dunkleosteus

The sky was blue in Long Beach and the AQI was below 100 so I thought I could swing a loop through Portuguese Bend. By the top of the first climb I could taste the air, so I went home, wheezing a bit on the drive back, bleh

bikingshearer 

I grew up in Livermore at the other (west) end of the Altamont Pass. Yeah, that pass is a natural wind funnel, all most always from Livermore toward Tracy. (The really fun days are when it is both windy and stupid hot.) There's a reason why it has had so many wind turbines there since the late 1970s. When I graduated from high school in 1975, there wasn't a single one up there. By 1980, the pass was crawling with them, and it has been ever since.

stardognine

Ha, I just went through there (Altamont), earlier this year, by bicycle. I’ve posted about a million pics in the touring forum, and quite a few of them are of those crazy wind turbines. I think I must have an unhealthy obsession with them, or something. 🤔😁

mattk42

Last night the sky around me cleared up, looked practically normal! But today back into the 200-300+ AQI range.

downtube42

Takeaways:

Keep a dozen furnace filters on hand
Keep a car air cleaner on hand
Keep emergency instant coffee on hand
Fix the door gaskets
Enjoy clean air when it's back

Lascauxcaveman 

If, for some reason, you want that exact frame in that exact color in a slightly larger size, I've got one you can have for free. PM me.

That is really a unique colorway, and I have no idea what they were thinking.

JacobLee 

Wow! That’s a very cool offer. Not sure if I can turn that down. I became quite fond of it after spending time with it. Is it not desirable, generally?

Lascauxcaveman 

Mid 70s Mirage; pretty close to a bottom rung bike. Mine is rustier than yours, but an oxalic bath would go a long way to making it presentable again:




The BB would almost certainly require a PB Blaster soak before coming off, and the drive side crank arm is bent, so that has to go. I didn't put much effort into trying to get it apart; just stripped the wheels and other parts needed for a different bike at the time.

Kilroy1988 

The low pressure system that blew into the San Joaquin (and has actually caused quite a bit of rain to fall sporadically in the valley and up in the Sierras) last night brought the AQI down below 100, so I decided to go jogging on a break at work just now. I've been working out indoors again for a couple of weeks and have only gone for several runs or bicycle rides since mid-summer when work got busy, so I am not in top form by any means.

That said, I only ran for four minutes before I had to stop and walk, and since it's about 90 degrees outside I was sweating a lot by then. After a few minutes I turned a corner and started jogging again, and kept it up until I was around the long country block and back by the facility, for about ten more minutes. I don't feel bad but I can tell that the conditions are not ideal by a long shot for doing much outside yet. Still, if the sub-100 points keep up and I can at least see the sky overhead, I might try to make that my target for getting outside more.

-Gregory

(As a point of reference, just before the smoke got bad and I stopped running I did a 5k in 22m30s. Right now in these conditions I think I can barely run a mile straight, period.)

Andy_K 

AirNow.gov says 126 in Beaverton right now. Too bad I'm supposed to be working. Looks like a rain-or-shine ride tomorrow (need to try out my Clunker 100 bike!) and maybe a longer outing on Sunday.

@gugie, you may yet make it through the month without your wife locking you in the Atelier.

gugie 

Glorious, glorious rain today.

Portlandeurs, who's up for a celebratory ride this weekend? The Neal Lerner Invitational route on the west side is proposed, and includes 3 different potential food stops (pastries, pizza, burgers), the last two with proper rehydration (rule 47)

nlerner

I’m in!

gugie 

gugie 

@Oldairhead is rummored to be a Portlandeur now, I've seen others purportedly residing in Riot City, help me tag some more peeps...

Oldairhead 

Hmmm, how far out of the bubble does the label "Portlandeur" extend? We are about 15 miles from downtown now. And how long does it take to become a local here anyway? We moved from Utah so perhaps that give us priority over Californians, right?
For 10 years we had a small condo in the Pearl District (the bubble within the bubble) but sold that a couple of years ago. Back then we used to call those who did not reside in the city "bridge and tunnel people." Others we knew called the suburbs nice things like Vantucky, Beavertron, Hellsboro and Gresham was known as Felony Flats (not me of course!)
I guess I'm a bridge and tunnel person now.

P.S Thanks for the invite but I can't ride this weekend. Rain-check?

gugie 

I think Portlandeur is a state of mind. If you're in reasonably short riding distance of Portland, I guess that counts, so it's a sliding scale. @northbend would be on the extreme side of the definition, but he's been down enough times for rides that we think of him as one of ours.

I think we met briefly at Eroica Cali, of course it would be great to ride with you!

droppedandlost 

I never thought I would be happy to have 'poor' air quality

SurferRosa

Well, that didn't happen. Not sure if I should be upset our two-day forecast (below) was completely off all week or appreciative that they gave me more short-term hope.

https://www.iqair.com/us/usa/washington/seattle

conspiratemus1

And an ounce of prevention isn’t always better than a pound of cure. (Prevention only looks like a sure thing in retrospect.)
Or, rebuilding what the waves destroy is more effective than commanding the tide to roll back, much as we might wish otherwise. (Although if you time the command just right, it’ll look impressive to someone who’s never seen the sea.)

stardognine

Ha, that’s about how I feel right now, but without the rain. 🤔🙄

Someone stole my bike & most of my belongings not that long ago, back in Sacramento, so I was forced to upgrade from a newer aluminum Bianchi, to an older steel Bianchi. Poor me. 😁

I just rode down today, from Davis to Vacaville, and saw these dudes out munching grass. One of them started looking at me kinda funny, so I got moving, lol. I’ve heard old farmers’ tales, of bulls breaking down fences of various types, and don’t care to get skewered, thank you. 😲😁

stardognine

BTW, the AQI thingy for San Francisco was 29 when I checked it, right before posting here. 😎

Charles Wahl

I think we've all got a little bit of left coast, particularly Portland, in us, after the last few months, and the last few weeks. "Ich bin ein Portlandeur".
Does a Neal Lerner ride generally involve an inordinate focus on food and drink?

Bad Lag

Today and yesterday were both fairly normal air quality here near the So Cal coast. There was no smoke, no haze, a blue sky, puffy white clouds up high and a gentle breeze out of the south west.

I know I have been luckier than most to be able to keep riding. I have family near Oak Glen and Yucaipa (the "El Dorado" fire caused during a gender reveal party). They would not leave. The fire burned right up to the road but stopped just on the other side. Thank God for that. Others a very short distance away were not so lucky. They were wiped out.

Stay safe and healthy, everyone.

RobbieTunes

Not me.

I wave at police and smile, and haven’t burned, looted, or vandalized in quite a while.

The wildfire smoke smell is now in St. Louis.

gugie 

Interestingly, I've only known Neal personally since that particular ride. Since then we've done 2 FFD tours together, The Last Winter Tour of the Willamette Valley, the Magical Mystery Tour, and an Eroica. Brothers from a different mother, as it were. I can tell you that after all of that riding, socializing, and sharing, there is one thing that Neal focuses on, and it's coffee. The man will drink coffee from morning till night. An inordinate focus, as it were.