Hillbasher

Monday, February 15th, 2010
Day started out nice and warm.We met at the bottom of GMR,(JustMe rode all the way from La Cresenta) and headed to the top. The yahoo's on motorcycles were out in force, it being a holiday and all. Temp was warm enough to break a sweat, but not bad at all. Lots of people riding the slower two wheel vehicles as well. Somewhere not to far past half way up we were passed by a couple of old cars, one a Ford and not sure about the other. That was pretty cool seeing them up there on an old mountain road. Just before reaching the top, something dawned on me that something was drasticly wrong. After having ridden up here to the top late yesterday, working all night (in at 1AM off at 9:30AM), and riding back up to the top again this morning, I felt one of those times when you feel like you could ride almost forever. The day was as close to perfect as I have felt on a bike in a LONG time. BUT, I pussed out when the other 3 guys headed off to the Village. I reasoned that I had ridden yesterday, worked all night, ridden today, and had to be back at work at 1AM tonight. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.Just hope I can get that feeling back real soon. I am sure Mr Beanz will have a post to make some time later today. I can only guess the rest of their ride was as good as the one I had.

Eric Anderson

Saturday was very nice also when I made a couple of trips to the top of GMR. I think I saw the same old Ford along with a couple of others. When I was coming down the second time, I had a pinch flat. Right after I got onto the shoulder, a Porsche went by. I didn't think anything about it until I heard it hit the wall a couple of times a little further along. He hit hard, but was able to get it down to a turnout. I would not want to explain that to my insurance company.

Mr. Beanz

&^$%$^&$$*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I made the 8 minute video with Stairway to heaven but Youtube won't allow the music and disabled it!..startign ove, will be a while

gypz

just a little heavy breathing.............

Mr. Beanz

Pretty cool Gypz!

Cachequatch

great vids... I'm gonna have to get up there now.. I finally think I'm ready!!!!

Mr. Beanz

Some pictures from Hillbasher's camera

Mr. Beanz

My video, music was requested by ZippyPinHeadDude.

Nice ride but a little scary when Gypzy misjudeged a turn (?) and had to do a little offroading to save the bike! Made for a good video though!

calamarichris

Nice vids. Thanks for the ride report!
Any idea how the roads are up to Baldy Village?
I'm thinking I'll shoot for the last weekend of Feb.

Mr. Beanz

We rode to Baldy Village so what ya see is what you get!...Roads were pretty good, some small rocks in the road, nothing big. But the last 4 miles was pretty wet, more than I expected, melting snow I guess. Was a little cool near the village but warm on the lower section. Comfy in shorts and jersey on the way up. Had an underlayer for the way down. Leg cover not required. But the roostertail to crack factor was a little iffy!

Oh yeah, there's this one tricky turn to watch on the way down!

Bobsled

MB,

Nice vid. You guys were going down pretty good, at one point better than trucks.

I'll have to make it up there some day.

Mr. Beanz

MB? MB?............I read it think who is MB? ...Too much climbing yesterday!

Yeah, doing 30 in the turns is much easier on a bike than in a truck! It's the going up, that isn't!

calamarichris

Only one? I live for the pucker-factor of coming into a corner a little too hot, THEN seeing an unexpected decreasing radius.

I just found out I'm freed of puppysitting duties this weekend, so I'll definitely be putting the 39-27 back on my bike and heading up there this Saturday morning!
I'll finally break 60mph coming down Baldy Road, and if I have enough juice left, I'll ride back up to the GMR turn off and do some squidding on the way down that.
Breaking 60 was my goal last year, but I only got up to 58 twice, and I've been wanting to do this ride for months!

BTW: I mistakenly asked about the road conditions up to Baldy Village, I actually wanted to know about the conditions up to the ski lifts--any idea?

Thanks again for the road report and vids!

gypz

Oh yeah, there's this one tricky turn to watch on the way down![/QUOTE]

that turn went from flat to slightly off camber, which pushed me off at the end of it, :i did manage to recover and get back on Bean'z wheel

Mr. Beanz

The one turn comment was more of a joke referring to the clip where Gypz almost ate it!

I don't do the lifts or Baldy Rd descents. I've been on rides before where the group descending Baldy and I headed back up GMR...I'm not into breaking downhill and speed records and the tunnels often are wet. Just to scary for me!

Done Baldy descents before. Too much traffic and too fast. Especialy at this time. We sat at the post office for a break, car after car after car, at times not more than 30 feet between cars. Everybody wants to play in the melted snow!

Mr. Beanz

I sort of think that sometimes the camera makes other riders nervous on the descent. Maybe not but last time I packed it up when I thought another rider might have been metnally affected byknowing! Maybe not but just in case, video is not as important as avoiding the wheelchair!

socalrider

The snow on Baldy melts very quickly when it gets warm like we have had this past few days.. Going up to lifts would be no problem at all, you just have the headache of dealing with a lot of traffic with all the skiers right now..

The turn to watch for coming down Baldy is the Hogsback section right before the tunnels.. Very fast and slightly off camber turn..

calamarichris

In that case, I'll just stick to GMR, breaking 60 on the steep/straight section above the tunnels, and save the chairlift parking lot for another ride in a few weeks or months when the roads are dry and free of Mountain-Dew-swilling snowboarders.
I'll start from my boyhood home in Diamond Bar, so I can cruise a lap around Bonelli Lake and see my old haunts on the way to Glendora.
Many thanks for the info!

Hillbasher

Are you calling me "metnally affected"? Been called lots of things, but never that.

JustMe

I'm anxious to see if you can break 60, especially with a 39-27. I'm not pressing for an attempt this week, or anytime in the near future, for the same reasons previously expressed by others, but let us know if you accomplish your mission.

Hillbasher

One thing I have noticed riding with you JustMe. You are ever the speed freak, are you not? Mr Beanz says you are the crazy downhill man.

JustMe

Well, if Mr. Beanz calls me that, it's because I'm not any good going uphill. So, for me, the only reason to expend all that energy to go uphill, is to test that theory of Mr. Newton's that gravity is your friend going down hill. It's certainly no friend of mine going uphill. And as for being a speed freak, you'll notice I never seem to be fast enough to get beyond the lens capabilities of you guys cameras. If Mr. Beanz ever stops playing with his new toy, I know he can roll downhill with the best of them.

Mr. Beanz

But you just look soooo cute on video!

calamarichris

Will do sir, but it looks like rain again this weekend, so it might take me a few more weeks until the roads dry and the Mountain-Dew extreme snowboarders let us have the road back. I hit 58 twice in '09 (Palomar and Twin Oaks Parkway) but neither have Baldy's combination of steep & straight.

The 39-27 is for getting up the hill, not down; (still got the 42-23 on from the Tour de PS.)

JustMe

Ya; sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I kinda guessed the 39-27 was for getting up the hill. But it's been my experience that getting through 50mph, even downhill with a tail wind, usually requires some serious peddling, and a 200rpm cadence just isn't within my ability.