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Swiftwick weapons of choice.

Bags are packed. An REI Hobitat 4 person tent (purchased for substantially less than listed), thermarest, sleeping bag, towel, and mtb shoes shoved in one duffel. Bike tools, cogs, tubes, parts, platypus loaded into my Epic Designs frame bag. Hopefully it will stuff into the bike box along with JBDC, leaving me with just my North Face bag of clothes and helmet for carry on gear. Tomorrow (hopefully) the bike box will be in at Harpeth Bicycles and I'll be able to completely finish my packing and can relax before getting to the airport at 4am Weds.


I've never flown with my bike before, I've always driven. This is a new experience for me and I keep having nightmares I'll get midway through the flights and they'll tell me "sorry, no bikes" and I'll be stuck trying to figure out how to get my bike out to Napa while trying to still make my connection flight... think maybe I'll pack the flask.

Another weight on my mind is gearing. I've ridden with Curtis and know what bad asses he and Jeff are and they recommend 34x19 for us little wheel fellas. I've got 34x18 on currently, it's my gear of choice for most places and although there is the little voice in my head telling me to not be a dumbass and swap to the 19t cog, there's another voice in my head reminding me of what Cole told me at the pre-race meeting at Leadville: "Ride what you're used to". Those words haunt me still to this day. I chose poorly for Leadville (34x19) and was hating life. Wishing I'd heeded his words of wisdom and put the 18t back on. So, now the inner argument is do I heed Cole's wise words and the memory of my last Leadville run or do I heed Curtis's advice? If I don't am I just repeating my mistake by not listening to the wise words of those who know?

Of course it's only 3 gear inches... it'll give me something to ruminate over on the flight to keep my mind off of whether or not my bike made the trip. Yeah, maybe the flask will be necessary.

I'll be off the computer for a week, so if you're like me and get bored staring at the Tomato site waiting for images that never appear, click over and read Epic Eric's site. Amazing stuff.

Good luck and safe travels along the Lost Coast Eric and Dylan.