Aug
11

Last night was cold and moist. When I woke up this morning the inside of the tent was all wet. On arrival at the camp site in Mobridge it will probably have a cause to dry. Seeing it was a bit nippy (around 13 degrees in the bike) I put on my jacket and put on the foam cover.

Today I noticed the same thing as yesterday, a piece of string besides the road. Who put it there and what it's for nobody knows. There were also people stopping on the side of the road trying to take pictures. There was a older woman who pulled over and tried to take our picture when we were going around 42 / 43 km/h. A few minutes later she overtook us and pulled over again and took another picture. I suspect that we were going a bit to fast the first time and she wasn't prepared.

After the coffee break Lee place the Harry's boroughed velomobile hood on my bike (he tried it this morning). The day before I said I'd like to try it sometime. This afternoon was my chance. First of all the color black fits my bike perfectly. Besides that I can say a number of things about the hood. You do go faster with it, without much more effort (the first hour a did 35,5 km/h average). Harry had to give a lot (in the beginning) to keep up with me. Besides that the temperature in the bike is manageable, but today wasn't a very hot day. Visibility is also fine. There is a opening on the left and the right which you can see through and which supplies fresh air. And the visor is not right in front of you, just about 20 to 25 centimeters from your face. Enough space to drink from a bottle and that way the visor does not fog up quickly. If you are going slow you just open up the visor and you get plenty of fresh air. Only in climbing the hood isn't very handy (little to no fresh air), but that's not what it's designed for.

ROAM 2011 - Day 13 (velomobile hood)

Later we saw a car on the shoulder and behind that there was a sheriff's car. When we got closer we saw that the road was covered with body parts and puddles of blood. The front of the car was totaled. Apparently it had a run in with some kind of animal. Further down the road we saw two crop dusters who were spraying a field of grain.

ROAM 2011 - Day 13 (crop duster)

Two days ago we recorded a little movie for Mary, Merrill's wife (one of the riders). It was her birthday yesterday and we all sang to here. Today I found she really liked it.

Today we also entered a new time zone (for the second time) and that means one hour less sleep. Today I also made a little mistake with pausing my bike computer and it created two separate tracks. Maybe I'll try to fix it later, but for now it will do.

UPDATE 11/042011: I've combined both activities into one, only the temperature values were lost in the process. So I decided to leave the originals as they are.

1 comment

Ben's picture
Ben (not verified)
aerodynamics

Wilfred,

I am impressed with the distance at which you are traveling. I think you are doing very well. The hood looks good on your bike. It was nice of Harry to let you try it out. Very interesting to know how it helps to make it easier to bike.