mid sept ride with kims bike shop

Don S of the Freewheelers had his Belmar Century planned for today; he does it once a year or so, and by adding a plethora of course changes to the 60-mile-or-so round trip between Etra and Belmar, he gets it up to 100 miles. Years ago, it was my first century, and he did it at a manageable pace; I wasn't wiped by the end. I had planned t go again today, but the weather prediction was iffy (and appears worsening as I write this), so I decided to go out with the Kim's Bikes early-morning Saturday ride.

Snakehead decided to come, and drove in; he wanted to show off some very cool carbon-fiber wheels he's gotten. Sixteen spokes front, twenty-four rear, and they're lighter than a thought (especially some of my depressed ones). They take tubular tires. He had a bump in the back wheel that may have been a poorly-set tire; that's one of the many, many things I don't know anything about. Snakehead said he could really feel the difference above 25mph.

We gathered for a 8am start, but, of course, the Kim's folks have a generous and forgiving attitude about punctuality. Some of the Rutgers folks have started to come out on the Kim's rides. I was afraid of keeping up with the pace, but evidently the fastest folks were off racing today. (Whew!).

Fray, above, is faster than you would think for his size.

Edit: Snakehead sent me some names; those are Jasmine and Matt above.

Above: Full Kim's kit, with matching socks and gloves. Snakehead's a fashion plate. (Snakehead and bike socks are getting to be A Thing.)

Above: Vincencio would be a lot of fun if he'd just loosen up a bit.

My ride page, of course, shows my rides to and from as well as the usual route. We were pretty quick, and I wasn't in the front much. I'm blaming that on a skipping cassette - I changed the chain recently - and not on the fact that I'm old and slow.

We did the usual sprints along River Road (where we split into a faster and slower group) and through Colonial Park (that young lady in the braids just above talking to Benny was in my mirror until I pulled over to breathe a bit before the end of the park). We continued to the parking at Six Mile, and there was another sprint along Canal Road that I don't remember in the past, but I'm not reliable about that kind of thing.

Edit: Another of the names Snakehead provided: above center, in the red/white/blue jersey, Professor Andy, "winner of the Omnum at T-town recently" (pardon my ignorance; is that Trexlertown?).

Edit: More names from Snakehead: Above, facing left (not on the bike) is Keith B; on the bike at right is Dave Kim of Kim's Bikes.

Then up Coppermine. Some of the guys blew past, but I did OK. Francisco impressed me; he's had a knee injury that slowed him down, but he's been doing his exercises, and I couldn't catch him on the uphill.

Pics of some of the others as they came up.

Ed suggested adding some miles, but I was concerned about the skipping cassette, so I demurred. We rode back to the shop, then I rode home.

Back to work Monday. Yayy!