Trans Am Bike Race / TransAm / TABR

You're doing it West-to-East?

There is only one direction for the proper race. The Grand Depart starts in Astoria, OR and finishes in Yorktown, Virginia. West to East.

then pack. Then repack. Then repack.... Then re....

That's right. It took me ages to pack for IPWR. I finished about midnight, having expected to get done early in the evening. Then I met another rider in the airport queue and he told me hadn't been to bed as had beeen packing all night.

Have you got all your stuff? No last minute panics about what luggage to take, how many water bottles, etc...?

And what about bike pictures?

Bike is still being worked on!

I'm going for a shakedown ride to test the new front wheel and new brakes this weekend and will pack the bike box after that's done.

I'm a bit concerned about valve extenders for the deep section wheel. I use Topeak ones that allow you to seal off the valve with a long turning piece. The Zipp one I have in it doesn't have that and the pressure gauge doesn't show what it's at properly. Annoying but I didn't have time to seal it properly.

I'm still going through the route. I've found it goes the wrong way on some one-way bits and doesn't stick to the road properly in the East so I'm trying to fix that while also noting possibly useful stuff.

I want to split the route into chunks but the splitter site I used kills off the elevation data, which sucks. So I might end up doing it manually. More time.

I've not sorted out my mp3 player yet - need to get more tunes onto it.

I need to get some USD.

Once I'm done editing files, I need to prep my phone, Garmin, backup SD cards, etc with routes.

If you do linux then gpsprune does that very nicely. It lets you add waypints and compress the track as well. There might even be a windows version of it.

Packing the bike prior to a trip is so annoying. A bit more of stress and other possibilities for things to go wrong that you could well do without.

waypints

Oh yes.

Racers are loaded up... who's this penis?
http://trackleaders.com/transam17i.php?name=Hippy_Hippy

I didn't know you were 69.

Looking good for your age.

It's the strict fitness regime I follow..

Dot-watching hippy trackstanding in Knighton is utterly compulsive viewing. I've done nothing else for days now.

I just hope he realises that it doesn't start in Wales

My feet are getting sore. Can I stop soon?

Wait, what?

Astoria yeah? Just north of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch

Stupid deep section wheel valve holes aren't big enough for my extender so I'll probably take a couple of silly long valve spare tubes 80mm and a shitty extender. Might try and enlarge the hole with some sandpaper or a file. Also the tyre isn't seating well so that needs looking at but I can't 'pop' it out because the tube doesn't inflate fully with the extender attached - it just leaks air at a certain pressure.

What depth rims are you using?

65mm

I plan to sail to the finish.

Cool, don't forget your wheel covers!

Won't they work with 80mm valves without an extender (to get seated, obvs you need to take extenders for punctures)?

Nah, I sold my wheel covers when I got a disc. Technically I still have some but they're attached to a rim brake 808 (my old race wheel).

80mm valves will work fine but I'm not likely to find them on the road if I have issues with the tubes I carry. I like to be able to use any normal tube and I'm annoyed my Topeak extenders don't fit - they are nifty because they can screw the valve open/closed. My Zipp one vents air when inflating.

Spare tyre or no spare tyre?

170 grams for a bit of insurance.

I didn't take one on TCR but the population density is much higher so there was unlikely to be 100i hike to the next town.

Good post about last years: https://rideallnight.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/notes-from-the-road-trans-am-bike-race-2016/