Brian Richardson
From Minneapolis to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, we followed the North Lakes ACA route. Starting tomorrow, we’ll pick up the ACA’s Lake Erie Connecter to take us across mainland Michigan and Ontario to Niagara Falls. But for 100 miles between Eastport and Lake George, and for the first time all summer, we were mapless. This meant no cyclist-verified road conditions, no elevation profile, and no ecological field notes. To make matters worse, Michigan’s state highways are notorious for changing from paved to gravel without warning; this morning we encountered several such roads. After some gravel grinding and zig-zagging, we eventually landed on HW 6, which took us south for most of the day on uninterrupted pavement and mostly wide shoulders.
Michael hits some surprise gravel near Kalkaska, MI
Michigan’s HW 66
Michael got his third flat tire today, which is number 19 for the group this summer. Using our collective experience, I am sharing the official Bike Loud comprehensive guide to fixing a flat tire:
Move the yourself and the bike completely off the road and away from traffic.
Remove the wheel with the flat in question. If the front wheel, simply detach the brakes and remove the skewer. If the back wheel, you’ll also need to remove your panniers and flip the bike over to avoid damaging your derailleur.
Using tire levers, pry one side of the tire off of the lip of the wheel. Trying to keep the dirt and worn rubber from turning your hands black is futile.
Remove the punctured inner tube and inflate to find the leak. Look for a culprit in the corresponding location in the tire.
Slightly inflate a new tube (or the old tube with a patch) and insert in the tire. Slip the tire back into the wheel’s rim.
Using a hand pump (which is more portable but much more difficult to use than a floor pump), fully inflate the new tube. Try to keep your heart rate in zone 2; this will be a sustained effort.
In your haste to get back on the road, accidentally unscrew the tube’s valve core while trying to remove the hand pump from the valve. The tube will fully deflate.
Lose your mind
Take a deep breath and repeat step 6.
Take another deep breath and try not to repeat steps 7-8.
Replace the wheel and, critically, remember to reattach your brakes. You will forget this step a maximum of one time on the trip.
Michael works on Step 4
Here at tonight’s campground in Lake George, we have our first real swimming pool of the trip. It would have been a great way to relax and cool off after 75 miles on an 88 degree day had it not been for the poolside basketball hoop. The 90 minute game of full-contact pool basketball that took place was anything but relaxing, and it was some of the most fun I’ve had all trip. Like all good pool basketball games, it ended with an elbow (Friend) to the jaw (Michael), but no hurt feelings.
The weather forecast tonight calls for temperatures in the high 70s until 1am and a chance of rain later in the night. This leads to an interesting dilemma: we want to be protected from the rain but also feel some breeze to stay cool. Our strategy on nights like these is to stake out our tents as if we’re using rainflies, but remove the actual flies. Then we have a pact that whoever first wakes up to rain drops has to wake the others to quickly secure our flies to their stakes. Given how tired we are, there is a nonzero chance that nobody wakes up once the rain starts.