LEBANON, IN to RICHMOND, IN

Weather:
Sunny all day
Starting temp 57, finishing temp 85
Strong winds, cross/tail to cross/head

Ride stats:
Today’s mileage: 109 mi
Today’s climbing: 2513 ft
Total miles ridden: 2,348 mi
Approx miles to go: 1,008 mi

We started the day with a tour of the Roark Welding and Engineering Company, a custom metal fabrication company in Brownsburg, Indiana. Why would we visit a custom metal fabrication company? Well, several years ago they began making custom titanium bicycle frames as a side venture. Both our ride leaders, Mike and Karen, ride Roark titanium bikes. They are beautiful bikes. Basically, here’s the way it works. You get a custom bike fit from a separate company who will then supply Roark with ideal frame size dimensions for your body, riding style, etc. Roark then fabricates a titanium frame to those dimensions and builds the bike up with your choice of components. The bicycle manufacturing venture is only a very small portion of Roark’s custom metal manufacturing business, but they have all the technical machinery and expertise at their disposal. It was an interesting tour and worth the stop.

Following the tour, we starting riding a little later than usual, but made it to Richmond by late afternoon. My parents live in Richmond, so I was able to eat dinner with them. My swim coach from high school, Phil, and his wife Twyla joined us. Phil and Twyla ride a tandem and we have ridden a couple tandem rallies with them, so it was great to have them join my parents and I for dinner.

Photos from today. Click on any photo to open in a slideshow view.