If I were to do it again, I would try to make some minor changes to optimize it.
1. Training.
I have ridden the standard Super Randonneur series this year - 200, 300, 400, and 600 km events - so I meet the basic condition to do a longer ride. Box checked. But only the 400km event was done this year with the Pelso. The rest were done with a normal road bike. I did ride the Pelso regularly in January for 3-4 weeks, and more recently on a few 100km training rides. But I have never done a multi-day ride on it. And I really should have done another 600k or even a 1000k on it before attempting to do this ride. It is a big jump to go from a 400km ride to a 1667km ride on a recumbent.
That said, I was happy that the reclined position and headrest really did mean I had no back, neck, groin or other pain ... except my "burnt toast" leg muscles, some ankle pain (that resolved each time when I pulled over and stretched my ankles some), and minor swelling of my hands the last day and for a few days after I finished.
Still, I should have done at least a 600km ride on the Pelso, and a 1000km ride on ANY bike this year, before trying to get a decent time on this long an event.
Also, I should have trained enough to lower my weight to "best" historical levels, in order to make the climbing easier and offer a somewhat better power/weight ratio. My weight at the start of the ride was close to my typical peak winter weight, probably due to two 5-6 week U.S. trips in late fall and winter.
2. More rest in advance; An earlier start in the evening.
I did not start this ride fully rested. At least I got decent sleep the last few nights before the ride, but on the morning of the 26th, I woke early, went to my university and taught an 830-1030AM law school class, met with some colleagues, then took the shinkansen all the way to Shimonoseki (5+ hours including a transfer to local train at Kokura), went to my hotel, walked 15 minutes to Yamato to pick up a large box with my wheels and seat, carried the large box all the way back to the hotel, spend the next 90+ minutes setting up the bike ... and before I knew it, it was time to leave and start the ride. I did get some "rest" on the shinkansen, but no sleep, and I ended up doing work on the train that I needed to complete before starting the ride. So while the excitement of starting the ride kept me going past dawn near Hiroshima, I was really, really tired the remainder of the first section to Okayama.
If I did this again, I would arrive a day in advance in Shimonoseki, get at least 10 hours sleep, spend a relaxed day including naps, and start at 7PM instead of 8:43PM. Traffic volumes were already dropping by the time I carried my wheel box back to my hotel, and I really would have liked to get past Hiroshima a couple hours earlier and all the way up into Higashi Hiroshima before morning rush hour.
3. Routing - dead ends, non-paved roads, high traffic volumes.
I did not "pre-ride" any sections of this trip. I used Strava's route mapping feature to select the "most direct", "least elevation" options, and only made minor tweaks from that course before transferring to Ride with GPS and importing from their to my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt. Overall, it worked out very well. And I had ridden at least various sections of the route before so as to have a good sense of many of the roads. Misawa-san (Philippe) warned me that Route 2 from Higashi Hiroshima to Mihara was not a good selection ... and he was right. There were too many trucks, and not enough shoulder. It was difficult to feel safe at times ... I walked up one hill just because of the trucks zooming by. If I did it again, I would look for an alternative route between Hiroshima and Mihara/Onomichi, if available.
Also, the coastal road just north of Tsuruga, Fukui, felt scary in the early evening after dark, with trucks and cars roaring by and no shoulder. But there is no better option I can find, and once I got 15kms or so from the Tsuruga, my route continued left along a deserted coastal road while 95% of the traffic headed right and up a hill on the main highway. From there north the route was awesome. But I would prefer to do that busy section just north of Tsuruga before dark, or maybe in the wee hours when there would be low traffic and trucks could pass by going far into the opposing lane.
Finally, I would have should have tried harder to avoid Route 2 in eastern Hiroshima, Okayama, and western Hyogo. There are parallel roads or even paths along rivers in some places that would be better, as I was basically stuck in traffic jams. I tried to "time the traffic lights" in many places, watching when they turned green or red, cutting my effort if it looked as if I would arrive to a red light, accelerating if I thought it might get me through before a green light changed. But it was impossible in heavy traffic of eastern Hiroshima and western Okayama prefectures.
There were a number of places where the Strava routing sent me onto a gravel rutted path. Once or twice this worked and proved a good alternative to a busy highway. Other times it was a big waste of time and required me to backtrack or hunt and peck in the dark for a route when the highway would have been much faster. A couple of times, Strava's route directed me to turn off a road and ... proceed through the middle of a field or flooded rice paddy. Other places, when I missed a turn and got slightly off course, Wahoo tried to route me back to the course by sending me ... along the edge of a dirt field that dead ended into a thicket of jungle, still 100 meters or more from the road I wanted to get to. Overall I wasted an hour or two with these kinds of issues.
I split the entire route into 5 sections for loading onto my GPS unit, but each of these was too data heavy for Wahoo to load "turn by turn" instructions. I should have split it into more sections and gotten the turn-by-turn instructions to save time when I was exhausted and missed a non-obvious turn. That tweak, plus an evening or two online going over the route very carefully using Google streetview etc and tweaking it, could have saved me an hour or two, at least.
4. Bike and gear.
The Pelso is a good "all around" recumbent. It is not the fastest, but it is relatively practical, relatively comfortable, relatively aerodynamic, and it survived the 1667kms. I do not have experience with other recumbents, and this was my first ride longer than 400kms on the Pelso, but I would make a few tweaks if I tried something like this again.
a. Steering column and handlebars. The steerer column protrudes quite far above the frame of the bike. I think I could cut this down 10 cms or more and it would help the aerodynamic profile of the bike a bit, still with enough room for my feet around the double "J" shape handlebars. The manufacturer confirmed that I could do this without affecting the integrity of the bike, but I did not have time to try. Another idea would be to replace the double J shaped bars with a steering "tiller" that protrudes less and allows one to ride with arms tucked in, thus lowering aero drag. But I would not want to do that without ample time for experimentation.
b. Wheels. I thought about potentially using a disk rear wheel ... or at least covering a wheel with monokote to fashion a home-made disk wheel, for better aerodynamics. I was glad I did not do this, given some strong gusts and cross-winds at many points along the way. But I would have liked a compromise -- a deeper-rimmed rear wheel with aero spokes. Also, the Velocity Aileron rims I used are optimized with 28mm wide profile tires, while I had 30mm ride tires. So different rims would have likely been faster, and more comfortable. This optimization could make a bit of difference that adds up over time. That said, I would keep my SP Dynamo front hub. On a ride of this length, the 5 watts or so of drag from the dynamo hub is more than compensated, in my view, by 24 hr x7 day bright front and rear lighting and no worries about batteries.
c. Helmet and clothes. Likewise, I did not use an "aero" helmet on this ride, but might if I wanted to save a few more watts. Riding a recumbent does not require cycling bib shorts -- no pad -- as you are not sitting on your groin area. Most days I wore running shorts. These were comfortable, but I should have chosen shorts that hugged my legs tightly, for aerodynamic purposes. I did have good arm and leg covers that are designed not to cause aerodynamic drag, at least.
d. Water bottle placement. When I ride the Pelso I usually place a water bottle in a holder that protrudes from the side of my Radical Designs rear bag. This time I pulled that holder closed with safety pins to reduce drag and instead carried two bottles in water bottle holders on the underside of my seat. Unfortunately, the bolts I used to attach the bottles protruded too far and scratched the bottles every time I tried to pull them out or return them. By the end of the trip, one of the bottles was leaking. The other probably has a very limited life left. Some more care setting up the bottle holders would have solved this problem. I think the under-seat location is ideal in terms of aerodynamics, even if harder to reach.
e. Tubeless tires. I was generally very happy with my tires -- Schwalbe Pro One 700x30mm TLR. They roll with low resistance and are comfortable. I lost air once in the rear tire just before Niigata, and in the front in Aomori. The first was likely due to a big dent in my rear rim. The second was some kind of puncture and IRC "respawn" sealant quickly sealed the leak. Overall, this was less trouble than one might expect on a ride of 1667kms, including two nights riding in the rain. Before I would do this again, however, I would try to get some experience "plugging" holes in tubeless tires. At least now I know how to use the "respawn" successfully.
f. GPS. My Wahoo GPS unit recorded the ride flawlessly. The battery life was plenty to make it through my 350km segments with only a short "top up" recharge mid-ride, and never got near empty. That said, I really should have run a parallel/back-up GPS recording in case of trouble, and would do so if I ever try another long ride to be validated by GPS. Over the course of a ride this long, as often as not there is SOME trouble with part of the GPS recording. And in this case, a GPS issue would have invalidated the record attempt.
g. Tighten bolts and check daily. The seat on the Pelso is attached directly to seat stays and frame, and it forms an important part of the structure of the bicycle. When I put the bike together in Shimonoseki, I tightened everything properly. But a few days later, in Niigata (or was it Akita), when I checked again, many of the bolts had worked a bit loose and I could retighten them at least several turns. I think this actually resulted in somewhat diminished confidence in bike handling and a "squishy" feeling at times that was accentuated when I was very tired. In the future I would check and tighten all the bolts daily.
h. Groupset. My Pelso has a 1X SRAM 11-speed groupset. 1X is ideal for a recumbent, as it simplifies the chain line, and avoids a front derailleur and double chainring sticking up on the front of the bike, and with the long chain I think the typical 1X problem of a chain that is consuming more watts drag when in the innermost or outermost gear is largely avoided. When I had my bike turned upside down to clean the chain and frame before leaving my Niigata hotel, I bumped the bike ... and the right (rear) brake lever mostly snapped off. From that point, I survived without any problem on a front brake and an at best a 25% functioning rear brake. ... The brake lever looked like a cheap piece of crap. Not sturdy. And the 11x46 rear cassette is probably near its replacement date ... though a clean chain helps it to last longer. The chain came with the bike and now has over 7000kms on it also. Anyway, if I want to experiment with a steering "tiller", I might as well upgrade the levers and even get a better grade of rear derailleur ... perhaps even electronic shifting? The Pelso is due for a bit of an upgrade.
Meanwhile, I will focus on riding my road bike(s) until I am done with Paris Best Paris!
