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Previewing the Kessel Run: A Central Florida Bike Tour

The Journal

• Last year’s FL tour with a decidedly Star Wars twist
• Fly down and enjoy a day nerding out at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge flying the Falcon and enjoying a day
• THEN a tour on the Brompton from the Orlando area to the Tampa airport over two days
• Why? I wanted to center a bike tour around something cool so that the fun was front loaded and then the tour is the cherry on top
• Wanted to check a different route out of the Orlando area
• Doing all hotel and Airbnb stays (less gear)
• Shorter than I’d like but I’m hoping to get a longer tour in this spring
• What the heck’s a Kessel Run? What you’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon? It’s the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. Go see Solo to see what the Kessel run is.

Gear Setup

• Brompton
• Front Ortlieb backroller, 2019 mod
• Phone holster
• Water bottle holder (note these have to be removed for a full fold)
• Rear rack will hold just my folded up duffel so I can fold the rear under
• Some kind of lock setup (post-recording update… I bought a new Ottolock)
• Water bottle
• Brompton toolkit + pump (integrated)
• Spare tube (perhaps overkill)
• New – a cheap adjustable crescent wrench (I’ve learned a lesson as we’ll chat about in a bit!)
• Going very limited on clothing for a such a short trip
• Rain gear going to be a must
• May only bring down one pair of pants, a couple of wicking base layers and a puffy vest to stay simple and extra light
• Trail shoes and wool socks
• Looking to replace my helmet so considering (maybe) getting one shipped to the hotel rather than carrying down?

Challenges

• An important element of my Brampton broke less than a week away! Fixed, but lesson learned on what the Brompton toolkit can do and what it cannot.
• Weather is a wild card – last year was stellar
• This year? It looks like there’s going to be rain at the tail end of my evening at Galaxy’s Edge, through the night into the morning. That might redouble my attitude of tapping the brakes on an early start, checking out as late as I can and maybe even waiting out the end of the rain at the hotel. 
• Temps look perfect… low 70s as highs, mid 50s as lows.
• Prevailing winds will be in my face this go-around. 
• I’m challenging myself to carry anything I purchase at Galaxy’s Edge with me. That might get interesting.
• Traffic around my first night stay near Plant City is a question mark since I’m deviating from the route there
• I have plenty of time, but there is a bit of a race on Sunday… my plane leaves with or without me!

Interesting Disney-specific bike logistics

• I mentioned riding at WDW is not in the cards, but due to poor planning on my part I’m splitting two nights there between hotels
• The Brompton will get transferred by Disney bell services while I’m in the park. 
• I plan to bring an IKEA Dimpa bag and have it very securely packed up since I don’t know what to expect
• Interesting possibility – if I check the bike on my flight down it can be picked up by Disney and brought to the hotel room directly… but I don’t love checking the bike and really don’t love the idea of trusting the handoff behind the scenes of bike to bus to hotel without me being there. If the bike isn’t there before I go to bed I may lose my mind 😉

Fun

• I’ve been so focused on the Disney/Star Wars part of the trip I’m just now getting extra excited about the ride.
• A nice escape from DC.
• I know the Kessel Run element of this trip won’t appeal to many of you, so I’ll be focusing on the bike tour for the tour journal episodes BUT I plan on recording something for the Star Wars elements that I’ll make available outside of the feed and let folks know about it.
• Pedalshift Society folks – you’ll get the real time recordings in the bonus feed. You should have received an email from me with that. First audio will likely be coming out the 30th.