So Neal's Meal's on wheels or Meal's Neal's on wheels?

Hopefully you guys missed most of the rain. On the radar it looked like there was on and off showers.

Yah, same. I hope it wasn't too bad out there for y'all. At least it's predicted to be better the next few days.

Quick update:

Despite Neal’s best efforts, we got a goodly amount of rain up on our Mt Tamalpais route-so much so that we decided to skip Faifax Bolinas and head directly to Stinson Beach via Panoramic. Heading north on highway 1 was much drier.

Pics to follow, obrentharris is picking us up soon for dinner in Inverness

Teaser:

yes

Yeah, we got quite rained on heading up and down Mt. Tam. But, still, it was a great day on a bike:

Start of ride selfie in San Francisco:



Breakfast the the Lighthouse Cafe in Sausalito:


Pretty view in Marin:


The boys charge up Mt. Tam in the rain and fog:





This sign sums up the day:

any day with a Pliny is a good day

OMG, you lucky guys, hanging with Mr. Harris, say Hi for me.

I met the soggy lads, spirits undampened, on the Coast Highway between Stinson Beach and Bolinas, by which time most of the rain had abated. We even got to enjoy a couple sunny breaks while relaxing on some picnic tables in Olema.


It's now 9PM and the rain is coming down pretty hard on my metal roof but the weather service promises us sunny skies for tomorrow.
Brent

Today’s ride had some moments.

Well, we had to find a French-threaded rock to make that fix on the Singer BB:

Other than that need to repair Marc’s consistently unthreading DS BB cup, it was a delightful day on the bike, 44 miles from Inverness to Monte Rio, a good chunk of that on rolling highway alongside Botega Bay. obrentharris met us at the start and rode to Valley Ford, where he headed back home. SwimmerMike met us early on and has joined the happy crew for a couple of days. To the pics!


Morning in Tomales Bay.

Start of ride selfie.

M. Singer’s A. singer.


Mike on his Paramount P15.

Brent on his Brian Baylis repainted Wizard.

Gugie machina.

A Wizard and a Black Mountain met on a corner in Tomales Bay.

A Pliney and the view from the back of the hotel. It was a great ride today with some great company. The scenery the north bay is amazing. I need to ride up here more often.

Pic of obrentharris using a small screwdriver and a rock to tighten Mssr Singer’s Alex Singer lock ring:

Caveman bike repair

The French and the Italians agree about one thing and one thing only - the thread direction on drive side BB cups - and they both it wrong (says the man with two Italian bottom brackets to contend with).

Nice piece of meatball surgery, Brent.

We stopped at the hardware store in Occidental to pick up the proper tools for potential road repair - hammer, pumch and locktite.

A bit wistfully I abandoned my harbor pilot duties in Valley Ford but left the lads in the capable hands of SwimmerMike. I enjoyed a fine ride and beautiful views on my way back home.

Brent

I always heard you could just pedal backwards while riding downhill to rethread an unwound BB. Give it a try!

Glad you out of towners survived the rain riding with those unfendered Californians.

Neal did you stop at BMC to get your bike autographed?

Did not, unfortunately, but the bike did show a bit more pep in its step when we passed through Pt. Reyes.

As Chaz used to ask, "Is it wrong, or just French?" In this case, both. I've got five French bikes in the garage. One has a Swiss threaded bottom bracket. Three of the other four have had the bottom bracket come unthreaded on me while I was out on a ride. I'm a slow learner, but I eventually started remembering to Loctite these things when I put them together.

Yeah, I learned the same thing from bitter experience. One time I had to wait while a friend rode home, got his car, and gave a ride back - after administering liberal doses of verbal abuse. The other time the BB came loose (but not all the way out, thank goodness) more or less at the top of the ridge near my house and I was able to coast almost all the way home.

My take-away: Use blue loctite, tighten the DS cup until it screams for mercy, then tighten it a little more, torque specifications be damned. I suspect but do not know that this would be a bad idea with a carbon fiber frame - I expect never to find out.

In my experience, if the DS cup is going to unscrew, it does so in 10 or so miles. So logic suggests that, if you can pedal backwards the equivalent of 10 or so miles worth, it just might work.

Yeah, just another luxury of a steel frame. I just yell a big “Aaargh!” and tighten as hard as I can. FWIW, I’ve never has an Italian fixed cup unwind, it’s always been cartridge BB’s.

This is the tool you seek, proceed with caution.

This will get any of them coming or going.

Something is happening here, Mister Jones.