another ride in the afternoon, but no such luck. Steady rain all afternoon.

I added up my miles for August and was surprised to see I have a chance of breaking 400 miles for the month. Basically about 80% pavement and gravel versus 20% trail and most of the miles, by far, on the single speeds. Was totally not expecting this, so I've made more progress than I thought in my recovery. Even if I don't break 400, though, I am pleased. I think riding the single speeds has helped build my strength a lot. Nothing like actually racing up a hill to get in shape.

[Crankin]

Talk about riding through the heat!
Went out with my friend who stayed over Mon/Tues, at about 8:00 AM today. It was already approaching 80 and very humid. We chose the shadiest route possible, mostly old familiar roads, and we ended up in her old neighborhood, where we stopped and visited with her old neighbor, who was shocked we were riding. At this point, it was about 9:45 and approaching 90. I really did not want to stop, but it was only another 4 miles or so home.
Riding was not as bad as I thought it might be, and again, I am glad of the total shady conditions. We went slowly, I didn't push it on the hills, and ended up doing just under 26 miles. We met another friend of mine for lunch after we cleaned up, and now it just feels hot, like AZ, and not so humid. School started in most of the towns around here, and we had to deal with stopping for school buses on the way out, and some apparently angry drivers as we got closer back to my house. It's more rural where my friend lives now and she always complains about this, but I think people were just pissed about being slowed by buses and more cars on the road. Most of the ride was quiet.
She and her DH will be back here Sunday afternoon and we will ride on Monday with them.

[north woods gal]

Sheila, the Log Lady is actually quite comparable to the much more expensive Gunnar in terms of ride quality and handling. Been extremely pleased at just how close it is to the Gunnar. That steel fork is exceptionally well designed. The Log Lady really is a steal for the price. Close enough, in fact, that the new Log Lady frame with fork at only half the price of a new Gunnar frame was a no brainer. The LL is light, agile, fast and nimble, just like the Gunnar. After all, it was designed to be a racing single speed MTB.

As much as I hate to say it, the Krampus is a tank compared to the other two. The Krampus geometry and build, though, is very different. The Krampus, like most Surly bikes is overbuilt, designed for slugging it out on nasty single track, not for racing like my two single speeds. It's a great bike in its own right, but it rides much slower than the single speeds. Of course, those big fat 3" wide tires and rims on the Krampus do slow you down a lot compared to the lighter wheels on the single speeds. Love plus and fat tires, but when it comes to pavement riding, there's just no way they can keep up with lighter, skinnier standard MTB wheels and tires. Not going to happen. For instance, on our morning rides with my husband and his fat bike, I can just keep up if I ride a fat bike. If I ride one of the single speeds with their light 2.25" tires and wheels setup, I ride circles around him, I really do. Never underestimate what going lighter with your wheels can do for your biking. I'd rate it as number one for a performance mod. Works on MTBs, just as it does on road bikes.

One of the easiest ways to lighten up a wheel on an MTB like the Krampus is to go tubeless with the tire. Really makes a big difference. Gets you a lighter wheel and better traction to boot. In fact, some bike companies are now going tubeless on their MTBs, right from the factory.

Crankin', would love to send some of our cool weather your way. Temp, up here, at ride time, this morning, was only in the 50s. Had to bundle up with leggings and a sweatshirt. Did my usual 12 miles of pavement on the Gunnar, but spent the rest of the day doing errands, so no trail riding.

[Crankin]

I rode this morning, at 5:15 AM. It was my first true "dark ride," in that the sun was just poking through the clouds when I got back. I only rode 9 miles, as when I started out, I was going to ride to the other side of town and back, but there were already so many cars out, on Main St., that it didn't feel peaceful at all. So, I turned off to do a somewhat hilly loop, which was nice and quiet. It wasn't too warm, about 75, but grippingly humid. A front comes through tonight and the next 2-3 days will be nice. Of course, by Labor Day, it will be conditions like yesterday. We have a ride planned, that will most likely be modified!