Northern California - NorCal Coastal Century Reports

I was going to title that picture
"And now the helmet hair club for men"
but I changed my mi...... oooops, too late. ;)

If you want a cheap, small camera you won't mind dropping, take a look at these (http://www.aiptek.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=AS&Category_Code=PC1). They don't produce photos as nice as the ones in this thread, but for $20, they're a pretty good deal. Here's an example (http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=870902100&size=o) of what the pics they produce look like.Hmm, I couldn't use one of those as a main camera, but I could see rigging one up to mount to the handlebars, or down low on the fork hacked up to have a remote shutter release. Hmm.


GREAT!! I think I win for the worst helmet hair!Heh, still doesn't look bad. You never know, it could be the Next Big Thing.

I'm surprised my hair looks somewhat presentable. Usually I have some evil, wretched combination of hat hair and helmet hair...

Tandem couple: how did you arrive at the decision of running your timing 90 degrees to each other?


Good eye, Sweetnsourbkr!

I talked with them about it. They said that it evens out the power strokes between the two riders for a smoother stroke. When the pedals were in the same position, they could feel a "surge" in the downstroke. With the pedals at 90 degrees to each other, the power strokes occur at different times, thus providing a smoother ride.

I was going to title that picture
"And now the helmet hair club for men"
but I changed my mi...... oooops, too late. ;)


Heh, still doesn't look bad. You never know, it could be the Next Big Thing.


I'm not only a client... I'm the Prez-o-dent!

GREAT!! I think I win for the worst helmet hair! Looks like I have corn rows! Next time I'll bring my gold chain and platinum grill!!

The other Gary

We'll sign u up for "pimp my ride" too. Xzibit will be knocking on your door soon.

The other other Gary

If I do any more of these.

NO if. Repeat after me "I will do more of these".:)

Angel and Gary
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa268/acayaban/Coastal%20Century%209-23-07/DSC00270.jpg



Someone needs to photoshop me out. I am ruining a nice shot of Angel.

NO if. Repeat after me "I will do more of these".:)Yeah, yeah, I know. The Calaveras one is already piquing my interest.

I gotta give it up to Alex though. Either he has a steel @ss or that Brooks saddle is super comfy! Were you even wearing any padded shorts?

Even with cycling shorts my arse can hurt after a while! Hopefully I'll see you guys on the Calaveras ride!

Even with cycling shorts my arse can hurt after a while! Hopefully I'll see you guys on the Calaveras ride!

You only did 50 miles.... how can your ass be sore? :p

Good eye, Sweetnsourbkr!

I talked with them about it. They said that it evens out the power strokes between the two riders for a smoother stroke. When the pedals were in the same position, they could feel a "surge" in the downstroke. With the pedals at 90 degrees to each other, the power strokes occur at different times, thus providing a smoother ride.

SesameCrunch - well explained.

We actually found this tandem on craigslist and the person we got it from had the cranks out of phase: stoker 90 degree ahead of the captain. We have tried in phase and captain 90 degrees ahead of stoker. In our configuration Sassy starts the power stroke, then I finish it off -repeat, repeat... There is a huge debate in the tandem community about - "in phase" vs "out of phase". Most bike shops will sell tandems in phase and not explain to the purchaser about the out of phase option.

We are enjoying the experiences and pictures from the ride:D

You only did 50 miles.... how can your ass be sore? :p

I guess I'm not well seasoned yet. hehe!

I gotta give it up to Alex though. Either he has a steel @ss or that Brooks saddle is super comfy! Were you even wearing any padded shorts?Heh, nope. No padding whatsoever. Ended up with a little, uh, numbness, but I think I had the saddle tilted up a bit too much to be riding in the drops as much as I was.

The saddle is comfortable, though, and it's not even remotely broken in yet. Supposedly they just get better and better. :)

SesameCrunch - well explained.

We actually found this tandem on craigslist and the person we got it from had the cranks out of phase: stoker 90 degree ahead of the captain. We have tried in phase and captain 90 degrees ahead of stoker. In our configuration Sassy starts the power stroke, then I finish it off -repeat, repeat... There is a huge debate in the tandem community about - "in phase" vs "out of phase". Most bike shops will sell tandems in phase and not explain to the purchaser about the out of phase option.

We are enjoying the experiences and pictures from the ride:D

Thanks for the replies. We are considering purchasing a tandem, and this is why I'm looking closely. Bottom line, it sounds like rider's preference.

The saddle is comfortable, though, and it's not even remotely broken in yet. Supposedly they just get better and better. :)

True dat.

If anyone's interested, here's the Garmin trace. Dunno if it's accurate or not, but Garmin reports a little over 5,700 feet in climbing.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/Santa%20Cruz%20-%20HMB/garmintrace.jpg

According to http://www.sonic.net/~bushnell/sf_bay_area_bike_map/ (the original basis of klimb (http://www.klimb.org/)), it's 4340ft for the entire route, and, I'd guess, about 4000ft where your trace ends, about 3 miles after the climb from the bridge over Waddell Creek.

The trace does capture the ride quite well. But, in detail, it looks unreliable. For example, at San Vicente Creek around mile 9, the dip just before Davenport, the trace has us 25ft below sea level.

According to Sassy's GPS it was 4,230' if I recall correctly.

Bigbossman: I have noticed when I download the 305's data it gives a slightly inflated elevation gain over the value that is visible on the unit itself. I use motionbase.com for my data logging. The garmin website has a forum where topics like this are discussed.

sweetnsourbkr: I started out on the tandem area of this bikeforum.net. It has been a great source of information and support for our tandeming. Yes the phase thing is personal preference. I suggest experimenting like we did.

Bigbossman: I have noticed when I download the 305's data it gives a slightly inflated elevation gain over the value that is visible on the unit itself. I use motionbase.com for my data logging. The garmin website has a forum where topics like this are discussed.

In my case the information on the 305 is slightly inflated compared to the downloaded data.

Here's a screenshot from my 305 right after the ride - 4,925 ft - and then the downloaded information (Training Center) - 4,843 ft -

Motionbase.com shows 5,579ft Elevation gain !! :rolleyes:

I'll do some more research on the forums of Garmin.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b70/zorrov/Garmin.TrainingCenter.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b70/zorrov/Garmin.Small.jpg

Hey Zorro - you need to recharge that thing! :D

I need to get myself a 305. After seeing so many of them last weekend it will be hard not ordering one for a while.

I need to get myself a 305. After seeing so many of them last weekend it will be hard not ordering one for a while.

Brian:

If you do want one, they're closing out the current 305s and offering good deals. Private Mail Zorro, he'll tell you where he got his for a really low price.

I just found out that one of my co-worker's was in the Time Trial you guys saw at the start of the ride in Santa Cruz. That was the bike part of the triathlon race going on. They are apparently doing it again this weekend.