esasjl

Clear, cool, sunny morning in Yorkshire.

northbend 

I haven't visited the Cedar River Trail yet this year. I need to rectify that.

The beginning of a 95 mile day.. by Matthew Pendergast, on Flickr

Yesterday, I finally got around to stripping off the BG's winter clothes (Fenders and Tires). Nice light racing tires really make this bike come alive.
Took it out for a 95 mile "Sammamish and Washington Lakes Loop" from home.
I nursed a slow leaking rear tire the last 15 miles too lazy and too close to home to actually do a roadside fix..
The downside of any nice light performance tire.
A tiny thorn had pierced the tread probably when I rode a short section of gravel outside of Issaquah.

Classtime 

A shake down on my new Cannondale with a some climbing and a twisty descent. 18m and 1400’


And it’s only 9:00am

northbend 

I'm digging the paint on the C'dale Classtime and wondering there must be a story behind that towel picture. It has me curious....

Classtime 

I think they have Wednesday evening concerts here on the lawn of the Palos Verdes Library and folks were saving their spots and likely killing the grass by laying out their blankets days in advance as if they had season tickets. It is a Lo$ Angele$ thing. They probably show up late and get to sit up front. No way I'd respect that crap. At a Music Assembly at my kids school years ago, some lady thought she'd save seats up front by placing post its with "reserved" written on them. My family got there early for good seats, tossed the stickies, and sat down. As the show was about to start, the lady comes up and tells me that those seats were saved. Ha Ha. I thought we were gonna get down. She and her crew sat in the back.

The Cannondale is an 86 R800.

leftthread

The major event on today's ride was helping a painted turtle cross a roadway.
The section of road has a lot of tractor-trailer traffic as it's next to a big box industrial park.
No way Mr. Turtle was getting across that without turning into road pizza.

dicktill

Thank you!!!!

1989Pre 

Thank you. That turtle is probably thinking "Life is good." as it ambles into a near-by pond, wearing a Left Thread t-shirt.

bironi

That is doctorate level entitlement.
Unfortunately I interpreted the photo per your explanation.

SJX426 

8/3 - 24.1, 913 ft
8/6 - 24.5, 1085 ft
86 - 30, 1312 ft
8/8 - 8.7, 485 Ft
Planning on another 24 ish tomorrow.
Mostly the same old route. Todays was a ride from the auto repair shop home.

Spaghetti Legs 

Went up to Skyline Drive today for the first time in a while and disappointed to find that the chip/seal pox noticed by rccardr on the north end has spread to the south end. Kind of a stressful ride trying not to slide out on 10% descents so here’s a picture of flowers with honeybees.

Classtime Id be tempted to put up a sign “free chairs and towels”

nomadmax 

You're my kind !

ascherer 

Getting my legs back after laying off in July. I took the Paramount around the Ashokan today, in part so I could try out a pair of NOS Detto Pietros. I think they are Art. 12s, probably late 60s- early 70s, there’s no external branding whatsoever and they didn’t come in a box. I found an early catalog on Velobase I think, Velo-pages.com and they mostly match the description and photos of the 12. The only difference is the pattern of the upper perforations and maybe the logo imprint on the sole. In any case they are supple and like new, as if they were just made. I’d been struggling to identify suitable shoes for my two toeclip bikes so I was very glad to find them.


I haven’t worn such minimalist shoes since the 80s if not beyond. It’s like they’re ballet slippers! Now that the soles are well marked it’s time to affix cleats. I got a set of NOS Barelli 187 cleats with the shoes.

The ride was as enjoyable as ever, got some comments on my Grateful Dead jersey and had a chat with a fly fisherman along the Esopus who came across a black bear nearby earlier in the week.


Last week’s ride through farmland east of the Hudson was very nice but I missed the mountain views.

Wildwood 

Jealous of @ascherer ‘s slippers. Mr. Cinderfella with a beautiful chrome pumpkin
(I find needing wider w insert)

Low 80*’s (27*C), sun. No time limit.
Looking for saddle time — on this "Formula One" tubing, 1987 (SL?) lightweight-ish feeling Bianchi. This narrow brooks saddle, race model, is always a ‘trial’ ride. The first 10 minutes it never fits, by the end of th ride you forgot-about-it. It is not one for touring so this one is most fun riding race-like - as best we can, .


Sunny and dappled. Hold on to the handlebars well for unseen cracks, potholes, bumps.

The fence freshly sprayed with creosote or oil stain. Recent as the odor still pungent.

A narrow trail and some gravel to call it a mixed surface ride.


Deer wading for the tender greens at the river’s edge. Fuzzy as it was a long shot with old phone camera. Wondering about this year’s salmon run, given drought-ish rain deficit

The end.

gugie 

@SquireBlack and I did a recon trip on the fairly recently opened Corvallis to the Sea (C2C) route. Friday we drove down to Corvallis from Portland and stopped by Peak Sports, which is a big promoter of the route and sells the official map. We drove to Philomath (6 miles outside of Corvallis, home of Oregon State University), parked the car, and hopped on the Coast to Valley Express, which has a bike rack. That took us up and over the Coastal Range from warm, almost hot weather to cool, coastal temperatures. Cheap hotel, nice restaurant, a good night's sleep and we were ready the next day to ride.


Dinner entertainment

Even though this is a half gravel, half paved ride, 80% of the time and effort was spent unpaved. The quality of the unpaved sections varied greatly, from "almost as nice as paved", all the way to big chunky stuff up steep climbs that made us get off and push.


the good...


...the bad...


..and the ugly

Almost everything I could find online, and even the trail map we purchased had info for going from east to west, so we had to interpret, interpolate, and sometimes guess key points on the trail. It would be easy to get lost without a GPS unit. Even then we missed a couple of turns and had to turn back. Soon we figured out to keep our eyes peeled for the small signage along the way.

Brutal. I might call it Type 2 fun if you give me a few days to recover. Shoulders and arms are feeling beat up. Andrew commented that it was mentally exhausting too, having to be fully aware every second where your bike was going, picking a good line, thinking a turn or two ahead. I'm glad he decided to have us catch the bus in Philomath, it saved 7 flat asphalt miles that we would not have been happy having to add to an already long day.

Going from the hot Willamette Valley to the cool temperatures of the coast is the way to ride this. We did it backwards in preparation for a future tour.

botty kayer

I've barely ridden my green MX Leader since finishing building it up a few months ago, as shortly after it was up and running it developed a clicking sound that was definitely not right. It was happening under load when pedaling. I've not had the chance to deal with it recently so its just been put to one side, but this morning I was determined to get to the bottom of it and get this bike up and rolling properly.

I start off running my finger along outside of chain, all fine, it changes into every gear fine, but makes the clicking noise in every gear,so its not a bent tooth on a cog on the cassette. Rear derailleur is running smoothly. The clicks are happening under load but not when freewheeling, so the wheel bearings seem fine and there's no detectable play in front or rear wheels. There's no detectable play in the pedals either, but I've hammered through a few pairs of Look Delta pedals and they can get a bit creaky, so I changed the pedals out with a set I knew that were fine, just to check. The problem still persists,bah!

I got this Campag Ultra Torque crank from ebay so don't know its life history, so I'm thinking now the Ultra Torque cranks need new bearings, but I do have another set of Ultra Torque cranks I can try to see if we can confirm of deny that. So I switch the cranks over, removing and reinstalling the pedals as I go. The problem still persists, dammit! As each one of these changes requires me to carry the bike up 3 flights of stairs into to my apartment, and then backdown those stairs afterwards, I've taken ages already and I feel like I could do with an energy gel even though I've only managed to go up and down my road a handful of times so far.

Seatpost and saddle all tight and no play and noise free, so all good there. Headset feels fine, no notchy-ness or play there, all brakes and cables feel tight and good. What the hell? There may have been fruitier language. I'm beginning to wonder if its my own knees or hips. They've been better, but they're not the problem. Feeling stumped I'm mentally checking off what I've done so far and thinking what else it could be. I find myself going through them again, run chain through fingers,....wait what, hang on, and there we have it, on the inside of the chain, the chain I checked first, but clearly not thoroughly enough having felt only the outside of it before. One of the plates on the inside facing the frame so not visible from the drive side, had become bent by joining pin somehow, and was clicking on each revolution, on I don't know what exactly, it didn't matter, that's the culprit.. It was not on the quick-link where I joined the chain, but on another link. I'd not ridden this bike barely at all and have had no incidents where I can think I've damaged the chain. It was about to ping off the holding pin completely, and the chain would have broken shortly after, which riding around London could have caused an accident, so I dodged a bullet there. Embarrassed by how long it took to finally get the bottom of it, I'm relieved I finally figured it out. So its back up the 3 flights of stairs again, find my chain tool, remove the broken link and replace it with another quick-link. Eureka! I got there in the end, every day is a school day, finally I can ride this thing.

I cycle eastwards, passing by St Mary Le Strand Church.

I've not been to east London all week so figure I'll find a new artwork or two, and I do. First up what looks like a Great Tit on a burning match. I recognize the artist from artworks I've seen before, they're called Aspire who seems to paint just birds.

I then find this one, you might not be able to see unless you click on the image to zoom in, but there is a man climbing down a rope from the hole of light in the image. And I did not realize at the at time, so not until I got home and uploaded the pic to my laptop did I notice the passer-by glancing at my bike, just as I took the pic. A lucky accident that improves the scene. Again I recognize the artist from others I've seen in recent months, Ed Hicks.

I'm keen to get back home to watch my football team play their first game of the new season at 2pm on TV, so I head back westwards past St Paul's....

I stop by the Freemason's Arms in Covent Garden, where over 6 evenings and no doubt quite a few beers, the pioneers of what we call football, or soccer, met in 1863 (the pub looked different then) to thrash out the rules of the game. Now played in more than 200 countries across the globe its arguably one of our most successful exports.

And just by home I see a lovely C&V Porsche 911T from 1973, the last version with the prettier minimalist bumpers/fenders, as shortly after this in 1974 Porshe's had to have the chunkier and uglier bumpers/fenders to comply with new US automotive regulations. Still looking good at 50 years of age

The 50 year old rider and the 30 year old bike were rolling along nicely too, C&V doing it right.Whereas my modern hugely expensively assembled football team could only manage a 2-2 draw, pffft the youth of today.....

Schweinhund

Must be California. They do the same thing in oakland, here in modesto, turlock, sacra-tomato, and Pleasanton

jamesdak 

Today did not go as planned. Was going to take the Motta out for a fast, hard ride. But...my damn back struck again. Reached into the cupboard to get water bottles and the back ****zed out. Half hour in a supportive chair with a huge frozen gel pack got the spasms in check. I always seem to be leaning down and twisting too the right when it happens. Anyway. since it calmed down I decided to still go out but on the Fuji Opus III instead. I had swapped the tubular setup back onto the Opus earlier in the morning so it was ready to rock. I was thinking as I worked on the Opus that maybe it was time to let someone else enjoy it since it really is small for me. But a few magical smoothly gliding miles on it maybe me change my mind, LOL! Anyway, just took it really easy this morning and stopped a lot to take pictures.


This is one of the safer sections of the pathway they have up here

Lots of folks playing on the water this morning.

Local BBQ joint in Huntsville

The beautiful Opus III

Side street in Huntsville

Clear morning out

Newer home

Noticed this beauty a couple of weeks ago.

Red barn

Water level is finally starting to drop some in this cove.

SJX426 

Last ride for the week. Going out to the west coast to marry off my daughter on Tuesday. Monday is full in the office day so not rides
8/10 28 miles, 1206 elevation
8/11 8.8 miles, 485 elevation - Took the car in for diagnosis. Trip back home
8/13 27.8 miles, 1202 elevation

Lost 7lbs in the lastt month. Only 167 miles in the last 30 days, 6964 elevation in 7 rides.

thinktubes 

Got up early for an a 35-mile, non-invasive ride up the North Shore. Weather was beautiful!

On a whim, I rode down to Millard Beach. There is a nice stream the follows the road that goes down to the bottom of the ravine.



Here’s the stream outflow into the lake. Supposedly, salmon spawn here.



Lake was pretty choppy today and was a great shade of blue.



The road in and out is steep, but was nicely paved a few years back. Lots of growth on the sides of the ravine.



Decided to turn around at the Highland Park boat ramp. There were a couple of cool outrigger canoes in the water. One looked to be C&V. A fleet of Sunfish were getting ready to set sail. The people in the canoe self-reported the experience as “awesome!”



Not a ton of people out today. Guessing last minute vacations and taking kids to college. The ravine visits added some elevation to the ride.

Oldairhead 

Rode the Covered Bridges Tour in Albany OR today on the Bianchi L'Eroica. Did a shorter route to beat the 100 plus heat! Root Beer floats for everyone at the finish.

RB1-luvr

Yesterday I rode the Centurion Accordo 26 miles. This is a half-way stop to top off water bottle and eat a snack in Southington CT on the Farmington Canal Path.

ascherer 

Yesterday I convinced Mrs. ascherer to take her first ride of the season following a prolonged recovery from rotator cuff surgery. It was also her first ride on the updated Grand Jubile mixte. 10 miles on the same trail as Saturday's ride. Looking forward to a good fall season with her. She needs a stem with less reach, so if anyone's got a 22/60 stem lying around, hit me up...

etherhuffer 

What bar size? 26.0 25.4?

clarkbre

About a month ago, I started riding again after a long hiatus. Picking up this '96 Trek Singletrack was very cool and I've slowly been getting it back to a rideable bike. Today was day #2 of riding. I got on the Centennial Trail in Snohomish, WA and road about 12 miles. It felt great and I love the larger cushion of the tires over my 28c's on my Surly.