Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.spingineer
01-01-09, 08:51 PM
Happy New Years!!!! So what better way to ring in the new year than with a ride? Ramon and I decided to do the traditional Mt. Hamilton ride along with the Western Wheelers bike club. They do this ride every year on New Year's day.
With my goal of completing the triple crown this year (again), we decided we need to start getting in the mileage. Original plan was to ride over to the start, but it was very misty last night, and the ground was very wet. Well, I took one look outside, and it was still completely wet. Time to re-think my thoughts of riding to the start. I decided to drive over instead. Ramon was running a little late, so I decided to just head up the mountain, as I know he would pass me up on the climb.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_pxY28OCdAfg/SV1rQKY8g0I/AAAAAAAABOQ/t9xwMYkhAos/s640/P1010052.JPG
Although the roads were really wet, it wasn't as misty as I thought it would be. However, the fog was still extremely thick. My hopes are that the fog will burn off later in the day, but more on that a little later.
As you can see, the visibility was quite low ... my guess it was about 300 feet or so. I hooked up with my friend Laura and her group, and they led a nice pace, that kept my heart rate up. It was great catching up with her, as I haven't ridden with her for some time. They helped pull me up the middle third of the climb, and in a way, pushed my motivation to keep the pace up. Eventually, when we started to get on the steep part of the climb, that pace suddenly went down. But it was good to catch up with her.
I was climbing through fog, then all of a sudden, after about 11 miles into the climb, I see something blue. Well whaddayaknow .... blue skies! And it was the bluest sky you'd ever see. It's bluer than any photoshop can do for a picture.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_pxY28OCdAfg/SV1rraQI_FI/AAAAAAAABO8/5gnqwWlmefw/s640/PC310044.JPG
The photo I took doesn't do it justice ... you just had to be there. It turned what started out to be a miserable, soupy, foggy ride, into a picture perfect postcard ride. In fact, I had to take my jacket off. It was glorious. Out in the distance, I see a think sheet of clouds hovering over the valley ... or more accurately, that was the blanket of fog that was covering the valley.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_pxY28OCdAfg/SV1rG-dGzEI/AAAAAAAABOA/Sy1h722CpGc/s640/P1010048.JPG
About 1 mile from the top, who do I see approaching from behind?? It's Ramon ... see, I knew he would catch up with me. He brought his Langster with him, fully decked out with fenders et all. This meant on the descent, there would be no coasting, and spinning like crazy going downhill.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_pxY28OCdAfg/SV1rOvInCmI/AAAAAAAABOM/iGj1DNfdP9U/s640/P1010051.JPG
As we approached the top of the mountain, we had gravel all over the road. This was basically for the ice conditions and snow from the prior weeks. This could be bad for us on the descent. Close to the top, it was cool to see snow actually pushed to the side, on the shoulder.
On the descent, it was quite a bit slower than usual. Not only because Ramon had his Langster, but also due to the gravel. You definitely don't want to go too fast on the hairpin, and you can't really lean into the curve with sand on the road. I did have a couple of dicey turns there, but it's a good thing I kept my speed low.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_pxY28OCdAfg/SV1rQKY8g0I/AAAAAAAABOQ/t9xwMYkhAos/s640/P1010052.JPG
Further down the hill, at about the 1600 foot level, I descended into the think blanket of fog. The temp definitely went down drastically, and so did the visibility. The fog did not burn off as I had anticipated. In fact, the fog got a bit thicker. If I was to guess, I'd say the worst was with a visibility of < 100 feet. That was bad. It's a good think I had my front blinkers, but I am not sure if it helped. Traffic on the reverse direction was difficult to identify. I could only see their headlights only at the last minute. One time, some cars were passing some cyclists, and they went into my lane ... WTF ... I had to brake suddenly, and I could feel my rear slide a little bit. Thankfully, I escaped without any incident. That was probably the scariest, most dangerous descent I had ever done, only because of the unknown factor ... not knowing if others can see you, and not knowing if you could see oncoming traffic. It was also extremely cold ... even with my thick wind resistant gloves, my hands felt cold. It was definitely a Starbucks run at the end of the ride. It felt good, just wrapping my hands around the hot latte.
More pics can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/ronster/NewYears2009#
With my goal of completing the triple crown this year (again), we decided we need to start getting in the mileage. Original plan was to ride over to the start, but it was very misty last night, and the ground was very wet. Well, I took one look outside, and it was still completely wet. Time to re-think my thoughts of riding to the start. I decided to drive over instead. Ramon was running a little late, so I decided to just head up the mountain, as I know he would pass me up on the climb.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_pxY28OCdAfg/SV1rQKY8g0I/AAAAAAAABOQ/t9xwMYkhAos/s640/P1010052.JPG
Although the roads were really wet, it wasn't as misty as I thought it would be. However, the fog was still extremely thick. My hopes are that the fog will burn off later in the day, but more on that a little later.
As you can see, the visibility was quite low ... my guess it was about 300 feet or so. I hooked up with my friend Laura and her group, and they led a nice pace, that kept my heart rate up. It was great catching up with her, as I haven't ridden with her for some time. They helped pull me up the middle third of the climb, and in a way, pushed my motivation to keep the pace up. Eventually, when we started to get on the steep part of the climb, that pace suddenly went down. But it was good to catch up with her.
I was climbing through fog, then all of a sudden, after about 11 miles into the climb, I see something blue. Well whaddayaknow .... blue skies! And it was the bluest sky you'd ever see. It's bluer than any photoshop can do for a picture.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_pxY28OCdAfg/SV1rraQI_FI/AAAAAAAABO8/5gnqwWlmefw/s640/PC310044.JPG
The photo I took doesn't do it justice ... you just had to be there. It turned what started out to be a miserable, soupy, foggy ride, into a picture perfect postcard ride. In fact, I had to take my jacket off. It was glorious. Out in the distance, I see a think sheet of clouds hovering over the valley ... or more accurately, that was the blanket of fog that was covering the valley.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_pxY28OCdAfg/SV1rG-dGzEI/AAAAAAAABOA/Sy1h722CpGc/s640/P1010048.JPG
About 1 mile from the top, who do I see approaching from behind?? It's Ramon ... see, I knew he would catch up with me. He brought his Langster with him, fully decked out with fenders et all. This meant on the descent, there would be no coasting, and spinning like crazy going downhill.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_pxY28OCdAfg/SV1rOvInCmI/AAAAAAAABOM/iGj1DNfdP9U/s640/P1010051.JPG
As we approached the top of the mountain, we had gravel all over the road. This was basically for the ice conditions and snow from the prior weeks. This could be bad for us on the descent. Close to the top, it was cool to see snow actually pushed to the side, on the shoulder.
On the descent, it was quite a bit slower than usual. Not only because Ramon had his Langster, but also due to the gravel. You definitely don't want to go too fast on the hairpin, and you can't really lean into the curve with sand on the road. I did have a couple of dicey turns there, but it's a good thing I kept my speed low.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_pxY28OCdAfg/SV1rQKY8g0I/AAAAAAAABOQ/t9xwMYkhAos/s640/P1010052.JPG
Further down the hill, at about the 1600 foot level, I descended into the think blanket of fog. The temp definitely went down drastically, and so did the visibility. The fog did not burn off as I had anticipated. In fact, the fog got a bit thicker. If I was to guess, I'd say the worst was with a visibility of < 100 feet. That was bad. It's a good think I had my front blinkers, but I am not sure if it helped. Traffic on the reverse direction was difficult to identify. I could only see their headlights only at the last minute. One time, some cars were passing some cyclists, and they went into my lane ... WTF ... I had to brake suddenly, and I could feel my rear slide a little bit. Thankfully, I escaped without any incident. That was probably the scariest, most dangerous descent I had ever done, only because of the unknown factor ... not knowing if others can see you, and not knowing if you could see oncoming traffic. It was also extremely cold ... even with my thick wind resistant gloves, my hands felt cold. It was definitely a Starbucks run at the end of the ride. It felt good, just wrapping my hands around the hot latte.
More pics can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/ronster/NewYears2009#