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Started day with ride support in Foster City, then got to ride in the heat


On the left, you're seeing a kids bike's brake pad so badly worn it was about to go into the spokes, halting the bike and launching the rider. To the right you see Kevin checking and re-checking to make sure he's seeing things right- a new bike with fork installed backward. At least this time we got to do more than just pump up tires!
On the left, you're seeing a kids bike's brake pad so badly worn it was about to go into the spokes, halting the bike and launching the rider. To the right you see Kevin checking and re-checking to make sure he's seeing things right- a new bike with fork installed backward. At least this time we got to do more than just pump up tires!


Sensible people got out on early rides today, beating the heat. Kevin and I didn't get to be sensible; we were doing mechanic support for Foster City's annual community bike ride. Normally that involves inflating a whole lot of tires; still did this year too. But as you can see in the photos, well, some bikes weren't ready for prime time, and a few were downright death traps. Well, that's why they have us at the event. We got the two bikes in the photos, plus an assortment of other bikes with "interesting" issues, reasonably safe to ride.

The Mastadon is down again!
The Mastadon is down again! Must have been the heat.


By the time we got out on our own ride, it was precisely noon, allowing us to take full advantage of our high-temp training in France as we rode through Woodside in the mid-90s (not all that bad, really), up Old LaHonda in the mid-80s (yeah, would be nicer to climb in cooler temps), La Honda back up to mid-90s (most of the turtles didn't even like that, choosing to stay in the water at the duck pond, instead of sunning themselves on the floating platforms), back to the mid-80s on the coast, 75 to 85 climbing Tunitas, and back into the mid-90s at the bottom of Kings.

It wasn't an easy ride; the Interbike trade show kept me from riding both Tuesday's & Thursday's morning rides, and Kevin... well, he should have ridden, but slept in. The result? 24 minutes up Old LaHonda instead of 22, a couple extra minutes up Haskins too, and Kevin was pretty slow on the middle (steep) section of Tunitas. He did recover on the flatter section up top, picking up enough speed that it was tough to stay on his wheel!
Post date: 2015-09-21 01:22:00
Post date GMT: 2015-09-21 08:22:00
Post modified date: 2015-09-21 01:22:00
Post modified date GMT: 2015-09-21 08:22:00
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