OK…yesterday, Dear Reader, I said that as we moved further east in Ohio that the roads would get lumpier. By that I meant that we would stop seeing perfectly straight roads that were flat, flat, flat. Apparently, I misspoke. While we did start to see roads that bent and twisted and went up and down (aka, lumpier) we also encountered lumpy roads….roads with new asphalt that were rougher than fresh chip seal.
Chip. Seal. Four letter words to bicycles. Fresh chip seal is like riding a gravel road. If you can find a wheel rut that has sealed the chip, it is just rough. But pay attention….piles of gravel can occur any time (as, alas, one rider discovered on the first day). Dangerous stuff for a bicycle.
But, that asphalt. Owie. You cannot imagine, Dear Reader, how many times I had to tell the human to quit spinning at a high cadence and pull up a bigger gear with a lower cadence. Us bikes do not have shock absorbers (well….some mountain bikes do, but not road bikes). We rely on the human to absorb the road vibration and a high speed cadence can just amplify the vibration, while a lower speed cadence can work to counteract it. But, still….riding those rough roads is hard on us bikes and hard on the humans. Ouch. My wheels will think they’re still bouncing all night long.
That said, the scenery today was prettier. Funny how fields and more fields of corn, more corn, soy and more soy can be prettier if you break it up with a hill, a stream or a bend in the road.
Tomorrow, Pennsylvania.
Details 87 miles 696 feet of climb 14.6 strain
Reading List Paper Mark Kurlansky. The human had read Cod and Salt so the author was a known entity. These books are history centered around a topic. In this case, not just paper, but what was printed on it and when. Lots of anecdotes…perfect for riding along.
Travels With Edwina 