5/12/21 2:21 PM

About 6-8 years ago I was out on a long road ride, with endless hills here in West Virginia. The hills here are steep. and usually no more than a mile long. I Had been grinding up and down these hills and I was blown. Having diabetes, I am somewhat accustomed to low blood sugar, which usually only leads to weakness and slow thought processes.
At the top of one such hill there was a long false flat. I just had nothing, and could not wait to get off the bike.

A white pickup truck blows by me and about 30 seconds later the thought occurs in my mind that it was a SIDI pickup. I then came to my senses and conclude that I was hallucinating. Thought about getting off the bike, but the false flat seems to be relenting so I soldier on at about 2 mph. A minute later the same truck goes by on the other side of the road, in the opposite direction. This time I'm convinced its a SIDI truck. But why would they have a pickup truck in the hills and hollows of West Virginia?

A few months later I see the truck parked at a business. The name of the business was SDI- Shaft Drillers International, a fracking company. Sparky has a pic to put up as I saw the truck in traffic yesterday and sent the pic to him.

5/12/21 2:52 PM

OK, connected the txt pic of the Shaft Drillers Truck..





Did an actual ride with people today. 16, all claimed being inoculated 2x.

I did some mods to the 2015 Strong Green All Road. Kinda been All Trail up to now. 30mm Tubless Tubulars on XTR wheels with stupid light rims [275gr] to compensate for the 400 gram tubulars. ;)

Any who, 3 rides with it so far, has a 28/40 chainset, and 11-34 cassette. Had not used the 28t yet. Until today that is.

Went up the road with the fast group, and as the road went up the biggest fast groups guys fell off fast. The only guy big enough for me to draft on the ride went off first, he is huge.

I made it 1/4 way up and gave up the pace in the 40t front. When I hit the 40/34 cross chained I figured time to drop...

Made the long climb quite manageable, my ham strings waited to cramp almost at the end of the ride. ;)

Never got too low, but recovery climbing @ 25 GI in one section keep me moving up at least. ;O

EDIT: 11-40 corrected to 11-34, oops.

Last edited by Sparky on 5/13/21 10:37 AM; edited 1 time in total

5/12/21 3:09 PM

I always found that if I blow on a climb recovery was not gonna happen, not for a long time anyway. I learned that I must ride within myself or pay dearly.

5/12/21 3:14 PM

Me too, has to be avoided. I just avoided it today. ;)

Got eMail from ride leader.

"We regrouped at the chart house, but I think the early riders were over by the totem pole & you blew past them. We traced it down to that."

Blew past them, like the sound of that. ;)

5/13/21 7:02 AM

Looks like a Sidi truck to me....