Comments (2) 7/12/2010 – I’m still trying to get the debris from the preorder taken care of. It’s taking longer than it should because I’d rather go for a ride than take care of this ****. I will update this post when I am ready to take more orders. So if you ask me about getting a jersey, don’t be upset/surprised if I pretend not to hear you.
Well, the leaves have tourned, and the clock has fallen back. What now?
Set up the trainer and ride in the rec-room? Spinning to nowhere.
Pack up the bike and start packing on the pounds? Mmm Pie!
Or, tough it out and ride through the Winter… Mmm, mmm two pieces of pie!
I started bike commuting before the turn of the century, 1998. 
Back then I was a fair weather cyclist and only rode from April to October.
Over the years I have accumulated more and more gear and have extended
my riding season to the point where I now ride year round.
What I have found is that weather is not as big an issue as I thought it would be.
Dealing with the cold and wet is fairly easily done with layers of clothing
that every cyclist already has. Fenders will keep your bike pretty clean.
What really brings a halt to riding is Darkness.
Lights have come a long way. There are now plenty of fairly cheap
1 watt led systems available. I have a box in my garage with a pretty strange
assortment of creatures; Cat Eyes, Knog Frogs, MiNewts.
However, to really punch a hole in the dark takes something like a 3w light.
The new led lights have high output, and your battery will last a long time.
To learn more than you ever wanted to know about lights, visit the
CandlePowerForums.
Lights are only part of the solution. You also need to Be Seen.
I never really felt comfortable riding in the dark until I went retro.
Retro-reflective that is. I found that 3M makes some retro-reflective
tapes in many different colors, Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange, Gold, Green,
White, and Black (yes black reflectors). In sizes from 1/10th to 3 inch widths
on a 37 foot roll. I have so much of this stuff all over my bike and helmet,
that I now feel more visible in the dark than during the day.
I got my pinstripe tapes from these folks, StreetGlo. However, I think you can
find it many places on line with a Google search on “retro reflective tape”.
Below are some photos of my pinstripe projects in both light and dark.
By Day…
>
… and by Night.
So, go out and ride. Stay warm and be seen.
(Nov 14, 2009) Doug Folsom Fondue, 75 miles, 15.0 avg, 7050’ climbing. w/ Doug, Jay, Ward, Dave, Jack, Stephen, Christine, June, and A handful of good riders from Doug’s new club, Revolution Cyclists.
Ride report by Jay (w/ Doug’s permission) all graphs, captions and photos by Ward. Alternative HunterThompsonesque version of ride report with additional/ enhanced photos at Pumpkincycle Blog.
Doug, who was exiled to Sacramento a few years back, was one of the club’s Double Triple Crown rookies in 2005. Known for being super friendly, and always ready to encourage yoga and a diet of vegetables, we’ve run into Doug a few times on organized rides this year, and we talked about a club ride in the Upper Gold Country. So Doug organized a climbing metric out of Folsom (elevation 275’) up to Georgetown (elevation 2650’.) Most of the Diablo Cyclist bonus mile riders joined in—coupled with a handful of riders from Doug’s new club, Revolution Cyclists. We wound up doing loads and loads of attention getting rollers (and a few long hills) in the Upper Gold Country where there isn’t 25 feet that remains flat.
The two hour drive up through the Central Valley farm roads was deceptive–the sun was out nicely but the thermometer read 44. We met at a shopping center at the edge of Folsom’s historic district—a youth soccer tournament was already underway and Fourbucks was jammed with pigmy’s drinking grande hot chocolate.
Dave-Trying to Catch Flys (and Dreaming About A Stanford Victory)
Marshall Road-Christine
Doug, in the spirit of split loyalties, wore the Revolution Cyclist jersey and the Diablo Cyclist shorts. Otherwise everyone (except for one Death Ride rookie who doesn’t own any Diablo Cyclist wear) was in their respective club kits. Because of the drive Jack had requested a 9:30 start, which was good as it got a little warmer. The rest of the day would be strange. Within an hour wouldn’t need a vest in the lowland around Placerville and wouldn’t need it on the climbs. But later at high elevation there was a chill in the air, and it was cold on the afternoon descent from Georgetown. But in the Gold County the air is much dryer than in the Bay Area, and made it feel warmer than it really was.
Going out to Georgetown was a series of uphill rollers punctuated by a couple of real climbs—and we all rode cooperatively and hung together. Loads of well paved main roads surrounded by isolated homes, mom and pop stores, oaks and pine (In the middle of a Placerville subdivision was a private airport where folks land between houses and hills.) —but we must not have been far from population centers (Auburn) as though traffic wasn’t steady the roads were busy with aggressive cars/ pickup trucks. At one point I signaled to a car and they rode alongside as we discussed Nietzsche. For about 25% of the ride we’d get off a well traveled road and suddenly be on a back road—which usually meant more rollers.
Our second regular stop for the day (there were a few flats) was Georgetown, at the top of our route; an isolated small town near nothing else and we took a long breather on “Main Street.” The return trip would feature downhill rollers and cooperation went down the toilet. At the start of the ride our Country Line Sprint man, Stephen, was caught napping when the County Line suddenly appeared just 1/8 mile out of Folsom and he was stuck in the back. Stephen correctly determined that on the return trip we’d come close to Placer County (we did come close but never crossed over) but we started looking for Placer County and there was the original El Dorado line to be first to. Coupled with no one really being sure where we were, there was a series of sprints, attacks, regroups (who knows the route?) and repeats. After a series of false starts—and being faked out by other “green” signs, there was a mad dash when we were closing in to the start—and————there was NO county line sign in the return direction!
Conversation over-We can relax now
So we were back in Folsom @4:00 with the low setting sun casting long shadows. Jack had said we’d return 1:33 ahead of sunset (how did he get those 3 minutes) and I should have ran a stopwatch upon returning to check this but didn’t. Another great Club ride, and great riding with Doug again.
Everything conspired to make this a great weekend for riding. The 3rd Annual Tourning of the Leaves was set amongst beautiful fall foliage in the vineyards, and the inaugural ride over the two bridges was warm, sunny, and hardly any wind. Pretty much everyone got to do at least one new road they had never done before and vests and arm warmers were packed into back pockets for most of the day. Just another reminder of how lucky we are to live in such a gorgeous and diverse area. Ward, Jay, and Craig took lots of pictures, so watch the web site to see when they get posted.
The Tourning of the Leaves was around 65 miles and featured a new option over Sweetwater Springs Road. It’s a beautiful, winding, one lane road along a forested creek until it kicks up for a mile and a half of steep climbing, but the view from the top is worth the effort.
Present for the ride were: June, Jack, Jay, Johnna, Joe, Joe, Ward, Beth, Andy, Tom, Vic, and Stephen.
Where the Wild Things Are
The course starts in Windsor, and rolls through the Alexander Valley, over Chalk Hill, down Westside, and River Road into Guerneville. From there, it follows the Wine Country Century back to Eastside and the start. It’s designed to be a relaxed metric century to wind down the season and to take advantage of the beautiful fall colors. We weren’t disappointed. With the recent rains, there was a lot of green in between the browns and oranges and the blue sky set it all off.
Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and on their best behavior. We kept a good pace up Chalk Hill, then regrouped and held a pace line across the valley and in to the first rest stop at the deli/market next to the Lambert Bridge. Rolling on, we see that the iron cows are still playing poker in the sculpture garden,
Who's the cow now?
and the rollers on West Dry Creek and Westside roads can still hurt. One group turned off to do Sweetwater Springs. I was surprised to find that no one else on the ride had ever done it! Just goes to show that there are always new roads to look forward to. Tom wisely figured it was best not to try it on his recumbent, and poor Andy thought he was taking the easy way around until June and Johnna took off like babes out of hell trying to be sure they beat us to Guerneville! Jay and Ward stopped near the top to take a picture, and I swear I don’t know how they ever clipped in again on that grade!
We regrouped near Armstrong Redwoods in Guerneville, took a break, then crossed over the Russian River to more one-lane roads and a couple of attention-getting climbs. Graton still smells of apples, and the Haunted House on the Hill
Say "Cabernet!"
was surrounded by a vineyard at the peak of its foliage change. There were even some grapes left on the vine for us to pirate.
Getting close to the end, and the rollers never seemed to end, until finally they did, and we were done. Some of us had to leave right away, while the rest headed over to our favorite outdoor patio restaurant for beers, burgers, shakes and salads. Can’t wait until next year!
Sunday’s ride over the two bridges was also a lot of fun. Present on that ride were: June, Jack, Joe, John, Ward, Don, Brian, Craig, Tom, Dave, Chris, Stephen, and 3 relatively new riders, Brian, his wife (Karen?) and Sean. The route follows the usual path out to the Crockett Waterfront, and then crosses the Carquinez Bridge. After a quick photo-op at the scenic view,
Everybody back up about 5 feet!
we headed south across Vallejo then into the Benecia State park with a rest stop at another drop-dead-gorgeous view looking up the Carquinez Straight. From there we left the park, crossed Benecia, and then over the Benecia Bridge, which was also a first for most of the club. It was a fun ride, nice to do the new bridge, and hopefully one we can put in the library for future Sundays.
Next weekend we set our clocks back an hour, and the sun will be setting before 5:30pm. Then it’s only a matter of time before it starts raining, but for now at least we can be happy we had one good last weekend of perfect weather and great cycling.
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