New Stallion in stable

I innocently took Tricia to the City to "check out" some bikes. After a mere four stores she started to kinda sorta consider the Surly Cross-Check, a cool steel cyclocross bike.

They had her size, and were willing to ship it to a closer store if she called them after she'd thought about it a while.
But, well, after a parking lot ride, and, lunch and, hey, there we were anyway.....

So this will become her commuter bike, and her current commuter bike with transmogrify back to the mountain bike she's been missing.

I guess I'll be working on my fender, computer, rack, seat bag, pump and pedal adding skills soon.

How will Tricia adjust to bar end shifters? Will she actually be willing to add a bunch of junk to her now-clean bike? Will she miss her triple chain rings? We'll see, and of course, obsessively blog about it.

New Years Day on Diablo 2009

Me: I'm getting up early and riding Diablo on New Years day. Wanta go?
Tricia: uuummmmmmmm. I'll think about it.

Me: Coffee's on. Coming?
Tricia: arghmmmmmmmmmm. (rolls over)

Me: Ok. I'm suited up and going. Bye!
Tricia: Wait. I coming with you.

Me: Big smile.

Tricia has done the junction a few times, but all the talk of epic rides and the wall had her a bit... concerned.
Of course, she had absolutely no problem. She didn't even bother to stand up for the wall.

We started off in too much fog, and by 1500 feet elevation I figured we'd be in a cloud all day. But somewhere around 2000 feet we popped into a beautiful day. And unlike he last time I rode Diablo, no wind.

There were cyclists everywhere. I wish I had a count (paging Dr. DiabloScott) even a guess count. It was grand.

Coming down was fun until we slammed into the fog and could hardly see. We could really feel the temp drop as we got to the wall of gray. We were braille-riding for a couple of miles.

My first New Years day on the mountain, Tricia's first summit.
A good time was had by all.

Year end mileage and goals 2008

7730 miles
For the record
Commuter bike starting odo: 3072, ending: 5818, total: 2746 commuter miles
Road bike starting odo: 3481, ending: 8457, total: 4666 roadie miles

Disclaimers:
I sometimes ride the commuter as a mountain bike, or on errands, so those miles are not strictly "going to work" miles.

I broke my Sigma computer part way through the year so I had to guess the odometer miles. I know I'm close, but I'm pretty sure I cheated myself out of a few.

Goals report:

• Oregon Coast tour (Done)
• Giro di Peninsula (Bonus, Done)
• Sequoia Century (Done)
• Waves to Wine (Done)
• Tierrabella Century (Done)
• Wildflower Century (Done)
• Wine Country Century (Done)
• Davis Double (Done!!!!!!)
• Seattle to Portland (Done!)
• Foxy's Fall Century (100K) (Done)

Tricia's mileage

Commuter bike: 1937 commuter miles
Road bike: 4114 roadie miles
Total: 6041

Busted

Maybe it's the lightweight Mavic 517 rim, or the number of curb cuts I ride over, or the weight of the junk I carry. Whatever the reason, I just noticed I'd actually broken the rim on my commuter bike. What a drag.

I had to decide on a new wheel or repair. I went with repair. I'm keeping the XT hub and having the Wheel Peddler build me a new wheel using a Macic 717 rim. I'll cost. I'm not sure I made the most cost effective choice, but I'm hoping it pays off by ending up with a wheel that is well made and will last forever.

I'm so tired of fog

I am I am I am I am so freakin' tired of tule fog. Today it was much lighter, and I could actually see across the street, but all too often it's been at maximum density.

Here in Antioch, the Bay Area, but really on the delta near the edge of the valley, the fog won't stop. I'm not a huge fan of sub-40 riding, but I can do it. Toss in wet yucky fog and all the fun is gone.

Sea fog can be nice, it has texture. It comes and goes. It's sometimes playful.
The fog here is Stephen King style, dark and relentless, with no redeeming values.

Just to taunt us, it hangs in the low areas where we live, but leaves the peaks clear, just so we know what we're missing. Even a drive over Kirker Pass can reveal a sunny crisp sunglasses day before you descend back into the muck.

The dampness seeps into your clothes even more than rain. It collects on your glasses. It drips off your helmet. It makes you, even if you have a geek-style blinky light, invisible to the cars that seem to speed down the road beyond all reason.

In the "light" of the day, and I use the word light to mean "not pitch black" it's still a depressing gray of evil that looks like smoke, but without any warmth. In the dark it makes a hole in your heart.

Bring me rain. Or bring me sun. Bring me fluffy clouds. This has got to stop.

Diablo ride with Bikeforums

The last 200 yards (correction: DiabloScott, master of all things Diablo, insists it's 300 meters) of Mt. Diablo is an 18% straight-up grunt. It's hard enough without having climbed almost 4000 feet just to get there. So Lanceoldstrong and I sprinted. It was a blast.

The NorCal Bikeforums "Work off the turkey" ride was quite an event. It's always fun to see old friends, but toss in the weather and the wind and it becomes quite an event.

I left home in 45 degree overcast. It was mid 60s at the start. I'd worried I'd overdressed. It was warm climbing, but then the wind kicked in and I was glad to be in by knickers.

The weather station there reported:
11am Windspeed 47mph; Peak windspeed 62mph.

All in all, major fun.

Fenderized at last

I gave in to winter and bought fenders for my commuter bike. I'd been stalling because fenders aren't cool, I didn't want to have to take them off when I go mountain biking, and my bike didn't look like an easy fit.
But wet is... wet, and just how cool did I think I looked before? So I went ahead. I got advice from the commuter forum to not get clip ons, so I went with Planet Bike Hardcore Hybrids. They were even on sale!

I'm not much of a modifier kinda guy, but the help I got on BikeForums.net made me brave.

I ended up drilling a small hole in the bottom back of my fork crown to attach the fender with a very short sheet metal screw and a bunch of washers.

I also bought longer bolts so I could fit the rack and fender in my rear eyelets. (Hardware stores have a zillion bolts that all look alike. Thankfully the hardware store dude was helpful or I'd have bought the wrong size)

I also used zip ties. Everything looks good and doesn't rattle.

The mounting process took way too long. I had thought I'd remove them if I was going to put on my fat tire wheels for mountain biking, but now I realize I'm never going to want to mess with the fender mounting pain again, so they'll stay on all year, forever.

I have discovered that taking the rear wheel off to fix a flat is now a bit of a pain.

I'm also sure I'm causing a drought by being prepared for rain. But at least my bike looks even more dorky than before.

We can do it

Tricia had an ... interesting...day at work, so a little bit of motivational poster seemed to be in order. Not that I've ever even heard her threaten to punch someone. It's just a little post-workday hyperbole, for entertainment purposes only. I made it using a Flickr Toy at BigHugeLabs.com.

Foxy's Fall Century in Davis

It's so weird to get up so early and drive over an hour to ride a bike. But we do it.
We started just after dawn. I felt like ... well, like not so hot. My plan was to let Tricia and Joyce just go and I'd muddle through. I just felt slow and old. It turns out I was fighting the start of a cold.

But about 20 miles in Tricia's knees started bothering her. After much thinking she figured out that she'd had her bike worked on recently and perhaps the seat wasn't reset to the exact right height. At 40 we adjusted it, but it was too late. Her knees kept bugging her. She wasn't her usual metronome-solid self. At 61 we called it a day and sagged it back.

She's pretty mad at her knees.

Scraper bikes

My sweet wife just saw a video that explains all those extra cool bikes I see near the middle school. They're scraper bikes. They're a movement out of northern California that's starting to get national press.
I just love this video. I'm thinking, can an old white dude retrofit his old road bike and get a look this wonderful? Stay tuned.

Busted

My Sigma 1606 bike computer fell off my bike. I went back for it and got there just in time to see it get run over. Bummer. I really like that computer.
I called Sigma to buy a new head. They asked me for he number on the back, and then said "We didn't like the mount on that version. Send it in and we'll replace it."
Is that cool or what? Go Sigma!

Sad, and Happy bicycles

This bike is sad.
My own bike was sad, but is now happy again. Here's the story:

I was out for a much-needed ride when my bike stopped shifting. Completely stopped. I was stuck in the highest gear for my limp home. I discovered my rear shifter cable had broken.
I called the Brentwood Bike Company, my local shop, and owner Bobbi said they'd look at it that day! When Chris (owner-husband-cool dude) got the new cable threaded through the tricky internal sections of my Kestrel RT 700 it still wouldn't shift. It appeared the brake/shifter had broken. That's a major big dollar part. "Oh no" I was thinking.

About ready to spend the money, we discovered that the problem was that the broken cable end had fallen into, and become wedged inside of the lever. Chris polked, prodded then fished and shook until it came out. He recabeled, adjusted a bent derailleur hanger in the process and shazam, all better. Now my bike is a lot more happy than the bike in the photo.

Thanks Chris and your Brentwood Bicycle Company for seeing me right away and figuring out how to fix my problem and not just replace an expensive part!

Waves to Wine 2008

Thanks to everyone for their financial and moral support of our Waves to Wine bicycle ride for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

We wore ourselves out. The 75 miles each day wasn't so far, but the 7000 feet or so of climbing was really tough. This ride was a lot harder than the 100 mile a day ride we did from Seattle to Portland earlier this year. I was worn out Saturday from playing too much tennis on Friday, and really worn out on Sunday. Tricia and i took turns feeling good. She was a rock on Sunday morning when I was sore and trying to feel warm. I started feeling pretty good about halfway through Sunday when the sun came out. Together we pulled each other through.

There was hardly a level spot along the route. We were either going up or down. We spent about five or six hours a day on the bike, though what with lunch and a few rest stops the total trip time was closer to seven.

Our route took us from AT&T park across the Golden Gate Bridge, up Hwy 1 past Tomales Bay and to Cotati for the night.

Day two looped us back toward Peteluma, then up to Sebastopol for lunch then onward to Healdsburg and up to Lake Sonoma for a bus ride back to the start.

We knew we'd ridden a long way when we took the bus back. That darn shuttle took forever!

I didn't make many photos. I was too buy riding and breathing hard.

Antioch cyclist killed in "accident"

An Antioch bicyclist who was struck by a 15-year-old girl learning how to drive has died, authorities said today.

Ralph Cherry Jr., 23, was riding west in the bike lane of Davison Drive in Antioch about 11 a.m. Tuesday when he was hit by an SUV driven by the girl, Antioch police said.

The girl was driving on a learner's permit with her grandfather, who has a license, police said. For reasons that have not yet been determined, the girl lost control of the SUV and struck Cherry, authorities said.

Cherry was flown by helicopter to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, where he died at 5:20 p.m. Wednesday, the Contra Costa County coroner's office said.

I hate it that we live in a country where you can kill a cyclist and then just say "Accident" and all is OK.
In my recent memory we've had a man mow down a cyclist who was waiting at a light in Walnut Creek-- nothing happened
A deputy plow through cyclists -- nothing happened
Now this.

I'm even more rattled because it's just a couple of miles from my house. I ride that road often. I may have been on that road that very day. My wife crosses it every day on her (bike) commute. I'm finely getting our daughter to ride to Los Medanos College for her classes.

I read the comments in SF Gate. It's just depressing. Ralph Cherry and his family get very little love and respect. Instead I'm reading:

• Accident, oh well...
• What do cyclists expect, clogging up the road and all...
• The driver will carry this her whole life (like that makes it OK)

I'll stop ranting now. I'm just really upset.

Hills with 1-800-BIKE RIDE

Click for larger images.

Joyce called Saturday claiming to be 1-800-BIKE RIDE and offering a Sunday filled with climbing. 65 miles and over 5000 feet of up. Who could resist? Not me. We rode through Canyon (I got a flat) then up Grizzly Peak (Joyce had brake issues) and on to Wildcat (It was dark and wet and cold.)

But we actually had fun. Dropping down to San Pablo to and seeing sun was a delight. I'd never climbed Pig Farm from this side. It is... how to say.... up-flippin'-hill.

From there we headed to the Scenic Drive between Martinez and Port Costa, then back to Lafayette. Joyce toasted me. I think could have kept up with her on any one hill, but then I'd have been done for the day.

A good time was had by all.

Lake Tahoe Flume Trail

There is no oxygen (or air in general) above 7000 feet, and therefore little wind resistance. So if one were to fall from three-foot-wide Flume Trail ledge above Lake Tahoe it would be possible to gain amazing speed as one plummeted to ones death.

We had plenty of time to think about this as we rode through the startlingly loose sand and gravel. How far could we fall? Would we hit the lake? Why did we think this was fun?

At least we’d die with the satisfaction of having climbed up to 8156.3 feet. By climbing I mean blowing out our lungs in the rare air, slipping in the loose dirt and occasionally (much to our annoyance) having so little traction we had to get off and push.

But the trail itself , running uphill from Spooner Lake to Marlette Lake, then along an old Flume and eventually to the old Pondarosa Ranch of Bonanza fame has views that make it darn near worthwhile.

Being a roadie at heart I have issues with climbing 1300 feet in 13 miles and having it take 4 hours. Even our on-the-bike time of just over two hours seems amazingly slow.

Note my extra swell K-Mart shirt. I packed the bikes, teh helmets, gloves, shorts, shoes, but somehow missed the jersey. I know I like those rear pockets, but doing without them really showed me how much I use them.

Black Diamond Mines in the dark

The summer is ending for us. We're getting ready for school again. As an end-of-the-season treat Tricia and I... Well, really just me.... thought it sounded like fun to ride through Antioch's Black Diamond Mines area at sunset and then ride home in the dark. I put the knobby-tired wheels on my mountain-bike-turned-commuter bike, charged up the lights and convinced Tricia that fun would occur.

And it was almost fun, in a different sort of way. We're both road cyclists. Our Mountain riding is really trail riding. I never "take it off any sweet jumps," and "technical decent" is not part of my vocabulary. None the less, off we went up the fire trail. The gravel fire trail. The uphill, loose gravel, who-needs-traction fire trail. It wasn't too bad, but having my wheel slip occasionally was disconcerting.

Then, as the light faded we got to the wall.

I swear I remember riding all the way up it in the distant past. Not tonight. It'd steep, but that's OK. What isn't is how loose it is. Between the gravel and the dust not having my wheels just spin became too hard. I ended up pushing. I hate pushing bikes. It feels like a moral failure. I like riding bikes, not taking them for a walk. Yet there I was, pushing slowly in too many spots. By the time we made the ridge the daylight was mostly gone, so we decided to head North and drop down to the road instead of East and back through the park.

All is good, even though descending, even slowly, in the dark with a light was more worrisome than I'd thought it would be we got to the road and started our nice downhill run. Listening to the knobbies hum on the pavement as we floated down was really fun.

Then suddenly I feel psssttttttt, psssttttttt, psssttttttt. I'd puncutured. The rhythmic escape of air as my wheel turned changed to the sound of floppy tire on pavement and I slowed to a stop.

The day had turned night, as in dark, but we had lights. I pulled rear wheel, checked inside the tire for sharp stuff and popped in the new tube, inflated and hopped on. Psssssstttt. I must have missed something; I was flat again.

We gave up. Tricia started riding home and I pushed my bike a mile or so to the park entrance where I waited an hour for her to come back with the car. When I got up the next morning I realized I didn't have my cell phone. Whoops. I rode back to where I thought I might have dropped it, there it was, right in the road, not run over.

Today I'm going to put the skinny commuter wheels back on the bike.

Waves to Wine 2008

It's that time again. Here's hoping all my loyal blog readers (Dad? Tricia?) will see this and help me out on this year's fund raising efforts.

Click this logo to donate to my 2008 Waves to Wine Bike ride.

Seattle to Portland 2008

This year's Seattle to Portland ride was a delight. The weather was warm, and got up to almost 90 at the end of the second day. That's not too warm for those who live in Antioch, CA. We had tail winds both days and were able to average 15.5 on day one and 15.75 on day 2. Tricia was a rock, just rolling along at 18 and 19 for long spurts. At one point she was leading a line of guys in Air Force jerseys. We were rolling!

We had no big adventures, but a couple of small amusements.
The night before the ride Tricia asked "Is your rear wheel supposed to look like that?" and indeed, it wasn't. When I wasn't looking I'd let the rear tire develop some darn near rubberless spots. I'd just oiled our chains and hadn't even noticed. I really would have been pushing things to keep riding on it. Fortunately REI is open until 9PM, and I made it just under the wire.

I did make one other screwball move. As I put cycling clothes out on Saturday night I realized I had no shoes. I'd left them on a table back at the midway point party when we got a ride to our host family's home. They were kind enough to haul me back and my shoes where right where I'd left them. I was contemplating how it would be riding in tennis shoes...but I didn't have to.

But it all worked out really well. Heck, we were hardly tired after the ride.

Now I know what went wrong

I had a tough day cycling the other day and couldn't figure out why for a while. Now I know.

I have Sole inserts, which I like a lot. A few months after I bought them I received an offer for two pair of their socks -- for free. I took them up on it, and the socks seemed very nice. I wore them and enjoyed them.

After my rough day, when I took them off, I noticed they were marked, on the inside, "left" and "right."

Now, I can't see or tell the difference, but apparently my body subliminally knew I was riding with them on the wrong feet! Clearly that was the problem. That's a mistake I'll be sure to never make again.

Case closed.