3speedslow

Another day and still on the Dawes. Took an overnighter and now heading back into town. Nice to have a big Carradice bag for hauling my stuff. Need to get a support for it though.

Stopping in at one of my coffee places, Panera for some lite roast and cinnamon crumb cake. Hits the spot!

ButchA

Just got back from a real short and simple ride to Deep Run Park from my house - only about 7.60 miles round trip. I wanted to test my beloved C&V '85 Fuji Del Rey (and mainly myself) after my crash last weekend where I got run off the road into the curb. I'm fine except for some healing and scabbed road rash on my left knee. My old Fuji is absolutely fine, unfazed, unharmed, with just some scrapes on the side of the pedal. It's true that "old school" bikes are built to last, and can handle anything!

Anyway, 7.60 miles in a speedy 27:26 and (avg) 16.6 mph speed.

I stopped briefly at a nice gazebo inside the park and took this photo.




This is the intersection of Raintree and Falconbridge on the way back from the park. You are looking south along Raintree Rd. Just beyond the crest, the road just totally divebombs straight downhill. It's a lot of fun too, because you can shift into the highest gear, crouch down and grab the lower handlebars, and pedal as fast as you can - but the speed limit is 35 mph... I have gone over that a few times!

Drillium Dude 

Good to hear you're doing fine and the bike is, too

DD

Kilroy1988 

Today I tested my limits. I have been cycling on a seasonal basis for several years, and it has been a while since I've ridden more than 60 miles or so at a time. I've been back in the saddle for less than a month at this point, and decided today to see what I could do.

I chose the fixed gear Centurion "club racer" that was completed about three weeks ago, which I had not taken out for more than 15 miles at a time thus far. I rolled out at 11am and headed into Dinuba. I stopped for coffee and a pastry, then wended my way southeast towards the foothills and was in Exeter just after 2pm. I had a latte at the Wildflower Cafe and lobster ravioli at Monet's Bistro (they'll be catering my wedding), and walked around and took some photos of the bicycle in front of my favorite murals. Exeter is rather famous as being classy and lively, especially for being in the midst of the San Joaquin Valley and with a population of only 10,000. Roughly twenty beautiful murals grace various downtown walls.

After that, I went six miles further south and ended up at the outskirts of Lindsay. From there, I went west straight into Tulare, then turned north back towards Visalia, which I hopped and skipped around until heading home on highway 63 towards Orosi before turning west. I had stopped multiple times for water and to make adjustments on the bicycle, and was home just before 7pm.

Total distance - 80 miles, or 128km. I'm beat! The lauterwasser bars are absolutely not comfortable for such distances, with very limited hand positions and a far from forgiving surface. My hands are still uncomfortably numb (ha) after being home for an hour. I had a headwind most of the way home, but reckon I somehow managed to maintain an average 15-16 mph during the course of the day's ride, using the 52-17 fixed gearing. I'd be more proud if I did not feel so stupid for pushing myself as I did, but I'm alright. Home and relaxed now. Cheers!

-Gregory

obrentharris 

Looks like a great ride! Are the trails converted railroad grades?
Brent

obrentharris 

Good job on the ride! Thanks for sharing the murals. I must admit that , in spite of the fact that I drive south on Highway 99 on my way from my father-in-law's house in Merced to camping in Death Valley every year, I have never visited either Dinuba or Exeter. I will have to remedy that.
Brent

Wildwood 

Where? I just followed this guy for a while.

jimmuller 

K-88, nice pics. It's good to get back out there and riding. Especially on a fixed-gear.

An observation on that bike setup, seein' as how you already diss'ed the bars. The seat clamp is backwards (which I'm sure you've been told before, and you've done that on purpose) so that the saddle is very far forward. With long chainstays, as evidenced by the space between rear wheel and ST, you already have less weight on the rear wheel, more on the front. I would imagine that gives it peculiar handling. Then with the bar so much lower than the saddle a lot of your body weight is also on your arms and hands. I can see how that wouldn't be comfortable for such a long trip. Just MHO, YMMV, etc.

jimmuller 

We took our tandem out for 48.25 miles on Saturday. Spectacular weather, mid-60's, dry, a touch of breeze. Lots of bikes out. Apparently it was the day for quite a few town festivals too. We unexpected came upon four and of course we stopped.

Belmont Town Day


Carnival rides, just getting setup


Logs of great British cars (our bike drew lots of comments from the car owners)


193-something Packard


And then Lexington's 7th (?) annual BBQ festival


And then Bedford


And then Carlisle



Of course we had to stop at a few farm stands



It was a good day to be out on a bike.

qcpmsame 

@jimmuller, looks like I was couple of weeks early, you guys have some great riding around the greater Boston environs. I have a buddy that owns a classic Austin-Healy and loves rallys snd English car shows, he'd go nuts over that gathering.

See everyone in a few months. Hopefully during better weather conditions.

Bill

hobbs1951

A very early start was made from my village to RAF Wickenby for morning coffee, approximately 50 miles (return) across the Lincolnshire Wolds - to pay respects to the Wickenby airmen (12 & 626 Sqdns - Wellingtons & Lancasters) who lost their lives in the Great Crusade.

The memorial depicts Icarus, and sadly two bronze plaques were stolen from the memorial two years ago. A Lancaster flypast is planned, weather permitting, for the 17th September 2017 at 1500 hrs.

John.

DiegoFrogs

Here are a couple shots from today's short shakedown ride after installing some Claris 2x8 brifters on my 1977 Pro Tour.

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The setup now includes:

Shimano Claris 2x8 brifters that I bought more than a year ago and never got around to installing.
Sunrace 8 speed MTB cassette that I've been using for a long time now.
Shimano cassette hub, probably for a hybrid type bike, 135 mm.
Shimano Acera RD that I got when the original Suntour broke after shipping to Sweden.
Suntour Cyclone GT FD, original.
Dia-Compe brazed-on centerpull brakes, original.
Sanyo dynohub front wheel, cheap from E-Bay about 4 years ago.
Vittoria Voyager Hyper 700c x 32 mm tires.

After messing with the Cyclone front derailleur on the stand, I wasn't sure how it would work out, but in practice on the road it works nice and is surprisingly intuitive. I'm glad, since the Cyclone has an integrated housing stop, so I'd have had to drill the bottom bracket to attach a plastic guide if I went to a modern FD while still retaining the original guide for the top-of-the-chainstay run to the RD. The devil is in the details, I guess (and I got lucky)...

ButchA

Thanks... Everything is fine. Thinking back, that crash happened so fast. HONK! (car horn) and the next thing I knew, I'm on the ground!

I went all over my beloved '85 Fuji Del Rey and aside from a scrape or two on the brake levers, she's perfectly fine and unscathed. Gotta love classic steel framed road bikes!

3speedslow

Nothing epic today. Took a big chunk out of the bottom of my foot so pedaling is a tender effort. Today a short 10 miler out toa coffee stop and then back home.

Deal4Fuji

I've found a great new spur off the industrial route I've been riding since early fall. There's a country road that dead ends with even less traffic than the warehouse loading dock area with gravel. This allows me to get back on the C&V bikes and off the fatter tire Hybrid. It's like my own personal 5 mile greenway. I have to make loops to get the mileage I want but It's a nice ride with lots of wildlife to observe (deer, turtles, fox squirrels, snakes, wild turkeys and big birds of prey) and sweet spring honeysuckle smells,in spite of what this sign says .....and rarely a car !

I still do group rides with the club, but this is my go-to place when riding solo

jimmuller 

Today was another spectacularly beautiful day so we took ye old vintage tandem (which is to say, the only one we have) out again. Only 30.2 miles today, back home in time for lunch!

Chrome Molly

Yes, the whole way is converted rail trail. Seems flat when you're on it, but in 50 miles the elevation was over 2K (so not entirely flat as you're heading up/down the rivers). You can put together about 80 miles of riding on that particular trail system if you want. Our area has many nice rail trails including the Red Cedar River trail, Elroy Sparta (and accompanying trails), as well as the Gandy Dancer trail that heads up north to Superior.

In a couple weeks I'll be doing our MS150 that goes from Duluth (Proctor) to the Twin Cities (White Bear Lake) for about 2/3 of it on rail trails. Including a couple shots of the spots along that trail also, and never a shortage of "spectators" along the way.

rccardr 

Man, that MS150 ride was so much fun last year...

Andy_K 

I got out today just enough to stretch my legs and enjoy the beautiful weather -- about 15 miles in rural Wasington County. This pic was take at the end of Tile Flat Road.

LucasHartong

Wow. Beautiful pictures of murals, landscapes and fairs, great stories!

greg3rd48 

Everyone is offering such wonderful shots of their necks of the woods especially yours @jimmuller! @ButchA I am glad to see that your accident was not as serious as it might have been. @Kilroy1988 Great looking bikes with murals as a back drop are so pleasing to the eye.

This weekend's weather was glorious here in the Big Apple. I took out the Fuji Ace for Bicycle Sunday on the Bronx River Parkway yesterday minus my little sidekick in tow. The temperatures hovered in the low 60's and the sun was shining. 30 quick miles then back home for preparing the veggie garden with the family.

Untitled by irishbx4th, on Flickr

Untitled by irishbx4th, on Flickr

Untitled by irishbx4th, on Flickr

Untitled by irishbx4th, on Flickr

sunvalleylaw

Wow, I sure wish there was a "like" button here, as I just want to pop in and express gratitude for the shares of the great ride pics everyone is posting. But I don't necessarily want to clog up the forum by posting every time I like something, which is about every time someone posts their pics. Good going people!

sunvalleylaw

Nice! Is that a Burley? There was one very, very similar to that, color and all, sitting partially stripped of parts in the Boise Bike Project co-op waiting for someone to take on a re-hab project. My wife would not want to ride tandem, or I might have been tempted.

jimmuller 

Thank you. No, not a Burley. Seein' as how this is C&V that bike is appropriate, 1982 Peugeot TH8. I obtained it from another BF member as frame and a box of some of the parts. I had the frame painted out of necessity, scrounged around for the missing parts. Most are French, some are original. The 140mm stoker's crank was made for us by Bikesmith Design, the stem came from my Raleigh Gran Sport, the bar is an SR, the stoker's pedals and clips are mtb components found at Old Roads (recently sold) in Cambridge, FW is Suntour, chains are SRAM, rear hub is the original Atom. We have put many thousand miles on it.

As for getting your wife out on one, ah, it has been said that wherever your relationship is going a tandem will get it there faster!

jimmuller 

Looking forward to it! If you need a bike I have a few...

Great pics of that river!

Did you say Tire Flat Road? Oh, sorry, I misread it. It sure is flat! Nice too!