your daily bicycle log

did the whole Ride to Work Day thing this morn. met up w/about 2-300 people (mostly people from google, only about 5 people from my company) at 6.30am. another guy i work w/and i kinda split from the big group (it was awful, obvs) and kept w/the pack in the front. i thought the ride was only 39 miles - by car on freeway it is - but all the twists and turns on the paths and the crazy ways we had to take it ended up being i think ~48 miles. took 3hrs flat. i can hardly think today though. work is kinda pointless. i would like a nap

I rode up Mt. Tamalpais and the a bit of the coast with Jeremy Powers, Robert Forster, Chris Jones, Joao Correia and some other pros in town for the Tour of California. Those dudes are fast. Crikey.

Mark and I did another Friday night ride last night/ this morning, really good fun. Hyde Park to Brighton via Turnes Hill and (gulp) Ditchling Beacon, I managed the former, the latter beat me like a spanish donkey. A couple of amazing bits though - a pitch black swoop down a country lane called Lonesome Lane (back road between Reigate and Horley) which twisted and turned beautifully in 140 bike lights (road surface like a billiard table too), then a rapid swoop through the wilds of West sussex with some of the more rapid regulars who act as sweepers on the rides - I ploughed on way faster than I manage on my own with them, a good 6 mph or so faster. Some great roads (admittedly some awful too), a bit too much waiting around at points, but in the main - awesome.

no cycling for me today, walked up a mountain instead

a view from the top of ditchling Beacon (Mark arrowed)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2054/5719494813_94f8e41914_b.jpg

Is that taken early on Saturday morning?

It is indeed, a truly beautiful morning, and we did go on some great roads for riding a bike on, still gutted I couldn't make it up ditchling beacon but that bugger's steep and I'm a very fat mantis.

I've suffered up the Beacon at the end of a sportive for the last 3 years in a row:
2009
2010
and 2011
I agree it hurts

I'm not kidding I was trying to get up that fucker 20 or 30 revolutions at a time, then having a breather. About 2/3 of the way up, I'd had enough and the cramo was starting. The most demoralising climb though was the one on the dual carriageway into the top of Brighton, I though after DB it was downhill all the way and got a bit cross-eyed on that one too. Pleased to have made it up Turners Hill and Reigate Hill though, the former being a real bugger, but with awesome views back towards London.

Mind you, huge great Hat! to this dude who did the entire ride (and embarrassingly came past me about halfway up DB - turns out he is some sort of racing snake)
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_1iO--dRBnuU/Tc64xakGzPI/AAAAAAAADzk/vwzFKtIzjQU/s800/IMG_0063.JPG

The BMX dude did Ditchling 3 times, too...

Well, 9 weeks after breaking my collarbone I finally have the O.K. to ride for reals. Did a 20 mile recon ride on thursday but finally had a chance to go long(ish) today. 55 miles and 3k ft of climbing. Not as fast as I was used to, but I had some good sensations on a couple of punchy climbs. There is nothing in the world quite like the feeling of righteous exhaustion. Pretty mellow/stoked.

There is nothing in the world quite like the feeling of righteous exhaustion. Pretty mellow/stoked.

co-sign

hahaha.

good luck out there lukas. Hamilton is very easy compared to Sierra.

― it's a meme i made and i like (Steve Shasta), Friday, May 20, 2011 3:05 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

can't imagine doing it the other way! that almost broke me. started the 20-mile climb way too hot, died, revived, died again reaching the summit. i've usually been good about riding within myself but today i was all over the place, too fast or too slow. still, there was some amazing winding canyon action and i feel weirdly great now. what a day.

i hadn't ridden in a couple of weeks, since i went to moab. i got out yest and today, it was so great. today i did my favorite local loop of 47 miles, 4500 ft of climbing, a mix of everything- a long grind (10mi at 6% avg), short steep punchers along the top, 53mph descent. man was i depleted at the end.

tomorrow, i'm riding from home up to a state park in the mtns- 50 mi and another 4000 ft of climbing. i am to meet my fam at the top for a couple hours of hiking.

then it's gonna start raining all over again on monday. s'alright.

moms (yo) got a new bike so i went for a ride with here to the next town and back!

'her'

was due to to 50m today before packing bike away for shipping to deutschland, but it's blowing 25mph :(

my weekend. somehow it felt bigger than this, but it was plenty fun.

Distance: 117.92 mi
Time: 07:34:09 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 11,621 ft
Avg Speed: 15.6 mph

I just rode with the guy who rides this bike:
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/230431_661716248242_7105538_35601807_8261034_n.jpg

f that dude

he's my height but about 20 pounds less. So he's basically huge for a pro.

how much of that weight diff is due to the bike tho i wonder

interesting that apparently nibali feels that the evo leaves him fresher at the end of a ride but 'feels slow', so he's switched back to the regular supersix for the giro. how did yer man like his one shasta?

Seems like he loves it, but he was not talking bikes or racing at all, we had him talking italian food and Milanese model culture *ahem*.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNbhrbZcpNY

those are worthy other topix, certainly.

damn, your rides are way cooler than anything i can scrounge up! i need to step my game up. i'd have to move to boulder tho, and then only _maybe_.

Took the train from San Diego to Irvine and rode back, 100mi along the coast. Usually an easy ride, about 4k elevation for the whole ride (rollers) but net downhill. Today, however, there was a constant 12mph headwind the entire way. Most of the ride is along the ocean, so there is very little to shelter you from the wind. Fun but harder than expected.

this sounds idiotic, but i didn't know there were trains in california that ran north/south.

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Route_C&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241245649505

part of the route we took today went on the roads they used for the 1984 olympic road race in mission viejo, I think.

bit chilly this morning - used new long-finger gloves in retaliation. followed kinda hardcore powarclimb ride i'd heard about for first time, with mild change to route through park that added three short but steep bergs. back toward city on slippery-at-points unpaved path, shadowed MTB dude cos i didn't like the ostentatious clicking from his hub. on steep uphill bit of path that leads back to road, i went up two gears and got out of the saddle - bang! RIP chain. got taxi home.

u_u

Chris (porkpie) and I went for a great bike ride yesterday. The idea has been to go to the Dark Star brewery - not sure exactly where it is but it was 52 miles south-west of Chris's house in West Sussex. We almost abandoned the trip the day before when the forecast looked properly wet, but by the morning it wasn't too bad at all, apart from the persistent headbreeze.

Chris had chosen the "quiet" route when planning the journey, and it was fantastic - lots of empty country lanes, unpaved gravel roads (which led to puncture #1), 1930s concrete tracks and a diversion through lavender fields and horse paddocks.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/biondino/photo20.jpg

But it did mean our average speed was about 8 mph, and 52 miles started to look less and less possible. After almost four hours and 29 miles, we stopped for lunch at Gatwick. And I mean actually IN the airport - astonishingly it's apparently entirely acceptable to wheel bikes through the terminal and up the stairs to the cafe with nary a glance from security.

After a delicious bite to eat we decided it'd be foolhardy to try and ride 25 miles further, what with time running out and the weather looking more ominous, so we followed a decent country road route to Horsham, completing 43 or so miles in total, and not getting wet. Puncture #2 waited until I was 3 miles from home after getting the train back to London.

There were quite a lot of hills, from rolling to short and sharp with one or two real buggers thrown in - Chipstead, I'm looking at you. But the countryside was mostly gorgeous and it was a great way to spend a bank holiday.

It's great round there, isn't it? My parents live in a village in that Horsham-Crawley-Haywards Heath triangle. All very hilly and loads of trees.

just got back from doing some "urban singletrack" on my cx bike at a park that's a ten minute ride away. nothing wild but still, it's like right there. heart mpls

56 miles to Brighton in 5 hours (4 hours riding). And there's nothing wrong with that. God knows how I managed London to Cambridge in 3h 40 last year.

Did make it up Ditchling Beacon this time though, pretty chuffed with that. Certainly no walk in the park but not the absolute killer I thought it was.

I went on a club run this morning, something I do very rarely as my club's one is based on the ethos of "everyone is welcome, nobody gets left behind" which is almost always too slow for me. There was a headwind for the whole of the first half of the ride. I left the others when they had a cake stop after about 30 miles, because I desperately had to get back to London (I'd gone much further than I'd been planning to), and zoomed the last 20 miles home on my own with a tailwind. 51 miles today and 181 miles this week (I had most of the week off work - that mileage is going to plummet later this month).

I rode with ilxor "lucas" today with a couple other people on a 40 mile ride. It was supposed to be an easy spin but it turned out to be rather um... spirited.

i got dropped on climb by a fitness jackass, but im recovering nicely. *swigs wine straight from bottle*

did some more singletrack with a buddy I just learned was a HS mtb star---like, almost didn't gobto college because he wanted to try his hand at being a pro. now the most accomplished med student I know.

kicked my ass

granted I was on a cross bike and he had a pretty trick ss, but still. pwned

shasta i'd like to remind you that ride is called "easy like sunday morning"

smh

haha, i meant LUKAS. Hope the remainder of your Sunday went well. ^__^

went on a hard 'group' ride yesterday on new CX bike - 47mi on and off tarmac with sketchy gravel descents and near 5800 ft of climbing - 'group' pretence was disposed with as the pack of 70-ish riders blew apart on first hill, was a bit :0 by the end of it

xp it was fun, although less exciting than going anaerobic on the first set of hills this morning!

that cx ride sounds brutal haitch

still feeling it in the legs two days later!

Tried to go out for a little evening ride. My chain came off three times in the first 12 miles, each time when I was changing down from the big ring to the small ring. I stopped and tried adjusting the lower limiter screw. Inexplicably this prevented the chain from moving onto the big ring properly. I tried adjusting the other screw. This didn't help. I tried adjusting the tension. This made things worse. I repeated this many, many, many times. I will take the bike to a shop tomorrow.

Had a head-on collision today with some dude going way too fast around a tight-turn, and my front wheel is totaled now. How do you go about replacing it? I'm a bike newbie.

Just buy a new one. If you're not sure, take your broken one into a shop - they might be able to repair it, if not they'll know what kind of replacement you'll need.

each time when I was changing down from the big ring to the small ring

Well there's where you went wrong ;)

Seriously though, leave the limit screws alone unless you are replacing parts or KNOW that they've been changed.

Leave everything alone always would be a safer motto. Almost nothing I attempt in the maintenance department comes off.

How often do chainrings need replacing? I took my bike in to get the front mech sorted. I explained that I'd initially been having trouble changing up from the small ring to the big ring, before I suddenly started having problems with the chain leaping off when changing down, and before I totally messed things up by adjusting everything. The guy took a look at it and said that my chain rings looked very worn.

The advice I've had before is that it's generally better (though obviously more expensive) to change the chain, cassette and chain rings at the same time, rather than just change the chain. I've just been adding things up on spreadsheets and this is how it's gone on my racing bike since I bought it:

Original parts: 3,500 miles
(then chain got completely fucked and I had everything (rings, cassette, chain) replaced simultaneously)
New parts: 1,600 miles
(then chain snapped and was replaced, but kept on the same rings and cassette)
New chain only: 1,500 miles
So my current chain ring has done about 3,100 miles - time to change it?