BITE Rally - Pre Day 1
Saturday was my travel day from Dallas to Statesville, NC. With roughly 1100 miles, this would be (I think) one of the longer days for the event. At least Sunday is an off day, so plenty of time to rest up, hopefully de-stress, and prep for Monday's start.
I didn't get the 5am start I was planning. The alarm was set for 4, but I didn't even hear it or get up until 5:15. Was on the road by 6:30am ... not really a problem, but would delay lunch.
It's been raining like crazy in Texas the past couple of weeks, so the camera stayed packed away as I started off. There were a few times when the damp road would indicate that I wasn't far behind the rain clouds, but the rain would stay away until West Memphis. The weather was muggy most of the morning, with temps hoovering around 95 degrees, but getting as high as 102. Traffic wasn't too bad, until I hit I-40 just east of Little Rock. I-40 would stay a zoo from Arkansas through most of Tennessee.
At 1:30pm I finally made it to lunch. Sunday is Dad's birthday, so the idea was to have lunch with Dad and Brian. Dad was already there when I got there, and Brian was able to get off work a little early to hang out. My one good picture of the day (and I didn't even take it)...
From Memphis on, the weather would stay muggy, so it would be a great time to test out the evaporative cooling vest that Cass for me for my birthday. I've done cooling tricks in the past ... packing the pockets with ice, soaking my shirt in ice water before putting it on ... I was curious to see how the vest worked. I'm not sure I did it right. I ended up getting pretty soaked, but can't say that I was any cooler than when I packed the pockets of my Aerostich riding suit with ice. The problem, I think, was that the humidity was just too high, so the water on the vest was not able to evaporate very quickly at all. I wasn't hot ... so in that regard it worked, but I'm not sure that it was significantly different than just soaking my shirt in ice water first. I'll keep testing with it.
Along the line of comfort, for this ride I did switch back to my primary helmet. Helmet discomfort and earplug discomfort were a thing of the past ... back to what they were before. With the seat, I left the sheepskin pad at home, and this time am using just the Airhawk seat pad. The Airhawk by itself seems to be working ok, but isn't the magic cure that I was looking for. I also brought a beadrider cover with me as well, but I haven't put it on yet. I'm not sure that this is going to do any better for me, but I'll give it a try at some point over the week. The only new comfort problem to come up has been with my intercom ... the vox gate on the microphone is triggering WAY to early, resulting in the mic being open more than not so I get road and wind noise amplified back into my ears. The intercom isn't located where I can make adjustments easily while riding, so I ended up unplugging the mic and turning off my phone (really the only thing that's using the mic with my current rally setup). I'll fix the vox setting in the hotel parking lot Sunday.
More to come as the event unfolds. I'm not sure that I'll be able to do daily postings during the rally, but I will post as possible.
I didn't get the 5am start I was planning. The alarm was set for 4, but I didn't even hear it or get up until 5:15. Was on the road by 6:30am ... not really a problem, but would delay lunch.
It's been raining like crazy in Texas the past couple of weeks, so the camera stayed packed away as I started off. There were a few times when the damp road would indicate that I wasn't far behind the rain clouds, but the rain would stay away until West Memphis. The weather was muggy most of the morning, with temps hoovering around 95 degrees, but getting as high as 102. Traffic wasn't too bad, until I hit I-40 just east of Little Rock. I-40 would stay a zoo from Arkansas through most of Tennessee.
At 1:30pm I finally made it to lunch. Sunday is Dad's birthday, so the idea was to have lunch with Dad and Brian. Dad was already there when I got there, and Brian was able to get off work a little early to hang out. My one good picture of the day (and I didn't even take it)...
From Memphis on, the weather would stay muggy, so it would be a great time to test out the evaporative cooling vest that Cass for me for my birthday. I've done cooling tricks in the past ... packing the pockets with ice, soaking my shirt in ice water before putting it on ... I was curious to see how the vest worked. I'm not sure I did it right. I ended up getting pretty soaked, but can't say that I was any cooler than when I packed the pockets of my Aerostich riding suit with ice. The problem, I think, was that the humidity was just too high, so the water on the vest was not able to evaporate very quickly at all. I wasn't hot ... so in that regard it worked, but I'm not sure that it was significantly different than just soaking my shirt in ice water first. I'll keep testing with it.
Along the line of comfort, for this ride I did switch back to my primary helmet. Helmet discomfort and earplug discomfort were a thing of the past ... back to what they were before. With the seat, I left the sheepskin pad at home, and this time am using just the Airhawk seat pad. The Airhawk by itself seems to be working ok, but isn't the magic cure that I was looking for. I also brought a beadrider cover with me as well, but I haven't put it on yet. I'm not sure that this is going to do any better for me, but I'll give it a try at some point over the week. The only new comfort problem to come up has been with my intercom ... the vox gate on the microphone is triggering WAY to early, resulting in the mic being open more than not so I get road and wind noise amplified back into my ears. The intercom isn't located where I can make adjustments easily while riding, so I ended up unplugging the mic and turning off my phone (really the only thing that's using the mic with my current rally setup). I'll fix the vox setting in the hotel parking lot Sunday.
More to come as the event unfolds. I'm not sure that I'll be able to do daily postings during the rally, but I will post as possible.
posted by Charlie at
9:50 AM
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