Salubrious

I did- well enough to do 100km and still be able to move a little when I got to the finish. <burn> And managed to pass Robbie on the Shop Hill road</burn>. 18 gear inches is actually slightly faster than HAB

If not for Dave and Robbie, I would not have even been there, so once again kudos to them!

The vintage machines were a hoot. I met some people that didn't know what Sturmey Archer was. Wood rims? No indexing? They were aghast.

Barrettscv 

Robbie knows how to light up the place;

seedsbelize 

Thanks!

iab

Here is some of the motley crew.

RCT_5605 by iabisdb, on Flickr

More pictures here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/681231...57665812374615

RobbieTunes

It happened. Ouch, it happened....

RobbieTunes

Hmm, DD 2016...

Leave Wednesday at about 2:30 pm, drive with Clapton (24 Nights) and Bruce (6-disc box set), arrive WI 11:30 Thursday.
Chase my sister down as she's out buying cheese, PM Barrettcv for an evening beer/conversation about life and other sordid things.

Breakfast at 6 at the Red Rooster (Barrettscv was already there). Load the bike racks at 7 am Friday with Barrettscv. Time out for a 9 am ride from Riley's Tavern onto the Epic campus (led by ldmetaya) with Barrettcv, ldmetaya, Chrome Molly, hodgykins, myself, and Brian Chase (one of the Great Beer Run suspects). Cut it short to get back to the Dare's pavilion.

To the pavilion, to find rccardr and iab already there. Barrettcv left his bike there (filthy) to go find that Italian girl. Doc and I go get the bike racks, my bikes, and the day is "on." Everyone shows, and we set up the show and tell while the event sort of unfolds around us. Many of the event volunteers are no-show, so some C&V'ers provided tons of back ache loading the vans for each rest stop. Pete and his brother and perhaps another went on the Biggest Beer Run Ever (100 cases, free) and they actually came back. We supported the event with our labor and it was appreciated by the director. Of course, being C&V, we still bought plenty of beer and, um, gave it to pretty girls if they asked..... We had our own lady, Laura, back for a 2nd helping of C&V

A 1959 Raleigh was "dropped off," future plans for it are uncertain. We had a small bike wash, aided by beer on a hot and humid day. The set up went smoothly, as these old guys know the deal.

Dinner was by iab, underwritten by Doc, and it was great. We had fun, looked over the bikes, and were a source of curiosity for the main group of riders. 1-we were affable. 2-we had old bikes. 3-we had beer, with an odd opener for the bottles.

Wrapped up at 9 pm with our overnight security pulling his van into the pavilion, to sleep the night. I decided to hit Tony's Tap, found Pete and Miguel there, Dave had just left. I stayed until closing, but hey, you only do this a few times in your life. In the rack by 1:30.

Up at 5, shower, get ready, go eat breakfast at the Red Rooster skip the home fries, pick up oatmeal etc for our security folks and head to the Dare. Suit up, strap on a helmet, and roll off around 6:30 with the other damp but optimistic old people on old bikes. Ride all day unless I was walking the fine line between a HR monitor going off at 230bpm and cramps when the heart rate was down... part of the package.

Rest stops were fun, and C&V folks, as usual, helped out those who needed it. (Doc Cannondale showed up when, yes, an R400 was disabled). Met the Colnago Couple, who had a great time and will definitely come back (from AZ). Met a fine young man named Page, who rode his Lemond touring bike he had to buy 2 weeks ago when his "main" bike was stolen. He found out what steel was all about, and is hooked.

Back at the Pavilion, we straggled in, ate pizza and BBQ, and drank Capitol Brewery's fare. We knew Hodgykins was battling the 200K course, so we discussed stealing/selling/kidnapping his white Paramount P13. His family is so cool, but they knew it was his, so we had to ditch the theft.

Awards at 4 or so:
Vintage Class Enthusiast: rccardr
Nuovo Class: ldmetaya
Golden Age: crank_addict
People's Choice: a Rossin Ghibli by George

No award category (but we'll remedy that) for Chrome Molly, but he was there all day Friday, brought a bunch of nice bikes, rescued the beer from captivity, and provided, along with ldmetaya, the speed cred for C&V. He also went back to the pavilion to see hodgykins end his epic battle with the 200K course.

Of course, dinner to follow, with some good stuff at the Brew Pub, where I asked a guy why he was standing behind the bar if he couldn't pour another round for Dave, Pete, and Miguel. Seems he owns the place, and doesn't have to. They have people for that. We sat with each other and a nice group from Neenah, WI who are definitely coming back next year. I went back to the pavilion at 10 or so and helped round out the day.

Up on Sunday, load and go, left 5:30, back here at 11:30. Long drive through the night. Those 5-hour energy things make you kind of freaky. I think I saw Elvis in SE Ohio.

One casualty: 1987 Bridgestone Radac. I got it ready Thursday night for Friday's ride. Friday AM found the RD hangar snapped off. Sand-cast aluminum, there will not be a replacement. Looks like a fixie is in it's future.

Tremendous organizational skill by iab. Tremendous pitch-in by the C&V folks, especially the hard labor of loading vans. Tremendous collection of bikes and owners who spoke with anyone. Tremendous restraint by iab when people picked up and manhandled his bikes. Great riding by several, and good-humored humility by the rest of us. I didn't intend to send Salubrious screaming down that early hill, but the arrows pointed left, so I turned. Oops, he was already there.

The most frequently asked question during the ride, (besides "Are you OK?") was "Are those steel bikes all as smooth as they say?" Probably asked of me 4-5 times, and I was on a mere Ironman. People noticed.

Enough cannot be said about the abilities of iab to create and produce all the stuff that makes the day. Frame badges, patches by pamaguahiker, musette bags, t-shirts, placards, etc. Not to mention dinner on Friday, and leadership throughout the day, all the while riding a '33 Frejus on that sadistic course.

Enough cannot be said about the type of folks C&V "sent" to us. No one came to ride and leave. No one. Every breathing person (well, not sure bikemig was breathing all that well) did far more than their share. I can't think of any one of us who did not spend at least 8 hours on Friday supporting the Dare, and then hours more on Saturday, not including the ride. All that work was besides setting up the show.

"Vintage Class" is more than just two words. It describes a category, an approach, and a quality of person that humbles me, if that can be done.

RobbieTunes

That's a close to a smile as you'll get. Funny how it's always among C&V people.

RobbieTunes

Post your fastest speed, and where if you can remember. I'm thinking it was the downhill where you chose the pothole to avoid at the bottom. I did not have my Garmin. I found it in a ziploc bag with my legs.

bibliobob

Sweet! Thanks for the photos. Makes me feel like I was there, almost.

Robbie, where'd you get that DD jersey. Love it!

hodgykins 

44.6

nice post Robbie. Fun perspective!

bikemig 

40.8, right past Blackhawk Lake Recreation Area.

rccardr 

Not much I can add to what everyone has said and posted here. My actual 150K ride time was 8 hours and 17 minutes (compared with a usual century time of about 6 hours flat), which I would characterize as 8 hours of grind-o-matic climbing in the small ring and large cog, combined with 17 minutes of terrifying descents. Okay, maybe exhilarating descents. Top speed was well over 45mph, but a lot of those descents were on pretty bumpy, potholed, sundappled roads that made it hard to determine what was pothole and what was shade. Don't let anyone tell you that this is an easy ride, vintage or not.


Rode with most of the C&V guys until the turnoff for the 150K route, after that most of the time was within sight of Scott (Crankaddict) & we walked two of the very tops of the hills together ("You are a very wise man!" we assured each other). After the morning showers, the day turned gorgeous and I just had to stop a few random times to enjoy the scenery and take a picture or two.


Anyway, a good time was had by all. IAB, Robbie, Pete, etc.- great job. On to the pictures:

rccardr 

ldmataya 

I did not have a computer, but I do recall going very quickly on county PP out of Avoca, long descent with a tailwind. Then slamming on the brakes to turn left and do an immediate 12% grade on Pine Knob road.

Pemetic2006

One of these years I'll get to this ride. Last year I was in WI just a few days after the event, on my way from PA to Wyoming.
Anyone care to list the awesome WI beers that were quaffed?

RobbieTunes

Funny you should mention beer. (not that there's anything wrong with that....)

The event had a problem last year with the beer protocol. The event provided 12 oz glasses and tickets for 2 free beers.
Everyone knows in Wisconsin that you may get a round or two free, but after that, you pay.

Anyhow, the volunteers pretty much got tired of people saying they lost their tickets, left them in their other bike shorts, the dog ate their tickets, etc.
Everyone who's ever tried to limit free beer in Wisconsin has run into this well-developed practice of extracting more or some free beer from any venue.

Therefore, the volunteers provided not only unlimited free beer, but filled the extra 12 oz glasses until they were gone.
Everyone who's ever provided free beer knows the first line of defense is "we're out of cups."

With the extra glasses gone, the goal of limiting access to free beer by riders was temporarily met.
Protest soon sprang up re: the cups, so 16 oz cups were secured. It almost got ugly. We're talking beer, or lack thereof.
Everyone knows that the same people who took the extra glasses for their collection were the ones who complained about no cups.

Sidebar: Riders will put about anything in their water bottles, but beer drinkers are more discerning from which they drink.
Cups, glasses, a shapely high heel, but not water bottles.

The 16 oz cups were then filled to the brim, thus exceeding the predicted and planned capacity by 1/3.
Everyone knows that 16 oz cups only hold 8 oz of cold beer, after which the cup is left sitting, with 8 oz of warm beer left to draw the flies away from the potato salad.

Thus, due to the lack of control by great volunteers who didn't quite understand the protocol, and the back-up use of 16 oz glasses, and the rapid loss of cooling in said cups, a ton of beer was wasted and the event ran out.
Nothing worse has happened since the Barneveld tornado.

So this year, C&V personnel were dispatched (Chrome Molly, Barrettscv, and Pete's Brother Brian (a story in itself)) to perform the Best Beer Run Ever, 100 miles for 100 cases of 3 kinds of Capital Brewery product. I believe it was Maibock, and Amber, and an IPA, but I'm not sure. It was an ample supply, and the event received credit for what was not used. I have heard that the same tres hombres volunteered to count it and take it back, but event director Russ was slightly wary of their intentions. Pete couldn't walk straight, Brian was grinning too much, and well, you'd have to meet Michael to understand.

C&V, as usual, also practiced the long-neck discipline of years ago, with New Glarus Spotted Cow. I believe some PBR was secured, and several members were spotted drinking something resembling beer out of clear long-neck bottles, but our operatives didn't get there in time to determine exactly what.

Some of our beer funds went to the purchase of 2 very tough plastic bins, with which to house a plentiful supply of beer and ice in a small enough container we could carry it to our tables. We will re-use these next year. This insured our supply of cold beer. All of these very important decisions were dictated by our very own brand of logic.

If you come next year, and for some reason, many C&V folks have a beer bottle opener in their pocket, well, there's a story to that, too.

RobbieTunes

And thus, talk of gravel bikes and the road less traveled was common:

RobbieTunes

I think the attendance was down slightly, but the fitness level was up, and those that came were into it.

bikemig 

A gravel C&V ride in the midwest would be very cool.

RobbieTunes

Taken right before the last remaining child bolted, leaving the crazy man by himself.

RobbieTunes

I'm already contacting him about some for next year. Not expensive, and we can probably get them embroidered instead.

2velocom | eBay

Salubrious

There's a bunch of them here in Minnesota, but some say that Minnesota does not qualify as 'midwest', more that which protects Canada from Iowa.

bikemig 

I don't think IA needs much protection from Canada, .

Yeah there are a lot but few are C&V oriented and many are pretty serious endurance events. I was thinking of something more along the lines of a cino heroica

https://www.cinorider.com/

Sprocket Turner

I so much enjoyed reading Robbietunes encounter that I was inspired to give mine.. It is long, but I think most of us have experienced some or all of my story:

Up early Thursday - going to Dodgeville, WI for the Dairyland Dare. First time there. Going with Crank_addict. My bike isn't really done yet. Crank_addict had come to the rescue and in addition to his work load he painted the bike frame and so much more in the days preceding this trip. I love how the bike looks....all bike....very spartan. Even had mentally debated about decals and hence I delayed my order and finally ordered them on the 9th with a note saying...."hey, I'm late, but there is this cool C&V show and"..... Imagine my surprise on the 10th I get an email saying .... "hey, we can help you out..what's that Wisconsin address?" Wow, how cool. Thank you Velocals.

Long day packing and loading the truck. Crank_addict is bringing three bikes alone with his tandem (does that count as two bikes?) and I had planned on bringing three bikes. Along with camping gear the truck was not going to hold much more than the seven bikes. My wife decided not to bring bring a bike so that lowered the count back to six bikes which will prove later to be very fortunte indeed.

I'm packing my camping equipment, my biking gear, making mental notes for a future organized ride that I will be doing at later in the season - the Apple Cider Century in southwest Michigan and the day keeps churning away. Crank_addict and I are texting back and forth - he is delayed - I'm delayed - he is delayed. Finally I'm at crank_addict's house - we are loading his bikes, my wife calls she is now off of work and she is on her way to Dodgeville, she is going to find us a campsite.

Crank_addict's bikes are loaded, back to my home to load my bikes and gear while crank_addict is attending to some house hold tasks for his wife. I feel like I'm living the Steve Miller's song "time keeps on slipin slipin into the future". Woop, there it is .... the nose bleed. I'm on blood thinners and I occasionally get spontaneous nose bleeds that take awhile to stop. Ugh. I want to get going. Finally I make it to crank_addict's, on our way we go....well sort of, have a stop to make - then on our way to go.

Other than slow moving outrageous traffic due to a nearly 40 mile interstate construction zone between Janesville, WI and Madison, WI everything was fine. We arrive in Dodgeville, I drop off crank_addict and his bikes and gear and off I go to setup camp. It's now nearly 10:30pm and the 9:00am Friday morning ride is getting closer. My bike isn't done...or was it. Still deciding on the decals. I join my wife at the campground, pull the tent out of the truck and yes of course it is then that it decides to rain. I sometimes contend that mother nature does have a sense of humor. I continue to set up the tent in the rain only to discover - it has a leak. We decide the air mattress will float on top of the water and we are GOING TO BED!

It's 7:30 am now, I wake up, pull cloths on, say goodbye to my wife who will be joining me later, drive to crank_addict's hotel, thinking that a shake down ride would be a good idea in as much I only had maybe 3 miles on this bike and at the same time wanting to get my bike done, still needed bar tape and maybe the decals and I confess I was not anxious to ride in the rain (yet). I was relieved when crank_addict and rccardr were not riding. Oh good. There was time to eat breakfast. Decide to replace tubes in tires with new ones as one tire had a buggered valve stem and their history were unknown to me. I'll keep these as spares. Crank_addict does one, Rccardr does the other and just as they completed them and the tires were put on the bike there was a knock on the door. It was the decals. Crank_addict says Rccardr is the master - watch and learn. So Rccardr puts the decals on. Bike looks even better. Rccardr grabs the bar tape and installs the tape - bam flawless job.

Time is approaching, rccardr leaves for the pavilion while crank_addict and I load the truck with some of the bikes to take over to the pavilion. We are early, we drop off a few of the bikes and go grab lunch. We load the truck with the remaining bikes and back to the pavilion we go. How exciting it was as the different members of the C&V group kept arriving - meeting the group and checking out the very cool bikes. We are set up - some of us load the rest stop trucks and move beer. We eat dinner. Thank you Rccardr. The food was good, but the company was better. After dropping off Crank_addict back at the hotel my wife and I go back to the campsite. I prepare for the ride deciding what I'm wearing, filling up water bottles. Vowing to myself to be better prepared next time. It starts raining again, the tent hasn't stopped leaking. We have a cool water bed and we are tired. We go to sleep.

Saturday morning, the alarm goes off. It's ride day. We get up, off to the pavilion we go. Ugh, more rain. My friend George says I'm not going to ride the Rossin in this weather, I'm going to ride modern, his Ritchey. That tempts me, good thinking. I'll ride my triple, carbon. Keep my C&V with white bar tape pristine. Idmataya looks at me (we both had white, pristine bikes) says mine's too clean, referring to his own. I'm riding it. Damn, he's right. Done. I'm riding the Vintage.

We all stage, the C&V group has their moment. We start. Off we go, down hill, this is going to be an exciting day. We round the corner for our first little hill. I drop a chain. While I'm working on the bike here comes a car. It's my wife, she is headed home for work. She had driven all the way up here after work, had found a camping spot, waited for four hours for me to arrive, slept in a leaking tent, hung out with a bunch of strangers. She does love me and supports me in so many ways. For a moment it felt like it was my team car. Reality sets in. She doesn't have another "team" bike. She says you are not too far, you can grab your modern bike. No, I'm committed. It takes me a moment to resolve why the chain dropped. Off I go. None of the group is to be seen. I'll see them. I'm crusing. Another good hill. I drop a chain. OH THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG DAY. I get the chain back on. Now I'm tentative. These hills are going to test me. Along I go, it hits me. I start watching my shifting and realize the second chain drop was my fault. Ok, I'm good - sorta of. As I was watching, I couldn't get the bike into the two lowest gears. I'm on a 13/23 with a 42 front. OH THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG LONG DAY. I continue. Keep working the bike, learning it. Maybe I should have had more than 3 miles on the bike before riding it in an event like this. I hate hearing voices in my head. Left shoulder guy says aren't you glad you only committed to the 50K. The right shoulder guy says when are you going to drop a chain again. Is it going to break? I hate those guys.

I'm surprised when Barrettscv one of the C&V group comes up from behind. For a moment I feel better. Someone to ride with. I end up pulling away though. I'm sure he will catch up. He does and in fact passes me when I stopped on a hill. I just couldn't climb the hill. I (head hanging) walk the bike up the hill. I vow I'm going to figure out why I can't get this damn thing into the two lowest gears. I finally do but oh it cost me - my legs. I was relieved that I was at the first stop. I take a good break. I start the climb out of Mineral Point and my leg starts cramping. I shake it off, regroup and finish out my ride back to the pavillion - it was beginning to get fun again.

I'm not sure in what order I did things, but I ate, drank a beer, and cleaned up the bike. All in all a good ride. Learned some lessons in general and for next year. I'm going to do this again. The first and foremost lesson, I should know what an animal crank_addict is as a hill climber. I ride enough with him. Just cuz he can handle crazy gearing for hills doesn't mean I can. I needed to pay more attention to my gearing. OK crank_addict quit laughing. Second, shake down the bike, get some experience with the bike before going on a ride like this.

So there I was hanging out around the C&V display. I end up talking with some woman about older bikes. She tells me that her parents had purchased a matching set of his and hers Raleigh Sports back in the very early 60's. She has one of them and it even has a Brooks sadle. They never really rode them. She doesn't know what to do with it. Her husband is with her, he just got back in from his ride. I tell her that either her, her husband, or someone / anyone needs to give them some love. The important thing is not to let them go to waste but to bring them back to life. After our breif talk she hands me her card, tells me that if I want the bike I can have it. How cool is that? It even got better when I realized she lived in Madison and that was on my way home and because I didn't bring a bike for my wife I even had room in the truck to carry it. So I made the arrangements to pick it up. The day ends, I'm tired. I go back to the campsite and crash!

Sunday, I break camp and join Crank_addict, Rccardr for breakfast. Afterwards I'm dozing while Rccardr is showing Crank_addict pictures of some of his bike collection. While Crank_addict packs up, I grab my bike and go for a quick spin. It felt good. We load the bikes and gear leaving room for the Raleigh. We all are going to perhaps meet at the Yellow Jersey. Crank_addict and I are going to go after picking up the Raleigh. Rccardr said he was going to go too. Off we go, we pick up the bike. It's in pretty good shape except for the saddle and tires which all are going to have to be replaced. I'm fired up about doing this bike. Wish she also had the male version. Crank_addict mentions a ride in MN that is for British 3-Speeds. I'll take my wife out. We rush to the Yellow Jersey wanting to get there before they closed.

We pull up and park in front of the store. Rccardr is there and comes to the door. The technician is outside with a customer, surveys the truck with his eyes and then calls out the owner. Tells him that "he really wants to see this". In the truck we have Crank_addict's Santana, Colnago, Peuguet, Motobecane, we have my Trek Carbon and my Trek Custom 660 and the Raleigh dangling from the back. The owner (Andrew) takes it all in smiles when he says he had a nice ride that morning on his Raleigh Sport. We had a nice visit at the store. I was (am) in the need of a Suntour GPX headset or Shimano 600. I am also in need of rear drop out set screws. At the moment they didn't have anything. We had a good visit
said good by to Rccardr and went home.

The trip home was uneventful and seemed to go quick. Good company, good bikes, good ride, good lessons. Thank you Robbie and David for organizing the group, the swag, and for pulling together the C&V show. Thank you Rccardr and Crank_addict for your help on my bike, your fine company. Thank you Rccardr for your generous dinner. Thank you Kathy (my wife) for making this happen and for supporting me in the way you do. Thank you to all those who attended and whom made this weekend special. What an awesome weekend!!!!

Pemetic2006

Thanks for a great reply! I actually may make it there next year since, as of now, I actually have no plans unlike the last couple of years. When I was in Madison last year I didn't have any Capital City but did have some New Glarus, Lake Louie, and one or two others. All were very good.
I always travel with a bottle opener.