2026 Diablo Day 22 - Saturday Morning Junction

I got Roxanne's road wheelset installed on Thursday, took her for a cruise on Friday, and up Diablo on Saturday.  With the light wheels she handles pretty much like a relaxed road bike. While I miss the aggressive handling and uncomfortable efficiency of a racing bike - I'm accepting that comfort is more important to my aging corpus. I was a little surprised though that my Junction time was about the same as any hard effort - hardly any weight penalty and lower gears help with the steep bits.

Roadkill Report: Alameda Whipsnake below the Kiosk.

Wildlife Encounter: a turkey looked like it was in a cage near Buckeye Group Camp - I stopped on the way back down for a photo and the cage was empty - maybe he was behind the cage and I was mistaken.

Lots of glory for Memorial Day

I hung with these guys for about a mile.

The empty turkey cage

Hey, that looks like a Trek Checkpoint SL5 - available at your local Trek dealer.

I look so modern with a bike from this century.

Oh yeah, Tesla terrorist got a good yelling at.

These things are so beautiful when they're racing - this was sad.

Check out all this cool data on my new Garmin 1050:  I especially like the gear indicator, even though it doesn't say what your cogs are, you know if you have any left.  Posed in highest gear because that's how I roll... downhill.

Also, the app keeps track of how much time you spent in each gear - how did I ever ride without this info?

2026 Diablo Day 21 - Wednesday Morning Junction

My third time up Diablo with Roxanne.  #1 was aborted because of brake rub.  #2 was complete to Junction, but then I buggered up my shifters - turns out there's a little SRAM button for micro-adjustments and I somehow bumped it or something when I stopped for a photo on the way down, and then it was half ghost shifting the rest of the way home - see previous blog entry... anyway, I figured that out on my own and today the braking and shifting were perfect.  Still using the gravel wheels with 42mm tires and aluminum rims but my road wheels with 28mm tires on carbon rims are in the shop and I'm picking them up tomorrow.

Quite warm today - I need to dig out my sunscreen.  Maybe start earlier too if it gets really hot.

Brush must be cleared... but come on.

Stud Muffin Monthly will be offering me a modelling contract soon.

 

2026 Diablo Day 20 - Saturday Morning Junction

The friendly folks at Alamo Trek got the brakes on Roxanne fixed up perfectly (still waiting on my road wheels though), so I rode the new bike with the stock gravel wheels to the Junction for the first time this morning.  On the way down I somehow buggered up the derailleur adjustment and I kind of limped back home after failing to figure out how to un-bugger the thing... there's no knurled knob to tighten up the cable or anything on an electronic derailleur - there's a couple buttons you have to push at the same time while doing something else and I'm going to figure it out as soon as this posts.

The weather is getting really nice and lots of riders were out on the roads and on The Mountain.

Wildlife Encounter:  turkeys

The USA National Women's Team was out training and I decided to allow them to pass.

OK, these next three photos show an interesting stupid move.

This guy passed me at Bridal Nook - no big deal.

Then he took the inside line around the hairpin - DUMB

And another guy coming down had to do an emergency move to avoid him.  We had a mutual head-shaking moment.

Roxanne's publicity shot.  I'll make a product review post one of these days.

2026 Diablo Day 19 - Wednesday Morning Junction

Charlie's back from Holland and ready to roll.  Except he got a flat before we even started.  

Colnago Ted missed his start group, so he slummed it with us.

Wildlife Encounter: turkeys

Hey - what's going on at the Ranger Hut?  

This project manager told us they're refurbishing the inside; basically replacing everything, but keeping the original theme of colors and finishes.  Apparently the hut has had a lot of mouse problems and they've eaten through electrical wires, chewed holes in drywall, etc.  This is the same guy that was in charge of re-roofing a few years ago; he clearly enjoys his job.

Ted had some good stories to share - as always.


We told Charlie to remember his tire was shot and that he should descend carefully - in a few minutes he was way ahead of us anyway.





 

2026 Diablo Day 18 - SGR to Kiosk

Looking forward to bringing my new bike up Diablo this morning and things were going well, but I kept hearing this humming whiney noise - turns out my brakes were rubbing the rotor just a hair and the effect was like when you make a wine glass sing.  I've never had disk brakes before, and I don't know how to adjust them, but I figured there was a screw somewhere that opened up the calipers for situations like this.

So I turned around at the kiosk and went back to the bike store and they pretty much fixed it... the mechanic (Scott!) said he got it so it wouldn't slow me down, but it was still making a little noise so I should give it a break-in (HA!) period and then re-evaluate.

So that was a little disappointing, but a few growing pains I guess are to be expected. 

• I've never had a carbon fiber bike before
• I've never had electronic shifting before
• I've never had disk brakes before
• I've never had more than 10 cogs on a cassette before

    and now I have them all.  This bike is really fun and comfortable.  I also ordered some road wheels so this will eventually be my regular ride and I'll get rid of Eddy and Mike... they've been with me for so many years, but comfort and fun are replacing light and zippy.

Alison sighting on Danville Blvd.

Classic & Vintage Group Ride up Mount Hamilton

I heard about this ride through several of my social media accounts. It's been a long time since I rode Mt. Hamilton, and I decided this would be a righteous challenge.  

The folks that organize it are general vintage bike enthusiasts, and while that's not exactly my focus, I certainly qualify.  In fact - the question frequently comes up "How 'vintage' is vintage enough?" so I developed this scorecard below.  This will not meet with universal approval, but it gets most of the way there. I usually explain to non-cyclists that the dividing line is about the era where building bicycles was a craftsman enterprise and ended in the era of exotic materials, aerodynamic components, and machine assembly. This scorecard is not copywritten - I authorize its use by anyone who wants to post it for whatever reason.  Mention me if you're feeling generous.  I propose a minimum score of 60 to qualify for C&V events.

The organizer "JoeBass" met me at the start and gave me a copy of the poster above, and took this photo of me. He was enthusiastic and supportive. Note the vintage jersey - it has no pockets and it's itchy, so I wear a modern jersey underneath.

There were all kinds of bikes, but the riders were predominantly old white guys.

I attached myself to a group that I figured was about my speed and hung with them for the first 4 or 5 miles, but mountains have a way of separating riders based on climbing prowess... and I was off the back after that.

The only rest stop was a staging area for hikes - they had a disgusting porta potty. This was about mile 7 and I think a lot of people turned around here because the upper mountain was not nearly so occupied.

Pretty good weather; a little chilly and foggy down low, a little warmer and sunny up high. For some reason - totally my fault - I was thinking the summit was at 14 miles; I paced myself and fueled myself for a 14 mile climb... but it was really 18.5 miles.  So I was running on empty the last few miles - my quads were turning to rubber and my hamstrings were cramping up. I'd left my Endurolytes in the car and I was stopping every 10 minutes or so toward the end just to massage the pain out of my legs.  Those rolling/downhill sections always trigger my cramp response - I think it's the frequent change in cadence... once I get the first one, I'm going to have them for the rest of the ride.

I also had technology issues with the Diablo Bike Cam - it's been going wonky with not recording or short battery life, it gave up the ghost at about mile 15... I think it was an SD card problem and may have been a one-time glitch, but I gotta keep an eye on it.

There aren't any really steep bits anywhere on this side of Hamilton - so any particular section is easier than any particular section of Diablo... but the total effort to reach the summit is quite a bit larger. Took me three hours to get up and one to get back down.

Good ride, friendly people; I'll probably do it again next year.