2025 Mid-Year Update

Sometimes, it’s nice to take a little break, and today is one of those times. I pulled out the Beast and headed for the hills … the Bristol Hills specifically. One nice long loop from home to C’Daigua (coffee at Dalai Java), thru Geneva, down to Penn Yan, Hammondsport, Prattsburg and Naples, and home thru Mendon Ponds.

Keuka Lake from atop Bully Hill

During last week’s heat wave, I’d been filling my time upgrading some bike componentry in the cool basement/bike workshop. When it’s this hot, I know I can find relief in the basement by simply lying down on the cold concrete floor …. AAAAHH … a wonderful heat sink!

The current project started with a Rohloff Speedhub servicing, followed by a build back into my (yellow) Marge Lite rims for running the Pug WITH tubes. 

Back to tubes!

Then, taking the wider black “My Other Brother Darryl” rims that were on the Pug, those will get re-laced to a set of DT-Swiss hubs (and set up tubeless) for the Surly Wednesday. But wait! A SECOND set of wheels for the Wednesday? Yes … because I get tired of having to deal with the mess of swapping summer knobbies and winter studs (both tubeless) every six months. And inevitably, with frequent changes in road conditions, it’s icy streets if I have the knobbies on and bare dry asphalt when the studs are on.

Now, I’ll just swap wheelsets to match conditions. Yea!

Confession:  June 21st: Summer Solistice. The Longest Day. The best day for an annual 150 mile ride. And I skipped it this year.

Since my Aug ’23 meltdown, I’ve become a bit more aware of summer temps, how it affects me now, and I’m starting to be more “adult” about it. I took a “warning shot” back on June 5th, when I cranked out a 128 mile / 6732’ of climbing ride, from home, through Letchworth State Park... 

Don’t diss the glasses … broke my good ones … it’s all I had!

… out the south end and back home, stopping at the Geneseo Byrne Dairy for my 2nd rest stop.

Summer “warm-up” ride

That was a heads up that maybe 150 is not in the cards this year. It was a hot day, and the backache (yeah, the L3, still) required a chiropractor visit afterwards. But I had a lot of trouble from the shoulder that I still dream of regaining pain-free function … maybe someday.

So, I’m not setting any new records this year. 11,111 miles in 2020 will be hard to beat anyway, and 2025’s “spring” weather was a real washout and really set me back by around 1000 miles, but I’m doing OK … weather permitting. Year to date stats:

"Below Average"

Now Go Ride!
b