Gdogpdx

Registration is still open but probably not much longer!

david58

I still owe Shasta a visit - need to get a few more miles and a few more thousand feet. Death Ride sounds interesting, but Shasta won last year, I'm gonna win in '13.

hamster

Registration is now closed.

anotherbrian

If anyone missed the signup, consider doing the Alta Alpina Challenge instead. Same roads, two weeks earlier, far far fewer people, and put on by the same bike club that used to be behind the Death Ride. And if the Death Ride mileage/climbing isn't enough, there is a 200mi / 20,000ft route you can do instead.

https://www.altaalpina.org/challenge/

I plan to go back again. This year I did the 200mi route on my recumbent, and it was a very long day. Unless I can find some other recumbent riders who want to do it, I'll likely ride it on my road bike.

Dudelsack 

Why do you choose one bike over the other? I'm asking because I own both types of bikes.

anotherbrian

At least for the last three years, anything > 65mi I've picked the recumbent. Alta Alpina was a crazy amount of climbing to stay in one seated position for though. All the climbing is ~5-6% grade, which for me meant granny'ish gearing, spinning, and low speeds. Hour after hour after hour. The descents with the aero of the bike required judicious braking, and with very few flat miles in between, the net result was (I think) I was much slower than I would have been on a DF.

While I don't want to have any preconceived notions that DF's can climb better than recumbents, I'm going to ride my road bike up a nearby climb (Old La Honda in the SF Bay Area) later this week. I haven't been on that bike at all this year, instead my miles have been spent between two different recumbents that I have power data for the climb for. I've ridden ~50mi total since the end of October. I'm not going to be terribly surprised if I make it up OLH faster on the road bike than either of the previous rides up on the recumbent, even though I was in better shape for those rides than I will be for this one.

DXchulo

+1 on that. I've done the Alta Alpina Challenge and it's a great ride. Given the out-and back nature of the route, it's also an easy one to do on your own without carrying a whole lot of stuff if you park a car at Turtle Rock Park, Woodfords, or at the 89/4 junction.

lhbernhardt

Hmm, 5 to 6% is good. I think I will consider Alta Alpina on the fixed gear, the next time I do a Cali Triple Crown, but for the 1,000-mile jersey. And not in 2013. But I can see I'll need to carry lights!

Luis

anotherbrian

I'd think it was readily do-able on a fixed gear, at least if you had brakes for the descents.

A month after Alta Alpina I rode the Mt. Tam Double and thought it was much harder (power data says it was as well) due to the constant variation in grades. For Alta Alpina I'd pick a gear at the bottom and keep a steady pace for the hour+ it took to get to the top, but for Tam I tried to power over/up the rollers which was much more wearing by the end.

lhbernhardt

Last year, when I was in the Bay Area doing recce for this year's Triple Crown, I did the ride from Fairfax along the Fairfax-Bolinas Rd, then over the Seven Sisters and up Mt. Tam on the fixed (44x17). I didn't think it was difficult (well, some steep parts along the Sisters and maybe one section to Tam). But then there's more to the actual Mt. Tam Double which I didn't ride, and which seem to include some steeper sections!

But from what I've read, the Devil Mtn Double and the Terrible Two seem to be the most difficult of the CTC rides. On last year's trip, I also went up Mt. Hamilton from the San Jose side (very long, but very easy, same fixed gearing), but then I rode down the other side. I stopped part way down to check out the climb in the other direction. Not good! It was easier just to continue to Livermore and then swing back into San Jose along Calaveras Rd!

Luis

anotherbrian

The Fairfax to the top of Mt. Tam (actually from the start to Fairfax, then up to Mt. Tam) was the easiest part for me ... due to the consistency. After descending from Mt. Tam to the Muir Woods, you then go over to the coast and that is where the endless rollers begin. Coleman Valley Rd at ~130mi was very steep, and put a major hurt on my knees because I didn't have a low enough gear and had to grind at 50'ish rpm for miles (and couldn't get out of the saddle on the recumbent). Even if I had had the gearing though, the accumulation of ups and downs was wearing compared to the endless consistency of the Alta Alpina climbing. I did see at least one fixie on the ride; I don't know her name but I guess she is well known in the double community.

Terrible Two is going to by my 'A' event for the year. In the spring I'll pre-ride some of it on the recumbent, and if it seems manageable I'll plan to ride it on the day of the ride. Else I'll be ready with a road bike.