California Here I Come!

Because of the problems I encountered with my bike on Friday I decided to forego riding into Lakeview (about 10 miles) with the group and have Steve drive me. I had not fine tuned the adjustments to my brakes and was hoping the Lakeview Bike Shop would be able to true my wheel. Unfortunately the Lakeview Bike Shop is out of a woman’s home and not really a shop at all. She did not have an internal spoke wrench and had never trued a wheel with internal spokes except a year ago when she went to bike mechanic school. She very nicely pointed out that I had a really nice bike and she was afraid to “toy” with it. I appreciated her honesty and decided I will just have to fix things the best I can and take it into a shop in Reno in a few days. I just hope that the brakes don’t “skip” too much because the wheel isn’t “true”.


Steve and I went to breakfast and after breakfast we found a good parking place (not easy with a 5th wheel!) and I got out my torque wrench and torqued the rear brake to the frame to Shimano specifications (Rick, this is for you – hope you realize I actually learned something and am putting it to good use!). I knew that Hwy 395 south out of Lakeview was relatively flat and had a good shoulder in case I had problems. Also I knew Steve would pass me somewhere along the route. So, I got on my bike and rode the 16 miles down to Goose Lake State Park. I had no problems though I really didn’t have an opportunity to test the braking. This was actually a pleasant ride through farm/hay country. I had a bit of a headwind but nothing like I’m used to at the beach. It is hotter than I would like, but not too bad.

I took a picture of the Welcome to California sign! The road I rode down to get to the state park was a California highway (at least it had a California highway sign on it) but the park is an Oregon State Park. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I actually made it into California!

Gale as we head into California