Monthly Archives: April 2011

Rabbits ahead, Dogs behind, a typical Tuesday ride at its best

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Sure, it could have been a bit warmer (39 up on Skyline), sure, I wish I had a motor like Fabian Cancellara to keep everyone in line. But it wasn’t raining, and I feel like I’m beginning to feel some benefit to my new-found status as a legit bicycle commuter, having to haul a hefty briefcase with laptop up Jefferson on my way home from work. When I get on my Madone after that, it feels like the bike’s got a jet engine!

No way am I going to remember everyone who showed up. John, Karl, Marcus, George, Millo, darn, forgetting one of the guys who shows up once in a while, plus Nigel and at least one other (oh, right, Robert, someone who might be becoming a regular again and goes way back to my racing days). Karen didn’t show up this morning, nor did Kevin, who is spending some time in Maine with his Mom after his Dad unexpectedly passed away.

I shot some very nice video but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be transferring from my camera to the computer at home (it had no problem playing on the computer & big TV at the shop though). I hung with Nigel & Marcus & John for as long as I could, surprisingly even longer than Nigel did, but I think that’s because my legs were covered & warm while his were bare and freezing up. We waited for stragglers and then pushed on again, gradually increasing the pace until once again there were guys off the front and guys off the back and me in the middle. Today was one of those days where it felt quite comforting being in the middle, and I’m beginning to feel stronger again. Today was also the first “real” Tuesday version of the ride, getting back to the start at 9:22am (the Tuesday ride typically finishes between 9:18 & 9:22 “in season”), and thinking back on it, there were many opportunities where we could have shaved half a minute here, half a minute there, without watching people disappear off the back, never to be seen again.

I’ll publish the youtube video link when I get things figure out.  –Mike–

Usual Sunday ride shortened by sale

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The usual Sunday ride is at least 60 miles, usually with my son, heading out to the coast or some sort of convoluted loop involving West Alpine that doesn’t quite make it all the way out to land’s end. But today our Redwood City store was open from noon-5pm for our big Spring sale, so the best we could get in was a pretty-darned-short 28 miler, heading up Kings Mtn, north on Skyline to 92, down to Canada Road & back. Not very challenging, but a good use of the few hours before opening up the store for what turned out to be a very successful day of sales.

The final-final-FINAL ride for the rain bike this season?

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The weather forecast had been for showers all day long today, and in fact, still shows showers/rain until 6pm. And yet, since at least 7:05am this morning, we’ve had quite a bit of sun, some wind, but no rain, not even a drizzle. Wet roads though, so I had no choice but to bring the rain bike.

Nigel riding up the valley on west-side Old LaHonda, with the continuation of the road on the other side clearly visible

Just Eric and Nigel (back from the UK) this morning, with the rest likely scared off by the rain that wasn’t. We rode at a fairly easy pace up the hill, or at least Eric and I did after I decided that staying on Nigel’s wheel would enforce anti-social behaviour (since I can’t carry on a conversation at anything over 80% effort). Yes, it was cool, but not really cold, and the broken clouds made for a beautiful backdrop. The run down 84 to west-side Old LaHonda was a slight grind due to headwinds coming off the coast, but I just glued myself to Nigel’s wheel and all was well.

West-side Old LaHonda? Let’s enjoy it while we can. I think one big truck, perhaps something like one of the propane trucks that frequently rumble through the coastal roads, could be enough to finish the road off. That will be a very sad day indeed.

The evil, deceptive telephone solicitor

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Being in business is interesting; you get a lot of cold-calls from salespeople trying to find ways to suck away a portion of whatever’s left over after you pay rent, taxes, health care, freight, industry fees, advertising, charitable contributions… the list goes on.

20 minutes ago I’m told someone’s calling from “Money Man 4Cash“, telling one of my staff that they called yesterday and I told them to call back today.

Nobody called yesterday. It was a cold-call tactic to try and get past normal screening procedures to speak to someone in charge of the money. I don’t fault my staff for letting the call through; they told me it sounded funny, but as tactics go, telling someone that you’re returning a call from so-and-so is probably the best shot at getting past the iron gate to the owner. So I took the call, knowing full well that it was a fraud (since I didn’t speak to any such person yesterday), let her speak her pitch briefly before interrupting her and asking why she lied to my staff and told her I asked they call back today. She said I did, at which point I told her that’s a poor way to do business, thanked her for calling and hung up. Continue reading →

New-guy Jim, Karl’s back, Robert makes an appearance and generally yet another great day to ride!

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As the weather turns nicer, it would seem normal that more people would show up for the every-Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride, but sometimes the opposite happens, as people find ways to do longer rides later in the day, and don’t want to be softened-up too much by a hard ride up the hill beforehand. But today, I think people just wanted to get out and ride!

A beautiful morning to ride up Kings Mtn. Spring is finally here!

Roll call? New-guy Jim from Foster City (mid-40s so he’s not wrecking the age curve too badly), Marcus, Kevin (pilot Kevin), Karen, George, Karl (back on the bike after taking some time off to play chess) and Robert, whom we haven’t seen in quite some time on our morning ride but I see often on my trips to the coast. Eight of us total, a good-sized group for the morning ride.

A bit cooler than I’d hoped for; very comfortable, no issue there, but at 48 degrees on the initial part of the climb, and never warming up past 50 on Skyline and the far side of the hill, my breathing was labored. I really look forward to mid-60s weather, since that’s when my lungs start to open up and I don’t sound like a leaky steam engine. I hung with the faster riders, who weren’t riding particularly fast, until we got to the steeper sections on the last quarter of the climb. George had already decided he was going to take the sprints today by going off the front ahead of me, and I was in no shape to bridge the gaps… that will come later.

Unfortunately Marcus didn’t head for home up on Skyline, so I found myself trying to stay glued to his rear wheel on the upper reaches of west-side Old LaHonda, well in front of the rest of the group, who had decided to ride at a more-sensible pace and enjoy the surrounding instead of being fixated on the distance between your front wheel and the rear wheel ahead.

The only thing to spoil a near-perfect ride was a red sedan that thought we were going too slowly down 84 so he decided to tailgate the guys at the back, which is never a comfortable situation. The car finally did pass us, in an extremely-dangerous location and nearly sent a car coming up the hill into a ditch… all to save maybe 4 seconds at the bottom, at most, since we were able to catch back up to him pretty quickly. He was probably running 10 minutes late for work and undoubtedly will blame us for the additional 9 minutes, 56 seconds.

Seizures, kidney issues, double-vision… what’s next? Obviously, more riding!

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The plan (remember, there’s always a plan) was to head out with Kevin (my son, not the pilot) shortly after 9am and do a ride similar to what I did alone last Sunday (head up Old LaHonda, down to Pescadero, Highway 1 to Gazos Creek, return to Pescadero via Cloverdale, north on Stage and back over the hill on 84). But about that time Kevin had developed some pretty strong double vision (one of those potential side effects of meds that you assume happens to someone else and not you) followed by a nasty headache. A reasonable case could be made that he was in no shape to ride a bike. It was suggested that I head out on my own (like last weekend) but instead I decided to wait this one out, however long it took. And it took a while. It wasn’t until 1pm or so that he was up to getting out on a bike, which kinda killed off a 78-mile ride, but it did give me time to figure out what Google adwords are all about (supposedly the best way to advertise to your customers) and fix a few things on the website.

I lied when I said I didn't bring a camera on this ride; I captured this Poppy-fied hillside on Stage Road near San Gregorio with my iPhone's camera.

It was a stunningly-beautiful day when we finally got out on our bikes. Mid-to-upper 60s (dropping as low as 57) and clear skies. The type of day you’re really glad to have your camera with you, the one you discover you forgot at home. Hate that. Probably my first ride without a camera in years. It should have felt a lot better to be out riding on a day like this than it did, at least at first. Something about being “ready” at 9am but not getting out until 1pm, being quite literally all-dressed-up-with-no-place-to-go, made the ride seem a bit mechanical for a while, but eventually we settled in to an enjoyable ride… up Old LaHonda, over Haskins to Pescadero, north on Stage Road and back to Woodside via 84.

No stop for refueling in Pescadero; Kevin figured we’d be fine riding straight through, but I did make sure he ate some ClifShots before the long run back on 84. 61 miles total, probably less than 5000ft of climbing, so not really that challenging a ride, were it not for issues that Kevin continues to face. It’s taken a lot of patience on my part, rearranging my plans and expectations, but those are mere inconveniences compared to the stuff he’s been through. His kidney issues (thankfully behind him now) and now double-vision, both related to his meds for epilepsy, have been challenges no kid should have to face, but once on a bike, life somehow seems to become normal for a while. That’s probably the main reason I’m still doing the July gig in France, following the Tour de France bike race with him. Something “normal” that he can look forward to.

Yesterday’s ride

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Yes, I did ride yesterday, and it was just a bit different from the norm. Only John & Markus & darn, blanking out on this which is why it’s so important for me to get these ride reports in without much delay! Ah, now I’m remembering, Millo was there at the start; he’d planned to leave early but had a flat. He dropped back pretty quickly on the climb, probably because his tire was low on air and slowing him down, so I hung with the fast guys until dropping off to check up on Millo about halfway up.

I drifted to a crawl and finally backtracked a bit to finally find Millo, at the start of the “open” section, with yet another flat tire. I loaned him a tube, helped him check his rimstrip (but not well enough, as he had more flats later), and then rode on, knowing the other guys would have stopped waiting for me and continued riding. Meantime, Syl rides on past on his way to the coast just as I’m about to get going, so eventually I’ve got company again on the run along Skyline and down 84 to west-side Old LaHonda.

Heading up west-side Old LaHonda, you can look across the valley and see where you’ll be in another 8 minutes or so, but I saw nobody; John would have been much farther ahead by now. So I was really surprised when I did come across 3 guys a bit further on, and even-more surprised by who they were. Jan (who’d been spending a lot of time at Tahoe this winter), Eric and Karl. They’d all met, by coincidence, about 5 minutes before the normal start of the ride, and all figured they could use a bit of a head start. This is the new chess-playing Karl (we’re going to have to find a way for him to play chess while riding if we’re going to get him back in shape!), not the killer-Karl that I’m used to. I suspect it won’t be long before he’s his old self again.

This ride was truly like no other before. I spent time with at least three sets of people on the road, on a day as unlike last Thursday as could possible be (last Thursday being the infamous “yellow blob” on the weather radar day). But still, no rabbits. Maybe soon.