August 28: Chadron, Nebraska to Hot Springs, South Dakota
Today started out looking like a repeat of yesterday. That is, unseasonably cool, rain, and some wind. But, by the time I was ready to ride at about 8:30 AM, it was looking much better — the sun peeked through the clouds occasionally — but there were still some darker clouds on the horizon reminding us to enjoy the dryness while we still could.
I’m cycling mostly west these days. In this part of the country, the prevailing wind is from the west, so most days I’m fighting some kind of a headwind. Today was one of the few days where I head north. So what direction was the wind from today? The north! Sheesh. What luck! But, that’s part of the adventure of a bicycle tour — every day you never really know what’s going to happen, who you’re going to meet, what you’re going to see, or what direction the wind will be from.
The dark clouds on the horizon that I was keeping my eye on never amounted to anything. It stayed cool and partly cloudy with that north wind all day today.
I had some positive feedback on the cycling data that I added to yesterday’s entry. So, I’ll try to do that on a regular basis from now on. Here’s the data from today.
| Total distance: | 54.09 miles |
|---|---|
| Time: | 4:21:46 |
| Average speed: | 12.4 mph |
| Maximum speed: | 28.9 mph |
| Total calories: | 3369 |
| Average heart rate: | 121 bpm |
| Maximum heart rate: | 159 bpm |
| Total ascent: | 1783 feet |
| Total descent: | 1802 feet |
| Ride comments: Flat tire (rear) at about the 10 mile point in the ride. This brought the average speed down quite a bit. |
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August 28th, 2006 at 9:08 pm
Hi Pete! I like the bike stats, and wondered….. how long does it take you to change a flat? Sorry if you already answered this in a previous posting….
I would also like some detailed information about your route as you get into Wyoming. I was thinking about a day trip over to say hi!!
T
August 29th, 2006 at 8:23 am
Changing a flat. Hmmm. Well, like most everything, it depends. The most time-consuming part is often locating the thorn, glass, staple, nail, or whatever that caused the flat. That often involves re-inflating the tire so you can listen for the sound of air escaping. (Not easy to do on a busy road.) After you find the culprit, it’s a matter of repairing (or replacing, if the puncture is large enough) the inner tube, reassembling, and then re-inflating the tire.
If the puncture is large enough, say from a large piece of glass, the tire itself will have a large enough hole in it that the tube will poke through it as you inflate the inner tube. In that case, if you happen to have packed a spare tire (I have been on this tour), then you have to replace the tire. If you don’t have a spare tire, then you have a bit of a problem because you can’t re-inflate the tire to full pressure. Attempting to ride on a tire with the inner tube poking through such a hole will invariable result in another flat sooner or later (usually sooner). In these situations, cyclists will often put something with some stiffness to it inside the tire at the puncture point to keep the tube from poking through. They often
use something like a folded dollar bill or an unused tire patch for this because these are things that most cyclists will have with them on a ride.
Anyway, I only mention all this to demonstrate how the time it takes to change a flat varies a lot. It can take 5 minutes if it’s a small, easy-to-find puncture or it could take 30 minutes for a hard to find puncture or it requires the dollar-bill trick described above.
My flat was fairly simple. There wasn’t much traffic around so I could easily hear the air escaping and I used that to locate the puncture. It took about 10 minutes to repair and inflate. So, now that I think about it, the flat didn’t lower my average speed by that much probably — I was just tired yesterday!
August 29th, 2006 at 8:37 am
After seeing 16 mph average, I was happy to see the 12 mph average. Perhaps I can keep up when crossing Montana. Hope you got the info on Rt 12 in MT.
August 29th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Are you going to do the Michelson Trail?