Touring Season

This is not worth boasting about, but Jon and I are going on another little tour this month. Rather than a long slog around Lake Michigan, like last summer, we're just going to ride a few hundred miles up Michigan's fourth metacarpal, from the Lansing area to the Sleeping Bear Dunes area. We have allowed ample time, and there are ample campgrounds along the route, so it shouldn't be such a race for time to catch a ferry.

No ferries are involved, in fact, and we have allotted more than enough time. Theoretically we could do it in three days, but we're going to take four really easy days. Probably.

Just for something to do, I have been obsessing about bike and equipment configuration, but really, it doesn't matter for four days if I forget a few things or if the bike isn't loaded exactly right.

I'm going with rear panniers, tent strapped on the back rack between the panniers, sleeping bag on the back right behind the seat. Tool bag hanging from the seat. Small front panniers with a rack trunk on the front rack instead of a handlebar bag. (I'll have pictures.)

And speaking of equipment, I destroyed the old Huret Alvit derailer this week. I put on a nine-speed set of sprockets, the largest being 34 teeth. I was riding on the middle chainwheel and the big rear sprocket, and the chain angle apparently bent the derailer so much that it seized up. My pedaled attempts to free it tore it in half, basically.

Oh well. I had a Shimano 105 on a shelf, so I swapped it in. I assume it will work better than the Alvit ever did. (Although dispite all the trash talk in bike groups about the Alvit, I never had a problem with it. The Alvit was the derailer that caused one discussion group commenter to give up all biking for 10 years, which I thought was hilarious.)