The Rolling Lounger

Ride #82
Sunday, June 12th

13 miles to and from and all around the benefit event for Matthew Weitrick in Roseville, CA

Since parking might have been difficult at Royer Park, I parked about 1/2 a mile away on the backside of a shopping center and pedaled over to the event. Although my task was to chaperone the 10 mile ride, I got there WAY earlier in hopes that I could help out other ways.

And I did.

I lugged giant industrial cans of coffee and orange juice. I handed out one Bandaid and a dab of antibiotic cream. I told folks where to go and how to get there (oooooh, big surprise). I wielded a tape gun for signs. I zipped along the 10 mile route, making sure all was OK. I checked to see which parking lots still had space. I loaned out my tire-levers. I learned a new way to remove my jammed chain from between the chainrings (a screwdriver is your friend).

And finally, I lounged on my bike, ankles crossed and propped on one pedal, munching on a fantastic lunch and listening to live music. Sea otters dine while floating on their backs and I suppose recumbent trikers can too.

The pink blob in the center (upper) of the pic is Moi, lounging and dining

The event was a huge success, with over 60 people registering the day of, and hundreds pre-registered. I saw folks with looooooooooooong strips of raffle tickets draped around their necks. There were some very very nice items for both the raffle and the auctions. Like a trio of sweet cruisers!

Multiple bike groups in colorful jerseys and bicycle business were there, a handful of wild photographers (I tried to avoid them). We even had at least one person ask what was going on and then sign up to ride on the spot!

This picture does not really convey the Massive Crowd we had.

I had a chance to chat with Matt and his family for a little bit.

Matt's the right-most fellow in the foreground group

No pictures by me, since 6am (when I left the house) was far to early for me to remember such mundane things. Photos here are from one of the organizer's facebook page.

Three or more rides planned for the rest of the month.

"... ran out of songs to play."

Ride #73
Saturday, May 14th

38ish miles in Lodi, CA

Today I saw:
     Hawks
        A Magpie
           Cows
              Sheep
                 Goats
                    Emu (!)
                       Llamas
                          Horses

Puffy clouds, vineyards. Lovely.

and some bikes:
                          Road
                       Mountain
                    Tandem
                 Tandem recumbent
              Recumbent, plain
           Recumbent, trike
        Recumbent, handtrike

Most of the vineyards have lovely roses. One I passed seemed to believe in my principle of "no rose unless it is a stinky rose". Like pedaling through perfume.

I was passed nicely by:
        Farm equipment
           Pickup trucks
              Sports cars
                 Motorcycles
                    Other bicyclists.
Not so nicely by a couple of sedans. Hrmph.

This was a ride organized by the Lodi Rotary to raise money for their charitable efforts. The 15th one!

I decided to do the shortest ride they offered, the 50 km.
I dithered about trying twice that distance for a moment, but decided that I am not ready for more than about 40 miles at a time right now. As it was, the seemingly endless stretch of Peltier Rd into a headwind on the return ride wore me out!
My average speed for the first half (no headwind) was just shy of 11mph (10.9 if you must know) but my overall for the whole ride was exact-ally 10. Which which I am pleas-ed.
And down to the Mokelumne River I attained a zippy 28.6 mph. It was soooooo nice to coast! I'm not sure I really am in love with the constant pedaling necessary for truly flat rides.

OK. That last statement was inserted by my evil twin, Skippy.

Moving on.

Row of palms on Acampo Road

The Acampo store was more interesting to look at but this building was easier to take a picture of.

This was a bit different from the Napa Cycle for Sight I did earlier this year: everyone checked into the Lodi event as they arrived, got a nice red t-shirt, a wrist band, and a route map, unloaded their bikes, and set off.
Some folks traveled in pairs or bunches, but there were other independently minded singletons like me. The Napa event was 3 separate mass starts.
The camaraderie of the large group was nice, but I really think I prefer riding by myself. So I guess that's OK for a solo-tourist-wanna-be.

Rest stop at Clements Fire Department.

Sorry, strawberries already eaten in this shot.

There was a lot of fresh fruit at the rest stop, so I pigged out. Despite that, the aforementioned headwind took enough out of me that I stopped for some dried fruit and nuts on the side of the road.
I had picked up some Kirkland (Costco) brand individually packaged fruit and nut mix (dried cranberries and cherries, almonds, walnuts, and dry-roasted pistachios). Convenient enough, but I would have liked salted nuts in there instead. Time to make my own!

This picture is for all the people who grew up with human-sized haybales. It was a Very Large hayfield.

Returning to Lodi High School (home of the Flames), I loaded my trike in the car, ate a nice tri-tip lunch provided by the organizers, and drove home.

I had no real problems mechanically (although I did regret my decision to re-install the left wheel reflector - it sang to me the entire ride).
I need new batteries in my Cherry Bomb rear light; my Serfas seat-stay light (I have it on my headrest) came apart in the parking lot at the end of the ride (I had not gotten the battery cover back on correctly when I changed the batteries); but my Cateye Opticube HL-EL450 worked just fine.

I like the Cateye light: it has a strobe mode which my larger brighter light does not, it is small and easy to attach to a smallish tube with an o-ring. "But wait," you say! "Doesn't that light have an attached nifty clamp-strap thingummy?" Yes, it does, but it broke on the third use and it was such a pain to use that I don't want another thingummy anyway. Hurrah for o-rings.

I think I need to take apart my right bicycling shoe and see if the metal plate and cleat screws have shifted around.

And, major triumph, I stuffed my trike into a Toyota Prius!

It does, after all, fold

T-storms in the forecast. Should I be a responsible ride leader and cancel tomorrow's ride? I've another hour to decide.

Feeling charitable

Ride #64
Saturday, April 16th
25 miles in California's drop-dead-gorgous Napa valley.

Cycle for Sight event benefiting Enchanted Hills Camp (blind and visually impared) and the Pathway Home Project (California Veterans).


I camped overnight at a Solano county park (you can read about it in this thread on hammockforums.net) and then finished driving to Napa first thing Saturday morning.

A long time ago in my distant youth, I did the 50k Ride Through Hell in Michigan. This is my first large organized event since then and my very first ride for charity.

It was great! If you have never ridden/ran/swam/whatever for charity, I encourage you to do so.

The photos from today are on my Fotki page (here), but here is a sample anyway.

Nice directions and a well-organized event

View from the middle of the 25 mile route starting mob

Country Road

I did fine on the ride even though I don't think I drank quite enough water while I was actually rolling along. I ended up drinking a HUGE bottle of water on the way home plus the largest iced tea Popeye's sells.

My trike did great, but I seem to have picked up a vibration today. I did hit a miniature utility access port in the bike lane pretty hard with my rear wheel (there was nowhere to go to avoid it - I could have ridden off the road and flipped or swerved into the guy passing me) and there were two stretches of TERRIBLE gravel-on-asphalt. Like the dread chipseal on steroids. It felt like I was riding a giant circular sander. My suspension could not cope with that many little tiny bumps all together.

I have to figure out how to figure out what's up with the bad vibes, and I think it is time to learn all about disk brakes as well.

I might head out tomorrow for a short ride, but than I'll take a few days off!

And I think this is more or less the route we took. I just trailed along with the crowd.