eja_ bottecchia

Today I took the Bottecchia along for a 40 miles ride in the rain.


Here is a picture of the empty road ahead of me...at that point in the ride I was trying to outrace the rain.

The rain won.

scozim 

Being this is December and I live in the Pacific Northwest (not rainy Seattle) I didn't think I'd be posting much here for another couple of months. Surprise - hight 40's today after heavy rain last night. Sunshine and 10-15mph winds dried the roads nicely so out I went with the Spectrum for a little different route than I normally do. Not a lot of climbing (unless you count almost 20 miles of headwinds as equal to hill climbing). Tiny bit of rain on the far western part of the ride before I turned back east and enjoyed the tailwind for awhile.

I love this area because you can see for miles - of course, the downside is there's nothing to slow down the wind:





No the building isn't leaning - the camera must not have been straight (I was standing in the street and rushing a little):

Velognome 

northbend 

2 hours MTB riding with friends. Wet - muddy - windy and a little cold. It didn't suck too bad though, we had some fun. We had beers n nachos afterwards at the Snoqualmie brewery - that was pretty good.

JJScaliger

Well, today I rode 71 miles, so my goal this year of riding a metric century at least once a month has been met. Feels pretty good!

It was a beautiful day at around 55 degrees and sunny with a light wind.

Scituate-Foster-Glocester(RI)- Killingly- Plainfield-Sterling (CT)-Coventry-Scituate (RI); 1978' elevation gain. I went on some new roads in Killingly and Plainfield that had some tough hills.

Plainfield CT



up here when you one of these





you'll find one of these, abandon mill in Baliouville CT





Killingly CT



A great day!

jimmuller 

I can't quite manage the saddle time of you folks like JJS, VG, NB, etc. Real life, i.e. my employer's entirely unreasonable demands that I actually do something, tend to get in the way. Nevertheless I managed to sneak in an hour or so yesterday on the '73 Raleigh Gran Sport, a bike I haven't ridden so much lately. Then today I managed to sneak in an hour and half on the Masi. Those bikes are both nice, exactly the same but different, very different. Today it rained lightly and the roads were wet. Even so, getting out at all was so lovely.

Kobe 

Congratulations JJS, that's a great accomplishment, especially with the weather in RI. I may have to try that next year. No way will I be able to do the regular century a month club, but this seems realistic.

I have not seen the Century a Month thread in a while, is anyone still doing it?

jimmuller 

I wish I had the time to do a century or even a metric century every month. (Thanks to JJS I got in both a mc and birthday ride last month! Both in the same day!)

This afternoon I had surgery on a hand, one of the reasons I made it a point to get in 20 miles earlier today. It will be several weeks before I get to ride again.

JJScaliger

Have a speedy recovery Jim. Hopefully it wouldn't interfere with your music too much.

scozim 

Heal quickly! I'll be there in a couple of weeks with my knee and I'm sure I'll be going stir crazy.

jimmuller 

The hand has been doing really well. So in preparation for a trip to Chicago (which I really don't want to do) I took the Masi out today, home to Concord and back, plus some exploring of roads new to me. I'd say "new roads" but some of those roads were last repaved during the Grant administration.

About 35 miles. Don't know exactly because the bike, a Masi Gran Criterium, is old-school like the rider. No computer. Cool weather, slightly damp roads but no rain, even a little sun eventually. It was nice.

w1xq

Rode through the coastal farmlands in Brazoria County Texas.

scozim 

Got out today for 32 miles between my son's basketball tournament games. Cold (33 degrees F) with spitting snow and rain when I started. Stayed warm enough but definitely realized the donated fenders from D.D. need to go on the winter bike - Trek 510. The Mavic tubular wheels are off and the Module E's from one of my Gitanes is on it with 700X25 Bontrager Race Lite tires.

I'll make it official even though I need one more ride this week to get there but it will be another 3000 mile year. That's my usual goal and this year started out rough between work and a horrible spring I was way behind on mileage and really tried to kick it up starting in July. I don't have the opportunity to commute to work and have a huge amount of family commitments with kids activities. I usually pick up these miles on my lunch break at 22-25 mile increments and by summer can usually get a few longer weekend rides in. This year was the first since 1997 that I was able to get in multiple century rides which felt really good.

I'll hope for 3500 to 3700 miles in 2013 and continue to try and increase since I have a few personal goals for the upcoming years to reach.

Can you tell where the top of the booties were?



The bike definitely needs a good cleaning after this ride:

Baroudeur

From a ride earlier this autumn :

northbend 

I have been vacationing on Maui since last Thursday. Yesterday I got the hall pass from my wife to rent a bike for the day so I could check off another item off my 'bucket list'.


I rented a Litespeed from Maui Cycles in Paia. It's a great little shop and they have a nice selection good bikes on hand for rentals. Of interest to C&V'rs would be the smattering of vintage bikes on display that the owner Donnie has rescued from local or owned himself since new. Donnie is an interesting character who is a former racer. On his wall are signed jerseys from pro riders who have trained with him on the Island in the Winter.


Anyways, I chose to ride up to Haleakala unsupported (the shop does cater to those who want a supported ride). The route is pretty simple: leave town on Baldwin and ride uphill past cane fields for 8 miles or so and take a right on Hanamanu. The uplands are beautiful. Lush green fields, flowers and tropical plants, small funky towns..this is really a treat coming from the cold rain of Washington State. The land starts to get dryer and it opens up as you go higher reminding me a little of some of the riding I've done in California.

I especially enjoyed riding thru fragrant groves of eucalyptus

The climb just goes on and on..there is really no let up to speak of until you are finished some 36 or so miles away at the crater. It was humid and hot but a steady 20 mph tradewind cools you off. The winds became stronger as the day went on but for now, I was in blissful ignorance enjoying the country opening up to me with each switchback.

The temperatures dropped and the winds increased as I reached 6000 ft. I put on arm warmers and a jacket. Each switchback to the left put me directly into the wind, gusts were over 30mph according to the NOAA website, I struggled to keep the bike under control when a blast would hit me diagonally while I was creeping uphill. I counted each switchback after I entered the National Park. There are seven until you reach the visitors center at the Crater. The land is barren here, just lava rock and scrubby bushes. I put my head down and just focused on keeping a steady pace. Finally, I reach the visitors center at the crater rim and pass by it for the final 1/2 mile to the summit.

Here is the steepest section of the ride - at 10000 feet. I make it to the top after about 5 1/2 hours. A visitor snaps a couple of photos of me for posterity then it's time to leave and descend back to warmer elevations.

The pavement is in beautiful shape and I go as fast as I can - I am very cold and am shaking badly enough that it affects the bike handling. I try to relax my arms and squeeze the top tube with my knees. The road I've climbed up is seared in my memory..I can anticipate where the wind will hit me sideways so I am ready for it. I have no trouble staying ahead of any car traffic on the descent. I can feel the warmth and humidity come back at around 5000 feet so I stop and take off my layers. Blasting down the mountain after this was a complete joy. I was in the big ring and riding hard, carving around the sweeping turns, back through the grasslands, and forests and finally the cane fields just outside of Paia. It was a great finish to a challenging day in the saddle.

ColonelJLloyd 

Awesome pics and report, Northbend!

JJScaliger

Nice!

23skidoo

+ n+1

northbend 

I went out for a quick ride to a cafe in town for visit with some friends. Gave me an opportunity to try out some Berthets I had received in the mail from mapleleafs13 (thanks) while I was away on vacation. I was able to comfortably ride in street shoes with these pedals. Kinda nice being able to hop on a bike wearing street clothes, none of my other bikes are set up for that.

Drillium Dude 

Ditto, Jim - here's hoping it all comes out okay.

Scott: if you need something to do while you're cooped up after the knee surgery, you could always do overhauls on the Spinella, Sparrow and Masi

I hope your surgery goes well, too!

DD

Drillium Dude 

Dayum, that bike gets more and more beautiful every time I see it (that cream-colored paint is the shizz).

Awesome ride report from HI, too. I went up that hill in 1999 - but I did it in a Mustang convertible

DD

jimmuller 

Wow, so much great bike activity here! After those Hawaii pics and the trip report my mind is, in a word, boggled. Scoz, if you're getting knee surgery I hope it works out well. I had a knee a'scoped several years ago and if your experience is anything like mine you'll be boggling our minds yourself again very quickly with your Washington pics. (I hiked up Franconia Ridge 3 weeks after my knee work.)

After a business week in the Chicago suburbs I'm back home again, so Sharon and I did 20 tandem miles on the Minuteman Bikeway, Bedford to Alewife and back. Started about 2:30, temperature about 40F, finished about 5:00, temperature in the low 30s. We did the return trip with the generator running and lights on, unnecessary at first but definitely required by the time we finished. It was nice to get back on a bike.

scozim 

Thanks. Had three scopes already. This shouldn't be a big deal - just removal of a bursa on the front of the knee but the sutures will prevent riding for 7-10 days.

velomateo

Thanks, NorthBend for the Haleakala ride report. I've wanted to do that ride after driving up a few years ago with my family. The day we drove up, a rider was just reaching the ranger station, as you enter the park. I asked about riding up and the ranger said that guy rides up several times a week. So it safe to assume htat he's got some climbing "skills". Great report.

JJScaliger

I rode 40 miles this morning. It was cold with a high around 38, overcast with a steady 10 mph wind.

I did about 3-4 miles on some dirt roads. I discovered that a bridge that has been out for over a year is now passable for cycling. It connects two roads to make one of my favorite winter loops so that was some valuable reconnaissance.