First ride on new bike!

[Catrin]

Sounds as though you are headed in the right direction. Would posting some info about this with your LBS or a club help to find some people to ride with? There may be others who are interested as you are and are looking as well...

My bike shop already knows as they are the ones who gave me the information and a contact to help me find places to go scouting out potential rides. I've also posted something on the local women's mtb meetup group, and there are a couple of women interested.

There is a mtb association of course, and I've been on that forum but right now everyone is so focused on single-track. There is a gravel road race on Thanksgiving weekend, but I wouldn't want to slow down someone training for a 60+ mile brutal gravel race. This is in the same area where I want to ride, but I know I will be slower. With all of the injuries and time off the bike this year I don't have the climbing legs I should at the end of the season and that area has some STEEP gravel roads!

[ridebikeme]

Great I'm glad to hear that you are putting some pieces together for future rides! I wish that I were closer so I could race as well, it certainly must be drier than this area is right now. What's the name of the race? Is there information on a website/blog somewhere?

Although you may not be in 'climbing' position that you'd like to be, it might be a great time to log some miles and see what you think of this time of riding... at least I always think that I'll spend less days on the trainer that way HA!

[Catrin]

Great I'm glad to hear that you are putting some pieces together for future rides! I wish that I were closer so I could race as well, it certainly must be drier than this area is right now. What's the name of the race? Is there information on a website/blog somewhere?

Although you may not be in 'climbing' position that you'd like to be, it might be a great time to log some miles and see what you think of this time of riding... at least I always think that I'll spend less days on the trainer that way HA!

The name of the event is the Gravel Grovel and it is always held on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. There is a companion event held in very early March called the Death March (for a couple of VERY good reasons). For some reason neither website is responding, but you can check both out from the Sub-9 Productions website later. Their website is down and I've already let them know about that. I will volunteer for the Gravel Grovel again this year - as long as the weather doesn't make me wimp out. I hope to ride at least a portion of the Death March, but time will tell.

HERE is a review of the 2011 Gravel Grovel to give you an idea what it is like.

In order to REALLY do some gravel road riding, I need to switch my stem out and probably throw some riser bars on my bike. My riding position is fine, barely, for single-track, but I am much too hunched over for anything that looks like road riding or for covering distance. In order to keep from stretching my neck out too far we chose to go with a mountain bike one size small for me - and I need to save up for the work.

[Catrin]

The website is back up

Gravel Grovel information here. This is a combination of a road, mountain, and cyclocross race all rolled up into one!

Death March information here! This is held in the same area, it is a team race of a different type - think orienteering on bikes