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Okay, I clicked doing a 200K Brevet off of my bucket list and thought that was the end of that..., but I am thinking of doing another one. One of the guys said that is usually what happens. Like Lays Potato Chips - you try one..., you want another. I have to say, you Rando groupies are a bird of a different breed. But, I kinda like that.

So here are my questions:

1 - I finished my 200K in 11 hours, 37 minutes. Last one in. I am not so much worried about the time, but the amount of effort that went into finishing this. I was worn slap out when I rolled in. Most of the time on the return trip, I was averaging 10 mph. I was going so slow at one point, even the cows were running me down the fence line. Granted, there was a 15 mph head wind the entire 63 mile trip back in..., but nonetheless, I was tired. So I am thinking of swapping components on my two bikes that I have access to and riding the other one with a little better gearing. The Surly LHT that I was riding had 26" tires on it and has a 26,36,48 front chain ring and a 11- 32 cassette. On the way out, I was in the middle ring and riding in the 14 tooth in the back (66.9 GI). On the way back, I was still in the middle ring, but lower at 33 - 39 GI. Mind you, this bike is about 37 lbs bare without bags.

Looking at changing my gear set that would bring this back up to 70 - 82 by swapping components with a Trek 520 (700c tires) that I have, that is 5 lbs lighter. Also looking to get rid of some racks on this bike - make a true rando bike out of the 520. My question is that by swapping the gear set, when riding in the middle ring and getting 82 gear inches out of the drive train instead of 67, will the amount of effort be the same and will I just be going a bit faster (remember, bike will be about 5 - 6 lbs lighter)? Goal is to get down the road a bit faster with the same amount of effort.

2 - Second question. I had some pain, which I expected to some extent. One area was my left back shoulder blade. I could feel it every time I turned my head to check my rear view mirror (mounted on left side of my helmet). The other area was not so much pain, but numbness. I lost feeling on my man parts and it did not come back for about 12 hours. Not the scrotum, but the penis. Is this normal?

I attribute both of these to a fit issue, so I will go back again for another fitting, but the second area of numbness concerns me..., but this may be normal to Rando rides. Oh, and by the way, Body Glide is my new best friend. First couple of centuries I had ridden, I did not use it and had bad diaper rash. Not this time, plenty of the Body Glide and no rash.

Look forward to your responses.