2012 SMR 16

Got an early start today to watch some of the awesome Devil Mountain Double riders coming down the Mountain.  Some of these guys won't finish until well after midnight; they must eat HTFU flavored Clif Bars.

Roadkill Report and Wildlife Encounter DOUBLE:

Slurp.

MINE, MINE

The North American opossum is not related to the New Zealand possum, although both are marsupials.

So I was riding up with my camera in one hand and I somehow changed the settings to "sucky, out of focus, and random blue dots" options.

2012 Primavera Century Fremont Freewheelers Family Fun Ride

Diablo Daughter and I did the 25 mile route from Union City to the BayShore and back.

Roadkill Report:  skunk

Pretty nice little course.  About 5 miles through suburban roads that were wide and smooth, then bike trail out to the first rest stop, then more bike trail out to the Bay for some great views, then more trail until you get back into town.  Lots of non event riders and joggers but it wasn't crazy the way MUPs can be.

Freemont Freewheelers were fabulous of course, all kids got these cool medals.

Diablo Daughter remarked that she was glad they didn't get plastic medals... and why do they call plastic medals "medals" anyway?

Free movie!  Just click.

2012 Primavera Century from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

25 mile family fun ride with Diablo Daughter

2012 SMR 15

Felt good today... 2-1/2 minutes faster than Wednesday night.

The Devil Mountain Double staff ride was today so there were quite a few double century riders coming down at 8 o'clock... chappeaux to all of them.

Wildlife Encounter:  turkey

Roadkill Report - snake.  Acutally it might've been dropped by a raptor; hardly any squishy bits.

 Near the Ranger House I caught up with this guy named Ernie.  He had this cool jersey and said he got it at Kaiser in Martinez in the gift shop.  Apparently we're in the Diablo region of Kaiser and the mountain isn't really intended to look like Mount Diablo... so they succeeded there.

Called it a short day since Diablo Daughter and I are doing Primavera tomorrow!  The 25 mile Family Ride on our tandem.

2012 WNR 03

First time up the Mountain in shorts!  Pretty good elapsed time too - tights and a jacket are apparently about a 3-minute handicap.  Really nice weather and lots of cyclists enjoying Diablo.  There was even a nice burbling brook at the Cold Shoulder hairpin.  It'll be too hot pretty soon though.

Saw Jay and Ward at the Junction, Jay's doing the DMD next week - we both had on the same Lion of Flanders socks... I think that's the only kind Jay has in his sock drawer.  They both knew about the cops giving cyclists tickets inside of Diablo Country Club, and knew of at least one person who got stung.  Apparently the squad car hides behind some bushes. It would be cool to set up a Diablo Spy Cam down there and videotape riders to see how scofflawish and hazardous they're really being.  Another story I got third hand was someone got a ticket for not putting her foot down, even though she did a full-stop track stand... any cop that thinks the foot down thing is necessary needs to be schooled.  I suspect the whole thing is elitest exclusionarianism on the part of the 1-percenters who live in there trying to keep out the genpop.  The Danville cops in general though have frequently been accused of being overly strict in their interpretation of cyclist requirements at stop signs downtown.  So always ride safe, but for the next few months or so, ride paranoid as well.

Talked to another guy at the Junction who was planning out his viewing location for the Amgen Tour of California - I said "Hey, that's MY spot."  He said he hoped there wouldn't be too many people up there on race day, and I said I hope the whole Mountain is covered with crazed fans because that means they'll keep coming back and we'll get TV time in USA and Europe.

2012 SMR 14

There were a lot of cars this morning - some kind of Earth Day event with volunteers.

Lots of bike riders too - first Saturday of really nice weather in a long time.

Up NGR, and down SGR to inspect the new AMGEN surface.

Not perfect, but about as good as your average segment of South Gate Road.

JB went through the Hole in the Fence. 

Then I met up with Team Club Sport at the Athenian.  Some of them came from Pleasanton and some from Walnut Creek, and we headed up.

Wildlife Encounter:  deer and turkeys

Jim

Dan

Michelle

Kathy

Maureen and somebody.

Then we split up with some folks going up Summit, others going down NGR, and others back down SGR.  There were dozens of riders hanging around at the Junction.

My new compact crank... at least it's not a triple.

Product Review:  Park Chain Washing Machine

Not everyone is a fan of these things, but I like to have a shiny chain.  My Performance-brand chain washing thingy broke last month so I bought one of these.

Comes with a bottle of citrus cleaner.

Pretty smart brushes and de-gunkers.

Best way to do this is to use a wheel-less hub so you don't get splatter all over your rims and tires.  Bare hub is also a good spacer if you ever pack your bike for air travel.

This is the best feature - you put the cleaner on your chain first, and then you can squirt the cleaning fluid in through those holes on the top.  My Performance brand thing had to be attached with the fluid already inside... very sloppy.

That's what I'm talking about!

Postscript Item 1:  Friend at work is trying to sell her husband's old triathlon bike.  We gently tried to reduce her expectations.  But if anyone is interested, drop me an e-mail and I'll put you in touch.

Trek 2300 Pro, carbon fiber and aluminum, looks like about 58cm.

 Postscript Item 2:  The Sheriff and/or the Danville PD are out to ticket cyclists not stopping at stop signs again - especially on Alameda Diablo after the hole in the fence.  Post your stories in the comments.