father's day escape ride

When I posted this ride, I didn't know how beat up I'd be from yesterday, so I put it in for only 32 miles, with a stop at about mile 20. My public reasoning was that some of my riders like to ride in from home, and this would be a reasonable distance if they were going to add ten or 20 miles, but the real reason was that I wanted to be able to finish and still do the chores that needed to be done today.

Also, today is Father's Day, and I thought some of the guys* might like a shorter ride. It turned out one of the fathers on the ride did want to get home within a reasonable time. So there.

*Guys: Fathers are male. I will brook no nonsense about this. There may be those who have females acting in the place of a father, but fathers are male. Period.

Laura OLPH, Ricky, and Prem came out. I didn't get pictures until the break, because I was a little turned-around about leading this ride. I've set a goal of trying to get a leader's jersey this year, which requires leading ten rides, on which other people actually come and sign the ride sheet (theoretically, they also have to do the ride, but I'll bet if I turn in a ride sheet with signatures on it, that will be enough, at least one or two times). Leading is easier said than done for me, because I'm lost all the time. My bike GPS makes it possible, but I'm still all head-over-teakettle about leading.

The ride page shows my ride in from home, a little extra I did heading up towards Millstone looking for a trash can (there aren't any at the parking lot where I like to start), then the ride itself, and my ride home. 15.3 average over all that, which is better than I had thought, considering how tired I was and how out-of-shape I've been.

We stop at the bagel place in the Princeton North Shopping Center near 206 & 518.

It was crazy busy and a bit chaotic; it took a while to get out. Here's Ricky and Prem:

...and Laura

Laura was riding Rowlf, her beautiful Colnago.

I saw another customer looking at it; he said he was thinking of building a tandem because he had some welding skills, but in talking to him, it sounded like he knew less about building bikes than I do about monetary policy in the colonial era, so I don't expect to see him and his wife pedaling around soon.

Prem & Ricky, I got your bikes, too. Prem was worried about some noise around the cranks of his bike, and he should be: Ricky told his tale of woe about having to have his frame built up after damage to the bottom bracket. Ricky, however, found the guy who can do the rebuilds, and recommends him every chance he gets. But evidently, you're supposed to have your carbon fiber frame checked every 3000 miles, which is more than once a year for many riders. (Hrmph! I'm sticking with my ride-it-till-kingdom-come titanium frame!)