From Astoria to San Francisco tried all kinds of weight distribution, nothing fixed it. After I dumped the frame, I built up a rando bike and put the wheels on that frame, the wheels are not the problem. I used the wheels on that bike for a year, the rear wheel is still on my rando bike but the front wheel is in storage because I put a dyno hub wheel on my rando bike. I did a 200k brevet this past weekend on that rear wheel.

The frame had a bottom bracket shell problem when I received it. Surly refused to warranty it, they said it was normal for a bike shop to have to recut all the bottom bracket threads. I am not kidding, that is what they said. The shell was deformed so badly that the mechanic had a lot of trouble cutting the threads but he eventually got it done. He was pissed that he quoted a price without looking at it and it took over an hour for him to cut the threads, so he badly under charged for the work, his estimate was for something like 10 or 15 minutes of shop time.

A couple years after I discarded the frame, I met a frame builder at a campground that I was staying at on a bike tour. I described how the bottom bracket shell was deformed and the weird shape the shell was in. She told me in great detail how the welder had screwed up the heat settings when he welded it. She suspected that the shell and adjacent tubing was badly weakened from having the heat all wrong. I have done some welding, but not on the thin gauge high strength steels on bike frames, so when she explained how the welder screwed it all up, I grasped some of what she was saying but she described his mistakes at a pretty high level.

But her description of how it weakened the frame helped explain why when I pedaled really hard, the chain would rubbed on the front derailleur, the frame was so weak that when I pedaled hard the chainrings would move closer or farther from the front derailleur.

Surly mailed me a pair of socks and a Surly flask for my troubles.

hmm all interesting comments. nevertheless, my bike now has new tires and tubes. and the brake pads didn't need replacing as the mechanic said that there are still enough meat on it to keep using it for a bit longer. I did take a closer look at it, and to my surprise, there is still enough meat. oh well. Just cleaned up my chain as it was completely dirty and I don't like dirty chain. It is possible that my leaving the tires underinflated has caused it to become bald, but I did make sure that the psi is 60 psi which is nearly the maximum air for the tire and still the tire went bald.

wow, indyfab, you just kept going. I did mention to my brother that I am tempted to keep going after San Francisco, but I still have a job so I needed to return home and save up money, and also my body needed the rest as my friend tried to push me daily to hurry but I told him to give me a break on occasion because my leg couldn't keep up on his pace, not only that, his bike had granny gear and he often used it, while my bike didn't so I had to use brute strength to cycle up those long hills.

but generally, I did enjoy myself riding along the coastline, and riding through the redwood forest.

P

For me coming back after my first long tour (73 days) was really hard. That daily routine on the road was hard to give up. The simple life with limited choices, no worries about what to wear or what to do today... Then life at home was a real shock to the system. It did help that at work everyone wanted to talk about my trip. Coworkers including my bosses followed my trip and seemed genuinely interested. For the first two weeks a lot of time coworkers and customers alike would corner me and want to talk about the trip. I was worried that I would bore people going on about it, but instead they seemed hungry for it.

Subsequent trips were easier because none were quite as long and I was already thinking retirement by the time I did another that was a month long. Then the next one I was officially retired but working for a while "part time on call" to transition out of my job.

In a somewhat similar vein, our family used to vacation for a few summers in rental homes in the resort town of Rockport, MA. Then we bought our own place there. On one early trip to the new place, I thought about the let-down I would experience as we left the rental, and went back to work. I realized that I would be “counting down” from Day 1 to our departure and back to work. :(

Now when we leave Rockport lightheartedly, there is always the thought that we can and will come back anytime we want to (as if “retired”). :D

Hey guys,
Re reading those comments and discussion made me miss my bike trip a lot more. I know I haven't replied in this post for ages, but as you all know. COVID hit and my city where I lived, went into lockdown, and it was absolutely not pleasant to go out riding as everyone were giving me a nasty eye for riding without mask. so I didn't do much riding lately, was planning to take a 2 week rocky mountain bike tour, but the rocky mountain went into lockdown and no visitors allowed. and I had to postpone it to 2021, but COVID didn't stop, and I had to postpone it yet again to 2022, but still Canada were still in extreme restrictions so I decided to postpone it yet again. Hopefully it will happen this year. Already got things settled ie: credit card, next step I have to do is book 2 weeks off, rent a car, then I will go to the starting point of my rocky mountain trip. I truly miss riding long distance, but not in the city. During COVID, the city riding was not pleasant as it was super crowded with too many people using the multi use trails, so i did a ride out on the highway and did nearly 60 miles and It was absolutely enjoyable, peaceful, very few people, and beautiful scenery. pretty soon I will have to start focusing on my training to prepare my body for the mountain riding. I have one other goal that I am dreaming of, but it might not come to fruition because of things not going well in my life. This goal I have is to go on a month long bike tour starting in Amsterdam, and ending in Italy, I checked online and it does look possible, plus I've always wanted to visit Europe, especially Venice and the Swiss Alps. This dream, is still a dream, maybe I will be able to do it, maybe not. Some of you posted that you're retired and have oodles of time to do those long bike tours, How I envy you people who are retired. I still have a long way to go until I can retire. oh well. C'est la vie. Hoping everyone is doing great.

Paul.