Mars

Well, sure had an awful last week. For those of you who may have followed it, I got savaged on another thread on this forum. I had a tough work week with a really difficult presentation to fellow faculty members. Ran into "Doug the Thug" twice and he kicked my butt on the road. Then, on Friday, I was riding through a parking lot I cut through and saw a whole bunch of circus trucks parked in it. As I rode by a semi, I heard a hose going and then noticed a streamof water pouring out. Before I really registered what was happening, I rode throught the stream. Well, they were hosing out the elephant truck and I rode through a stream of liquefied elephant dung. It all came together in my head .5 seconds after i roade through the stream and was feeling the spray flying off my wheels onto my back and legs.

So that was last week.

This weekend, though, has taken a dramatic turn for the better. I have bought a new bike. It's an HP Velotechnik Speedmachine. Go the HP Velotechnik web site for pictures if intersted. I can tell you this folks, the Speedmachine really lives up to its name. That bike is a missile

Happy riding everybody!

dave ford

Great news on the new ride Mars, hope it cheers you up a bit, and as for the other thread, there are a few ladies out there that just battle with guys at every chance, but luckily the majority of girls i know are great,cool,enjoy a laugh, and are tough no-nonsense aswell, which is probably what some of these so called 'feminists' lacking in social skills, long to be anyway - i won't bring it up again.

Lovely autumnal ride in today, sunny and around 9 degrees. Traffic was really heavy due to an accident so it was nose-to-tail on every road round here, so, yeah you guessed it i just sailed by with a huge smile - bikes ROCK!

Have a great week all.

tibikefor2

Mars:

Sorry to hear about your "experience". Atleast elephants are not carnivores

My legs were sore for this morning's commute as I did 140 miles in the hills yesterday. It was good ride for me, as I took off a half hour off my best time for that loop. Since my legs were sore I took this morning as a recovery ride.

Hope everyone has a nice week.

tulip

At least it wasn't coming directly from the elephant! No comment on Dave Ford's rant.

Congratulations on your new bike, Mars. I got a new bike, too! Now I can finally go on some road rides out in the country.

I enjoyed this morning's commute. It's time to put on my headlight, but I can't find the mount for it. I'll have to do some serious digging through my bike-junk box.

Marylandnewbie

Mars,

Sorry to hear the other thread turned nasty. The overall topic was a good one considering how few women commute by bike. I guess your Friday experience is a great illustration of the difference between literally and figuratively having a sh**ty week.

Had a nice uneventful ride in this morning. We did a family ride over the weekend and boy do better bikes make a difference. My wife and son were on average 2mph faster with their new (to them) bikes than before. In some stretches they were really flying. It gives me renewed confidence that bike camping will actually work for us.

We also discovered that MUP really stands for Morons Using Path. It was the first time I've ever ridden the busy section of the MUP on a nice weekend. It was wall to wall with people -- about half of whom thought they were the only ones on the path. Kids riding all over, people walking 4 and 5 abreast, casual bikers passing on the right. You name a stupid thing and chances are you could find somebody doing it. The MUP is usually so nice on commuter days, that I was amazed at how many inconsiderate people could show up to use it on a weekend. I think w'll be trying other trails for future family rides.

rainedon

YES! Nice work tibike. I love to hear about distance.

I just looked more closely at your moniker. Don't tell me you have a litespeed tandem? I saw one of those the other day and picked it up. It seemed like it weighed about the same as my roadbike.

tibikefor2

rainedon:

When my wife and I got engaged, she decided that she did not want an engagement ring, so we got a Santana Ti tandem with a serial number of 101. The first one is for the small size and 01 is the frame number. The weight is about 32 lbs. I am lucky as she was a Cat 2 racer when we met. Most times she would place better than me in our training crit series.

I am trying to peak for the Death Valley Double Century on October 29th. Atleast I get to spend a day in Las Vegas or Lost Wages before we drive out to Death Valley.

If you like to ride mountains and distance PacTour at www.pactour.com has some interesting 1 week camps in the Spring. My wife and I will be doing the Mountain Tour Week.

Marylandnewbie

Tibike -- good to see that birds of a feather flock together or you'd be out of luck. Or I suppose on the downside we could just be seeing and addict and his enabler You are indeed a lucky man!

Actually I think I may be slowly turning my wife into a biking convert. She'll probably never be a commuter, for a variety of reasons, but she's really getting into the family rides. I'm certain she won't be nuts enough to ride during the winter like I'll be doing, but around here the snowy season is pretty short. It certainly has made it easier to convince her to invest in some biking paraphrenalia.

tibikefor2

Newbie:

Congrats on the converting your wife to the "Dark Side", it will make your life much easier.....

JavaMan

Mars - What a bike! Where's "Doug the thug" going to hide now? Vincit omnia celeritas! Hope this is a great week for you.

tibikefor2 - Your Sunday ride was more than I rode all week! If I did 140 miles in one day, a lot more than my legs would be sore! Sounds like you could do a double now.

This weekend I removed my chain, cassette and chainrings and cleaned everything on my bike. That plus a new set of tires, and the bike looks beautiful! No riding for me today - brought clothes and food to work in my car.

jur

Marylandnewbie: Same here - SWMBO is a lot fitter already and managed to convince me to give her the HR monitor/cycle computer I got for myself! She wears it every time we go out for a ride, and keeps her HR at 160 or so. ($50 Oz on ebay, it works really well.) She has me over a barrel, so to speak - no more nagging from me to "put a bit of effort into it, dear", she just points to her HR of 160, effectively silencing me. Knowing the speed, distance and time is also very interesting to her. I can recommend it.

Gusboh

Hello all. VLC was pleasant the last two days. Only one near hit (good for Sydney)

Mars - Congrats on the bike mate, can't wait until the Mrs. lets me upgrade. Something about the mortgage being more important?

Cyclaholic

I haven't dropped in to the VLC thread for a while so I thought I'd come in and say hi to my fellow VLC'ers.

I had a great ride last Saturday, did Sydney-Newcastle, 100 miles in 5 1/2 hours, stayed at a friend's place and we did 50 miles on Sunday just for the hell of it.

A d!ckhead almost took me out this morning by turning left from the right lane and almost wiping me out (we drive on the left here in Oz). Luckily I was also turning the same way and for some reason anticipated his boneheaded move. Ofcourse there was a red light waiting for us just 80 yards away.

On a happier note, I scored a set of Profile aerobars on Saturday (my buddy just didn't want them any more), they went straight onto my recently built Surly LHT. They're taking a bit of getting used to but during this morning's commute I held 25 - 26 mph in the aeros' where I was previously pushing hard at 19 - 20 mph. Gotta be happy with that!

All that is left now is to find my nemesis. I haven't seen him for a while but sooner or later I will, oh yes, because this rail trail just aint big enough for the two of us..... MUAHAHAHAAAA

Longhorn

I'm getting a little braver every day. When I get back on the highway to ride the last quarter of a mile to the left going into my neighborhood, I've been able to cross two lanes (after waiting for a big gap in the traffic) and take the center turning lane, then turn left. So tomorrow when I go back, instead of riding .2 of a mile against traffic on another stretch of that highway, I'm going to take the center lane (this time, I turn onto the highway via a traffic signal) and make the unprotected left onto another back road. Small steps!

I also figured out that I wasn't experiencing thermal cut-outs of my motor but some sort of short or loose connection in my throttle. I'll have to take it in Friday (still under warranty) but I think I'll be okay until then. Jiggling it seems to get it working again.

I can tell a big difference in how I feel after a ride these days. The last few weeks, especially after the ride home in the heat, I was feeling exhausted. Today, I had that euphoric feeling you get after good exercise. It was still hot -- low 90s -- but I think my body is adjusting to the 14.5 miles. There was a time when I half dreaded the ride, though I was always glad I did it. Now I am truly looking forward to it!

Marylandnewbie

Sounds like everyone (well maybe with the exception of Mars) is having a great VLC. This seems like the best time of year for riding here in the northern hemisphere.

Longhorn -- congrats on you new found boldness. It also sounds like you're turning inot quite a gear head as well.

Jarery

I started the week to a dark rainy morning commute.
Hour ride in the rain, although it turned to a drizzle not long after i left the house.

Got to work, then once finally infused with enough java, I ordered a new bike. Should get it early October. And yes i'll post pics when it arrives

Cyclaholic

I just did and OMG!! Mars, that is one SEXY bike!!! congrats buddy, you *must* brag about your top & average speeds here for us to enjoy vicariously at least . I'm guessing somewhere around warp 9.8 where a little onboard recorder starts playing "aye cannah give ye any morr capt'n, I'm givin' ye all shes gooot"

Jenifer

Hello everyone! I haven't been posting much lately either -- mostly due to my online time being taken up by Katrina-related news, email, etc. (I have friends and family down there). And last week I didn't bike at all, because I torched my quads and calves on an 11-mile hike. I posted about that over in the Training & Nutrition forum; the pain was unbelievable all week.

Well, that was just incentive to get in even better shape. So yesterday, on the bike ride home, I did a few sessions of riding as hard as I could for a mile or so, then recovering, then doing it again. I want to be able to ride a 50-mile charity ride on October 1st...

Anyway. This really is the best time of year for biking, at least in New England. Yesterday I saw a sugar maple tree turning colors in earnest -- beautiful! The air was cool and sweet, and in a few wooded areas I caught the scent of wild Concord grapes. An old barn in Weston is being renovated; on a whim, I stopped and chatted with the guy working on it, and he said he was helping his father turn the barn into a house.

Good to be back in the saddle again!

JavaMan

We had lightning and thunder all night long! - a rare event in Southern California.

I could not bring myself to ride my super-squeaky-clean-and-detailed bike on wet roads today. I know some of you are probably laughing at this, but I don't like to ride in the rain. That makes two days in a row without riding. On the plus side, I am enjoying full recovery (another rare event) with a resting HR of 47-48 this morning. It even dipped down to 44 a couple of times!

Anyway, I'm anxious to get back in the saddle tomorrow.

TheDL

Man...it's amazing what ya miss if you don't post on Mondays.

Commutes on Friday and Monday were fine. I saw more commuters on bike yesterday than I had seen all year. No riding over the weekend or today either. I go in to the doc's tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get a clean bill o' health so I can keep my plans to hike up the South Sister Mountain this weekend.

jur

Tomorrow I have to take a client out to dinner, so I can't ride my bike in - you won't believe how sulky I am! I used to jump at chances like these.

Mars

Well, took the new bike on the first commute today. Since I have an official invitation to brag here are my times. To work, 19 miles in 51 minutes. Home again, 55 minutes with a very strong crosswind. folks, this bike is a missile Now, where is Doug the Thug, time for some payback!!

tulip

When did it decide to get dark early? Yesterday? I got stuck in the dark without a light. I didn't leave any later than usual, but we must have crossed that sunset threshold in the last day or two. Luckily I had my bright safety vest and a blinkie. Now if I can just find that Trail Rat mount for my bars...

EDIT: I almost forgot--my new road bike arrived today!

Gusboh

Jesus. H. Christ.

Understatement of the month.

Glad i don't live near you, you'd be calling me a hottie every single day.

Or is it fattie?

jur

Whoa.

Do you have long stretches where you can just go? Or does it include starting/stopping?

It's the engine. V12 supercharged or something.