Northern California - Short East Bay Ride?

I'm thinking of going for a calorie bustin' spin tomorrow AM, perhaps just a couple of hours. Any of my East Bay homies care to join in? Orinda BART @ 9ish - I'll check in by 8:30 if there's any interest.

Perhaps 3 Bears in reverse, maybe El T....playing it by ear

I'm doing my December 200 K tomorrow. It starts in Dublin, goes over Calaveras, Palomares and eventually gets to the Safeway inMoraga. I should be there around noon or so. Maybe a little later. That is mile 70.

Veronica

Sounds awesome, Veronica. I'll have to make mine an earlier departure, but I'm hoping it'll be a great day for a ride - catch you next time around.

Sorry, Richard, I didn't check your post.
I am just coming back from my own spin ride; Lafayette to San Ramon and back. It was a mostly flat 30 miler.

No worries Georges - PM me your email and maybe we can catchup sometime for a ride?

I only did a short 30miler - 3bears in the reverse order. I quite like the route that way - probably because the annoying false flat on Alhambra Valley is a nice gentle downhill.

Anyhow, pretty "fresh" morning out there. I had a wool base layer, short sleeve jersey and my Hammer wind jacket on - which kept me nice and cosy, but my face and, err, "bibshort region" were a little chilly to begin with. I'm definitely liking my new 34T for climbing - it's very versatile. I also had one of those perfect moments on the bike as I was riding back down SPDR, where the road is smooth, the hum of the tires/hubs is all you hear, and you're in perfect equilibrium with the amount of effort you're putting in with a nice 21mph pace going forward. Ahh, bliss.


Looking up from the junction of Alhambra Valley and Bear Creek Road

http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn384/RDW5980/2008_12_26_3Bears/DSC00381.jpg

Looking up Castro Ranch towards SPDR

http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn384/RDW5980/2008_12_26_3Bears/DSC00383.jpg

Yes, it was frisky. My face and fingers were quite uncomfortable.
I had full finger gloves with a windbreaker material but my fingertips were still frozen. It took some time for them to get some feeling back so I was in single speed mode for a while.
I wish I had a face cover at the start of the ride, the cold was biting.
Over than that it was quite a pleasant ride and I was very cozy in my PI Barrier jacket. This thing is really good.

I was out and about today, too. Wished I'd read some threads beforehand. :( I did a 31 mile loop from San Ramon through Dublin/Blackhawk/Danville and back.

I found it pretty nippy as well, but I wasn't dressed near as well as Georges or Richard.

I started my ride for my December 200K at 7AM and it was 34 degrees out. It ended 1 hour 48 minutes later when I snapped my front derailleur cable. My toes, fingers and legs were numb as I descended the back down Calaveras and into Sunol. The road I had just climbed. The road under the trees still had some black ice. While I am normally a daring descender, I had no desire to add personal injury to my day and went very slowly and carefully.

Thank goodness for good friends who will come rescue you. Yes, I could have ridden back to the ride start in my little chain ring - can you say Super Spin! But at that point the temp had risen to a whooping 39 degrees and my spirits and enthusiasm had dropped to below zero. It was much more pleasant to wait in a coffee shop with a steaming white mocha for my good friends Jo and Leebob to come to my rescue. And Leebob is my bike LT's hero. Lee put a new cable on lickety split for me.

I am pondering trying today's ride again on Mon. or Wed. as our weather looks most promising then. But I have to say I did not much enjoy freezing my... insert body part of your choice here, everything was COLD! Riding is suppose to be fun and freezing is not fun. Also, I have a hard time hydrating enough in these conditions as dehydration headache I had can attest to. And I wasn't even riding that hard.

The sky was gorgeous though and watching the sun come up over the ridge was nice. The frost on all the leaves was very pretty and the squirrels frisking about under the trees were cute.

Twelve is just a number and I do have other goals to think about. After I get the feeling back in my feet.

Veronica

Oh boy, sorry to hear about your bad luck. I'm certainly hoping to take advantage of the clear spell that supposed to be around for the bulk of next week. What did you layer when you were out? I'm still impressed with my Trek wool base layer that I bought about a year ago. Yesterday I really noticed that it really blocked the cold for me.

My core was fine with a wool long sleeve shirt, wind a blocker shirt over that and a thermal vest. My face was fine with a balaclava pulled up over my nose. Although I scared the lady in the coffee shop in Sunol when I walked in with the balaclava still over my face.

My feet were cold in wool socks.. My fingers were okay as long as I kept my gloves on. But the gloves are so thick I have no dexterity, so if I took them off, to put on my sunglasses or make a cell call, my fingers got cold pretty fast. My legs were cold in in Firewall tights. I'm not sure what I am going to do about that since too may layers on my legs is just not comfortable.

I probably would have been fine as the day went on and warmed up. But a mechanical so early in a long day is hard to overcome. I hadn't even made it to my first checkpoint.

Veronica

Although I scared the lady in the coffee shop in Sunol when I walked in with the balaclava still over my face.

Veronica

LOL - that's a lot of excitement for one day around there! They'll be talking about that for months.

JB

Hey Zipster. I think your bike was just trying to save you from freezing.
Tricia and I have been out when it warms up to 40. I just never loosen up. Even if I'm not cold, I'm not comfortable.

Anyway, I'm glad nothing awful occurred.

I'm going to try again on Monday. This R-12 is not going down without a fight. :)

Veronica