2015 Tour Preparations

Spring touring preparations are now in full swing. Over the winter, conversations between my touring buddies (Shawn, Steve, and one other maybe) and me were occasional with no particular sense of urgency or excitement. But now, as April has almost passed us by, there are only three more weeks until we roll out of Red Wing, Minnesota to start the 2015 Lake Pepin Three Speed Tour. We are in the midst of that delightful eager anticipation wave, and we realize there are time limitations for our preparing.  So today seemed like a good day to clean up my Quickbeam a bit, and convert it from its recent fixed wheel configuration back to three speed mode.

There are a couple of things different for the bike this year. I’m thinking I’ll probably go with drop bars. Instead of only a Carradice saddlebag, I’ve added front and rear racks. The bar difference is simply a whim. I’ve enjoyed the drops when the bike was in fixed wheel mode, and just don’t feel compelled to convert back to albatross bars just yet. The racks were added because me and the boys are planning a three day self-supported tour out of La Crosse, Wisconsin immediately after the Lake Pepin event. So this configuration should help me carry along all my creature comforts. Today’s post tinker session test ride gave me one more dose of eager anticipation, and I’m almost giddy.