Jun 21, 2011
Update from Harold Grissom on the Stampede Ride.
Sunday night I had several issues that were plaguing me. 1) The clutch had some issues. 2) My tail light was out. 3) My kickstand fell off. Have you ever tried to park a bike without a kickstand?! It resulted in me having to tie my kickstand to my pack and manually putting it back on at every stop. No big deal really, but couple all three issues together with the fact we had been rained and hailed on all day long with dropping temps and you can get the idea. I had to make a decision whether to stop for the night and work out all three issues the next morning, or keep going and work on them as it became necessary. I knew the later choice would only waste more time and probably leave me stranded on the road.. The decision to stop for the night costs me 15 hours of riding time but I still think it was the right choice though. Now that the decision was made, I have valuable time to make up. Monday, after resolving all the issues with the bike, I set my sights on my original plan: keep a steady speed and stay on the bike! That’s exactly what I’ve done. I’ve been on the bike non-stop and driven through the night. I passed several bikes on the road and I’m sure more than I realize. Like a football team that gets behind early, you don’t go for the bomb ever play. You just keep hacking away until you catch up. I feel pretty sure I’m in the top half of the racers. If I stay on track, i’ll continue to hack away.
One thing I didn’t realize about this race is that this is not from point A to point B as a crow flies. You are going up, down and around towns, mountains, etc. We aren’t running west to east as one would think. We are running all the way up to the Washington DC area, then hitting the east coast and then heading back west to Rockingham, NC. It should be an interesting finish. Stay tuned….
