Tom Bombadil

Sorry to disappoint you, but I think you are only getting a dusting of snow. The snow belt is south of you.

softshoe

I am a proud swimmer of the great white north and its great lake. I've never biked around it before (or toured...anywhere.), but am taking it on this summer. I've been reading some great blog/diary accounts, but few have talked about route specifics...has anyone done this trip and had success (or lack thereof) with route maps?

Tom Bombadil

We ended up getting 9" of snow. Just in from running the snowblower again. Had to refill it with gas. We're up to 51" so far this winter.

solveg

I was just about to ask you about that!

solveg

Can* you ride all the way around it? How far would that be?

Edit: It looks like you can ride close to the water most of the way, with a few exceptions. It looks like the either it's not mapped on google, or the only* route is on the main highways the entire way.

Tom Bombadil

-14 this morning. My wife's van "Check Oil" light was coming on at low RPMs. Dangerous to drive, so she needed to use my winter commuter, a Corolla. That left me with removing 10" of snow from my Integra. I dig it out, start to back out and find it difficult to move. Got out and found that one of the tires was flat. Oh joy, oh joy!

41 hours until I leave for Florida.

maddmaxx 

Flash: Florida citrus growers are quick harvesting crops in fear of an expected cold snap.

Digital Gee

Tom has three cars? Oh my.

solveg

Tom has a winter car, which doesn't count. Although the custom is fading, everyone up here used to have a rusted old vehicle with a reliable engine which they put snow tires on and drove in the winter.

These cars, instead of being admired for their beauty or prestige, were instead judged by their ability start in -20 temperatures and get out of a snow drift 3 feet high.

The highest praise you could give a winter beater was, "She starts on a dime and she runs good."

I guess because bodies last so much longer now, and cars are so expensive, that people don't have Winter Cars very much any more. Back in the day, every car I had rusted out long before there was engine trouble, but in the winter, no one looked down on you if your car was rusty. A guy wanting to impress a girl on a first date would not have any qualms about arriving in his "rust bucket". Other drivers did however, avoid you if you had a big dent or a fender taped on.

Beverly

Lucky you......I have 19 days before I head out to Florida

Road Fan

Am I riding this weekend? YES! Here in Ann Arbor we have the 2nd annual Worst Day of the Year ride. I'm doing either a 12 mile road or 40 mile road loop. It's also the kickoff of my century training (target 100 mile One Helluva Ride July 12, conflicts with Horrible Hilly Hundred for you BFNICers). So as they say in Road Cycling, I am learning to harden the **** up and just go out!

I haven't bought any new warm shoes for this. I have a set of leather Adidas Goodyear Team sneakers that are roomy. I should be able to get a foot with a light sock and a heavy Smartwool ski sock in there. Then I'm gonna get a Gore waterproof booty for teh wind/rain/crud. And they should fit in my toe clips if I relieve teh strap and bend. Fenders and CX tubulars on the Woodrup, and I might really be able to do the 40. I already have good gloves, barrier jacket and a balaclava if I need it. I expect the weather to be in the high 20s - mid 30s both Saturday and Sunday.

Only downside is Mrs. Road Fan will probably not be riding.

Road Fan

solveg

You're not taking the Mondonico out in the salt are you????

Tom Bombadil

I do, but one of the reasons is to save gas. By having both a Corolla and an Integra, when my wife and I both need to be driving, we can be driving cars that have good gas mileage. The Grand Caravan was purchased when we had 4 children living at home, and another one nearby that we had to pick up now and then. And it is our long trip & big load hauling vehicle. I think I've used it to move our children from one apartment to another a total of 28 times so far. Almost everyone of those moves requiring 2 or 3 trips.

Both the Integra and Corolla are 11 years old and the Caravan is 8. They have between 110K to 150K miles on them. I haven't made a car payment since 2003.

Road Fan

No, definitely not, anyway it's not finished! If it looks real sloppy I'll take the Trek, which has fenders. If it's likely to be snowy, I'll put the cyclocross tires on my Woodrup and take it.

How's the CCM project?

solveg

Waiting for the rest of my arabesque parts to arrive. I traded some bars for them...

Road Fan

You have bars to trade? what do you have? I use 40 and 42 cm.

solveg

I have 46cm Nitto Noodles. That's what was on my Atlantis when I got it, and I was fine with them. But now they bug me because they're too wide. So I have 2 more sets I'll be slowly swapping out.

I like the noodles, so I'll just get narrower versions.

Big Paulie

This kind of patient, methodical approach is really the quickest way to end up with the right equipment. I'm often guilty of randomly trying stuff here or there, and hoping I can make it work. But after I got my Rivendell 3 years ago, I kind of calmed down, and just started working through all the options, fit-wise. That's how I ended up with the SAA saddle and the 44 CM Noodles...and they work as well as I could hope anything could.

Even if I change bikes in the future, I know what saddle and bars I like, and that's a big leg up on the fit process.

treebound 

Just posting to say hi and to see if my account is active and if I've ever posted to the site here before.
Oh, and to the thread discussion, it was -7degF this morning, and no I didn't ride a bicycle today. Nearly got frostbite just walking from the parking lot into the office.

Tom Bombadil

Welcome treebound! Where in Wisconsin are you from?

There are several Wisconsinites hanging around in this forum.

treebound 

Just a bit north of Milwaukee.

Road Fan

Well, I did not ride! I was all set for cold, but what we got instead was slop, which I hate. I did ride indoors, however.

Road Fan

Tom Bombadil

I took a mini-vacation last June in Port Angeles. Rode to Cedarburg and back on one day.

treebound 

I hope you mean Port Washington (where I live) instead of Port Angeles (where I've been a couple of times).

There are some nice farm roads up around here where some of the local racers train. And the interurban rail trail gets you all the way up to Sheboygan county.

BlazingPedals

Maybe I'll see you there, Road Fan! I've done the Helluva for several years now. Last year, I got stung a few days before the ride and was definitely having some residual breathing issues in spite of the medications. I'm not normally allergic. Anyway, the difference between the century and the metric is about 40 miles of no scenery; so unless you're specifically going for the mileage, the metric is the way to go. (I'll probably be doing the full century, just for the training - I'm planning on doing the Quad-Century DALMAC.)