Late Spring; Riding around Camp Far West and some equipment notes.

 

On Long Ravine Road.

I've been a little lazy writing this blog, but I haven't been doing too much of interest while recovering from a bout with tendonitis that developed last fall.  I'm happy to report that my knee pain has pretty much disappeared! The winter's been mild and unfortunately dry so I've been able to ride regularly, putting in about 400 miles per month. I've installed smaller chainrings on my bikes to reduce the strain on my knees, as well as raising the saddle up back to a level I had it earlier. My knees seem to have recovered, thank goodness! I think raising the saddle was the most important factor, but that's just my guess.

Anyway, I've been gradually increasing my mileage and finally felt ready to try a 100 km gravel and pavement ride, the Camp Far West loop!

For this ride I chose the Ritchey Ascent, shod with 650b X 48mm Panaracer Gravel King slicks, set up as tubeless. These are very nice tires and roll nicely on pavement as well as over gravel.

A stop at Racoon Creek.

I've done this ride a couple of times now and I'm getting more comfortable with it. It's starts with about 20 miles of pavement from Loomis, through Lincoln and up McCourtney Road to Camp Far West.

Camp Far West

Passing the Camp Far West Entrance, you begin a very steep climb, actually two! After cresting the second climb you come to the start of the gravel. This year, the road is in fair shape, but there's a lot of washboard to contend with. I didn't lower the air pressure in the Gravel Kings, I just kept them at a little over 40 lbs. of pressure. While this gave a bit of a rough ride, the width of the tires provided good support and I didn't really have any big problems with the dirt roads. 

Starting down Long Ravine Road.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm starting to get familiar with this route, I didn't even have to refer to Google Maps pre-ride! 

Coming to the bridge on McCourtney Road.

I followed Long Ravine until it turns into McCourtney, (the other McCourtney, north of CFW.), then turned on White Oak Drive to Perimeter Road. On Perimeter I ran into a road grading crew, which probably means a better road surface for folks doing this ride now!

Eventually Perimeter becomes paved and after a while you will come to MacDonald Road. Although marked as a locked, private road, it is passable by bicycles. I confirmed this when chatting to a resident there. The road is indeed gated, but he said it's just to prevent automobile traffic, bikes were not a problem. That's good news as it is a good way to connect to Garden Bar.

After reaching Garden Bar Road, it's pretty much pavement for the rest of the ride. I took a short break at Higgins Corner for a snack and to relax my foot which can get uncomfortable on longer rides. 

After that, it was the usual jaunt up Hwy. 49 to Auburn and then home. With temperatures in the 70s and 80s, I was pretty comfortable and had no real problems. Total distance was 62.24 miles, (I'll call it 100 K's), time was 5 1/2 hours. 

Equipment Notes:

As I said, I rode my Ritchey Ascent with 48mm tires. These were very adequate for these conditions. It might be helpful to reduce tire pressure to absorb some of the washboard, but I didn't bother. Even though these are "slick" tires, I had no trouble with slipping at all.

One new piece of equipment is a Pelago front rack to support the massive Ostriche Handlebar bag. I've been hunting for a front rack for this bike for some time since I've become a real fan of handlebar bags. The Pelago is aluminum and comes with a lot of fittings to accommodate various bikes. The unique problem I had with finding a rack for the Ritchey is the fork crown fitting. The  Ritchey's fork only has a threaded hole in the back of the crown, nothing in front, so this made mounting a rack tricky. The Pelago rack came with two metal struts for mounting to the fork and one of them was able actually reach under the fork crown and be bolted to that rear hole! Perfect!

The Pelago front rack.

Here's a shot of the fork crown mounting.

And here's a shot with the rack and the Ostriche bag.

I'm quite happy with this arrangement, although the Ostriche bag is a bit too much, I really don't need that much capacity so I may try to find a smaller alternative.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been reducing my gearing in order to protect my knees. On my fixed gear ride, I replaced the 46 with a brand new narrow/wide 44. The results were a surprise to me. first, the narrow/wide chainring was very quiet! Things really quieted down in my drivetrain, I don't know if  it was because of the narrow/wide configuration, or maybe a new chainring is just quieter? I'm still using the old chain, too!

Also, i found that descending hills with the reduced gearing was actually easier! I feel like I can backpedal a little more effectively, so that is a plus!

The fixed gear with the new chainring.

That's about it for now, I'll close with a gratuitous shot of my KOM on Chamberlain Road.