kbjack

Beautiful shots--makes me miss the SW something fierce.

I've been doing more path/dirt road riding on the cross bike this year...it's addictive (and it's ideal for SE Michigan where the paved roads are little better than Khyber Pass chipseal).

mkeller234

Finally, a new page!

Old Fat Guy

Today we did Bartlett Lake. No ride pics, but a couple of bike pictures.

Barry1021 rode his absolutely stunning Merck 7-11



I was aboard my trusty AZ De Rosa



b21 had to leave his new ride home, because he didn't have a big enough cog on the cassette



Three fantastic builders: Eddy, Ugo and Carl



We did an out and back from his place to Bartlett Lake


This is the one way profile, obviously, the way back involves a fair bit of climbing from the turnaround


It was a fantastic ride on another perfect day. I feel GREAT!(b21's hot tub and pool helped, and Mrs OFG joined us for the water portion)

Tomorrow we are back down doing the Froot Loops around Paradise Valley, Friday a short ride from b21's before he has to head back East. I have about 10 days left here before I return to Ann Arbor, and potholes and rainy days.

due ruote 

30 miles or so north of Chicago. Couldn't resist this shot. 1973 Raleigh Gran Sport with an unfortunate paint job, fortunately masked by the lo-res photo.

cycleheimer

I put my 40-something-year-old body on my 50-something-year-old English trekking bike, and then rode about 25 miles on the Bronx River Parkway in lower Westchester County, New York. Westchester County closes the Parkway off to motorists from 10 am to 2 pm on Sundays during the months of May, September and October. Cyclists can ride from Yonkers, New York up to White Plains, New York. The Bronx River Parkway, as I understand it, was the first parkway in the U.S. It is very scenic. Definitely was worth the trip there for me.

bigbossman 

Earlier in the week, I conned Bikingshearer to plan a ride for us. Tired of riding in the same old 'hood, I wanted something different. Rich came up with a wonderful 50 mile loop out through the coastal hills to the coast and back. It turned out to be a great route on many levels - good roads, great scenery, and nice weather. Well, actually the temps did climb a bit toward the end, but had we stayed inland we would have fried - turns out a little heat wave rolled into town Saturday, and we're "enjoying" close to (and in some spots) triple digits.

Anyway, we started off with a brisk but not too long climb and then began the ride in earnest, rolling through the rural ranch-land west of Petaluma. Another climb, a stop at The Cheese Factory, and then more cruising through bucolic farm/ranch-land. It was really quite nice.

Eventually, we came to a little something known locally as the Marshall Wall. This is a fun bit of pavement that starts at around 12% or so, continues up to a false summit, turns left and proceeds to another false summit, and then turns right and eases off to 8 or 9% while traversing a ridge line to the (more or less) real summit. after that, it a little down, a little up, and then a plunge to U.S. HWY 1.
About 1/3 of the way up Rich breaks his chain. Ugh. But wait - Rich has a chain tool! So, we fix it and move on.

Turning left, we followed the coast line of Tomales Bay, where the San Andreas Fault submerges and heads out to sea, to the town of Pt. Reyes Station. A few miles down the road, Rich's RD starts to go into the spokes, but catches it in time and avoids catastrophic damage. We curse, inspect, and move on. A few miles later, I hear more invective behind me - this time the RD went "all in", destroying itself, the wheel, and bending the rear dropout for good measure. The bike is a fatality, and Rich is now on foot.

He ended up getting a ride to the nearest town while I scooted for the car some 15-20 miles distant. By the time I got back to the car it was in the mid-90's and I was pretty gassed, but the a/c and some cool liquid refreshment sorted me out pretty quickly. I loaded up, went back for Rich, and we called it a day.

It was really too bad about all the mechanicals, because we couldn't have asked for a better ride route on that day. It really was a nice day to be out and about on a bike, and it was a shame that it was marred by Rich's bike self-destructing.

A few pics:

In the beginning - morning light on a hill full of wildflowers:


An old church in Nicasio:


A nice ranch:


Looking up the first 3rd of the Marshall Wall:


Looking down the wall, about half way up. Thre is a little speck of yellow in there somewhere on the road(Rich):


That's Rich down there in the yellow, fooling with his broken chain:


Down the other side, at the Hwy 1 junction. This is the last known photo of Rich's bike, alive. Rich - not so much:


Tomales Bay oyster farm, looking northeast. The San Andreas Fault lies under the water:


Another shot of the bay, looking south:


Headed south, going home:

cudak888 

Taking a breather (and also to do some quick spot truing) at Bike Miami 7 - sorry, no other photos:



-Kurt

scozim 

No photos - always seem to forget the camera. 46 miles on the 84 Gitane Sprint (the middle 28 being our weekly group ride) and then the distance to and from my house/starting point. Flatted again this week on the rear and think it may be a case of moving rim tape. I have put 156 miles on the bike in the past 9 days and, despite the two flats, am having an absolute blast with it.

billew

On my ride a while ago I stopped to take a shot of bike history.

[IMG]http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee309/billlewis_photos/SANY0034.jpg[/IMG]

michaelwc

It wasn't today but Friday. It really was the longest straight section of the 20 miles I did. 6.8 miles from the Cleveland Public Library to central Lakewood. I was checking the ride for a friend who's going to try commuting. Pardon the phone cam.

West 9th waiting at the crosswalk. (without a helmet i stick the sidewalk at mega intersections)


The approach to the Detroit-Superior bridge.


Crossing (I really wish I would have stayed in the road)


The view (I promise, in person it's better)


Nifty little rest area on the left


Bike salmon at W. 95th


They're watermelons


More on this guy here


Took the train back home to the east side and saw these guys waiting for their owners to come home


Yea I copped out and took the train home. It was 15 miles and I got a little ...winded after meeting my girlfriend at her place. It was a good day.

Amani576

-Gene-

YoKev

Not riding any vintage stuff, but the scenery was amazing! My sister and I went for a Sunday ride at Mohonk Preserve...

View looking south towards Ellenville


View from the tower looking NW over Catskills. Lots of Haze unfortunately...

joe v

The colour of that frame!

Amani576

My ride was just work and back. Ride to work was "meh" . I don't talk about work. The ride home, though. After adjusting my Brooks tilt and height, I headed out. Saddle was still a little high, so I stopped at the top of a small hill. I'd never noticed how pretty it is till today. Well, dropped my saddle bout' 1/8", stood over it, put my foot in my clips and got going..
PERFECT! It was like a hallelujah how perfect my saddle felt. I think I now know why so many people love their Brooks saddles.
I really need to take some pics of around here, though...
-Gene-

cycleheimer

The Cycleheimstress and I took advantage of the great weather today by going for a ride. This lake was along our route.

cudak888 

What is left of the color on that frame...

-Kurt

banjo_mole 

Where did I ride today?

72.5 miles, to be exact. So: I figured I've needed a break from life, so Memorial day would be a
great day to do a loop. I decided to ride from my home to a place called Huasna that I'd never seen
or heard of before, until I saw a speck of a name on Google Maps. Google gave me a path there.

From there, I'd ride out to Arroyo Grande for a vintage bike shop (with a NIB Campy 50'th! ) a
vintage guitar shop (and fiddles and banjos) and coffee, followed by a ride on the Pacific Coast
trail to Guadalupe for Romo's, the WORLD'S BEST BURRITO, (east coast people put wierd stuff in
their burritos, I'm glad I live in SoCal) and then home.

But that plan failed.

The road to Huasna was all fenced and private.
(Being a fan of Woody guthrie, I ignored this, and)
I got lost in the mountains, and on the way down was informed that there was no way to
Huasna on that road.

This, of course, frustrated me a lot. There went my fun loop ride plan.

So on the way back, my tire flats, adding insult to injury.

Patch: no problem.

Pumping up the tire, my inner tube stem just snaps, and I don't have another.

I end up walking a few miles (of course I'm with my buddy cole) and we hitchike with a guy named
Michael, a screenplay writer going our way, he drops us off at a bike shop back home in Santa
Maria.

Fix the tire. Square one again.

So we decide, at 3'o clock, that we'd go to Pismo Beach.

On route, the tire flats again- I couldn't figure why.

We go knock on a door and ask for a bucket-

lo and behold: a bad inner tube!

I patch the d@mn thing, and finally get to pismo.

Mmm, great clam chowder...

And ride the Pacific Coast trail home.

-I hitchhiked.
-I rode through the woods.
-I rode through the hills.
-I sunburned my knees.
-I saw pretty girls.
-I had two flats and a snapped inner tube valve.
-I was attacked by a dog while exploring towards Huasna.
-I met a beautiful bulldog like my own when going to the beach.

Not exactly a relaxing break of a day, but a good ride, and at 72 miles/116 kilometers, it was fun.

Pictures, of the ride from home towards Huasna.
After that, frustrated, I failed to take cheery pictures every five minutes.

Highlights:

The turn onto the CA-166, the "Highway of Death. See why when you drive or ride it...


My friend Cole's bike, done at last: (and hastily rigged with a water bottle via tape)


Me, and the bike, haphazardly rigged up for "light touring:"


Blurred shot. Call it an "action shot," although it's just bad photography:


My favorite picture of the ride: (Cole sure looked less dorky than I, but after 50 miles I was doing much better than he)


Lost in the hills, chased by dogs, tired... :


Cute dog I met at the beach:


And, of course, the too-big picture of the ride as a whole:


Allow me to apologise for the size of the final picture.

What a day! *harumpf!*

-Nick

jan nikolajsen 

Sounds like a great day to me. The smoothly executed trips are quickly forgotten, while adventure and toil remain as a lasting memory. And, for some people, adventure and toil becomes fuel to cope with an otherwise trivial existence. I know, been there!

Or maybe one would live longer if adhering to the opposite view, in the words of the great Roald Amundsen: Adventure is nothing but bad planning.

banjo_mole 

"Adventure is nothing but bad planning?"

I like that!

I love adventure as a whole, I think it would be pleasantly ironic if I made this my life motto.

Which I am considering.

(And my "harumpf!" was a good one!)

-Nick

Tigerprawn

Gorgeous pictures everyone! I'm living vicariously through all of you while I heal up. More stories and pictures to keep me sane!

@ OFG Great pictures! Looks like an incredible place to ride around

@ BigBossMan you always take such awesome pictures! I know we're not too far away from eachother (or are we?) but I need to make a trip to your riding spots!

@ Banjo looks like it was an awesome ride despite the snags... I would endure 100 popped tubes just to ride a few miles right now .

Whelp now that I've wiped the drool from my face... My g/f and I went to lake Shasta with her family this holiday weekend. Great fun... except, I was the only one who didn't bring my bike due to my fractured collar bone! ARGH! My only consolation prize was a glass of gentlemen Jack on the rocks to ease the pain of not being able to ride around such a beautiful place.

Everyone took a ride down to the lake shore. I drove.



Close up of my g/f's recently acquired Nishiki



Lovey dovey pic

jan nikolajsen 

Finally got some wheels that allow the odd dirt road to be traversed safely. So, with that new
acquisition in the drop-outs, I turned right at the bottom of the driveway to head up in the mountains
for a great loop ride, instead of going to town.

There's only a few more houses up there before it turns to dirt and starts to climb steeply. The
conifers are thick here on the shaded side of the valley, and the creek was loud, rushing with spring
run off. Soon I got to Hornet Draw, where a few years ago a family of black bears took residence,
waiting for the berries to ripen. No sighting today, which was good because I forgot the air horn.
You don't want to sneak up on those beasts.

Steadily I climbed, over washboards, rocks and loose dirt, to the high saddle 11 miles out. The ascend
to here is about 3200' so I was a little rubbery in the legs when finally putting feet to the ground.
On the other side of the divide is where the wolves hang out. But they roam too, as wolves do,
so hopefully they're out hunting somewhere else. Last week they were down in our backyard, probably
having their eyes on our old dog!

After a rather longish break I rolled over to the descent, down the far side. This is a good one. While I
really like grinding up steep dirt roads, my tolerance for bumpy, jittery downhills is very low. But here
there's only 4 miles of that torture before you get to a long single lane paved descent with no traffic. It
snakes steeply thru the forest via hairpins and banking corners. Too soon I arrived at river level, but way
upstream. Several more miles of solitary riding ensued before the first vacation cabins appeared. Still
hadn't seen a car today.

35 miles from the start I got to our small town and filled my bottles, before taking the county road the
last ten miles home. A favorite loop of mine this one, and a ride I've been missing since I sold the LHT last
fall. The 650A wheels on an old roadbike makes it possible again.



I used to ride across the cattle guards, no problem. Then I started wondering how a slightly loose
stem might change that experience to the worse..


The top.


Came from way down there at the end of the valley.


Early one morning last week a friend took this picture behind our cabin. The wildflowers are balsam root, and that's a wolf.

mkeller234

^ Wolves, bears.... no thanks, only wussie Ice cream type rides for me!

I went on a nice group ride on memorial day, 11 people, most from bikeforums. We rode about 30 miles through the rolling countryside and had ice cream along the way. I hope halfbent doesn't mind me posting a couple of his pictures over here.

I am in the upper left, in the maroon shirt sporting a cheese-tastic smile:


Afterwords, sitting around pretending to stretch:


I need to start remembering my camera!

banjo_mole 

Jan,I must politely disagree with you-Long, bumpy, rocky, rickety dirt mountain descents on an old road bike are probably my favorite thing ever.-Nick

jan nikolajsen 

Masochist you are.

cuda2k

Finally, after being loaned to me far far too long ago to admit by a way too patient BF's member, I finally got the San Marco Regal saddle mounted on the Gazelle A-Frame for a test ride. After riding the Rolls for a while, I've decided it's just not for me, and am hoping the Royal with it's slightly wider rear stance will be a better fit. And after the first 24mi, I'll have to say it's looking good so far for this saddle. I need to play with the camera less and do a harder ride on it next go around to be sure before really throwing the Rolls for Royal trade offer out there. Till then, here's a few photos from today's ride as I was playing with the camera:









More here: https://picasaweb.google.com/cuda67/RidePhotos2009#