RAGBRAI Bound!

After years of making excuses, I'm finally heading up to Iowa for this year's RAGBRAI. We leave out tomorrow and I'm pretty stoked - as well as anxious - about it. And it's going to be quite the family affair. I've joined by sister's RAGBRAI team (she and her boyfriend have pedaled RAGBRAI for several years now), and my dad will be driving our team bus. This year's 7-day ride will cover a total distance of over 450 miles, and will take us from Sioux City on the western edge of the state to Davenport on the eastern border. I've spent a fair bit of time training this year - including a 76 mile ride from Cabool to Springfield, MO a couple weeks ago with my sister - and I think I'm mostly prepared to ride the full 7 days. We'll see how that goes.

Old, Beat-up Kenda Tires

New Panaracer Paselas

Along with making sure I was physically prepared to ride RAGBRAI, there was also some mechanical preparation involved in getting ready for the long ride across Iowa. Earlier this year, I did some spring tuning. I followed the tune-up with some modifications to my setup, including taping my bars with a thick, cushy bar wrap from Zevlin, raising my brake levers by a few degrees, adding Cane Creek brake hoods, and bolting on some new pedals. A few days ago, I finished setting up my bike for RAGBRAI by putting on my new Panaracer Pasela tires, cleaning and re-lubing the chain and derailleur idlers, conditioning the saddle, and doing some general cleaning.

The Setup

For the most part, the old PH-10 is dialed in and working smoothly. Barring any unforeseen issues, I think she's ready for some heavy usage next week. The current setup feels comfortable. The machine is rolling smoothly. In general, I'm looking forward to spending 50-60+ hours of quality time in the saddle with my bike next week.