Kdogbikes

Lake Erie in the distance. All my pics are taken with iPhone 6+.

Andy_K 

Tualatin Valley Scenic Bikeway from Rood Bridge Park to Fern Hills Wetlands and back

This is one of my favorite local rides. The county chip sealed the first few miles of it last year, which made it a lot less pleasant on my plastic wonderbike. The Trek with its 27x1-1/4" tires just soaked it up.

Kdogbikes

Nice pics Andy. Very green. I like riding on 27x1-1/14 tires in my neck of woods because the back roads are so rough.

Kdogbikes

got out for chilly ride this morning. Flat 12ish miler along the lake with a barge out in the distance.

pressed001

@Andy_K I thought those pics looked like the most beautiful and best State of State's. Beautiful pics. I will ride through OR one day. I didn't do enough of it while I was there. (Klamath Falls and a short stint in Portland).

jimmuller 

Pretty neat pics, great ride reports.

I got in 48.7 miles on the Grandis today. Temperatures in the upper 40's, bright sun, headwind in every direction!

Primeval forests and primordial soup:





The western end of the Minuteman Bikeway now has another nice service for cyclists:



Reward:

Spaghetti Legs 

In honor of Paris Roubaix, rode over the local cobbles downtown on the Merckx today. Fairly short ride but plenty of excitement that ,in addition to the cobbles, I hit 44 mph on the descent of a nearby hill. That can be a little sphincter tightening on 30 year old MA 40's. Right after that there's a train track crossing at a small train yard. I could see an engine ramping up and starting to move, so I had to sprint to get through the crossing, which I did just before the bell started ringing and the arms came down, about 40 or 50 meters in front of the (slowly moving mind you) train.

plonz 

Wow

I hit 39 mph downhill on my 30 year old Raleigh yesterday and thought the same thing. Another 5 over that is impressive indeed.

What goes down must come up. How was the climb?

Chrome Molly

55 miles on the Gazelle today. Lots of wind. The old specialized turbos that say they are 25's but measure as 20's ride like 20's. Go figure.

Spaghetti Legs 

The climb was tough but I've done it many times and know what to expect. Known locally as "Trash Mountain" as it is by the local landfill. About 3/4 mile long 9-ish % for the first half, tapering to 6-7 for the last part.

Kdogbikes

The GRANDIS is such a nice looking bike, Jim.

MauriceMoss

I'm with Vonruden - I wouldn't change a thing .

gaucho777 

I rode 75 miles around the hills of Paso Robles. Lot of old bikes out there! You could hardly swing a silca without hitting a Masi.

shipwreck

Went over to ride the trails in Bentonville Arkansas with a buddy. Was gonna ride the pink Scott in the background, but someone showed up who didn't have a bike and wanted to ride. Had the Cannondale in the van as well, so I loaned the Scott to them and rode all the trails on the skinny tire bike(panaracer gravel king on the front and continental something or other on the back) . Only problems was listening to the untrimmed cross chaining on the loaner, but I just gritted my teeth and let them have fun without griping.
Rode the Slaughter house trail and a couple other rough single tracks, only problem was the shifting! Downtube shifters in the rocks were tough

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jimmuller 

Thanks. (I've concluded it is stiff.)

Now, why would there be so many vintage Masi-ish bikes in California right now?

Very noble of you. thumb: (Did you convert him to C&V?)

exmechanic89

No pics but I knocked out 40 miles solo yesterday afternoon in the Portland Or area. Thinking about repeating that trip right again now as I'm off this morning. Prolly take my road bike though instead of my old school mountain bike I rode yesterday.

Boy I'm really ready for some summer weather. Yesterday it hit about 61 with no sun, and this morning it's in the 40's with no sun again. Blah!

shipwreck

I doubt it. She had a good time, and actually figured out shifting better than many on a first ride, but it was a one of I bet.
My friend who owns the Salsa Mukluk likes all my bikes, and has based many of his handlebar decisions on how I have my rigs set up, but still likes his modern stuff.

jimmuller 

I rode to work again this morning. It was a lovely summer day, except for the weather which was cold, damp, even wet at times.

Today's bike of choice was the Gazelle. After yesterday's 49 mile romp on the Grandis I wanted a close comparison with the nice 531C road-competition bike. I'm sure one can't attribute the differences to Columbus vs. Reynolds tubing, but boy they sure are different. The Gazelle is smooth and efficient but comfortable, an easy bike to go fast on. Silvino built his to be stiff and quick, probably tiring to ride for more than a few hours. But then, it is a bit like the Masi in that it challenges me to ride harder and harder. Maybe with a different saddle it would be more comfortable, cause that VO leather is, ah, firm.

Chrome Molly

Interesting comments Jim. I just had my first ride on a new to me Gazelle AB 531c frame yesterday and despite very small tires on the bike, I was impressed by the smoothness. More compliant than my 731os Condor, but likely not as good a climber.

What I did notice was the Gazelle seems a little stiffer than my Trek 760 which is also a 531c frame. Though the Trek is outfitted with modern DA so that may be impacting the degree to which I hammer it.

The Gazelle is surely worthy of a lighter more modern build than I gave it. Oh well, a next winter project already.

Bottom line is that choices are good to have.

jimmuller 

In your face, Aeolus! Well, actually, it was in his face. Dead center in his face with his breath gusting up near 40mph. Spent most of the ride home this evening on the small chainring. But in the end I triumphed. I keep telling myself it's only wind, it's only wind, it's only wind.

Thanks. I fell in love with the Gazelle from my first ride on it. It is just flat-out comfortable and intuitive yet fast. Mine makes a good climber, doesn't seem to flex in the BB. But then, it has a low of about 28 or 29 inches, half a click lower gear than all my other bikes which bottom out at about 32 inches. So it would be my preference for a hilly ride.

It has 23mm Veloflex Criteriums (tubulars) on 36-spoke Super Champion Competitions, though I may give it a set of 32-spoke GP4s. The Grandis has 23mm Veloflex Masters, a tubular-like clincher on Torelli Master rims, wheels which were previously on the Gazelle. I was running both at 140psi. The tubulars may have lost a little air since I pumped them up last night, so maybe that explains some of the difference. But the two bikes really felt different, one a long-distance road bike, the other a shorter-distance sprinter.

Addendum: I feel compelled to mention that I broke a toe clip early in my commute home. Alas, poor MKS, I knew him well. At this moment the poor Gazelle wear mismatched clips (one large MKS and one medium Cyclopro by ALE), a condition that will remain in effect until I find another large MKS. Please do no report me. I am at your mercy.

Paramount1973 

I got in 9 miles, put my drop bar High Plains on the bike rack and drove to a local garage to get my perforated exhaust pipe repaired. I left the car with them and rode 4.5 miles to my office. Lots of headwind and hills but I enjoyed it. Late in the afternoon, I rode back and retrieved the car, put the bike on the rack and drove home.

It threatened to rain and with the fenders, the High Plains is my rainy day commuter.

Untitled by galoot_loves_tools, on Flickr

exmechanic89

I did 40 miles this morning on my mtb - just in time to beat the rain.

Vonruden

Great end to a long day

jimmuller 

Oh my, VR, wonderful sunset w/bike pics.

Vonruden

Thanks Jim, during the week I typically can only ride before or after a long day. One benefit is the great sunrise / sunsets.