2018 WNR 10

August 27, 2018... time for a cleat replacement!

I got these a year ago and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity.

I think it's fair to say I got the maximum life out of these old ones.

Tools needed:  one Allen wrench.

Neat trick to get your cleats aligned quickly - mark the profile of the old ones first.

And a little Phil Wood grease in the threads will make the next cleat change easier.

Sweeeeet.  Time to ride!  Probably should think about new heel pads one of these days.

Tarantella Tally:  One crawler, one corpse.

Oh boy, two hammer heads tonight.... gonna be a hard one.

By Split 2, I was in third place - red-lined the whole way.

Orange Socks passed me easily on the descent.

Yeah, gettin dark earlier... not too many WNRs left.

Cal Jersey Autoblog

2018 SMR 32

Today was not supposed to be a Spare the Air day, but I think it should've been.  Smoke is at least as bad as it has been any day in the last couple weeks.  

JB was waiting for me at The Gate, and then another guy rode up and he looked like about our speed so I invited him to join us and he agreed.  Parry moved here from Boulder CO in March and has been enjoying Diablo ever since.  He had a cool story about riding a couple weeks ago with this guy who he found out later was Barry Bonds.

Wildlife Encounter:  a single deer at Little Pine Creek.

There was a fire on Thursday at Muir Picnic Area - CalFire got it put out real fast - THANK YOU!  There are a lot of people who love this Mountain!  On my way down, there was a crew there checking for re-ignites.  One of the guys told me they didn't know how the fire got started.

Parry says he meets the nicest people on The Mountain.

Klein fan autoblog.

Left-over fire retardant on the road.

I did this video direct to YouTube... quality sucks worse than the air does... but click anyway.

Tarantella Tally:  one dead one at Junction.

2018 WNR 09

Wow, first Wednesday Night Ride since June?  I am WAS over-worked.

Special Guest Riders today:  Oldstrong and Midland.  At Junction we met their friend David, who just moved here and wasted no time becoming a Diablo Regular.

Air quality was not terrible, not as bad as Beijing... or worse, Seattle.

This guy was tough and fast and can afford a really nice bike... a role model.

Road hogs.

Yeah... sun's setting already.

Tour of Spain starts Saturday... so of course I went full Belgian with the kit.

Yes, it is cold enough for arm warmers on the descent.

2018 SMR 31

Wow, it was actually cold this morning.  I started to plan my schedule for getting winterized.  But it warmed up very quickly, and in fact got uncomfortably hot.

Roadkill Report:  baby deer on The Approach.  Sadder than most of my reports

The wildfire smoke has been bad - visibility, smell, and health effects were all obvious... I know it's nothing like other counties are experiencing, but I'm not used to this.  JB and I decided to call it quits at Junction.

On the descent, a bug flew into my open mouth, and I spit him out right away, but then I started to realize it was a bee, and I had gotten a little venum on the inside of my lip.  So at 40mph I'm concentrating on my lip sting and wondering how bad it was going to get.  The venom-sting pain evolved up to a point, and then mostly faded away.. whew.

Finally, at the Mormon church, I saw a single female turkey, with NINE little babies wandering around on the grass... it was a nice ending to a ride that started with a dead baby deer.

2018 SMR 30

To hell with the self-imposed 10-photo blog maximum.

Warm today, forgot my sunscreen.  Ranger advised to keep hydrated.

JB finally got his triple and lower gears installed.  Still has a few kinks to work out.

Hey!  It's Robert!

Are these cones going to be permanent?  I don't get it

Zoom in for a close look at that granny ring.

Beautiful, clear, blue sky to the north.

Smokey, brown-gray sky to the east.