Monthly Archives: March 2011

I picked the wrong wheel to follow this morning!

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Today's West-Side Old LaHonda photo. Kevin, on the right, isn't exactly flying in formation here.

The first Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride under daylight saving time meant you wake up and it’s… dark! Hate that. At 7:05am, the world should be bright and the sun should be out and the roads should be dry and a tailwind in every direction!

Yeah, well, whatever. Thankfully the roads were just dry enough to rationalize taking my nice bike (after all, what could be worse than the soaking it got at the end of Sunday’s ride?), and the bike and I responded nicely heading over the hill to the start of the ride. Karen, John, Kevin, George, and a bit later, we were joined by Marcus. We started out at a pretty leisurely pace up the hill, with me being content to sit behind wheels. Funny how that changes the ride; if I go to the front at the start, things get moving too fast, too soon. If I stay behind, the pace remains pretty mellow. For a while. Just past the park, Marcus picked up the speed a bit, and, since I was on his wheel, I wasn’t going to let it go. Follow the wheel. That’s what I do. Just keep that rear wheel 6 inches ahead of your front wheel and stay there. Yeah, sounds so easy, but after a couple hundred meters I noticed everyone else had fallen back, and a hundred meters more and I blew a gasket and dropped back myself. Remember, this is what I do for fun.

Fortunately, I didn’t completely fall apart (a concern I had since I’d missed last-week’s rides while in DC), and I managed to keep my heart rate up pretty high (as high as 177 at one point), an indication that my overall health is fairly good. I was also able to pull fairly strongly across Skyline instead of just sitting on wheels, so maybe I won’t lose as much fitness (or gain as much weight) this winter as I normally do. Let’s hope!

71 degrees on the coast; wet & cold heading home on Kings. Should have left 30 minutes earlier!

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Welcome to Daylight Saving Time, when we should be able to sleep in a bit because we’ll be able to ride later in the day, except that the weather forecast said there would be “showers” by 4pm… so sleeping in wasn’t in the cards.

We could have gotten on the road a bit earlier had Kevin spotted this last night and taken care of it then

Of course, the best-laid plans, which included getting all the gear out the night before so we could get out on the road quickly, go to pieces when you make sure your son’s checked his tires, which he hadn’t. The first photo tells the story; that tire wasn’t going much further!

Fortunately, I’d brought a tire home last week, knowing that his rear tire was getting pretty thin, and had him install it. Yes, we could have saved some time if I’d done it myself, but then I wouldn’t have heard such silliness as “Dad, how am I going to do this without a tire lever?” Yikes. This is really my kid? Lightweight road tires don’t need tire levers to remove or install, if you have the needed confidence and don’t show the tire any sign of weakness!

We did the usual; up Old LaHonda, over Haskins to Pescadero, Stage Road to Tunitas and back. It’s tough to come up with a convenient & challenging local ride that doesn’t include a run to the coast, with the return is going to be either Tunitas or West Alpine. West Alpine takes a bit longer so we did the always-dependable Tunitas version. Remember, it was going to start getting wet at 4pm or so.

The run up Old LaHonda was relatively uneventful. No seizures for Kevin this time (first time up Old LaHonda in maybe 4 trips that he hasn’t had a seizure there), but his new meds did mess with his vision for a while, causing us to stop about halfway up the hill until his head cleared up. Surprisingly few cyclists on the road, despite pretty nice weather given that it’s still winter.

Climbing the last part of Stage Road up to Highway 1

At Pescadero we changed the routine a bit, opting to split a sandwich for lunch instead of the usual pastries, and I think proper fueling did help Kevin the rest of the ride. Either that or it was the unusual tail-wind heading north on Stage Road (although Kevin’s will never admit to riding with a tail wind; he’s been taught well!). We finally came across a few cyclists climbing the last section of Stage Road; as I’d mentioned, not many out there today!

The descent finishing at the Tunitas Creek bridge was a lot faster than normal, due to that tail wind we won’t admit to, but instead of making the turn

The two horses and goat near the start of Tunitas

and immediately starting the timed climb up Tunitas, we stopped to take pictures of the two horses & goat that inhabit that first field on the left. Those three have been a fixture for quite a few years, always staying close to each other. When finished, we dutifully road back to the intersection, started our timers and rode west. Kevin had initially wanted to remove his base layer, as it had gotten pretty warm (up to 71 degrees) on the coast, but I suggested removing only our full-fingered gloves since it was likely to get cooler and we climbed, and indeed it did, dropping quickly into the mid-50s. Still very comfortable weather for a stiff climb though. The weather held up nicely for us until… the very top. We felt a few drops as we neared the end of the climb, but it was as if we had gone through a curtain separating the dry coast from the wet bay-side.

The descent on Kings was simply not much fun, having to keep the brakes on hard the entire time, and having the rain wash salty sweat into my eyes. I was really hoping we’d get in before the rain hit; I’ve probably got an hour’s worth of work, maybe more, getting my bike cleaned up and lubed again. But still, a good ride, at a fairly-strong pace, despite my having been off the bike for a week (while I was in Washington DC for the Bike Lobby). And nice to do a ride without Kevin have a seizure too!  –Mike–

If you see me on your plane, get off. Take another flight.

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I may have posted something like this before; it’s certainly a recurring theme. Last August it was my “exciting” red-eye trip to Wisconsin, where I finally arrived in Madison around 3pm, after being bounced off one flight, delayed on another and abused by airport staff (and that was when I was a “1K” on United, the highest “earned” level of passenger status, something you get for flying too much). The whole point to a red-eye is to get somewhere early.

Yesterday, heading back from DC (the annual Bicycle Summit/Lobbying event), we were scheduled to leave on a flight at 9:55pm. Why so late? Because the meetings could have lasted until 5pm, and it takes a while to get from DC downtown to Dulles/IAD airport (it shouldn’t, but they have no decent transportation from the city to their main airport; it involves taking the Metro from downtown DC to West Falls Church and then waiting for the “Airport Flyer” to take you the rest of the way).  Of course, our last meeting ended very early, 2:30 or so, so we could have taken a much earlier flight… and we still could have, if we had been willing to pay $50 each for the same-day standy fee.

Ever wonder about the people you see slamming back a few before their flight? These folk had been sitting across from us at the restaraunt near the gate, just going and going until the door to their plane was almost closed, then apparenly had problems because their seats had been given away.

Had we known, we would have paid that $50. We got to the airport with hours to spare, even after spending some time at the Smithsonian, and there was in fact a flight that left at 7:30pm with room. But our flight wasn’t that much later and we had pretty decent seats and really weren’t looking forward to the idea of middle seats at the back of the plane (the likely scenario had we changed planes). But that was before our flight was delayed… to 11:30pm. I think it was just past midnight by the time we finally got off the ground, and the loading process left much to be desired as people heading to their seats at the back of the plane were putting their carry-ons into the overheads at the front!!! Why is this so bad? Because while Becky and I and Steve and Teri were in rows 6 & 7, we had to put our luggage over rows 13 & beyond, fighting the tide against everyone trying to board the plane as we got back to our seats, and having to wait until every single person was off the plane before we could retrieve our luggage.

2:44am is not what you want to see on the airport clock, especially when your travel day is not yet over

At least row 6 in an A32o on United has fantastic legroom so it was a pleasant-enough flight, despite moderate turbulence here & there. Sleep? I don’t know that I ever really slept, but rather alternated between conscious and comatose. We landed at 2:30am SF time, 5:20am DC, and were home around 3:30am. This is not the first time this has happened coming back! As I say, if you see me on a plane…

Lobbying for Cycling in DC

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Lots of people complain about how things are; some actually work very hard to make things better. The needs of cyclists are no different from anything else in this regard; there are literally many millions of active cyclists in this country, and potentially many times that who would be active cyclists if the infrastructure (roads & community layout) were better designed for safe commuting and recreational riding. Today Chain Reaction Bicycles is part of 120 dealers who, along with unpaid cycling advocates numbering several times that, are trying to make the United States a better place for bikes. 500 or so people looking out for many million. It’s likely that we’re very typical that way; a small number of people influencing very big decisions. The exception would be when the PTA is lobbying; we bring a small division, while they bring an entire army!

Classroom time at the DC Bike Summit. Wednesday was "school day" where you chose from a variety of different classes to attend. This one dealt with transportation funding... who really pays for the roads?

It works like this- Wednesday morning, 7:30am, my brother Steve, his wife Teri, my daughter Becky and I are supposed to be wide awake (on east coast time, no less!) and ready to go to “school.” We learn about the issues, we learn about the League of American Bicyclists proposed solutions, and we learn about the threats to programs already in place due to the severe budget cuts at the federal level. We have our choice of seminars to attend dealing with a myriad of policy and practical issues, many of which, on paper, look about as exciting as the most-boring thing you ever listened to on NPR. And they would be exactly that (boring) were it not for the fact that these issues touch the cycling community and yourself personally, and knowing how things work helps you to make a difference. At the end of the afternoon you meet with your delegation and split up assignments for meeting with the various congress men & women on the ‘hill, who you’ll be seeing the next day.

Wednesday evening you have your various fund-raisers and industry gigs to attend, including one from Trek bicycles at which I had my annual beer. Actually I passed on the beer this time and went for a gin & tonic, the only “mixed drink” I have any sort of taste for. That one drink was enough to get me through the next year (in my heaviest drinking days, I was probably up to 15-20 beers or glasses of wine… per year).

Thursday morning you put on your “Sunday best” suit, including having to do that top button on the shirt so you can wear a tie. That top button that makes you want to choke, a metaphor for what it feels like the first time you visit a congressional office on your own. Fortunately, that was several years ago, and it’s rarely the case that you’d be by yourself, especially in a state as well-represented by bicycle advocates as California is. Safety in numbers. Then it’s time to head to the Metro and storm the ‘hill!

The California representatives at the DC Bike Summit filled a small room; it’s quite the task to get a group this large organized an on-message

We had an interesting day on the ‘hill. We met with Representatives Jackie Speier, Elton Gallegly, a drop-by with Loretta Sanchez’s office, talked with Anna Eshoo’s Legislative Director Casey Fromson, walked the halls a bit looking for anyone else needing help and then wished we’d booked an earlier flight out.

Jackie Speier started the day out on the fast track, as we were led from her office by her aide, down the hall a bit and adjacent to one of those very-important-rooms with lots of TV cameras and a young TV reporter primping herself to look something a bit more, er, stylin’ we’ll say, than her “Sunday best.” We’d stumbled upon the center of attention at the moment, the House emotional hearings on the supposed radicalization of Muslims in America and Jackie Speier was center-stage. We wondered how she could possible meet with us herself (tyically we deal with a legislative aide) in the midst of such a wild scene, but that she did, discussing in frank terms the difficulties faced by anyone asking the current Congress for anything. She looked and spoke a bit worn-down & beaten, but is most certainly a champion of more-livable communities that aren’t gridlocked and held hostage by foreign governments who have the oil that fules the flames of our desires.

Next stop was the cafeteria, and, since DC is a study of stark contrast, so would be my lunch. Bacon, ham & bleu-cheese pizza with carrot & celery sticks. We recharged our batteries and headed to the office of Representative Elton Gallegly. Let me tell you about Mr. Gallegly. He is an elderly, seriously-affable gentleman, wise in the ways of the world, very approachable, and very conservative. He’s very good friends with Representative Earl Blumenaeur, our most-reliable spokesperson in DC, has bought several hundred inexpensive bikes for kids at poor schools each Christmas, has a photo on the wall of he & his wife riding an cruiser tandem along the beach, and you’re thinking, OK, what’s not quite right here? Well, that’s when he tells you that he likes bike lanes but only when cyclists stay in them, and he’ll make us a deal, if we stay in our bike lanes he’ll stay in the car lanes, otherwise, he feels it’s only right that he drives in the bike lane.

We're not just about bikes. It's technically a cycling/pedestrian coalition, working together to make sure the transportation infrastructure meets the needs of all users, not just motorists. Even ducks.

He had a huge amount of respect for the 31 years that Steve and I have been in business, probably because he’s been in Congress since 1987. I made a point of thanking him for his support of HR4 (House bill #4), which repealed a requirement of the President’s healthcare plan that would have caused small businesses like Chain Reaction to have to spend a ton of extra hours each month to filing reports for every single vendor we spend more than $600 with, likely an unforseen consequence of something added to the plan to make sure that there weren’t businesses (identified by our cash outflow) that should be offering health care to their employees but weren’t.

His chief-of-staff was well-versed in the goings-on of the current battle over the funding level for transportation, and appeared interested as well as understanding the concept that cycling infrastructure was a relatively low-cost way of dealing with many issues. Either that or he figured that acting that way was a good way to get us to leave their office feeling good about the guy despite their actual intention to chop off funding for anything that isn’t fueled by oil.

OK, more to come, right now I’m just too zoned out, waiting for a delayed flight that will eventually get me home sometime around 3:45am. Not fun. (Added later- that was a pretty close guess; we were home around 3:30am. I later added to this piece on 3/18/11.) –Mike–

Why do I fly red-eyes?

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I was definitely more sensible when younger. There wouldn’t have been a chance in the world you could put me onto a red-eye flight. But these last few years, something’s changed, for the worse. I now look at a red-eye as an opportunity to get an extra day in, since my traveling is being done at night. What’s left out of this equation is the fact that sleeping is generally done at night as well, and I don’t sleep well on planes, so add it all up and you have me here in Washington DC, with my daughter, and it’s 10:33pm here (7:33pm back home) and I really haven’t slept since 7:45am yesterday. Dozed off slightly here & there during the movie on the plane (“Conviction” which actually looks worth watching under better conditions).

Presently, there are four of us here in DC, for the National Bicycle Summit (which I mentioned in a post a couple days ago). Steven and his wife Teri did the sensible thing, flying in today on a plane that left San Francisco at the remarkably-civil hour of 10am and arrived here at 6:30pm. Becky and I, on the other hand, boarded a plane last night at 10:30pm. Sort of. Well we did get on it, and then an hour later got back off, because of some sort of mechanical issue with the cockpit door, forcing us to switch to another plane. Eventually, just past midnight, we’re in the air, touching down at JFK (yes, you’re right, that’s in New York, not DC) at about 8:15am. Why.

Becky atop the Empire State Building, with Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty as a backgdrop

Why indeed. Well, I’ve never been to New York before, and I’ve always wanted to go to the top of the Empire State Building, or at least I have ever since first seeing the movie “Sleepless in Seattle.” OK, those who really know me understand that probably my all-time favorite movie is “Robocop” which seems just a bit different. Don’t ask, because I really can’t tell you why movies like Robocop and V for Vendetta are my favorite genre but then have a weakness for certain “chick flicks.” Meg Ryan may have something to do with it.

I did resist leaving a teddy bear on the observation platform, and, by the way, it’s seriously crowded, not at all like in the movie. But it does have views to die for, and between that, Times Square, 30 Rock, seeing the ice skating rink that features prominently in so many (er, chick flick) films, visiting a friend’s shop, and seeing “Hello Delli” of David Letterman fame, it was a fun time. We did the subway thing, then did the train thing from Penn Station in New York to Union Station in DC. By the way, do not  buy the “business class” seats on the regional Amtrak train. I did so, believing from their literature that that was the only way I was going to get electrical power so I could get work done on my laptop. Er, no. Upon exiting the train I checked out a “coach” car, and they get power too. And there’s virtually zero difference in seat comfort. And and and… ok, not done with this yet… it’s a lot more difficult using a laptop on a train than a plane because a train isn’t nearly as smooth, at least not what passes for trains in this country.

You don’t want to go to this website…

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Once in a while you come across a really cool website, something that has just that right combination of bizarre-but-real, potentially just a tad bit gross to think about, and definitely in that you-can’t-make-stuff-like-this-up category.

This is a tame example; some of the stuff shown on their website is just plain gross!

Today I found a new one. http://www.thisiswhyyourefat.com/ This was actually incidental to the quest I began just a short time ago, when MSN.com displayed a graphic of bacon and stated “It’s not just for breakfast anymore.” As if, I mean, bacon is a true all-day food, great for breakfast (straight up), BLTs for lunch,

Click for details

and double cheeseburgers with extra bacon for dinner! But by the time I got around to trying to capture their absurd headline and show it here, it was gone, but doing a quick google on bacon came up with something even better!

And if you want to torture your local Starbucks (and burn a few more calories trying to fit into your pants), click on that 7-layer Frappa-something-or-other on the left. Yikes!

I gotta go back to Maui and ride Haleakala!

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Just got this nice email from a reader of our reasonably-definitive web page on climbing Haleakala-

Mike,

I’m sure you get lots of “Thank Yous” for your definitive web site on climbing Haleakala.  I do want to add mine because it helped me so much.  I went up Haleakala on Presidents Day a couple of weeks ago and it was actually quite enjoyable.  My family dropped me off in Paia at 8:30 AM and the ride was on.  I was on a nice Cannondale Six that I rented from West Maui Cycles.  It is a compact double but a bit more aggressive gearing that what I would have preferred.  No worries since the initial climbing is quite gentle.  I rode for a while with a gentleman that lives on the island half the year and he gave me encouragement.  He was only going up to 5000′.  Interestingly, I met the same person on my ride around the north side of West Maui on the road to Iao State Park.  “It’s no that big of an island” he told me.   All went well but at around 6500 feet I was getting concerned since my cadence had dropped to an uncomfortable level.  ” I should have gotten the Specialized Tarmac” I kept saying to myself since it is more relaxed.  Then I noticed that I had one more cog to drop to.  Man, that was like finding $20 in your pocked two days before pay-day.  With the lower gearing, I picked up the pace and motored up through the park.  I got to the top around 2:30 PM and met up with the family.  They had supported me the whole way up making sure I didn’t run out of water and in case I broke down.   The top was probably in the mid 50s and just a bit breezy.  I had on a light jacket and that was enough.

So, thanks again for the very informative site you put together for everyone else   And, don’t worry, you’re still ‘DA MAN’ of the mountain; with the extra climbing you did, no on will, or should, top that.

Thanks again,
OP, Sammamish (near Seattle), WA=

That's me at the top of Haleakala in November, 2005

Clearly, I need to make another trip to Maui and verify the accuracy of my information! Sure, “Octavian Popa” implies that it’s still relevant, but can you really be too sure without checking it out first-hand? Didn’t think so!

After all, I’ve got my folding high-performance BikeFriday, so all I have to do is get a ticket and go. Cost? Well, for just me, not so bad. But somehow I don’t think I’d be going to Hawaii and leaving my wife behind, which means having to plan around things for the shop to. Meantime, don’t pass up the opportunity yourself. Read about it on our Haleakala web page!

Sometimes it rains on your plans (even when you planned for rain!)

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We knew it was going to be raining today; one of those few times where the weather forecast is for 100% rain. Still don’t understand what 100% rain means, since anything 40% or above basically means it will rain, and 100% rain clearly doesn’t mean it’s going to rain any harder than a 40% rain day. It was fairly obvious though that it made since to plan for rain, so that’s what we did, a non-epic 45 mile ride out to the coast via Old LaHonda, 84 & Tunitas on the return. I’ve ridden up Tunitas when it was really coming down hard, and it was a lot of fun!

So today Kevin and I were prepared for having fun in the rain, but of course, the first thing that breaks up fun is that it didn’t really rain per so, just a persistant drizzle. What’s with that? Your bike is more messed up by drizzle than heavy rain; drizzle doesn’t clear anything off the road, nor does it wash your bike. It just creates muck, and without it seeming like the elements are against you, your motivation wanes. It’s also a bit less motivating when there’s nobody else out there riding, no rabbits to catch in front of you, no dogs trying to catch you from behind. Still, you’re on a bike, and at least you have the motivation of knowing that you’re out there while others are staying home, sitting out the storm. Or, as some might think, stupid people are out riding and smart people are waiting a few hours for it to clear up a bit!

The ride was not without its excitement though, when 3/4 of the way up Old LaHonda Kevin had one of his all-too-often-lately (and all-too-often-on-Old LaHonda) seizures. As is the case with most, he had enough warning that he was able to stop and get off the bike, but this one was strong enough that it gave him quite a headache afterward so we had to alter our plans and just loop over the backside of Old LaHonda and head home, turning our planned 45 mile ride into about 25.

A Coke in the rain. Kevin almost has the product-placement right, but he's obscuring the label a bit.

We did make a stop at the Sky Londa market for a Coke, since the caffeine would help with his headache (not as well as the meds he’s supposed to bring with him but didn’t, but the only thing more unexplainable than random seizures would be the general workings of the 18-year-old brain).

The red line shows the normal route home (over Jefferson); the squiggly stuff shows the short-cut Kevin chose.

Aside from the Coke, Kevin always feels progressively better (after one of his seizures) as he keeps riding, and for some reason wanted to do a tour of the back roads around the Easter Cross above Redwood City. So, add in another two miles of riding in circles (probably looks pretty strange on the Garmin readout!).

Not fun to think about my last ride for a week being a washout; late Monday night I fly to Washington, DC for the annual League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Summit, where we meet with every legislator on the ‘hill, trying to convince them that it makes sense to not cut bike projects out of the budget. I don’t get back until late late Thursday night/Friday morning, so my next ride will be a week from today.

Remember being *really* excited about your first nice bike?

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We’ve been visited a few times by this young man who’s got his eyes set on a Trek road bike, SLX I think. Pretty sure he’s brought in his parents and maybe Grandma or a caretaker or maybe all of the above; I think he wants everyone in his life to know how cool that bike would be for him. He’s been so bitten by the cycling bug that he reads and perhaps even relates to some of the writings of my almost-daily-diary.

When I was in his shoes, let’s see… hmm… OK, I was 10 or 11 at the time when I fell in love with the idea of a road bike. That would be… oh my… 43, almost 44 years ago! I’d saved up money from my paper route to buy an “Orly Tour de France” for $49 from Macys. I’d love to see the ad that enticed me to buy that bike, but truthfully, I don’t recall. I just remember that there was no way I could afford a Schwinn Varsity (the bike that Captain Kangaroo said I should have) (back when a Schwinn was a bike worth having) because they were $73 at the time, and this “Orly Tour de France” was just $49. So I bought it with the paper route money and, a year later, had enough to buy the Schwinn Varsity (not realizing until almost three years later that the Orly was a far better bike!).

That’s me, at the right, in my first race on my Gitane Tour de France. Cutoffs, leather helmet, t-shirt, nobody will deny the humble beginnings of my bike racing days!

That young man who’s been coming into the shop is at my “Orly” stage right now. Actually, he’s almost gone past that, because I didn’t really feel the way he does about a new bike until it was time for my first “real” racing bike, a Gitane Tour de France. For that bike, I had to gain support from my parents, since it was an outrageous (for then) $236. My technique was masterful; I convinced my father that the bike I was lusting after was the Gitane “InterClub” model, about $140 (still a lot of money for 1970 or ’71). And once I convinced him of the reasonableness of that bike, I then moved things up to the bike I actually planned to get. There was simply no way I was going to convince my father of the wisdom of a 15 year old buying a bike that cost the equivalent of maybe $1500-$2000 today in one swift motion. Yes, even though it was entirely my own money, it was still important, and perhaps required, that I have his approval for the purchase.

Maybe the young man I’m talking about (the one wanting the SLX, not me!) looks at that bike and sees the future. A machine capable of altering his space-time continuum by giving him a bit of independence and control over his surroundings, and multiplying his own physical capabilities. A discovery that real life adventures can be far more intense and satisfying than what you get with a computer game’s faux realism.

As we get older, it becomes increasingly difficult to find such long-lasting excitement in such simple things. We have our desires, sometimes our impossible (or unwise!)-to-attain fantasies, but once we get them, much if not all of the thrill is gone. But this young man has reminded me of the magically-transformative and lasting powers of the bicycle. There is no question that my cycling has helped me get through life more successfully, falling to fewer temptations, and healthier than I otherwise would have been. It’s been that solid foundation that I can depend upon, no matter what. Marriages have fallen, nations have crumbled, brilliant minds lost because someone didn’t have… a bicycle? Maybe that’s a bit (bit?) over-the-top, but only a bit.

Now you see why I’m in this business. Why I really couldn’t be doing anything else and feel like I was doing what I was meant to do. –Mike–

(Interesting that two of the most-significant bikes in my early life were both “Tour de France” models. And now, decades later, I’ve made a literal ritual out of visiting the Tour de France bike race, year after year (10 of the past 11?). The strange thing about this is that I didn’t have even a passing interest in the actual race back then. Even when I wrote about bike racing for the magazine Competitive Cycling, my interest was at best national, and primarily regional. But now, the trips to the Tour de France have come to be something I look forward to, my alternate universe in which bikes rule the world (once you get away from those pesky Gendarmes anyway!) and almost a second home, another place in the world I can feel comfortable in.)

What’s going first, me, or the road?

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Last night I went to bed hoping, maybe, the roads would be dry in the morning. It really was looking promising at 11pm, but I brought the rain bike up from the garage just in case. Unfortunately, at 7:04am (I tend to wake up a minute or so before the alarm goes off), it was wet outside, far too wet for the Madone. Darn. At least I was ready for it.

Kevin, Eric, John, Ludo and, for the climb up Kings, Marcos, all riding on the cusp of much-nicer weather (by the end of the ride, the roads were dry and it felt almost balmy, but in a very relative since, given that it was likely in the mid-50s). No Nigel for a while; he’s back home in the UK for a month or so (he splits his time between the Peninsula and the UK as his job requires). Since it was a Thursday, and Kevin was feigning weakness, we rode up through the park, which really is not easier, but delays the inevitable (since it’s a flat run for a bit on Greer Road instead of the immediate climb up Kings).

Apparently, our group isn’t too scary, since a squirrel ran across the road right in front of our wheels and, shortly after, we passed a deer who couldn’t care less about us as we climbed up through the park. Are we that insiginificant?

Without serious stabilization, this section of Old LaHonda doesn't have a future.

Still no rabbits out west-side Old LaHonda, but maybe they’ve headed for more-stable territory as the crumbling section of road shown in the photo continues to get worse, and won’t be getting better anytime soon if their idea of a “repair” involves dumping more asphalt into the depressions. As you cas see, the road is both falling off on the side, as well as sinking nastily at the other end. What’s happening is obvious; the road simply wasn’t expected to have to deal with powerhouse cyclists like us riding over it!

A note regarding next week’s rides- I’ll be missing both, as I head to Washington, DC, for the annual Bicycle Summit. Coming with me will be my daughter Becky, brother Steve and his wife Teri. We’re pulling out all the stops to try and convince those in DC that bicycle infrastructure shouldn’t be pulled from the budget, and that’s going to be a very tough sell this year! –Mike–