Valentines day rides

Decided to do the shop ride at bent up cycles instead of Tour de Palm springs
Got there one time on and there was nobody there:eek: Thankfully people started showing up
Some photos inside the shop:
a cupole of Carbents. Dana (the owner of Bent up) also owns CarBent(Carbon Recumbents;) )
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/SZ...4/100_0304.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/SZ...4/100_0305.jpg
the shop itself:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/SZ...4/100_0307.jpg
we then went down to balboa park very slowy :) Like slow enough that the big challenge was keeping my balance. but I needed to practice slow speed handling anyways.
we went around the park, ran into Dana, and came back. The factory had cut one of my cables short and it had kinked, so Dana had Andres (the mechanic ) replace and I bought some stuff.
more 'bent lust
from right to left , A bacchetta Giro 26, an Optima Baron, and a Hp velothechniK Grasshopper
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/SZ...0/100_0308.jpg
I Then went and practiced starting and stopping at Van nuys airport. Ever wonder where movie studios get Vintage planes when they need them?
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/SZ...0/100_0312.jpg
It wouldn't be LA without riding by a studio. This where "My Name is Earl" is filmed
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/SZ...0/100_0313.jpg
got about 16 miles in

We did ours..42 kms...a usual route for Saturday. Sunny and around 5 degrees C. Then shopped together for our Valentine's dinner tonight. When he wasn't looking I snuck in a chocolate valentine lollipop for him in my pannier.

Entree will be 3 sausages, each flavour, elk with blueberries, venison and buffalo with chili.

We've also added herbed spaetzle to our menu plus other stuff. I biked over to a bakery to pick up 2 rustic galettes, peach and apple each.

Didn't expect to get to ride based on the forecast (originally 40s with rain), but things changed, and it ended up being partly cloudy with highs in the low 60s here in central NC. Nice! My Valentine (DH) and I did a 55-minute ride on our mtbs in our rural neighborhood (gravel roads and trails) this afternoon. It was funny because we saw nearly all of our neighbors out and about during our ride. Two were on horses, so we had to keep doing u-turns and changing our route to avoid spooking them. Two more were walking dogs, which we also changed directions to avoid. One was out chain-sawing a downed tree from the high winds we had this week. A few more drove by one way or another and waved.

This was only my third ride this year, so I'm increasing time gradually so as not to get injured -- 30 minutes, then 35, and today was supposed to be 45, but with all the detours went a little long. It was lots of fun!

Hope some others got to ride too; I know it is still winter a lot of places, but we have been lucky to have unusually mild weather lately here in NC.

... my Christmas bicycle has a replacement fork and I was able to go for a ride:D Have to say it feels weird - brakes, shifters and bars are very different to my old bike, which I hadn't been on for nine years anyway, and I'm having to re-learn how cleats work :rolleyes: Even getting on and off was nerve-wracking :eek: The bike is so light though and it's been properly fitted :) I think it will be awesome once I get beyond the sore butt, sore hands, worried about falling off stage :D It's pretty too :D Never occurred to me to make my old bike pretty but after seeing all the bike pics on here I've tarted it up a bit :)

So yesterday's ride was 10k on the flat, with heaps of stops to practice clipping and unclipping and lots of random shifting. It's a start :p