Bike forum Diablo Ride

bike forum diablo 1.jpg
Originally uploaded by ccorlew

I met a few riders I know from the cyberspace land of Bikeforums.net for a ride. We went From Danville up the South gate to the junction, down the North gate, out to Clayton and around the "back side" of Diablo via Morgan Territory Road and back to Danville. We did 60-some miles and a ton of climbing. It took most of the day as everyone was very kind and we didn't drop anyone. I had a blast.
Here a slide show of photos via flickr.
Below is a live Google map of the ride


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Fog land

It looked rather gloomy this morning, but Tricia and I told Joyce we'd ride, so when she called we went out at 8:30, into the fog, headed toward Antioch's Empire Mine Road and then out toward Los Vaqueros Reservoir.
It wasn't that cold, and I dressed right, so it was actually nice. Then we started dropping in and out of the soup. It was delightful. The light was beautiful as we rode along the edges of gloomy and bright.
I was happy as I felt pretty good after being "off" for the last week.
We talked about doing Seattle to Portland again next Summer. Hummmmm.

New frame time?

I haven't been feeling well. I'm still bike commuting, but I'm not doing riding much more. Instead I'm looking at bike porn and imagining a new frame. Is that so wrong? I can make up ton of reasons why I need one. But perhaps the best one is that I can get this extra cool Kestrel RT700 for under $800 through a group buy on Bikeforums.net. Check out these photos, or this Kestrel page. This frame is sold online all over for more than twice that, and lists for over 2K. I'm not nuts about the bronze, but what a great frame. If it happens it looks like I'd pay in December and get a frame in Feb. I'm thinking about it. Spending money on a new frame is even better than training or losing weight, right? And it supports he economy. I'd be acting as a good citizen by getting it.
Of course, if I do get this, I'd better plan on a new something for Tricia too. She likes her Trek 1500, but I'm sure she'd like something new even more.

UPDATE: I broke down and put a deposit down. Delivery is sometime in February.

Day of yech

I don't mind commuting in the cold, but riding for fun in the cold just isn't much fun. It's been a gorgeous week, but Saturday was overcast, dark, and cold. I wore a base layer under my jersey and regular bibs. Mistake. I was cold and slow and felt crappy the whole shortened ride.
I told Tricia we should just have taken the commuter bikes and gone grocery shopping instead of trying to enjoy the day.
Maybe I'm just getting older. Maybe I just had a bad day. Maybe Monday will be nicer.
UPDATE: Darn it. Monday was a tad overcast, but still, the sun did come out late in the day. But I couldn't gt myself outside. I feel so blah. Is it a virus, old age, or just that I'm lazy? Usually playing on the bike is fun. Today I don't want to do anything. I hope this feeling crappy ends soon....

Seasons change

Even though the time changed and it's lighter in the morning, the days are getting shorter and colder. The fog that sits on the canal during my morning commute has reappeared, but the bugs seem to be gone for now.

Last year vs this year

It was a year ago the Tricia and I went on our first organized ride -- a 30 miler through Lodi. It was a big deal. This Sunday we knocked out 35 around Antioch as a no-big-deal afternoon jaunt. Kinda cool for us! Such a small thing I didn't even photograph it.
In other news, it's getting darker sooner. Tricia has her light charged up and is mentally preparing for her commute through some... interesting... after dark areas.

Tour of Vacaville

Tricia and I went to Vacaville to ride with a bunch of folks I talk to on the NorCal forums of Bikeforums.net. The weather was grand, the 40 mile route up toward Winters had few cars or stop lights but did have smooth roads. But best of all was meeting a bunch of really nice people. I haven't ridden in a pace line in ages, and it was a ball to be flying at over 20 a lot of the time. My average was 17. Not bad considering for a lot of the ride I was just... riding.
We stopped at Precision Bikes on the way home and didn't buy the Orbea Orca and Diva on sale, even though we were assured there would be a price break if we bought both. Maybe in the next lifetime, or after we win the lotto.

New cables

After I broke a spoke on the rear wheel on my commuter bike I figured when I had that fixed I'd get new shifter cables as well. I had some Jagwire cables and was just too worried to install them myself. I had the The Wheel Peddler do it. After watching I'm glad I did. It seems they're a bit different than the 1975 version I'd last installed. They're Teflon and have some sort of magic sleeve and weird ferrels.
The upside is my bike shifts better than it has in years.

Riverbank Cheese and Wine Ride

Tricia and I did the Riverbank Cheese and Wine ride on Oct 14. Sixty miles of Northern California fun. Cows, goats, horses, fields, small towns and Boy Scouts feeding us white bread, Velveta and sliced processed ham. The homemade cookies were great, though.
The ride folks, despite the name of the ride, had no wine, so we dropped by the downtown Cheese and Wine Festival where I met the Dairy Princesses. They reminded me about the importance of great California milk and milk products. We could have paid $35 to go to the wine tasting tent, but we passed. We didn't buy any meat-on-a-stick or lawn sculpture either. I did, however, have a fine Sierra Nevada beer that really hit the spot.

50 plus jersey

On the day that everyone else road the Diablo Challenge I didn't. I had a great ride through East Contra Costa with Tricia. You can, however, see Diablo in the background. She shot this photo so I could show off the 50 plus jersey I designed for the over 50 forum on bikeforums.net.

Curtis the commuter

I arrive at Los Medanos College long before the students and sometime before the sun is up. My commute is only 8 miles, but I wear my full-tilt road kit just becaue it's comfortable. This semester I'm added the baskets, which allow me to carry lots and lots of junk. In this photo I'm hauling a large photo in the tube, a heavy camera bag, my laptop, clothes and lunch.

Waves to Wine

We made it! Waves to Wine was harder than Seattle to Portland, but the scenery was worth every bit of uphill and suffering. It was a blast. I made digital recordings along the way and hope to have a small segment on the Fredcast podcast I'll post a link when (and if) it happens. There are more photos than will fit on this blog, but here's one more. Please be kind enough to note that I'm modeling the new 50 plus bikeforums.net jersey I designed!
Need more? Try this link to the mp3 audio report of the ride

Commuter babe

Tricia moved from Dallas Ranch to Antioch Middle School, but she's still bike commuting. New this school year is her rack and trunk. It's a Topeak. The sides fold down to make room for more eighth-grade English papers than you'd ever want to haul home, much less read. Tricia rocks!

Me vs Motobecane, ISIS, FSA and stupidity

I was getting a clicking sound from the Motobecane Le Champion SL. It was annoying, and getting worse. It sounded like it was coming from my FSA SL-K crankset/bottom bracket.

I did some research on Bikeforums.net and discover an "FSA click" thread. I also discovered ISIS style bottom brackets have a bad rep.

I took the bike to my local bike store and they said "Yep, it's the bottom bracket".

Rather than replace suspect bottom bracket with another ISIS, I ordered a Shimano R700 compact crank and Ultegra bottom bracket. I had the local store install both.

SIDENOTE. Bikesdirect speced "TruVativ or FSA" bottom bracket. This is what was found inside. It's marked "Chin Haur," whatever that means. The bike store says it wasn't installed very well.

ARRRGGGGG. It's was still clicking! But bikeforums.net "Substructure" said in a thread he tightened his QR and solved his problem

I really tightened my rear QR and zoom. All better. I am an idiot. But then my LBS didn't exactly save the day either. On the other hand, LBS had no problem with me finding a great deal on the cranks and BB elsewhere and having them install it all.

Did I waste money? Maybe, but the Ultegra shifts a bit better, and I'm pleased to not have that other BB any longer.

Such is life.

Tour of East Contra Costa

Tricia and I did a 50 mile loop through East Contra Costa, notable mainly because it wasn't windy and no one tried to run over us. That and it gives me the chance to try and jam a Google map into this blog, which may or may not work. A good time was had by all.
If you know how to keep one line going in Google Maps when you need to scroll over, let me know!
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Three feet

The Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle (the swell folks who put on theSeattle-to-Portland ride) are sponsoring a campaign to encourage drivers to leave cyclists three fett of space. I really like their ads.

Waves to Wine

I signed us up. Not only me, but Tricia too. If we can ride 200 miles in two days, we can ride 150 in two days for a good cause, and that cause is the fight to cure MS. On September 29 we take off from Pac Bell Park in SF, ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and end up somewhere in Rohnert Park. Day two takes us to Healdsburg. That's pretty much all I know, except we need to raise a bunch of cash for them.
I'm hoping if you stumbled across this blog you 'll be willing to help out. Please oh please visit my donation page on the MS site and donate.

Diablo: You are mine

Cycling to the summit of 3849-foot Mt. Diablo was one of my Summer 2007 goals. This Saturday I joined a group from Bikeforums.net to celebrate their new jerseys. Mine hadn't come in yet, but I rode with them anyway. We started at the South Gate and wound our way up. I hadn't been to the top since '87 or so. It's still steep, it still hurts, and the last 200 yards is abut the hardest cycling thing I've ever done. But the roads are a lot smoother than they used to be. It took me 1:35. Considering it seemed like three days and I didn't really have a time goal, just a survival goal, I'm reasonably happy. Check out the cool photos in the bikeforums thread on the ride.

Commuting - back to school

Los Medanos College has started the Fall semester, and I've once again started my daily commute. I've added a few new elements.

• Sandals: I bought a pair of Nashbar sandals that have SPD cleats. It felt a bit odd at first, but the mornings are warm and the evenings are downright hot. It feels good to have the wind blowing through my toes. It'll be interesting to see how long it is before it's too cold to enjoy wearing them.
• Rack and baskets: I got a rack and a pair of shopping baskets big enough to carry all my clothes and food. No more driving in on Sundays with a weeks worth of stuff! They do feel like I'm dragging a parachute behind me, especially on windy days, but I think it's worth it. I still carry the laptop in my backpack. I'm not brave enough to hang it off the bike -- yet.

I'm a star!

I feel like Steve Martin in The Jerk when the phone directory comes and he finds his name in it then runs about yelling "I am somebody!"
Well, I am now somebody too! My favorite podcast is the Fredcast, a bicycling podcast. I listen to every episode. David, the Fredcast creator has been soliciting ride reports, so after the Seattle to Portland ride I recorded one in our hotel room. I mailed it in and darned if he didn't end up using the whole thing. I'm pretty excited about it. It's kind of like getting to sing backup on your favorite band's album. I'm in Fredcast #77 pretty near the end. And I am soooooo cool now.
A note on the Fredcast: I use iTunes and then download it to my iPod and listen on my commute. But you can listen through the web page, or any number of ways. You don't need a Mac, or an iPod. I highly recommend the Fredcast