Kilroy1988 

Hello all,

As a Californian and enthusiast for the past several years I'm super excited to say I've finally signed up for the event! My uncle and I will just ride the short Piedras Blancas route because we have not been doing any hill riding lately and I'm busy with work and grad school, so my riding time is limited.

I will be at the event all weekend although my uncle may not show up until the ride. I hope to meet many of you there! I'll be finishing off my 1954 Carlton Super Python for the ride, which should be more than sufficient for the gently rolling hills along the coastal highway. Cheers!

-Gregory

gugie 

Great! Hope to finally meet in person. We're thinking of a counter programming dinner Saturday night at the Palazzo (AirBnB we've rented in Cambria).

Gary12000 

Is there an organized Saturday night event by the L'eroica peeps and this is an alternative to that? open invite? or inner circle only? looking to meet and greet with some folks..

Gary

gugie 

The Palazzo Capo is @rccardr, we discussed this during our Spring Training in Arizona respite last week. Rather than potentially get overrun by grillions of the BF crew, we might just send out invites. If so I'll make sure you're on the list!

Kilroy1988 

gugie Hello Mark, I'm sure that would be a great way to meet some of you quietly rather than during the bustling event earlier that day! Do keep me in mind if invitations end up being required. I'll be staying in Cayucos at my uncle's place with my wife, and by Saturday evening he and my aunt should also be up there. I won't have any problem sneaking away for a couple hours though to come up and shake hands with everyone and all that good stuff. Cheers!

-Gregory

rccardr 

While in Tucson last week, we discussed the potential for a Saturday night dinner, invite only, and a Sunday post-ride open house, BYOB.
No man wagging permitted. We’re too classy for that.
Stay tuned.

merziac

Sounds like a fine idea.

Gary12000 

Not sure if any of you guys have been keeping track of rental car costs, luckily we booked ours already and got a "normal price" i was watching a car you tube guy that flies to buy vintage cars and he showed the camera his receipt for a Jeep Wrangler 24 hour rental $732.00, soundsunbelievable, but he showed the receipt, i can surmise that it was a last minute rental not a planned rental...

if you have not booked your stuff, might be good to start shopping..

SquireBlack 

Once again, I'm registered for Eroica — that 2020 registration just keeps on rollin' along. Beginning to look like Eroica '22 will actually happen! But this time I'm planning to ride from my daughter's house in Sunnyvale to Cambria Monday 24th April thru Friday 29th April. davester and Thor are coming too. jrozzelle will be there in spirit — his car is providing the ride home, even though James is going to be punishing himself by riding in Switzerland: family obligations can't be avoided.

The route is essentially a repeat of the route that jrozzelle and gugie put together for the 2019 and 2021 Eroica rides, so I won't elaborate here; in any case, gugie is better at "elaboration" than I will ever be.

There is room for a fourth to join this tour, so if you are inclined to do so, send me a PM.

gugie 

I highly recommend joining up if you have the time. If work demands weren't so high I'd do it again myself. I've done several multi-day, multi-rider credit card tours over the past few years and I try to add in at lest one "newby tourist" to the group. They all loved it. Andrew, Thor and Dave are fantastic travel companions.

FML123

Hi guys, another noob question: if I’m only riding the short 36 mile Piedras Blancas course I should be able to get by with one 750ml water bottle, right?
My bike only has bosses for one cage and I’m not really sure I want to use a clamp-on cage with the thin paint on the bike.

Kilroy1988 

That depends entirely on how much water you like to drink during a ride... I regularly ride 30-40 miles out here in the San Joaquin Valley on hot days without drinking any water at all, even if I have it handy, because that's just where I'm at in life... So, the answer to that question is totally dependent on your personal physical and mental conditioning!

There will also be a stop up at the lighthouse if I read the route description correctly, with snacks and almost certainly the opportunity to refill water bottles.

-Gregory

FML123

Thanks, that’s what I thought. Since there’s a refill stop around the halfway point I should be good.

merziac

I use these.





https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...+cage&_sacat=0

Bad Lag

I'd say this is a mistake. The route isn't wilderness, but water is LIFE. How about a Camelback, too. They come in all sizes and shapes, including fanny pack and large and small back pack styles.

You can bonk from lack of blood sugar but you can bonk from lack of water, too.

Where is the "white road" section? The route looks to be along PCH which has a wide shoulder both ways. Is it just along the Lighthouse driveway?

Kabuki12

Yea, the short route isn’t that demanding but it tends to get windy by the early afternoon. Wind-dry mouth. I use a fairly large water bottle with Nuun. There is only one stop and other than fruit that was it in 2019. The route takes you through San Simeon and you could always fill up at the hotels or something.

FML123

Hmmm, I do have a smallish hiking backpack with a water bladder, but it doesn’t look very 1980s. I guess I could just buy a clamp on cage and bottle and put some inner tube or cork between the clamp and the seat tube.

cyclic_eric

On the route I signed up for, La Via dello Scalatore, it looks like there are water fill-up options every ~15 miles, at least.
I see that by viewing the 2020 RidewGPS route that is posted at the Eroica site.
With a few snack stops, it seems sufficient for refilling my one larger-than-in-the-80's water bottle. I've done similar rides, some in the same region, but not this particular ride. So I'll listen to those with prior experience.

Classtime 

Years ago, on the last Eroica CA, we were expecting refills where there weren't any--Top of Kiler? It just makes it more Heroic.

nlerner

That route runs right along the Pacific. Plenty of water!

Spaghetti Legs 

I heard guys were wringing out their shorts into bottles.

davester

Looks like I’ll be riding down the coast on Touroica II with Thor and @SquireBlack then doing the formerly-known-as-Coastal route. I’ve been training hard for this by sitting on a sailboat in Mexico while swilling margaritas, with occasional snorkel excursions sprinkled in. Hope to see you all soon. Adiós!

gugie 

I just follow the bikes in front of me. There'll be a lot of 'em.

mech986 

I suggest expanding your caged bottle to a nearly 1 liter bottle or carry a spare bottle in your middle back pocket. It usually doesn't get very hot near the coast (typically around 68-72 degrees) but can be quite sunny and windy if leaving mid-morning and riding through 1-2pm round trip. As noted above, some like to drink little, others a lot. IMO, never a bad idea to carry extra, I freeze 1/2-2/3 of the bottle fluids (water plus Skratch brand electrolytes or Costco Kirkland Orange Juice), then add more in the morning before taking off. I insulate both bottle bottoms with neoprene can coolers in LA Dodgers logos for that vintage look! Really helps to have ice cold to cool fluids for at least a few hours, especially if the ride is long. I also carry the small thin Skratch dry powder refills for the later stops. On last weekend's local ride of 50+ miles, we had a gal who didn't carry enough water and was drying out after 35 miles. Another rider got her a half liter water from a local Circle K and I gave her my electrolyte refill. After 15 min rest and rehydration, she was good to go.



Even though I expect decent food and fluids at Cayucos, Santa Rosa summit, maybe somewhere near Templeton or Paso Robles, then Halter Winery and finally Cypress Mountain summit, I suggest carrying enough food, water, tools, tubes/patches to be somewhat self sufficient. There's always the option of stopping at a store or shop to get supplies, nobody's going to notice. I suspect we'll hear more about support in the next couple of weeks.

The Via dello Scalatore, Santa Lucia, and Heroic rides all go inland. While the weather in Cambria and along the coast North to the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse (short route) or south to Cayucos can be cool to mildly warm, once you turn into the Santa Lucia mountains, the weather can get very warm very fast. Couple that with a 7 mile climb and then descending into and around Templeton/Paso Robles into the late morning/early afternoon sunshine, it can get hot, hot, hot. It wouldn't surprise me to see low to mid 80's or hotter during the middle part of the ride. On the Santa Lucia route from mile 27 to mile 50 (Halter Ranch) its a lot of rolling hills and gradual elevation climb and under a baking sun can be very taxing. I made sure I drank my fluids and refilled at the Santa Rosa Summit stop and peeled the insulating layers off. I ended up using all fluids in 2019 before getting to Halter Ranch because it was over 80 degrees and sunny so it felt even hotter. YMMV depending on your conditioning, effort, and tolerance. Just don't tempt heat stroke or dehydration, once you pass a tipping point, if its really hot, it can become a fast cascade to a critical situation. Always consider stopping,finding shelter and shade, a residential water hose to cool off with and getting more fluids, salt, and electrolytes into you. Other riders will definitely stop and offer help plus supplies, and if need be, call for help.

FML123

Okay, you guys convinced me. I’ll buy a clamp-on cage and use two 750ml bottles with hydration mix. Is 50% diluted Gatorade okay, or should I use one of the “real” hydration powders?