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Back to Back Epic Uni Rides



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 1st 05, 05:01 AM
aspenmike
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Back to Back Epic’s Part I

Day 1

Crack, the sound of a truck door closing awakens me from my deep sleep.
I tried to stay up for the arrival of my nephew, Ukiah, but my eyes were
too heavy from the 7-hour drive to our meeting spot. I hear “Kai”
outside the motorhome say “Hey Mikey”, and I yell back, “about time”. It
was now 3:30 a.m. and our first Epic ride was to start in just 4 hours.
As I lay there waiting for Kai to come into the motorhome, I start to
visualize the ride ahead. Kai then tells me that there is a drunk Navajo
outside the motorhome, I think nothing of it, as Kai is a good-sized guy
and could handle the Navajo. That didn’t work as Kai said that the
Navajo was trying to get into the motorhome. I slide out of bed with one
eye still closed and headed outside. The Navajo was around the corner,
so I walked around to see him. With the one eye open, I looked and there
standing laughing hysterically in front of me is my brother, Dan, who by
the way speaks Navajo. They had just completely hornswoggled me; all I
could do was laugh with them.
This unicycling weekend that we were about to embark on was planned
ahead by both my nephew Kai and I, that’s it. My brother Dan, Kai’s
father, decided to join us just two days before the trip. Dan unicycles,
but not to the extent that Kai and I were planning on achieving during
this long weekend. So Kai, an expert mtn. biker/single speeder/ solo 24
hr participant, turned hard-core unicyclist built a bike for Dan so he
could join us on our rides. I knew Dan would crank on the bike just fine
with us, as he has been riding his bike 25 miles every morning before
work for 8 years straight. He loves to unicycle as well, but the only
way he would make every ride with us, would be on his bike. So, the
three amigos group was set and ready for adventure. I was really excited
to have Dan there!
We were where we needed to be to go on our first big ride of the
weekend, Ruins Road. Ruins Road is the road that is in Mesa Verde
National Park, located in Southwestern Colorado. The nearest town to
Mesa Verde Nat’l Park is Cortez, Co., which is only 40 miles from the
only place in the country where 4 states meet in one point, Four
Corners. Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado all converge at one
point, you can be in all four states at one time. Surrounding Cortez is
desert to the west and the Rocky Mtns to the east. We decided on meeting
in Cortez, Co. because it was half way between Flagstaff, Az. (were Kai
lives), and Aspen, Co, (where I live). We chose a meeting place, and
then we chose the rides that we would do from that area.
I cooked up the traditional before a big ride breakfast for Kai, and
Dan, as they assembled the Cokers and bike together. Banana pancakes,
fruit smoothie, and cowboy coffee, (GB4’s favorite), seems to do the
trick quite well. We did sleep in a little longer than anticipated, but
it felt great after both of us arrived pretty late the previous
night/morning. The temperature was already climbing rapidly, and was
supposed to top out at 98 degrees F that day. The morning low was around
55, so great sleeping weather. We were ready to ride around 8:30 a.m.,
not too late yet. It was approximately 9-10 miles to the entrance of the
Park, with about 800’ of climbing as well. The morning drainage winds
were spilling off of the La Plata’s into our face. The slight headwind
was no problem and actually kept us cool. The traffic was minimal, it
was a Friday, and so the weekenders were not out. We had planned on
riding Mesa Verde during the week for that reason, less traffic in the
Park = more enjoyable ride. Our speed was averaging around 12 mph, which
felt really good on the legs. We were spinning away at a good cadence
for the beginning of a big ride. The exit to the Park came into view,
but we realized soon after, that we would have to work hard to get to
it. A steep climb of only a mile placed us on the Ruins Road. We stopped
and snapped a few pictures at the entrance sign; it is always fun to
take before and after photos at the sign, fresh and ready compared to
tired and goofy.
The three of us were starting to get very excited about what we were
about to do; high fives and words of encouragement were handed out. I
was especially excited because for one, riding with another strong
unicyclist and two, having my brother along. During the 9 mile warm up,
you can look over to the south and see the grand “Mesa Verde”. It rises
dramatically straight up out of the Mancos and Montezuma Valleys some
2500’. It covers the view completely from east to west as the north rim
of the mesa stretches some 12 miles. I knew that we would have to climb
to the mesa top and then traverse the 12 miles from east to west. We
rode to the entrance station, and I asked if we would get charged ½ of
what bicyclist get charged. No luck, but it was worth seeing the look on
his face. And true to form, we were the first unicyclists to ride in the
park. The morning heat was really starting to set in as we spun our way
up the road. The good news about the heat was that we were going to gain
elevation rather quickly, and instead of 95+ heat, we would be in 85+
heat, which is much better!
The climbing begins in earnest right after the entrance station. Steep
switchbacks stack up on each other at the beginning, and then the road
straightens out with a good grade. At this point, you are looking over
Mancos Valley, and towards the towering peaks of the La Plata Mtns. Road
construction season in Colorado is now, heck there are only two seasons
in Colorado, winter and road construction. We run into some one lane
only sections as we climb higher towards the mesa top. The usual picture
taking and comments come at us as the vehicles pass us very slowly. I
summit the first climb feeling awesome and wait for Kai and Dan to
summit. The wind blows cool air in my face as I feel like I could soar
right off the cliff edge next to the road. Kai totally loves the ride so
far, and so do I. Most of my epic rides are solo, so to have another
unicyclist, (my nephew) and my brother to share it with is bringing
special meaning to it already. The notch in the mtn. leads us to a
narrow valley with some downhill relief. The Parks only campground is on
the right, we pass it and ride towards the mesa top. Then the famous ¼
mile long tunnel comes into view. I turn on my blinking taillight, and
Kai and I spin through it together. The tunnel is just long enough for
the darkness to be a bit sketchy. Kai comments on how he is feeling the
sensation of floating through the air, and I totally agree. We close our
eyes for what seemed liked eternity, and both comment on how that was
about the strangest feeling we have ever experienced on a unicycle. The
temperature in the tunnel is PERFECT, like air conditioning while
riding. We were lucky, as no cars came up from behind us. A couple of
oncoming cars did pass us though. We emerge into another narrow valley
and look ahead to see the next climb. Each climb we ride, gets us that
much closer to the mesa top.
Mesa Verde has suffered some catastrophic fires in the recent past. In
the years 2000’ and 2003’, lightning caused fires scarred over 80% of
the Park. The juniper have recovered somewhat, but the pinyon will take
allot longer. The grasses and shrubs are abundant this year, so if you
look down, it looks very green. But, once your eye looks up, it catches
the horizon comprised of skeleton charred remains of trees’. Sure it
takes some of the beauty from it, but it is just a small part. Mesa
Verde is a special place, with so much more to see than the landscape.

Mesa Verde Nat’l Park has many narrow canyons and valleys, all running
more or less parallel from north to south. All of these valleys, and the
mesas in between them sit atop the giant- Mesa Verde. Ruins Road cuts
across this terrain from east to west along the north rim, creating a
sweet roller-coaster effect as it winds and rolls. As we continued we
realized that the climbing was not ending, every time we would go to the
upper end of the valley, which was downhill, we would then have to climb
back up to the mesa top again. There are numerous valleys that this
takes place: outside corner/downhill to inside corner, then uphill to
next outside corner. Some of these traverses changed 300- 400’ in
elevation, which was no problem, it was actually quite fun. I could see
that this road on a road bike or motorcycle would be fast and dangerous.
Exposed edges of road were common along this stretch. What really
became sweet were the views, they opened up to the sky and 360 degrees
around. The road rolls relentlessly as it finally climbed to the
highpoint in the park, 8,571’. We have ridden 22 miles so far, with a
vertical gain of 4,500’. In the 12 miles ridden in the Park so far, we
have gained 3,700’ vertical feet.
This ride’s high point is almost exactly 1/3 into the ride, i.e. mileage
wise. The ride is 65 miles long, and is a 32-½ mile out and back ride.
After reaching the high point there are only two more uphill sections in
the next 11 miles, the rest is downhill to all of the cliff dwellings.
From the high point the view is world class! You can see 4 states,
deserts down to 5000’, mountaintops above 12,000’, and valleys and
canyons that have 1,400 years of preserved culture. One can only imagine
what the Ancient Puebloans life was like back then. The mesa tops is
where they hunted and farmed, and they lived under the overhangs of the
canyons that we were unicycling to. It was HOT and DRY, so life must
have been very challenging to them. The towns of Cortez and Mancos were
visible way down below in the valleys, as were the rock formations
Shiprock and those found in Monument Valley. To the south and way below
us in elevation were the canyons where the cliff dwellings are located.
From our vantage point, it looked very hot and arid. As well, it looked
like it was really far away.
Far View Visitor Center was our next planned stop. This is where you
sign up for ranger led tours of different cliff dwellings. There are
other cliff dwellings that don’t require ranger led tours, they are
awesome in their own right, but the ranger led tours are awe-inspiring,
(the dwellings, not necessarily the tour). The visitor center came at a
perfect time, we needed a stop for water re-fill, shade, and to cool the
core-temperature down a bit. I had gone through almost 100 oz of water
to this point, only 25 miles into the ride. I don’t ever remember riding
in such hot conditions for such an extended period. My body felt great,
strength was great, it was just that my core temperature felt like it
was getting a little to warm. Kai and I met up with Dan, and we stood in
line to sign up for the “Balcony House” tour. The Europeans that we met
in line kept calling us “crazy Americans”. Most people were truly
interested in our adventure and impressed at the same time. This of
course is not unusual to long distance coker adventures. The stop turned
out to be exactly what I was looking for, and we were able to get into a
tour in one hour. We had about 10 miles to go, all downhill in 95-degree
weather.
Kai and I arrived in 59 minutes to the start of the tour. About 8 miles
into the decent, Kai’s hamstring cramped up on him. It reminded me of my
little cramping episode in the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. After a few
minutes of massage and stretching, we were cruising again. I knew that
we would be close to the start time of the tour, so we pushed a little
harder towards the end. I also knew that Dan would hold the ranger up on
starting the tour, if necessary. The edge of the canyons are right next
to the road at this point, which makes for some focused riding. There
are a bunch of cliff dwellings that can be spotted along this “East Rim
Loop”; they are incredible to still be intact 800 years later. Remember,
these dwellings are made out of stone, mud, water, and sometimes wood.
Kai and I arrived just as the ranger was gathering the people to start
the Balcony House tour.
A quick word about the Balcony House cliff dwelling. This cliff
dwelling, I believe, is the one of the only ones that faces east.
Therefore, when we arrived at it, I knew that it was going to be in the
shade and cool. To actually get to the Balcony House, you have to go
down a bunch of stairs built into the Cliffside. Then, you have to
traverse a narrow trail on the canyons edge w/o running into cactus. We
saw a very cool lizard that was green in color with a yellow head. This
trail leads you to a 32-foot tall ladder, BIG LADDER, which two people
climb up side by side. The ladder is very steep and looking down into
the canyon from on the ladder gives you vertigo. Once you make it to the
top of the ladder, you must then shimmy your way through a narrow slot
in the canyon wall. This leads you to the north half of the dwelling.
This half includes a few little rooms with tiny windows and tiny doors.
The belief is that this was the side where they lived mostly and the
south side was where the ceremony’s where held. The views from here were
incredible, looking east towards the La Plata Mountains. The overhang of
the canyon wall provided nice shelter from the weather and intruders. It
was a deadly drop into the canyon from the front edge of the dwelling.
The temperature in the dwelling must have been 20 degree’s cooler than
the mesa top, a nice relief from the heat for sure. We then walked up
another ladder onto some 800-year-old original footholds to access the
south side of the Balcony House. At this point, you are totally immersed
into what life must have been for these ancient people, and I certainly
was! Another narrow passage way leads to the south side. On this side
there are two kivas and other rooms. Kiva is a Hopi word for ceremonial
room. The kivas at Mesa Verde were underground chambers that may be
compared to churches of later times. Based upon modern Pueblo practice,
Ancestral Puebloans may have used these rooms to conduct healing rites
or to pray for rain, luck in hunting, or good crops. Being a spiritual
person, this side really impressed me, heck I got Goosebumps all over
from it. There were also grinding stones and a small spring on this
side. From this side, the narrowest tunnel has to be crawled through to
access the ladder system, which gets you back to the mesa top. A story
goes that a man got stuck in the tunnel, and they tried pulling legs
from one side, arms from the other, taking clothes off, etc. Somehow, he
finally got through it. Since then, at the Far View visitor they have a
virtual tunnel so big people can see if they will fit, kind of funny,
and very American. The tour last approximately one hour, which isn’t
long enough, but that is just the way it is. I would love the
opportunity to spend the night in Balcony House, maybe some day.
Kai, Dan, and I were well rested and ready for the hot ascent back to
the high point of the Park. We knew the 10-mile climb in 98-degree heat
would be hard work, but we also knew that there was relief at Far View
Visitor Center. We applied tons more sunscreen on, re-fueled and pedaled
our way back up. A nice pace was kept, and we all took turns in the
front. This was one of the only times that all three of us were riding
together, and it was great to “be” a group. We talked when we could and
the 10 miles went by pretty fast and easy. When we arrived back at the
Visitor Center, we took some pictures from there. We also refilled
water, and immersed ourselves in the water fountain. The fountain was
overshooting it’s catch basin, so you could have someone hold it on, and
get under the stream of cool water and cool yourself off. More fuel,
more chamois lube, and off we went. At this point we were almost back to
the highest point in the park. This alone made me feel great, knowing
that most of the remainder of the ride would be downhill. The same
uphill/downhill inside/outside corner combinations came at us, only this
time it was in the reverse direction. Kai and I were riding together
here and for the rest of the ride. That is until one of the corner
combinations came. Kai pulled ahead of me on the uphill part, he was
flying uphill. I was tired, we had been out about 7 hours, 50 miles,
8500 feet of climbing and 6500’ of descending to that point. Being the
competitive geek that I am, I dug deep and started spinning faster. I
could see the top of the climb ahead and figured that I could pass him
if I really went for it. I went into LT, but new it wouldn’t be for very
long. I gained on Kai and sure enough passed him before the top of the
climb. These old legs can still rock and roll when needed. Kai and I
stopped at the highest point in the Park for some photos. Just as we
were finishing our photo taking, a car pulled up to talk to us. The song
“Born to be Wild” by Steppenwolf was blasting from the car, this
appeared strange to me, as the occupants were older Navajo’s. It was
that song that stayed in my head the rest of the day, “Looking for
adventure, Head out on the highway” etc….
The rest of the ride was so much fun, mostly downhill and only 20+ miles
to go. We were back on top of the mesa now, so the air was much nicer.
As well, some beautiful cumulus clouds were beginning to provide some
welcome shade. Dan was gone out in front, we figured we would hook up
with him at the entrance. Kai and I proceeded to stop a few times to
take some more pictures. The scenery was incredible, and I was bummed
that I didn’t stop on the way in to take pictures. The downhills were
really fun and enjoyable, Kai was most comfortable at a pace of about
10mph, so we just took our time and enjoyed Mesa Verde. The tunnel came
into view and I was really excited to ride through it again. I was
looking forward to the cool temperature and the darkness. I turned on my
flashing taillight and we went for it. About 1/3 of the way into it, a
car came from behind us. For that brief period, we had great lighting.
But, as soon as it passed, the most bizarre sight happened. The light
that it projected onto the earthen tunnel left us and traveled onward at
what seemed like the speed of light. I felt like I was in space and we
had just gone into warp speed. I think it was one of those things that
you would have had to have been there to visualize. We emerged from the
tunnel laughing and looking at each other asking, “was that bizarre or
what?” One more uphill, past the campground, and the rest is downhill to
Cortez. I filled up the bladder one more time in anticipation of the
late afternoon hot breeze, which was going to be a headwind. I led the
way down the steep descent out of the Park, through the one lane
construction zone, and finally met up with Dan at the entrance sign. We
knew that we were quite a ways behind him; we had stopped and had fun a
few times. I really didn’t want to leave the Park, we had just spent 7
hours up there Cokering, adventuring, and just having a great time being
outside in a wonder place. It turned out that Dan got an hour nap in
before we showed up. We talked about each of our adventures in the Park,
took some photos, and pedaled onto Cortez.
The final 10 miles back to Cortez turned out to be much more pleasant
than anticipated. We had been out so long, that the heat of the day was
over and we were spinning back at a very comfortable air temperature.
Riding the mostly flat stretch back to Cortez with Kai and Dan was cool.
We would look up at the Mesa top, and make out places up there where the
road was. It looked really far away, and it amazed us that we were just
there a few hours prior. The shoulder on the highway was very wide,
which made for stress free spinning. A break along the way for bladder
release, and we were back in the saddle. We arrived back in Cortez to
the motorhome with a feeling of great accomplishment. Kai and I were
certainly a little tired, and Dan felt like he had just ridden a good
ride as well. The temperature was back down into the 80’s when we got
back. Food was our next priority, solid food. We choose Chinese; I have
to be Gluten Free, and there is enough Gluten Free Chinese that we went
for that. The food went down slower than anticipated, I think the gels;
bars, heat, etc had our bellies a little off. We finally did finish our
food and went back to the motorhome. We had just experienced a
unicycling adventure, an EPIC Coker day, and to think that we were
planning three of these in a row, both Coker and MUni.
Talk of the next epic ride began as we relaxed to some Michael Franti.
It was to be a MUni ride in the San Juan Mountains north of Cortez. More
on this ride in Part II of Back-to-Back Epic’s.


STATISTICS OF RUINS ROAD RIDE,
MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK

TOTAL DISTANCE – 65 MILES OR 105 KILOMETERS

TOTAL CLIMBING – 8,900’ UP AND 8,900’ DOWN WHICH TOTALS 19,800’ OR 2713
METERS UP AND 2713 METERS DOWN WHICH TOTALS 5,426 METERS. AN EPIC DAY
FOR SURE.

TOTAL TIME OUT – 10 HOURS, WHICH INCLUDED A ONE AND ONE HALF HOUR TOUR
OF BALCONY HOUSE

TOTAL TIME IN SADDLE – 6 HOURS 45 MINUTES

AVERAGE SPEED – 9.9 MPH OR 16 KM/HR

FASTEST SPEED – 14.8 MPH OR 24 KM/HR

AVERAGE TEMPERATURE – OUT WAS 89 F OR 32 C, BACK WAS 88F OR 31 C
HIGHEST TEMPERATURE – 100 F OR 38 C

LIQUID CONSUMED – 220 OZ 0R 6.5 LITERS

FUN METER SCALE -10 OUT OF 10, I ACTUALLY BENT MINE A FEW TIMES.

DIFFICUTLY SCALE – DIFFICULT BUT NOT EXTREME

Gallery can be found at:
http://tinyurl.com/92b84


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  #2  
Old August 1st 05, 05:05 AM
aspenmike
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Brain Fart, the climbing total should only be 17,800' or 5,425 meters,
sorry.


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  #3  
Old August 1st 05, 06:35 AM
U-Turn
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Can't wait to hear more!

That does sound like a neat place. The adaptation that led to the cool
holes in the rock is very interesting.


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  #4  
Old August 1st 05, 10:55 AM
goldenchicken II
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Thanks. I enjoyed reading this. For some reason the beginning of the
story made me think of Kerouac. All this climbing in the heat and the
tunnel experience - very suggestive. Wish I had such dramatic nature by
my own doorstep.

A technical question: You seem not to have used brakes on that long
descent; I can't see any on the pictures. The cranks (on the blue GB)
looks like 150 mm. Why no brakes?


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  #5  
Old August 1st 05, 02:11 PM
aspenmike
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goldenchicken II wrote:
*Thanks. I enjoyed reading this. For some reason the beginning of the
story made me think of Kerouac. All this climbing in the heat and the
tunnel experience - very suggestive. Wish I had such dramatic nature
by my own doorstep.

A technical question: You seem not to have used brakes on that long
descent; I can't see any on the pictures. The cranks (on the blue GB)
looks like 150 mm. Why no brakes? *



The cranks are 170's. I would rather use long cranks and my legs for
braking than brakes, it's a great workout and the feel is sweet. I like
unicycling for it's simplicity, therefore, the fewer the parts the
better.


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  #6  
Old August 3rd 05, 04:29 PM
HistoricalGoof
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Great story! A very enjoyable read. I have aspirations of someday
being able to do similar rides and hearing of yours is inspirational.


There really is something terrific about pushing the limits under a hot
hot sun. The body really begins to feel like the amazing machine that
it is.

Keep it up and thanks for taking the time to share. I'll think about it
as I'm pushing around my 24" wheel.


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  #7  
Old August 5th 05, 06:07 AM
john_childs
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aspenmike wrote:
*The cranks are 170's. I would rather use long cranks and my legs for
braking than brakes, it's a great workout and the feel is sweet. I
like unicycling for it's simplicity, therefore, the fewer the parts
the better. *


All the descending without a brake is impressive. I don't do enough
long climbs and descents to get my legs in shape to handle that much
back-pedaling to ride down a decent like that and then still be able to
walk the next day.

I try to minimize my use of the brake. I did the top third of the
decent from Hurricane Ridge without the brake but started using it more
and more as I continued on down. By the end I was using the brake
almost constantly. There is a limit to how much descending I can handle
without going for the brake. And even with my cheating I was still sore
the next day due to the descending. The climbing was actually no
problem.

And then I have to be careful with my left knee. If I abuse it too much
(by doing things like descending without using the brake) I get
tendinitis and that pretty much ruins things for a couple of days or
longer. So I've learned to take it easy on the knee.

I can see that I also need to work on the pedaling technique for
descending without the brake. It is very hard to keep a smooth pedaling
motion going. Is it even possible to keep a smooth pedaling motion
going on a decent? Are you doing anything special in your pedaling
technique when you backpedal for a long decent? Is there a special
ankling technique?

Big props.


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  #8  
Old August 5th 05, 06:07 AM
john_childs
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aspenmike wrote:
*The cranks are 170's. I would rather use long cranks and my legs for
braking than brakes, it's a great workout and the feel is sweet. I
like unicycling for it's simplicity, therefore, the fewer the parts
the better. *


All the descending without a brake is impressive. I don't do enough
long climbs and descents to get my legs in shape to handle that much
back-pedaling to ride down a decent like that and then still be able to
walk the next day.

I try to minimize my use of the brake. I did the top third of the
decent from Hurricane Ridge without the brake but started using it more
and more as I continued on down. By the end I was using the brake
almost constantly. There is a limit to how much descending I can handle
without going for the brake. And even with my cheating I was still sore
the next day due to the descending. The climbing was actually no
problem.

And then I have to be careful with my left knee. If I abuse it too much
(by doing things like descending without using the brake) I get
tendinitis and that pretty much ruins things for a couple of days or
longer. So I've learned to take it easy on the knee.

I can see that I also need to work on the pedaling technique for
descending without the brake. It is very hard to keep a smooth pedaling
motion going. Is it even possible to keep a smooth pedaling motion
going on a decent? Are you doing anything special in your pedaling
technique when you backpedal for a long decent? Is there a special
ankling technique?

Big props.


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  #9  
Old August 5th 05, 06:10 AM
proxo
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why


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  #10  
Old August 17th 05, 03:06 AM
aspenmike
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HistoricalGoof wrote:
*Great story! A very enjoyable read. I have aspirations of someday
being able to do similar rides and hearing of yours is inspirational.


There really is something terrific about pushing the limits under a
hot hot sun. The body really begins to feel like the amazing machine
that it is.

Keep it up and thanks for taking the time to share. I'll think about
it as I'm pushing around my 24" wheel. *



Thanks, glad you liked the story. Yes, the body is an amazing machine,
and for me to see it work so well in the heat was a nice suprise.

Is it even possible to keep a smooth pedaling motion on a long
descent?



Absolutely yes, the hard part for me is how long can I maintain that
"smooth" motion. I find that I can pedal smooth at about 12-13 mph for
most of the grades that Colorado has to offer, so far anyway. It's
harder for me to maintain 10 mph than the higher speed. Ankling
certianly helps, if you have ever ridden a road bike for long distances,
you know what that technique is. Keep riding those moutains John!


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