Summer
Summer is in full swing at last, and living on the lake is really shining. I can tell already that spinning out of my driveway and toward the lakefront path in the early summer morning is going to be one of the crystalline moments of what it means to be so close to the lake.
Not much to say regarding the tubulars. They are holding strong over the couple of hundred miles I’ve put on them now. I got the opportunity to get a set of Mavic GP4 wheels on Campagnolo hubs for a really good price and I took it. So soon I will have both a sturdy set of trainers for less attentive riding and my current rockets which I’ll probably reserve for quick group rides and tours of le alps de Madison. I haven’t had to fix a flat yet, but I think I am sold on the sew-ups.
A is riding like a champ in preparation for our upcoming hilly century up north. We did a very nice ride to Evanston for 50 miles last week, and she held up better than even I imagined she would (I have an exceptionally high opinion of her abilities too). We toyed with the idea of building her a bike from scratch for the big ride, but we’re on hold with that at present. Lots of research led to the conclusion that it is nuts to spend $1000 on a prebuilt entry-level steel bike (a la Bianchi etc) when you can find a good, old lugged frame and outfit it with excellent components (much better than what comes on the prebuilt $1k bike) for about the same price. Then you can paint it flat black as well, of course.
After loads of riding, some of it fast, last week, I think this week will be about taking it easy riding-wise. I am going to do some deferred maintenance on all the bikes in preparation for potentially a multi-hundred mile next week.