The long term forecast from now to race start is calling for RAIN and Rain!!! What setup are you changing? What lube? I have talked with others who are bringing a stick or a brush along with to clear potential MUD.. Lets discuss and help others
Chopsticks.(plastic over wood ones if you can find em, or a couple sets of wood ones)
Spare derailleur hanger (or two) with tool to change with you on the bike.
If you have an extra pair of broke in shoes, include them in checkpoint stuff with extra socks.
If you see a line of people carrying through mud, stop and carry. If you know you have to carry, dismount sooner rather than later, don't bury it first.
Adjust mindset if you know its muddy, forget about time and don't think too far ahead
The weather forecast is essentially the same thing for the next 10 days. This tells me that the weather man has no clue as to what is really going to happen. Except that the situation is very unstable. If it does rain most of the days the course will be soaked. I'll be running 650b's with at least 40's or 42's. Likely WTB Nano's. The going will be very slow. Finishing will be the only concern. Temps look very good and I can only hope that the wind will not be bad. A lot can change between now and then.
I would put plastic bags over your water bottles to keep the mud and cow crap off of them. Mud stick, spare hanger, derailleur and don't forget to put your phone in a plastic bag as well. Keep stuff clean and dry.
I just talked with the owner of my Air BnB. She tells me that it is currently flooding right now and that this amount of rain is not typical for this time of year and that it may very well be a very muddy race.
I know that things can change, but it was nice to get an update from a local who is in-tune with what the weather is normally like.
I just got a call from my campground I was supposed to stay at that it is completely underwater and won't be usable. They said most of the other campgrounds are the same.
Should we end up with significant amounts of mud, my two best pieces of advice are to carry some kind of tool to ensure you can dig out your cleats and be able to clip in your pedals. Also find a way to remain focused on hydrating and eating while you are walking, should it come to that. Both will save you some trouble.
Hopefully the race organizers will re-route as needed and make it a better day for anyone partaking in the event. As someone who lives just two hours away from Emporia I can say this is the worst winter through spring I have ever seen in 39 years. This year, more than years past (2015 specifically), it's not just the pattern of weather that is similar and could cause B-roads to be a circus, it's the amount of rain dumped. Quite a few roads around the Emporia area have been shut down because the rain has done so much damage to each respective closed road.
Here is a video from this years Dirty Kanza that I thought folks might like. They said there were crashes from the deep ruts from the heavy trucks after the floods and you can see that. Don't like the one scene where the guy elbowed or caused the other rider to crash. That sure was the longest finish line I have ever seen but then it's USA premier gravel race. With all the flat tires I saw there looks like bullet proof tires are in order.
I finally got my computer back up and running so now i can opine on the DK.
I went to Emporia with an attitude thinking that I wasn't prepared. I don't know why because I've been training for this event since September of 2018. I was using Trainer Road and the recommended base, build and specialty workouts. I did this program in 2017 for the 2018 ride and I finished it. But, I was having trouble completing many if not most of the really hard interval workouts especially during the past two month leading up to DK. But I pressed on. I did manage to get in one century ride and one 120 mile workout weeks before DK. then I tapered off to recover. But still I had this attitude of why am I doing this, this is so stupid. Anyway, I went, I got ready and I was on the starting line at 5:45 am. And off we went. The first 28 or so miles were really flat, very smooth roads and speeds were up there. And then we hit the county line and that is where the ride began. The roads didn't really get any hillier but they sure got ruttier and narrower. As a joke I think someone tried to fix some of the ruts by laying down cobblestone. Speeds dropped. Flats everywhere. I survived. We came into this little town of Eskridge and the hills began. From there all the way into Alma it was one epic up hill and then down hill after another. Alma couldn't have come faster. After a 15 minute recovery and resupply I headed back out. I knew I had another 54 mile to go before another water brake but it was starting to heat up. Temps and the hills that is. Up, down, up, down, up, down. Sooooo much climbing! Fortunately there was a water stop in Volland and that was very welcome! If was after a very long decent after the hills of Little Egypt Road. Little Egypt road is called that because riding on it is like climbing the pyramids of Egypt! As we got close to Alta Vista and the water brake the roads started to flatten out. Or maybe I was too numb to notice, I don't know. Anyway as get got hydrated in Alta Vista you could see the stress on many of the riders laying around. Not good. Plenty tossed in the towel at that point. I spent about 30 minutes there recovering. Now off to the second check point, 30 miles away. The road south of Alta Vista was not bad at all. Not that hilly or rough either. In fact it was hot out and so it was kind of boring. I got into Council Grove just before 6 pm. There was no way I was going to beat the sun but I knew I would easily finish well before midnight. So I decided to linger and relax and eat and drink and really recover. I only wanted to ride the DD road in the day light. I've ridden on the DD road before and know it's very hilly and can be in really poor condition. The only question before me was what was the roads like southwest of Council Grove? Off I went and to my delight the roads were very fast and fairly flat! In fact my only issue was that I kept getting burp flats on my rear tire which required me to stop and pop them back up to pressure. This happened to me 4 times and I only had 3 Co2 cylinders on me so I had to hand pump em up after that. I got the the DD road just at dusk and burped the air out of the rear tire on one of the descents. Oh well, I knew the route into Emporia now so I knew that there were no hills and that the road was going to be in good shape. I Stopped at the Salsa Chase and ended up crossing the finish line just after 11 pm. Got my free beer, washed my bike and was in bed by 12:30 am.;
This was my third DK, I finished the 200 last year and the 100 the year before. I didn't like route. I thought it was too hilly for no other reason than to make it more hilly. It was very hot, mid to upper 80's but the wind was friendly and not an issue.
I keep saying that I won't go back because it's too far and too expensive and a piss poor value ride (and it really is). But I also say never say never. They will likely raise the price to $250 for 2020. All told I spend around $1,000 to do this event which I'm not happy about at all. That's a lot of money to ride a bike unsupported on public roads. For what you get for your money it's NOT a good value at all. But there is no shortage of riders who want in so I can't blame them, it's America right. What it is is a ride in an epic area unlike anything around where I live (MI). It's special in that regard. And what it does is it makes me train hard, very hard all winter and that results in good fitness and lower body weight. And at 58 I need all the fitness I can get. And to put this all in perspective I was diagnosed with AFIB 20 months ago and they discovered four atrial blockages in my heart, two, of which, were more than 85% blocked. I had two stents put in 5 weeks before last year's DK. I did the Michigan Coast to Coast 100 mile event 15 days after the operation. So, maybe the training is keeping me alive. Maybe not. I don't know. Dr. says go for it.cause it won't hurt me as long as I have the fitness.
We'll see what happens next year. Never say never.
Derekj_MI Curious as to what you think made your tire burp in the first place. I have always heard/read that it was low tire psi pressure in your tires. Why didn't it stay sealed then after the first fix.?
Derek, Great recap! Thanks for sharing. I agree on the fact that it is an expensive endeavor (my guesstimate is about the same at 1k...pricey) and wow can't believe they're going to up the price next year.
Mackdhagen wrote:Derek, Great recap! Thanks for sharing. I agree on the fact that it is an expensive endeavor (my guesstimate is about the same at 1k...pricey) and wow can't believe they're going to up the price next year.
They have not started that the price is going up but history had shown that it will likely happen.
Zurichman wrote:Derekj_MI Curious as to what you think made your tire burp in the first place. I have always heard/read that it was low tire psi pressure in your tires. Why didn't it stay sealed then after the first fix.?
Zman
The burps happen because I kept hitting large imbedded boulders which compressed my tubeless tires down enough to burp out air. This happened several times. Each time the seal was compromised making the subsequent impacts easier to burp out more air. Until the sealant sets up that is. Once set I was good to go. But each hit resulted in a stop to reinflate. I suppose I could have waited for the sealant to set before moving on but I wanted to get past the DD Rd. Before dark. So time was of the essence.
So if you would have had more air in your tires do you think this would have happened? I am still trying to learn all this. Curious as to what you weigh and how much psi you had i n your tires. I am around 200 lbs and run 40 rear 35 front.
Zurichman wrote:So if you would have had more air in your tires do you think this would have happened? I am still trying to learn all this. Curious as to what you weigh and how much psi you had i n your tires. I am around 200 lbs and run 40 rear 35 front.
Thanks Zman
Well, I don't know. I ran with around 55 lbs in the rear and 50 in the front. I'm about 220 lbs. I was running Elwood Trevails. Toughs 700x38. I did the first 150 miles on a set of 650b x 43 WTB Resolute's (because I thought it was going to be more wet roads then it was) but I had two punctures one at mile 74 and the other at mile 128. I had to plug them both but the plugs held up fine and I made it into Council Grove and switched wheels. If I was running tubes I would have had pinch flats for sure. Going tubeless is the only way to do DK. In Michigan we don't have gravel like that so those worries are not a concern. All of the tires I used at DK were new. It's tough to toss out a new punctured tire with only 150 miles on it! Last year I had two flats and I was using WTB Riddlers. DK doesn't care what tire you are using. Everything is subject to flint and flint don't care what it cuts or how "tough" it's supposed to be. Maybe if I was lighter, took a better line or just got luckier I wouldn't have had the issue. I know that dealing with all the flats cost me around an hours worth of time all told.
Only a suggestion then maybe trying running Kenda Flintridge Pro's if you do it again as they were design for that hence their name. They are pretty much bullet proof tires.
Well, I don't know. I ran with around 55 lbs in the rear and 50 in the front. I'm about 220 lbs. I was running Elwood Trevails. Toughs 700x38. I did the first 150 miles on a set of 650b x 43 WTB Resolute's .
I’m wondering if you had too much pressure in the tires, and were blowing them off, instead of burping. The Enve tire pressure guide for your weight (220) on 700x38 is around 39psi, and 650x43 is around 33psi.
I’m AMS ex-roadie, so dipping down to these low pressures was a mental struggle for me. I thought it would be slow - like riding in soft dirt. However, I finally started to trust the experts and got the religion. The lower pressure allows the tires to absorb sharp impacts, rather than puncture, but I have yet to do a wheel strike. And they still run fast. I’m 170 lbs, and ran the last 2 DK200’s with 700x38 at around 35psi with no flats or burps. I had lots of outer layer side wall cuts, but the inner protection held.
