My Most Recent Ride 2008 (Part I of series)

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Started out fast yesterday, had lots of frustration to work off from work. Twelve miles Into The Ride, long straight stretch, there was a rabbit about 1/4 mile ahead. I had been running at about 22 so I pushed it up to 24-25. As I began to reel him in I saw him begin to check behind him, looking over his shoulder and under his arm. When I got even closer I could see that he was wearing the kit of the local racing team. I could also see the despiration. It had taken me about 2 miles but now I had him, just before we reached a stop sign I passed him then started coasting for the stop.

The "racer" was pretty young, probably in his early 30's. There was oncoming traffic so I unclipped and waited for it to clear. I said hi to him but he didn't respond. The traffic cleared and he took off quickly. I saw no other recourse but to chase him down again. It didn't take long and I passed him too quickly for him to grab my wheel.

So, big fun 33.35 miles with a 20.34 mph adverage.

If anyone wants to you can check out my gps reports on Garmin Connect my user name is wardjoines

tomorrow I hope to be out on the Weisel watching the racers fly by me

Ward

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Rode an easy 18 mile ride today. I over trained last week by riding my bike AND doing hard rides on my wife's recumbent exercise bike. When I rode on Monday, my left knee hurt. I never had that happen before. So I took some time off. Today I rode and my knee felt just fine. GREAT!!!!

Today I lubed my chain and tightened all the bolts. My new seat cover and back are perfect!!! I am charging up my GPS as I type this so it will record the whole ride. I am washing all my bike clothes and getting my sports bag ready to pack my stuff. Tomorrow my bike goes in the car and I am leaving for Clarksville at 2:30 PM which is when my wife (who is a school teacher) can get off work.

See you all Saturday morning. Weather looks good. Can't wait to ride with our group again!!!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Wow the excitement y'all seem to have about this Clarksville ride is kinda contagious.
I am actually get'n excited to hear about it.
Guess i am gonna hafta make plans to ride it next year.
If the Alaska thing goes well this year ,anyway...

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

It was fun Gene. Didn't see a trike this year. Have in the past.
I may one day do some of it on a trike, but I'm not that old yet. <g>

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Hi Everyone!

I haven’t been doing any organized rides, or catching anyone (I’m not nearly fast enough!) But what I have been doing is riding my Linear off road in the Sequoia National Forest and do a 25.5 mile loop from Hume Lake to Grants Grove and back to Hume Lake.

The Linear did an outstanding job; I was starting to be able to climb reasonably steep hills, and going down really steep hills. I’ve been keeping the speed down as I’m still not certain about how everything is working, but I’ve greatly enjoyed the flex in the Linear frame as I’ve been riding along jeep trails and jeep trails that the national forest service has been putting berms on to keep the jeeps out. The Linear did an outstanding job for everything except soft dirt. I think I’ll need to change my tires to get better performance on soft dirt, but overall I’ve been very happy with the performance. The OSS and 26” front wheel has made handling really good when traversing trails and I’m very glad I made the change from USS.

I did the 25.5 mile loop on my Jetstream. Boy, I was almost ready to give up at the half way mark, about 13 miles from where I was camping to Grants Grove, all up hill except for a couple (less than ½ mile each) short down hills. I was discouraged to say the least! 2 hours, 13 miles, not very good time, although there was probably about a total of 2,500 feet altitude gain over that distance (perhaps more when you consider the several downhill stretches!). I stopped in Grants Grove and my wife gave me some grapes and I refilled my water bottles. I used 1.5 liters of water in 13 miles. From Grants Grove, I took off and made the ride up to Cherry Gap and then started the downhill to the Hume Lake turn off. From the time I left Grants Grove to the time I returned to Hume Lake, 12.5 miles, less than an hour. I had a few up hills (from Grants Grove to Cherry Gap and from the Hume Lake turn off to the crest above Hume Lake.) but for the most part it was either down hill or level. I remember why I liked the Jetstream. Max speed of 43.5 mph, kept up with the traffic and left my wife way while she was driving my truck. The Jetstream rode like it was on rails, but there was several times that I wished I had disc brakes instead of rim brakes. On the down hills I was doing quite a bit of braking to keep from over running the traffic on the road, and was starting to get concerned about heat and the tires.

For those who want to see the route, I left Hume Lake, rode south on 10 Mile Road to Generals Highway (climbing all the way), to Generals Highway to Highway 180 (again climbing), 180 to Grants Grove for a quick refreshment stop, then continued on Highway 180 to the Hume Lake turn off (a few more miles of up hill, then lots of down hill) from the Hume Lake turn off, I took the Hume Lake road, had a fairly short up hill section, then was either down hill or level for the rest of the way back to Hume Lake.

I camped for 9 days at Loggers Flat about 1 mile from Hume Lake, rode almost every day. Had a blast, even though the 5,000 to 6,000 feet took a while to acclimate to.

Curtis.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Curtis, its funny how we envy things other have or do. I might get to pass other riders but I would love to be able to go camping there and ride. With scenery like that who needs to go fast.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride Sequoia

Curtis:
My wife and I toured the Sequoia NF a few years ago (alas, in a rental). I try not to be jealous/covet what others have, but where you are riding is without doubt one of the main jewels in this earth's crown. We drove and hiked for two days in SNF and Kings Canyon. Roads were clear, trails fairly clear, up to 4 feet of snow elsewhere yet comfy in long sleeves & no jacket. Every turn brought something new and amazing. People who've never been there simply cannot imagine what the phrase "the biggest living thing on earth" means until they stand at the base of the 275 foot high General Sherman Tree and try to comprehend this mass that is over 36 feet in diameter. In bicycle speak, you could put 17 V-Rexs or 13 Stratus XPs around it end-to-end and still have space left over! And looking up into one of the clearest polarized blue skies I've ever seen. We were there long before the tourist crowds showed up and sometimes we simply stopped in the middle of the road to stare. Shots literally hundreds of digital frames.

I would think it would be a fascinating, if strenuous (6000 feet el.!) bicycle ride. Thanks for bringing back the memories. I wanna go back soon!

Dave "The Breeze"

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

This thread is approaching 500 replies and 7000 views. Should it split off to a second thread for archival security? Is there such a thing as a "thread crash"? It's getting unmanageable anyway what with the tiny scroll bar cursor and tons of messages.

Dave

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

First off, one of the nice features we have now is AD has all of our files backed up automatically. I will let him explain more on that.

We can start a new thread. I will start it. Click Here to go to the new thread.