The Bike

I spent much of Monday morning working on the bike I will ride in the Dirty Kanza. It was not all that fun, as I had not worked on this bike in years. But the outcome feels good.

As bikes go, it is not a very exciting bike. But since I like reading about other peoples' bikes, I figure I should post mine, too.

It is a pretty straight forward cyclocross bike. For the race changes, all I did was put on a (relatively) new 12-27 Ultegra cassette, a new chain, a new 38tooth chainring, and new 32mm Ritchey Speedmax tires. Oh, and I changed the shifter cables and added new brake pads.

For the race we are required to have taillights and headlights, the power level of these is up to us. Since my plan is to finish in the daylight, or just after the daylight ends, I am going with the minimalist approach. So on my handlebar I have a small LED Cateye and an itty bitty, but very bright, Trek light that I got for free from the Bike To Work Week ride. Hopefully that is enough.

My body is feeling good, too. The two weeks of rest and light rides have made my legs feel very refreshed. On today's ride the hills and wind were easy and I felt like I could have kept going for a long, long time without much difficulty. Hopefully I feel the same way on Saturday.