Eric and I had a successful ride this past Saturday, on the first official running of Splendid Isolation 200K. I have a whopping R-3 streak going here. Yay for me.
To offer some modicum of variety, we decided to try out an alternate route between Weikert and Milroy, and it ended up being the simultaneous lowlight and highlight of the day. It was rocky, steep doubletrack that was challenging to ride, and it slowed us down big time. But it was rewarding. We finished in 13:04 (officially), but had to really bust ass to do so. But overall, despite being hard, it was a great ride. We wouldn’t do this stuff if it was a cakewalk, right?
The scenery was great and everything was extremely lush, due to recent rains. And also, as usual, the ride was extremely quiet. We saw one whole car on the non pavement sections all day. Splendid Isolation, indeed.
Warren’s take:
Eric’s take (on the ride):
So we finished in 13 hours out of the 13:24 allotted. Steamer took a roofing nail to his rear tire with about 7 miles to go, so we were a little concerned about time. The fact that it was a nail made changing it a little easier since we knew the cause of the flat was gone and there was no need to search around for it like happens with a sliver of steel or glass.
I always was curious about one of the roads we took, turns out we should have trusted the Purple Lizard map that showed it as ajeep trail. It was about 15 miles of doubletrack with big rocks and huge mud puddles, compounding the fact that it was almost all uphill. Fortunately, the road surface on the descent was much better, although it’s not sustainable and there were huge ditches made by runoff crossing the road. Ya, you can ride it on a CX bike, but it’s a lot slower than if you are riding a MTB. I suspect that if I was riding the 30mm tires I was using last year that I would have gotten at least one pinch flat.
Amusingly, one full second after I pulled the roofing nail out of my rear tire and showed it to Eric, he pointed to a contractor’s trailer parked 30 feet away that said “roofing and siding”. Thanks a lot, pal. Let’s keep the nails in people’s yards where they belong… Ahem. Eric’s point about pinch flats is mildly ironic. We missed a million opportunities to have one of those all day long, you see.
Oh, in case anyone was wondering, the doubletrack Jeep road we speak of is Longwell Draft Road and it looks like…..
Longwell Draft Road. Kinda rough for the machines we’re riding (not mountain bikes).
The Macho Man getting dirty. (talking about the bike….)
I took this picture whilst Eric slathered his nether regions (untested saddle, you see…). The Stoopid 50 came through this way the following day. See the yellow arrow in the background?
Old RR trestle abutment near Weikert (along Cherry Run Rd.)
A favorite area of mine. Cherry Run.
Vista on the ‘back side’ of Colerain.
The front side vista of Colerain. I have posted a picture taken from this location how many times now? (I like it. It’s even more appreciated when you climb 1,000 feet on the thickest, loosest gravel in Rothrock in order to get here).
The rest of the pics: http://s771.photobucket.com/user/steamer_03/library/SI%20200K-1
Strava entry: http://app.strava.com/activities/153633319
The Rothrock Cyrcle of Hell 
More climbing and more gravel? Now you’re really speaking my language…
All City really seems to have displaced Surly as the go-to brand for folks looking to ride long distances over crappy roads.
Bill, we have plotted SI Extreme here: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/5048910
It would be thoroughly silly and absurd exercise in self-flagellation. That can be fun at times, though.
Ohh, and to your comment about All City…. I too have been considering getting a Macho Man, but since both Reddan and Eric have gotten one this year, it would seem just a touch creepy for me to get one too. It’s not as if I look up to those guys and admire them or anything like that…… (is it?) I’d need to get a different color, at least.
I won’t argue that disc brakes are a thing of wonder, having used them for the first time this past weekend. I’ve already thoroughly blown through my year’s fun money and now have way more MTB than I have any business riding, though. I still have that Soma DC in my basement built up with klunky heavy 8 speed stuff, but I’ve thought about taking my “good” 10 speed stuff off my rando bike and turning that into my main ride. I have 4 bikes now…that’s not excessive, is it?
Oh, and now my wife wants a road bike. I tried explaining that her recumbent is superior to any road bike, and is fully capable of riding on pavement, but she wants to be able to stand and pedal when going up hills.
Soma DC appeals as well. Moreso than a Surly that is for sure. At least the main triangle is supposedly Tange Prestige, a nice lightweight tubeset. All City might have better quality control than Soma. The internet seems to about with stories of Soma fabrication quality issues.
Your DC would be a touch more versatile than your Fuji, with few downsides. Go for it, I say.
As for E.’s desire for a upright road bike is reasonable. Not everyone takes to the ‘constraint’s that recumbents introduce. I have worked through them all, but it took me a few years to lose the desire, for example, to stand up on hills. When I ride my Bianchi now, I almost never stand up, whereas in the past, I did a fair amount of standing climbing. More than most people, at least. Funny how my brain got re-wired like that..