Ride aborted, but all is not lost
How not to prepare for an endurance event.
1) Wait till the last minute to nail down logistics for the event
2) Make changes to your rally setup without testing them before leaving for the rally
3) Oversleep and don't leave on time
In the end, while I didn't leave the house at 5am as I had wanted and instead left at 9am, I had too many other factors working against me that would ultimately result in my decision to back out of the Cal24.
I made it as far as Tucumcari NM before pulling the plug on the event. Wind was a factor that aggrevated some of my problems, but ultimately it was some comfort issues and poor logistics that led to the decision. Comfort issues ... a new helmet (what should have been a simply replacement for an older working helmet) and a new seat pad (an attempt to postpone buying a custom seat).
The new helmet is putting pressure on my ear plugs, causing ear discomfort after ~2 hours of wear. Because of the contact between the ear plugs and the helmet, wind noise seems to be amplified ... to the point where the noise caused by the strong crosswinds yesterday were drowning out my radio. The wear discomfort, plus the greater noise, were zapping my energy.
The seat pad wasn't all bad, although I still need to do some experimentation around how to use it best. I've been using an Aerostich sheepskin pad that I've had since the ST1300. That seat pad hasn't shown the kind of positive results on the RT that I had with it on the ST, so last week I added an Airhawk seat pad to attempt a quick fix. Two problems I saw: the Airhawk seat pad raises the seating position enough that it needs to be taken into account, and the Airhawk likely does not need to be used along with the Sheepskin pad as I attempted to do. I have been touring with the RT's seat set to the highest position in order to eliminate knee strain during long rides. With the Airhawk pad on, the seat can be returned to the lower setting with no impact on the knees. When combined with the Sheepskin pad, it appears that some of the benefits of the Airhawk were being diminished.
Comfort issues aside, the biggest detriment was my poor planning. Summer is always a busy time with work ... school's out, and most of our customers are actively involved in upgrade projects. In order to pull off approval for the time away from work, I tried to cram the rally into a short extended weekend, taking off just Thursday, Friday, and Monday. With rally events starting Friday afternoon, and running through Sunday morning, I basically left myself with the task of knocking out a 1600 mile 36-hour trip out to California, and then a 1600 mile 24-hour trip to get home. I should have taken at least one more day off (Tuesday), if not more.
The end result is I still managed to work in a 980 mile ride on Thursday, and got to ride more of Route 66 from Tucumcari to the TX/NM border. I've now got things to work on before the BITE event, and hopefully plenty of time to get them sorted out.
1) Wait till the last minute to nail down logistics for the event
2) Make changes to your rally setup without testing them before leaving for the rally
3) Oversleep and don't leave on time
In the end, while I didn't leave the house at 5am as I had wanted and instead left at 9am, I had too many other factors working against me that would ultimately result in my decision to back out of the Cal24.
I made it as far as Tucumcari NM before pulling the plug on the event. Wind was a factor that aggrevated some of my problems, but ultimately it was some comfort issues and poor logistics that led to the decision. Comfort issues ... a new helmet (what should have been a simply replacement for an older working helmet) and a new seat pad (an attempt to postpone buying a custom seat).
The new helmet is putting pressure on my ear plugs, causing ear discomfort after ~2 hours of wear. Because of the contact between the ear plugs and the helmet, wind noise seems to be amplified ... to the point where the noise caused by the strong crosswinds yesterday were drowning out my radio. The wear discomfort, plus the greater noise, were zapping my energy.
The seat pad wasn't all bad, although I still need to do some experimentation around how to use it best. I've been using an Aerostich sheepskin pad that I've had since the ST1300. That seat pad hasn't shown the kind of positive results on the RT that I had with it on the ST, so last week I added an Airhawk seat pad to attempt a quick fix. Two problems I saw: the Airhawk seat pad raises the seating position enough that it needs to be taken into account, and the Airhawk likely does not need to be used along with the Sheepskin pad as I attempted to do. I have been touring with the RT's seat set to the highest position in order to eliminate knee strain during long rides. With the Airhawk pad on, the seat can be returned to the lower setting with no impact on the knees. When combined with the Sheepskin pad, it appears that some of the benefits of the Airhawk were being diminished.
Comfort issues aside, the biggest detriment was my poor planning. Summer is always a busy time with work ... school's out, and most of our customers are actively involved in upgrade projects. In order to pull off approval for the time away from work, I tried to cram the rally into a short extended weekend, taking off just Thursday, Friday, and Monday. With rally events starting Friday afternoon, and running through Sunday morning, I basically left myself with the task of knocking out a 1600 mile 36-hour trip out to California, and then a 1600 mile 24-hour trip to get home. I should have taken at least one more day off (Tuesday), if not more.
The end result is I still managed to work in a 980 mile ride on Thursday, and got to ride more of Route 66 from Tucumcari to the TX/NM border. I've now got things to work on before the BITE event, and hopefully plenty of time to get them sorted out.
posted by Charlie at
11:43 AM
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