knife to a gunfight

Can you see those Santa-tights on Chris?

I haven't led a Sunday ride in three months. I knew that October would be busy (and it was), and November turned up with a couple of rainy Sundays and a couple of busy ones, and then the Excellent Mother-In-Law had a stroke, and I seem to remember on one of those weekends Tom H wanted to lead, so I gave it up for him...

...and the next thing I know, I haven't led a ride since September 22. Yesterday was too cold for me to go out on a club ride, but I put one in for today. I had thought to ride in from home for extra miles...

... but then Laura OLPH hinted that she might have a gift that she would bring.It turned out to be this bit of vitreous excellence:

...with reactive color bits that change depending on what else is in the neighborhood. I like it.

Laura appeared, of course, as did a few others of The Usual Suspects: Ricky G, Chris C, Jack H, Dave H... and Luis C, who couldn't ride along, because if a bit of morning frantic disorganization (where WERE those goggles?), he left his helmet at home. Knowing that I'm a bike-socks aficionado (or, at least, enthusiast), he ported these excellent Christmas socks, and I had to get a picture before he left.

Now, I brought the other bike. On most of my rides, I use the Yellow Maserati, the titanium-frame bike that is my undoubted favorite. A few years ago, I built up a bike using a Surly Crosscheck frame. I've never really loved it, and I embarked on a project to rehabilitate it (there's a story in that, which I'll write up eventually). Part of the problem was a saddle that I used to like, but don't anymore. I've replaced that with a Selle Anatomica X2 (there's a story in that, too), and I've replaced the downtube shifters with those Gevenalle shifters I like (I don't ONLY like them because they're obscure and weird, but that doesn't hurt). I like the Crosscheck (which I call the Krakow Monster; Of COURSE there's  story in that) much better with the changes... but it's 12lbs heavier than the Maserati.

Nonetheless, I decided to bring it on today's ride. I paid for that decision; I was way off the back on the hills, way off the back at the end of the East Mountain Road run, and huffin' and puffin' when I was climbing the wall on Burnt Hill Road. (In a fit of misplaced compassion, I decided to try to avoid the climb on Opossum Road. The consensus was that the climb on Burnt Hill going to 518 was worse. Caveat rider.)

It didn't help that I underestimated how hungry I was at breakfast. We made a stop at Thomas Sweet.

I made my way through a chocolate-chocolate-chip muffin faster than it took to type the words just now. It must have helped, because after the break, I was doing much better at keeping up with the crew.

Or maybe they were just being merciful.

In any case, I've got a few more changes to make to the Krakow Monster, but then I'm relegating it to solo training rides and rides rated C+ or lower. Pushin' that heavy thing will help me to keep from running away with the pace, as has been complained about (see the last paragraph in the page linked above for September 22).

Anyway - it's good to be back leading a Sunday ride. Here's hoping for some good weather and open scheduling, so I can do more. When the weather is a bit more genial, maybe youse can come out, OK?