OK - my turn to host a ride. Encouraged by the huge turnouts and great atmosphere of the two Davis "laid-back" rides, I've decided to try and repeat the success over here in the East Bay.

To that end, I've chosen a fairly easy, scenic, and relatively low-traffic route around the Livermore Valley that borrows a bit from the Cinderella ride. The loop is about 45 miles in length, and total climbing is only about 1,400-1,500 feet.

The theme will be "steel is real", and you are encouraged to ride a steel and/or vintage bike. Don't worry though - everyone is welcome, on whatever bike they have at their disposal - even the funny looking plastic ones. :)

I guarantee that it will be a low-key, no-drop ride.

I've mapped out the ride on Bikely, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how to gin up que sheets:
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Tour-of-Livermore


***UPDATE***
Proposed date/time is Saturday, August 30th @ 7:30am. I have received confirmation from the owner (Byron) of Crank 2 that we are welcome to park in his lot, use his facilities, and enjoy free ice water and coffee before/after the ride. Therefore, I propose to move the start/finish to his property. It is literally only a block or so away from the originalk start/finish at the middle school, so there shouldn't be an issue.

So, the new start/finish point is now located at 5480-9 Sunol Boulevard, Pleasanton, CA:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=5480-9+Sunol+Boulevard+pleasanton+CA&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title

QUE SHEET SHOULD BE AVAILABLE HERE:
http://dbltap.home.comcast.net/~dbltap/Tour%20of%20Livermore%20que%20sheet.xls

(still right off the 680 freeway/Bernal exit, and only a few miles from the Pleasanton BART station). We can adjust the start time as it draws near and we have a better idea of the weather. Could be blazing hot, could be windy and cold, could be anywhere in between.

Wadda ya think?

Rider list:

IN
MiqueMaus - BART
stripes - BART
sweetnsourbkr - BART
taxi777 - BART
BlankCrows
bikingshearer
BlastRadius
cccorlew
cgallagh
curbtender
jonathanb715 (and friends)
kaiserboy
Lanceoldstrong
MarkoPolo
mtnwalker - Sold his soul, and cannot go
MyLilPony
nachomc - Flaked Out :D
pohlf
redrider
Rockman
RoboCheme
rumbutter
spingineer
steelblue
subframe
t4mv


MAYBE
Craig in Davis
kb5ql
ricebowl - BART
x136

Does this go past the wineries (like Concannon) and such? Concannon is one of my favorite wines and I love the vineyard.

Sounds like a perfect opportunity for my first group ride! Sorry magnets no stick to my bike.

Aluminum tandems okay?

Aluminum tandems okay?

I'll be an outcast with you and bring my plastic bike. I haven't been riding long enough to have anything "vintage" and have nothing steel ;)

Oooh, ooh, I may have to dust off the Melton (Tange Prestige) or the tandem again for this. We're armed with steel and if I'm in town, I'm down with this ride. Lookin' forward to this one!

Count me in for that one. It will be nice not to have to drive to one of these events. We will probably ride our steel tandem. If we can help at all with the organizing please let us know.

I have three steel bikes for sale if anyone needs one :)

Kona Unit 2-9 Single Speed Mountain bike (2007 model I think) (Like new)
Raleigh 653 Race (early 90's vintage road race bike hand made in England) Easy to do an ss conversion on. (V good con)
Raleigh Mountain bike (early 90's vintage- UK model. exc cond)

Me and Eddy would like to come!

http://lh4.ggpht.com/DiabloScottsBikeBlog/RiHjixbfknI/AAAAAAAAAJk/y2tiiIEuEns/s800/2007-04-14-1.JPG

Nice route - I ride those roads a lot, and they can be a lot of fun. You can have a spot the buffalo contest on Collier Canyon.

Unless there's a soccer game they haven't scheduled yet that weekend, I should be able to make this - my ex. has the kids. Of course, I'll be on my plastic fantastic Kestrel (I've given away the old aluminum Trek, and my mountain bike needs some serious attention to be rideable), but I assume someone will still talk to me.

JB

Does this go past the wineries (like Concannon) and such? Concannon is one of my favorite wines and I love the vineyard.

The route goes right past Concannon's front gate. As I was born and grew up in Livermore, this is my old stomping grounds. I can therefore add some detail to BBM's description. (And since I know the roads and will be at the back of the pack anyway, I can volunteer to ride sweep. :thumb: )

The start/finish point is about the lowest point, elevation-wise, on the ride. That's about the same as saying that the start/finish is the lowest point on a Davis-Lake Solano-Winters-Davis ride, and this ride is in the same ballpark in terms of difficulty.

Some gently rolling terrain on Vineyard Road on the way to Livermore. Mostly flat with an occasional bump through southern Livermore and out Tesla Road.

Cross Road is a climb, starting out gently and never worse than easy (for you in-shape hammerin' types) to moderate (for us Clydesdale, no-climbing-skills types). The last bit of Cross and then Patterson Pass is a fast, fun downhill rolling out into fairly flat onto Greenville Road through northeast Livermore and out onto Livermore Avenue.

Manning Road has some gentle climbing (but steep enough to saw me off the back). Collier Canyon is a gentle downhill, fast and fun all the way to I-580. Isabel Avenue is flat as a pancake, but has become a sort of expressway - traffic will not be heavy, but will be fast, and there are ample paths/shoulders. Vineyard back to Pleasanton is net downhill (but so is going to Davis from Winters) with one or two little bumps.

Assuming it isn't 110 degrees out, this'll be a fun one.

Team Madame Butterfat will be there!

I have a steel bike and I am vintage. I am coming. :)

Aluminum tandems okay?

Only if they are towing a trailer full of canines. :p

The theme will be "steel is real", and you are encouraged to ride a steel and/or vintage bike. . . . Wadda ya think?

Hmmmm - Cooper or Paramount? Paramount or Cooper? Decisions, decisions . . . .

Only if they are towing a trailer full of canines. :p

Wheels down :D

Sounds great! I think I can make it.

Me and Eddy would like to come!

http://lh4.ggpht.com/DiabloScottsBikeBlog/RiHjixbfknI/AAAAAAAAAJk/y2tiiIEuEns/s800/2007-04-14-1.JPG

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! :eek: I didn't know you had that in your arsenal. Can you show more pictures please..? I've wanted one of those since I was on my first road bike (Panasonic DX-4000). Me likey that bikey!!!

As for this ride... Bad weekend. It's my best buds and mines Birthday that weekend (30th-31st respectively) so I'll be out of the area. Bummer! It'd be great motivation to acquire something welded. :innocent: Honeyyyy! I'm home... :notamused:

Can I strip and repaint my steal bike in time?....hmmmm

[deleted post]. Misread the Map.

Bike Friday or the Xtracycle (1996 Rockhopper)? Hmm. Tentative.

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! :eek: I didn't know you had that in your arsenal. Can you show more pictures please..? :

Sorry, these were with my old ultra cheap camera. Don't have any porn... he's my foul-weather bike now so he's usually grimey. BigBossMan gave me a hard time for not keeping him in the garage - HA! If he only knew.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/DiabloScottsBikeBlog/R8C_ApU9FII/AAAAAAAACQo/wTnP4ZSdaA4/s800/2008-02-23%20006.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/DiabloScottsBikeBlog/R4pXV7cqlOI/AAAAAAAAB_A/Rvx-XjOw8yE/s800/2008-01-12%20009.jpg

http://lh6.ggpht.com/DiabloScottsBikeBlog/R5v2OHcucuI/AAAAAAAACEg/wg7yoUdka7w/s800/2008-01-26%20006.jpg

Maybe I'll give him the Bike Lust treatment before the big ride.

Hummmm. Hey BossMan, what kind of shoes does one wear these days on a bike with toe clips? I tried my road shoes sans cleats, but the soles are too slick...

Everyone knows it's the Saturday of Labor Day weekend?

Right now it looks good for me to go. I've wanted to ride the Livermore Valley for a while.

And I'm open to carpooling from Woodland/Davis/Sacramento.

p.s. I outgrew my Bridgestone LTD touring bike 15 years ago, so sadly it's been sold. Stuck with my plastic/cloth bike...

You're going to guarantee that nobody uses their drops? How, via the hacksaw method? :)

I've mapped out the ride on Bikely, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how to gin up que sheets:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/DiabloScottsBikeBlog/SI--ex6mIoI/AAAAAAAADNM/G15uoKrKd-8/s800/Steel%20%3D%20Real.JPG

I've mapped out the ride on Bikely, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how to gin up que sheets:
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Tour-of-Livermore



BBM, in Bikely you log into your account, go to the route that you've saved (this ride) and display it. Once you have it laid out like Scott's got it above, just go to the upper left corner of the map, click Show>Cue Sheet and there you go. You should be able to print it out at that point and make a bunch of copies. At least that's what I did with Sunday's ride.

Hummmm. Hey BossMan, what kind of shoes does one wear these days on a bike with toe clips? I tried my road shoes sans cleats, but the soles are too slick...

Last time I had a bike with toe clips, I also had shoes with cleats - they basically had a slot across the back of the cleat that the top of the pedal fit into. Strap the shoe down, and you had a pretty secure pedaling platform. I haven't seen those types of cleats in probably 20 years, though.

JB

Hummmm. Hey BossMan, what kind of shoes does one wear these days on a bike with toe clips? I tried my road shoes sans cleats, but the soles are too slick...

I've got a pair of (split)wood sole Duegis, but ya gotta have smallish feet...:p

It's funny because BBM, bikingshearer, kb5ql and I were just talking about this after the ride, and how it'd be pretty hideous to go back to clips and straps with cleats (especially the ones you had to nail into the sole like the Detto Pietros)... :crash:

Yep, that's what i had in 1985. But those old Dettos with cleats i nailed in myself fell apart long ago.

I need some sorta shoe to wear on my recently reconstituted 70s steel bike. 40 miles, maybe just sneakers will do.

Last time I had a bike with toe clips, I also had shoes with cleats - they basically had a slot across the back of the cleat that the top of the pedal fit into. Strap the shoe down, and you had a pretty secure pedaling platform. I haven't seen those types of cleats in probably 20 years, though.

JB

Yeah, and you had to make sure to keep one of 'em loose in town in case of stop signs, stop lights, stupid drivers, etc. Out in the countryside, you could tighten both straps down, which bound you pretty firmly to the pedals and made for pretty decent power transfer. Of course, unless your feet were designed by NASA engineers, this state affairs caused loss of circulation and other discomfort in your feet, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but almost every time. Finally, you then had to remember to loosen one of 'em again if and when you wanted to stop, lest you do the ever-popular stop-and-fall-over routine. Doing that was a sure fire way to get your riding buddies to point and laugh at you.

Yeah, they were better than tennis shoes. Soccer cleats were a barely acceptable alternative (I know - as a teenager with severely limited funds, I used an old set of said cleats for the better part of a year. Talk about adventures at stop signs :eek:)

As you can tell, I miss my toe clips and straps -- NOT. Truth be told, I would give up brifters, indexed shifting, rear cogsets with more than 5 cogs, and possibly my first-and-only-born, before I'd give up my clipless pedals.

Yeah, and you had to make sure to keep one of 'em loose in town in case of stop signs, stop lights, stupid drivers, etc. Out in the countryside, you could tighten both straps down, which bound you pretty firmly to the pedals and made for pretty decent power transfer. Of course, unless your feet were designed by NASA engineers, this state affairs caused loss of circulation and other discomfort in your feet, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but almost every time. Finally, you then had to remember to loosen one of 'em again if and when you wanted to stop, lest you do the ever-popular stop-and-fall-over routine. Doing that was a sure fire way to get your riding buddies to point and laugh at you.

Yeah, they were better than tennis shoes. Soccer cleats were a barely acceptable alternative (I know - as a teenager with severely limited funds, I used an old set of said cleats for the better part of a year. Talk about adventures at stop signs :eek:)

As you can tell, I miss my toe clips and straps -- NOT. Truth be told, I would give up brifters, indexed shifting, rear cogsets with more than 5 cogs, and possibly my first-and-only-born, before I'd give up my clipless pedals.

LOL - I knew I stopped using those things for a reason!

JB

Yep, that's what i had in 1985. But those old Dettos with cleats i nailed in myself fell apart long ago.

I need some sorta shoe to wear on my recently reconstituted 70s steel bike. 40 miles, maybe just sneakers will do.

Somewhere, hidden away in some forgotten box, I still have an old pair of Detto Pietros with the cleats still firmly attached. I used them in 1980 for a Livermore to Washington DC trip, and they and I both lived to tell the tale.

The secret to getting the cleats to stay on - rivets, which last a looooong time, instead of nails, which were pretty near useless (those Dettos had a metal shank, so those cheap-ass little nails were a total joke). Witt's in Hayward would do the riveting, back in the day. They'd have you go for a ride or two in your new shoes sans cleats, and then rivet them down based on the mark left by the back plate of the pedal. Slicker'n all get-out.

Until clipless, that is.

Yep, that's what i had in 1985. But those old Dettos with cleats i nailed in myself fell apart long ago.

I need some sorta shoe to wear on my recently reconstituted 70s steel bike. 40 miles, maybe just sneakers will do.

Most sneakers are too wide for most quill pedals - there's a little point at the outboard edge that curls up and pokes you in the bottom of your foot. Maybe you don't have those kind of pedals though.

But no reason not to get some SPDs and touring shoes for your hippy teenager bike. You might wind up riding it a lot more.

Yep, that's what i had in 1985. But those old Dettos with cleats i nailed in myself fell apart long ago.

I need some sorta shoe to wear on my recently reconstituted 70s steel bike. 40 miles, maybe just sneakers will do.

I used to wear indoor soccer shoes on my clipped pedals. They worked fairly well.

Most sneakers are too wide for most quill pedals - there's a little point at the outboard edge that curls up and pokes you in the bottom of your foot. Maybe you don't have those kind of pedals though.

But no reason not to get some SPDs and touring shoes for your hippy teenager bike. You might wind up riding it a lot more.

I'm still up in the air here. I have quill pedals, and no suitable shoes.
Indeed, trying to ride in my tennis playing shoes didn't work: the heal was way too wide.

It's an old French bike, and if I remember correctly, when i bought pedals I had to specify "French threads"

Maybe i can find some Mtn bike or touring shoes cheap.

"Fluffy" the cloud bike is in da house!!!

See ya there.
Pete

I'm still up in the air here. I have quill pedals, and no suitable shoes.
Indeed, trying to ride in my tennis playing shoes didn't work: the heal was way too wide.

It's an old French bike, and if I remember correctly, when i bought pedals I had to specify "French threads"

Maybe i can find some Mtn bike or touring shoes cheap.
curtis , what size?? I have some pretty nice touring, that are great with flat peds

10 1/2 about there in.

I used to wear indoor soccer shoes on my clipped pedals. They worked fairly well.

I used both indoor soccer shoes, which quickly became way too soft, and then switched to a pair of screw-in soccer cleats, after removing the cleats. They were marginally better, unless I tried to stand in them, then slip!

curtis , what size?? I have some pretty nice touring, that are great with flat peds

10 1/2 about there in.

I'm a mere 8... but thanks. I'll come up with something.

BBM, in Bikely you log into your account, go to the route that you've saved (this ride) and display it. Once you have it laid out like Scott's got it above, just go to the upper left corner of the map, click Show>Cue Sheet and there you go. You should be able to print it out at that point and make a bunch of copies. At least that's what I did with Sunday's ride.

Tried that - my only two choices under "show" are "Whole Route" and "Elevation Profile". No Que Sheet option. Hmmmm.......

RE: toe clips. I wouldn't use those things on a dare. My bikes may be steel, and some are even vintage - but I'm not a savage. Clipless pedals are on every one of my machines.

So why does this thread appear to be somewhat of an Imelda Marcos, naval gazing moment? Enough with the shoes already. :eek:

I should have the canine express in somewhat better shape by then and the boys will be a little more experienced in the joys of cycling. They did really enjoy the ride and on the way home were both laying down with sleepy eyes.

RR and I are in. We have a very dear friend in Pleasanton and we can do the ride and help her celebrate her Bday afterwards.

It is really fun to do a low key type of ride and enjoy the company of friendly people on occasion. We do enough of the "hammer down" rides that when a chance to socialize, meet new people and get in a nice ride comes up we are so there.

BBM, you know what? I think you have to go back into your route and actually input comments at turns and points of interest, so you can have a cue sheet that says more than Start and Finish..

This sounds like cool idea. About time I meet some other riders. I leave on tour (Klamath Falls - Walnut Creek) tomorrow so I should have some time on the saddle by late August.

BBM, you know what? I think you have to go back into your route and actually input comments at turns and points of interest, so you can have a cue sheet that says more than Start and Finish..

I actually just figured that out by myself - D'oh! :o

I've added the comments, and now there is a cue sheet option under the show tab that should be available to everyone. I'll try to remember to print some off and have them with me on the ride day.

So why does this thread appear to be somewhat of an Imelda Marcos, naval gazing moment? Enough with the shoes already. :eek:

What he said - wear flip-flops and a tu-tu for all I care. :D

Can we do Nine for Bart riders?

Can we do Nine for Bart riders?


It's very possible - I like to sleep late. :)

The early start time was suggested because it might be a very hot day. If the forecast calls for heat, a 9am start would put us at a disadvantage. The ride loop terrain is pretty easy, but the back stretches are pretty rural and dry, with few water opportunities. Also, there is the ever-present wind to consider. The later we are transiting Manning east to west, the stiffer the breeze will be.

We have plenty of time to fine tune it though, and I think you'll find me a benevolent master. :D

My steel bike has only 1 gear. :(

Just found out we're visiting the future in-laws that weekend in Reno:(

Just found out we're visiting the future in-laws that weekend in Reno:(

Grounds for divorce.

Grounds for divorce.

Actually, we have ulterior motives for the trip. It's the same weekend as the John Ascuaga's Nugget Best of the West Rib cookoff. :D If it weren't for that the Fiance and I both would be at the ride.