Rincewind8

That's right, we took El Toyonal. It is very steep. On the decent one guy road bike passed us down (he was going scary fast for such a narrow curvy road) and another one was riding up .
It was great riding with you guys.

Gee3

Okay, here's my ride report: Hot and lots of hills! I'm used to the fog over Daly City so it was nice not having to wear arm warmers or a jacket.

So here are my observations (or general nonsense) on my first "long" ride since moving back from Texas last Sept:

Don't forget to bring more bags of the drink powder to keep the electrolytes and stuff going. I had only one extra bag and I ran out of gels! Hence my dehydration and cramps at the end of the ride! Doh!

Watch out for "invisible" chains at rest stops! I'll let Jerry expand on that one if he so wishes.

Fast descents are killer...!!! Road buzz from aluminum frames are killer on the feet and hands!!

Wheel sucking isn't that bad... if you're the sucker! hehe! I promise to pull more next time, but SVcommuter is a stronger rider so I don't know if I'd be able to pull fast enough for him! And at the end my cramps got the best of me so I couldn't have pulled Bigbossman if I tried!

Long winding hills suck! Especially when you think you're at the top and the flat area is just around that bend...

Be careful when clipping back in! I slipped and my nether regions were right over the nose of the saddle. Whammmooo!! Not fun, nor did it feel too good!

Looonnnngggg descents are lots of fun!

Long hills are a pain but the view at the top makes it worth the work.

I'll add more if I can think of them...

Thanks again to everyone out there. It was good to finally put some faces to the screen names!

Gary

bigbossman 

Gary,

You forgot one......

Drafting a tandem is Da Bomb!!

uspspro

remember: you need to climb a hill to descend one

SesameCrunch

Looks like it was a beautiful day. The pictures are wonderful! Thanks for the reports...

I get to do my make-up ride tomorrow all by myself

Gee3

True dat!! hehe! I remember last year in TX I saw 2-3 tandems all drafting each other. They flew by us like we were standing still and we were already flying at about 20+mph!

When's the next ride? Hopefully I can go again!

bigbossman 

Not necessarily! We rent a cabin up in the mountains every August (hmmmm... coming up!!). From the door fo the cabin to the nearest town (Downieville) is about 25 miles down Hwy 49 following the Yuba River drainage. All of it downhill, with a couple of small rollers towards the end. On the last day of our trip, I start out and the wife heads down in the truck after me about 1 hour after I leave. She picks me up in Downieville, we have lunch, and head for home.

It is a blast!!!

bigbossman 

If you guys are interested in riding out in the San Ramon/Diablo Valley area, I can try to whip something up.

spingineer

Yeah, that'll be fun ... but would have to be either the weekend of 8/11 or 8/25 for me. Mt. Tam/Marin Century is 8/4 and Cool Breeze is 8/18.

BlastRadius

Last weekend of the month was our designated BF group ride day no? 8/25 would be good for me.

bigbossman 

How many miles you guys want? Lots of climbing, rollers, fairly flat, a mix?

SesameCrunch

There's typically a wide range of riding skills, so it wouldn't be bad to have a couple of options, or some bailouts, if possible.

That's my 2 cents...

backinthesaddle

Thanks for offering!

I may be able to do 8/25. I have a long ride scheduled for 8/18 so if I do 8/25 I'll want a shorter option probably no more than 50 miles.

Question: is it likely to be super hot out there in late August??

Also, can I suggest you start a new post for this ride, so more people will see it?

Gee3

Can you find a 50 mile long descent with no climbs? hehe!

Bigbossman: thanks for taking and posting the pics! I could have sworn that buzzard was licking his chops when I rode by...!!!

bigbossman 

Ok, I can map out several 30 to 50 milers, no problem. Will it be hot? Roll the dice, my friend. Could be triple digits, could be 65 and windy. You never know where you'll hit in the the weather cycle. Count on hot, I guess.


I can start a new thread......

spingineer

Dang, I just remembered, there is a Lake Tahoe ride on 8/25. So looks like that's out for me.

Actually, it's a BF ride, but being coordinated by SoCal BF. I wonder if they realize it is technically NorCal? Anyways, here the thread on that ...

https://www.bikeforums.net/southern-california/276765-1st-annual-bflt-interest-eval-thread.html

BlastRadius

Hmm, what about a combined Norcal-Socal Lake Tahoe ride?

sj_roadie

Considering how bad I suck at sea level, I don't want to find out how bad I suck at 6-7k feet...

uspspro

Damn... It's way too far to go on a bike ride.

I'd be nervous during the entire ride over that my bike would fall off the car on I-80.

Other than the drive over, I would love to do it!

spingineer

I drive to So Cal once a month, with my back on my rack on the back .... yes, they are niiiiiice racks ..... sorry, had to throw that in. So far, my bike hasn't fallen off.

jonathanb715

Looks like a great ride - I'm glad everyone had fun. I'm still really bummed I couldn't make it, but I finally picked up my rebuilt bike today, so I'll be on the road again!

JB

backinthesaddle

Hi gang, sorry this took me so long to post, I've been traveling this week, hope it's not stale news by now.

Here's the ride profile for the long ride last Sunday, also some pictures. (the ride profile includes a couple of extra miles and climbing when I backtracked to sweep the route)

backinthesaddle

one more set of pictures, this is the panorama from Grizzly Peak (plus a view of Memorial Stadium at Cal) I intended to stitch it together, never had time. Golden Gate, Angel Island, Alcatraz,Bay Bridge, SF, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland. (Hope I'm now completely wasting bandwith with these pictures, enjoy!)

backinthesaddle

Not my proudest moment: in the first 1/2 mile of the ride led everyone to a rest stop in a park and slammed and flipped over a low hanging chain closing off the park entrance which I didn't see in the morning shadows. Fortunately, it could've been a lot worse. Wheel OK, straightened out the handlebars, a few minor bruises, went off and rode the rest of the ride. But perhaps with an excess of caution I've ordered a replacement for my carbon fork, so it wasn't a cheap mistake.

On the way back,on the last 1/2 mile of the ride, I flatted. I could have walked back to the BART station in the time it took to change the tube.

Conclusion: in the future I'm going to avoid riding within 1/2 mile in all directions of Orinda Bart.

spingineer

Excellent pictures everyone. Looks like it was a great day for the ride. I'm bummed I wasn't able to do this ride.

I compiled images from these postings, and put it on my BF picture site. It is at https://web.mac.com/ronng/iWeb/bikefo...y%20Hills.html

It also has links to some other rides I have done with NorCal and SoCal BF groups.