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Tuesday, June 6: Things have been quite good and somewhat bad out here in St. George. Let me get you caught up. 


First let’s start with the good. Sunday was a great day where Judy and I got at 8 AM for our ride. Have to hit the road out here early in the morning to beat the heat. We learned our lesson on Saturday with a late 9 AM ride. By 11 the temp had risen to 90+. So we headed out down the bike trail from Dave’s, south into town, then onto a different trail, the Red-something Parkway trail, into the downtown. From there we ride a bit further south and down to the Virgin River and a long series of trails on its north and south side. 


Now we did a fair bit of riding down along the river then finally headed back up Rt 18 to Dave’s. By that time we were at 10 AM with the temp well into the 90’s. The gain for that 6-7 miles of riding is somewhere in the vicinity of 1500-1800 feet. Got in a total of about 3:10 hrs of riding. Man the heat out here just beat the tar out of both Judy and I. By the time we got back I felt cooked. And Judy - she was gassed. We both downed 32oz or more of Gatorade and then just slumped into the supine position, me on the floor and Judy on the couch. We each fell asleep for a good hour just crushed by that heat. 


Later in the day we drug ourselves to the pool to dip into the cool water and bask in more of that torrid sun. That didn’t last long! I think we both really got a good dose of over-sun that day. Went to a great little pub/restaurant, Montana Rib & Chop House, for dinner and to watch the NBA finals game 2. Food was outstanding but the game was a disappointment. Headed back up 18 to Dave’s at the end of the third quarter. 


Hit the hay then got up at 2 AM to pick Dave up at the Shuttle place in downtown St George early Monday morning. Dave and I got back and just crashed until like 8 AM Monday morning. So Monday was my “Get reacquainted with the American Dirt Route” day. Finally sat down and dug into all my maps and data from last year, kind of reliving that last day to see where we ended and where we have to start this year. 


I have most of NV downloaded as GPS turn by turn segments, so I needed to scroll through all of those, which are numbered, to see what the next segment will be when we begin the trek. Like last year we’re going to have to ride some of these segments backwards, west to east, in order for me to show Judy with both the start and end point is for each segment. Doing it that way gives me the opportunity to ride in the van with her to both start and finish points such that she does not have to navigate down rural dirt tracks without my help. This means that one days end point is the next day’s start point. 


So when I created the GPS segments I made then to be ridden west to east, at least the segments which are way out in the middle of nowhere. Once we get close to main thoroughfares I can get back to the typical east to west riding. So anyway, I got caught back up with all the mapping, going to Ride with GPS.com, creating a few more segments, downloading them into my computer, and then highlighting them on my NV gazetteers. Took hours to get all that done, so we didn’t really get anything going until mid afternoon - when the temp was over 100. 


Now let’s move to the bad of the day. So next plan was to oil change the van and gas up for a planned shove-off early on Tuesday morning. Judy did all this for me while Dave took my out to do some single-track riding on the True Grit 100 course that Dave races each year. Man, it was like a freaking blast furnace out there, with the wind blowing at a steady 10-15 mph and the heat over 100. So we got about 30 min of riding in when I noticed my front brake not releasing on the climbing. With my heart rate getting higher, and my effort getting tougher and tougher I finally stopped in this climb to check out my front tire. I mean it felt like something just wasn’t right. Spun the front tire and nothing. I mean the same damn thing was going on with the front brake that had been going on with the rear brake that I just replaced for 300 bucks!


Dave and I both checked it out numerous time and couldn’t get the brake caliber to release. Finally got out a small screwdriver and wedged it in on both sides of the brake pads. That wedging released the caliper. But as soon as I squeezed the brake grip again the pads stuck to the rotor. Decided to head back down to the trailhead and go directly to Red Rocks Bike Shop to see what the guys think about what I assumed was the very same issue I had with the rear brakes. 


Yup, the guys told us that indeed there was nothing they could do adjustment-wise with the brake. That machining issue with the piston in the grip was the problem, and heat really contributed to making it worse. Again, my choice was to warranty the brake, which would take about a week for the replacement brake to arrive, or buy a new, different brand of brake. BUT they did not have any more Shimano XT brakes. All they had left was a very cheap brake that they recommended I not put on the bike. 


They called around the city to other bike shops for help but no one had that particular brake. Finally, one of the guys said he could get ahold of a brake that’s one level down from the XT, but he couldn’t pick it up from the distribution place until Tuesday morning. Well, there went our early start for the drive to NV. So I left the bike with the shop so they could install a new front brake first thing in the morning. Oh…but it gets even better. So while we were taking one of the guys started looking at my bike in detail, and I see him kind of thumb nailing this weld between the seat tube and the top tube. I have a small crack in the frame! It’s about a quarter inch long and sits at the very top of the weld. 


The guy said I could likely ride the bike, BUT to keep an eye on the weld. THAT makes me feel real confident? They looked up the warranty policies for Motobecane frames, and I do have a 10-year original owner warranty, but hell that does me no good right now. I’m just going to have to ride a bit differently and not load that down tube on gnarly descents and hope I can nurse this thing through the remainder of the trip. Damn, will this drama never end?


We did a nice dinner at Dave’s last night, cooking some chinese stir-fry, salad, and breaded eggplant. Did a movie on the big screen and that was a day. This morning I’ll wait for the bike to get done and then we’ll head to NV.