first ride of the year!!

[OakLeaf]

So happy Don is back outside on the bike! I hope the fresh air and sunshine made him feel as much better as it always does for me.

I was up way too late last night to get up in time for the club ride which I really wasn't planning on anyway, Sundays can get a little crazy. Running day for me. We rode the commuter bikes to the New Year's Eve celebration last night, though.

[nscrbug]

Wish I could say that I got my first ride of the year in today, but the weather was just way too cruddy. It was cold, rainy (with some snow flurries mixed in), and very windy - sustained winds around 25-30mph with gusts up to 50mph!!! No way am I riding in those conditions. I opted for the gym instead and got a decent workout in to start off the new year. Might be able to ride by next weekend with temps in the 40's forecasted.

Linda

[bmccasland]

Yay Mimi & RD!!! Happy New Year. Woohoo!

[luv2climb]

I had the most fun I've ever had on a New Year's Day! A local cycling club had a hill repeat challenge up Beatty Drive in El Dorado Hills. Beatty is a 3/4 mile long hill with lots of 10%-12% grades and a max grade of 16%.

The goal for the riders is to climb Beatty as many times as possible in two hours. I am not a member of this club and I wasn't technically a part of the ride, but I wanted to live up to my username as usual and have some fun on that hill, motivated by the presence of 75 other climbers.

I mounted front and rear cameras on my Bike Friday folding bike. These did a great job of capturing passes and the occasional rider I was able to pass. Having more than one camera also gives people a second chance to hear the commentary from spectators and passing cyclists.

The rear camera also did a great job of capturing suffer-faces on riders passing me and being passed by me.

Between climbs I stood on the side of the road and took video of the riders passing by. I could only do that for a few minutes at a time before I got the overwhelming urge to do more of my own climbing!

Garmin data

Details of the ride from the bike club's website

Before the event I met a very nice woman from another forum. I was talking to a friend and she heard me talking about my San Francisco climbs on the Bike Friday. She also recognized my voice from my videos. She had a very nice recumbent trike, and after the event we took a ride down Green Valley Road before turning around due to limited daylight.

Here's the video from my climbs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WjAVfsj6q8

Here's the video from the side of the road. The sound of the descending bikes was pure badazz!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YJPDO5NOIo

[Blueberry]

Cool video! I watched part of it. That's some impressive climbing Also some amazing suffering on the part of the other riders (particularly those on the side of the road!).

What's going on with the rear camera and the tire? There's some sort of odd timing issue (I think) where the camera is recording at the rate the tire is rolling (I can tell you're moving - in no way questioning that - the tire just doesn't look like it - heck sometimes it looks like it's rolling backwards!).

[luv2climb]

Thanks! The rear camera is a cheapy Midland XTC-100 that I bought from REI for $64. It only has standard-definition resolution at 640x480 30 frames per second, whereas the other two cameras are still SD resolution but record at 848x480 and 60fps. It could be the lower frame rate causing the weird effect, but I'm not positive.

I've seen the same effect on other people's videos where the wheel is visible.

[MojoGrrl]

Went out for only 23 miles today, but it included a challenging climb. The descent (which is always a little sketchy, very steep and twisty on an essentially one-lane road) was complicated by a car coming up and me having to ride my brakes to slow down and make it around said car, resulting in my rear end sliding and me nearly going off the road in order to steer out of the slide. But then I hammered it all the way back and made pretty awesome time.

One of these days, we need to go out on a ride, luv2climb...I have a friend who lives in the Grass Valley area who would love to take us on a climbing sufferfest!

[Anelia]

I had the most fun I've ever had on a New Year's Day!

Yes, you really did! It's so nice riding with so many people around.

[Anelia]

Today I had a long road ride with a mountain bike: 49 miles for 4 hours. I got wet from the water on the road and sometimes it was cold on the descents and too hot on the ascents but I felt great.

[hebe]

My first ride of the year today. Only a tiny one (3 miles round trip if that), but the Mr and I towed dd to her new nursery building. It's a fairly straightforward route, with a busy-ish roundabout to cross, then goes through an industrial estate before heading out into the countryside again. I am determined to do more short journeys by bike rather than car whenever weather and commitments allow. Her previous nursery building was a bit of a faff to bike to - with dismounts to cross at busy junctions and awkward transitions from multi-use paths to road riding so I ended up not cycling it as often as I'd hoped.

[maillotpois]

Huge wonderful happiness. Happy new year!

[featuretile]

January 1 is the annual bike ride/brunch for our club. It was one of those miracle days we get in the winter in CA. It was 70 degrees out and beautiful and absolutely no one was out driving in cars. Had a nice 30 mile spin around the Watsonville area and did not even need a jacket! Then a great brunch....
About 40 people showed up. Could not have been better!

[climbergirl]

First bike ride of the year? Half a mile home from the bf's place on the (new-used) beater winter bike on unrelenting ice.

About 17 F, but the sun was shining, and I wasn't moving fast enough to generate any wind chill!

Ice is not my friend. Really. It's not. But it's supposed to warm up to nearly 40 by Thursday/Friday, so there's some hope for a (real) ride next weekend!