Charlie, none of us are selling calendars and as I recall you are old and PREVIOUSLY fat so go do the ride, if you can stomach driving that far. :D We're a non-judgy group, except PhotoJoe, who's plenty judgy. If you get far enough in front of him you can't hear all the judginess much though, so there's that. :lol:

OK, eja - why would we not want to do the century route? I think I'm going to tackle the double at cool breeze this year so I need some miles. :) and hills.

Charlie, I bet you that I am older, fatter and slower than you. In my mind, however, I am young, slim and can climb like a goat on double doses of EPO.

You never know what you can do until you try it. :D

TH, the century ride is fine. My cardio still wants me to take it easy, especially with climbing. When I told him that I have my HRM alarm set at 165 (3 points ABOVE my theoretical max HR he nearly had a heart attack himself).

The moderate century has plenty of climbing to keep it interesting. And a couple of weeks prior to the Conejo I will be doing the LB TdC with all that climbing in and around PV. So that is enough to keep me busy for now.

A double century you say? You are DA MAN! :thumb:

Thanks for the encouragement Eja and TH. I plan to try to do the GMR ride and if I don't see you there maybe another time.

Charlie

:thumb:

BTW, just North of you there are some beautiful places to ride--Solvang and Buellton.

Don't let these guys that say they are slow fool you. You want to see slow, check out the Strava segment from the gate to the shack on GMR.

Gate -> Shack

If you go to the very last page you will see the last spot is taken by the Strava Route Planner, not a cyclist, but the second to last place is yours truly.

Pfft* they're not slow, you're not slow, I'm slow!

Seriously Charlie, if I can do it, you can do it... I may not be older, but at 5'10, 235, i'm fairly pudgy and with a highly-untuned cardio vascular system...

This is where I stand:
[h=2]Leaderboard // Overall[/h][TABLE="class: layout summary, width: 885"]
[TR]
[TD="class: standing, align: center"][h=3]MY CURRENT PLACE[/h]4136 / 4157[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Out of curiosity, what type of ride is this GMR? (Relaxed ride or race?) Out of stater here, so am not familiar with your area. Think it's great that you have Clyde Rides.

Here's a 3D of the climb...to get a better sense of it, the shack is at 2:04 of it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECZOdXX9HFY

Glendora Mountain Road. Not a relaxed ride, and not really a clyde friendly ride either. We do it to feel accomplished. For many of us it's a goal type ride. The Tour of California has used it as part of their race a few times, and some local clubs, and local races use it too. I've heard interviews with some pros that have compared it to the mountain stages during the Tour de France. I have no personal experience with that, and don't know for sure if they are similar, but it's nice to think it is.

That is one of the coolest GMR videos I've seen!

Oh, and count me in. I now have a time to beat :thumb:!

Wow! Talk about grueling! Thanks for the video, that was amazing.

Thanks again for the encouraging posts. The google earth video was great but somewhat daunting.
I'm a little concerned about taking enough water? I was planning on taking two large water bottles.
Is there any p[lace to get water on the route?

Charlie

When you guys set out to do a ride...it is an earth shaking event! ;)

Good luck and watch out for rock slides.

When I rode up GMR with the C&A bunch it was a very hot day. In fact the road was closed due to high fire threat. (it was nice riding on a road with no motorcycle or other vehicular traffic.)

Because of the heat I packed extra water. In addition to my regular two bottles I packed 2 extra water bottles which I put in my back pockets. By the time I got to the Village I had drank ALL the water. There are no places to get water along the way.

BTW, I froze the extra water bottles. On a hot day it felt good to have those cold bottles pressed against my back. By the time I needed the water, the ice was already melted...it was THAT hot.

Ok Thanks Eja. I'll do that then = pack extra water. I appreciate your help and hope to ride with you sometime.

Charlie

I noticed that Beachgrad05 had s cool dual-bottle holder attached to her seatpost in addition to the two on her frame. That looked like a nice set-up without resorting to aCamelbak type pack. On a cool day, I only took one bottle and was missing the second one mightily at the shack...

Since all my medical stuff, I get dehydrated quickly, and the results can be bad. On last week's GMR ride, I had two big bottles on the frame and one in a pocket. I made it to the village with very little to spare. I made the shack with just over one bottle, but it's not HOT here yet!

camelbak put weight on your back and shoulders, even more so on a roadie where you are bent over a bit more then the intended MTB rider that might be more upright. For me, I can't ride w/ a camelbak on my roadie bike, I tried a while ago a on a hot GMR/Baldy ride. It was bad, back can't breathe plus the weight was killing me. After that I carry a 3rd bottle in my back pocket and it gets swapped out ASAP from one on the bike. Beachgrad's method is a great way to keep the weight on the bike not the rider and seems to work pretty well.

Although she did have to get creative and find a way to keep from launching the bottles on bumps.

Did you get hit by one of those missiles?

Two bottle in cages, one in my back pocket. Hot days all 3 will be done by the time I get to the shack, but a moderate day I'll go through about 1 1/2 bottles. There is a drinking fountain at the base of the mountain, near the horse corral, and more at the Mt Baldy Village, but nothing in between. As long it's not in the high 80's or hotter, 3 bottles should be more then enough.

Too soon? GMR to Village with some Unlikely Cyclists - Sunday April 27, 2014
 

I haven't lost one on GMR. I use shoelaces to hold the bottles in those extra cages. When bottles are empty a bump can launch them. Best to be safe. Need to remember to do that next GMR ride when I have four bottles with me

If it's really hot, I don't care - I'm wearing my faux camelbak. They're not that heavy and they keep the water VERY cold for much longer than bottles. I'll refill my bottles from the camelbak whenever I need it. I can also unload my jersey pockets into it, so it's a sort of win-win.

I usually go through one bottle to the shack and another to the village, but it's nice to have non-fountain water for the return trip. I only drank one bottle going to the village last week, but it was pretty cold.