Tires, Time & Tandems
The time finally came last night to say goodbye to my faithful Michelin Axial Carbons..sad I know, but after more than 2,500 miles, they were really starting to show their age. I'll be keeping them in a safe, warm place 'till Winter sets in then put them back on when I throw the bike up on the trainer. To replace them, I picked up a pair of Michelin Pro Race (in bright yellow to match the bike...of course). I also went back to 700x23's instead of 25's. So, after getting them on the bike last night, I took them out for a trial spin..WooooHooo! I'm diggin'em ! Going back to 23's and up to a 120psi tire made a noticeable difference.

Which brings me to my next point; since I was feeling all extra zippy, I decided to do the little 12.5 mile loop that my wife D (that's D-E-E..Dee)and I set up, but do it as a sort of time trial (yes, I HAVE been watching a lot of the tour).The route includes 2 climbs plus the infamous Alpe D'Ass. So I beat myself like a rented mule and managed a time of 40min 38Sec and an avg. speed of 18.4 mph. Not bad for a first try. Now a have a baseline to start check my progress against.

Over the holiday weekend, D and I went to Wheelworks to check out some tandems. We thought that it would be really fun to tool around on one and hopefully even do the Tour of the Vineyard on one next year. We haven't made up our minds 100% yet, but we were thinking about the Cannondale Road as a definite possibility.

Words of Wisdom from D:"Why would one want to beat a mule, rented or otherwise?" 
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Posted by PunkAss at 9:44 AM