Brodie01

Saturday I rode a 25 mile loop in the Fall River Mills valley, CA. I started in the town of McArthur, CA, and traveled a counter clockwise loop that basically circles the valley. The air was a crisp and clear condition (39f to 49f) and almost cars on any of the roads. I rode my newly aquired Trek Elance, which felt very comfortable most of the ride, I was getting a little sore at the end. I finished in 1 hour 41 minutes, (I'm a newbie at this). The next day I decided to do the ride again on my new Windsor Wellington 3.0 to see how it felt compared to the older trek. I was surprised to find it took me seven minutes longer on the newer bike. Factors may have included a little head wind on the first 6 miles, I might have been a little fatigued from the first day, it was about 8f colder the second day and maybe it was the bike. I thought I would be a little quicker on the Wellington because of the brifters and being able to shift faster on the descents and climbs allowing me to carry more speed but that doesn't appear to be the case. Anyway, here are some pictures from the ride on Saturday.



Note: Mt Shasta in the background of the first picture.

obrentharris 

Nice!

That Trek looks like it's in showroom condition. There must be a lot of great places to ride both road bikes and mountain bikes in the Mt. Shasta area where you live. Keep the photos and ride reports coming!
Brent

WNG

Beautifully photographed! Sharp looking bikes!

Brodie01

After looking at my pictures, in future rides, I think I will show more of the road I am riding on than just roadside views.

dweenk

Public lands on a huge piece of property formerly used for timber harvest. Soft sandy roads and trails. I need wider tires and a larger sprocket on the rear of single speed, if I do much more of this.

jimmuller 

Brodie, nice report! Your pics are fine, BTW. As with just about every other report in this thread, I wish I'd been there riding with you.

I'm not surprised that your ride on the brifter-modern bike was a bit slower than the previous day's ride. Brifters offer no special benefit unless you are shifting so often that you shift when you wouldn't have with friction shifters. There could be other factors with the bike too. In any case, on the second day you may have been tired from the first.

Essthreetee

Started out on my January "century if the month" ride. Figured I would do the first half all flat...did the first 46 miles at an average of 20.2 (again, all flat). Came home...had lunch, helped my daughter with her math, then headed out for the mountains. At mile 54.....BANG...a small black dog runs right in front of my front wheel and takes me DOWN!!!!

So, with stuff, bent, tweaked, and me with raspberries on my hip...I called my wife to come pick me up.

Good bye, great day of riding.
Hello, fixing and repairing.

Brodie01

Today I took a recovery ride of 10 miles. Before I started the ride I checked over the bike and reset the tire pressure. Two things I found may or may not have contributed to yesterday's results. The tire pressure must have been a little low because right away I noticed a lot more feed back from the tires. That might have effected the rolling resistance. Second, I found the front brake dragging slightly on one side of the rim. I re-aligned the brakes. I don't know, this might have effected the bike, it might not have. This all sounds like a big deal to me, but it's really not, I tend to over think things.

Brodie01

I hope the dog is ok. The dog owner should be wacked for not controlling their dog.

Essthreetee

hahaha. Yeah. The dog is ok. It took off running and then proceeded to continue to bark at me.

Oh...i am ok too (in case you were worried )

spacemanz

Sorry to hear about that mean little dog. I took a ride downtown today, to see if anything new & exciting was going on, and it kinda was. It turned into a beautiful sunny day, for the most part, just a little too cold to be Spring, LOL. I must have rode a lot further than it looked, because I'm totally beat now. I'm guessing in the 40-50 mile range, going by my previous 36-mile trip to Redmond & back. Anyways, enjoy.

JJScaliger

I went out for 48 miles today on the Gitane. A cloudy, gray, winter day; temp was about 40 and windy. I rode in Glocester RI- Thompson CT-Woodstock CT- Putnam CT- back to Glocester RI. Hilly ride.

Had to deal with this clown to get in my car. He held his ground.



hills going in to Thompson CT



old house on Thompson Green



hills going out of Thompson



scenery



a smidge of dirt road



hill in Woodstock CT



winter view of East Woodstock



Gitane in West Woodstock



Quinebaug River Dams in downtown Putnam CT



I usually go around Putnam when I go for rides in this quadrant of Ct because it is a little congested, but the daylight was failing, so I had to take the most direct route.

A fun ride in Connecticut's "Quiet Corner."

spacemanz

Love that turkey pic.

Brodie01

Great ride report and pictures. It sure does look cold.

WNG

Very nice urban cityscape pics of Seattle Spacemanz!

Quite a contrast to the New England countryside. JJScaliger, wonderful pics again! That old house is really cool. That last hill looks pretty steep!

seedsbelize 

Brodie, I had the pleasure of visiting Burney Falls in the summer of '72, as part of an archaeology class out of Sac State. Of course we jumped in, and out lungs collapsed.
And JJScaliger, I owned that very truck a few years later, while living in Sacramento. Mine was bright orange with a diamond tuck interior.

spacemanz

Thanks. I know I'm just a rank amateur, as a photographer, but it's kinda fun, once you get organized & can remember the camera. There are definitely some STEEP hills down by the waterfront, but I avoid most of it, especially by bike. Too touristy. That last pic at sunset was at the far North edge of Myrtle Edwards Park, right before you leave Seattle proper. Here's a pic of the other direction, showing downtown, including the green ferris wheel. I get home from there by going through Magnolia, Ballard, Fremont & the U-District, then uphill towards home. I was beat.

obrentharris 

Today was the maiden voyage of the bike I call The Platypus. It doesn't know if it's a mammal, a marsupial, a bird, or a venomous reptile. But it's a lot of fun!




This is one of those builds that was inspired by an intriguing component, in this case the Bruce Gordon Rock 'n Road tires. The tires are 43mm wide, with a tread pattern that can be described neither as knobby or as smooth. Today's ride was 2/3 pavement and 1/3 dirt, a good mix for trying out the tires and the bike that I built around them.


On the way up:



As you can tell the weather was sunny and dry. Truth be told we are in a pretty serious drought here in California. During a normal weather year (traditionally measured from July to July around here) we get about 60 inches of rainfall in the wet little town where I live. So far we have 4 inches this year!






The drought has been especially difficult for the ranchers, some of whom are selling off part of their herds. These two cows should be up to their hocks in lush green grass by now. The rancher that owns them is more fortunate than most, still having one field with this much standing dry grass.




On the way down:




All in all a fine ride on the Platypus which performed very well on the varied terrain.
Brent

WNG

The Platypus looks great Brent! Those Bruce Gordon's have a unique tread pattern, how are they on the pavement?
I'm planning a 700C build with optional 45mm tires as my next winter project.

And some nice ride photos too....looks like a a lovely trail.

Brodie01

I decided to bring the camera along on today's ride to retry my technique of photo shooting while riding my bicycle. I felt I needed to show more of the road I'm traveling on than shooting the landscape to my sides. So here we go.


This is my driveway. I live in a small town in Northern California at the 3100' elevation.



This is our main street and a state highway. They provide a bike lane, the only one in the area.


When I ride all the way through town, I turn left off the highway onto this quiet country road. I rarely encounter a car and if I do it's only one or two. The road stretches across a mountain meadow we call Black Ranch meadow. To the north I can see Mt Shasta peaking it's top above mountains that lie between me and Shasta. It's so quiet that after all these years of living here, it still astounds me. On the right side of the road is timber land, on the left is cattle pastures.



There I am, peddling down the road.



As I reach the end of this wonderful country road I come to the Black Ranch that gives the name of the road and meadow. It's beautiful with its fields, barns and homes. Enjoy!!

To be conitnued:

Brodie01

As I near the turn around point which also is the end of the pavement, I have a small but steep climp.



Another glimps of the ranch. Then the end of the pavement and a look back at where I came from.



This first photo is looking to the west as I return to town. On the top of that furtherest mountain ridge is a string of windmills. We are kind of a unique area with our energy resources with one of the worlds most prolific hydro generation systems, the main natural gas pipeline that supplies northern California, and now windmill power. I even saw a new solar field the other day. There is even a geothermal development in the planning stages for the area.
The second photo is of Burney Mountain. It rises to 7800' above sea level. Normally this time of the year it should be completely capped with a thick blanket of snow, but we are in a drought. Of course, the drought gives me much more opportunity to ride.
So this is one of many route options I have to ride. This loop is 14 miles long and it is one of three I ride directly from my home. There are many more options I have to choose from before I have to load my bike into the car to get to.
It's a great area to live and ride in.

JJScaliger

beautiful!

JReade

Thats not a bad ride, if you go inland from the train depot a bit, theres a sports bar with cheap beer too.

obrentharris 

They were very smooth on the pavement. I inflated them to 60 Lbs. which seemed to be about right, though I have not yet experimented with higher pressures. The real surprise was how well they corner on steep downhill pavement with sharp turns: The smooth round profile and large volume allow leaning the bike with a lot of confidence for this type of descending, especially where the pavement is less than perfect.
Brent

spacemanz

Pretty cool, but I don't trust myself that much. I'm seriously thinking about riding down there to California, in the near future, just for a good change of scenery. I originally hitchhiked out West in the late 80s sometime, & landed in Eureka, & loved that area, then I went down around San Francisco awhile, & ended up turning around a few times. I like Seattle, but it's grown way too much for my personal tastes, so I'm getting gone, sometime soon-ish.