I abandoned my planned March Permanent in Michigan due to a combination of weather (very windy, cold and wet), a malfunctioning Garmin and a poor choice of equipment-I went with my Gunnar road bike in order to go faster, got my first flat tire 10 miles in, got chilled changing the tube, turned around and went home. That was March 27 so I had no alternate days to recover. Lessons learned-make an attempt earlier in the month, use the tried and true Rando bike, buy a new memory chip for the garmin.
Anyway, the weather was a little cool for Tennessee but considering the snow in Michigan at the time I still felt lucky. Still felt like spring in Tennessee.
Overall I really enjoyed this ride, on my BMC with my dyno hub and lights and full fenders. There were a few smatterings of rain but nothing really too serious. The route took me up two mountains with switchbacks and the occasional grade above 10% which I walked. The gearing on my BMC isn't extremely low-36X30.
I did have a rather major mechanical issue with the chain falling off the back of the rear cassette and jamming the freewheel body against the hub, causing the chain to dangle down close to the spokes whenever I coasted. I rode through Monteagle (with a brief stop to give Ruth a kiss, since she was meeting at Monteagle inn, which was right on my way) and stopped at Woody's bike shop in Suwanne. He had to completely disassemble the rear hub/freewheel in order to un-jam it. That put me behind schedule for completing this ride during daylight so I'm glad I went with my lights. Here's a photo of sunset taken from a bridge that crosses Normandy Lake.
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