TrojanHorse

I used to ride at night quite a lot... but a lot of it was on bike paths where the main danger is drunks and homesless people. Still, you have to hit the road to get there.

My new likely night riding might occur at the beach but I haven't tried it yet.

Of course, that's one reason I like zwift so much too.

expatbrit

Ya know -- I did it for years and years back home. Day, night, no concern. It's different here.

expatbrit

Problem with the bike paths here is they cross roads, except for the one flat one -- and that's a ways from the house and not a great place to ride /to/ after dark.

ill.clyde

18 GLORIOUS OUTDOOR MILES TODAY!

Temps finally bumped into the 50 degree range and I headed out over lunch. Not terribly breezy, definitely was dressed warm enough ... just a fantastic lunch ride

DrIsotope

@jimincalif you gotta bring that shiny new bike of yours out here to where there are still dirt roads and mountains, before the malevolent heat orb toasts all of the green stuff to a brown crisp, and then it catches fire. Spring never seems to last around here. But if you want dirt roads, singletracks, sneakily mooshy sand, and all the bees you could ever hope for, this is the place.

jsigone

That looks fun minus the BEES part

I think I need to stop riding my bike for a few days, waffles n beer is on sunday. 134 miles of fun. I have a new 34t inner ring to install on the monster cross bike. More last min changes but hey at least it's cheaper then a new cassette!!

After work Shop/group ride was fun n fast

DrIsotope

Shoulda eaten a third Clif around mile 75 or so, but I tried to stretch it to lunch. The miles between 75 and 95 were way tougher than those from 95 to the end. Managed to finish strong.

This century brought to you in part by Weather Underground

108 flattish miles @ 19mph. And I almost timed the winds perfectly.

TrojanHorse

Found a new toy I need to have - Garmin Varia. (radar rear tail light doohickey). I suggested to my wife that it would make a splendid father's day present if she lacked any better ideas.

Tragically, it requires a new head unit. In order to not be able to use a potential father's day present that I might not even get, I picked up a new Garmin 520 to replace my aging garmin 800. Found a new one for $212 at western cycle works. It will get its maiden ride on Saturday but I've been playing with it all day. apparently some of the dumb stuff it doesn't do can be overcome with "apps"... like this one called dynamic watch. Put it on your garmin, sync it up with RWGPS and you can install routes on the fly using your phone's internet connection. Brilliant! Never going to have one of those "Oh crap, I forgot to install the route" moments again. You can even do it on the fly with your phone if you're motivated.

https://dynamic.watch/me

If any of you mooks have any cool apps or data pages or whatever that you think are awesome, please share. The storage on the device is painfully limited. I mean, they had to have gone out of their way to find tiny storage cards for this thing but hey - $212.

jimincalif

That looks nice. Is that dam in the background? Where is that? We should schedule a ride out there.

DrIsotope

Yeah, that’s Seven Oaks Dam right out in my backyard, about 5 miles from my house. The whole Santa Ana wash area is just full of trails. And bees.

jimincalif

I've got some dirt, gravel and hills right out my backyard too. Serrano Creek Trail is 1/2 mile from my house. After that about 5 miles and 800' of climbing (all dirt) gets me to the top of Line Shack Rd. Rode up there this morning, I also learned that 23-24% is about my climbing limit with this bike and its 1:1 low gear. At 25% I had to stand and then lost traction on the back tire. Had to get off and push the last 200' or so.

Proof not all of OC has been paved (yet):



Of course the view to the west gives a different perspective:

TrojanHorse

Cement trucks are heading up now... you shouldn't have posted pics!

DrIsotope

The section I do a bunch of my fire road riding is slated to become enclosed by one of those master planned super-developments, the Harmony Project. The "locals" are still fighting it, but I think the developers already bought up all the land. Aaaaaand, they claim over the duration of the project (13-15 years) they're going to finish something like 33 miles of multi-purpose trails, and fix all of the paved roads up in the Greenspot area, which as of now are absolutely horrible. So I say bring it on. The part at the very bottom of the map, where they connect the existing mini-stretch of the SART to the 38 across the Mill Creek wash-- PLEASE DO. I wish they had started two years ago. That map is the stuff dreams are made of.

TrojanHorse

Pussed out and took a rest day today. Having an afternoon beer to celebrate.

expatbrit

I do like beer

Lots of gravel and fire roads here. The Open Space runs up to the National Forest just 2 miles or so east of my house. Have to cross I40 to get to much; we are penned between it and KAFB.

Still ...

TrojanHorse

Washed my car and my wife's car.... her's was filthy. Had all kinds of red smears on the passenger side. If you wash something that looks like blood off your wife's car, is that going to get you convicted for aiding and abetting?

#AskingForAFriend.

jsigone

another BWR done, another day with sore body...next time I need WAAAAAAY more training on the hills n better endurance at tempo speeds. Cramps are horrible
121.5mile, 9000ft climbing, 9h1min ride time, 43miles were on dirt

TrojanHorse

9,000 feet! That's downright lumpy. Good job.

jsigone

views from the front runners Belgian Waffle Ride Gallery: Road, dirt, trails, and waffles | VeloNews.com

jimincalif

Good job! That's a serious ride.

TrojanHorse

There are some great pictures in there but man, what passes for cool sunglasses these days... horrible.

Some of those roads look like they'd be impassable on 25mm tires!

jsigone

the sand was kinda tame this yr, most of the course would have been fine on 25-28s. I normally run 28s and been OK.

I think 25s would totally work knowing that you will get 1-4 flats during the day. Something you can't really see since you might be following wheels into bad lines over rocks and ruts. Would I do it on my Pinarello to save a bit of time??? Nope! not worth risking crashing that sweet bike on some stupid dirt

Since I was on 38's this yr I plowed thru allot of the mess some were taking very slowly. Was also good to be a local and know multiple lines through the rock/cobble sections. But the fat tires wore on me later in the ride that I was setting new PRs for. Fun day, awesome views, and weather worked out well for us this time. Except for the 40 miles worth of head wind...that sucked and hurt a whole bunch. You know its bad when it's 6% down hill and I have to pedal to stay around 25mph

TrojanHorse

Yeah, but stuff like this? Ouch.

jsigone

there's a magic line when solo, not so much when your following someone else butt and they don't know where to go....yah it can hurt you or the bike. Lots of people were fixing flats or rolling into bushes in the first two dirt sectors. The first dirt was a single track after 10mile "neutral" motor pacing down the canyon, AKA ave speed 25mph. Single track offered not much room to pass so speed was checked a bit as there was no where to move. It didn't thin out until the 2nd dirt (where that photo above is) cobble section on the downhill is. I was stuck behind those waiting fort the smooth line, I went around and cut down the ctr of all those rocks and lean back. It pays to be a local and know the lines and where they cross eachother. Sandy bandy was another super fun singletrack section. I almost lost it there. Happens every yr in this same sand pit coming off pavement speeds into 9inch deep of fluffy sand. Sometimes all you can do is hold on but not too tight, let the sand float you around a bit. On of these times it going to flip me or steer me into the fence at 20mph

expatbrit

Man. Hell of a ride -- even made it onto the GCN show. Looks really rough; great job!