rmikkelsen

A regular ride on a "new" bike. I did my 18 mile spin northeast of Washington DC, on exurban lanes from Aspen Hill to Sandy Spring. The last two days have been perfect for riding. Lots of autumn leaves with a 2-3 hour spell of temperatures near 70.
The bike was an '87 Schwinn Paramount I got mainly for the Delta brakes. The previous owner had used it as for a trainer; he was moving and he sold it to me for a bargain. I put on a new tire and overhauled the bottom bracket it rode like a dream. It is a beautiful route, by the way. It doesn't take long to get into a semi-rural solitude. I was thinking I had it made, until I saw those gorgeous Sierra Nevada pix!

bigbossman 

I've been riding a lot, but haven't posted here in a while. Last Saturday, I went for a 28 mile jaunt in order to get over 3,000 miles for the year. It was a beautiful fall day, about 70 degrees or so with some light overcast that burned off to reveal a pale blue sky.

Here's a quick pic of some cows in a pasture, just off of Doughtery Road in Dublin, CA:

Mariner Fan

I'm thinking about a 50 miler tomorrow. My wife may want to ride so I'll go out with her then go for a real ride after.

cuda2k

Pictures from today's ride with Lotek, Jsharr and Lecterman: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=247618

Fastr Pastr

My buddy and I do a loop from South Sac to Ranch Murrietta and back. It's almost 40 miles with nice shoulders and some minor climbing. Good stuff.

caloso

Today I went on the River Ride, which is a flat fast training ride on the Garden Highway north from downtown Sacramento. I've been going on this ride fairly regularly for the last few years but I normally ride my race bike, a Trek 5200. Today I rode my Caldaro for the first time.

I got a few nice compliments. Including "Look at that steel! Now that's what I'm talking about!"

I've never put a computer on this bike, since I didn't think it went with the classic look. A buddy told me that as we strung it out on the first sprint, we hit 35 mph.

I think my neo-retro steel machine is fast enough to keep up with the CF bikes. And a much smoother ride on the bad pavement too.

bigbossman 

Lined up grandma for a babysitter, and took the wife on a leisurely 38 mile round-trip from San Ramon to Moraga (St Mary's College) and back.

A little cool, a little overcast, a little breezy. But we had a great time, and hit a Starbucks in downtown Danville for a hot cup o' joe on the way back.

Nice......

sonatageek

Friend came down and we did a nice 22 mile round trip up the Towpath Trail into Cleveland. Unbelievably nice weather for riding this late in November in Northeast Ohio.

Yesterday took advantage of the weather and went on the Saturday morning ride sponsored by the Ohio City Bike Coop. Rode past the house where parts of A Christmas Story was filmed. A guy bought the house and set it up just like the movie. The line to get in to that house stretched around the block. He has a company that makes replicas of the leg lamp from that movie.

svt4cam

Took the weekly Sunday ride from Easton Pa to Milford New Jersey for the tasty treats at the baker. Some of the route paralels the Delaware river. The group I ride with always changes up the route from week to week.

bigbossman 

No one's been here for a while, eh?

I've been wanting to go up Mt. Diablo on New Year's Day for a couple of years now, but weather and events have so far been able to conspire against me. Not this year - the weather was 58'ish without clouds and wind, and I had nothing better to do. I conned the wife into going on the ride with me - she was a little more than hesitant as she didn't think she could, but my boyish good looks and overwhelming charm convinced her to give it a go.

I won't bore you with a blow-by-blow account of the climb, but the weather remained stellar and we had a very good time. It started to get a bit windy here and there, but nothing too bad. There was enough bike traffic to make me think someone was paying for folks to ride up there - must be a New Year's tradition with a lot of folks!

It was an 11 mile or so ascent mostly in the 5-8% grade range with a few flatter spots here and there. The last 4.5 miles saw short pitches in the 9-12% range, and the last 1000 feet starts at around 11% and towards the end get to 17% with a brief visit to 20%. These last miles used to be fairly treacherous descent, but new pavement has made it a lot of fun.

Anyway, I've attached some pics for your amusement. I have a 98GB video of the first couple miles of the descent, have a look - it's kind of fun to watch.

My wife on the beginning of the climb, looking down towards Danville on South Gate Road:



Looking down, after about 3-4 miles of climbing:



Oak trees:



My wife, climbing up towards the first ranger station and park entrance:



Close to the top, looking down towards San Ramon:



My wife at the top, just cresting the last 1000' of 17% grade



Proof - the top!!!:



On the way down:

East Hill

Bigbossman, your wife must truly love you to allow you to con her into going up Mt. Diablo. That's a stiff climb, especially if one is not used to it. What are all those people doing up there?

Nice photos, although I still would never live in California again. From now until the end of March is the only green/not hot part of the year...

East Hill

bigbossman 

Check out my little video of the first 2 miles or so going down Diablo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR2LxUsFu-U

CV-6 

What? No speedo shots??? Nice of the first SUV to let you go by.

intron

i think the name of the movie was "Amelie". the girl works in a coffee shop right? anyways, great movie, and i think the main character is a hottie.

cheers
edit: whoops i was reading wrong page

bigbossman 

As for the speed I was going, it was somewhere around 30mph or so - slower behind the truck and faster after he got out of my way.

I have a little table-top tripod that has leges made out of a series of ball and socket joints. You can bend the legs every which way to wrap them around stuff, and so I wrapped them around the handlebar and mounted the camera. The speedo was underneath the camera body in an effort to reduce road vibration induced camera shake. I did not hand hold the camera for obvious reasons , and could not figure out a way to mount it to include both the road and the speedo.

divineAndbright

That looks like a fun place to ride.. dont have anything like that around here! Not to mention looks so nice and warm over there, im dying for spring to come around over here!

raverson

Boyish good looks and overwhelming charm aside, I don't think we can handle a shot of bigbossman in a speedo!

mswantak

Oh, thanks a lot for putting THAT picture in my head...

raverson

Sorry Mike, I just had to.

peterbarson

as an illinois flatlander I say that looks like fun!!
as an amature wrench, I wonder about my skills and whether or not I would bave a twisty mountain road @ 30 mph on my retro bike.

bigbossman 

My top speed of all time was 56.3mph a couple of years ago, achieved on a 27lb 1988 Miyata 215. Smooth like glass......

East Hill

The photographs of this ride were taken on the 3rd of January, but they duplicate WHERE I rode on New Year's day:

Big Soos Creek Trail, all 4.4 miles of it! Big Soos Creek meanders through old farmland, a wetland meadow, and a second growth forest. A lot of fine birding has been done at BSC. I've seen river otters, muskrat, and salmon in the creek. Bald Eagles can be found here in the winter.

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The start from the south (Lake Meridian) end.

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It doesn't look too bad from this angle, but it's quite steep.

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Uh oh, water over the path.

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What are those cones for?

East Hill

Oh, that's why the cones are there!

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Windstorm damage. The cones are where a 150 foot tree was removed from the path. That's the tree on the left.

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Now, remember, I photographed this on the 3rd, but this was my route on the 1st. I did NOT take my other new bike through this!

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Looking back at what I just went through.

The path has made a right angle turn onto the road, then makes another right angle turn back onto the path. The water over the road was about a foot deep.

This is the bike I rode on the 3rd.

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YeeHaw!

East Hill

But this is the bike I actually rode on the 1st!

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Now you know why I did not ride THIS bike on the 3rd!

This was actually the second ride of the day, because I took the mountain bike out for a ride first:

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=256954

East Hill

bigbossman 

Nice photo's - it's a very pretty place. For a second I thought you had aero levers on your mixte.

Buy some fenders........