September 28 Rides

[tulip]

I'll start. I was a ride leader today for the first time. I got cue sheets all ready last night, and got to the start early. There were about 12 people of varying speeds. It was a no-drop ride and one couple was quite a bit slower than the rest, so I switched off with another person and was the sweep for the middle part of the ride. 28 miles. Fun.

[ASammy1]

...through the Great Dismal Swamp on the VA/NC border. Here are our pics!

[ASammy1]

The remaining pics

[wackyjacky1]

The doggie basket thing is flippin' AWESOME! :D

I had a great ride today. The weather is near perfect (sunny, mid-80s) although we're having an Air Quality Alert today (too much ozone). I only did 9 miles, but that's a lot for me (still doing those baby steps :rolleyes: ) and I felt fresh and strong throughout. I even took on two big hills that I would have avoided in the past. (Yay, me. :p )

Here's my trusty bike waiting for me outside the coffee bar I like to stop at toward the end of my Sunday rides. (That is the carrot I dangle in front of me for motivation -- if I have a good ride, I treat myself to an iced soy latte, then it's an easy 1.5 miles the rest of the way home.)

Now I gotta grab a quick shower and settle in to watch my beloved Redskins BEAT THE COWBOYS!!! :cool:

[Mr. Bloom]

After being puny and unmotivated to do any long rides the last few weeks, I'm back! I hate the shorter days.

A loop from our house making a nearly perfect metric century: 62.08 miles at 17.9mph with 3,200 feet of climbing (despite constant head/cross winds).

Silver is still riding...she's completing an imperial century:)

[ASammy1]

Hi Wackyjacky! We love the basket! It's nice to be able to take Nigel on rides. The way the basket is set up, we have to put it on one of the hybrids because of the straight bars. DBF is actually riding my hybrid while I took the new road bike out (hee hee!). :p

[HillSlugger]

It's been rainy all weekend since Friday but I decided I was going out this morning unless it was pouring buckets. Left the house under threatening skies with a 50-70% chance of rain, but got through the whole 2.5hr ride without rain. Still, my bike and I ended up a mess from all the wet roads. While washing her down I found a cut in my front tire that was making bubbles :eek: No idea when that happened. I guess I'll replace the tire even though it only has about 500 miles.

Didn't see any other riders at all.

[MrsB]

Im jealous! No ride all weekend. Pouring buckets here in Maine. Ive been trying to ride my stationary bike at night for 6-10 miles but its been killing me. I cant believe how I can ride 40-50 miles outside but the stationary bike just kills my butt and knees. Ive got to look into buying a trainer cuz Im a real wimp when it comes to cold weather here in Maine. Im good to go till about the 45 degree weather!

[andtckrtoo]

I had a nice 60 mile ride today. Took a break from hills and decided to just ride the rollers around here. Climbed a total of about 1000 feet (which is much easier than the 2500-3500 I've been doing - around here it's tough to get anything without SOME climbing). Didn't quite make it to the resevoir that was my goal because of time constraints, but that's okay. I wanted to do 60 miles and I got those in.

[Skierchickie]

I'm pumped. DH & I did a section of the 120 miler I did last weekend. Even though I SWORE I'd never do that section again, I really needed to know what % grade it was, and DH's computer has an inclinometer. We started in Eagle Harbor, up to Copper Harbor (into about a 50-55 degree headwind), turned around & headed back, but over Brockway Mountain Drive. Not a real mountain - wouldn't want to insult those of you who live in the actual mountains. Anyway, this road is 9 miles long, and all the climbing is in the first few.

The steepest section turned out to 17% - it turns out that is pretty darn steep on a standard double! We both have 53/39 in front, and 12-25 in the rear. The next section was 15%, with several more climbs after that. After a while the 7-8% ones felt pretty easy. I think 12% or so is the steepest I've been climbing this summer, and this is way harder.

It was cool - there is a little tourist overlook at the top, and there were lots of people out enjoying the fall colors. A guy standing there with his family pointed us out to his 2 little girls, and they asked us questions about which side we came up (we were on the way-steeper side), if it was really hard, why we did it (I said it was to see if we could), etc. Hopefully they'll be motivated to become cyclists in the future (okay, so if they're 6-ish now, they won't remember this when the day comes. I like to dream of motivating kids, anyway:rolleyes:.

Oh - I forgot. About 1500 feet of climbing for 29 miles of the ride. I did 35 miles - I did an extra 7, riding to the next park, and DH picked me up there.

[berkeley]

I did my first metric! Well a little over... 67 miles total.

It rained on us, and my seat post broke, but dammit I finished. :D

5000 ft of climbing, ave speed 13.4, top speed 41 MPH!

Took me five hours and at the end, I was soaked, covered in road dirt and totally tired!

[Mr. Bloom]

I did my first metric! Well a little over... 67 miles total.

Outstanding!

What happened with the seat post?

[chicago]

i did 50 miles today... it was fun...

and it was one year ago today (last sunday of september) that i first met my boyfriend:p... and on a bike ride if that:D

[Aggie_Ama]

Berk- COngrats, what happened to the seat post??

I did a 7.2 mile mountain ride. Cleared my first log today, that was pretty darn exciting!! The trail had a lot of gravel and sand, made it a hard ride and quite a bit of cross training but it was new and fun. :)

[berkeley]

Outstanding!

What happened with the seat post?

Thanks!

The metal serrations have worn down at the ball-socket joint (I'm sure that's not what it's really called lol), so at like mile 5 climbing a hill, the whole seat tilted back - like at a 45 degree angle to where it should be. I nearly slid off the back of the bike! Then it was just freely moving, tilting up and down as it wished. :rolleyes:

They fixed it so that it would stay in one place but it was 1/2 inch off from where I usually have it. Which is probably why my neck is killing me now...

[spindizzy]

Nice ride Berkeley! :)

Did hills today. Beautiful weather.

[mudmucker]

I rode a solo 38 miles. There is an unimproved gravel rail trail I discovered, that goes through Phillipston and goes for 25+ miles to the south. So I rode 16 miles of it to Barre, and took to the pavement for another 22 miles through Petersham and back home.

I just got some 28c Vittoria Randonneurs for the red steel bike, specifically to ride some of these gravel dirt bike trails like the rail trail, or those that go through the Quabbin Reservoir Park. These are by no means mt bike trails at all.

I had a blast. It was a cloudy but very nice warm day, and a bit humid as Ike was off-shore heading to Maine. It was so fun to be able to comfortably ride both pavement and dirt, to have that off-road option and still have some zoom zoom on the road. The rail trail was in very good condition, enough not to need a mountain bike or fatter tires. It was very peaceful, as I was the only one on it for 16 miles. Not a soul around.

I love these tires. It had rained overnight so some of the roads were still wet and the tread pattern riffled off the water quite nicely when on pavement. When I was on the rail trail, I specifically rode through the most mud, water, and soft sand as much as I could to test them. They performed really well. There was only 1 quarter mile area that had super soft sand where I might have wanted more tire float. It was actually really fun and a little different with the skinnier than mt. tires, going through the muddy and sandy areas; just accelerate through the sand when the back starts to fishtail. There were also, mildly so, some cobbly and large stone areas where I bounced around, but no more than I would with a mt. bike. I also saw that Vittoria had Randonneur Cross tires in 28c, with a deeper tread. I'll look at them, but I don't think I'd need them.

The foliage is not peaking yet here in MA, but the reds are starting to come in quite nicely.

http://inlinethumb41.webshots.com/41000/2505594780102221940S425x425Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2505594780102221940poEgjF)

View from Old Stone Bridge, looking south.

http://inlinethumb57.webshots.com/42552/2373526780102221940S425x425Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2373526780102221940HbbBJp)

View from Old Stone Bridge, looking north. Sun is peeking out.

http://inlinethumb18.webshots.com/43473/2294437940102221940S425x425Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2294437940102221940PaBskj)

View of trail.

http://inlinethumb13.webshots.com/42444/2444467090102221940S425x425Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2444467090102221940nbWBlT)

Getting close to Barre.

http://inlinethumb35.webshots.com/5218/2174229060102221940S425x425Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2174229060102221940sRQycc)

[Aggie_Ama]

The colors! The colors! Our leaves have two colors- green and brown. Most of them stay green year round, thanks for showing me what I don't have I love the photos. :D

[SadieKate]

(yellow posting as "SadieKate" :p)

Nice colors, mudmucker! Noticed a few on our mtn ride today. But we were mostly in the green, green trees. Here's a follow up to yesterday's video (except this one is BETTER!!!).

(click on the green screen and watch...)

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b310/SadieKate/Rides%202008/WWW%202008/th_WWW_Flagline.jpg (http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b310/SadieKate/Rides%202008/WWW%202008/?action=view&current=WWW_Flagline.flv)