One-speeding to the land of Cort

So... I have this bike, it's sorta, kinda a road bike but it's also sorta, kinda like a cross bike but it's not really either; it's actually probably close to a commuter but it's got these skinny tires, although not as skinny as the ones it had on it when I bought it used a few months back. I got it at a heck of a deal on it for a bike not from Wal-mart but I just haven't really been able to figure out what to do with it, so I figured I'd take it out and see how it did as an open road bike. Not wanting to be too adventurous on my first outing I decided that Cortland would be a nice enough distance without being too far. Having only one speed I wasn't sure how the hills were going to be, they turned out to be fine as long as they weren't accompanied by a 20 mph headwind.


Not really sure if runners are out every Saturday at 7:30 a.m. en masse but they sure were today, had to be almost 30 or more of them on the Rock Island trail.


Truth be told in all my years here in Lincoln, I've never once ridden on Hwy 77 so I was tad bit apprehensive.


Once up to speed and a few miles behind me it actually wasn't too bad, as long as you didn't linger on about those 2,000 lbs+ hunks of metal screaming by only a few feet away from you at 70 mph. You really do have to put your faith in the guy behind the wheel because if they were to veer off the road at the same time they were passing you my guess is you probably wouldn't even hear them until they were sending you flying skyward.


Princeton seemed to come up much quicker than it does via the Homestead Trail.


Roughly an hour and a half later the water tower came into view, to be honest I can't say that I've ever been there before today... drove by a few times but never stopped.


Lucky for me they had a sign up letting you know how fast you were going, I'd hate to get a ticket for speeding on my first visit and get off on the wrong foot.



They were either having a tractor show of this is just how they roll in Cortlandia.


This is also how they roll apparently, so if you're ever need to get your picture taken in a large cat box you now know where to go.


Town greeter?!?

The way back completely, totally, unequivocally sucked donkey balls, big, fat, hairy, juicy ones. The wind wasn't supposed to be howling through the prairie quite so quickly until later in the day but just to be nice it decided to come early. I can't really say for sure how strong it was but my best guess from riding in wind before is that it was at least 20 mph, it took everything I had on the uphills to try to maintain 9-11 mph; 12-15 on the downhills was even a struggle. I do have to say though it was nice to be able to jump on the bike and pedal non-stop for 22 miles straight without needing to stop or dodge pedestrians, so I guess you take the good with the bad as they say.


Dude must have been late for the tractor gathering, as slow as he was I'd bet he was still going 2-3 times as fast as I was; lucky bastard had the tailwind.


I've never been so happy to see this turn off as I was today, after struggling with wind for the better part of 2 hours I was spent. Even the little relief of turning slightly out of the headwind felt like heaven. I'm not going to turn in my baggy shorts and mountain bikes anytime soon for a lycra bodysuit and sub 11 lbs carbon fiber road bike but I definitely will probably give this ride a go again on a day where it's not quite as windy.