diphthong

day out and about. multitude of personal and professional stuff since april completely interfering with my bike bum lifestyle.
finally conjured up enough energy and drove up to la on two hours sleep. wanted to do the gmr climb to the shack and back
on the vintage steel early in the day (before the heat!). then planned to bounce towards palos verdes peninsula and afterwards
(maybe) do a small ride in la habra hills, newport back bay, dtown old orange area or some combo/snippet of
san juan capistrano/san clemente/san onofre state park/camp pendleton depending on how the legs (or more accurately, the rump roast)
felt. knocked out the shack climb and felt pretty good despite not having done any climb that hard/long since april. did cheat by not bringing
any water-or otherwise-bottles. beautiful morn up on gmr and saw about three riders on the way down on the ascent. bunches of riders
totaling about 35 riders on my descent. at the saddle just past the shack, thought about descending down to east fork via grr, then climbing back
up grr and descending gmr back to sierra madre but w/o bottles and it already getting warmish, wimped out.

drove over to san pedro and meandered around the harbor area. overcast was a little muggy. rode over to rancho palos verdes and
up hawthorne on the way to visit a friend for ride two.

said friend dealing with a hip issue and wanted to go on an easyish ride to keep it limber. drove the bikes down the hill to the lunada bay
area and rode towards malaga cove then back. some up and down but not too bad for ride three.

back to his house near peninsula center and rode off back to the car in the san pedro/uss iowa area. mostly downhill/flattish miles.
overcast/fog left the palos verdes peninsula around 12:15pm and it was in the low 70's at that point. perfect.

legs felt better than they should have but they're probably still in shock for another day or two. undercarriage survived.
'88 nishiki olympic with '23 conti gp 5000's rode great. bunches of railroad tracks and blah pavement in the san pedro harbor area
+ gmr descent (a repave is my fondest wish but doubtful it happens soon) that is starting to need paving vs filling cracks attention
kept me attentive more than usual. nice day out. 63 total miles and 5,800 ft total el gain.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5615933291

https://www.strava.com/activities/5617252817

https://www.strava.com/activities/5617718800

https://www.strava.com/activities/5618275818

TakingMyTime

My hat's off to you. My Trek 5200 is wearing some 23mm conti 4000's right now and with all the additional mileage I'm doing they're scaring the heck out of me. Unfortunately, this bike won't take anything over 25mm tires and even then they have to be matched just right or they'll rub. I'm about ready to buy some Continental 4 Season 25mm and hope they fit. Those 23mm are just to scary for me.

diphthong

they do require you to pay close attention at all times since you’ve got very little wiggle room in the bumps/cracks/crevices department. helps me stay focused but i get why so
many people love their ‘28’s.

Eric F 

Return to El Prieto - This is a very well known (mostly) downhill single track in the hills above Pasadena, CA. Last time I rode it, it was on this same bike when it was current technology (20-ish years ago). There are a few rocky drops that are beyond my current confidence and skill level, but otherwise, this trail is a blast. Although a lot of details have changed over the years, there are still a lot of very familiar parts. The preceding 2.5mi climb to Brown Saddle is always a beast, but I had a few less recovery stops compared with my last time up - progress! (10mi, 1500')

diphthong

45-spot rolling from the haus and circumnavigating much of metro san diego. from south of sdsu to golden hill, then up to south park/north park,
then west to university heights and south to balboa park, dtown and the waterfront. north to little italy, old town, fiesta island big loop and mission bay.
south to bay park, mission valley, mission hills and hillcrest. east to uni heights (again), normal heights, city heights and home. a de facto recovery/beer ride.
new fall brewery tasting room in south park has two stellar lagers (didn't get to the ales) currently and a chill vibe.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5623814714

side note...the burning tank thrashed stretch of 30th st (which is a main north<>south cycling corridor) in north park recently repaved and bearing markings of the long-planned
and slowly-realized dedicated bike lanes through the area.

joesch

Nice ! This is my kind of fun ride. Im taking action to repeat next month.

diphthong

let me know if you decide to come down. can do a classic steel ride. off mon/tues altho i will be in the big sur area mid-august for a few days...

TakingMyTime

52 miles today from El Dorado Park in Long Beach to Crystal Cover Newport Beach. Rode PCH most of the way and forgot how much traffic there is when everyone's rushing to work... ouch! It was a good day though. I'm trying to train for more speed over longer distances.

diphthong

nice miles and distance.

joesch

Maybe 8/16 or 8/17 then given mon/tues ??
I would really enjoy being part of your tour.

diphthong

that's exactly when i'll be up in big sur. yes...bringing the bike.

trying to reestablish the riding cred so trying to keep days off
(mon/tues) totally free and clear of everything. should be available
any other mon/tues in the foreseeable future till another trippy planned
in early october. it's lager weather.

some of the better brewery tasting rooms in the area/along the route of that posted ride include:
fall, eppig, thorn, pure project, mikkeller, stone, hess, ballast point, half door, harland, san diego taproom,
little miss brewing and modern times.

pizza port and societe breweries are both awesome but about five miles farther from any point of that ride.

joesch

Sounds great. The next week should be fine also for me. Maybe some other SD BF C&V riders would also be interested in this brew hop. A respectable route as detailed by the link above #1082

L134 

Wondered if that was ever going to happen. Checked it out this morning and I don't think I'll be using that north of Upas. I don't like riding between parked cars and the sidewalk. OK on a Sunday morning but suspect it will be a disaster at busy times of the day. I think I'll continue to use side streets to the east

diphthong

if I’m heading north/south thru the area, prefer the west side of 30th…like utah or pershing. the streets are wider and intersection visibility is better. i’ve messed up both driving and riding in that stop sign every other block neighborhood. seriously doubt i’m the only one. road surface quality generally better to the west both north and south of university once north of redwood. that said, i do find myself using boundary and/or nile a bunch heading through the area.

L134 

Yeah, I use both depending on where I'm going or coming from. All require care! Not an area for shooting for PR's.

diphthong

i like it more than riding between the door zone and passing cars. sight lines for everyone approaching intersections are better. reducing speed rolling down the bike lane by 2-3mph and felt safer on that stretch than w/o the dedicated lanes.

2seven0

Fri. rode a big loop down to Shady Cyn trail (thks TMT for reminding me of it) then cut through UCI to University back to the Peters Cyn trail back up to home. Lucked out and only passed 2 walkers on the fast curvy downhill section. Much nicer than on a crowded weekend. @ 85 miles total.
Sun went north OC through Anaheim Hills, YL, Brea & Whittier then down Santa Gertrudes back home. Only @ 55 miles but refilled both bottles even early it was hot & muggy.
West

CAT7RDR

One mile on road bike I crashed on last month. Shoulders could not tolerate weight bearing in drops at this point due to reaggravated rotator cuff injuries. Should be able to start rehab soon.

Settled for a 10 mile hike in Puente Hills instead. Will continue riding 29er since I can remain upright and less road vibration with 2.2" tires helps smooth things out with less wear/tear on shoulder ligaments.

jonathanf2

I did 27+ miles in the hot 90 degree weather, both road and trail riding this Sunday after not being on my bike for almost two weeks. I rode from ER, to HLP, to S. Pas, to Pasadena and then up to JPL towards Gabrielino trail and then to the waterfall. I was thinking of doing the uphill Fern Truck trail loop, but my legs were thinking not! On my way back I got back into rhythm listening to some Hawaiian music! I'm also sporting fresh bar tape and I raised my hoods up for better upright riding, with one finger drop braking for the downhills.

TakingMyTime

53 miles from El Dorado Park then South on PCH and back. I went 1 1/4 miles further than on Friday and still beat Friday's time by 3 minutes. I think the weekend rest helped.

Magnum PI

Hey Eric F
I used to ride the Brown Mountain and El Prieto trail in the early 90's. Glad to see its still there and open to bikes.

Eric F 

I used to ride it then, too. Hell, we might have said hi to each other at the saddle at some point. The fire roads (from JPL and Millard) are essentially singletrack now, due to veg growth and zero maintenance. El P is structurally the same, with some changes of the details. There are some rocky drops that I don't remember being there 20 years ago. My current mediocre level of testicualr fortitude and doubt in my handling skills had me walking a few of them. I can see that a full-squish rig with big tires would make them slightly less pucker-inducing. That network is still a popular place to ride.

Magnum PI

and the Montrose ride from 1986 to 1994...Occasionally the T-Th bowl ride. There was also a small Sunday ride from the Rose Bowl finish line. Fun times.

Eric F 

The Montrose Ride still rages, although the start is now in So Pas, not at Descanso. The T/Th Bowl Ride is also still going strong. The local go-fast guys can pretty much always be found on these rides, plus a brutal climbing ride on Wednesdays.

Magnum PI

I passed through LA a week ago and joined the 7:30 Montrose ride as an old guy on a borrowed bike, and brought my adult son along to introduce him to a part of my past. It was interesting to see the diversity of riders and based on my limited training I was fortunate to hang on until the road turned up towards Sierra Madre. I can only dream of keeping up on the 8 o'clock version of the ride. I am curious where the Wednesday hill-climbing ride begins and ends. Thanks for the update.