AntonioGG

I knew that sequence of roads seemed very familiar! http://www.dashugel.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/TDH_2017_trifold_03.pdf

I've been wanting to try that entrance to DD. Normally I do what Cody described.

Mine are looking similar to yours. I've wondered about taking them to a cobbler to see if they could add back some lugs. I wondered if anyone else had before. I also thought about taking tire pieces and shoe gooing some lugs back on.

Damn Chinese carbon hitches!

Sorry, couldn't resist:

I'd only attempt a night ride at LGT if everything is 100% dry. I don't like riding slick rocks and roots at night. It does sound enticing...

Which fingers get numb on your hands? Since I got my new-to-me bike with wider Enve bars, I suffer terribly with all the fingers and thumb except the pinky. Looking at anatomy books, I figured the only place this can happen is at the shoulder or neck. My old bike had a narrower bar, and I think more back sweep.

I've never used the spare derraileur hanger or the first aid kit. I've used the zip ties, tape, FedEx envelope (Tyvek) squares as tire boots and of course the tubes and CO2 cartridges. I've in the past wish I had pliers but I don't carry them.

Bamwa: PHRASING!

I'm in for 100k. I'm on a black and white TrueFab bike with BSS Club jersey and faded (WTF?) Giro yellow helmet.

To me, holding the paceline means a few things: Confident enough in your riding and your group's riding to ride very close to each other. Not doing abrupt moves, braking, accelerating hard, or not keeping momentum and bike position when going from seated to standing or vice-versa or drinking. When its your turn to pull, don't go harder than the group's speed even if you feel very strong, if you can't pull for very long, that's OK, do a quick turn and move back so as to not explode. Not panic over every single thing on the road. I've been in so many group rides where people point out everything and do some harsh maneuvers or just the fact that one hand comes off the bars turns it into a scary situation. Ride over gravel, point things offline. When in a tight group, the best thing to do is to follow the wheel in front of you. There's little chance you'll be able to react to something pointed by the person right in front of you. #2,3,4 are one reason why I don't do many group rides to be honest. I need to get faster so I can go on the faster and more experienced group rides.

I couldn't hold onto my drop levers at Walnut during impacts. It makes it a bit sketchy.

Yes, the bars have specs and so do the things with clamps. I have found that there are often incompatibilities. Some bars are rated for 3-4Nm while a lot of clampy things are rated at 5-7Nm. As an example, I run bar ends. I believe those are 6-7Nm. My older TruVativ bars specifically say no bar-ends allowed. I machined aluminum pieces to fit inside the area where the bars clamp to deal with that issue. As to the other things like brake levers, I go with the bar specs and use carbon paste. It works well to keep shifters and levers from spinning.

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Humidity definitely affects me a lot. I think whether you prefer humidity and cooler air vs dryness and hot air all depends on how much body heat you're trying to get rid of (i.e. how hard you're riding.) We humans cool-off through evaporation mostly. If you remember HS chemistry class the heat of vaporization of water experiment (amazing how it stuck with me), it is a dramatic amount of heat you can remove through evaporation vs convection (or even contact, like in eating ice). If you ride below a certain threshold, riding in humidity is not bad because through convection (better when it's humid) or just contact (sweat dripping off you) you get rid of enough heat. But above a certain threshold, your body cannot get rid of that extra heat through convection. As long as I have water and I'm sweating, if I'm riding hard, I'd rather ride in 95-100 than 80 and 90% humidity. I made it to my car before the rain and I was completely soaked. I did not walk through the wet crossings but my socks were just as wet as if I had. Usually unzipping my jersey helps, but today it made zero difference. It was gross, but at my pace it wasn't too bad b/c of the cloud cover and cooler temps.

Does anyone start 2 laps at 5:30?

This is actually an interesting point. I think it's easy to create a lot of pressure and damage a tube of any kind, but I wonder how much it would take. I bet it's less than it takes to strip a 3mm bolt. The fact it took zero torque to remove tells me it was crushed. I know I don't even use the cheap clicker torque wrench for my bar, I use only a beam wrench on my levers and bar ends. I used to exclusively ride Truvativ (really not that expensive) but my latest bike came with an Enve. So far so good. I put about 10k miles on the Truvativ that was on my Tallboy, now it's my wife's bike. Still looks good. I was also looking at the Chromag page. From the info on their website, it's not a company that inspires confidence in me (translate as: I wouldn't buy from them). They have a lot of sales people, and graphic designers, and apparently one--maybe--technical dude. I didn't see an engineer listed on there. I was concerned with the unidirectional fiber they claim is good for their bars. I'm no ME but I believe I'd want parallel fibers along the length for shear strength, as well as circumferential fibers for crush strength.

Well, about 3.25 miles in I realized I forgot my saddle bag which has all my spares, tubes, and CO2 cartridges. I realized it b/c I had to stop to tighten my thru-axle lever which was loose and rattling. Well, I eventually lost it completely. I went back to my car, then back out to see if I could find it and to get more miles in close to my car in case I had a mechanical. Got about 15.5 miles in of gnarly trail and had a blast right up until it started raining. Thanks for the ride call Cody!

The amount of rain predicted is so little though. How is LGT with small amounts of rain? Slick rocks? Will dirt clump to tires?

I've had one break on my Specialized S-works shoes. I don't really think it's an improvement over velcro plus the ratchet system. If they'd gone to a single boa I could see the advantage. But 2 boas plus a velcro strap aren't really an advantage over 3 straps or 2 straps plus a ratchet, and the Boas make it difficult to put my shoe on unless you unhook the line--which is not easy. I still have my old Specialized pro shoes with the 2 velcro straps plus the ratchet. They fit pretty well still but I do recall having the ratchet not stay tight sometimes. My favorite shoe closure system is on my Salomon Quicklace system. I wish I could get some bike shoes that would fit me and have this system. https://www.salomon.com/us/blog/article/how-to-use-the-salomon-quicklace-system

I hate horse flies! Those things have bitten me through my shorts. Thanks for the warning.

You could pack some extra grease in them to take up volume.

I don't have any kind of alarm set. On endurance rides I'm highly focused on keeping track of the ride, by hour, and by certain intervals, like 1/6 done, 1/4 done, 1/2 done. So it's easy for me to remind myself. But there are people that set reminders on their watches or bike computers.

I was coming here to give the exact same feedback.

Is there a 501(c)3 associated with this trail? If there is, I can put in hours during work hours and put them down as volunteer hours.