I decided to put fenders on since it's possible we encounter some rain, especially up in Oregon. It'll also be nice to catch rocks and other debris kicked up on the road. Here's how they came:
Truth be told the directions for installation suck. Luckily I found this great video on youtube which I would have been completely lost without:
The hardest part was cutting the support spokes, since all I had was a dinky wire cutter. Also, I didn't have spacers like they do in the video, so it's not a uniform distance from the tire all the way around.
I also installed a front rack, a tubus tara. In retrospect I should have installed the rack first and then the fenders since the bolts for the fenders somewhat interfere with the rack itself. The solution would have been to attach the fenders to the rack, which has places to accept the same screw the fork does. Here's a good pic of the rack, as I was packing up getting ready to leave.
I was going to put my front panniers on (arkel b-26) but I decided to return them in favor of the t-28s since they seem a little heavier duty. In the rear panniers I had a change of clothes and my laptop bag, so this definitely wasn't a fully loaded ride. Here I am about to hit the road:
I left about 6:45, hoping to get to work in time for a 10am meeting. I used google maps for the route, which said it would be 44.3 miles taking just under 4 hours. I figured I'd average a little under 15mph so I thought I should be able to make it in time. Here's a pic of the route:
The map seemed like it would be pretty useless, so I typed up a subset of the turns I thought I would forget and put them in this map holder my mom got me along with the panniers.
I went through Hunters Point and around the stick; sort of strange to be there when no one else is.
I ended up crossing back over 101 around brisbane. Google routed me along the train tracks (Old County Road) most of the way, before crossing back over to the bay down in Redwood City. From there you can bike through the bay lands to Google. There must be a better way to go because it seemed both round about and ugly. I was on streets with cars most of the time, albeit with bike lanes, but I would have preferred a true bike path or "boulevard." Another thing about the route is that I can't explain how many auto shops and building supply stores I passed. I can see why they say the economy runs on cars and construction.
The trip took me about 3 1/2 hours door to door. I think it would have been faster but I made a few wrong turns which required some backtracking, there was also quite a bit of stopping and starting due to lights and traffic. Hopefully on the coast we won't have either of those issues. I ended up 30 minutes late to my meeting in all my bike gear probably smelling like a gym bag.
Physically I felt pretty good on the way down. There was some initial stiffness, but once I got going it seemed to go away. About halfway I got really hungry and had to stop for a cliff bar. I've heard before that you're supposed to eat before you start to feel hungry, so I'll definitely try to keep that in mind next time. After work I rode back to my Mom's house in Palo Alto after work without any pain, though that's only 5 miles or so, so I could hitch a ride to the city.
My install job on the fenders failed within the first 10 miles. The metal spokes came out of the plastic tips, so the fender was just hanging there flapping around. I was able to get them back into ridable condition, but I had to stop and adjust a few times. I think this may be due to the fact that I didn't really tighten some of the bolts that well because I was too lazy to get out a socket wrench. In retrospect I should have also put something on the tips of the metal pieces which insert into the plastic to get them to stick in a little better. I think I'm going to try to use some lightweight glue or rubber cement to keep them in place.
Other than that things went pretty smoothly. I made it down safe and didn't have any major mechanical problems. My main worry was that I'd get a flat since I didn't have a spare tube and it was probably too early for bike shops to be open. I really need to get some practice changing a flat, it seems like it's inevitable to happen over 800 miles.
I'm looking forward to doing some more training rides. Ideally I'd find a better route and try to make it back to SF in the evening by bike rather than car. All in all I'd say it was a positive and encouraging experience. I covered 50 mile in about 4 hours; on our tour we'll have a lot more time than that to cover the goal of 80 a day.
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