2011 SMR 25

Mornings are coming later and later.  School's started, weather's cooler.  Still not sure why the Mountain was packed with cyclists this morning though.  There were a bunch of guys in USO jerseys but they weren't the only group.  Bonus - I was faster than most of them.

Wildlife Encounter:  deer near the Arroyo del Cerro.

I was planning on a Diablo Spy Cam from this location, but the bugs were just too  viscious.

2011 WNR 11

Little windy

Long Shadows

Sunset's gittin earlier

Adam blew by us with his high-zoot carbo-wheels.

2011 SMR 24

Another garage flat this morning!  Rear tire again, I started to think I had a burr in my rim or something but it looks like just bad luck... pinhole on the tube seem.  I was a little late but JB was waiting.

Wildlife Encounter:  Turkeys at Little Pine Creek

Roadkill Report:  Rat.  A whole mess of crows were breakfasting on this comestible but it was a little too heavy for any of them to carry it away so they had to tear off a bit of flesh between traffic vehicles.

Rat Road Kill / Crow Food

2011 WNR 10

Forgot to bring a jersey to work today so I had to ride in a T-shirt and didn't have a pocket for my camera.

Wildlife Encounter:  deer on Burma Road Trail

Pretty warm tonight and I didn't go very hard.  Had another appointment with the dermatorturist today and I'm still hurting.

OK, no photos but here's a consolation prize:

Scanned in a couple photos I found in my Big Box O' Junk... enjoy.

Frankie Andreu 7-Eleven

Inga Benedict 7-Eleven

Doug Shapiro 7-Eleven

Also, did you know that the airport scene in American Graffiti was filmed at the Concord Airport?  Watch this little clip, or just jump to 2m50s to see The Mountain in the background.

Must have been a smoggy day... here's a little help:

2011 SMR 23

While the rest of the country bakes in hellish heat, the Diablo weather was almost cold enough for arm warmers.

JB and I met at the Gate at Eight.

Those look like rain clouds!

Wildlife Encounter:  deer at Chainbuster.

It cleared up nicely at about 1500 feet elevation.

Talked to a woman at Junction who started riding when she turned 50 and it hurt too much to run, she's loving being a cyclist and recently rode Haleakala... the hard way.

Just finished:  the 2011 Tour d'Organics Video... 4 minutes.

2011 Tour d'Organics, Family Fun Ride from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

2011 WNR 09

Warm tonight.  Frozen bottle trick worked great.  Got passed by about a dozen people.  One guy caught me but didn't pass so I attacked and held about a one-minute gap the rest of the way... PWN.

Had a garage flat before leaving home.  Installed a new tube and put the bike in my truck before I went to work.  Looks like my rear tire has the requisite amount of missing tread to merit a replacement.

Had a dermatologist appointment in the morning.  He has this procedure for "draining lesions" that reminds me of the torture scene in Braveheart.  He says he can usually cure staph in 2 or 3 weeks, and I'm going on 6 so he considers me a challenge.... gave me some more pills, same stuff as before.

Wildlife Encounter:  Turkey vulture on the descent.  He was on the right side of the road having a snack just around the corner at Moss Landing, so I was going about 40 and spooked him and he tried to fly away, crossing in front of me - had to brake hard and still almost got a face full of buzzard butt.

2011 Tour d'Organics

Diablo Wife has been wanting to do this ride for a couple years now. Talked our neighbor friend and her son into coming along too. We signed up for the 35 mile ride.


Diablo Wife thought we should have matching jerseys. Bought some from last year’s Tour of California… the “most aggressive rider / breakaway from cancer” classification jerseys. Hincapie Sportswear… very nice. Good deal too since they were the 2010 versions.

Check in went pretty quick, even with Diablo Neighbor having to “day-of” reg.

The first 10 miles or so went really well, but then it got a little hilly and Diablo Wife started to have some knee problems.

This is not a huge ride as far as number of participants… which is good because these roads are pretty narrow.

The rest stops were kind of quirky; staffed with new agers and old hippies, but that’s part of the appeal of this event.

There was one 16% downhill for a couple blocks in Forestville. I gave everyone a safety lecture and we all made it down just fine, but THEN… (dunt dunt duhn), we regrouped at the bottom under some shady trees and heard this odd high-pitched whining noise and couldn’t figure out what it was. Well a ways down the road I figured out that it was the Schrader valve on the rear tire of the tandem… it got so hot that it started to leak by. I couldn’t get it to stop so we found another shady spot and I swapped the tube. But THEN… (dunt dunt duhn), the spare was bad (spit seam), and I used up my only CO2 cart trying to fill a failed tube. So I put the original tube back in and used Diablo Wife’s mini pump and got enough air in there to get us to the next rest stop. They didn’t have a 20” tube, but they had a good floor pump and they gave me a glueless patch kit for the road.

The rest of the ride went OK, but the less experienced riders in my little group started to fade so it took a while before we finished up.

The post-ride meal was kind of a disappointment. I’ve enjoyed many a vegan dinner so no qualms there, and I’m not really picky about food anyway, but this was pretty bland and uninteresting.

All in all, it was a fun and memorable day. I’m going to say though that the 35 mile route is probably too difficult for most folks who are looking for a family fun ride. Also kind of expensive at $65 for the 35 miler, but kids are free. The full century was $110.

Bonus: Got stuck in unbelievable gridlock on the way home. Took (no kidding) an HOUR to go two miles on the part of Hwy 37 from Lakeville Highway to Sear’s Point. That capped off what was already a really long day.

Update:  The video.


2011 Tour d'Organics, Family Fun Ride from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

2011 SMR 22

Met JB at 8 at the Gate.

Hardly saw any other riders until the Upper Ranch and then there were about a dozen, not together, just all bunched up... funny how that works.

I'm feeling pretty good, but not very strong.  And my heart rate is too high for my output but it's good to be back on the Mountain.

Wildlife Encounter:  Black Eared Jack at the Windmill House.

Saw Morgan at the Junction and told her I'm planning to do Cruella this year if I'm feeling better.  Rider limit is 300 and they only have about a third of that signed up so far so she was kind of marketing the event (as a DMS club member).

Product Review:  Shimano PD-5700 Pedals.

OK, two rides on these now, and I'm impressed.  I've had Look Deltas pretty much since clipless pedals were invented, and other than SPDs for my MTB/winter/touring bikes they are ALL I've ever had.  I liked Looks because they were easy to get into and have a big platform, but they always squeaked and it was really annoying.  I did some checking and didn't find anyone who didn't like these Shimano pedals, nor anyone who would say they squeak so they sounded like the ones for me.  Not too expensive, about the same as the entry level Look Keos; the Ultegra and Dura Ace versions didn't seem to offer any advantages over these either.  Easy to get into - maybe 5% harder than my old ones but that's probably just me and 23 years of Look cleats.  I'm not sure why they have the little replaceable plate on the top... probably to prevent wear on the softer pedal body but seems like an easy thing to replace if necessary whenever.  They came with one version of cleats that have what appears to be the perfect amount of float.  Other versions with different amounts of float and different colored doodads on the bottom are available as replacements.  These pedals get a 9.5 on the 10 point Diablo Scott Pedal Rating Scale.  Only way they could be better would be if they came in colors to match your bike (of course if you have a black or silver bike they already do.)

16:07

2011 WNR 08

Quite a bit warmer, dryer, and browner than on my most recent ride last month.

Felt OK but didn't push it... heart rate was high from 1) loss of conditioning, 2) heat, 3) excitement about new pedals.  Only got passed by three guys...

I think there were only four of us up there though.  JB came up later and said he had a flat with a bad spare at Moss Landing.

Wildlife Encounter:  deer at the Bump.

Oddball Sighting:

Thanks for all the nice messages and comments.  Sorry I couldn't find any roadkill to report.



OK, update on my little health issue.  This is a stock web photo, not me, but it shows pretty much what my staph infection looks like - I've got this all over my chest and under arms.  Mostly it's just ugly and gross but some spots are pretty sensitive and some are a little painful.  Stuff is just damn hard to kill but I seem to be winning very slowly.

Not me.

Update... no ride.

Seemed to be pulling out of my pedals a lot recently... apparently worn cleats were the cause:

Look Delta... ole skewl.

Went to Sports Basement to get some new ones - they were $15 but the Basement had a sale on new pedals that came with cleats, so I decided it was time for a change.  The old pedals were close to 10 years old and I start to mistrust weight bearing components at that age - plus they always squeaked... Adam says his Shimano pedals never squeak so I chose them pretty much on that criteria... and the sale price.

Put on the cleats and mounted the pedals and looked forward to the WNR... but THEN..............

Staphylococcus lugdunensis paid me a visit.  Saw the dermatologist the previous Monday and he said I could get sick pretty quickly if it went beyond skin abscesses, and he gave me some pills... well last Monday morning I came home early from work feeling rotten, slept until about 7pm, and woke up with an awful fever.  Wife called Dr. Derm and he said "Get that guy to the ER." So there I spent the next four hours downloading IV fluids and medicines, getting a chest X-ray and blood cultures.  Sometimes this stuff can get into your heart lining and... well, impede your cycling performance pretty bad... so good thing Dear Wife brought me in.

The "delirious" shot.

So as of today, I'm feeling much better but not really up to Diablo Standard so I've been sleeping late and taking lots of pills and hoping to click in to my new pedals soon.

2011 SMR 21

Yesterday it was so cool and windy that I joked we'd need tights for this morning's ride.  Wasn't far off, but I toughed it out with regular shorts and jersey.

JB got to the Gate shortly after me  - he brought his winter jacket but packed it away for the ride.

Wildlife Encounter:  a cute bunny with a cotton tail... looked like he was just waiting for something to catch and eat him.

Near Son of Chainbuster a guy coming down asked us if we had seen a penny farthing coming up... nope; pretty sure I'd remember that.  Wondered what the deal was though.

At the Junction there was a guy with this cool helmet;

Then I checked my phone for the results of today/s Tour stage and everyone told me not to say.

JB wanted to stay at the Junction a while longer so I went down alone and met the penny farthing guy at the top of the Bump!

He said he got it from Ridable Replicas in Alameda.  Neat bike; 48" wheel.  Boy, I don't see anything resembling a brake on that thing... do you?  Usually on these bikes there was a spoon/shoe under the fork crown that you would press down onto the tire but this one appears to lack it.

What's in YOUR saddle bag?

• Two tubes in a sock with baby powder
• Tire levers
• Multi tool
• Inflator and three CO2 carts
• Chain master link
• Glueless patches

A couple weeks ago I had a flat and broke two of those blue levers trying to get the tire off.  Went to SportsBasement to get some metal ones and the guy recommended against them and said "no way" would I break these Pedro's levers... so I bought em... I suspect he was right.  Anyway - blue Park levers suck, orange Pedro's levers rock (also come in pink, yellow, and green).

Also, it was the first time I'd used my new "threaded cart only" inflator, and I didn't realize that you have to screw the cart into the head by hand - on my old one you just screwed the head onto the body and it punctured the seal.  Took me a while to figure it out but it's actually a pretty slick connection.

Janet's Zoo Ride

Good day for a non-Diablo ride.  Club ride started in Dublin and rode out Dublin Canyon Road and Redwood and a bunch of fun little back roads to the Oakland zoo.

I split my time between riding with the two or three fitness fanatics (multiple Death Ride survivors, and Triple Crown royalty) and the ordinary middle-aged fitness buffs.  Worked out pretty well.  It was kind of an odd crowd because there were a lot of members at the Death Ride today and a lot of others that are doing the Davis Livestrong ride tomorrow so we were kind of the everybody else group.  

Wildlife Encounter:  a goat eating a tree!

Got a flat just a few miles from the finish and I told everybody not to wait.  Got it fixed in time to hammer back to the parking lot just as the last guy was finishing anyway.

It was a lot of fun going through some areas I hadn't done before.  Click on the video for a 29 seconds of avaunt guard artistry and special effects.

And finally... best wishes for Chris Horner.

2011 WNR 07

HAWT!  One of those days you just want to get it over with...

Frozen water bottle trick worked a little bit.

There were a zillion squirrels out too, lying in the shade until you got close to them, then they'd run away.  Little ones, about the size of rats.

I drafted these guys for about 3 revs in my 39x21... it was awesome.

After that I chased "The Girl With The Yellow Tires" and pretty much kept her in sight the whole way up but never managed to get closer than about 30 seconds.

'Possed to be cooler this weekend... booyah.

2011 SMR 21

Met JB at the Gate and we rolled.

Somewhere on the Bump he unleashed his inner Contador and the elastic snapped.

Not nearly so many people as last week, but a large number of them were already descending, so they must have gotten a real early start.

Then down the south side and the Hole.

Wildlife Encounter:  two groups of black tail deer with spotted fawns.

Going to be real hot the next few days.

Photo editing software buggered up my snaps again, so I'll just leave this here.