Tag Archives: rain

Cold, wet, 2 flats, let’s not do this again!

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I woke up briefly at 4am this morning, looked out the window and saw clearing skies. Ah, maybe the weather was going to hold off! Back to sleep until 6:55am when I woke up to… rain. No quite right; at most a light drizzle, but really wet streets. Thankfully, I’d already made sure our rain bikes were ready, so Kevin and I dutifully hit the road at 7:31am, a few minutes earlier than normal ‘cuz the rain bikes are a bit slower and you’re somehow just a bit less inspired when all bundled up and staring into gray skies that are literally descending upon you.

First flat, descending 84. 37 degrees, raining pretty hard. Not fun!

First flat, descending 84. 37 degrees, raining pretty hard. Not fun!

Just one other silly person at the start, the other Kevin. It’s a bit confusing on a ride in which the only other people are both named Kevin; I decided to call the older guy (the pilot who’s done this ride with me for 20+ years) “Captain” and the other Kevin, the 20 year old whippersnapper who shares my last name and address… well, still trying to figure that one out. It wasn’t a pretty ride by any standard; 33 minutes up Kings tells that story! Not so bad across the top (Skyline) although we did notice the temperature steadily dropping, which isn’t normal. It’s supposed to start out cold and get warmer, not start out cold and get colder.

flat2But nothing too exciting, no drama, until just prior to heading back down 84 “Captain” Kevin notices his rear tire is low and stops to inflate it. We make it about 3/4 of the way down the hill before it’s nearly flat again, so we stop to replace it. In a very cold (about 37 degrees according to my Garmin) and steadily-increasing rain. Cold and wet enough that, after “Captain” Kevin used a CO2 cartridge and placed it on top of his gloves and the old tube on the ground, everything literally froze together. Seriously. And I didn’t get a photo! Darn.

Post-ride coffee not optional today, but required!

Post-ride coffee not optional today, but required!

We then proceeded down the rest of 84 and got less than half a mile down the road before his tire went flat. Again. This time with a bit of a bang, because during the inflation he’d apparently pushed the valve up into the tire a bit, causing the tube to wrap down underneath and rip. Sigh. At least it was now 41 degrees. 10 minutes later we were off again, no more drama the last few miles, and finally, clearing skies. We were left wondering if it was going to be a beautiful day for riding just as soon as we finished, but fortunately, that didn’t turn out to be the case as the blustery weather continued for most of the day.

It was a very, very good feeling finally getting up over Jefferson, half an hour behind schedule, knowing a hot shower was in my immediate future. One of those hot showers where your gradually-thawing hands become incredibly painful as they finally warm up, and one of those mornings where a Caramel Latte at Peet’s wasn’t optional, it was required.

Could we have skipped this morning and ridden tomorrow, when it will be much nicer, instead? That’s what most people would do, but we’re not most people. When it’s time to ride, it’s time to ride, and you can’t let the world tell you otherwise. That’s just how we roll. We’re stupid that way. Curiously, looking at Strava, very few others were out riding this morning. Wonder why?

10-minute recap of Sunday’s wet coastal ride

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Took a few times to get the quality reasonable; the default upload quality was horrible, so I rendered it as a high-quality AVI file, about 1.2 gigs, and uploaded that. Now it’s watchable! You can even select 1080 HQ resolution.

2 hours 47 minutes edited down to 10 minutes that gives you an idea of what this ride is like (“this ride” being Woodside, Old LaHonda, San Gregorio, Tunitas Creek, Kings Mtn, Woodside). –Mike–

If you ride in the rain, check your rims!!!

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To check your rim for wear, hold a straight edge across it (in this photo, a tire lever was used) and see how much it's worn away in the center. Many/most modern rims will have wear indicators you can look for; they're often little indented dots which will disappear (because they've worn down) when the rim is too thin to be safe.

We’re seeing a lot of bikes coming in the door with rim sidewalls so worn that tire pressure is soon going to explode the rim apart. I’ve actually been on rides where this has happened to people, and it’s not a good thing; you can suddenly have your wheel completely lock up because it will no longer go through the brake.

How does this happen? If you ride in the rain, you pick up a mixture of road crud, water and ground brake pad that is as abrasive as sandpaper, so every time your brake is applied, you’re wet-sanding the rim. Gradually the rim becomes thinner, and eventually gets to the point that it’s no longer strong enough to hold the tire in place. That’s when it literally explodes.

It’s hard to remember what a normal winter is like; we haven’t seen rain in so long we’ve forgotten about last year! If you did ride your bike anytime between November and late May last year, chances are you rode in the rain. Many people who normally wouldn’t ride in the rain eventually gave up and did ride, because the dry days were few & far between. As a result, we’re seeing a lot more seriously rain-damaged bikes (not just wheels, but chains, cassettes and cranks too) than we’d normally expect.

We need to be really clear about the fact that riding in the rain drastically accelerates wear & tear on your bike, especially high-performance bikes. One mile in the rain damages your bike at least as much as 100 miles on a normal (dry) day. Sometimes even worse. For those of us who ride no-matter-what, the smart thing is to have your “nice” bike and a separate “rain” bike. The “rain” bike is usually the bike you rode before buying your new cool lighter/faster/smoother machine, a bike that’s not meant to be pretty but needs to be basically functional. You’re going to install fenders on it, wider tires (yes, they slow you down but you need more traction in the wet) and cheap wheels, because the rims are going to wear out pretty fast. Sorry, there’s nothing you can do about that, short of using a bike with disc brakes. You’re going to be replacing chains and cassettes and chainrings far more often, due to wear, than on your nice bike… the but price of the parts will be far cheaper, because you’re not worried about weight, you’re worried about stuff that works.

But for now, go check the rims on your bike and see what they look like. You don’t want your wheel to explode on you. For what it’s worth, I go through a set of rims every 18 months or so on my rain bike. Desending from Skyline in the rain does that; and if you want to accelerate the process absurdly, descend Kings Mtn in the rain. Why Kings Mtn? Because there’s no point where you can let off the brakes. You’re grinding away the rim the entire descent. On 84, the more-gradual grade means you use the brakes less and wind resistance helps to slow you down as well. How bad is Kings? I’ve gone through a set of brake shoes on just one descent.

Nobody out here but us Turkeys!

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Riding up Tunitas Creek in the rain

I can’t really blame anyone for not showing up for the annual TurkeyDay Trot this morning; the weather forecast had been for rain, starting at about 8am, and ending about noon. And our ride started this morning at 8am, and finished… just before noon! This was one of those rare times the weatherman really got it nailed; I woke up around 6:15am when my wife got up to do something with the turkey (what, I’m not sure) and it was completely dry out and not even that threatening-looking! But I went back to sleep knowing this, too, shall pass.

So yes, we got pretty wet, and it was reasonably cold, but hardly epic. In fact, it was disappointing it didn’t rain harder, because we were dressed for whatever came our way. I even had a rack on my rain bike with a rack-top bag filled with extra jackets and gloves, just in case.

The original plan had been to do the Pescadero/Tunitas loop, but this was one of those days where the motivation wasn’t there, and I was easily able to rationalize the need to get back at a reasonable hour to get the “Black Friday” sale email finished. And Kevin (yes, my son at least rode with me!) was pushing to cut it back even shorter!

As it was Kevin bonked, and running out of fuel on a day when even the San Gregorio General Store is closed (a very rare event; where did people go for Bloody Mary’s to take the edge off their hangovers?) caused problems because… he had forgotten to put the Honey Stinger energy bars back into his seat bag. But we did have enough Cytomax to get him up over Tunitas and home. Of course he first tried to ditch me at the bottom, but I got even further up the hill.

Someone asked “How do you motivate yourself to get out and ride during the winter months?”

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Motivation? Don’t look for motivation. Just do it! If you’ve decided to be a rain-or-shine kind of cyclist, then you find yourself actually looking forward to “epic” winter rides. Make sure you’ve got a separate rain/utility bike, with wider tires (it’s not about speed, it’s about not slipping on paint stripes or getting flats) and possibly a bit more relaxed riding position (because if you’re heavily bundled up you might not feel comfortable in your normal riding position).

It’s quite the challenge for my group, because our Tuesday/Thursday-morning training ride includes 3300ft of climbing and, of course, 3300ft of descending. What you learn is that it’s very important to keep up a consistent pace because if you relax the cold and wet will get to you very quickly. Dress in a way that you’ll remain warm even if soaking, because there’s no truly waterproof cycling stuff out there. The high-tech stuff (including GoreTex) won’t keep up with a cyclist at high output… you end up as soaked on the inside as things are on the outside.

You could, of course, just set up a trainer in front of a TV and watch your favorite races, but there’s a small number of us who would rather ride through a hurricane than sit on a trainer. Mental defect of some sort. Or just a refusal to believe that anything can stop you and your bicycle. Do keep in mind that I’m in Northern California so the worst winter will throw at me are a few 40 degree days with driving rain, or upper-20s but dry, or once in a while, snow at the higher parts of our ride. We also rarely see ice, because it’s typically dry when it’s that cold. –Mike–

Hope nobody believed the weatherman and didn’t ride today!

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On our way to the Sequoia Century. Looked like, and was, a very nice day!

I went to bed last night not knowing what I’d be waking up to; the weather report said it was going to rain during the night, let up for a while, and then showers throughout the day. Not the weather report you want to hear for the day of the Sequoia Century, one of my favorite rides, and an essential part of getting Kevin in shape for France. I had a “Plan B” in place, getting my rain bike ready and opting for the 100k instead of 100 miles if I woke up to rain. Even that wouldn’t be much fun; two hours of rain is about as much as I can take and still consider it “fun”; anything past that is pretty miserable.

Coyotes along Skyline

But when the alarm went off at 6:30am (yuck!), I looked out the window and saw dry roads and broken skies. I got Kevin up about 15 minutes later, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and by 7:20am we were out the door and riding towards the start, at the Palo Alto VA hospital, a half hour away. Back in the day we would have driven, but why? For the Sequoia Century, it makes more sense to start from home and end at home, since it comes within 3 or 4 miles on the return. When we got to the start things were pretty quiet for a sold-out ride; I suspect quite a few people assumed the worst and didn’t even set their alarm clocks. They missed a great day to ride!

Kevin at the Boulder Creek rest stop

Oh sure, it wasn’t great by historical standards, but in my revisionist weather world, any day that it’s not actually raining is a good, even great day to ride. We’ve suffered through so much these past five months, so much rain to be specific, and sure it’s great to not have to worry about a water shortage, but from a purely selfish standpoint, droughts are great for the bicycle business and it’s not such a bad thing to get people into water conservation because California’s future is going to have even more people, and thus more demand on resources, than we have today.


Saw quite a few of our customers on the ride, including Sam (and fan of Amy in our Los Altos store), and everyone was having a good time… with the exception of the guy we came across on the Bear Creek Road descent who’d had a run-in with a car and had likely broken his hip or pelvis, an injury that takes quite a while to heal. Bear Creek (which runs between Boulder Creek and Skyline) is infamous for careless and callous drivers, and today was unfortunately no exception. But the high points included seeing three coyotes (a pair up on Skyline and another walking across the road on the Alpine descent) and watching Kevin kick into high gear twice, first on the upper stretches of Highway 9 climbing up from Boulder Creek, and then again on the upper parts of Tunitas Creek. This was notable because he was pretty spent before finding his legs again, and it’s now becoming clear to him that his performance climbing is a function not just of his legs but his mind as well. And, of course, thanks go to the Western Wheelers Bicycle Club for an exceptionally well-run event!

Chain Reaction's traditional "Secret Soda Stop" at the top of Tunitas Creek, manned by Sal (his 5th or 6th year at this!) and Patrick, who provided mechanical services.

It wasn’t our fastest century; 14.5mph average speed, compared to 15.7 on last-Sunday’s Santa Cruz loop, but at 102 miles & 9264ft of climbing, it was quite a bit tougher (and yes, I’ll admit that our 15.7mph average the prior week was aided a bit by some strong tail winds on the coast). But we did make it back within 30 seconds of our planned time of 3:45pm, allowing us to take showers and get dressed before Kevin’s 4pm graduation open house. –Mike–

Was that the last of the rain? Maybe? Please?

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Easter Sunday. The plan (as always, there’s a plan) was to head out fairly early so Kevin (my son, not the pilot) and I could get in a good hard ride and get back in time for the traditional early Easter Sunday dinner (2:30pm for the usual honey-baked Ham, a scalloped-potato dish, string beans with sliced almonds, the usual holiday fare) and then later on head to a 5pm church service run by Pastor Ben, one of our customers and all-around good guy.

The ride was supposed to be up & over Old LaHonda to the coast, Stage Road south to Pescadero, over Haskins and then up West Alpine and return north on Skyline. A reasonably-ambitious ride that would require us to get out on the road by 8:30am or so, certainly no later than 9. 8:30 wasn’t going to happen; it was raining lightly but with a promise of clearing soon. 9:30 and it was still wet out, too wet for my nice bike. We finally hit the road at 10:30, with the pavement having been dried by some fairly stiff winds, and a modified itinerary consisting of climbing Kings, south on Skyline to 84, down to LaHonda and back via West Alpine. A perfectly-reasonable ride, except that we didn’t count on the equivalent of heavy rain and relative-cold (49 degrees) up on top, with the appearance of more of the same if we were to head further west.

By the time we got to Sky Londa we were cold and totally soaked through, not having planned for anything more than light rain, so we rode down 84 back into Woodside, at which point Kevin was thinking we were simply heading back home. Er, no. We needed to get some miles under our butts and generate some heat to dry out our clothes! Fortunately, about halfway down to Woodside the skies dried out, making this a reasonable plan. From the bottom we turned right and headed out to Portola Valley, looped through Los Altos, and then returned via Sand Hill. In the end it was just 46 miles, but much harder than you’d think due to some very stiff headwinds most of the way back. Total climbing was about 4300ft, more than I thought, but it was pushing forward through the headwinds that has my legs feeling like I rode!

Oh, should mention one really good thing was that this was the first Sunday ride in several weeks where Kevin hasn’t had even a minor seizure. His combination of meds has been changing, and hopefully we’re finally seeing things stabilize. That would be a very good thing, especially since the trip to France to see the ‘Tour and ride the big mountains is less than 90 days away!

Do not fear the yellow blob. Embrace it!

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By sheer will I am going to make it stop raining. Last night, I told myself this is it. This morning’s ride was going to be the last rainfall on one of my ride days until early November. That big yellow blob, supposedly representing high winds & heavy rain in the forecast? Bring it on. One last time. After the ride, I told myself, my rain bike goes back downstairs, into the garage, where it will sit, lonely, for the next six months.

Well, that was the plan, and yes, I did ride this morning, but in the absence of photographic proof (cameras don’t do well in the rain) and nobody else showing up, how can you really be sure that I didn’t decide to stay home? I actually thought that one through ahead of time, and turns out, there’s an app for that! LocUpdater works on iPhones running IOS4 (the latest version of its operating system) and can be set to send emails to addresses of your choosing, at either 5, 15, 30 or 60 minute intervals. Here’s the string of emails from this-morning’s ride (emails at 8:35 & 8:50 are missing; those two were up on Skyline and possibly not in range of a cell tower at the time the message tried ot transmit).

Do not fear the yellow blob. Embrace it! If you dress appropriately and have a suitable bike, rain & wind don't have to keep you off the bike! I am still trying to find adequate waterproof gloves though.

Speed 7.93 Mi/h
Altitude 839.12 ft
3/24/11 8:04 AM
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.4364,-122.292
Speed 7.90 Mi/h
Altitude 1469.29 ft
3/24/11 8:19 AM
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.427,-122.299
Speed 15.86 Mi/h
Altitude 405.53 ft
3/24/11 9:04 AM
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.4307,-122.276 
Speed 34.69 Mi/h
Altitude 569.94 ft
3/24/11 9:19 AM
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.4597,-122.263 

Looks to me like my "last ride in the rain" might have done the trick! Starting Sunday, no more rain in the forecast. You can thank me by sending a donation to my favorite charity, the Becky & Kevin College Fund... :-)

That’s my proof that I was out there. That and my lone witness, the woman we see out there jogging, as consistent about being there and schedule as we are (the woman sometimes referred to as “articulated lady” because of the interesting way her body moves, as if she’s put together with hinges).

So is my bike in the garage now? Not yet. It has to do some serious draining first. It would be interesting to weigh my bike and clothing before the ride, and after. But I feel like I did my part to stop the rain. My next ride is Sunday, then Tuesday, then Thursday. So, did it work? Check this morning’s forecast.

Of course, if the rain does stop, I’ll have to wait another year to come up with a “waterproof” glove that actually works. The Gore gloves I used this morning? Near total failure. Cuffs way too short to fit under rain jacket, so water came down into the fingers and stayed there. Thank goodness I brought along an extra pair of gloves to change into up on Skyline!