Cool things on RAGBRAI:

You baggers. You guys rock.  Thanks for the water, whoever that bagger who had the house that was on Old Highway 92. I'm bad with names and insecure at times.  I was off the course and out of water and was worrying I was going to have to go to a muddy stream, when your little oasis popped up. 

Those so utterly physically conditioned baggers hauling rigs that had to be much heavier than what I was carrying, and passing me effortlessly.   The smiles and nods, that I got from you baggers on the days I rode.  

You definitely give me something to look up and aspire to. 

Down Trails and shaded glens

I've been riding, just kind of low key instead of outright hyper on the bike culture-thing like I was last year.

Zwartehond, my Workcycles / Azor   Kruisframe/Pastoorfietsen has some updates, after correspondence and business with Henry Cutler.  Gone is the ridiculously heavy and complex Nexus 8.  Instead mounted is a SRAM automatix, a 2 speed hub that jumps from 100% direct drive to 131% or so, once the rear wheel is spinning around 11mph.  The Automatix also features a coaster brake, and is not particularly heavier or larger than the stock standard Shimano CB110 coaster hub.  Supposedly the Automatix is based on the older Fichtel and Sachs, and is generally designed to last forever.  I'm liking the simplicity.

The crank went down to 38T and I upped the rear sprocket to 23, so everything is nice and easy to pedal at in the 100%.  Front nexus rollerbrake is retained.  I added a Travel Agent to use more classy looking Velo-Orange levers.  Grips changed for coke-bottle. Crane bell added.

Gotta be about 10lbs lighter at least. Also removed the cafe-lock, as I don't operate in a particularly high crime area. I can use the cable, or U-lock or even still attach the cafe lock, depending on circumstance required.

I took the trail north for 40 miles last Sunday, to check my endurance. Of this only 1/3rd of the total 83 miles was paved.  Gravel, or even just grassed double-track got old pretty quickly.   Lots of food, lots of fluid.  My butt was sore, by the end of the ride, and I courted bonk at one point.  My Garmin GPS said I burnt 3311 calories.  Yow!

I originally intended on taking my new bike, a Virtue "Ortho" on Ragbrai, based on the assumption I'd lose lots of weight this summer, getting back down to a trim 135-140.   Yeah, didn't happen.  Still 190ish.  So Zwartehond it is, self-supported.  To increase cargo carrying, I purchased a Carradice Nelson Long Flap, and moved it to the aft position, moving the Carradice College up front.

This bridge could probably still carry a model-T, which was the car en vogue when it was built. Nowadays...

Carrying the bare minumums, Tent, Amana 6pt wool blanket, waxed chore coat, camera, film, tool kit, 2 pairs Wool knickers and Linen shirts, stockings. few toiletries, lights, a book and a sketch book, opinel, some soft canteens, powdered lemon, sugar, a good book, and whatever ad-hoc snacks I score en route.

'Was initially planning on doing the whole week of Ragbrai, but driving all the way out to Council Bluffs, and then suffering an 85 mile 4000ft climb day in the sun-blasted west prairie seems more like an exercise in masochism.   So I'm just going to pick it up in much closer Des Moines, and ride the remaining 4ish days.

 Hopefully I won't get completely zoned out, while being surrounded  in the sea of lyrca.

One of the things that bugs me about Ragbrai, is that the course hours are generally 6am to 6pm. 6am is fine-  but in July, in the midwest, it is essentially still light to 9:00pm and typically cooler in the evening.  Seems like they should be encouraging mid-day siestas and evening riding.  Oh-well.