let 'em go

I've just found out that there is a "League of the South". From their "Core Beliefs" web page:

At its founding meeting in June 1994, The League of the South adopted the following Statement of Purpose:

We seek to advance the cultural, social, economic, and political well-being and independence of the Southern people by all honourable means.”

"Independence". Good heavens. Couldn't they just petition to leave? And why would we not just let 'em go?

But they gotta take Texas.

who I wanna be when i grow up.

Something just struck me about the fellow leading the ride yesterday. I'm pretty good goin' up a hill, and, using a bike not geared for hills, this guy caught up and rode right behind me on at least two occasions. He could have cooked me... but he didn't.

That's the kind of rider I want to be. I want to be that strong, with that little need to prove myself.

Thanks, Ken.

sunday ride from hart's cyclery

I was looking for an easy ride today, and Gary W's out of Etra is usually a bit harder of a push than I wanted to put in; it's hot, and I'm tired. Laura OLPH suggested that she might or might not come out today, but when I mentioned going on a ride from Hart's Cyclery led by Ken G, she said in an email:

Ken used to ride with us back in the day.  He's a former racer who's been out of the loop for a while.  Ken is a top-notch guy, a gentleman cyclist... However, it's a hilly B on a post-metric day where the heat index will already be 90 at 9 a.m.  I don't know if I'm up for that.  On the other hand, I know the turf and can drop out at any time.

...and in a subsequent email:

For tomorrow, I'll see how I feel when I wake up.  There's nothing a shot of caffeine can't paper over for a few hours.  Plus, I have to hit up Ross for an RfM donation, and there's the matter of the RfM posters, and I need a pair of gloves, and Big Bear sometimes has dried pears, and peer pressure (which I don't mind succumbing to in this instance because I know the roads and can bail)... So, I'll probably see you tomorrow.

 And she did. 

I was at the store long before she (and long before the start), and saw a reference to the Guru Fit System, about which The Excellent Wife (TEW) has been showing some interest. I texted her about it, and she texted back asking if anybody knew anything (about which, more later).

Besides Laura and I, seven others showed: Ken, sometime-Slug Robert, and others I don't know as well, including a married couple from the South visiting relatives locally. We did this route, which didn't go into the Sourlands (much; see edit below), largely because many of the best roads were newly chip-sealed, and until traffic has had a chance to wear the new chips into the road, the gravelly-surface does not play well with road-bike tires.

Heavens, it was hot. I was grateful for a less-challenging ride, and for every bit of shade we had. We stopped in Hopewell at a convenience store a bit before the half, and I had learned my lesson: lots of sweets and drinks for me! Then off again. One of the newbies fell off the back; when I went back to find him, he had dropped a chain and was having a bit of a problem getting it back on. He later said that this ride was just the pace for him... and I unapologetically tried to recruit him for Laura's Hill Slugs.

And back to Hart's Cyclery just about noon, when it had just opened. Ken asked us to at least go inside, but I had resolved to buy something to support them for supporting this ride; I had planned on cleats (I can always use cleats and tubes), but I wound up with a top-tube carrier that I can put my camera in (maybe there will be some pictures on this blog, eh?). While we were there, a contingent from the Major Taylors dropped in; they had ridden from Plainsboro and were going to head back there. Sheesh, just thinking about it makes me sweaty!

And I saw the very-impressive Guru machine. It looks like a fit can be fairly dialed-in; seat height and setback, and bar height and for-and-aft position, can be adjusted while the rider is pedaling. I'm not sure that much precision is necessary... but it might make TEW more confident about a bike purchase, and that might be worth the money. I'll chat with her about it when she gets home.

Edit: From an email this afternoon from Laura: "We were on the Sourland Mountain when we went up Stony Brook to Snydertown and down Linvale. The Princeton Ridge (Great Road to Ridgeview to Cherry Hill and Cherry Valley) is part of the same geologic formation but isn't called part of the mountain."

pump problems

The Excellent Wife (TEW) has been riding more, and is sensibly concerned about what might happen if she gets a flat. The frame pump that had been on her bike went missing (as they sometimes do). I had a couple of others in the garage, so I checked them out.

Neither the Wrench Force mini-pump nor the Specialized Windpipe (neither of which are still available in the models I had) were able to get any air in the tube at all. The Wrench Force could fill the tube when it was off the wheel, but when I mounted the tube, no air went from the pump into the tube.

I had the Race Rocket on the Yellow Maserati road bike, and that one will work for either Presta or Schrader valves, so that's now on TEW's bike. I had a Road Morph that I had bought some time ago, but never mounted, because the mounting options with the included bracket were either to hang it from the top tube (ugly) or replace one of the bottle mounts (not happenin'). The bracket for the missing pump fit the Road Morph in the offset postion next to the water bottle cage, so that's what's on the Yellow Maserati now.

The Road Morph is carried by many of the people I ride with, and whose opinions I respect... but it's bigger than the Race Rocket, and seems like more of a commitment to repair than I want to make. The Morph is also a bit harder to use than the Rocket. But it's got an in-line gauge, and could be used instead of a floor pump. But I keep a floor pump in the car, as well as in the garage.  And I can get a tire pumped up enough to get home on with the Race Rocket, and I carry two CO₂'s ...

Do I wanna bag the Road Morph and get myself another Race Rocket?

emery's blueberry farm ride

Laura OLPH's announcement post about this ride said:

The Slugs will be in the flatlands on Saturday.  Meet us at the East Picnic Area (Edinburg Road entrance) of Mercer County Park for an 8:30 a.m. start.

I'm planning for a few miles more than a metric.  However, the heat index might well change my mind.  We can cut the ride down as we see fit.

Extra-milers can start with me from my house at 7:15 a.m.  It's about 8 miles to the ride start.

So I got there for the extra miles at that ludicrous hour (after having been out to a Somerset Patriots game*, and fireworks, last night), and found her barely awake and surprised. "Did I put 7:15 in the post?"... and off she went to make sure she had the correct start time for the ride at the park in the blog post (she had).

The heat index DID change her mind; she went with a planned 50-mile route out to Emery's Blueberry Farm, which. while not far from many of our usual rides, wasn't really on our maps. We went to Mercer Park, and picked up Tom H, Gordon, and John W, and, complaining about the heat (no wonder we didn't have more takers!), off we went.

A mostly flat ride (that's a link), and, while we were grateful for what shade we got, much of the ride (especially the bit on Long Swamp Road before the farm) was in the hot sun. That made us opt for a straighter route back, along 539 and then Gordon Road towards the park.

Emery's Farm was hopping, with people picking berries, and people coming into the store to pick out pies and whatnot. They had water, iced tea, muffins, and porta-potties (and air-conditioning in the store), which made it a near-perfect rest stop for a hot day (the porta-potties were penitential in the hot sun, however).

And the roads on the ride back, despite being busy, were not bad: good shoulders mostly, and traffic was able to get around us.

Most important to me, however, was that I made this hot, long ride without the bonk, after such an unpleasant experience on Thursday. I probably over-sugared (it was a tempting muffin, though), but I think I got it just about right on the fluids (and I think dehydration and low sugar were the culprits on Thursday).

The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I have had a pump crisis, about which more later. I'm off to do the grill; how can you have a long Independence Day weekend and not use the grill?

july 4 all-paces

The Excellent Wife (TEW) has been gearing up for the All-Paces ride scheduled by the Princeton Freewheelers for today. She has had her eye on the D+ ride, and said that if she met her mileage and pace goals, she wanted to come with me to do that ride while I did one at my pace; she is eager to meet some more of the club members (and she realizes that if I'm going to ride as much as I do, one of the ways to spend more time together is for her to ride, too).  So off we sent this morning to Mercer Park for the 9am start.

Now, let me tell you some of my thinking that wound up not working out very well: I usually add miles to my rides, and I wouldn't be doing that today because TEW isn't about to add miles. So I figured, instead of adding miles, I'd do a B+ ride; perhaps that would be about the same effort. So, although Tom H and a few friends decided to do a pickup ride, I decided to go out with John & Jane D. Laura OLPH decided to go with them, too.

We did this route.There was a woman who came along with John W who has ridden mostly C+/B rides, and I figured if she was along, I'd certainly be able to keep up.

We started with eighteen, including Sergei, with whom I rode a bit a few years ago. Sergei's a bit of a charger-ahead, and we weren't far into the ride when he and three others missed a turn (they were far ahead of the leader), and we were down to fourteen. I swept for a while, and did my turn at the front of the group as well. We did a number of roads I remember from Winter Larry's rides (we passed the Russian Church), and went up the hill at Rues that I remember coming down a number of times with the Old Guys.

Going up the hill at Rues, though, I noticed problems breathing and dull neck and chest pain (no, not heart-attack stuff, just exhaustion). I'm sure I neither drank nor ate enough, and I didn't sleep well last night, and all that, I'm sure, was catching up to me. Pride, however, would not let me let on how tired I was.

Another rider, later, seemed to be tiring and having trouble in a headwind. Having a bit more energy than he, I gave him a pull into the wind, but, truth to tell, I was grateful for the opportunity to fall behind the group. We stopped to gather at an intersection, and, shortly after that, I couldn't find him among the riders; I think he fell behind. I caught up to John & Jane, who thought he was ahead, but then they didn't see him either, and went back to get him. I had sat down in the shade, and, when the rest of the group got up to go on, I was dizzy when I stood up. It cleared a bit when I got on the bike, but I still didn't have the speed I had earlier.

I maintained a B+ pace on the flats and downhills, but on the slightest upgrade I slowed way down. I eventually made it back to Mercer Park (remember that woman who'd done the C+/B rides? We had a conversational exchange about, "I'm done." "Me too."). I got the last soda out of the cooler, and made TEW drive home.

Her good news, though,was that she had done her D+ ride, and had a good time... and her computer was still under-registering, so she is faster and goes farther than she thinks (she was ALL bucked up by that news!). And she would ride with the group again, and she's thinking of getting a road bike (her fellow riders were urging her to do so!).

So I'm happy to say that it seems there will be more rides that both of us do in the future. And I'll try not to be an idiot about overexerting myself, and being too proud to admit it, next time.

Y'know what else? It may be partly because I didn't know these people that well, but this ride wasn't as chatty as the B rides I usually do. That's a lot of the reason I like groups and club rides, and I missed that today. I guess every now and again I gotta get my speed on, and over-extend myself (and pay for it), but I'm going back to B rides. For a while, anyway.

the bear was great, but...

The only thing I'm going to post about yesterday's ride is a link to the RideWithGPS upload of my .tcx file. Yes, that really does say 59 miles, 6000+ feet of climb, at 12.7. Good, hard ride.

For the rest, go to the excellent, entertaining, picture-heavy post on Laura OLPH's blog.

(Go check out her post. I'm serious. It'll open in a new tab, and it's definitely worth it.)

fence-eating tree

Laura OLPH, in her post about Tom H's Twin Lights Ride, pointed out the fence-eating tree. Evidently, it's rampant:

From today's Oddman.

(Tom H has another ride scheduled for today; there will probably be another post later.)

shoe succumbs to rule 5

The Old Guys were going to lunch at the house of a guy I don't know, and I had a gazillion chores to do, and whatever... in any case, I didn't ride wit the old guys today. Instead, I tried to do my usual short route.

This ride was hexed from the beginning. I had a creak in the wheel which needed attention (I think it's fixed...), so I got a late start. And about six miles in, I noticed that my right shoe felt funny. I looked down, and saw the strap was broken.

You can see it in the picture above. On the lower (left) shoe, the grey strap piece connects to the black plastic extension that goes into the buckle. On the upper (right) shoe, they appear to be about to pass like the proverbial ships in the night.

It seems even shoes are subject to the whims of the infamous rule 5.

(Rule 5, for those of you who don't know and won't click on the link, is probably the most famous of the Rules of the Velominati. Most of their rules are about piffle like looking good. But rule 5 says simply "Harden The Firetruck Up." The third word is not "firetruck" in the original, but it is a word that follows the same rules of initial and terminal orthography. And don't give me grief about my vocabulary; I've provided an elucidating link, for heaven's sake.)

I suppose I could repair them, but I got 'em cheap, and I'd never trust 'em again. And I've worn 'em for over 10,000 miles - do you really think they owe me anything?

In other news, I'm in the market for a new pair of bike shoes. But I have some leads on some inexpensive replacements.

purple cow ride pics

Laura OLPH's pictures are up.

See the rest (and the ones from yesterday's ride) here.

weekend rides

After Laura OLPH's recent rant about impatient riders, I knew what I was getting into when she called for Saturday's Hill Slugs Ad-Hoc Ride:

Saturday's ride will be a hilly metric century with two rest stops.  Ridewithgps puts the elevation gain above 5000 feet, so bring your climbing gears and be prepared for a long, but scenic, day.

First we'll go to Cocoluxe in Peapack, because chocolate mice.

Then we'll go to Round Valley Reservoir, because Round Valley Reservoir.

Five of us showed up, including a newbie to the Slugs. We left from Raritan Valley College, and headed for Cocoluxe (and found a road on which the paving was obscured by several inches of dirt; was it Homestead?). Cocoluxe was all it was built up to be: biker-friendly (there were dozens stopping in), with excellent chocolates and pastries, and Gatorade (so I didn't feel COMPLETELY ashamed of myself).

One of the bikes out front was a vintage DeRosa with lugs, old Campagnolo Record gruppo, and toe clips, ridden by a sweet young thing (probably of the trust-fund set) who, I'm sure, didn't know what she had; it was probably her daddy's old bike. I wept to see it go... partly because she rode off with the toe-clip pedals upside down. That bike deserves more love and respect. I thought of offering her $50 to take it off her hands... but then how would I have gotten it home?

Then off to a long slow uphill up Pottersville Road (it probably wasn't as bad as I remember), and then a right onto Hollow Brook Road. Hollow Brook is a long, demanding climb, steep (my front wheel didn't bounce on that road, but only just, in some places) and unrelenting. It was a great hill, and I would gladly do it again, especially after a stop at Cocoluxe (gotta work off that junk, doncha know!). Our newbie made it up, but it was apparent that he was beginning to tire.

We adjusted the route so that, while we would still see the reservoir, we wouldn't circle it, and we'd cut a few miles that way. The reservoir is a beautiful sight; Laura thinks it makes the climb worthwhile (there are some who would disagree). We rode through Whitehouse Station, and back to the college (and up the hill to the parking lot from which we'd left; after all those hills, that last one just seemed gratuitous!). Our newbie made it all the way, although he may have been swearing us to the inferno all his way home.

So it was a little shorter than advertised, but the climb was, if anything, under-reported. I, for one, got over 6000 feet of climb.

Today was my Purple Cow ride. Laura came along, as did The Excellent Wife (TEW) and two others, Andrew and Lou. I'd advertised it as the lowest pressure ride in the book, and that was what they got: about 17 miles at 8.6 mph (I made sure we brought it in within the D pace of 8-9mph - but it was a real trial not to chase the riders who passed us!). We went up the towpath from the parking area at 518, and, at Blackwell's Mills, decided we'd go a mile further and turn around (one of the newbies was a doctor on-call, and didn't want to be away all day; it happened he had to take a call during the ride).

I haven't done a towpath ride, and I was surprised to see the traffic: riders, walkers, runners, some with dogs, families with kids riding together. It was neat! Early in the day, we saw logs with four and five turtles sunning themselves. Laura took pictures, and I'll steal or link when I can.

After we got back, Laura, TEW, and I went to the Main St Café in Kingston, where we met a contingent from the Major Taylors, who are not only wickedly fast, but were welcoming and friendly and asked us to sit with them. We talked about the upcoming Princeton Bicycle Event. They were kind enough to ask if we would ride with them, but, luckily, I'll be volunteering at a stop. I'd hate to hear that clunking sound that means they were dropping me!

purple cow ride 6/23

So let's try that Towpath ride that was rained out last month. I plan to go between 16-19 miles, depending the sense of the meeting at about mile 8. We'll meet at the D&R Canal Towpath Parking Area on Kingston-Rocky Hill Rd., just below where it crosses 518 in/near Hopewell (Kingston-Rocky Hill Rd is what Canal Rd is called below 518).

This quote from last month's post sums up my intentions for this ride:

Since this is a ride for newbies, I'll do an extended version of the safety warning, so people have a good idea what to expect and how to behave on a group ride. You might want to be there a smidge early (the club suggestion of 15 minutes early will be fine). Riders will need bikes and helmets; water bottles and flat repair kits are suggested. The 23-25mm tires on most road bikes will be too narrow for the gravel path, but mountain bikes, hybrids, cruisers, BMX bikes, and even cross bikes should be fine. 

This will be the lowest-pressure ride in the book. We will go at the pace of the group. No lectures*, no attitudes, lots of stops, nobody dropped. Don't let the speeds in the other posts on this blog scare you; The Excellent Wife (TEW) is coming along on this one, and she ain't puttin' up with no nonsense from Plain Jim.

*That's an arrant lie; there will be two: one will be the safety lecture at the start, and the other will be my rant about mirrors. But I'll get them out of the way early, and there will be no lectures directed at individual riders. If you can keep the bike upright for the distance, you can do this ride.

Last-minute details will be posted here... watch this space!