too many pictures of ride from kim's oct 10

I have a commitment later, so I couldn't do an all-day ride today.  Snakehead has his new custom bike (pics below), which he wanted to show off. But his friend Rick also had an early commitment, so we kind of decided to do the early ride from Kim's today; they leave at 8 and usually get back by about 10 (and more so now that riders from the Rutgers club join us... they're speedy kids).

I've gotta leave by about 7 to get to the start on time; I met Rick there.

Soon others started coming.

Ed appeared, with his new custom from LoveBaum Cycles. Fillet-brazed, with a lovely custom seat-tube lug and custom paint... and, since it's Snakehead's, many of the latest gewgaws: electronic shifting, disk brakes, carbon wheels:

His initials worked into the seat-tube lug.

Scales in the paint detail. Nice, Snakehead.

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Yes, a rear rack (Tubus, of course), and yes, hammered fenders. I was sure they were Honjo, but the fenders are from the excellent Velo Orange.

But other folks are coming to join the ride.

(It was cold this morning, and it made me colder looking at that young man in his short-sleeve jersey and shorts!)

Above, the excellent Francisco. He's recovering from the flu.

Dave Kim showed up in civilian clothes and stepped into the shop, emerging a minute or two later with this:

Check out the huge downtube and the rear hub. It's an electric bike! He'll have no problem on the hills with that!

Off we headed (twenty of us!) to do the usual route. Along the way, we picked up a few more. We made the turn onto River Road, which I sometimes use to commute to work... I did it much faster on the bike than I usually do in the car!

Well, for part of the way, anyway. We do about 6-7 miles on River Road, and about four miles in, I started to slow down, I got chest pain, and I couldn't get up above about 15mph, and then started slowing more than that. I wondered if I'd "hit the wall", and if I'd be able to finish this ride, or ever ride a long ride again.

But when I could, I got off and checked. The rear brake was binding. It took two adjustments to fix, but when I did, I was back to speeding along again. Whew!

Those of us at the back caught up to the others after Colonial Park, and went at a vigorous pace to Blackwells Mills, where we stopped for the usual rest-and-gab:

Then up to the top of Coppermine. I was near the head of the group when we made the turn, and then about a dozen of those younger, faster folks whizzed past me as I was deciding whether to breathe or fall down. Shortly thereafter, Francisco passed me. I can safely say that I'm just a little slower than Francisco when he has the flu.

I got some pics of the folks gathering at the top of Copermine.

Then back, by the usual route, straight up 27. At How Lane, we had to wait for a funeral to cross. One of the riders, I think unfamiliar with the custom that funerals go through traffic lights, crossed the procession; there was nearly a collision (don't do that). But "nearly" isn't a crisis, and off we went to end the ride at Kim's.

Edit: D'OH! Forgot to include a link to the ride page!