2019 SMR 20

Diablo Wife and I went on a sunset kayak voyage last night, so I was dragging this morning.

JB said he was pretty sure he was going to get his Della Santa fixed, but hadn't made any progress on it.  Also said he'd be in Iowa for the next two Saturday Morning Rides, so I will be solo.  He also hadn't found a water bottle to replace the one that got smushed... so he was using a stainless steel thing.

Wildlife Enoucnter:  two deer, flock of turkeys.

Lots of riders on The Mountain - at least a few looked like Death Ride hopefuls.  Also saw a bunch of folks on Sports Basement rental bikes.

JB has an old school sensibility about bicycle design... this nuvo styling rubbed him the wrong way.

Not many things sadder than a roadside memorial.  I saw the aftermath of this tragedy after last week's SMR... car vs moto.

2019 WNR 15

Another Wednesday afternoon with enough disposable time to do a pre-group-ride leg softener.

I did some maintenance after Saturday Morning's ride, including a new chain, so I wanted a shake-down ride to make sure everything was in good nick.  My Bike Mike was tip top and also clean and shiny.

First ride up was windy, with a few sections of severe gusts.  Second ride up had less wind but was a little cooler.  Cool?  It's almost July!

Charlie had a story about how the head band straps on his helmet had broken somehow, so he had a new POC helmet... one of those with the really big vents.  I always thought they looked kind of odd, but I see what other people like in them.  Charlie said it fit the best, and that's more important than style anyway.  Also he said it fits well over his sunglasses, and his visor cap, so those were his other criteria... an experienced helmet shopper.

Special guest riders:  Tanner, Donna, and Kathryn.  I saw JB going up when I was coming down from Junction #1:  new bike status=not.

Shawn calls this JB's "clown bike".

Here's me and Charlie photo-bombing Shawn's attempt to photograph his own shadow.

A happy group.

2019 SMR 19

First ride of summer, days start getting shorter now.  JB announced that he could only do Junction because BASEBALL.  Also he said his water bottle had popped out of the cage on the way to The Gate and then a car ran over it... so his bidon was FUBAR.  

Pretty nice riding up to Junction, but Summit Road was windy with some pretty serious gusts; made me start thinking about fire season already.  It's been kind of hazy too... fires aren't going to make that any better.

I didn't hang around Summit very long, but stopped at Junction on the way back down because I saw Kasters - he was there with his buddy Matt who was training for The Death Ride... said he'd logged more than 50,000 feet of vertical so far for June which is twice what I've done with four Summits and five Junctions.

2019 WNR 14

Had a little extra time tonight so did the Junction Double.  First trip up I went at the pace that I figured would be a good workout but still leave enough in the tank for the after work guys.

Wildlife Encounter:  Snake somewhere I think.  Deer at Junction on second trip.

Shawn came and I pushed him hard and he got a new PR for the year.  Colin came and got a new PR without any pushing from me.  JB came on his Atlantis but turned around with some kind of drive-train problem.

Diablo Shoutout to Oldstrong - saw him on the first down and the second up.  He's one of my original blog fans.

Special guest rider:  Edgardo! Who came with his work buddy Michael.

Oldstrong Flyby #1

Shawn on his way to his best time of the year... so far.

Ed!

Pink socks autoblog.  Pink bike is a bonus.

Colin on his way to a PR.

Oldstrong Flyby #2

2019 SMR 18

Eight at The Gate special guest rider Colin.

Hot all week and today it was cold and windy... most of the way up.

Wildlife Encounter:  Two young deer below The Bump.

Kind of crowded on The Mountain today - lots of bikes, lots of hikers, lots of cars.

JB's saddle was creaking - he tightened it up at Junction and it stopped.  

Colin's jacket was flapping in the wind.

Jeez Louise that's a lot of cloud.

Much warmer up here.

I stopped to get a photo of the deer and I got a good action shot!