cantdrv55

My name is Chris. I am 43 y/o clydesdale. I live in Benicia and am a roadie. My bike is a 2004 REI Novara Trionfo. I'll drive to ride with other Norcals if the timing is right. Unfortunately, Easter Sunday's ride won't work because I have a family gathering.

OK, your turn. Please don't leave me hanging here. Thanks.

spingineer

Hi Chris. Well, my name is Ron, and I just turned 44. It's a tradition with me to ride Solvang Century for my birthday. I know, it's in Southern Cal, but I can't help it. I used to live in Pasadena for 30 years, and I have to admit, I still like it there. In fact, I go down to LA and visit about once a month, so naturally, I bring my bike when I go down there.

I have a Seven Axiom, and I've had it for 3 years, and loving it. I went straight from Aluminum to Titanium. I never tried Carbon Fiber, but I guess if you love riding your bike, there's no reason to change what's working.

Oh, I live in Santa Clara. So far, this year, I got in 2 centuries, and a double century. The double century was Solvang, and I've been messaging a bunch of So Cal riders regarding doubles. Strangely enough, I didn't realize I was riding with a bunch of them until I started reading some of their postings on here.

My goal this year is to complete the California Triple Crown. One down, 2 more to go. The others on my list include Davis, and Grand Tour. It's a pity that there are not many doubles up here. The only ones I can recall in the area are Davis, Devil Mountain's Double, Terrible Two, Mt. Tam and Knoxville. With the exception of Davis, they are all over 10,000 feet of climbing.

Hill climbing is not my best suit, so I guess that's why I keep going to So Cal, so I can ride without excrutiating pain.

spingineer

Just an observation ... when looking from the Regional Discussions, it shows 4 viewing Northern California, and 34 viewing Southern California.

cantdrv55

Wow Ron, you're a hardcore roadie. Some day I'll do a century but that's probably going to be my limit. The longest ride I've done was 45 miles and the "boys" were sore! Trying out a new saddle this Saturday (Terry Fly).

The SoCal group is so much more active here on BF and also more numerous.

SteveE

Well, my name's Steve (duh!). I live in Cupertino. Ride a customer Serotta Legend Ti. Lead the Alto Velo B-Ride on Saturdays. Race up to 10 times a year. Also, ride an old steel Moseman tandem with my older daughter when the weather's nice. Only do a few centuries a year. Probably do the Mt. Hamilton Challenge at the end of this month. Most of my weekend rides are between 60 - 75 miles.

The NorCal group is quieter because we spend more time actually riding than talking about it.

cantdrv55

Steve - do you ride 60-75 miles on one weekend day or combined mileage for the entire weekend? do you ride during the weekdays too?

Just trying to find out what the riding habits are of the folks who post here. I only ride on the weekends and do spin classes at the gym with my wife and son during the week. I bet if I spent more time on my bike, I can do a century this year.

SteveE

60-75 miles each day. Commute 24 miles R/T 3-4 times a week. Oh yeah, almost forgot 57 yrs old next month.

dauphin

as a 52 year old...I give you a standing O!

cantdrv55

+1

uspspro

Marco. 23 y/o. Roadie, from San Mateo

I've been into road cycling on and off since I was about 14.

For the past 4 years, I have been riding a 2002 Cannondale R500 (yellow and black), which I have recently upgraded a bit (6600 Ultegra and 105 mix, Ultegra/Open Pros, etc)

I fell out of riding for a few months (again). I used to ride a few loops (Portola, Crystal Springs + Cañada combo, etc..)

Now I mostly ride Cañada Rd.... 92 to Woodside and back.

I also commute using bike/Caltrain to my job in Mtn. View (5 mile ride from train to work).

Starting tomorrow, I will be riding home from work without the train. (apx 20 miles along the bayshore)

I also am getting my girlfriend into road cycling. I just got her a Bianchi Vigorelli (2002) frameset for a good price and threw my old parts on it, plus some new stuff.

She's not ready for the longer stuff yet, which is why I/we stick to Cañada for now.

BlastRadius

Henry here. I'm 37 and live and work in San Bruno. I ride less then 1 mile to work. I usually head up San Bruno Ave to Skyline and take San Andreas Trail/Skyline/Sawyer Camp Trail down to Woodside and back.

I usually ride my IRO fixie to work and for errands. For longer rides I'm either riding my Bianchi Campione or now my new (to me) Bianchi EV4. I've raced cyclocross the last three years but I haven't raced road or crits. I may try one this year.

I don't frequent the region specific forums much but if there's more organized rides I'll have to check more often.

East Hill

Former San Jose/Santa Rosa here!

Name's Margaret.

I keep an eye on the Northern California forum because all my relatives still live in the Bay Area, and West Valley/Los Gatos is familiar territory. Just in case anyone cares, I went to Leigh HS way back.

I'm going to be going down to Yuba City for the RATB April 14, so I know I'm going to meet cantdrv55 at least, plus bigbossman and others.

East Hill

'nother

My name's 'nother . I live in San José. Been riding for about 3-1/2 years. I'm a member of the same club as SteveE, and just started racing this year. I recently upgraded from cat 5 to 4 and will be doing my first "serious" road race next week (Sea Otter, Masters 30+/4).

Last year I did a double century (Davis) and a bunch of 200k's and centuries, many with significant climbing. I ended my season with injuries to both knees as a result of overextending myself on the Everest Challenge (29,035' of climbing over 2 days and 200+ miles). My goal this year is to return, enter the actual race instead of tourist, and finish both days. I will be doing a few races and hillclimbs and most likely at least one double century (I have my eye on the Terrible Two) in preparation for that.

I work from my home and ride most every weekday except Mondays, usually mid-morning and afternoon. My wife frequently works weekends so it's tough for me to commit to regular weekend rides but I usually get something in one or the other day, usually a longer and/or more intense ride. I am trying to hit the Spectrum ride on Saturdays that I have off, and the AV 'A' ride on Sundays but I've been striking out on both of those for a few weeks running.

My avatar is a photo of the head tube of my bike, so you can recognize me when you see me

Hermes

My name is Rich, 58 next month, married to wife, Mary Ellen, (cranky-stoker) and live in San Mateo. We moved to San Mateo in March of 2006 from LA (Brentwood). We did not cycle in LA and focused on inline skating, gym, skiing and golf. We restarted our cycling in May 2006 after a 5 year layoff.

I have a Trek Madone 5.2 and wife has a 2007 Orbea Orca. We also have a Santana Tandem that we race and ride on the weekends. We typically ride 30-50 miles each day on the weekend and 25 + miles until it gets too dark twice a week in the evening. We are in the gym six days a week. Our training rides typically originate at San Mateo or Canada and 92. We will travel to join other group rides. We did the Solvang Century this year on our tandem and it was fun. We have done two Beat the Clock time trials and the Berkeley Team Time trial on our tandem. I have always enjoyed TTs. This is a build year for us and next year will be more serious individual racing. We are members of Alto Velo.

Gee3

Hi my name is Gary and I'm an alcoh... oh wait, wrong forum... har, har!

I still consider myself a newbie roadie. I'll be 36 in May and I live in Daly City near Gellert Park. I don't ride nearly as often as I used to before I moved back to the City after being in the Dallas area for the last 5 years. And Dallas is not nearly as hilly as it is here! So these hills are killin' me!

Anyway, I started riding last year with my buddy in TX. We did the MS150, a handful of metric centruries and one century called Hotter-n-Hell in Wichita Falls, TX(which lived up to it's name!). My major goal this year is the NorCal MS150 (aka Waves to Wine) in September. The new chapter president is changing it up big time from what I understand of previous years. She's starting it at Ocean Beach in SF, through the Presidio, over the Golden Gate through Sausalito and up parts of the route used in the ToC. The second day is supposed to be relatively flat and it ends in Healdsburg. Apparently there will be about 7k feet of climbing the first day so a flat day 2 will be welcomed. So I need to log in some miles going uphills! UGH!! (plus I have friends that have MS so I ride it for personal reasons)

I'd actually like to get a team together for the MS ride... anyone interested?

Other than that, I've been trying to get back on the bike the last couple of months and am just now starting to branch out and hit Skyline from about Hickey to the park/lake up where Skyline hits 280 and back. But I usually only get to ride Sat or Sun mornings for a bit. I really need to hook up with people in my area and log in some more miles!

Other than that I have an Allez Elite double and with a wife and child that's about all I'll have for a while. hehe! But that's me in a nutshell...

PS - it amazes me when I hear about people doing double centuries! I'd love to try it but I'm afraid I'd keel over. That or I'd need two days to finish! haha!

'nother

I lived in similar astonishment until I actually tried one. I can't say a DC is easy (especially some of the torture-fests such as Devil Mountain Double: 20,000' of climbing), but it was not nearly as bad as I thought. If you are interested in trying one, Davis is actually a pretty good first century. It has a decent but not ridiculous amount of climbing. The weather is usually pleasant (mid-end May). Plus it's a very popular DC and the support crew + other riders are very helpful.

platypus

I'm Neil, I live in Mountain View (as you might suspect). I'm a new racer, and I've been riding about 3 years. I currently ride a Cervelo Soloist. I do a lot of riding out in the woodside/portola/los altos area on the weekends.

cgallagh

Hi ya'll. My name is Chris, married to Deborah (Red Rider). We live in Vacaville. I am 53 and started riding in late October 06. I have ridden bikes over the years but not seriously. We bought our Raliegh Coupe for our birthdays which are exactly a month apart. She was having fun riding and I wanted to spend more time with her. I also fly hang gliders and have been into that for 31 years so this was a big step giving up some flying time. We have had so much fun together on the tandem I decided to buy a 1/2 bike. Got a screaming deal on an 06 Fuji Team Pro. We now have two centuries with about 1700 miles on the tandem. We ride about 100+ miles per week now that the weather and light is better. We can leave our house, get on Browns Valley Rd and hitting the hills in no time. Cantelow hill is just seven miles away if we just need to climb our guts out. Our typical ride is a Winters Loop which we can vary to make it between 30 to 40 miles. A Gordon Valley loop is 50 miles and a Lake Loop is 65. We have so many options here it is great. We are riding the Chico Wildflower later this month and will probably ride the Vacaville Monticello Century next month. For anyone interested the Vacaville ride is a great route with lots of uphill and downhill and great scenery. Vacaville decided to put a century on and our local club is helping out. I hope a lot of you will think about riding it. Go to https://monticellocycling.org/century/century.html for more info. We have not met anyone on the forum but did watch Hermes and Cranky Stoker buzz by us twice at Solvang this year. Come on out and join us in May.

law_in_motion

hello fellow norcals! my name is howie. i'm 34 y.o. and recently moved to west san jose from cupertino. i ride an aluminum trek 2200 and as soon as i save up some money, i'm gonna blow it all on a moots. i try to ride as much as i can, but it's quite sporadic for me. i try to commute into work on bike (19 mile r/t), but my longest ride ever has only been a metric century. i suck at climbing. i liken myself to a semi truck - i can cruise along on the flats, but once i hit the hills, it's a long slow grind. i'm looking forward to meeting some of you this sunday on the easter ride. hopefully i don't get dropped going up hwy 9.

caloso

Another guy named Chris here. I'm a 39 year-old desk jockey and father of 3-year old twins. I try to race as much as work and family life allow. I don't belong to a team, but that may change soon. Most of my miles come on the way to and from work, as I try to combine commuting and training.

I really enjoy working on my bikes. I've built up 2 from the frame this past year. I have another that I'm going to make into a tri bike. In '07, I'd like to learn to build wheels.

xlrogue

I'm Kent, 50 and a Sonoma County guy. Back on the bike for 3 years, recently upgraded from a Summit Comp Pro TR (80's Japanese steel) to a '95 Klein Quantum, which I've upgraded with Velocity Deep V's and Dura Ace derailleurs, brakes, and crank. I'm currently riding 15-25 miles every day, sometimes more on weekends. Just started working on little toy hills this week, hopefully by the end of the summer I'll be capable of actual climbs. I also like doing my own wrenching--I love that feeling when all the adjustments are finally perfect!

platypus

my impatience led me to start doing my own wrenching. no way can I stand to wait to get my bike fixed, I want to ride NOW!

spingineer

I second that sentiment. I actually did Davis 8 years ago, and didn't do another one till last weekend in Solvang.

What I observed is that double century riders are a really tight knit group. Everybody knows everyone else who rides doubles, and every event is almost like a reunion of sorts. Plus, the support is just awesome. Just being able to complete one is an accomplishment. So don't worry about how long it takes to get there (as long as you make the cutoff time). I was commenting how I thought my time was slow, but then I heard about some that ran into difficulties, like taking the wrong route, broken spokes, or failed lighting. That made me a lot more thankful of what I actually accomplished.

DannoXYZ 

Hey, name's Dan and I'm an alcoho.... wait, wrong meeting!

I grew up in Saratoga, but didn't get into riding until I was 18 and off to school at UCSB. Did 4 years of collegiate racing along with 10-years of UCSF and 6-years of track. Worked in a shop for about 10-years too. Had to quit 10-years ago due to asthma that was uncontrollable.

With allergy testing, I've found that I'm allergic to wheat (gluten) and dairy products. Along with new drugs, I think I've got this asthma thing licked, so I'm coming back to racing!

jonathanb715

I'm Jon, 44 years old, live in San Ramon and am training with Team in Training for the Death Ride. For now, weekends are booked, but I'm always looking for rides during the week.

I've got two sons (ages 6 and 8) living with me part time (rest with their mom, my ex.) which also complicates my training schedule.

JB