repeat/no repeat ride with ken g

Tom Hamill was leading a flat 100km around the pine barrens today, on which most of my friends were going... but Ken G was leading what I thought was one of his last Sunday rides today*; and he's turned into kind of a friend; and even though he can cook me, he doesn't (although it's a challenge keeping up), and some other stuff you don't get to know about was goin' on... so I went to Pennington for Ken's ride. I had high hopes after last week's ride; it was a good group and well-matched.

But only two of that group showed up today (other than Ken): me and the fellow below in the Cofidis jersey, whose name I misremember (so much for repeaters from last week!). I suppose it's one of the risks of a new ride: people aren't used to it, and it's hard to get regulars. We had six up to the break at the usual stop in Hopewell (the route started out as one we've done the other times I went out on this ride; due to road surface issues, we didn't do the Carter/Crusher loop, and went back to Hopewell a different way after the break). At the break, one fellow who had done mostly flat rides begged off and asked for a short route back; two others (including John, who has the nifty old Serrotta in the last picture) claimed time pressures and left the ride at the same spot, more or less. So the three finishers were the three from last week... and we did the second part of the ride faster than the first, adding about a half-mile per hour to the average.

(*It turns out Ken is planning to lead through September. He may divide his rides into faster groups on Saturdays and slower on Wednesday nights... I'm trepidacious about keeping up if he does that; he can cook me now - what happens if he gets a faster crowd? )

Route and rate info are here. We did that nifty, terrifying descent on Hopewell-Amwell again, and I got my top speed up by a miler per hour. Then up out of Hopewell past the dinosaur... at which point, I nearly bonked; a couple of miles from the end, Ken asked if we wanted another hill, and I said I didn't have it in me. We got back, and I met the eponymous Ross Hart of Hart's Cyclery (and spent a little money). The fellow who'd had the trouble on the hills was still there, and we had a short discussion about bike hardware and fit (do I ever have a short discussion about these things?).

Pic's below:

(I like that picture above more than I have any right to do.)

Lug porn! A better pic of the bike in the pic above, with lugged-steel Serotta frame and nifty old Campagnolo parts, including that enclosed brake - later discontinued because, while it did keep sand and bugs out of the brake doings, it's heavy. Pretty nonetheless, though:

saturday ride with ira

I didn't hear about any hilly rides today, so I decided to go out of Cranford with Ira S. About 22 other people did, as well, so Winter Larry took a few of them, and I swept of the sixteen that started with Ira. Off we go...

(That's Howie L on the back. Before the ride, he and Ira were waxing nostalgic over their Yiddish heritage, and I spouted off a bit of the Yiddish I had learned from my Jewish friends, growing up in Long Island. Not bad for a lapsed half-WASP, half Catholic.)

Below, at the break, May is going to HATE this picture.

The kid in the picture above, in the Liquigas jersey, and the gal in all red below, came with Ed Post (she's a niece, I'm not sure what his relationship is). While they don't have the stamina yet, they're fast; when they get in shape, they're going to be strong.

 

The last two pics were of folks coming up Rues Lane, and the pic below was at the top. I took off up Rues Lane (my kind of hill: long and not too steep), and impressed the young fellow, Eric, in the Liquigas jersey. Later I had him lift my heavier-than-his bike so he could learn that speed is not all about light hardware.

Above, the other Erich, and a woman we met on the route.

This route includes my not-quite-eight-miles from Plainsboro to the Cranbury start, and my four-or-so miles back. I was slow in the afternoon, but I decided to crank a bit in the morning; I'm satisfied with that 19.6 average to Cranbury (it WAY beats out my canal/Coppermine ride yesterday!).

oddman strikes again

Well, it made ME smile...

From today's Oddman.

bike pics at oddman

Another bike pic day at Oddman; go check it out.

(I love the determination on that first girl's face, and the glee on the other.)

good graphic

That was the graphic for the just-passed Princeton Freewheelers Bicycle Event. It's great.

It's so much better than the club logo:

... which looks like an ad for the League of American Bicyclists ( and even they have updated their logo).

I'll grump some more about this in a future post below.

I saw in the most recent newsletter that an order of Monkey Mirrors did not sell as well as expected, and there was some thought that the Freewheeler logo, above, was part of the reason for the lack of interest. I cannot speak for anyone else, but that's the reason I didn't get one. As a long-time, irritating mirror advocate, I would certainly have gone for a club mirror, except for that graphic.

My other complaint about the club graphics is that they frequently make reference, direct or indirect, to Princeton University. I'm careful not to claim affiliations to which I'm not entitled. So an item with the name "Princeton" on it, which is orange and black, or which refers to the tiger mascot, seems to me to pretend to such an affiliation.

I'm not now in the market for a jersey. I've got more than one orange one, but they don't say Princeton (and no one would mistake my most recently-acquired orange jersey for a University-affiliated item).

When I AM in the market for a new bicycle jersey, I'm more likely to go for one with a graphic similar to the one for this year's event, rather than one with the current logo.

As for avoiding inadvertent affiliations with Princeton University, I'm fairly sure I'm the only person in central Jersey who feels the way I do. de gustibus...

lewis black disses rick perry dissing new york

I just stumbled across this. It's too good to pass up.

No further explanation is needed.

I got it from Daily Kos.

post-event ride

Leader Ken G just doesn't get how hopeless I am at navigation. We did this ride today, which was very similar to the other two rides I've done with him, except for a very excellent side trip off 518, up to Skillman Rd, then up to Long Hill, so we could come down a nifty descent (more later) on Hopewell-Amwell... well, anyway, it was similar to the other two rides, and I could have told you that once we were on those roads... but I still couldn't have found the route, without a cue sheet, a map, two compasses, and a baggie full of Valium.

I need to brag about Hopewell-Amwell, though. In addition to my hopelessness at navigation, I'm not a great descender (although I can hold my own going UP the hills). But that stretch of Hopewell-Amwell is just the ticket: long, steep... and straight, so I can see that there's no traffic comin' to pick me off. Yes, that is a top speed of 41.9, one of the count-'em-on-one-hand times I've broken 40mph.

We started with nine, and finished with six: two decided they wanted a shorter route, and one broke off as we got close to home. But it was a well-matched, and fairly quick (for a hill ride) group; we averaged 15.5 for this hilly ride. Only one was falling off the back; he was complaining of feeling like a cramp might be coming, and you can't always control those things.

I'm not going to try to remember names: you'll see Barry and Paul in the pictures below, and leader Ken, and Bruce, who's ridden on this ride a number of times, and whose hill-climbing skills are improving at a frightening pace. The pictures are not great (and you only get about half of them). If the way to get good at doing hills is to do hills, and the way to get good at riding into the wind is to ride into the wind, I'm hoping that the way to get good at bicycle pictures is to take lots of bicycle pictures.

working the walnford rest stop

The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I worked the Walnford rest stop for the Princeton Freewheelers Event today. Some pictures:

Above, Cheryl M & TEW.

Jack, Al, & TEW.

Above, a view from Fred's booth. He's the owner of Bicycle-Pro, and provided mechanic support at the stop. If I lived closer, I'd probably patronize his place; he was friendly and knowledgeable.

Shiny, lugged, steel frame. Nice.

The guy above deserves his electronic shifter.

In the white hat on the left is Harri, Jack's wife; she was the other volunteer at the stop.

Traffic was slow; I'm sure the weather kept some riders away. But we had a good team at the stop, and we were able to help a number of people.

I didn't get pictures of this, but the ground was sandy, and the grass had been cut recently. Jack and I left out our car snow brushes so riders could clean out their cleats (it was a problem early in the day), and for a while, I had a thriving business hosing off riders' rims and brake pads. TEW would have taken tips for me, if any had been offered. But it was along day, and I was glad to go home when we broke up around 3:00 (we had been there since 7:30 am).

I need a ride, though. Here's hoping for good weather for Ken G's ride tomorrow.