Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Hauling my bike on my bike with a Travoy trailer

Getting the bike home commute

When you bike commute in then get a ride home after an offsite gathering you end up with a bike at work and yourself at home. If you bike commute in the next day you end up with two bikes at work and find you need some way to get both bikes home. Enter Travoy trailer. I'm  hauling my 70s Gitane-turned-fixed gear on my titanium gravel-bike-turned-commuter bike with my Travoy.

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Tour de Vigne 2018

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Once again we found ourselves rolling out of bed at oh-dark-stupid to head out for Lodi and the Tour de Vigne ride. What sounds like a great plan days before sure doesn't seem as clever that early.

The ride starts with so much flat land and straight roads it's actually hard. At least for me. I like hills, rollers, changes. The ability to just sit and crank consistently is not a skill I have. Tricia, on the other hand, is more of a metronome.  But even though she can lay down a solid cadence she also found herself looking forward to leaving the flatlands.

After leaving the farm and grazing lands of the Central Valley the ride heads up around Lake Camanche Reservoir and then to Pardee Reservoir. We even got to ride across the dam.

We had great weather until the last 15 miles of crazy headwind where staying in double digit speeds became a major effort.

Still, a good ride!
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Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Wine Country Century 2018

What a beautiful day for a bike ride. A little cool, but pretty much just right. And the Santa Rosa Cycling Club sure knows how to organize a ride. From the wonderful night-before check in to the free beer —FREE BEER —  at the end it was a wonderful experience. I'm a huge fan of drop bags, where you can leave your warm clothes at a rest stop and have them delivered to you at the ride end. Even though this time I created my own problem using that wonderful service.




Tricia gave me her warm jacket to bag up and send back. I did. Then, right after the rest stop I realized I was missing my left glove. I hadn't noticed because I still had a glove liner on. Bummer for me. I took my jacket out of my pocket to look for it, then stuffed it back in. Later I realized that I not only didn't have a glove, I had no jacket. When Tricia went to a lost and found at a rest stop to check on my glove a rider walked up with my jacket. Tricia claimed it, to some teasing about "Is that really yours?" But I had it again. Later, at the ride end (free beer!) I unwrapped her drop bag jacket and discovered my glove. Nothing lost after all. What a day.
We couldn't resist stopping for a photo at our favorite winery.