Emporia, KS

July 17th

I had one of my best days on the bike today! It was long 106 mile ride through continuous rolling hills. The common conception that Kansas is flat is by no means true. We had a great pace-line today which made the time go by really fast. I also had some trouble with my bike computer so I never knew how fast we were going or how much time we had left, I just kept peddling until I was told to stop. We stopped at mile 80 for a great sit-down lunch in Cottonwood Falls. It was touch sitting down and eating a full meal and still having to bike 25 miles but we knocked it out in just over an hour. We stayed at the community center tonight and each of us got a professional massage! It was amazing! The Kiwanis Club sponsored a great pot-luck feast which definitely filled us up.
I did a full overall cleaning of the bike today. It takes about an hour to get everything cleaned and put back together. I took the chain off and soaked it in a solution to remove all of the grease. Then I cleaned all of the gears, breaks, and wheels. Not only that I changed the rear tire which was still the stock tire. It had about 3500 miles on it which is pushing the limits. After putting everything back together I finished by applying a light lubricant to the chain and rode around the block a couple of times to make sure everything was aligned. It feels like you are riding a brand new bike after you clean it and lubricant and it definitely adds years to the life of the bike!