It's mid-winter and my thoughts are on the season to come and long rides in warm weather. I thought I'd write down some audacious goals for this year. Why not?

Yesterday's ride put me at exactly a thousand miles on my Soma Grand Randonneur. I've had the bike a little over four months now and have had some great rides over varied terrain and conditions. I certainly went out on a limb with the decision to get this bike, as I had no experience riding one like it. I was basically buying in to Jan Heine's kool aid about low trail, 650b, wide tire bikes.

Green Peter Reservoir - January 19

The valley had been fogged in for weeks. I knew the sun had to be out if I was willing to drive into the mountains. Turned out to be well worth it. A beautiful day on a quiet scenic road.

Its not every tire change that I get this excited about new tires. The first thing to get excited about was how well my old tires held up. I got 6,548 miles on a set of Schwalbe Marathon Plus 700x35 touring tires. I did all kinds of riding from touring to commuting to club rides to just riding around town, in all kinds of weather on all kinds of roads. I had exactly zero flats. I had a slow leak once that required me to pump up the tire once a week until I got around to changing the tube, but I never got a flat.