It’s just not that much fun when you wake up, expecting to get out on your nice bike for a nice ride, and it’s wet outside. Not what the forecast said. Cold, yes. Wet? No. So we rush to get the rain bikes ready, which involves moving the seat & seatpost over from Kevin’s former rain bike (which he’s now using to commute to school) to his new rain bike, the way-cool Foundry with disc brakes. I ask if he’s got a tape measure to set the seat height right; he acts like it’s no big deal, tightens it down, and we take off. But not before dad wisely grabs an allen wrench and puts it in his back pocket.

Kevin, Kevin, John, Mark & darn, forgetting his name, tall guy, friendly guy, commutes back and forth between here and the UK on a regular basis. Grrr… just can’t pull the name out of my head. Hate that! He was claiming to be out of shape and slow, so the two of us rided up the regular way, while the rest of the guys did the Thursday thing and rode up through the park. Good idea we did it this way, because the two of us just barely made it before Kevin (not the pilot) and Mark came barreling up the hill.

And that was pretty much the end of it for Kevin. He stayed ahead of me for about half a mile, and then faded, fast. He was barely moving at one point, saying that his legs felt awful, probably because his seat height was maybe an inch and a half low. And maybe just not feeling great in general. Whatever the case, we headed back down 84 while the rest of the group did the “real” ride (which includes west-side Old LaHonda).

Regarding Kevin’s new bike, a Foundry cross bike with disc brakes… yes, I’m quite jealous. He doesn’t have to worry that he’s grinding through his rim on long descents, and in general has far better braking power in the wet stuff. If Trek doesn’t come out with something like it soon, I’ll probably get a Foundry myself. It really is a cool bike (and we’ll finally be getting more of them in next week).  –Mike–