zukahn1 

A day above freezing today after 10 days or so of below freezing highs and sub zero lows in Colorado. So I took just a short ride to town on the SS Nishiki.





still pretty cold.

bironi

Good on you, that still looks bleak!

gaucho777 

Just my daily commute. Yesterday it rained and I took my bike with fenders. Today was shorts weather with just a t-shirt and thin shell on top.

cooperryder

I managed to get in a dozen miles yesterday when the temp got up to 40.

This beautiful fountain was still completely frozen from three 12 to 25 degree days.

obrentharris 

Tomales Bay


Tomales


Chileno Valley - Hay! It's lunch time.


Brent

cooperryder

I think it got up to mid 50's yesterday and I was thankful to get in a 15 mile ride on my Gary Fisher.

That same fountain had not thawed much if any in the warmer temps

Now another cold front hit and it's only 32 or so for the high with a 19 mph wind giving a wind-chill of 22.

I may pass on a ride today.

Yesterday's pictures.

zukahn1 

Nice Sunny day today in the mid 40's after several weeks of cold and snow. Took the Schwinn MTB out for a short ride on the back roads and bike trail around Fairplay. Actually saw some dry pavement in a few places.

djkashuba 

My standard 40 mi loop on the winter rig trying to get into shape between the rains. Really liking the 38mm gravel kings.


1-22-24 by djk762, on Flickr


1-22-24 by djk762, on Flickr


1-22-24 by djk762, on Flickr


1-22-24 by djk762, on Flickr


1-22-24 by djk762, on Flickr

curbtender

I was told there is a new Vista on the bay trail on Yerba Buena/Treasure Island. I didn't find that but made it down to the pier near the Coast Guard station. Nice designer furniture, lol. It would make a great lunch stop on a group ride.

rols229

In the parking lot beside my building, as I just got a new old bike yesterday and I wanting to check out how it is shifting and if my first setup is good.

bironi

My good riding buddy went an hour+ out of his way to avoid driving over that span.
I like the bridge, but understand his trepidation.
Very nice pics.
Thanks.

northbend 

Cool, wet and breezy all day in North Bend, I tossed the bike in the car and drove west out of the foothills to Issaquah to ride for a couple of hours in the afternoon yesterday.
Cool and invigorating, it was one of those days where you could see the bands of rain squalls coming and kind of estimate how long they'd last.
I rode north along the East Lake Sammamish trail with a rain squall slowly catching up with me before I reached the northern end of the lake.
Took refuge in the Black Raven Brewery sipping on a Stout until the squall passed. It was dry for the return back to the car.
Only 30 flat miles, you take what you can get at this time of the year :-)
dodging squalls on the east lake sammamish trail by Matthew Pendergast, on Flickr

cooperryder

Pic from 2 days ago.
Warmer temps finally melted the ice on this previously frozen fountain shown on my last two posts so it's flowing again.

I hope to get out again today in 50 degree weather.

RCMoeur 

With the kind of 2024 I've had so far, my mileage is nearly nonexistent, the stress level is stratospheric, and the wonderful cool weather taunts me through the windows. But today, after a particularly trying morning and early afternoon, I said "forget it, it's time to ride." So I got out the Nashbar "Alumispeedy" cantilever-frame bike and decided it was time to see whether the 1x9 "frankencassette" I'd recently built would perform on some serious hills.

The eastbound leg through Moon Valley and past the wreckage of Paradise Valley Mall was pure chamber-of-commerce stuff - some not-too-tough climbs, some easy coasting descents, sunny skies, a perfect temperature, and a nice tailwind. I was feeling rather strong considering my lack of mileage, knowing that a lot of it was the breeze and grade and not my untested legs.

Made it out to the east side of Mummy Mountain in fine time. I decided to tackle a serious climb right off, so I turned right on Hummingbird and pedaled up to where the asphalt goes steeply up the hillside. I knew this climb all too well from my racing days mumblesomething years ago, but I hadn't actually visited this lil' hill in, um, decades.


And so I attacked, and was rewarded by a very responsive bike under me, with the cassette nailing every tough uphill shift. And at the top of the first visible climb, my body said "Hey, remember the 'haven't ridden much' stuff?"... and so I took in the scenic view as my lungs recovered a teeny bit.



Oh wait - there's more climbing, isn't there?



I survived this lil' test, enjoyed the descent, and then turned face to another familiar, short, but super-steep climb up Desert Vista. The top of this particular hill was where I met what I thought to be the most amazing woman of my dreams over three decades ago - but alas that particular relationship was a disaster in many ways. But at least I could get some training out of it today.

When I reached the top, I felt very lightheaded, and had to sit down and snack for a while. So I forgot to take pictures. Then a fast swoopy descent, a turn onto the correct road, then a U-turn after I realized that it was the correct road but the wrong direction, and down past the ultra-expensive resorts and links.

Crossed a busy Lincoln, stomped up the north foothills of Camelback Mountain, raced the traffic on McDonald (E-I-E-I-vroom and all that), pedaled the side streets of Paradise Valley, and was feeling somewhat OK.

That of course was the cue for both my quads to start cramping.

Turned my nose into the wind and tried to keep my power output on that ragged edge between too-slow and Cramp City. Took a scenic shortcut around the mega-mansions of the Arizona Biltmore and did my best to avoid the high-velocity dimpled spheroids.




Decided to panda to my baser instincts instead and have an early on-the-road dinner and let my legs recover somewhat.




Feeling a lot less teri-yucky, I pedaled up the Arizona Canal path as the sun began to plummet beyond the horizon.


Made it back home well-lit in the dark with sore legs, 37 miles on the odo, about 1200 feet of total climbing, and a resolve to not try to bite off (figuratively) more than I can chew when regaining fitness. But the weird-ass 11-12-13-15-17-19-21-26-34 'frankencassette' did fine across the well-used range.

(Shut up, legs. No, we're not Jens, but shut up anyway. Ow.)

And with that... "Good Day!" (that white house in the back of photo #4 was Mr. Harvey's winter quarters for several decades).

Spaghetti Legs 

After two rounds of snow, weeks of pretty chilly weather, and finally a couple days of misty rain, yesterday had sun and 70 degrees. Roads were still a little damp so I rode the plastic bike for my first outside ride since New Years Day. Winter is coming back later this afternoon, so I got another short ride in on the newly redressed Merckx Pro. I sold off the C Record group that was on the bike when a got it several years ago and after a few months hanging on the wall, I rebuilt with the compacted Super Record group donated from my Basso.


One of my regular photo spots at the top of the “Oh Hill!” Climb. Observatory is off to left instead of backdrop this time

nlerner

We also had a bit of a break in our recent rain/snow/rain cycle, so got out today with my usual weekend riding companion for a handful of miles. Now it wasn’t exactly peak conditions: about 38F, very damp from recent rains, very grey, but no real wind and not terrible for late Jan in the Boston area. My winter road bike is my Waltly Ti rig with 650b x 42 wheels and V-O fenders.

Classtime 

I started early today with plans for a long ride.

Pt. Vicente

Then a climb up the switchbacks and then, “The Domes”


Then dropped down towards Pt. Fermin and there was quite the commotion on the cliff side. I met Frank Cruz among the 1/2 dozen photographers waiting for this Falcon to show herself.

iPhone 7 doesn’t mean 7 hundred mm lens.

Frank Cruz is quite the photographer and collector of bikes, was a national champion on the track, and raced along side LeMond, Hampsten, Anderson, etc. He shared so many stories while we waited for Mrs. Falcon to pose that all it took was a staple in the rear tire for me to call it a day at 40 miles.

Warbird21

I had my left hip replaced in mid-July and have been primarily riding on Zwift since early September. We had temps in the mid-50's here in Maryland yesterday and some sun peaking out. I decided to do my 17 mile loop on the road and C&O Canal towpath. There are some rolling hills, that I hadn't yet tackled post surgery. I was significantly slower than pre-surgery, but my hip felt fine up the hills and standing. The longest hill is 0.8 miles, goes to a 6% grade, I can hit 40 mph gong doing. Did that with no drama, that boosted my confidence for longer road rides. The Canal was wet, but not muddy and no downed trees. The Potomac River was up, but not flooding. It was great to get outside again. Rain and colder temps return today. I only encountered one cyclist on the Towpath.

curbtender

Pre game ride, Crockett Hills.

jamesdak 

I've been able to get back out the past two days due to clear roads and warm weather. This second knee replacement has been really fighting me this time around.

Anyway, picked up a lovely updated 2007 Lemond Poprad yesterday. Went over it last night and took it out for a little shakedown today.


This one is going to be fun!

After a slow start to winter we've now hit over 100% on the snowpack.

Not all that clear today.

Counted 24 vehicles here, ice fishemen

Heading back into Eden

Beauty shot of the bike

Beauty shot of the bike

AJI125 

First post on here in a long time, mostly commuting or boring rides recently. Nice longish ride (for me) through the south suburbs and then back on the MUPs. Not a lot of scenery and didn’t stop for a photo op, but nice to be out and almost ice free (one hike around spot). And a bonus: family ride to the store for an afternoon Pokémon card hunt.

Straightblock

Saturday was 56 miles round trip to the Madera side of Millerton Lake State Park. 44° at the start, near 60° when I got home.

thinktubes 

First ride of 2024! We’ve been above freezing and the rain took care of snow. Sunny and 43F today. 18 miles after work.

A little snow here+there, but the roads were clean and dry.



It’s staying light until 5:15. Bike is bathing in the late pm light. Haven been out since Dec 30, 2023.

Spaghetti Legs 

Rode again today as sun and warmth still lingering from the weekend (although rained yesterday). I took the same Merckx Pro as Saturday, pictured above, on essentially the same route. Not much new except noteworthy because as I finished up the ride, navigating through a muddy section to turn onto a bike path on the UVA Grounds, another Merckx passed exiting the path. Faema colors. Pretty unusual for my small town. I waved and said something like “2 Merckx at the same time” or similarly dorky. He smiled and waved, much as I would have, not hearing a word he said. I don’t think he noticed my bike.

cooperryder

It was a fantastic day weather wise in Dallas yesterday topping out at about 69 degrees with light winds. This is quite a bit warmer than usual the weather folks said.

My wife and I took advantage and rode to White Rock Lake.

The white spots out on the water are white pelicans that visit every year. There were lots of them.

I wish I had a better zoom to get better photos.

It was one of those especially splendid days to get out.