Eric F 

Saturday...45 mi zone 2 road cruise on the route of the Montrose Ride. I was reminded that Arrow Hwy through Irwindale and Azusa is pretty lousy, especially for a solo rider. Despite that, I had a really nice ride, and my legs felt pretty good. https://www.strava.com/activities/8108455074

Sunday...Dirt Therapy - Group Session. Top of Brown Mtn. Road and descent via Millard Campground and Altadena Crest ("Horse Trail"). Steady hard tempo effort on the climbs. A bot off PR pace on the climb to Brown Saddle (Fern Truck Trail), but set a new PR on the upper section. Legs were feeling the rides from the previous 2 days, but responded pretty well, and didn't fade. Fun ride with a group of good riders on a clear, cool, and breezy morning.

Looking out from top of Brown over downtown LA, Palos Verdes, and Catalina Island....


Bikes needed naps...

diphthong

a little 24-miler in metro san diego with no particular place to go. first ride in three weeks. just nice to be out.

jsigone

was the 3weeks off due to burn out or injury? Supposed to be windy tomorrow and thursday. Catch some KOM? haaa

diphthong

have been too busy at work and had zero energy on the days off. knocked out 966 miles in july and 1200 miles in august but pretty sparse since then. looks like you’ve been picking up my slack tho.

jonathanf2

I did 20 miles yesterday with a craving for dirt! As usual I did my local road and dirt routes around the Pasadena/JPL area:

jsigone

planned to keep this saturday easy, less climbing less watts. But we had santa anna like winds for 40+ miles. Knee was acting up last week, was mostly fine today w/ KT tape but last few miles I couldn't even pedal. Flat out done...just coasted and rubbed it. Good thing it was downhill coast back to the Escondido Mall. I think I need to keep it sub 3hr rides for the next few weeks.

2 parts in today's ride. Rode to the start and got a bad tubeless flat, bacon fail, ran out of Co2 half mile from official start, valve stem was stuck in the rim so took friends car home and fixed in the garage (original plan was just to swap to the diverge but felt like I needed aero and efficient today). I met friends up at the coffee shop near home. It took 2 plyers to get the get valve core removed, caked in sealant on the threads. Swapped in old gravelking 26 clincher tire and conti race tube. No problems rest of the ride, mechanically speaking. Mental note to get micro leatherman with plyers to stick in the saddle bags.
https://www.strava.com/activities/8140311667
https://www.strava.com/activities/8141747955

diphthong

nice boulders. #gardeninggoals

Eric F 

Sunday...20 mi / 2400' gravel (mixed surfaces) ride in the La Canada area. Still learning how this bike handles, how hard I can push it, and fine tuning fit. I continue to be impressed. https://www.strava.com/activities/8146918470

jonathanf2

30 miles of Thanksgiving morning dirt in Chino Hills State Park with my riding buddies. The dirt trails were hard packed from the past rain which allowed me to go big chainring and climb out of saddle as opposed to high cadence spin. On the dirt downhill I was ripping 25-30mph on sketchy trail, but it's so much fun! The same roadie techniques such as weight shifting apply to downhill trail riding, but you can do fun things like aim your gravel bike straight into the bend and dirt jump into the turn. I think gravel really comes into it's own in rolling hills terrain and I was dropping MTB'ers with my higher gearing!

jsigone

Lots of Z1 and Z2 today, we had mild winds vs yesterday's santa ana conditions. Trying to keep the watts off the sore knee today. Lowered the seatpost a bit and felt better. I'll try to shift the saddle up a few mm for tomorrow's ride.

Mission Bay to Oceanside for Donuts n Coffee out n back. Was nice not that much traffic along the 101 for Black Friday.

SoSmellyAir

Ventured out of my comfort zone both distance and area-wise on Thanksgiving to try climbing the Aliso Creek Bikeway starting from Trabuco Road. I had planned to turn around at Saddleback Church (to descend on Marguerite) but due my lack of navigation skills and the encouragement of a fellow cyclist who passed me, I ended up climbing all the way up to Ridgeline Road.

The transits between Irvine and Lake Forest on Trabuco Road (in both directions, between Bake Parkway and El Toro Road) are no fun due to relatively heavy traffic and boring scenery, but I lack the endurance to try SCR westbound after the above climb. There were no roadies on the road in Lake Forest, which was in stark contrast to Irvine. Maybe Jeronimo Road is a better route?

SoSmellyAir

jonathanf2 Different rear brake rotors between respective photos in posts #1955 and #1959? The one shown in post #1955 seems so huge?

jonathanf2

Both rotors are 160mm. I'm running a Shimano SM-RT64 rotor in the rear and a RT-MT800 in the front. I was having pad rubbing using an MT-RT800 rear rotor, so I swapped it out with the RT64. I'm using aftermarket pads since I was having a hard time finding Shimano GRX pad replacements and they come in thicker than the Shimano OEM versions. Also the GRX hydraulic calipers have very little leeway for adjustment. I think Shimano even addressed that by giving more pad space with the newer 12 speed groupset brakes.

On my road bike, I'm running Juin Tech F1 cable actuated hydraulic disc calipers and they work great. There's a pad screw adjuster you can dial-in with no tools, so you can adjust your bike mid-ride. They work so well, I don't have any desire to go disc hydraulic on my road bike.

jsigone

another north county San Diego Loop. Parlor donuts at miles 43 and Moto Deli/Velotown at miles 55. My buddy that hasn't rode in a while needed some solid cals before he bonked. We limped home along the coast and 56 trail back to Poway, my buddy had less power than I did in gimped state. My left knee held out overall. I shifted the seat forward last night about 8mm. Felt great when in the drops having knees over the pedals more but still lingering pain for the hundo great western loop a couple of weeks ago. Easy zone 1 and 2 again, low NP numbers as I shift more load on the right leg overall.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8173080238

Nachoman

.
Ventura to Ojai with the wife on the tandem.

diphthong

that bike path (mostly) on the west side of ca hwy 33 is handy. carries a bit of pedestrian traffic in segments and has some bumps about but still worthy.

CAT7RDR

Off the bike for a couple weeks recovering from RSV and caring for sick elderly parents.
Kept it short and wanted a good sweat and to get conditioned to drop bars again. Shoulders did not ache so that's welcomed.
A tick under 30 miles and 4.5K of climb for my efforts.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/10047964279

Eric F 

A long weekend of beautiful weather, and I got on my bike zero times

I did get to spend a lot of time with my daughter who was home from college for the weekend, though. That makes up for it, to me.

jonathanf2

I did 30+ miles Saturday afternoon enjoying the beautiful after-rain sunshine here in LA. I recently built this carbon frameset I had laying around as a budget winter beater and a test bed for giving 1x road cycling a try. The build is a bit heavy duty running gravel components with a 1x GRX 600 42t crankset + GRX 400 RD + budget Sensah 11 speed shifters. The frame, fork, seat post, saddle, drop bars and wheels are all carbon. I'm running 28c tubeless slicks as well. The overall weight is a bit hefty coming in at 17.8 lbs., but I attribute that to heavy tubeless tires, running 2x shifters and heavier clutched GRX rear derailleur. I'm also trying out some fairly new $45 USD cable hydraulic brake calipers I picked up from AliExpress. So far I'm thoroughly impressed, especially for the price. They're not as good as my full hydraulic GRX bike, but the braking performance is excellent.

So far I find 1x road cycling quite fun. I felt a bit more aero on the flats hitting fairly decent speeds between 20-25 mph on the small 42t chainring. Also on downhill descents, the 1x chainring kept the chain stable with no worry of chain drops due to the longer teeth. Though I know for a fact I won't be able to climb with this bike for more extreme elevations without some effort such as the Hollywood Sign, but I do have an 11-50t cassette ready to go if I want to go full gravel mode on this bike!

Eric F 

Saturday...29 mi/3200' on the gravel bike. First time in the Verdugos in a long time (La Tuna - Verdugo Mtwy - Beaudry). I had intended to include more dirt in my ride between the bottom of Beaudry and home, but it was later than expected, so I took a more direct route. It was a spectacular day for a ride, with a great view from up on the hill, overlooking Griffith Park, Downtown LA, Palos Verdes, and Catalina Island. https://www.strava.com/activities/8203240766

Sunday...Wet roads and showers kept me in the garage. 2+ hours on Zwift doing a long Zone 2 cruise with a FTP+ push for the last 15 min.

jsigone

wet dawn patrol ride. missed the group start while moving gear from the pinarello (rim brakes) to the diverge (disc brakes). Glad I got the rear fender on, now I need to get a front cuz the spray was pretty cold. Any suggestions for waterproof gloves? not much insulation needed

https://www.strava.com/activities/8215046698

CAT7RDR

Slogging around my local La Habra Hgts-Whittier Hills Loop that includes the East-West Rd corridor and Turnbull Cyn.
Nothing spectacular but a brisk day and it was good to get a ride in before the rain tomorrow.
35 miles and 4.5K of climb.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/10115668748

SoSmellyAir

Same idea as CAT7RDR here, 30 mile ride around Irvine today (with a stop at Mod Pizza to meet my family) before the rain tomorrow.

Might not be able to ride again for a little while; rim brake calipers are getting sticky from riding on damp surfaces and need to be serviced.

jsigone

Torrey Pines to Dana Point harbor. Stopped in Oceanside at Parlor Donuts near the pier. Burrr kinda morning. Was still under 50 degrees when we got to Parlor. Knee is feeling good for the most part. I did limit the power to sub 200w on the last 20 miles + my buddy was in limp mode in the draft.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8233626217

jsigone

another cold weekend per socal standards. Got to test some new full length capo leg warms....so nice to be warm! Black Mt to Double Peaks park. Snake through Del Mar and Del Dios.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8260413555