It’s been a weird year. I’m not even sure where to start here, so I’ll just let ‘er rip and see what happens.

As some old-time readers will know, I’ve had some kind of knee problem for over 2 decades now. Last year I added to this with a torn meniscus (verified) in my left knee, plus another one (unverified) in my right that just popped up in the last two or three months. I’ve essentially gone from a guy who could sit in seiza for long periods to someone who can hardly sit down on the carpet without using his hands.

These might not be very serious problems if I wasn’t a guy who owns a bike tour company, but unfortunately I do.

Then I got my beautifully-crafted Crisp bike that I thought might fit from my first short ride in Tuscany, but life is not that simple, as most bike owners know. After 1700km I’m still working on it. Here’s a short laundry list of stuff I can remember doing so far:

• Moved the saddle in every way possible several times
• Took out a couple of spacers on the stem (irreversible in the Enve system, so it’s 5mm at a time)
• Tilted up the handlebars very slightly
• Shifted my cleats back a little on my shoes (which led to either my arches collapsing, planters fasciitis, or both)
• Bought expensive insoles to support my arch (see above)
• Started identifying those magician bike fitters everyone seems to know (closest so far is a 4-hr drive…I’ll do it)

Oh, I’ve also had 4 flats this season, or about as many as I’ve had in the 5 years. I also learned something interesting – and the hard way – about tires these days. It seems that some of them come in different flavors; like the good old clincher tire we all used to love, but also ‘tubeless ready‘ (TR), which, if you don’t see the ‘TR’ in the name when you buy them online, could be a painful mistake. Yes, I currently have two tubeless ready tires on my Crisp, which have big, tough beads that need more pressure than I and my little hand pump can produce. The result of this on the road is that you have to hobble to a bike shop (it is literally a hobble because the unseated part of the tire is ‘dented’) or back home to your floor pump and dish soap. I’ve got some clincher tires ordered.

Back to my knee issues, the fiddling with the Crisp has resulted in me bothering my meniscus tears, going to Physio to try and get that resolved, having it resolved only for it to unresolve, then fix itself again, which led to my old under-the-kneecap injury flaring up again.

I am not going as dramatic as saying I’m coming face to face with my mortality because of these little niggles, but it does make me question my retirement plans. I’ve done all my scheduled guided rides this year without issue and I’m one week-long tour into my season and am still not embarrassing myself too much with my clients. Still, once you start seeing ‘the end’ (work, not life!), it’s hard to unsee.

I’m not despairing. Apart from these problems not comparing favorably to, say, problems of people living in the Gaza Strip, I have plenty of older friends who assure me by their histories that 1) It’s a normal part of getting older, and 2) It’s probably just a phase…or not – some of my elder buds tell me that it ain’t getting better. Either way, I’m not alone, so I feel fine.