BEST HOME SPINNING BIKE

Rising nearly 4000 vertical feet over 8 miles, the Memorial highway winds its way up the backside of Whiteface mountain in Wilmington, NY. That morning was the first time I had ever ridden my bike up the entire thing.
Since cyclists are not allowed on the road while there is traffic, the only time to make the journey is before 8am or after 5pm.

We had departed from the bottom around 6 in the morning hoping to reach the top then ride back down before the 8am cutoff. It was a clear morning with moderate temps at the base and i was only wearing shorts and a short sleeve jersey, figuring I would warm up pretty quickly once I got going. This turned out to be true for the most part until making the final hairpin turn to the summit. As soon as I rounded the corner, the frigid wind came whipping into my face. It felt refreshing for a short time, but soon after getting off my bike to look around I was chilled to the bone with no warm clothes to put on for the ride down. Needless to say, it was one of the most unpleasant experiences I could imagine. Shivering and clenching my fists around the handlebars, trying to hold in every bit of warmth, I slowly made my back down to the bottom. We stopped at a small diner on the way back to Lake Placid and I shivered through my entire breakfast. It was not until standing under a hot shower, seemingly forever, that I was warm again.

The next evening we decided to try again. This time I was better prepared with a sweatshirt and jacket in my backpack along with my camera. It was a beautiful evening, warm and sunny with some scattered clouds. When I got to the top, I immediately took my camera out and started taking pictures. I had snapped this sequence of photos with no intention of stitching it into a panorama, and it was not until today, almost three years later, that I finally did.

I took this facing north from the summit. To the west there was a major thunderstorm moving in, and to the east are the remnants of the beautiful day. I watched as the storm pushed closer and closer, and on the way back down I began to feel the rain drops on my face. Sitting in the car on the way back to Lake Placid I could see the storm cloud beginning to engulf the front side of the ski resort, and soon after, the skies were black and it poured for the rest of the night.

*Best if viewed large* (but still not great, I wish it could be bigger)

In preparing for my upcoming tour of New Zealand, I tried these two different ways of carrying a light-ish load of ~18lbs. Interesting to note:

• I could easily ride no-handed with either setup, even on slight inclines going slowly.

• The rear panniers caused a big no-handed shimmy if they were even slightly behind the rear axle. If I moved them up 5mm to be even with, or slightly in front of the axle, the shimmy stopped completely. Luckily, I don't have any foot strike on the panniers.

Overall, either way would make a good setup for extended inn-to-inn touring, or for S24O's. For this trip, I'm going with the rear big rack simply because it's faster to assemble and disassemble.

What's in the bags?
• 2 pair cycling shorts, one Ibex, one Pearl Izumi
• 2 wool short sleeve (one Ibex, one Rivendell/Woolistic)
• Ibex long sleeve micro merino thing
• Wooly warm wool arm warmers
• Ibex wool 3/4 length leg warmers
• 3 pr Smartwool socks
• 2 pair Ibex wool boxer thingies for off the bike
• Ibex wool beanie
• 2 pair Defeet wool gloves
• REI rain jacket
• Puma sneakers
• Portland Cycle Wear knickers
• Patgonia quick-dry pants
• 1st aid kit
• toiletries kit (toothbrush, toothpaste, Dr. Bronners, floss, etc.)
• toolkit
• spare Hetre tire, 2 spare tubes
• cable lock
• waterproof saddle cover
• wet wipes!
• silk sleeping sack
• MSR camp towel
• cotton cycling cap

I think that's it. The panniers are about 70% full, and the handlebar bag is mostly empty (it'll be for food 'n whatnot.)