Hey hey! What a grand day out! I drove down from Boston in my old SAAB with my friend Kevin who's not on the forums. We brought my
René Hubris Ron Cooper, his
René Hubris Nice Nishiki, and my ratty work-in-progress Jack Taylor tandem, equipped with half-splash bar tape, so my stoker can remember which side to fall on.
We did the 20mile "long ride". It began innocently enough, with a slow noodle along a busy road, leaders-in-front. Once we got off the busy road, the leaders gave a little direction and told us to go wild. My buddy Kevin, who has the ACTN3 "sprinter's gene" blew forward off the front, as he often does on rides with me. But we endurance folk reeled him in soon enough, although he continued to surprise us with his attacks. By mid-ride, it was clear who would dominate: a duo on a S&S coupled Bilenky tandem, who really knew how to lug the engine and hold onto gears on climbs. Turns out they'd done PBP a few times. Figures. They set a blistering and increasing pace - we were hitting 50mph on some descents (and a car that passed us got quite a surprise that they had to go 75 to do so) - until only three of us hung on to their wheel, and then only barely. After I saw the cars parked along the road I knew we were close so I let myself get dropped and limped back to Weigle's in cool-down mode. Phew!!
Everybody was a really decent co-rider, nobody was stupid about things, and there were only two mechanical failures (one flat and one Honjo fender failure due to lack-of-washer under fork crown). What a cool group!
I didn't take many pictures on account of my phone camera being basically a potato. Here are the few I took.
