Trsnrtr

A lady friend of ours has recently separated from her SO and took their custom, five figure tandem in the parting of ways. The lady has asked my wife if she would captain for her which my wife has done before.

Last time, they dropped our group and we never saw them until 5 miles down the road high-fiving and laughing their little rear ends off.

BillyD

Had some company on my ride today. Our very own @RollCNY came down to the Hudson Valley and we grabbed the opportunity to do a ride together.
I was anxious to humble him and his SS steed on our grueling HV hills in this neck of the woods.

Before getting serious, though, we both took a minute to check our stocks and make some adjustments. You know, priorities.


He tried to pull away from me on the flats, but as usual I just reeled him right in. You can see here "the Masher" is a little low on gas, looking over his shoulder in despair.


Here we are on the Hudson River Walkway, with the Mid-Hudson Bridge in the background.



In all seriousness we had a very nice and leisurely ride, the only kind I'm capable of this time of the season. Roll was kind enough to have mercy on me . . . he could have crushed me any time he wanted . . . you know, kind of like a cat toying with a mouse.

It was great to get to know Roll in person, and I'm looking forward to our next ride opportunity. We had a fun good day.

Rowan

Short, to the point, and story of the week!!!

LesterOfPuppets

He's certainly looking vulnerable. You shoulda 53x11'ed that sorry sap

Heathpack 

Ok, so just home from a pretty cool cycling experience.

I was supposed to do a climbing ride today up Mt Baldy with a friend who is a good descender. We were going to use it as a descending clinic. The new wheels/tires/brake pads have resulted in huge improvement in descending for me, the cornering is just that much better, now I really want to get good at it. But big storm rolling through the San Gabriel Mts today, the ride was a no-go.

Same storm caused snow and ice up in Big Bear Lake, which is where the time trials for the Tour of California were supposed to take place. Yesterday at the last minute, they moved the TT to Santa Clarita, which is where I live. One of my Nightcrawler friends got an email that they needed volunteers for anti-doping duties, we both signed up.

So I rode the Magic Bike over to Magic Mountain, which was the start/finish location. The gig was we would each get assigned a finishing place and we had to stay with that person 100% of the time, from the finish of the race until their urine sample was collected. Your person could do whatever they wanted, they just had to do it within eyesight of you. So if they went into their team van, you'd go into their team van, etc.

Randomly, I get assigned the first place finisher. Who ultimately turned out to be Evie Stevens. Not only did she win today's TT, this was the last day of racing for the women and she won the overall Tour. She was so excited and, lol, at first I was the only person there with her, so I was the one she had to share it with. I had to stay with her for her three visits to the podium, all her post-ride interviews, signing autographs, talking to her coach, Jens Voight coming up to congratulate her, going back to the car with her mother-in-law-to-be, deciding how they will fit both bikes in the car, etc. She was very apologetic to me that it was all taking so long, even tried to give me some homemade biscotti. I just kept telling her not to worry about it, to take her time & enjoy her moment. All that was about an hour and then I finally get her to the anti-doping trailer and they are tied up with someone else, so they ask me to sit with her until they get her checked in. She pulls out her phone & obviously has a hundred texts and voice mails. Again apologizing for being so rude to be texting while I am sitting there. OMG, I'm telling her, don't mind me, everyone wants to get in touch with you I'm sure. Haha, she agrees that you are much more popular when you win, she hasn't been winning lately, it's just a great feeling, she's on top of the world. Totally charming and lovely person, I could not have been happier for her myself.

Finally the anti-doping people cut me loose. Part of the volunteer gig was a VIP pass, free lunch and alcohol, a good view of the finish line. I go meet up with my Nightcrawler friend and we have lunch and then halfway watch the finishes. But also just running into everyone in town who rides a bike and seems to be playing hooky from work today. Lots of fun but I got cold and left just as the last of men were finishing. The women's winner was just so awesome, I didn't even care about the men, with their team trucks and staff of attendants and entourages vs my winner, down from NoCal with just her coach and her MIL and their SUV stuffed to the gills.

Very interesting day, good consolation prize for missing a ride. I'm really itching for something too, I'm freakishly rested for me. So I have enough in my bank, we're just going to pre-ride the entire Heartbreak Hundred route tomorrow, rather than scout a part of it, as we had originally planned.

Heathpack 

Nice ride, @RollCNY and @BillyD

FLvector

Nice ride and pics! Looks like a beautiful area to ride. Always nice to share a ride with fellow BF'ers.

FLvector

Sounds like a wonderful experience and a fun day.

3alarmer

...most people don't ever get such a firtshand experience at the difference between men's and women's professional bike racing. It's embarrassing, really, but it's the way it is.

The girl racers are almost to a woman much more personable and enjoyable to engage with than teh menz. They travel as you have described, are always scrambling for sponsor money, and their mechanical support is usually whomever they can enlist locally, because AFAIK, there are no team budgets and team mechanics. In your woman's champ case, her team mechanic might be her mother-in-law.

Sounds like a very enjoyable event experience.

BillyD

Alltheway?

Thanks, we had fun.

Doug28450

I could come to Peoria and ride the tandem with you. My wife could ride with your wife and we could watch them drop us like a bad habit.

rjones28 

So, I'm going to be done in by an inflamed female pelvic organ?

Doug28450

Beware, it might fall on you?

RPK79

I bit the bullet on a "used" 2014 Fuji Track singlespeed for my daughter. Apparently some guy bought it and decided he wanted gears so traded it in to Erik's for almost nothing even though they put so few miles on it they didn't even wear the mold line off the center of the stock tires.

So, $280 later I got this bad boy for my daughter!



...now I'm going to go check out the ultegra thread and see if I helped push it over the edge.

RPK79

Looks like it went P&R and went south. People gotta learn not to go there!

RollCNY

Home from my field trip (pick up the boy from college), and side jaunt to meet @BillyD. The walkway over the Hudson was very cool. A good day indeed.

Velo Vol 

I checked on the other wheel when I was having flats. No. That wouldn't explain a post-ride spontaneous combustion, either.


Correct.

It's getting dry and dusty here. Much coughing during lawn mowing operations.

I didn't have a problem with them before.

So he really is a SS nut.

Nice bridge.

rjones28 

ditto

Velo Vol 

wut

rjones28 

3alarmer

...you cannot flaunt Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies on the internet. It's a scientific law, for goodness sake.

3alarmer

...the weather's been very strange here for this late in the year. I think it snowed 4-6 inches up in the Northern sierra near here yesterday.

rjones28 

User error.

3alarmer

...I think I'm gonna move to Nevada, because other legal intervention sounds preferable to hyperplasia of the prostate.

3alarmer

...perhaps I should be more direct in my advice. Here is a parable:

Once upon a time, a bicycle cycle ryder in California, who had many, many bicycles (because he loved and cherished them), rode a lot on Specialized tyres. He knew that Specialized Bicycle Components, Inc was an evil company, run by the Anti-Chryst, but he was tyght with a buck, and had pretty good luck with their tyres for a long tyme. Then, in a short but memorable tyme he experienced several fabric separation related blowouts whyle ryding on his bicycle cycles.

He stopped buying his tyres from Specialized, and there was peace and prosperity throughout the kingdom of California, except for the drought. The end.