seedsbelize 

Ding Ding!
I got a late start, and made the ludicrous decision to replace my traditional 30 mile stop with a liter of orange juice, and just plow on through. A big mistake, with the first 50 miles being into a stiff headwind. I could have used the break, not to mention the coffee and refreshments. They've recently removed the outside benches from that stop, making it much less attractive. Guess I'll have to learn to live with it.
8 + hours total time, and the balls of my feet remain sore even after the shoes are off and the shower. I've been fiddling with ways to fix that one, but have yet to find the solution. No flats on this one.
Pics:









And many more. 'Tis the season.

RobbieTunes

Here's hoping I can do better this year. Thanks for starting us off.

Casey Jones

I'm in. New Year's resolution I guess.

JJScaliger

I was inspired by last years thread. One of my resolutions is to accomplish this, this year. Did a metric century today.

pranarun

Hello,
I'm new to this board, sorry to but in this thread.
I was hoping to be contacted by RobbieTunes to ask a few questions regarding a bike I'm considering, and noticed Robbie has rebuilt one.
This board doesn't seem to allow new members to post pm's.
Thanks in advance
j

leaping_gnome

OK, seeds, that's a lot of tropical goodness! I'm in for 2012 and already did my January 1st starter. I'm adding a bigger goal for myself by aiming for an R-12 classification. In randonneuring terms an R-12 means completing at least one brevet or permanent of at least 200k in each month. Yesterday's ride was a 200k brevet around the California coast from Moorpark to Carpinteria and back. I rode my 1978 Trek TX700. A terrific group of a couple dozen of my Rando friends made this ride a great start for the year! A couple of other lugged steel bikes in attendance as well.

As far as New Year's goals, my goal for the year, besides the R-12, is to ride in the Furnace Creek 508 (miles, that is), which is 800km in 48 hrs, in October. I am joining with a friend to ride the 508 as a two man team, so I ride alternate 100k segments with him. BTW, about 35,000 ft total climbing. I also hope to do a 1000k brevet this year.

I wish everyone great rides for 2012!

Jim

RobbieTunes

I rec'd your email, and answered. Hope it helps.

pranarun

Hi, love the photos btw of all the flowers, I hike a lot and look forward to a great spring of wildflowers here in the desert.

Hi Robbie, I appreciate your response, and will get back to you, and sorry to jump in on this thread.
We do have a couple century's here in Palm Springs if anyone wants to make the commute, the Tour de Palm Springs is coming up in April, great ride if the wind doesn't blow.
j

RobbieTunes

Welcome to the forum.

rhm

Woah!

I was all set to start a new thread before I realized you've already gone and done it for me! Cool.

Well I did my century yesterday as well. Beautiful day for it, too. Got out of the house about 7:10 AM, meaning to meet TimmyT at Bridgehampton. We basically followed roads I've ridden before, stopped to check out a few things along the way. It was a beautiful day. Stopped at a picnic table on a beach on the Sound for lunch; I had brought some sandwiches that were small but (I thought) pretty good... and Tim had brought mimosas. Really, I'm not making this up. Also an apple and an orange and some sugared pecans, all very tasty.

We arrived at my house well after dark, weighted down with two pizzas, soda, and lots of beer.

My total, 115 miles for the day; on my Lambert three speed again. Tim's total, 72 miles (so he's in for a metric anyway) on a Kona Jake.

seedsbelize 

I'm also trying for a R-12 this year, but just because the century has become, dare I say it, an easy ride for me, and 125 feels like the century did a year ago. Maybe next year I'll be up for 300k a month.
It being a new year, I'll introduce my same old century bike. A 1978 Schwinn World Sports, with Mavic MA 40 on the back and Araya CTL 370 on the front, both with Shimano 600 hubs. It also has Benotto rat trap pedals and plastic toe clips, and weighs in at around 37 pounds fully loaded with tools, etc. I'm a flatlander here, so the weight isn't a huge issue. I hope to have a newer (80s), lighter bike by year end.

leaping_gnome

Awwright! Were in for the vintage R-12. Next year I hope to do the 508 solo classic (lugged steel, toeclips and straps required)

rhm

In other words, not just a 200k (or longer) ride, but an organized and RUSA approved ride, correct? And, of course, you have to do one every month.

A worthy goal! I don't think I could do it without driving to most of the rides, though.

ThermionicScott 

For what it may be worth, I did a gravel metric on New Year's Day. For some reason, I thought my fixed-gear '88 Diamondback with studded winter tires would be a good choice. To add insult to injury, there was a stiff wind that day, often gusting up to 50MPH. So it was quite the grind, and I'd like to think I did the equivalent of 100 paved miles with a normal bike.

Here's a shot of our group (and my bike), taking a break. Man, we were dead by the end.



Here's more evidence. As usual, I was caught in an awkward pose (stretching my hamstrings, if you're curious.)

The blog caption reads:

seedsbelize 

Not in my case; just a simple 200 km once a month. I don't got in for all that organized stuff, AND it doesn't exist here anyway.

noglider 

I don't think I can commit to 12 centuries this year, but I'll tell ya... When rhm started the challenge last January, I thought it was nuts. I thought I would never do another century. And he proved me wrong. We rode together in April (or was it May?) and I did a metric century while he did an imperial century. Then several of us had a ball doing one in July, starting at Rudi's cottage. I think I ended up doing 110 miles that day. I told my middle school students (of bike mechanics) what I did, and they couldn't imagine!

So I do hope to do more long rides this year than last, and maybe more than one of them will exceed 100 miles.

southpawboston

Thanks for starting this thread. I followed last year's challenge with joy, experiencing the wonderful stories and scenery vicariously from my comfy chair. But this year I'm in, it's my new year's resolution. I've rounded up some local friends and we're going to try to commit to a century a month, possibly starting this Sunday... weather permitting, of course.

RobbieTunes

Sunday will be my January attempt.
40 out, 40 back, then my 20-mile training ride after a quick lunch.
Haven't decided on the bike.

seedsbelize 

I did my January 200 km today. I had favorable winds right out of the chute, and so changed plans from the century I was going to do. One does not look a gift horse in the mouth. Two things of note, the second of which made itself very noticeable as I was stepping out of the shower. I've been doing core strengthening exercises for the past year and a half. This is the reason I can do a century a week, I'm pretty sure. When I come in from a double metric, as I did today, My core muscles are quite sore, the abs and obliques in particular. They've been out there doing isometrics for 9 hours. But then, maybe I'm just full of beans.
Pics:

My first car was a '64 Falcon convertible, a pale yellow re-paint, which I shared with my older sister.
This is the church in Baca, where our good friends have a house that they'll use more frequently once they retire.

They're putting up a welcome center at my usual lunch spot. Seems there hasn't been a big demand for cylindrical posts.

No ready mix for government projects. This is high tech.

I rode through a forest of coconut trees, on both sides of the road, for maybe five miles. Somewhere in there I stopped for some ice cold coconut water and some coconut tortillas.

second lunch

That diamond tuck saddle is original to that bike, and is THE most comfortable saddle I've ever ridden. Hands down.
Til next time....

leaping_gnome

Thanks! I strongly believe in not driving to cycling events if it can be helped, so I ride locally or ride to or take the train to an event if possible. Along those lines I have prepared four official 200k Permanent routes and submitted them for RUSA approval just this past week. Once approved, I can ride and get R12 credit for these permanent routes that start essentially from my doorstep. Once you are a RUSA member you don't need to have a local club or organization, you just contact RUSA directly. I'm not sure if RUSA will accept routes that are not in the USA but I don't see a reason why not.



But my goal is for the greater good. To open up more areas to ride in that are low traffic, clean air, and mildly interesting. I hope that other RUSA riders (and non-RUSA for that matter) will take advantage of those routes. Come often, I'll make more!



And welcome to ThermionicScott and southpawboston!



Jim

southpawboston

Well, my intention was to complete my January century this past weekend, having cleared out my plans for Sunday to achieve it. But then the forecast for Saturday was more favorable, and I found out that a good friend was leading one of his excellent rides on Saturday... so I joined him and some other area cycling buddies instead of attempting the Sunday century. Ended up clocking in a metric century at 64 miles total, but I know it's not the same. Maybe next weekend or the one after... alas...

ThermionicScott 

Thanks, leaping_gnome! My friends and I set out to do another gravel metric this past weekend and got 62.1 miles, but since ~35% of the final route was paved, it's kind of a neither-fish-nor-fowl thing as far as this thread is concerned.

I *did* use my '91 Bianchi for it, though.


- Scott

P.S. If I don't manage to complete true "imperial" centuries in January and February, I plan to do enough during the less-frigid months to make up for them.

rat fink

Just saw this... Really looking forward to participating in this thread this year.

rhm

Oh, now that is very cool indeed! What do you know about the approval process? As for the routes you have prepared, did you ride them before submitting them, or did you just whip them up on bikeroutetoaster or the like? I'm kinda wishing you had mentioned this earlier... but January is still young... I could do this too!

leaping_gnome

Yes you could! And I hope you do. Some of the routes I have submitted are essentially the same as some of the century rides I dis last year. It took me a good deal of the holiday break to prepare the four routes that I have submitted for approval. They are being reviewed right now by the RUSA permanent coordinator, Crista Borras. Here's the link to the RUSA page https://www.rusa.org/perminfo.html. When the permanents are approved I will post them here and on my home Randonneur site here: https://www.pchrandos.com/html/permanents.html I hope to have them approved by Febuary. I also have a 200k brevet scheduled for April 14th. Those are listed hare: https://www.pchrandos.com/html/brevets.html
I also use and like BRT also but have chosen RideWithGPS because it lets me add indications on the map for where the checkpoints are. The RUSA folks have started asking for that. Here's a sample of one of my routes: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/876162You may even recognize some of the pictures!