Ride Stats:
Distance - 38 mi
Avg Speed - 9.4 mph
Climbed - 1990 ft
Temps - 85 to 95
My son, Ian has recently decided to join us on the first leg of the journey from San Francisco over the Sierra Nevada's and for a yet to be determined distance beyond that. He rides quite a bit in his home city of Chicago, but only has lightweight bikes built for speed, not for touring. My 20 yr old Trek 700 Hybrid has a sturdy steel frame, can accomodate a rack and panniers, and has a reasonably low gear range for steep hills. He's familiar with it, having used it on a tour we did in New Mexico and Colorado a couple of years ago. It's no Surly, but it will do.
I wanted to load it up with a similar load to what Ian will be carrying and take it on my usual route to see how it felt. So far , so good. It doesn't have as low a gear as the Surly but it seems to make up for it with a lighter weight.
The tires are Bontrager 32's, a bit narrower than our 35's; but they have really good puncture protection. They ride best at 100 psi, which is hard to achieve with a small hand pump. I'm looking for a set of 700 x 35 Schwalbe Marathon Supreme's, but all sources seem to be sold out.
The nice old Garmin 60CSx will provide some useful data and maps to keep Ian occupied.
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