ronjon10

Hmm, sounds like the Palm Springs century is in your future. It runs in February, draws a huge crowd including lots of us, and is a great first century. Glad you had a great time!

tombunn

Thanks Joy, very well organized and the ride absolutely lived up to its billing. I had a great time, met some great people, and felt well taken care of the whole time. And thanks Jim for riding with me.

Cleave

Hi All,

Thanks Joy for organizing this and thanks to Jason for bringing an out-of-region forumite, April, to the ride. Jason obviously is a man of impeccable manners as April was riding his beloved Vivian.

I was having a great time until I decided to go up Hawthorne after the Starbucks stop. I got really cold at the top and decided to stop for a muffin at the top. Then I froze my you-know-what off coming down.

Anyway, it was great to see everyone and I was glad that I got to chat with a number of folks. Wish I could have had the chance to chat with a few more.

Oh, and thanks to James for riding with me up Crest a couple of times and making me hurt. Of course, he could have destroyed me but since we are both of Asian descent, he knows to respect his elders and not put the total hurt on them. Of course if I weighed a buck twenty like James I'd be able to climb faster.

ronjon10

Thanks, I actually think the slow couple of weeks helped quite a bit. Good to have you back out there!

efficiency

Awesome ride guys. Felt great all day even though I've been practicing the dark art of mountain biking for the past month. I have lots of photos. I will get to posting them sometime soon. Great to ride and share a meal with new people.

I'm glad I didn't ride the fixed gear.

DaveSANYYZ

Yeah, thanks Joy for organizing the ride and it was fun riding with you all.

Happytime

An awesome ride couldn't happen without awesome riders!

Glad you all came and had a great time. I love riding around here and am glad I got to show others what great terrain it is. Special thanks goes to thomson and Fangu for helping out. I really needed the help and you guys delivered in spades. Much appreciated!

The Awesome Ones (incl. awesome BFers who joined us along the way):
MErider, jschen, Aprilm, thomson, Dunwood, Ed, awiner, pmc, Luwin1026, herbm, MarkAJ, N2GLOCK, Cleave, Scootcore, Wkend_Warrior, Sally, Cole505, Yogi13, DaveSanYYZ, Indolent, efficiency, Tracie, DScott, Fangu, VanceMac, Ronjon10, fattyfatskinny, SpeeDee, Dubbayoo, Juan, Chimivee, Dan, TomBunn, Travis, Eric... anyone I missed?

Dunwood

A shout out and big thank you to Joy and the others that supported her. Great ride, cool weather perfect for some falling riding. A real nice group of riders. Wish we could have stuck around longer.

I've read most of the posts, no mention of Pancho's. Did you get thrown out that quickly?

Indolent58

Thanks Joy for a fun ride. More new BF faces, some extra credit get-lost miles for me, and Tracie may eventually forgive you for the hills.

DaveSANYYZ

I don't think we took any pics at Pancho's. The photographers weren't there (James and ME).

The food is good though, but very filling. For some reason, Mexican restaurants serve really large portions; at least compared to other cuisines.

Shnuddy

Great pics, ME. Looks like a great time was had by all!

Luwin1026

Had a whole lot of fun - it was good to get out there and see some familiar faces and meet lots of new ones. Special thanks to Happytime for organizing. She even caught me fondling Sacha . . . next time I'm snagging her for an S-Works menage-a-uh-derailed.

I really had no idea what Ganado was - I heard people talking about it, and ended up just following DaveSANNYZ - little did I know what I was getting into. I'm just glad I made it up without rolling backwards - special props to the Nebraskan for handling it with such grace and poise, and thomson for doing it in his fixed - that man is sick.

I had a good time chatting with all sorts of folks and catching up on their lives. Wish I could have spent more time chatting with the new faces, but it was a bit hard as we were dodging sand/pedestrians on the path and traffic on the roads. But I hope to get a chance on a future ride to do so!

On a side note, there was nice bike eye candy as well. Cleave with his Serotta, DScott with his Time, Indolent and awiner with their Look's, etc. -

A personal apology to Juan - as he was leaving from our Starbucks/Subway rest stop, I accidentally called out, "See you later, Jose!!" Lo siento, senor. Mi mal.

Note to self: Not a good idea to eat a glazed donut with a Slurpee before the rollers/climb. And of course, our Omaha visitor mocked me for having a blue tongue.

Had an absolute blast - til next time!!

efficiency

Here are all the photos I uploaded:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/9895405@N06/89WB35

Some highlights:

Some Portraits
https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2057/...24770b22_o.jpg


https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2067/...837b6d04_o.jpg


https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2025/...745fb52c_o.jpg


https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2069/...2e21dab3_o.jpg

Guest of honor

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2178/...7f5cec39_o.jpg


https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2409/...dec4f65f_o.jpg

fattyfatskinny had speakers attached to his handlebars. It was like party riding around him. He also had a footlong sub in the middle of the ride. The last true roadie thought he was crazy.

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2240/...e04cefe6_o.jpg

Whoosh!

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2132/...a3cecf05_o.jpg

We were here.

Complete set here:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/9895405@N06/89WB35

Complete set including all BF events:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/9895405@N06/65f7Bx

efficiency

Thanks to Joy for organizing, and thanks to everyone for showing up.

DaveSANYYZ

Nice pics! Thanks!

I should start bringing my camera to rides too. Just need to learn riding with no hands.

tprevost

WOW! What a great group!!! There are days when I really miss SoCal!!! You all look fabulous... but I gotta say... GREAT LEGS CHIMIVEE!!!

t~

chimivee

Fun ride. Great photos. Good to see/meet everyone. The bike path was a little yucky, but otherwise, it was an excellent route.

chimivee

How'd you get faster on the second go 'round?! At least Vance wasn't climbing it with us.

Pepper Grinder

and now it starts...

oh my poor legs

aprilm

I can't resist giving someone a hard time.

Thanks again Joy for organizing this excellent ride! Definitely the toughest I've done, and I couldn't have done it without Jason and Mary pacing me up those hills AND Ganado. Even after a two-hour nap, I'm still exhausted. I have GOT to find a hill like Ganado in Omaha. I know there's gotta be one somewhere around...

It was nice meeting everybody! I need to move here!

Edit: Oh yeah! Thanks to ME for all these wonderful pics!!

spingineer

hmmm ... everyone seems to be talking about Ganado ... I'm not sure I'm familiar with that climb. Guess I'll have to google it.

jschen

Ganado... this steepness for two painfully long blocks. Then a bit less steep, with even a brief section of ever so slight downhill. Which is just a short respite before it gets a bit steeper for a little while. (Not very long, happily.) Then another respite, if one can call a steady high single digit grade incline a respite. And then a set of corners through a yet steeper section before the climbing is done.

aprilm

Really? Two blocks? You're sure it's not three?

jschen

I don't know for sure. Joy would know.

Happytime

It's two. Just feels like three sometimes.

That's great you got to climb Ganado, April! And yes, ME and Jason are a fount of support and I would trust them with my life. (I wouldn't trust them with my bike... but my life....? OK!) I'm not sure about the accuracy of my Garmin on the pitches, but that first straighaway averages 14%. The following turns spike up to 18% unless you take them very wide, in which case they are a much easier 12%.