Tag Archives: Kings Mountain

This road ain’t going nowhere. Not. Let’s enjoy West-side Old LaHonda while we can!

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It’s funny the rituals you get into. When it was raining for months on end (or seemed to be), you get into the habit of waking up, opening the shades a bit and checking to see how wet the streets are. This morning, I knew it was going to be nice outside, but I still did exactly the same thing. Woke up, opened the shades a bit and expected to find wet streets. Thank goodness that’s over!

Just a few of us this morning, under bright skies with strong shadows, just the way I like it. Eric, George, Karen and, just for the run up to Skeggs, Marcus (that’s his usual gig; I don’t recall how long it’s been since he’s done the whole ride with us). A pretty easy pace up the hill, although I did try one hard interval, dropping back for a couple hundred meters and then sprinting back up to the lead group. I made it, but with nothing in the tank to spare (thanks partly to the beginning of a cold that I noticed coming on last night and can now confirm its quite real tonight).

This section of west-side Old LaHonda may not have much of a future

Road conditions were surprisingly good; most have held up well despite three solid weeks of rain. Most, not all. That crumbling section of west-side Old LaHonda is becoming narrower by the day, with a very soft, energy-sucking feel as you ride across it. There’s simply nothing supporting the asphalt they’ve dumped onto it, in a cheap attempt to keep the road intact. It’s not going to work; I got the feeling that a single truck driving over that section would be enough to do it in. There are many other areas where the surface is crumbling, but not in danger of falling away, as adjacent hillsides have slipped and basically changed the land the road sits on.

I doubt that the county has the funds to do much road reconstruction these days, and for the few homes along the road, it probably wouldn’t be too much of a hardship for them to have to either head up to Skyline or down to 84 if the road were split in two. The ideal situation for cyclists would be if there remained enough of a cow-path that we could still get through, but not cars.

Millo’s ride report (while Mike’s away)

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Mike – just in case you think we all stay home when you are away. Quite the social day:

A balmy 46 degrees at the start. A light rain had passed thru around 6 so the roads were wet. By 7:45 we had a few “blue clouds” winking at us through the cloud layer. Kevin, John, picked up Chris on Skyline, two others whose names escape me. In honor of your absence we went up through the Park and found both bottom and top gates wide open for us. A brief stop at the entrance to disrobe. I was way off the pace and told them to go ahead and I’d catch them at the top of WOLH. While climbing up Skyline to WOLH I met Larry, one of the 9:00 ride guys, who had headed up Kings early and was clearing the road for your ride. He’s doing a TNT ride Saturday and looking forward to the projected 31 degree temperatures. After a word with him I headed off and met a runner who just happens to be the daughter of my parents’ college housemate. A quick word with her and then the guys were coming along Skyline so I bid a hasty adieu and hot footed after them – only to have my left shift lever snap off and go flying into the roadside bushes. So my 20 speed is now a 10 speed and I’m stuck in my 39 front chain ring. At least I still have 10 working gears! Fortunately the wet roads kept everybody tame so I could hang on down 84 and then peeled off and limped home on Mt Home where I met up with Steve Lubin and six of the 9:00 ride guys who were heading over to Alpine Rd. Quite the social morning as that’s a total of 14 people I chatted with. Try doing that in an automobile!

Be safe,  Millo

That road’s gonna go… and what happened to Ludo & Eric?

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Cool, yes, but not raining! As I’ve said before, we can take rain, we can take wet, but the two together aren’t much fun. This morning, for the most part, was fun. Despite being a Tuesday ride (typically the harder one), the testosterone had been left at home, so Ludo, John, Eric, Nigel and I had a pretty civilized ride, with nothing getting tested until West-side Old LaHonda, and even that was pretty moderate.

Speaking of tested, I finally figured out how to shoot viewable video from my Contour HD1080 camera. Prior to this, everything’s been really jerky as each bump jostles the camera and causes it to vibrate. My solution was a bit unorthodox and definitely not very pretty, but the results were great!

I’ll post the results shortly; I’m uploading about 15 minutes of video to YouTube. It’s unedited and without audio, but you’ll get an idea of what West-side Old LaHonda is like, including the run through the forest which, until now, has been nearly unfilmable.

Regarding the “road’s gonna go” teaser, I’m talking about that section of West-side Old LaHonda where the road has been slipping away and they’ve done some cheap & temporary fill to try and keep things in place. Well, after last week’s rain, the pavement in the area is crumbling and it’s not going to be too long before the roadway won’t support a large vehicle. Our fear is that they might stop maintaining the road entirely, letting that section completely slip away because, after all, how many actually need to use it as a through road (other than cyclists)? Hopefully the video I shot today won’t have historical value in the near future.

I was having a bit of fun heading down 84, with the dry pavement letting me push through the corners a bit harder so I had no trouble keeping up with Nigel and John, but about halfway down noticed that Eric and Ludo were no longer with us. Sometimes Eric can be a bit conservative on the descents, so I didn’t think too much of it until we got to the bottom and… no Eric, no Ludo. We waited… and waited… John kept on riding for a bit but Nigel and I headed back up the hill, hoping we weren’t going to find them picking up pieces of their bikes from the roadway and admiring each others road rash. Fortunately, the more-likely and less-painful scenario played out. Eric had gotten a flat, and Ludo stayed to help (good thing, since Eric’s pump didn’t work). Unfortunately, Nigel and I had to climb almost halfway back up 84 before intercepting them on their way down!

But adding a few more miles and a bit more climbing on a nice morning with a friendly group of cyclists… there are a lot worse ways to start the day.  –Mike–

Yes, I rode this morning

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Yes, I rode this morning. My first semi-epic rain ride of the season, which tends to be a bit problematic in getting out the door, since last-minute changes to the stuff I got out the night before are inevitable as I look out the window and see rain and feel cold radiating a foot away from the glass. Yes, this is going to be challenging.

I’m rigid about this ride starting on time, but this morning that just wasn’t going to happen, or at least the part of the ride that includes me. I’ve got a new pair of waterproof Gore gloves that are beyond-challenging to get on. How do people do it? Lined gloves just don’t like my fingers. I can usually get three into place, four maybe, but the small finger on my right hand just wasn’t cooperative, especially when the other hand required to help already had a glove on it. So back into the house I go, asking for help from my wife and not dealing very well with my frustration as I watch a few precious minutes go by. Eventually I’m out on the road, and arrive three minutes late to the start, where… nobody is waiting. Continue reading →

Any wheel in a storm

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OK, it wasn’t really a storm, but the roads were wet enough from last-night’s rain that it was time to get the rain bike out of the garage, with its fenders, wider all-weather non-slip tires and cheaper wheels that I don’t mind so much about grinding into the ground from brake wear. It’s simply nowhere near as fun or efficient to ride as my Madone, but it’s a lot more fun riding in the muck than sitting at home thinking about riding in the muck.

Just a few of us out there this morning; myself, John, Karen and George. Unfortunately for me, all three are stronger than I am on Kings, causing me to lose contact just about three quarters of the way up the climb, but never more than half a corner behind. Still, despite having to fight my way up the hill on tires that are anything but responsive (if you don’t think tires can completely change the personality of your bike, think again!), I did get up in just under 30 minutes, definitely faster than I thought I’d be doing. Oh, right, I’ll blame my rain bike for one other thing- Flinstone bearings. It’s making an awful racket from both the crankset and the rear wheel, undoubtedly caused by bearings that are no longer round.

That’s the beauty of a true rain bike. You replace things when they’re destroyed, rather than worrying about something not working quite right. But- please, please, PLEASE don’t treat your nice bike like that!!! One ride in the rain, just one, can cause enough damage to require a couple of hours of cleaning and continued riding in the rain will require far more frequent replacement of tires, brake pads and even wheels. If you’ve got a nice road bike that you place value in having run properly with good shifting & brakes, get a second bike for rain.

Getting back to the ride, I did start feeling better as it went on, becoming increasingly confident I could hold onto whatever wheel was in front of me,  although I didn’t have a choice in wheels as we headed west towards Old LaHonda, since both John and Karen had to get early and cut the ride short. Thankfully George was in a merciful mood today!

Don’t get Nigel started about doping in Pro Cycling. He will hurt you!

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Let’s see, today’s crew… Claude (who’s shown up on some TurkeyDay rides and a few years ago, I think, a regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride), Eric, Kevin, Ludo, Nigel, John. 7 total. Feels like I’m missing someone? Beautiful cloudless morning with a bright sun, just the slightest hint of a breeze (so much unlike Tuesday!), and a bit on the cool side. Eric saw 37 degrees on a computer that he says reads a bit high. 35 might have been the actual temperature, which to some might sound darn right cold, but when the sun’s shining, you’re dressed reasonably warmly and you keep moving at a decent clip, it’s really not that bad. It doesn’t hurt that you know it’s going to get warmer as you go!

We did the ride through the park, with a bit of a rude awakening at the bottom entrance when we were surprised by a park truck heading out as we were heading in. The odds of that are so atronomical you don’t even think about the possibility, so when it suddenly appeared, there wasn’t even time to think about riding around it, we all just rode off the road (not a problem as it was flat dirt) and stopped. It seemed like a far more dramatic encounter than it actually was.

We’re going to have to pace ourselves a bit better on the way up through the park though; since once again we got to the top just a minute, maybe less, before the park ranger (in the same truck?) came by to open it up. This enforced the mandatory regroup, since those of us in the lead walked our bikes around the closed gate, giving those a bit behind a chance to catch up and ride through. Somehow that put me up in front a bit with Nigel, which was fine, for a while. He was riding a pretty consistent pace, something my lungs could keep up with, until somehow the subject of doping in professional cycling in general, and the Tour de France specifically, came up.

Nigel’s a strong believer in Floyd’s tell-all stories, while I have some strong reservations because I know of several things that he has absolutely positively made up since supposedly coming clean and telling the truth about everything (the most-glaring example being his assertions that he was racing on second-rate equipment compared to everyone else, while the truth is that everyone on US Postal and later Discovery had current-model bikes in exceptional shape, which I know because I was at a training camp as well as the team hotel during the Tour de France once year, and got to inspect their bikes). It’s my opinion that Floyd “fills in the gaps” with stories that seem plausible based on other things he’s said. I seriously don’t think he even realizes it when he still lies about things; he can’t help himself. His credibility, with me, is extremely low, and not just because he fooled me badly and took a small amount of money from me via the “Floyd Fairness Fund.” I just don’t buy into the instant-conversion theory. Remember, this is the same Floyd that was there, in the same room, as his friend who called Greg LeMond and claimed to be an uncle of his (Greg’s) who had abused him as a child. And didn’t do anything about it. That speaks volume about someone’s character, and the substantiated lies that followed after his conversion are enough to put me well past “trust, but verify.” I’d say it’s more like “Don’t trust this guy until you have corroborating evidence.” Just because he’s saying things that seem plausible doesn’t mean they are. Remember he still denies taking testosterone in the TdF.

Stopping for Nigel's bike repair on Kings. Left to right is Kevin, Nigel, Claude & John.

OK, a very long-winded way of saying I really would have liked to have engaged Nigel in conversation on the way up, except that the more he talked about doping, the faster he rode. He was like a man possessed, an inner anger that he was unleashing on his pedals (and me!). So I’m just barely hanging on, with lungs that just don’t work in the cold, completely unable to respond (either vocally or with the pedals). So Nigel, if you’re reading this, the paragraph above pretty much says what I would have liked to have said when you were, as Phil Liggett would say, turning the pedals in anger! It’s possible that Nigel was in so much anger that that’s what caused him to break his bike almost at the top of Kings. Well OK, he didn’t break his bike but had a problem with his seatpost, which required stopping for repair.

Can you ever get too many pictures of the view of the coast from west-side Old LaHonda?

This was a Thurday ride, so in general it was reasonably-moderate in pace. We were missing some of the guys who suffer from too much natural (I assume it’s natural) testosterone- George, Karl and Chris. Not that Kevin and John can’t start something on their own, but we lacked the critical mass for a Tuesday sort of ride. At least that was the case until we got to west-side Old LaHonda, when Kevin and… darn, Nigel I think, took off as we entered the forrest, and it was a bit of time before John and I reacted. Of course I didn’t realize Ludo was on our tail, until way too late. Not that I could have done anything about it, other than maybe pass on the sprint up that final steep pitch to Skyline, which might have seemed more dignified that at least trying and then coming to a nearly-complete stop about a quarter of the way from the top.

At Skyline we met up with several other long-time Chain Reaction customers who’d come up east-side Old LaHonda, including Dennis, whose hub had been giving him (and us) trouble for some time and had taken us forever to get the right parts for, so it was with a small measure of fear & trepidation that I asked if it was working OK. Thankfully, it was. Moments like that are always risky, but not to be avoided. Better to know and find a way to take care of something if it’s still not quite right.

The only noteworthy event after that was the disappearance of Claude. We don’t know where we left him, but at the bottom of 84 (in Woodside), he was nowhere to be seen. Yikes. That’s not the way this ride is supposed to be run, and I take responsibility for that. I don’t recall Claude mentioning anything about turning right at the bottom of the hill and I sure hope he didn’t end up with a flat somewhere along the descent. It’s not like there’s 30 people for me to keep track of. I’m going to make a point of working on this in the future. –Mike–

I’ve trained these guys well

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I time things very well; I know exactly how long it takes me to get going in the morning, when I have to get out the door, how fast I need to ride to get to the start of the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride in time. If I’m feeling really good, it takes just over 8 minutes to climb over Jefferson and head down Canada to Olive Hill. If my legs feel like a caffeine junkie who’s been given decaf, it can take up to 2 minutes longer. I plan on slower and hope for faster. What I didn’t plan on was feeling slow and having to fight a nasty headwind getting to the start, so I arrived with a scan 20 seconds to spare. George, Karl & Chris, if I recall correctly, were all suggesting that I had arrived late, something unthinkable for a ride that leaves on time, period. Fortunately, Eric was there as well, and he, like myself, has a Garmin GPS bike computer that gets its time from a satellite, and knew that it was, in fact, still 7:44 and some number of seconds.

So, without any time to chat, we did leave at precisely 7:45am, just as we always do. At one point there were 10 of us; I’ll try and recall everyone. George, Karl, Karen, Chris, Eric, John, Ludo, Marcus, and one other person beside myself. Nigel! OK, I think I’ve got them all. Overall the ride was as leisurely (at least for some of us) as it was windy. Most of the time we were protected by trees so the primary effect of the wind was noise, a vey loud noise very much in contrast with the relative calm below.

Eric and Ludo rounding a bend on west-side Old LaHonda

Yes, it was a beautifully-clear morning on the coast, while curiously-hazy on the bay side. I took the mandatory photos of the view from west-side Old LaHonda, but when I discovered that some of our group had dropped behind a bit, I stopped a bit further up to get a picture from a different vantage point, as you can see here. That’s Ludo & Eric heading up around the last corner before heading into the trees.

Oh yes, about those trees. Those trees that initially protected us from the wind. On our return, descending 84, George was literally attacked, not once, but twice, by Eucalyptus branches falling in front of him. After the second one, we decided it wasn’t too safe to be around George and gave him plenty of room! Too bad I didn’t have the video camera running today; there would have been a great shot of him swerving to avoid his second encounter.