Frisco High Line

For a change of pace, Tom and I rode the Frisco High Line this morning on mountain bikes. I recently built up a new single-speed bike using a steel Peugeot frame manufactured in Canada. I have not finished building the wheels yet, so I am running the original wheels with the 7-speed cog on the rear. I have it set up with a 46-tooth chain ring and the 15-tooth cog in the rear (the 15 provided the best alignment with the chain ring). I felt like I was riding up hill the entire way, particularly on the return with a 20-mph quartering crosswind gusting to 29 mph!

We started at the trailhead on West Kearney Street and rode to Walnut Grove, where we had pancakes and coffee at D. J.'s Diner. The pancakes were good, and the coffee was so so. The ride was about 34 miles round trip. My rear wheel slipped forward a couple of times on the way up causing the chain to drop. I finally got it tightened down good for the ride back, and we only stopped once to tighten it a little more. The trail was pretty soft in a few places because of the recent rains. It would have been a difficult ride on our road bikes, even with 32mm tires.

This afternoon, I stopped by Queen City Cycles and bought a 17-tooth cog and spacer kit to make the ride a little less intense.

Trailhead on West Kearney Street














Trailhead in Willard














Walnut Grove

Randonneuring Presentation at the January Springbike Meeting

Cliff Jacobs, a PBP veteran, and I will be making a presentation on randonneuring at the monthly Springbike Bicycle Club meeting on January 12. The meeting is at Primas Mexican Grill in Chesterfield Village and starts at 7:00PM. In addition to general information about randonneuring, I will have sample maps, que sheets and brevet cards for the 200K and 300K brevets that will be held in Springfield in late March and mid-April. Cliff will talk about his experiences at PBP and will show slides. I will also talk about the Fleche team I am organizing for a 24-hour ride on Easter weekend. You must be a member of Randonneurs USA to participate in the Fleche. There is more information on the Southwest Missouri Randonneuring web site. Hope to see you at the meeting.