During the early morning rain fell at my house signaling the arrival of a “cool” front according to the weather people. For July this means the temperature drops a couple of degrees and so it was for today’s bike ride. I started later than usual at 12:18 with 88 degrees under a mostly cloudy sky. Humidity was a little higher at 70% making for a sweaty ride environment. The wind was from the NE at 7 mph helping to keep me somewhat ventilated and the jersey not quite so wet.

The bike of choice for today’s ride was the Blue Norcross AL. One reason I chose it was the new tires I installed yesterday. The original tires were a Chinese brand 700 x 32C with some short knobby bumps and a maximum PSI of 75. The tires were noisy on pavement and the air pressure and nubs meant high rolling resistance. In contrast the new tires are Continental Gatorskin 700 x 32C with an almost smooth tread area and a maximum of 102 PSI. Removing the old tires was pretty easy with a Kevlar type bead and a flexible sidewall. Mounting the Gatorskins wasn’t so easy. I made a decision to buy wire bead instead of the Kevlar type bead and the sidewalls are not as flexible. I started out trying mount them with a QuickStik but that failed. Moving to the plastic tire levers helped but I grunted and groaned with one of the tire levers jumping out of my hand while using the other one to coax the wire bead onto the rim. Eventually I got the Gatorskins on the rims but if I have a flat I don’t know if I can get the tube out. I need to get another set of tire levers to carry. The ride is much smoother and quieter with my average speed improved over the knobby tires. Looking at the front tire while riding I see this massive tire out front and it takes some getting used to compared to the 700 x 23 tire on the Stradalli.

I chose the “Oakhurst – Valley Ranch” route to ride at least 24 miles (actually rode 26.8 miles) to reach 200+ miles for the week. I made it with a total of 204.6 miles for three weeks in a row of 200+ miles. I am at 875 miles for July and with one more day to ride I could hit 900+.

Nothing out of the ordinary during the bike ride. I made a quick stop at the Valley Ranch Texaco for water and ice to carry me to the finish. Biking south on the I-69/US59 service road was easier than biking to Valley Ranch. With the wind at my left rear quarter I kept the speed at 18 to 19 mph improving the overall average speed to 14.3 mph which started to go down after making the u-turn at Northpark Drive and entering Woodridge Forest and Kingwood. I finished the ride at 2:17 pm sweaty but not as wet as yesterday’s ride. One more day to ride in July and then on to August.

RideWithGPS.com map and metrics