Northern California - Two For One Weekend Special: Taxi Tour

I need to get back in the groove after dissappearing into outer space for a time:o

I'm purposing to hold a weekend riding festival for my NorCal Family.

1.)
Saturday Start time 9:30
First up: Mt. Tam guided tour- 9:30 am Saturday Golden Gate Bridge. We'll do a straight shot out to Fairfax and climb Alpine Dam and then the backside of Tam. If the "Gladiators" want to extend this ride, there's the Marin Headlands, or some of the crazy Hills of San Francisco

2.)
Sunday Start time 10am...a little later than Sat. start for East bay crew

Fixed gear/Single speed ride (road&tandems welcome) Tiburon Loop with Ocean Beach/Golden Gate Park (55miles) and maybe lunch/snack at the "Velo Rouge"

Start Both rides at the Golden Gate Bridge. Parking also available at Sports Basement, just allow yourself enough time to ride up to the start.

So...who wants to play?:thumb:

I might be down (maybe even for both).

I think we will have the tandem fixed up by then.

Except for Saturday, I vote to skip the extras, and just do the true summit of Tam. I really liked that part of the climb, and so did Ruth.

Plus they have the hot dog/ice cream/soda stand at the top ...mmmmm.

Oh and the views are awesome!

I might be down (maybe even for both).

I think we will have the tandem fixed up by then.

Except for Saturday, I vote to skip the extras, and just do the true summit of Tam. I really liked that part of the climb, and so did Ruth.

Plus they have the hot dog/ice cream/soda stand at the top ...mmmmm.

Oh and the views are awesome!
Ya know I haven't done the summit in a long time, that sounds like a great idea!:thumb:
It will be great to see you two!

I'm out of town, but good on you!

Ya know I haven't done the summit in a long time, that sounds like a great idea!:thumb:
It will be great to see you two!

when I got to the summit, the hot dog, followed be 1/2 an ice cream sandwich really hit the spot.

I think I can make the Saturday ride, hope to see you all there!

I think I can make the Saturday ride, hope to see you all there!

Awesome Chris, It will be great to ride with you again!

Sounds like fun! I'd like to do both days and take advantage of summer break before Sunday clinicals. Marco and I have never been to Velo Rouge either.

Sounds like fun! I'd like to do both days and take advantage of summer break before Sunday clinicals. Marco and I have never been to Velo Rouge either.

If you want, I can ride your FG, while you ride solo on Sunday... just to mix it up :)

I'll be in Tahoe on Saturday, but will try to make it back for the Sunday ride.

If you guys are riding fixies, I'll bring one of my folders....

I'm planning on showing up both days ... ink'd!

I'm planning on showing up both days ... ink'd!

Schweeet!:thumb:

Sorry Pete - I'll be out of town over the w/e

Rats, I'll still be in Omaha (or on the road home to make it to my Pastor's memorial/wake).

Good to see you back, Pete! I'll be in Oregon riding the Crater Lake Century, but hopefully next time!

JB

Details on Sunday? When? Starting where? It'll be my last day before school starts. I have a big reunion party the night before, so I don't know if I'll be awake. But if I am....

Things are a bit up in the air for me this weekend, but I'm going to try and jump on one of these rides.

BTW, saw you riding on Arguello on Sunday, Pete. The fixie looked hawt as ever :)

Details on Sunday? When? Starting where? It'll be my last day before school starts. I have a big reunion party the night before, so I don't know if I'll be awake. But if I am....

Hey Curtis, that will be awesome if you show. I'll modify OP!

Awwwwww man. What I need right now is a Pete ride and I have screwed up my hand with a sharp object so I cant go. It was my own stupid fault which makes things even worse but at least I will have an impressive scar to frighten small children with. Funny thing is that the tetanus jab hurts more than the gash ....go figure.

Thanks for organizing these rides. I have to miss both. My son is having a huge birthday bash overnighter with all his 8-9 year old friends on Sat and on Sun my parents are treating the birthday boy to a grandparents pizzapalooza.

Next time though. Welcome back Taxi777

Thanks for organizing these rides. I have to miss both. My son is having a huge birthday bash overnighter with all his 8-9 year old friends on Sat and on Sun my parents are treating the birthday boy to a grandparents pizzapalooza.

Next time though. Welcome back Taxi777

Sounds like you're having your own Epic weekend! Nice!

Knee still bummy, Pete. :-( Hopefully you'll have another one in another month?

Knee still bummy, Pete. :-( Hopefully you'll have another one in another month?

Your knee is fine! I waited about 2 months too long before I tried to ride again. Stretch, ice, ride ice stretchiceride ...rest.

knee still bummy, pete. :-( hopefully you'll have another one in another month?

sandbagger !!!!!

I have to work this weekend :( It's a freak one-off thing and it means I'll get to take a couple weekdays off at some point which is good. But believe me I'll be wishing I was in Marin on Saturday! Looking forward to the ride report and pics :thumb:

My total mileage in the last 4 weeks: 12 miles. I've been icing, stretching (and boy did I stretch, which exacerbated the sprain-y feeling, truly living up the motto of "Always Over Do"), resting, ice-cream eating, etc.

I'm hoping to be back in the loop in Sept. to hang with you animals.

Take lots of pictures!!!

I am in for saturday and maybe sunday.

I have not been riding so i will be slow.

You'll probably leave me in the dust!

Nah
we will just hang out in the autobus and solve the problems of the earth.

Taxi glad to see your back in action! I look forward to riding with you soon.

So are we meeting at the Headlands Parking lot at 9:30 or on the SF side?
I am in dense mode tonight and it is not clear.

And, suburban dude that I am, could use some directions from Embaradaro BART to the Sunday starting point. Should I allow 1/2 hour from BART?

So are we meeting at the Headlands Parking lot at 9:30 or on the SF side?
I am in dense mode tonight and it is not clear.

San Francisco side of GGbridge...Levi Strauss Statue

And, suburban dude that I am, could use some directions from Embaradaro BART to the Sunday starting point. Should I allow 1/2 hour from BART?

Half hour should be about right.

Doesn't the BART strike start at midnight Sunday?

Doesn't the BART strike start at midnight Sunday?

Looks like it will. But even as slow as I am, I expect to be home before midnight.

Hmm, I had also interpreted "Sunday at midnight" to mean 12:00am Sunday. But upon reading a couple different sources, I guess service will run through Sunday and stop as of Monday

Anyone else think it would be awesome if BART was shut down at the same time as the Bay Bridge closure (Sept 3-8)?

Hmm, I had also interpreted "Sunday at midnight" to mean 12:00am Sunday. But upon reading a couple different sources, I guess service will run through Sunday and stop as of Monday

Anyone else think it would be awesome if BART was shut down at the same time as the Bay Bridge closure (Sept 3-8)?

http://www.cineastentreff.de/teleschau/200637/3/200637_173565_1_024.jpg
...yes...

Anyone else think it would be awesome if BART was shut down at the same time as the Bay Bridge closure (Sept 3-8)?

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2294/anarchyflag.jpg

Bart at 8:50 was 10 plus minutes late so I ended up getting to embarcadero at 9:23. I did the run to the statue in 22 minutes but the group had left.

Even on the bit all the way to fairfax I never caught up with the crew so I just turned around and took my 46 miles.

Sorry I missed this.

Bart at 8:50 was 10 plus minutes late so I ended up getting to embarcadero at 9:23. I did the run to the statue in 22 minutes but the group had left.

Even on the bit all the way to fairfax I never caught up with the crew so I just turned around and took my 46 miles.

Sorry I missed this.
Hey Brentley, really sorry to hear that...:(
I'll give you my number next time and you can call.

Pete, sorry we were late and missed you guys.

We just did the standard tam route, w/out the true summit or anything else.

50 miles with a good amount of climbing.

We stopped along the way to change Ruth's saddle adjustments, which made a big difference for her.

Hey Pete, is it still on for tomorrow (Sunday) 10 am at the GGB? I may try to go half way or to Corte Madera grade with you guys. :lol:

Some pics from today's ride ...

http://spingineer.smugmug.com/photos/620838807_Sykve-L.jpg

http://spingineer.smugmug.com/photos/620838826_cctFi-L.jpg

http://spingineer.smugmug.com/photos/620838885_eK4u6-L.jpg

http://spingineer.smugmug.com/photos/620838875_bHfKA-L.jpg

http://spingineer.smugmug.com/photos/620838989_arqdW-L.jpg

http://spingineer.smugmug.com/photos/620839109_ofeEB-L.jpg

http://spingineer.smugmug.com/photos/620843092_Jsxje-L.jpg

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/RobertRidgecrest.jpg


http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/TresHombres-1.jpg

The day was beautiful right from the start. I went out without arm warmers and it was a little cool, but warm enough to be bearable. There were a boatload of joggers and cyclists along the Marina and Chrissy field. I was pretty sure it would be a perfect day for Mt. Tam. I started out with a little apprehension (I hate that feeling) knowing that this would be the first substantial amount of riding I've done at one time since the beginning of June.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/Chrisandgang.jpg

I met up with Ramon and Ron at Sports Basement and we boogied off to the bridge. There we met up with Chris (Pizza Man) and my friend from the ALC ride Robert, who was ready to attack Mt. Tam for his first time, but on an old 40 lb. Peugeot! Marco and Ruth were running late, so we figured they would catch us later and we were off across the bridge. We lost Chris by the way right after the bridge. I don't think there's any slowing him down. He's in full race mode at this point of the season. We kind of got caught up in a huge peloton of Mission cyclists. We cat and moused them all the way to Tam.

It's weird, but I feel like I've lost my edge with descending on my road bike. I'm not used to the speed. I'm used to topping out on my fixed gears around 27 or so. 40 mph seems really fast. I started to get it back a little bit towards the end of the ride.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/RonandRamon.jpg

The ride wasn't too eventful, just extremely pleasant pretty much the whole way. There was a snarky woman riding with her friends that made remarks to us about not calling "on your left" while we were ascending Corte Madera grade... Whatever...wasn't like we were running them off the road.

Marco and Ruth never caught up, apparently the got stuck at Sports Basement with someone talking their ears off and they had to make some adjustments with the Tandem. I'm hoping they come up and ride tomorrow for the Tiburon loop. I haven't seen them since their wedding.

Robert did a great job for his first time up Tam. I'm sure we'll be seeing him on more NorCal rides. If he ever gets a CF bike we'll be flapping in his dust! Ramon was taking it easy on me today and took his time up the Alpine Dam climb. He kind of dropped the hammer going up to Ridgecrest. I still did a lot better than I thought I would, so I'm pretty happy. I think I'm ready for some more group rides. It felt really good to get out and get away from my job and apartment. I really needed the break.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/RonandRamongrimace.jpg

Personally I felt a lot better than I had expected to. I got over the apprehension and finally settled down and enjoyed myself. We finally me up with Chris at the end. He was putting on a new bike rack on his "Cash for clunkers" purchase. Nice Car!

Great Part 1 for the Taxi tour guys!

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/Dorkshot-1.jpg

Part Two was just as fun. I've gotta say, climbing on fixie is very different ... I didn't know I had it in me. Didn't take very many pictures.

http://sevencyclist.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/img_1002.jpg?w=717&h=538

http://sevencyclist.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/img_1004.jpg?w=717&h=538

Thanks Pete for coming out ... and thanks for leading the first BF fixie ride!

Likewise, thanks Pete for a great ride and a great food place. It was good seeing all you guys, some for the first time. I'm going to have to try out one of those fixie things sometime.

Hey, thanks everyone for coming out today. It was a great day, low key and the weather was terrific!
We had a nice lunch in Tiburon and exciting trip back across the bridge!!!! Holy Crap! the tourists were out in full force.

Good to see you Carl. Ron was a stud on his Fixie today and Ramon was...well you know "Ramon The Punisher". We got to see Tricia's new bike and Curtis got a bad case of "Bike Lust" when we stopped at Mike's Bikes.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/CurtisCarl.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/Lunch.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/RonCarl.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/RonRamon-1.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/RonTricia.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/taxi777/TriciaCurtisRon.jpg

Thanks Pete! Man, you guys were studs on the fixed gears. Color me impressed. And, hey, nice photos ya'all!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2600/3828152323_861a5f4f99_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3519/3828951804_66bd32c5ff.jpg

Sorry I missed the tour. I hope I can make it next time.