Nir Tal: Mission Critical
I have not talked about all the bike maintenance and repair we have needed during our trip. For starters, we have used over 15 tires and 24 tubes since our departure 15 days ago. In addition, my bike needed major repair the first night, and then it required major work on the rear cassette/gears a few days ago
These critical functions were accomplished by Nir Tal, founder of Bike Improve in Los Angeles, CA. We are very fortunate to have Nir with us. His wife delivered a second child last month. Nir is here on the trip because his mother-in-law volunteered to come visit so Nir could come with us.
Every evening Nir does a full inspection of all of the bikes. It is amazing to watch him work. He discovers things none of us would ever uncover.
Today we biked 178 miles from London, Ohio to Parkersburg, West Virginia. It was another spectacular day! A cool morning, beautiful sunrise, sun all day with a light breeze. We had rolling hills for most of the day past corn and soy bean fields. We spent most of the day on Route 56 East. Circleville, Ohio (pumpkin capital of the U.S.) and Athens, Ohio were beautiful towns to bike through. We had to cross the Ohio River to enter West Virginia. The historic Blennerhassett Hotel is quite a treat to stay in tonight (see www.theblennerhassett.com ).
Today I biked for nearly eight hours and covered 120 miles. It was a new personal best for me in terms of length of ride in one day. We covered 3,540 feet of elevation during the day. This is a warm up for the 7,050 climbing feet tomorrow on our way to Grafton, WV. The 120 miles is double my 60 years of age that will come in about five minutes (September 24th).
Sara, Drew, Jennifer and Lucja arrived tonight! What a treat!!
Happy birthday! I’ve been checking up on the team’s blogs every few days and it sounds like things are going great – congrats on reaching the scholarship goal! As the weather cools off I’m looking forward to the winter and catching up with you and Sara in Alta (my email address is ejhargraves@yahoo.com). I can’t wait to see pictures of you guys riding onto campus!
Booty! HAHA!: you need 5 electrical outlets but have “only averaged 3″ at the hotels you’ve stayed in? Haha! Your cycling trip across the U.S. is simply too technologically demanding for the 21st century hotel industry!!! Just wanted to let you know I enjoy your blog, and HAPPY 60th! 178 miles in 1 day? You are not really human are you… You are Cyborg; CyBooty! PS ~ you should take hot baths every night to alleviate your total body soreness…