Classtime 

I'm glad you picked that up. I've been watching it for a few weeks and was tempted to pick it up on the way north but I had two dogs in the back, a wife riding shotgun, and two bikes on the roof. I'm still trying to tell myself it is a little small.

Classtime 

Regarding the "organization", I think we should give them a Covid break. Many of us paid for 2020 coffee, posters, rest stop food, cokes, etc. and it is a bit much to expect them to provide equivalent 2022 fair on top of all that for our 2020 dollars. In my naïveté, I hope that the organizers can admit and enumerate this year's shortcomings and for each one also how it will be different next year. I'm 4 hours away but I plan to skip the Nova next year and spend Saturday volunteering.

Andy_K 

During the Sunday ride @Random Tandem was telling me about some Italian idiom that comes up in situations like this. If I remember correctly, it was something like, "Oh, regazzo!" And that's all you're going to get. The connotation was like, "Hey, I'm just a guy, you know?"

I'm not saying the organizers don't care, necessarily. Just that maybe they don't have the same cultural standards and expectations we do. No matter how you look at it, this is a very cool thing they've started. Where it goes from here remains to be seen, but I think there's still a lot of potential.

dalfield

Hey brother,

It's Dave. I rode with you on many parts of the heroic route on the 1950's Olmo. Thanks for the encouragement and waiting at certain areas to make sure I did not get off course.- much appreciated. I should have taken your advice and consumed the energy chews your offered near the end to offset an unanticipated bonk. Eroica 2022 was a fantastic experience, thanks for help along the way, and I hope for a much larger turnout for the heroic route next year!

Andy_K 

Finally back in the friendly confines of Beaverton, Oregon, here's my trip report.

I started out from the K house early Thursday morning. Why would anyone choose to take two days to drive all the way to Cambria rather than take a plane to the Bay Area and hop down from there like everyone else, you may ask? Well, someone has to chauffeur @gugie's bike to the start.



But seriously, I like driving when it doesn't involve rush hour traffic, and the scenery along the way, passing through the Siskiyou, Shasta, and Trinity National Forests is just spectacular.

Late Friday afternoon as I was turning onto Highway 1 I got a text from @SquireBlack who had just finished the Tourica II ride and wondered when I'd be showing up with his clothes. I'll spare you the picture he sent. Over the next couple of hours, the rest of my housemates for the weekend trickled in, reuniting the Fab Five from the 2018 Magic Bus, plus our Capo for this trip @rccardr. Doc has already shared pictures of the wonderful dinner at Linn's, which is good because I have none. It was great having a chance to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.

Saturday's pre-ride was amazing. I know @gugie had been pimping the ride a lot here and on CR, but I was honestly shocked out how many people turned out for it. I'd like to list all the people I got a chance to talk to, but it exceeded my memory capacity and a lot of the information got flushed. If you talked to me, let me just say that I was very happy to talk to you. That's something I can say without qualification about everyone I crossed paths with that morning. On the way out to San Simeon I got to have a long chat with @bikingshearer as we first rode behind Bob Freeman and @Andy Antipas, who did a nice long pull into the wind before Rich and I pulled through and demonstrated why it can be nice to bring wide bodied guys along on a ride. We may not be fast, but we open a large slipstream. Here's a panoramic I took at the San Simeon pier.



I'm pretty sure that's not even all the bikes that rode out with us. And here's a shot of @Spaghetti Legs getting his picture taken by someone else.



Back in the registration area, I found @merziac and got to see his beautiful and freshly cleaned Merz touring bike in all its splendor. I had seen the bike before, but not shining like it was this weekend.

Saturday night was pizza night at Il Palazzo, and again I had great conversations with more BF members than I can properly enumerate. Some were people I had stayed with at the 2019 Palazzo. Others were people I was meeting for the first time. Not having the pretense of a bike ride, I was able to have longer conversations, but I don't think I managed to meet everyone who stopped by. I did get to talk to @mgopack42 and his wife, @Gary12000 (but not his wife, though I know she was there), @velomateo and his son, and @Kilroy1988. All of them wonderful people. If I've forgotten anyone (and I'm sure I have), I apologize. As previously pictured in this thread, @Kilroy1988 brought out a box of goodies he was offering to share. I picked up a Cyclone front derailleur that will be making an appearance on my Clunker 100 bike as soon as the frame is painted.

Finally, we get to the Sunday ride. As I've mentioned a few times in the weeks leading up to this event, I was fabulously under-prepared. I signed up for the Santa Lucia route, but I had been waffling about what I'd actually do. I knew I didn't have nearly the fitness needed for the Santa Lucia route. At various times I had resolutely decided to do the Lighthouse route, resolutely decided to do the Kaylor Gambit (down to Cayucos and then back to the Lighthouse), tentatively decided to ride to the top of Santa Rita (if I could make it) and then turn around and return to Cambria, and finally resolutely decided to apply Rule 5 and complete the Santa Lucia route or die trying. Sometime during the Saturday pre-ride ride, as I was struggling into the headwind, I made the decision to just do the Lighthouse route. Later Saturday night, I changed back to my decision to ride to the top of Santa Rita (if I could) and then see how I felt. If I'd had to bet on whether or not I'd finish the ride, I'd have been all in on "no!"

I woke up Sunday morning at first light, got ready and headed out with my housemates to meet more BF members at the intersection of Highway 1 and Burton Drive. I got dropped before we even got to the meeting point. This wasn't looking good. The group waited for me there, but I fell back again as soon as we started and didn't see them again until Cayucos, where I said my goodbyes and prepared for a long solo ride. Then something very providential happened. I had gotten an email Saturday from @Random Tandem letting me that he was in Cambria for the ride. We had met a few years ago at one of @Lascauxcaveman's Port Angeles Metric Century rides. I told him it would be great to catch up and he should say hello if he saw me out on the route. Well, just before I left Cayucos, I bumped into him. I stayed a few minutes longer as he grabbed a few quick bites, and then we rode off toward Santa Rita together. But here's where it gets very, very providential for me. He was in the middle of a very long tour with a couple of friends, and was riding Eroica while the two of them took a rest day (did I mention that he's a beast of a rider?). As such, his goals for the day were to avoid injury and try not to ride so fast he'd be too burnt out afterwards to continue touring. Well, if there's one thing I was prepared for this weekend, it was setting a slow pace! So, it turned out I had a riding companion and conversation partner for the ride. Just as @Brad L said about @tmnguuyen, I absolutely would not have been able to finish this ride without the encouragement I received from @Random Tandem.

One of the reasons I wanted to do the Santa Lucia route is that I remembered really liking the Santa Rita portion of the 2018 ride, despite being very deep in the pain cave by the time I got there, and I wanted to try it again with fresher legs. It did not disappoint. If there were some way to go up and over Santa Rita without all the other suffering of the day, I'd be in every time. What a fantastic road! Sadly, I've only got a couple of pictures from the top.





As the day went on, I got a few more pictures of scenery (you know, because I wanted to stop and take a picture, not because I needed to rest), but still not many shots with people in them because most everyone else was already up the road. We did get to the Halter Ranch stop in time to see most of the "heroic" riders come through. We stayed there for a really long time, and if I had been riding alone I'd have certainly left in the sag wagon. Instead, after extensive rehydration, we continued on. By the time we got to the gravel for Cypress, any hint of climbing legs I started the day with had abandoned me. I think I walked every bit of the road that was over about 2% grade, which, you know, is all of it. Before I got to the top, I discovered just how thoroughly exhausting it can be just walking next to a bike up a hill. Here's a pic of Random Tandem looking back to see if the buzzards had claimed me yet.



When we got to the top of Cypress I laid down on my back and put my helmet over my face for quite some time. I'm not sure how long I laid there, but I'm guessing the few other people who were around had some awkward moments wondering what they should do if I didn't get back up. When I finally found the energy to sit up, I found that we had been joined by @tmnguuyen, @Brad L, and @mech986.Here's a pic of me after I finally got to my feet. Please forgive the non-drive side picture. I had shut down all non-critical mental processes by this point.



Based on my sketchy memories from 2018, I had a mental image of the Cypress descent as a short bit of horrific gravel, followed by a fast and fun paved section. As such, I had made the decision to walk down the gravel, then get on my bike. Well, those of you who rode Cypress this year know that my memory had it exactly backwards. After just I short bit of walking down, Will and I decided to get on our bikes and ride the gravel until it got too rough (which it really didn't). The main challenge of the gravel was avoiding hand, wrist and arm fatigue from the continual braking. The pavement kept that aspect and added pure horror.

So, checking in with the description of "Type 3 fun" that @Classtime quoted way back in post 543 in this thread,

Never fun while you're doing it? Check!
You often feel your life is threatened? Check!
Certain doom is usually at hand? Check!
Half the time it ends in a harrowing rescue? Not this half, I'm happy to say!

That is, we made it down safely. And as long as the pavement stayed flat on the road back to Cambria (which it mostly did), I actually felt pretty good. Just as I was about to make the turn onto Main Street in Cambria, I got a text from @gugie -- "where u b?" I'm pretty sure he was wondering whether or not they needed to send out a search party to retrieve my carcass. Imagine his surprise when I responded by saying that I was almost finished the ride! Back at the finish, I collected my medal and enjoyed a bit of the last container of warm pasta on the truck. I talked to Brad L and whole heartedly agreed with his assessment that the Lighthouse route will be a good choice for future Eroica events. The phrase "what was I thinking?" came to mind more than a few times throughout the day. I'm very happy to have done it, and glad I decided to push myself. I truly did "rediscover the beauty of fatigue and the taste of accomplishment" as the website says, but now that I've done that I'll be happy not to do it again.

And after all this, I had a two day, 900 mile drive ahead of me. Here are a few pics from the drive to wrap up my travelogue.



@Manny66 may have gotten number 420, but I stayed in Weed on my way home.


I'm pretty sure this sign is an example of the Googie style.

Andy_K 

I have a question for anyone who might have done the Nova Eroica ride on a bike with hydraulic disk brakes or talked to anyone who did. How did that work on the descent of Cypress? I thought for a bit that hydraulic brakes would make that descent a lot less painful, but then I remembered that you can get into problems with small rotor hydraulic brakes if you don’t let up once in a while to let them cool. Have they solved that problem?

tmnguuyen 

I had no issues with my hydraulic disc when we did a self guided tour last year. I went down that way faster on the modern gravel than my Nishiki this year. What a beast @RANdomtamdem. Was great meeting you guys on Cypress top.

Classtime 

Hi Dave. Welcome to BF. I’m sure everyone would like a picture of your Olmo and I bet that someone has a line on a bottle cage that would be appropriate. There were a few places that you kept pedaling through that I would have walked so thank you sir. And it was nice that you would still talk to me after I led you off course for an extra extra significant climb that was beyond Heroic.

edit: Dave's Olmo has wooden tubular rims!

rccardr 

"Late Friday afternoon as I was turning onto Highway 1 I got a text from @SquireBlack who had just finished the Tourica II ride and wondered when I'd be showing up with his clothes. I'll spare you the picture he sent. "

Caliwild

Hello, I actually rode down Cypress this year on the Nova route with my Santa Cruz Stigmata with hydraulic Shimano GRX brakes. The brakes performed flawlessly... I love vintage bikes but, man, the modern bikes with hydraulic brakes made that descent WAY more pleasurable (I've done the same descent on a vintage Bianchi). No hand cramping and easy-peasy, light-action braking (yes, I know, not as heroic!)... No issues with cooling or anything else. My Wahoo showed that I even hit 39 mph on the gravel descent...

I loved doing the combo of the 72-mile Nova Eroica route on Saturday, followed by the short lighthouse ride on the vintage bike on Sunday... Here are the pics of both bikes...

gugie 

Another year, another Eroica? Well, after waiting 3 years for this thing to restart, it was more like a 5 year high school reunion, except with only the people you wanted to see. Beyond anything else, it was just great to see old friends, and on a few occassions, finally meet some of the people I'd gotten to know online. Knowing that this was my number one goal, and knowing that once the official ride started it would be nearly random to run into these old friends, I quickly signed up for Palazzo III, and I was a bit sad that I was unable to join the Tourica II group. I also tacked on a reservation for 14 people at Linn's on Friday night and invited several people I really, really wanted to make sure I saw. Saturday at Eroica I've done a short social ride, so posted both here and on CR an announcement that a 18 mile, out and back ride to San Simeon for lunch would be a nice way to spend quality time with friends. As @Andy_K posted, I was very surprised at the turnout. 30-ish riders, on a road with wide enough shoulders to ride 2 abreast made for a great warm-up spin, plus many of us needed to check out our bikes for final tweaks as many had been rebuilt out of a box just that morning after travelling on a plane. My trusty bike chauffeur, publicist, and beer sommelier came through once again and hand delivered my 1974 Raleigh International. At any rate, we took over several tables at the wine tasting place in San Simeon. The food truck there was kept busy feeding us.

Dinner at the Palazzo III was pizza, salad, beer, wine, and some wonderful desserts that a few people brought. @Kilroy1988 and I had passed PM's and emails back and forth over the past several years, and this year I finally got to meet him. I remember him telling the story of how he met his wife, and I got to meet her as well. @rccardr has already spoken well of Greg (Kilroy1988) as he brought a big box of bits to give away! I took home a 531 chromed fork and a couple of 44cm handlebars. Thanks Greg! That party was roaring, we finally got everybody kicked out in time to get some decent shut eye before the main event on Sunday.

My first Eroica I paid and went to the dinner. A dinner of 500 of my closest friends. I decided the next year that a more "intimate" dinner would be much nicer. The original Palazzo was perfect or that. We had mabe 25-30 people come and go while cooking up a few dozen pounds of tri-tip

2019 at the Palazzo degli Eroi

2020 Eroica was cancelled. 2021 spawned Tourica. Eroica California was cancelled just a few weeks prior so Fauxroica came about, and I enjoyed both the tour down the coast and a ride we made up as well as the 2018 and 2019 organized rides. This year several of us decided there was no reason to head over to the start, so we just rode from our rented house, which actually added a mile or two to our ride; none of us felt like we were cheating. Two abreast again spinning down the coast, we were in Cayucos before we knew it. The spread was wonderful, but I wasn't hungry at 8am, especially for shrimp, salmon, and salty meats. I rode up Santa Rita next to @rccardr discussing retirement investments and other things, noted how beautiful the climb is, and before we knew it the summit was in site. As noted earlier, there was only enough water for the first tranche of riders, but someone not related to the ride was at the top waiting for her husband, and she brought a lot of bottled water. I got mine topped off, then had to ration it over the next 20 miles or so until the next rest stop - we were inland on the warmest part of the day. I rode most of the rest of the day with Ben Ngan. After an hour of rehydrating at Halter Ranch we set out for our assault on Cypress. On the first stinger section, we passed a couple of turkey vultures watching us trying to climb the hill.


That vulture is thinking, "screw this, I'm gonna kill something" His buddy (not seen off on another tree) said "patience..."

On my third Eroica I finally made it to the top of Cypress without walking. Ben was cramping, and had to walk portions. After awhile Bob Freeman caught up with us, and the three amigos descended down to Cambria with the usual death grip on the brakes. My MAFAC centerpulls howled like a a stuck pig. I think some riders dove off the road as I passed them due to the noise. I probably now need new brakepads, rims, or both.

My take on Eroica is the same as what Doc wrote. We were ready to ride the route self-supported, and for the most part, we did. We put on our own pre-ride, which was great. We threw our own dinner party, inviting just the people we knew or wanted to meet. It was great. I'm guessing that next year someone will organize a Fauxroica a week or two before or after. Spouses and friends can sag. Without the 1987 police to watch over us, pedals could be clipless, shifters could click, heck, plastic bikes could ride along, but we'll tsk-tsk them. As many like to say, come for the bikes, stay for the people. And just thinking out loud, we could start in Paso Robles and do the classic route properly, as originally intended.

Don't get me wrong. I was happy that the organizers were able to pull this off on relatively short notice. There are many excuses we could allow. Bottom line, however, it's a significant commitment of my time and money, and I want to optimize the experience. Things that bugged me were out of my control. Overall it was a good experience. I was just left wanting a better one.

fvernon

Understandable! If I was driving out in a fully loaded vehicle, I would have had to pass as well. Luckily it had been for sale for a bit, so he was willing to drop the price some--totally worth it for the frame, brakes, and crankset alone as far as I'm concerned (but the 23.5" frame fits me perfectly )

gugie 

BFF @davester should be able to give the blow by blow details, but bottom line is his freewheel blew up on Touroica II. That got fixed in Cambria, but almost exactly halfway into the 2 climbs, no fries route his derailleur decided to commit suicide. @Spaghetti Legs was riding near Thor when it happened. He actually smelled it happen - the rear wheel locked up and burned rubber.


I believe there may be some Gugificazione on this frame's future. Realistically, there's a good chance that hanger can be bent back. There's no down side to trying!

davester

Blow-by-blow coming right up...

Thor's tale of woe started in my garage in Berkeley. With Thor not keen on riding both Touroica and Eroica with his usual 42-26 low gear, we fished around in my garage the night before leaving on the tour. I came up with the wheel off my Miyata which had a 13-32 IRD freewheel and a Nuovo Record derailleur with a Soma Rally-style long cage attached. A few chain length adjustments and Thor was ready to go.


The first couple of days of Touroica II went well, although towards the end Thor was reporting some odd clunkety clunk noises that we ascribed to the rivets on the chain hitting the cogs, possibly the result of a bent derailleur hanger. In about the middle of day three, just north of Big Sur and far south of any bike shops and any cell phone coverage, the freewheel locked up solid, bringing Thor to a grinding halt. After going over various options (including hitchhiking back to Carmel and hoping there might be a bike shop with a freewheel there), we opted to shorten the chain and remove the derailleur cage to turn the Olmo into a fixie in order to get to our planned Big Sur destination and hopefully some cell coverage that could be used to call for assistance. Here is a shot of the fixie transformation process underway:



During our evening phone/text fest to solicit assistance, we received a kind offer from OldCoot to drive down from Santa Cruz (4 hour roundtrip) with a freewheel. So as not to have him make the trip in vain we decided that we should see if we could actually remove the freewheel, so used the chain and cranks as a makeshift chain whip. Lo and behold, the freewheel did not come off, but after about a half hour of farting around it actually started to turn backwards relatively easily and become a freewheel again. We reasoned that perhaps a ball bearing had broken and jammed one of the pawls but had now been dislodged and was now in a more benign location. The decision was made to reassemble the derailleur and chain then continue south, with the contingency plan B of Thor hitchhiking to Cambria. Here we are conducting the surgery on the Ripplewood Cabins operating table...


Alas, it was not to be. The Olmo made it to the top of a tremendously long grade leaving Big Sur but then disassembled itself on the downhill, spewing ball bearings into the gravel. Plan B was implemented and we left Thor to hitch a ride south. A pleasant german chap in a BMW picked him up and conveyed him to Cambria. Meanwhile, Gugie brought along a shiny new freewheel the Olmo was reassembled and was reported to purr like a kitten and shift more smoothly than ever. Thor completed the pre-ride to San Simeon and the next morning set off on the Santa Lucia route. After successfully conquering the Santa Rita climb and descent, the gang gathered at an intersection to decide whether to do a rogue Via Della Scalatore ride of continue on Santa Lucia. After much debate, we all set off on the Santa Lucia route and a few seconds later disaster struck. Apparently the crack team of bike surgeons who had reassembled the derailleur had not adequately tightened the bolt holding the cage on. The cage detached and was carried around the freewheel by the chain, jamming on the chain stay and resulting in complete wheel lockup and skidding to a stop, thereby popping the tire, grinding the edge off the rim and bending the derailleur body into scrap metal. End of the ride for the poor beleaguered Olmo...

Andy_K 

There's a thing that happens a lot in muddy cyclocross races sometimes called an FPC (failure to pass chain). Something happens that causes the chain to get hung up in the rear derailleur, and a dramatic and almost instantaneous failure ensues. With aluminum and carbon bikes, usually the derailleur hanger snaps off and if you're lucky the derailleur doesn't hit anything important on the way out. With a steel bike, the derailleur hanger doesn't give up so easily and the energy has to be absorbed somewhere else.

Here's a pic of a failure that happened to me on a steel bike in 2010 at Rainier.



It happened so quickly, I thought I had just dropped my chain. Instead, the hanger bent, the derailleur broke in two places, the chain twisted, and most of my drive side spoke got cut. A guy at the shop that fixed the frame said he's seen the shift cable get ripped through the shifter with an incident like this.

There's a whole album of such things from a single day at PIR in 2012 here if you enjoy gore: https://www.flickr.com/photos/retros...th/8197751989/

My guess is that Thor's RD cage worked loose and twisted just enough to stop the chain mid-pedal stroke. It was obviously still attached to the main derailleur when it happened, because it had enough force to pry open the dropout. Then the cage broke loose and went into the spokes, stopping the wheel instantly.

tmnguuyen 

The Touroica II saga is pretty good. Only Thor with god legs can disintegrate a freehub multiple times (omit the poor workmanship part to make the story better )

Andy Antipas 

I'm still digesting my trip to Cambria for Cali Eroica, but here is what I can say. I'm glad I got to see friends who I haven't seen in many years, which was the highlight of the weekend for me. I met people I had only communicated with virtually. I made some new friends with similar cycling interests. I stayed at a neat historic farm house AirB&B up Santa Rosa Road. The Central Coast is beautiful and a nice change from Southwest Colorado. I was able to overcome a broken rear spoke on Friday afternoon. I purchased a (used) spoke at the bike COOP and the folks at Velo Cambria let me borrow their tools, which allowed me to ride the coastal route on Sunday up to Ragged Point and back. As a biologist, I loved seeing the elephant seals. As has been discussed in this thread and on CR there were a lot of flaws with the event's organization (a lot), but no regrets. Finally, many thanks go to gugie for organizing all the get togethers (dinners and ride). And now for a few photographs.



My trusty 76 Colnago Super. The rear wheel will get rebuilt shortly.

Historic Farmhouse and AirB&B on Santa Rosa Road.

My epic meatloaf dinner at Linn's Friday night. I was able to walk out of the restaurant under my own power....

Fantastic scenery inland and....

along the coast (Ragged Point)

Elephant seals!

gugie 

I sat next to Andy at the Friday night dinner at Linn's. That slab of meatloaf was indeed massive. It must have been damn good, there was money on the table saying he couldn't finish it.

Caliwild

Jeez... that house my mouth watering! I'll have to try that next time...

Kilroy1988 

Hello all!

Well, I've been reading along with other people's replies and I can't say that my opinion of the weekend has been phased much, but I think it is relevant to point out that this was not only my first time attending Eroica, but it was only my second or third organized cycling event ever - I am not antisocial but I absolutely do not normally prioritize such things. However, as a Californian and with my new career allowing me the flexibility necessary to ride during the months leading up to the event, I was really excited to finally attend and enjoyed myself thoroughly. The concours on Saturday was rather underwhelming compared to so many events I've seen photographed in the past, but it was a pleasure to see some unusual or personally inspiring models that I have only ever seen on the screen. There was a really cool dealer I met there named Gary who I purchased a 1972 Raleigh International frameset from as well as matching Campagnolo Nuovo Record seat post, headset and bottom bracket, all for a price way below typical eBay advertisements! In particular, it was a delightful surprise to finally meet obrentharris and his pal that morning at his little stall!

I was really happy to meet so many forum members during the evening meet up at the rental house in Cambria, and it was my pleasure and honor to be able to share that box of parts with those who decided to rummage through and grab some stuff... I had a great conversation that evening velomateo and is son Jonas, as well as Andy_K. Thanks to gugie and rccardr for organizing that shindig, and it was also a pleasure to meet gaucho777, merziac, SquireBlack and Spaghetti Legs as well as the others who were there!

On Sunday morning I rode the Piedra Blancas route to the lighthouse because I have had no opportunity to train for climbing yet this season and was pleasantly surprised to see that several forum members joined up for that ride as well. The 1954 Carlton Super Python performed amiably, although I did not dare to shift into the lowest gear because it sets the derailleur mech dangerously close to the wheel spokes. I also lost the chain by having it slide between the toothless cogs on the derailleur pulley both times I tried to go into the high gear - so functionally I rode almost the entire route with the two speeds in the middle. The wind kicked up for the last few miles along the hilly section and it was a real grind, but I managed to get out to the lighthouse in 52 minutes flat. I was comfortable in the original 1950s Wearwell wool cycling shorts and a wool sweater, and was probably one of the only riders without a helmet - if I had been on either of the longer routes I would have opted for one.

I recall meeting Kabuki12 and bikingshearer at the halfway point as well as a fellow from Fresno - was that Straightblock? What really tickled me was meeting the fellow named Ted (I'm talking 75-80) who was riding the beautifully restored 1951 Humber Beeston Clubman that I was admiring during the concours on the previous day. He had it set up as a fixed gear and I decided to ride all the way back to Cambria from the lighthouse with him and his pal Gary, who was also riding fixed on a beautifully restored English mystery frame with Nervex professional lugs. Ted has a titanium plate in his neck and can't see much in either direction so he strictly trains by riding all the way up and down Mt. Diablo every day! Gary and I were both pushing pretty damn hard to keep up with him and it was a treat to share in his enjoyment of the moment.

For only driving a couple of hours to get there and staying at my uncle's lovely home in Cayucos free of charge, I cannot complain at all about the event organization, snacks and meals, or token gifts. The details of all of that have been excellently related by previous posters and I agree that it was rather lackluster but I suppose my expectations weren't that high, and if I attend again I'll keep it that way!

The photos below should all be pretty straight-forward, and I also added one of my lovely wife Galina for those of you who didn't get the opportunity to meet her. She was extremely excited for me all the while and also enjoyed the weekend. Cheers!

-Gregory

gugie 

It was great to finally meet you and your lovely wife! Thanks so much for the box of goodies, I'll put the bits I got to good use.

merziac

Kilroy1988

That "pal" was none other than Paul Sadoff of Rock Lobster fame, the man himself, one of the best and still hard at it. He and Brent go way back.

Brent dropped a frame off at my house early on in my BF tenure that he had gotten from Paul and restored, it still languishes. A Moto TC.

Great to meet you as well, I may have been foolish to lean on your wife about not riding, my bad, tell her I apologize.

The goodie box was very generous and helped get the Paramount moving in the process of where its headed, can't believe I didn't grab the rack right off, its perfect.

Gary12000 

I have that same color International, but in a smaller frame around 57 cm, mine came built and rides fantastic..

dalfield

Thanks for the positive feedback! I just consider that "extra significant climb" as "value added" to the Eroica event! I am so glad I committed to attending and look forward to future events. I can post pictures once I make 10 posts in this forum.

Spaghetti Legs 

Kilroy1988 for the win with classy British bike, slouch hat and Spitfire pilot shades!