We turned East off of Normandy onto 40. 40 for maybe half mile then a right onto Governor Run. Take that to Governor Grayson Way and take a left. A little ways down on the right you will see a paved trail that drop into the park. Go down that paved trail and hang a right onto the mup. The climb is down the trail a bit.
My Garmin info shows sustained 14 to 15 percent gradient.

Noracer,
Doesn't the monument have an address? Maybe use the Peabody Institute, that's by there.

If I do the ride, and I'm leaning that way, I'll get the 100 + since I'll be riding from Pinehurst/Rodgers Forge. I'm in a patriotic mood so this may be a timely ride. Will we have time to circuit the mall a few laps?

My right leg is complaining from the running so I'm taking it easy and keeping an eye on it. May have to bag this running business if I'm risking injury that will effect my riding.

And I'll leave the ten touring monster at home. Lights?

Appears that I may need a new tire if I'm riding on Sunday. Noticed this when I was cleaning the bike on Saturday, goes all the way around, showing the threads of whatever underneath. That normal for only a few thousand miles? My mileage for the year is broken up between the fixie, this bike, and the touring beast.

http://tinyurl.com/monumentridestart

I'll do a couple laps with you. This will likely be my only available time for a Nov. century so I'll have to pad my milage a bit. I'd bring lights. Hopefully we won't need them.

Hmm... I would hope that those Bontrager tires would last longer than that. I've got at least 3000 on my stock Bontragers and no sign of threads. But, yes, I would def. get new tires.

gary, I'm glad to hear that you made it out to the ride ok and that it was still on. I did get your PM, so I would have called you if I did see a cancellation.

Take care.

For those interested, I finalized my Sunday ride report with the links to pictures taken by Maile and Bill. Check'em out.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.p...postcount=2436

Do you ride that bike on a trainer?

NO, did maybe a couple of hours on trainer back in February/March. Most indoor stuff I did at the gym. I have had trouble keeping that rear wheel true, broke two spokes. I'm also pretty heavy so maybe that's it.

It's just the back tire. I may just throw on one of my Continental Gatorskins on there. Those things go through anything, though I do like the idea of keeping all the Bontrager stuff on the Madone, uniformity I suppose.

Might you have a cue sheet from this ride? Or gps/map that gives turn detail?

Check your email.

I'm going to hyperlink this here. Found this on the tandem board but it means more to us local folks here. Someone is selling a Bruni tandem on ebay - it has rear suspension. Cool. Just thought some would like to see.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Tom-Bruni-Custom...QQcmdZViewItem

Stuart came up with the most succinct description... "truck bike" but ya that was me and it was fun riding with you guys and I always had someone to ride with on the ride which was fun.

Wimp, this is a light set up:

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-...20987_4380.jpg

:D

I guess I'll have to get me another 30 lights to beat that.

monument ride
1/noracer you riding from essex? maybe I see the 6000 lumen beast in person.
2/cue sheet? just wonder what route we're taking, Rt 1 south?, Rt 3/301?
3/what time are we suppose to meet, what time MIGHT we get back, I need to arrange a sitter.

Man I miss you guys. Almost as much as I miss my bike... I actually found DUST on it.

-D

Josh, from the BBC description:

Sunday, November 16, 2008
all pace long - 8:00 am - 98 mi - Bob Wagner & Barry Childress
START: Monument and Charles St, Baltimore City
We're riding Monument to Monument today. Round trip from Baltimore's Washington monument to DC's Wash. monument. As you expect, roads are trafficky in and out of the cities - but they are relatively safe and well tested by Barry and myself. In-between there'll be nice long stretches of country roads and numerous paved trails. If you want the full century, you will have to go around the block a few times. 13-15 mph pace. Bring lights just in case. Route is: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...nt-to-monument

I checked my turn-by-turn GPS and it shows about 30 minutes to ride to the start from Essex.

Josh, we can meet at the Dunkin' Donuts on Eastern Ave across from the Eastpoint Mall if you'd like. We need to "pad" the travel time by 15 minutes giving us 45 minutes to be at the Baltimore Washington Monument. Rollout is 8am, so that's a 6am wake-up for me, leave my house at 7:15am. I'll be at Eastpoint by 7:25am.

We'd be taking the following roads:

- Eastern Ave
- Erdman Ave
- Route 40 (Orleans)
- E. Monument St
- E. Madison
- St. Paul St.
- Mt Vernon Pl.

The cue sheet for the ride is part of Bob's map. Select Show | Cue Sheet and print it out.

The only lights I'll bring, just in case, will be the DiNottes. The heavy-assed ARC HID is staying home. So, 800L + 400L = 1200L in the front, and the 140L in the back.

Great, I'll be there waiting.

Wind W 22 mph.

should be fun!

Forecast Details from WJZ First Warning Weather
Sunday - Mostly sunny and breezy. Highs in the lower 50s. West winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph.

Yeah, it was pretty windy crossing the Naval Academy Bridge today on this ride:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...s_20081115.png

I saw an opening in the clouds and had to take advantage of it. I got a nice easy ride in and timed it perfectly, because the skies opened up [again] just as I got back to my truck at the Dixon Observation Parking Lot at the airport.

Barry and Bob,
I never got a chance to thank you for the ride today, well planned and laid of route. Sorry I wasn't able to get in all the miles, my pedal broke and at first I though the spring let loose and it flipped back, I swung by the inlaws thinking I could fix it and catch up sure enough it was broken, see the pic. However with the miles I got in coming to the starting point I still got my century in:)

I guess my legs are to strong (haha) and I need something better than nashbar $22 pedals huh?
time for my ritchey pro pedals, they'll match the stem and handle bars.

barry, what was the gps you were using?

good pedal

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...i/IMG_9028.jpg

broken pedal

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...i/IMG_9029.jpg

Anyone got pats number (on the sign in sheet)? he's got my blinke

I want to thank Bob Wagner and Barry Childress for leading this ride today. It's something that I've been wanting to do since I started bicycling and I completed that goal today.

Here's the description of the ride as posted by cuesheetcentral:

Date: Sunday, November 16, 8:00 am
Speed: all pace long
Start: Monument and Charles St, Baltimore City
Distance: 98 miles
Leader: Bob Wagner & Barry Childress

Description: We're riding Monument to Monument today. Round trip from Baltimore's Washington monument to DC's Wash. monument. As you expect, roads are trafficky in and out of the cities - but they are relatively save and well tested by Barry and myself. In-between there'll be nice long stretches of country roads and numerous paved trails. If you want the full century, you will have to go around the block a few times. 13-15 mph pace.Late update: Bring lights just in case. Route is: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...nt-to-monument

Anyway, the ride was not as bad as one would have imagined regarding the winds. Many of the roads were protected by trees.

There were six riders including Bob and Barry. They include Pat, Josh, Harry Campbell, and me.

Josh and I rode to the ride start--me from Essex and Josh from Dundalk. He and I met at a Dunkin' Donuts across from Eastpoint Mall. Even though I padded our travel time, the winds from the West and the traffic lights caused us to be about 8 minutes late to the Washington Monument at Mt. Vernon Pl in downtown Baltimore where the other four were patiently waiting. Josh and I were not the only ones. I believe that every rider on this ride today cycled to the ride start!

Bob did his duties as a BBC Ride Leader in having everyone sign in and Barry gave the safety talk. A couple minutes more and we were on our way.

The ride was a mix of paved trails and roads. Yeah, it wasn't the most scenic of rides, but that wasn't the goal. The goal was to get from one monument to the other. Ride time, we got there in about three and a half hours. Actual time was another story as this was a "no drop" ride and we did stop a few times for people to catch up. Just to get an idea of the time I spent, I left my house at 7:15 am and didn't get back until about 8:30 pm.

Some of the stops we made--other than at the Washington Monument--included a rest break at a coffee shop, lunch at the main Post Office in DC where there is a food court open on Sundays and another stop at a gas station somewhere around mile 75 for more fluids and food.

As you can imagine, because of the stops, we got caught out in the dark, but riding in the dark was no issue for most of us. All but one of us had lights and some of us had spares to lend the one who didn't.

Somewhere around mile 86, Josh bails out at Hammonds Ferry Rd. He rides to his father-in-law's house nearby to get a ride home to Dundalk, because he was having problems with his pedal and he wasn't expecting to be out as long as we were. He needed to get back home to his family.

Pat started falling behind again. He was ready for the ride to be over. Bob kept him company as Barry, Harry, and I forged ahead. We made it in to town and decided that a beer sounded good, so we stopped at a restaurant--some place that sounded like shooters? looters? :innocent: We had a beer and stuff to eat as we watched... ummm, football... yeah, that's right, football. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Wait a minute, I'm not married, what do I have to worry about. :D

From Hoot... ummm, I mean that restaurant, we made our way to Pratt St where I bid the other two goodnight as I headed down Pratt following it to Patterson Park, then Eastern Ave, Dundalk Ave, etc. until reaching Essex.

Now, I'm doing laundry and charging batteries to get ready for tomorrow morning's ride in to work. While waiting on those items to complete, I'm here writing to you folks.

It was a great day and a goal reached.

Hope you enjoy my story.

P.S., Bob, you need a cell phone.

-------------
By the way, here's some links to pictures I took with my camera phone. The first is the monument in DC and the next two is how we piled the bikes together at the Post Office in DC so we could chain them all together while we ate lunch.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1116081249.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1116081307.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...116081307a.jpg