Leaving Hibernation

A lack of posting here is maybe a good thing. I’ve been busy. The end of last year concluded with me riding each of my 5 bikes around some of my favorite locales in San Francisco (after riding each bike >1,000 miles each in 2011). Since then I have put in my 10 longest rides since I started keeping track. A few extended weekend tours and a good amount of taking the slicks to dirt have kept me busy through the summer.

One selection from the road (near Waldport, OR)

For now the big news is that I decided to join the Mad Alchemy / Verge Grassroots Cycloross team. I guess I won’t get to enjoy the team tent, but hopefully the power of embrocation will be sufficient. Anyway, cyclocross training is underway, and hopefully I’ll start updating this more…

I am the Champions!

Early in the year, I decided that I wanted to do more in 2011 than 2010. I also wanted to keep doing a lot of different kinds of riding and make the most of my bike collection. Hence my 5 grand goal – 1000 miles on 5 different bikes. One bike to look pretty and have hard to replace components, one to carry all sort of stuff, one bike to not have anything stolen off it, one to ride on anything, and a last bike to ride anything with a single gear.

Can you guess which is which (note: I snapped a frame this year)

Well I did it today. I am super proud to make this happen and possibly more on that later. More importantly, a New Years Eve day extravaganza of my favorite SF rides is in the works – likely culminating in a butter lap with my panniers full of beer (at least to start). Come join me.

Going Away “Party”

At my friend Alex’s going away party last weekend, too far into the night, we decided that one last ride together needed to happen. Originally, this was going to be a morning ride of Mt Tam, but evolved into a ride from Stanford where he formerly worked. Without much thought (or knowledge of the rides throughout the peninsula), I agreed to his proposed loop including Page Mill and Tunitas Creek. With the simple description “it will kill us. i promise”, how could I say no?

Oh my God, we’re all going to die

This morning’s ride was a bit interesting. It all starts with the fact I left the bar at last call yesterday and woke up with around 7 because I left the shades drawn. Sleep deprived and dehydrated always a good start to the day.

Originally I had planned doing paradise loop, but I did not realize my own strength and snapped the cable to the front derailleur when it wasn’t shifting and I tried to “help” it along. So I decide to divert to headlands. Everything is fine, i get to the top of the climb no issues… It’s beautiful (also crap phone camera):

I start down the descent and get outside my comfort zone very quickly. Basically I’m not a fast descender anyway and the majesty of whether the delta brakes will fully function is still in the back of my mind. So I turn back and notice that the front brake is rubbing against the tire. Apparently in the 20 seconds down the steep way the brake had shifted its way down (something I had noticed during last ride and adjusted for before this one). I guess the shear of braking just pulls on it enough to get it to shift down. So I’ve got a cable to replace and an urgent need to make that front delta brake stay put.

Then the last bit of fun is my attempt to go through Lands End past the Legion of Honor to the cliff house, but the small road shown on google maps is part a road and part a gravel/dirt path. Road bikes (and me riding one) aren’t too fond of such things. I ended up cutting up on a path that led to the VA hospital and just giving up and heading home. Still managed 20-ish miles. Alright.