Velo Vol 

Thanks.

3alarmer

...not that anyone is interested, but FWIW, a brief synopsis of much of the P+R action : someone posts about the liberal media conspiracy, or some other unoriginal "obvious troll is obvious" topic. This draws a couple of feeble responses about how the "Pubbies all watch teh Fox News Channel", and it just goes instantly downhill from there. There were some guys (and girls) in there with whom I enjoyed sharing our different perspectives on events.........but the vast majority have been driven off or are largely silent now, because trolling.

Picture trying to talk about something in a crowded bar, with the music turned up real loud, and every two minutes some drunk stumbles into you and says, "How 'bout those Lakers?"

The majority of the peeps who still post in there are now conservatives who drop in to complain bitterly about how it is dominated by bleeding heart libs. It's a hoot. Like that terrible wreck on the freeway, I know I should not be looking, but am powerless to turn my eyes away.

BillyD

Oh sorry, slippery slope.

BillyD

Yes, I've seen that before. If it quacks like a duck . . . . .

LesterOfPuppets

I'd be willing to take that wager. I won't even count the Christian Science Reading Room

Ramona_W

In a weird way, I kind of liked these but I asked LoP what one would wear with them and he said a matching sports bra so those are off the table. Do women actually wear these kind of shorts? Despite the excellent reviews, I'm skeptical. Besides, they seem like overkill for someone on the back of a tandem.

RollCNY

I think those shorts are lovely, Ramona, and you could wear them with a medley of mostly solid color jerseys, even hi viz ones.

In fashion, Napoleon said it best: Glory may be fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Velo Vol 

That's not the problem at all.

rjones28 

Tell us how you really feel. Don't hold back.

BillyD

I thought this was Notre Dame, which has the same kind of doorway sculpturing, but it's not.

BillyD

Too much?

Heathpack 

Rode Carmel Valley today. Possibly the most beautiful route I have ever ridden, fills me with a sense of gratitude. More later, but here's a pic of me towards the end on the last climb. Fat black glossy cows and beautiful grassy fields, the entire 40 mile ride was filled with stuff like this.

BillyD

Notre Dame, Paris.

Ramona_W

I am wondering whether LoP and I could do the 18 mile loop of Bike Around Clark County on May 2nd on the tandem. It'd be interesting because at the beginning there is a hill, which they refer to as "minor", that I have previously run out of gears on. (24" girl's Schwinn mountain bike. Bah.) I can already tell we'd need better gearing on the tandem to do it plus more hill practice. The scary/exciting part is that, because this is a loop, we would have to ride down the same hill at the end. I have driven down this hill and walked down this hill. I tried to ride down it very early in my cycling career but wimped out because it is so steep. Nevertheless, I have often thought of how exhilarating it would be to ride down this hill for that very reason. Is it completely crazy to be contemplating this sort of ride so soon after taking up the tandem? And how might my life have been different had I fallen under LoP's influence earlier in it?

Ramona_W

Been there, seen that. Also Chartres which I actually enjoyed more. Damn, I'd love to go back to France.

FLvector

Gee, you make P&R sound so inviting.

LAJ

Scary place.

rpenmanparker 

Some fresh meat has appeared in the thread list that could be very interesting (if we're lucky). The Bianchi frame one has promise. Also the hand signals one. Stay tuned!

LAJ

Shiny cows are cool. Good you had a great ride, @Heathpack!

rjones28 

Do it.

rpenmanparker 

And disc brakes are back in the news. New thread. What ARE we to do?

patentcad

I'll be parking up in Harriman Park to roll out on the road bicycle @ 6:45AM or so early tomorrow across to Gate Hill and Call Hollow Roads and down to a doctor's appointment in Rockland County, then back up and over Gate Hill coming back to the car. Haven't done that ride in a while. Love that ride and those roads. Been through there dozens of times @ the crack of dawn, but not in a while. Really looking forward to it.

Starting to reconnect with some of that Pcad Cycling Zen. That filters out the white noise for me, and frankly, it's almost all friggin white noise. When I first got on the bike, it was much colder, I was much fatter, and frankly it sucked. I'm still pretty fat and out of shape, but now the cycling has got me, and I'm addicted to it again. It's a very good feeling, because it's the only addiction that ever did me so much good on so many levels. One of the most positive things I've ever done in my life is ride a bicycle.

Hence the name of this thread I started lo those millions of posts ago.

Heathpack 

Rode 40 mile/4000 ft in Carmel Valley, CA today. Unbelievably beautiful route, if any of you guys ever have the chance to do it, 100% don't pass up the opportunity. We drove to the town of Carmel Valley Village & I rode inland from there. About 5 miles in, there's a turnoff for Cachagua Rd. Right turn, then a bit of climbing up into some beautiful countryside full of live oaks and vineyards and wildflowers.

I was supposed to do "some" 150% FTP intervals today at some point when I was going up a hill. Usually I get more specific instructions than that, but coach is keeping it loose. But typically I do 5 or 10 one minute intervals, with one minute RBI, I decided I'd do five on this first hill and get it over with. I did 2.75 intervals before giving up, my head wasn't in the game today. Lol, plus it was possibly a mistake to attempt this on the first 10-11% hill, there was no really good RBI on something like that. It will be 100% fine with coach, I'm sure. He expects you to manage your own head and today I just wanted to ride my bike.

So back on this Cachagua Road, I encountered stuff like this live oak (@Velo Vol, please note, it's not dead):



And this, same tree, different angle:



And this totally typical scene of open forest in grassy fields, trees draped with Spanish moss. Ok maybe this isn't the best depiction of the moss aspect, but trust me, it was there:



Then the Carmel River appeared, which was honestly more like a stream. I couldn't get a good pic because it was down in the shadows. But in California, the term "river" is typically a euphemism, really "river" means "place where maybe 10 days a year water flows". So a total treat to ride your bike along and hear the sound of water bubbling along plus all kinds of birds.

Eventually, Cachagua Rd turned left and started to head back towards the main road, which is Carmel Valley Rd. There I came upon this beautiful white horse:



So of course I took his pic. But what you can't see, off to the right, is the horse's companion, a little brown burro. I moved to the other side of the tree to take his pic and I couldn't get a good one. But that white horse kept his eye on me, no way was he going to let me sneak up on him, lol.



Then a right turn onto Carmel Valley Rd, and a bit more climbing, heading inland. Crazy beautiful shady roads and fields fills of green grass and wildflowers, including huge swaths of this pale purple flower, no idea what it was:





Maybe it was 6-8 miles of climbing to get to the pass at the top of the valley, from there you would have descended to wherever is inland of Carmel Valley. But that was to be my turn-around point, we had lunch to attend to. Coming up to the top of this pass,I came upon these fat glossy black cows. Even though the end of the route was in sight, I stopped to take their pic, it was just kind of bucolic:



Haha, Mr H drove the same route and he was to meet up with me at the turn-around point. I guess he was impressed with the black cows too, because he took my as I rode past them:



After the cows, I turned around and rode 20 miles mostly downhill to Carmel Valley Village. Not as easy as it sounds because there was a pretty good headwind. But still a great descent. The plan was to visit some of the tasting rooms in the village but we had lunch first which devolved into happy hour, with some nice wines to sample at a nice price. So that was it, late lunch and a few glasses of wine. It was a pretty perfect day.

Velo Vol 

We all ask ourselves this.

rpenmanparker 

Not exactly! Mrs. rpen and I have been together since we were 14 and 15 respectively. I don't think about meeting her earlier. At least when we did meet, I could already drive. What would be the point of earlier?