Jul 22 - riding

Out on the Litespeed, the True North not quite assembled yet, I decided to forgo the pleasure of riding Osprey Road with an accumulated horde of deer flies and drive to the ESS Narrows, which is what I used to do all the time anyway.  The wind was from the Northwest, pretty steady at 30kph and gusting higher, so it was a bit of a struggle heading north but a blast coming south and east.

They are about to do a one-lane job on the bridge over the French River, similar to what they did at Key River.  So far they've put up the traffic lights and are doing the prep; work is due to be finished "summer 2016", so the sign says.  Sandy and I were talking about this -- apparently it's so much in need of repair that they cannot wait for the second span to be completed, which of course would be necessary as they work on four lane for that section. 

Lauren and I went fishing in the a.m., bringing back two nice bass that formed the heart of dinner.  Lauren caught both of them.  We lost another couple of nice ones and a pike that bit through my line.  I saw it and then it was gone -- likely too small to keep, from my brief glimpse, but who knows, as that would have depended on how it was hooked.

I set out the traps at the large culvert west of Lost Channel Road and I'll now officially give up on that place.  There was nothing in one and a couple of dead minnows in the other.  I think that a) there's too much mud, unless I have the traps hung from floats and b) too much access to open water, so minnows would be consumed by larger fish.  I may just buy minnows in town  I'm getting minnows that are too large from the culvert east of the ESS Narrows and am too lazy to walk back into the bush to the feeding pond ... well, I should probably try it once.

Sandy and Lauren went into Arnstein to the Wednesday a.m. market and were pretty disappointed.  There was only one vegetable stand and it was mobbed with people.  They did come back with yellow beans, which were good. 

Sandy checked with Mike, who said that he'd call me once the Bayliner was ready.  I don't think that he has our number and of course he won't find it in the book under Thompson, David and won't be looking for William ... if I go into town today for the mail, I'll stop in.

Back to the True North -- the bike is actually assembled without fenders and without front rack.  I've put the headlight at the crown.  I have to sort out where all the wires would go in that configuration and  I'm not sure about dropping the front bag.  I've gotten used to the feel of the bike in that better-balanced configuration, albeit heavy.

I did weigh items as I was removing them from the bike for trial packing:

-- front rack, 14 oz
-- front fender, 7 oz
-- front bag and contents, 4 lb, 1oz
-- tail light & wire, 5 oz
-- rear bag and contents, 3 lbs, 2 oz
-- rear fender, 10 oz

This totals 9 pounds 5 oz. 

I think that I'm going to drop the tail light for sure; this is the wired version and I've got two LED battery jobs on top of this that are attached to the rear rack.  They may be heavier, haven't checked, but the wire from front-to-back is difficult to deal with when I'm  breaking down the bike.

The fenders contribute a little more than a pound and I don't know how much in wind resistance, close to the spinning tires.  The rear bag ... contents are mostly tubes and tools at this point.  I could actually move some of that down to a water bottle mount below the down tube and leave the rear rack empty for bungee-attached jacket.  The bag itself doesn't weigh much, but I haven't checked.

The front bag & rack, empty, contribute about 2 pounds.  Contents, right now, consist of many necessary items such as sunscreen, spare electronics etc. much of which could be left behind on a one-day ride but inevitably would be there for a multi-day ride.  

Before I start adding stuff back on, I need to do a baseline weight check of the bike as it currently stands with rear rack and lights, front light, nothing else.

Onward ...