Sick Man on a Tank

May 23, 2023

Mount Vernon, Virginia to Linthicum, Maryland

The day began at 4 a.m. with a sore throat. I woke up and gave myself a Covid test. Negative. I went back to bed for a couple more hours then trudged downstairs for breakfast and a second Covid test. Both were negative.

Feeling lousy I resisted the urge to crawl back to bed. I read the newspaper then loaded up The Mule for the first day of my 2,600 mile adventure.

I managed to forget only one thing, eye drops for glaucoma. NBD.

Today’s ride began in Mount Vernon, Virginia and ended in Linthicum, Maryland just south of Baltimore where I would stay with Mark with whom I toured in 2019 and 2022.

At 10 a.m., I took suburban streets to the Mount Vernon Trail. Using the 14th Street bridge I crossed the Potomac River into DC. After passing the Jefferson Memorial I picked up some cycle tracks and trails that went past the Wharf, Fort McNair, Audi Field, and Nationals Park to the new Frederick Douglass Bridge over the Anacostia River

Because Mark lives well to the east of the Adventure Cycling Atlantic Coast route, I cobbled together my route from my knowledge of DC area trails and a ride event I did many years ago.

The past ride was the Monument to Monument event in which riders go from the Washington Monument in DC to the one in Baltimore and back. I found the cue sheet from that ride buried in a file in my basement.

Today’s ride featured comfortable temperatures, some high haze caused by Canadian wildfires, some rolling hills, and a light headwind.

My path followed bike trails along the river north many miles to Edmonston, Maryland where I switched to the Monuments cue sheet.

I followed the cues until about 1 1/2 miles from Mark’s place where I switched to Google maps for the rest of the ride.

Since I had done nearly the entire ride before it was not a particularly exciting ride.

I stopped in Bladensburg for lunch and a couple more times for snacks. My cold and the sheer weight of my loaded bike made me far more tired than I had anticipated.

After only a single missed turn, I made it to Mark’s house by 4:30. Mark’s wife Tracy made a pot roast feast. Mark and I told tall tales about our bike adventures.

At 10 p.m. I crawled upstairs for some shut eye and Advil PM.

Today was a bit of a slog. Hopefully this cold will fade away in a day or two.

Today's ride: 59 miles (95 km)
Total: 59 miles (95 km)

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Kelly IniguezHave you toured on the Tour Easy? Did you write up anywhere the accident with the fork? I've been reading Janice Branham's journal where her husband broke the carbon fork on his P-38, running into a curb. A friend who rides a Bella said he did the same thing, didn't even get a flat tire, but it did dent the rim. The rest of the bike (fork) was ok.
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3 weeks ago

John PickettTo Kelly IniguezI did three tours on my Tour Easy, all journaled on CycleBlaze. I had problems with limestone grit messing up my cables. Also, my rear wheel started to break. Fixed both and kept going.
As for the fork, I hit a massive root heave on the Mount Vernon Trail near my home. The fork snapped off at the crown. Easy Racers had placed a recall on the fork but I ignored it having ridden over 20,000 miles without incident at the time. The replacement fork is of a different design and hopefully will last many more miles.
As for carbon forks, on my 2022 tour on the TransAm I encountered a man and his son in the tiny, mosquito infested town of Wisdom WY. They were riding the Great Divide Route when the front rack pulled away from the carbon fork on the dad's bike. The eyelets tore out with the rack rendering the fork unusable. Carbon forks are very popular but after seeing the look on the Dad's face, I wouldn't use one for touring.
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3 weeks ago

John PickettTo John PickettBy the way, I crashed the Sequoia into a parked car during a windstorm. The steel fork bent. My local bike shop used a jig to put it back into alignment and its worked fine ever since.
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3 weeks ago

Kelly IniguezTo John PickettI'm not a TE rider myself, so I hope I have this correct - isn't there a time frame of TE seats that were problematic? Perhaps yours is not one? That would be the part I'd worry about most. In the meanwhile I've asked Phoenix for an extra fork as a spare. It does seem like quite a specialty item. They didn't seem to think there was much of a need, and didn't have one already built. But, I've asked for it. Many, many years ago (1999 or so), I had the steerer tube on my RANS Stratus break. I had days of warning, it felt like a flat tire - but who would think the fork is breaking? When it finally went, I was on level ground and not going too fast. Nothing was hurt but my dignity. This was the pre internet days. I heard of a handful of others that broke. RANS replace it for free.
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3 weeks ago

John PickettTo Kelly IniguezI did have a fork on an old Raleigh break off during a ride. I felt something funny and came to a stop and the fork fell off to the side with a CLANK. That bike had endured full time use in 13 winters (6 in New England) and had been crashed numerous times so I wasn't surprised.

As for the Tour Easy seat, the seat bottom is a hard shell of some sort and the cushion is made of three kinds of foam. The pad is covered with a cloth that tightens with a cord. The back is a mesh that is tied to the seat back aluminum frame with shock cord of some type. All three parts were replaced once over the years. The original seat back mesh was attached with zip ties.

I have a local recumbent shop that knows someone who will redo my seat pad. It's still comfy enough but these things don't last forever. If I get stuck in the rain I put a kitchen garbage bag over it to keep water out of the foam.

I put about 2,000 miles a year on my Tour Easy (much of it on a wind trainer in the basement over the winter). I figure I can get at least another 5 years out of it before something irreplaceable breaks.
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3 weeks ago