We feed him, and give him a bed to sleep on... but that's it. Actually, I think he rather likes the patina of mud mixed with cow manure and sheep dung covering the frame and cranks, reminds him of those long-ago days of yore on the farm.

Some componentry revelations for me from the ride... the Rohloff shifter mounted to the 22.2 mm stem is a neat and tidy look, but doesn't work well in practice, especially when pedaling uphill when I want both hands outboard on the bars. Would be fine across the flats of Iowa, but these are California hills. I'll be moving to a bar-end shifter placement once I machine up a stub to fit in my Nitto bars. The other was that the Surly Singelator isn't really need to keep the chain in tension... After patching the second flat, and providing entertainment to the gang, the tensioner refused to do its thing, maybe got muddy with crud, not sure. So I took it off and the chain was slack but but not too slack. It rode the last day and half without any complaint at all. And the MAFAC RAID brakes are strong, indeed, but better pads are needed for truly wet conditions.