It looks like it's another bike trip this summer. The C&O Canal Bicycle Trail and the Great Allegheny Passage for a total of about 350 miles - Pittsburgh, Pa to Washington DC. This will be my fifth bike tour with my bicycling associate, Kevin. He became my associate after talking to a couple of people on a previous ride. After I referred to him as my partner, I realized from the looks on their faces, that partner has taken on a different meaning than what I was used to. Our previous trips took us across Missouri on the Katy Trail, Nebraska on the BRAN Ride, The Natchez Trace, and a trip from Portland, Oregon to Missoula, Montana following the Lewis and Clark Trail.
I've posted a picture of my bike and trailer combo before and I'll be using the same rig this year. I'll probably invest in a new back wheel, however. I spun the freewheel off the threads while doing the Natchez Trace and fortunately was befriended by a fellow cyclist in Mississippi who fixed me up. He gave up part of his Father's Day by taking a wheel off of one of his old bikes and swapping it out with me while his wife gave Kevin and I lemonade and cookies. That's Southern hospitality for you. It went bad while we were touring the battlefield in Vicksburg up and down some hills. I could still ride but I had only one gear that I could use without it throwing the chain. I made it home with the "new wheel"OK and it's still working but I'm thinking the old bike could use a real new wheel. The only problem with that is that most of the new bikes use cassettes rather than freewheels and the gearing on the bike now is perfect. I don't know if I can find a similar gear cluster for a cassette. Additionally, most of the new wheels are 700s rather than the 27 inch I have on the bike now. 27" tires are still available but the choices are limited especially when out on the road. So that means if I change the rear wheel I should probably change to a newer cassette style rear wheel and a new front wheel as well. That also means I might have to get longer reach brakes and spread the rear apart for the wider width required for a cassette hub. The freewheel hubs are notorious for bending the little 8mm axles, though. I'll definitely have to look into that before the trip. It seems that it's never simple but a couple of hundred bucks invested in a new wheel set would set me up with a touring rig that will last me for the rest of my days.
Since the weather and the roads have been so bad, I haven't been riding but I aired up the tire on the trainer the other day so I can start getting back into cycling shape. It doesn't take many long, cold winter nights before I start thinking Spring and getting back out on the road.
2 comments:
This follows the Western Maryland RR also. East of Cumberland Maryland along the Potomac river is a little town of Green Springs WV. Back in 1998 I stopped there and found a BL2 from the WM RR. Got some cool picks of it. Going farther east through the state forest there are 4 old tunnels.
You can't go wrong with the BL2. I remember seeing them in the Monon yard in South Hammond. I was looking at the guide book last night - lots of railroad stuff to see along the way.
You should throw a bike in the back of your car and ride with us one day. We won't be that far from you when we head into Pennsylvania.
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