jsigone

I swear I kept tryin to grab that last gear and never felt it ease up Figured it was my cadence or something.... Right before the small recovery roller to the shack I realized my new cable stretched out and wasn't tight enough to engage the index shifting to the 10th cog. I'm grateful I figured that out cuz parts of GRR had some steep kick up and every time I tried to get out the saddle, my camera bag was wanted to swing around to the front losing leg momentum

Mr. Beanz

But you know you could have done it easily with some water.

Cyclist0084

Nice pics and videos. Thanks for sharing them.

Looks like you guys had an awesome ride.

Mr. Beanz

This lady Vntgdrms (did I get that right?) suprised the snot out of me. She hopped on her bike and just kept rolling up the hill..... nice smooth rider!!!I kept thinking we were going to catch her but didn't see her till the top!

First time on GMR, right! I'm thinking maybe she had been secretly training on GMR!

psalm

Cool, I was wondering how that picture turned out. I'm going to have to steal it from you!

Beachgrad05

My descent video is now ready.

jeepseahawk

Beach, your videos are great. Funny seeing myself on video, we look good, pros are probably analyzing our descent form right now.

Mr. Beanz

Interview video # 1 (part 1 of 2)





Part 2

TrojanHorse

Beanz, your video is a no show... not sure what's wrong. I don't see if on your channel either.

I could see the mushroom cloud from the fire all the way down in Whittier - I'm not sure I'd want to ride it today either!

jsigone

^^ if you're bored tomorrow you can join me up Palomar Mt...but the only clouds you might see will be thunder heads about noon. Bring a bag for you electronics JUST in case

Beachgrad05

I need to learn how to do what Beanz does....I love the interview portions of his videos as much if not more than the music videos of the rides. I love getting to "meet" everyone else and hear their take on things.

Mr. Beanz

Let me know if they work now. I messed with them a bit, should be part one and part two now.

jeepseahawk

Watched both, look great!

Penny4

Sorry, slightly OT...but in Part 1 of Beanz video, a woman (lisa?) said she is opening a women's only shop in Costa Mesa. Is there any info that can be shared on this? If ordering on line is available, I would love to know the name of her shop!

Looks like you guys have all found some nice riding partners! For us east coasters, what exactly is the GMR, how long is, what is the Shack, and what is the Village? Is 95 an unusual temp this time of year? when would you expect cooler temps?

ahultin

I asked Sebastian to give his "report" as I thought it might be fun to hear "from the mouths of babes" . I am only editing for spelling

The night before i told my dad I would ride with him. I figured I had to go anyway since mom was driving so I made a trade. He had to give me extra time on my xbox depending on how far I got. When he woke me up at 5am i was really tired and kept telling my dad no no no and he said yes yes yes. When I figured he wasn't going to give up I finally gave up and got dressed but I was not happy. When we finally got there everyone was telling me to encourage them so I did. The way up the hill was hard and when we hit the gate and my mom could not follow in the truck I was thinking about staying back but I didn't. Most of the way up i was the fourth person , i had to beat my dad but I did wait for him sometimes when we stopped. I got to the shack a couple minutes before him. We went a little further to about 10 miles but since we were out of water we tried again to call my mom. We found out that she had been turned around at the far gate because of the fire and was back at the start. I wanted to keep going but with no water my dad said we had to turn back. The way down was a little freaky so we were almost the last ones. I am used to straight down and can go fast but not curvy down. When we got to the bottom my mom was waiting with cold water which was good. Everybody got some. In the end it was very fun and was worth it so I would like to go again.
PS , Dad you are mean for making me write this

ahultin

For our Future reference, road closures are posted here and show that GMR was closed since 8 am friday due to fire
https://dpw.lacounty.gov/roadclosures/

Beachgrad05

That ride report was awesome! Not only is he a good rider, but a good writer! Tell him thank you for taking the time to give us his ride report.

Mr. Beanz

Thanks!

TrojanHorse

Traded for extra time on the XBox! LMAO! That's fantastic... and exactly what my kids do to me because I limit their time too. Outstanding! Tinrobot, Eja and i were usually right in front of him and eja was keeping an eye on him with his little mirror, so we'd stop and regroup and drink some water from time to time. I'm glad he had a good ride.

Mr. Beanz

Nice job and just think of it as like onions on a hamburger. When you're young you hate them but when you get a bit older, you crave them on a burger. Some day you'll be writing ride reports on your own cause it's fun ha ha!


Little side note for the viewers. It's always amazing when so many C&A's say they can't climb or aren't supposed to be able to climb. This ride was actually a little better than the lst GMR ride and under tougher conditions imo, Mo HEAT! Every rider looked more relaxed than last time and there is no doubt in my mind that every one of them would have made it to the village if it hadn't been for the road closure. Even so, most of us cut back on water figuring we woud have support. If we hadn't figured on support, we would have been better stocked as far as fluids and we would have made it!

The thing to note here is that our climb improved from one ride to the next. We do have a bunch of riders with the desire and that only goes to prove it does get better. BeachGrad had an off day but so did I couple months back and the heat was nothing like this ride. On slightly cooler day, we'd all be at the village eating cupcakes. But again, these Clydes and Athenas are out there doing it and not just flapping our gums behind a computer screen!

Oh yeah, and I will give Eja_Botecchia the tough SOB award!...He did the village on his first attempt in severe heat with no support!

PhotoJoe 

Hey Penny. The best way to find out about Lisa's (vtgdrms) store that she's opening is to PM her. She told me she's not on here every day.

GMR is Glendora Mountain Road. If you see reports on the national news about a fire in Los Angeles, that is EXACTLY where we were riding. We call it GMR, but it also includes Glendora Ridge Road and leads to Mt. Baldy, a local small ski "resort"

ahultin

It was a bit warmer Saturday and I believe that affected us all. I think had our SAG (my loving wife ) been able to make it to the fork we could have continued on and all made the village. While she was clearly stressed out with the redirect and knowing that we were without water or sustenance she was mindful enough to contact park rangers to try to get us water. The ranger took the coolers and tried to reach us (a concerned mother is very convincing ) but even he was turned around by the fire crew ( he did say he was able to provide someone with water )

It was another great ride though with great company and we made it further than last time so all in all it was a success. BTW, Boss lady said when we are ready she will be happy to drive SAG

1855Cru

Congrats again, I think these kind of group rides are awesome and sometimes exactly what we Clyde's need to get us to attempt a difficult climb.

I'm curious though, it's hard to tell from the videos but was everyone riding a true Clyde or were there some Clyde emeritus's in the group? AHultin jr excepted of course

psalm

Dude you guys rock!

eja_ bottecchia

Thanks Beanz, but I am not a tough SOB, just a cranky old SOB.

And I did have support, in a manner of speaking.

Ever since my mom passed away from compllications due to her diabetes, I have been "inspired" to do things on my bike (like riding 1060 miles in one month or going up to Mt. Baldy). My Mom grew up poor; her family never had money to buy her a bike and so she never learned how to ride.

But Mom knew how much I love bike riding and so she made sure that, no matter what the family's situation was, I always had a bike to ride. After I did my first century on a heavy, gas-pipe bike, she bought me the Bottecchia bike (from a shop in Eagle Rock, Budget Bicycle). I could not have bought that bike on my own, I had just begun raisning a family, my wife was a stay at home mom, and money was tight. But Mom knew how much I wanted that bike and she made sure that I got it.

When she passed away 3 years ago I went into a a deep funk. I could talk to my Mom about things that I cannot even talk to my wife about...I had no idea how much I would miss her, until she was gone. Not a day goes by that I do not think about her. But when I am on the bike, especially the Bottecchia, I feel at one with her.

Riding the Bottecchia (and riding all my other bikes in general) are now my only "tangible" connection with Mom.

Towards the end of the climb I was hot and down to my last water bottle. When I hit the switchbacks, just before dropping into the Village, I really wanted to turn around and just go back home.

Then I heard a voice (yes sometimes I do hear voices when I am riding alone, don't we all?) and it was my Mom's voice:

"No mi hijo, no pares ahora, la meta esta cerca, sigue en la bicicleta..."

(No son, don't stop now, the end is close, stay on your bike.)

So to say that I had no support is not completely accurate...Mom was "there" for me.

BTW, I have to agree 100%, it was really, really inspirational to see C's and A's get on their bikes, point the front wheel to the top of the mountain and just go. No excuses, no whining, no backing down...just ride and ride. I am certain that had conditions been different, if we had had water and mild temps instead of that devil of a heat bowl, everyone would have made it to the Village.

I am very proud and honored to have made your acquaintances...even yours Beanz.