First ride of 2010. Sucked.

Eager to test out some chemical hand/foot warmers, I planned to take a longish ride today and try out the Level B part of Humke road that is going to be part of the Triple D race.  As always, pre-ride prep work took longer than expected.  I wanted to give a friend’s 29×2.1 tire another try in the front so I switched from the studded Nokian to the Panaracer 700×45 in back.  This new front tire is an absolute bitch to get on and off.  Goodbye to another el cheapo tire lever.  I even put a pretty good bend in the Topeak tire lever as well.  (still need to get that fixed, by the way)  Eventually, it went on.  (that’s right; broke the tire lever putting the tire ON.  God only knows how bad it will be coming off)  Loaded the bike up on the Jeep, and headed to my in-laws, who happen to live very near what might be the roughest part of the race route.  My wife and children were already spending some time there today.  Judging by the temperature (2 degrees) and the condition of the road that I was going to ride (shitty), it was a good idea to keep the support staff close at hand.

I finally got out there around 3:30 or so, and got on the bike shortly after.  Starting off in 2 degree weather on Potter Hill without much of a warm up is a recipe for walking part of a hill.  I alternated between pushing and riding up the steep part, then got on and rode out from the shallower grade near the top.  I took the right turn through the gate onto the Level B part of Humke road.  At first, it didn’t seem bad at all, but then I realized I hadn’t made it to the bad part yet.  The bad part started halfway down the hill past the last driveway, and things got ugly from there.  Lots of deep ruts were throwing that fat front tire all over the place, even folding it over sideways; making the extra width on a narrow rim more trouble than it was worth.  I nearly got launched multiple times, and my feet were freezing.  I found a level spot at the bottom and threw my coat and Hydrapak off to see why the chemical foot warmers weren’t working at all.

It turns out the plastic backing covered with Asian words needs to be peeled off to get any kind of warmth out of them.  I had some of the actual socks with the little heater pockets in my pack, so I tried to fit them over my other two pairs of socks, but there was no way I could pedal comfortably.  I moved the foot warmers to the inside of the my Smartwool socks and threw a pair of the toe warmers on the outside, and hoped for the best.  The road continued to be a challenge, but eventually (after several attempts at throwing myself on the ground and nearly missing) I made it out onto the gravel on the other side.  I got to the first intersection that was marked with road signs (Graf road and Humke road) and called my wife.  My feet were freezing, and I wasn’t about to take any chances with frostbite on a silly training ride.

While I was waiting I thought I might as well keep riding toward her.  That’s when I noticed my rear tire was flat.  The stem had ripped out of the tube, which upon further inspection happened to be one that had already been patched at least once.  Fantastic!

Lessons learned:  peel the plastic off of the foot warmers/toe warmers before you start.  Don’t run a (relatively) giant 29×2.1 tire on a narrow 18mm rim.  Blow the water out of a water tube EVERY TIME.  Also, if you can get even a tiny bit of water to flow through a frozen tube, you can get the ice to melt.