s2sxiii, what trail were you riding?

Last year a month or so after I started riding I was out on my mountain bike cruising along at around 15mph. After a bit an older lady entered the trail and was going a bit faster than me. I caught up to her at an intersection and noticed she was between 60-70 years old, very weathered looking, was riding a beat up old road bike with flat bars and had a rack full of stuff. From then on I could not let her go faster than me. I paced her for a few miles at around 18-19 miles until I couldnt keep up anymore. I felt quite humiliated when I had to slow down and admit she was a better rider than me.

OH, the olentangy river bike path that follows 315, up from o-village to the part where it ends at 270, and down to lane av.

I ride there ocassionally myself, but since I got a road bike I find I tend to go a bit too fast for it. The trail has just been way too busy when I have been out on it this year.

There's a bike path along the Arkansas river here in Wichita, Ks, and it's very quiet, fairly smooth, and the whole thing is about 12 miles on this one stretch i ride. I ride my bike(s) for tranportation, there's almost no sport rider in me, it's just going from a to b. I was putting along one day on my mountain bike about 12 mph and two guys wearing spandex on road bikes passed me and they must have been doing 25 mph, i **** u not.

Let me ask you this, if it's 75 degrees, the trees are shading the bike path, the water is rippling beside you, a gentle breeze-- why in god's name be in a hurry to get out of that area?

Just my thoughts...

Am I the only one that loves riding with fast with other people and loves to pull? It's fun going fast beats riding alone. When you get tired of pulling, you just slow down until the the guy passes you. After all, the only place you need to be in the lead is at the city limits sign.

As for my flubs, flips and other goofs... I think they have been well documented here.

I looovve these haiku!

Ok, I already posted this over in the Cleveland Blues forum, but here goes again. I was just riding around the city today, on a side street there are three kids playing basketball with one of them portable hoops in the yard by the curb. They're not stopping with their (rather uneventful) game, but they move way over to the left, so I go for it. Just as I am riding in front of the hoop, one of them shoots it, the ball comes down, grazes my head/shoulder, and I duck for cover. I must've looked like an idiot, man was I pissed. I just kept going, thinking, they're just kids, but I get to the end of the street and decide to turn around and go back the other way just to ask them if they were going to do it again. I didn't have to, they were all lined up patiently waiting for me to pass.

Love it. Humbling, but I'm used to pulling up the rear. There's always someone faster, humility is rarely a common virtue.

I road at 3 creeks park in Columbus this fall, nice path. Didn't get passed once, I was the big dog! Of course, I didn't say that everyone else was either a walker with a dog, or riding with their toddler.

I hope it wasn't me that passed you! Ha. Just kidding, I love riding fast but I don't like buzzing people. I sometimes walk and run on the bike trail and I respect the cyclists that at least act like they're not trying to kill you. I'll bet you are talking about the section of path down by the "Keeper of the Plains". Sometimes it's very pretty down there and I have to tell myself to slow down and enjoy it. Especially if there is a nice sunset going on.

I had a humiliating moment which actually turned out quite well. I was riding around once in toe clips and I came up to a light and just fell over in front of several good looking women. I was looking shame faced. They all came up and checked on me, offered symapathy, etc. We ended up all going to a bar and partying out the rest of the evening. After that I thought I'd make this my regular pick up method but I figured the bruises would get suspicious. ;-)

I lost all pretensions the day I watched Tour De France Rider Laurent Fignon ride past me at about 18/19mph....up an Alp!!!!! He'd been racing for about 6 hours before our paths crossed.........

Anyone who never made an arse of themselves at lights, or trying to dismount in a dignified way, whilst using new pedals, probably doesn't ride much........

-and if you never got dusted by an older rider, on the way home or at the races, well, you still ain't riding enough;-)

So I was puting in about two hours on the bike path Friday. When I was on my way back in, I hear this guy ride up on my back wheel. He sits there for two or three miles and I took a little personal joy in his up and down shifting while I kept chugging away on the fg at +/- 20 mph.

Then, without warning I hear "Hey, that's pretty impressive!" He pulls up next to me on the path and starts telling me that he looked down at my cassette to see what gear I was pushing and realized I only had one gear. He was riding the full on seven Ti frame with the woundup fork. His was a nice bike. He was personable enough so I sat up and we rode side by side discussing fixed gears, the ride of his seven and how nice it was to meet a cool person on the bike path. We rode together until his exit then I put the hammer down to get back home in time for dinner.

That ride in no way erases any of the parked cars and curbs I've hit or stop signs I've fallen over at, but it was a hell of a nice ride.

I guess one of the most embarrassing moments for my self also involved clipless pedals. I had just bought my first pair of SPDs, installed the cleats on to the shoes turned the tension WAY down and went out for a ride. It was near the beginning of spring (probably about this time of year) 2002; we were riding about 16 miles to a Frisbee Golf course of which we knew only by map. The ride was great, riding along the southwest LRT trail, old railway flat and fast. We get near our destination, and stop to ask this cute girl walking her dog for more precise directions. As we slow to a stop, I try and disengage my left cleat from the pedal, with no luck. I keep struggling, twisting and turning my foot quite furiously until finally I fall to the ground. As if this isn't bad enough, I still can't get my food out of the pedal which means I am stuck there, like a damn turtle on it's back. So I have to get helping hand from my friend, who by the way is the biggest **shole I know. So of course he is sitting there laughing at me, the girl is looking with bewilderment, and I am bleeding and pulling rocks out of my elbow.

It turns out that I didn't tighten the cleat tight enough when I installed it on the shoe, so it was sort of floating around inside of the pedal. I still wonder though, why I didn't just click my right foot out, it would have been easier.

As for racing people, coming home from school last Tuesday, I passed someone riding a full suspension Magna. I was going at a decent clip, probably 20ish, on my fixed gear. About 3 blocks later, I hear this creaking, dry chain, locked bearing sound of this guy who was not only keeping up with me, but was gaining on me. Of course my fragile pride and superior bicycle prevailed and he never did pass me. I just couldn't help but think that this guy riding a magna can keep up with me, how would he do on a real bike? It isn't like I am in bad shape or out of practice either; I rode 95% of the days this winter.

I swear as I have mentioned before, this bus strike (day 40) is creating a Minneapolis full of super bikers....

They sould like jerks to me!

If they want to suck on your wheel they should first of all ASK PERMISSION and second offer to take a pull. Riding in a pace line is risky enough without having people of who's skill level you don't know sucking your wheel. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing quite like riding in a tuned up pace line but those are skills you have to work on with your riding group. It takes steady handeling, consistent paceing and communication on everyones part.

I have seen too many accidents in the lake front path because someone was concentrating too much on staying within 6 inches of the wheel of the person who just passed them and weren't ready when the person in front slowed down suddenly to avoid a dog or roller blader. Bone up, get in shape and drop them next time and if you can't then let them drop you.

That's my two cents. Sorry for the rant... :o

Embarrassing moment: riding my first fixie just after I had built it taking a turn too fast, clipping the ground with my pedals, my rear wheel loosing contact with the road, angular momentum taking over and me sprawling all over the pavement. OUCH!

The folks at my local LBS had no experience with fixed gear bikes and did not know about the importance of crank arm length. Everything they know about fixed gear they learned by experimenting on me.

I couldn't read all the replies, but what gear ratio are you running? If it's something like 42x16 that isn't going to cut it against a multi-speed bike that can go up to 52x14 or whatever if they want to, whether or not they have fatter tires.

As far as serious riders being fast, it's true. Whether or not they look goofy in spandex, and whether or not they ride a cool fixed gear, if someone trains daily (and I'm not talking about a ride to the store with a cigarette break halfway) they are going to be pretty fast. A friend of mine who races and trains a couple hours a day on rollers can of course kill me and he is only in the amateur racing class..

-Jason

Another thing, falling down is nothing to be embarassed about. I do it all the time. People get a kick out of it. I once was riding downtown and for some reason I fell over and a friend just so happened to be passing in a car and they yelled out, "Yeah Jason!" What can you do except just laugh it off though?

-Jason

On my first century I had the honor of riding next to a gentleman on a 1996-ish Paramount Full Suspension mountain bike with semi-slicks. I thought wow I'm gonna have to wait for this guy. Then he tells me along the ride he didn't take his road bike because he had done 178mi 2 days before the century and broken something on the way home. @#%#$! 178 miles!!! And this guy had to be about 60-65. Anyways towards the end we came up on a local team and he proceeded to draft off the back on his F/S Paramount at about 24-28mph while I was dying on my 3x9 Univega roadbike. After we got back I collapsed on the lawn of the starting point while he brought me a punch and proceeeded to tell me I "rode great". Man NEVER underestimate the old guy on the funky mountain bike on a century ride.