“Wait a second? Could I just keep on riding up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Damascus and use the Assault on Mt. Mitchell to kick off my TransAmerica Trail tour?”
That’s the question I asked myself while working out the logistics of riding to the Spartanburg from Mooresville for starting point of the Assault on a modestly loaded Keshy with speedy 23mm tires added. I’ve been questioning the purchase of those tires and am probably going to return them—especially after yesterday’s 6-hour 100k slow training ride when I was able to do a 7% ascent on a dangerous section of road with absolutely no paved shoulder and a bunch of winding, blind corners. How? Two meters from the edge of the road in the grass is a very safe place to be with my 29x2.25 Maxxis tires. It’s just a slightly harder effort that happens to equate to what a I want to train for more anyway. (I’m going to write another post about how to overcome and survive America’s general animosity toward bikes on roads.)
Who wants to swap out tires to attempt to make a 30lbs touring bike just a little faster? And I’ve gotten so spoiled by what almost feels like a suspension bike with those big fat tires on, so luxurious. At the end of the day, I’m more about health, endurance, comfort, and getting outside than speed. So no, I’m not ever putting any other tires on my Keshy, not even my “gravel” tires. I don’t care how slow they make me. I’ll still be in 10x better shape than 50% of the people attempting the Assault. And what better way to prove it than to lug a 30 lbs bike with another 30 lbs of gear on it up that climb before the cut off point.
Will I be fast enough to complete the Assault in under their minimum time requirement? The acceptable window is 6:30-5:30 with some checkpoints along the way, BRP by 2:15, Mt. Mitchell Parkway by 4pm. That’s 7.75 hours for 141.14 km (87.7 miles) or a speed of 18kph. I did that last night just messing around in mostly zone 2 for six hours yesterday on my Keshy without any gear, much of it was off road on newly discovered, unpaved trails I discovered along the way. (These tires have unlocked so much more riding potential away from cars.) I’m positive I can hit that target with my minimal TD bikepacking gear. And I’m pretty confident the lack of food and water on the bike will make up for a good part of the extra weight from the portable workstation that I’m required to bring so that I can work while riding TAT. One large water bottle (700ml) weighs almost a kilo. Still, being able to confidently work from a tent anywhere there is mobile phone service costs a lot in weight (almost 10 kilos):
Looks like I need to make sure to at least lose 10 more kilos. (I’m 77 now.) I’ll need a light-weight, really efficient engine to motor all this stuff up the highest mountain peak this side of the Colorado (and then keep on going to cross the Colorado on to SLC, Utah).
This entire proposition has me really excited. After all, climbing Mt. Mitchell is a cake walk compared to the Tour Divide.