May 21 Desert River Randonneurs 400km

Special thanks to Paul for organizing another great ride, the route was scenic, rural and easy to navigate!   Very special thanks to Cathy for volunteering and staffing the controls!!

I was up at about 4:30am ate 2 big muffins and had some Power-aid before heading to the starting point for a 5:30am check in.  The ride started out at 6am all the riders about 9 or 10 of us were in good spirits and the weather was very nice, slightly overcast and cool.   The first control was only 30 miles away in Prosser though it was a steady uphill grade into 15-20 mph head winds the whole way.   I averaged 14.75mph.  Along the way I rode with a new guy on a New old school bike with down tube shifters and a simplex rear derailleur.   Also passed by the Madcatr’s house, it was funny last time I was out here to see him I thought it would be a great place to bike!    At the Prosser Conoco I had a V8 and topped off my Gatorade.

The next control was the Safeway in Toppenish 31 miles away.  The route was only a few turns and a 25 mile stretch along a rural route.  About half way there my back really started to hurt and I stopped for some Advil.  At this point I was riding with a guy from Texas and we traded off drafting for a bit.  Once my back started hurting I couldn’t keep up and he slowly pulled away, I caught up with him again at the Toppenish but after that never saw him again.     At the Safeway Cathy was waiting with water and pain pills, she gave me a few Aleve and that took care of me for the rest of the day.    Refueling here consisted of a California Dreaming sandwich, Dorito’s and large Snapple ice tea. After I ate everyone else had already moved on so I headed out again.  My average speed dropped down to 13mph.

The next control was in Wiley and 25 miles away.  Again a fairly easy route to get there, basically up north track road to Yakima then west to Wiley.  Along the way there was a construction detour in a little town.  I turned off to follow the detour and was chased by a group of dogs, they were kind of lazy though and I easily pulled away from them.   The detour route wasn’t well marked so of course I got off track.  Ended up making a wrong turn which cost me about 5 extra miles.   Thankfully the VZ navigator on my phone worked and I was able to see a map of where I was and where I messed up.  Retracing my steps I returned to where I got off course and was able to pick up North Track Rd again.  At about this time it started sprinkling but not too heavy.  Awhile later I rolled in to Yakima and it really started to rain, I thought of putting on my pants but decided not to.    The ride out to the Willey control took longer than I expected and so I stopped again about 7 miles later to check my phone map.  I was still on course and made it to the control.  36miles, 2.6hrs, my speed dropped to 11.4 mph.    Still I caught up with a few other people at the control.   Ate a grandma’s cookie, a V-8 and some Gatorade.

After Willey the route headed pretty much due north to Ellensburg. By now it had really started to rain and I put on my rain pants.   Along the way it passed over the Yakima river which was really nice though very swollen.    After passing through Selah the route followed the Yakima River Canyon, which was incredible scenic, though there was pretty good head winds  and it seemed like it was all up hill. 

 Basically because it was!   See diagram D1.   About 4 miles into the canyon I stopped and had a PB&H but that didn’t help much.  I need to find a new on the road power food.  My the time I got to Ellensburg I was spent and was barely rolled into town.  47 miles ~ 11.7mph.

Diagram D1

At Ellensburg I found several other riders Including Theo and another guy eating in the Safeway.  Of course Cathy was there with water and to sign our control cards.    I got a double meat California Dreaming sandwich, a large ice team and a sticky bun, forgot to buy chips.    Theo and the other guy took off and were heading down the road before I finished eating. 

Leaving Ellensburg I was feeling great,   I zipped down the main street keeping up with traffic at 25-30 mph.   The route back through the canyon was pretty much all downhill except for the 3 climbs in the canyon.   Along the way I passed Susan and Paul coming in as well as one other guy.  It was nice to see and wave to them as we passed.    I kept up my pace and the miles flew by, of course until I hit the hills and then slowed to climb them.   Through the canyon I could see another rider in front of me, I didn’t know who it was and wasn’t trying to catch him, though I would gain ground on the flats only to lose it on the climbs.   Riding in the canyon in the evening was very nice, the winds were light though since the weather changed it was back to a head wind.

Rolling back into Yakima and down 1^st street I could see the rider ahead of me again a few lights up.  I was still feeling pretty good and managed to catch him at the corner of Nob Hill.  Turned out to be Theo who weighs about buck nothing hence why he kept pulling away from me in the canyon. Turns out he had a flat which is probably why I caught up to him.  Anyway we started chatting and rode on to the next control.   I ate another muffin and got some more Gatorade.  A homeless seeming guy was checking out my bike, thankfully Theo was there to watch it for me while I used the rest room.    40 miles, 13.7mph.

Nice building in Yakima

For the rest of the ride Theo and I rode together which was really nice given it was getting dark and the conversation and companionship helped to pass the time.  We couldn’t figure out what happened to the other guy from Ellensburg, I never saw him, we just figured he was ahead of us still.

The ride to Zilla was really nice, 20 miles, 15 mph.  It was really nice in that Theo is great at reading the cue sheet and I pretty much stopped reading my all together and just went off his comments and the map in my head for the rest of the ride.  At the control I asked the guy if he had seen any other riders, he had not, so apparently Theo and I were out in front.

The next control was Prosser 29.3 miles, 13 mph average 2.25 hours.  Prosser took forever to get to.  Finally arrived there and hit McDonalds.  I had a quarter pounder with cheese fries and a Coke.  Theo got some fries. 

30 miles to the end!!  We were at Prosser just before midnight and had only 9am to finish the ride.  It was quite tempting to find a hotel and go to sleep for a few hours before finishing up the ride in the morning.  But we pushed on. 

The Final push back to Richland wasn’t too bad; it basically consisted of the OIE and Kennedy roads, split in two by Benton City.  Theo was on it with the cue sheet and navigated us back without issue.  We almost missed on turn on the OIE but I remembered seeing some train engines in the morning and knew we had to turn around. 

Overall we finished with a time of 19 hours 58 minutes.  I had about 17.75 hours of total ride time.  Total distance I rode was about 256 miles and average speed was 14.4 mph

RACC 100 Mile

I was set to go on a 600km brevet on May 7/8 this year.  Unfortunately I decided that I wasn't quite up to the challenge yet and decided to stay home.   On the 7th I rode the Ride Around Clark County RACC 100 mile century.  It is put on every year by the Vancouver cycling club, and it was a well organized ride.

I got off to a good start and was averaging about 16 mph.  Unfortunately I forgot both my water bottles in the car so I did get some cramps, thankfully somewhere around mile 30 I found a gas station and bought two disposable bottles.  Continuing on into scenic Clark County I was mostly enjoying the ride.  Of course the drafters were back there hanging on to my wheel.

Some where around mile 45ish I took a wrong turn and got off course. I was pretty much riding alone at that time having left just about everyone at the 2nd rest stop and only over taking a guy fully decked out for a 600km brevet on a Rivendell.  Thankfully I recognized a few city names and made my way to Amboy, which is a nice little town in Washington.  With out a cue sheet I was sunk though!  even though the ride went nearish to Amboy I had no idea even what road to ask for so I just turned down the road I knew and headed back to Vancouver.

Ended up back to the start with out further issue, only got in 83 miles, but that is better than nothing...

Stock Vs. Replaced

Well, I just finished working on my Volpe.  Seams all I do lately is work on my bike, and so to commemorate the moment I've decided to compile a list of stock parts vs. replacement parts on the bike.  Thought I'm pretty sure by doing so I will deeply offend the bike gods...

Stock Parts
- Frame, though repaired
- Fork
- Brakes, though 1 set new pads
- Headset
- Stem
- Handle bars
- Front brake tension adjustment barrel
- Bottom Bracket 
- Rear Derailleur
- Front Derailleur
- Front Derailleur bracket
- The seat, which is the first thing everyone changes but mine is fine.. Except for the tear from the Mother's Day Crash
- Front Skewer

New Parts
- Seat Post
- Break Pads, 2nd set
- Chain 5th chain, the last 4 didn't last long before having issues
- Rear Derailleur pulleys upper and lower, replaced with Ultegra 9speed sealed bearings
- Crankset replaced junk sugnio with a Tiagra after bending the Sugino
- Tiagra STI levers, 2nd set. First set destroyed on May 8th Mother's day crash
- 42 tooth center chain ring
- Cassette
- Repaired rear dropout at chain stay interface
- Bent rear derailleur hanger 2x
- New Pedals trading in the stock Wellgo pedals for new Deore XT pedals
- New cleats owing to the new pedals
- 2 complete sets of cables, within 2 weeks of each other
- 4th time new bar tape, 3rd time within 9 months
- 1 new water bottle cage, after the first one flew off at 30ish MPH last winter
- New rear rim after the first one split on me, thus a a full new wheel
- 4 new sets of rear wheel bearings and 4 cones
- New Front Wheel sporting White Industries H2, matched to a A719 32 hole rim
- New Rear Wheel, White Industries H3 hub again with a A710 36 hole rim


If you compare and contrast this to my 1982 Schwinn, the only thing that needs replacing on it are the tires and tubes with are almost 30 years old.  Though I can't climb a 7000' in one day on my Schwinn.

Desert River 300km

Desert River 300

As I think of the title of this post a few came to mind.

-          Headwinds from Hell

-          19 hours of perseverance

-          12 crazy people try to beat the wind and um... win?

The day started off really nice.  I awoke at 4:30am loaded up my bike and arrived at the starting point nice and early.  I learned my lesson on getting to the start point on time the week before on the 3 Capes Brevet.   We got off to a nice start, the route was pretty flat, the weather was good not raining! And for being 6am it was pretty light out. 

The Blue Bridge

The Cable Stay Bridge

The first control was 16.5 miles out and I rolled into it after about 50 minutes.  I was feeling great and things were going well.  It had started raining so I put on my rain paints, which worked perfectly and caused the rain to promptly stop and never return.    Leaving the control, I met up with Ian from Olympia.  He and I chatted and we started ticking off the miles.  Soon a few other guys caught up to us and the 3-4 of us cruised along WA-124 on our way to Waitsburg.  Turns out that Ian was a pretty experienced Randoneur as well as the other 2 guys, at least two of them are headed to PBP, so riding with them was a bit intimidating.  We had a nice tail wind and the KM/miles ticked right off.   Somewhere about 10miles out of Waitsburg my front tire flatted.  All 3 guys stopped with me and helped to fix it.  Unfortunately, we stopped right at the spot with probably the worst cross winds on this section of the road so if you didn’t hold on to your stuff it blew away…  Ian helped me out a ton and I really appreciated it.  He investigated the reason for the flat (rim side issue caused by bad rim tape) and, in the end, put my new wire bead tire on in about 2 seconds, - well, maybe 10.    About 3 miles out of Waitsburg I got a good lesson on how not to cross railroad tracks, ended up a bit bruised and sore, with a huge hit to my pride/self-esteem.  Thankfully, the rest of my trip was completely uneventful.

Cruised into the Waitsburg control at 09:45.    ~ 60 miles in 3hrs 45min.  A solid 16mph despite a flat and bouncing off the pavement.    Seemed like just about everyone was hitting the Waitsburg store.  Not wanting to hold anyone up I went over to the restroom in the park around the block to avoid the line and/or cause a line.  By the time I got back most everyone had headed down the road, so I was riding solo from there on out.

Waitsburg

Waitsburg to Walla-Walla:  I had ridden this section of the ride last fall and really enjoyed it.  I felt like I could make really good time on over this section.  A short uphill climb followed by a great downhill ride in to Walla-Walla.  18.5 miles should take about an hour, assuming the a boost from gravity.   Remember the previously mentioned tailwind / side wind?  Well, now it was a 20ish mph headwind. 

The ride to Walla-Walla, about 19 miles,   2.5 hours averaging 7.4mph. 

I rolled into Walla-Walla hoping that I had seen the last of the headwinds; maybe they would die down…. Nope.   Paul the event organizer had met us at the control and he and a nice lady had PB&J bagels for us.  After leaving the control, the headwinds conspired with the stop lights to keep me in Walla Walla as long as possible. Chris a guy riding a nice Surly LHT was also at the control when I was there, he and I headed out at about the same time.  I invited him to draft off me as we made our way down to Milton-Freewater (MF).   The winds continued probably around 15+mph and Chris stuck with me the whole way, it was nice to have a little companionship even though the wind made any conversation all but impossible.  After about 8 miles I spotted the MF Safeway and decided to stop for lunch.  Chris faded off in the distance as I coasted to a stop.  About 11.5 miles, 1hr 15 min,  9 mph.

24 minutes for lunch and resting then back on the road.

The road between MF and Pendleton is a series of long hill climbs through a vast expanse of wheat fields.  Next to Iowa, it is probably one of the best places for unchecked killer headwinds and blow it did!  I don’t know how fast the winds blew, but I don’t think it would be unreasonable to say they were in the 30mph range, at least at times.  I literally had to pedal in order to go downhill and usually in my 30 cog chain ring.  If I didn’t have a triple crank I doubt I would have made it through this section of the route.

Distance from MF to Pendleton:  27.6 miles; Time 4hrs 28mins; Average speed 6.2mph

Rolling into Pendleton was great!  The last mile or so was actually downhill and I was even able to coast some.  I stopped at the first gas station and got my card signed.  Then I headed over to Great Pacific and got a sandwich, bag of chips and an Ice tea.   I really started to think about bagging it and just getting a hotel room in Pendleton…   Something to note from the time stamps on the phone eating only took about 20-25 minutes which was pretty good.  I thought my down times were much longer…

Leaving GP and cruising through downtown I noticed I didn’t have my gloves on and freaked out thinking I left them at the gas station a few miles back.  Thankfully after 2 blocks of back tracking I looked down my jacket and found them.  It goes to show you how the mind starts to work after hours of stress; little things become terrifying, though the thought  of riding into the night without gloves really is…

The road out of Pendleton takes you through a canyon.  Paul the ride organizer promised the winds would be calm.  Having rafted through dozens & dozens of river canyons pushing my boat all afternoon against headwinds I thought that was a really strange prediction.  It was however something nice to hang on to mentally….

The road through the canyon was nice and would have been even nicer in the daylight.  At first there was some light industry followed by a bunch of small homes with horses and a pretty river.   I was able to knock off several miles before needing to turn on my lights, traffic was nil.  I jumped a small group of deer along the road and they scampered up the side of a hill.  Unfortunately, that got me to thinking of cougars and how I would probably make a tasty snack standing no chance against one.  That thought stuck with me throughout the canyon.  After a while I started watching the river and thinking how nice it would be to have my raft.  I could strap my bike on it and just float along.  The river was flowing at 5mph+ and I could shift all the work to my arms…  Just as I was having those happy thoughts the river came across a low head dam with one of the most wicked looking backwashes I’ve ever seen.  Coming across that dam anytime but especially at night would have pretty much been a death sentence.   There was a tongue going over the middle of the dam that you might be able to run but, it would have been hell to see from the water and no room for error. 

Ok back to cycling…

The road continued on twisting along and following the north side of the canyon just below the rim.  Still no traffic, but a new obstacle:  chunks of rock that had fallen off the cliff face.  My light was maladjusted* and was only shining on to a small little spot a few feet out from my bike.  Dodging the rocks was worse than what I imagine a drive through a minefield would be.  After a few minutes I adjusted my lamp up and everything was good.  Even on medium power the little EOS lights up the road really well and those rocks were no longer a threat. 

Just outside of Echo, I stopped under a light I found next to a little electrical complex.  I dug out my head lamp and hung it around my neck.  Then I walked around the back of the complex and out of the pool of light and looked at all the stars, there were too many to even pick out the constellations.   Across the valley from me, about 300 yards from me was a big old farm house.  You know the type- it was the big rectangular kind painted white with green trim and probably a green roof.  Dim lights almost candle like shown from a few of the upstairs and back windows.  Several old junk cars and other clutter were scattered about.  It’s just the type of place you’d expect to see Agents Mulder and Scully investigating, especially late at night and in low light. GREAT!  First cougars then land minds, now crazy X-File monsters to contend with!  My frame pump was wholly in adequate to deal with this “stuff”!  Well at least the head winds had died down…

On to Echo at about 9pm.  ~26 miles since Pendleton, 2.5hrs,  10.4mph,  not bad if you are running a marathon….

42 miles to go…

I arrived at the interstate and cruised over it.  Spotting a McDonald’s I swung in!  Had a nice chat with a guy who was living on his bike- full time, the local PD was there to shake him down and I wondered if they would be chatting with me soon to check my insanity level.  Thankfully they never came my way or looked at my eyes because they were so blood shot that I would have probably been the guy at the farm house that Mulder and Scully were looking for.     A quick cheeseburger --oh so good!  And some sort of iced coffee thing and I was on the road again. 

The ride to Umatilla was uneventful; it was nice to back in civilization at least for a little while.  It was only about 15 miles and it went pretty quickly.  I got there at 10:30 pm. I don’t know what my speed was but it had picked up.  I even beat a little sports car off the line at a few lights, though I don’t think he knew I was racing him, still at 10 PM+ a win is a win.

Fortunately I pre-drove the route from Umatilla to Richland the night before so, I knew right where the control was and how to find the bike path across the interstate bridge.  The views of the McNairy Dam were really nice and they were dumping water from all the spillways.     Seeing was a bit hard after crossing the bridge.  The lights from the bridge had destroyed what little night vision I have and transitioning back to the darkness was difficult.   I was really tempted to jump on the freeway as I knew where the exit was and how easy it was to get to Plymouth road.  However I continued on in the dark and down the steep path winding my way to the tunnel and the sand at the end of the path.   Turning right my light lit up the dark mouth of the tunnel and I was happily relieved to find it absolutely empty.  Just prior upon seeing the gaping darkness of the tunnel entrance mind had wandered to potential hooligans and or “Dementors,” that would be waiting for me inside the tunnel.  Again my bike pump would wholly inadequate against either.

McNary Dam

Arriving at Plymouth road, I made the big right turn and headed up the hills that I thought would be the worst section of the ride.  Going was slow but not bad at all.  My knees really hurt but again dropping in to the third chain ring, I cranked up all the hills, probably taking some in my middle ring.  If anything it was better to do them at night as you couldn’t see the top and with no perspective you just pedaled along.  As I climbed the wind was maybe at my back?  Or maybe at my side either way it was a non- issue.  Maybe it was the wind or something else,   I’m not sure but there was this interesting howling / breathing sound coming out of some pipes along the road every few hundred yards.  I don’t know what it was but I choose to think of it as sleeping dragons, which was a nice way to pass the time for a bit.

Plymouth road ended up being longer than I remembered taking about 1.5 hours to get to the next turn.  Along the way I heard several groups of coyotes howling and yipping off in the distance.  My mind began to wander again and their howling hurried me along.

Finally, making the turn on to Coldfelter,  I was ecstatic the end was so near!  I powered up the first little rise after which I think everything else was all downhill except for a few little rollers.  I clicked my light up to full power and quickly spun out in my middle chain ring.  Shifting up, I cranked along braking through the curves and letting the final miles fall away behind me as I let gravity pull me to the end.   I found the final turn on to Leslie with ease taking Paul’s advice to go slow after the highway bridge.  The final leg was only 2.8 miles.  I cranked it up and the adrenaline associated with being down kicked in.   I cranked along fast and carefree, It sure helped that it was mostly downhill!

Total Time 19 hours

Finished at 1:03am on my watch.  The lady at the end said I was only 1 hour behind the first riders. Having taken on all the headwinds solo I felt really good about that.

Highpoints

-          The first 60 miles

-          The last 9 miles

*literary license

This was my 4th Brevet, and my second 300km.

Thoughts upon reflection

-          It is extremely difficult to express how hard this ride really was.  Riding into stiff headwinds is an exercise in futility.  I probably didn’t put in enough descriptions of the wind.   

-          I debated walking many times and ended up probably walking at least half a mile.  It was really nice to walk and probably just as fast as riding against the wind.

-          My bike fits me well.  However after 15 hours on it my shoulders really burned.  Somehow they stopped burning.

-          Will I do this ride again?  Yes, hopefully no headwinds next time.

-          Maybe next year it will be a counter-clockwise ride.  I can only assume it would have been a super-fast ride had it been so this year.   Though the last 60 miles would have been full on into the wind.

3 Capes Brevet 3-26-11

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Save for Birkey 200k

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Of Winter Rides and Broken Frames

During December of 2010 I was trying to get in a few rides when I could.  One Thrusday I cut out of work a little early to get my goto 12 mile loop ride in.  It was sunny out though a litlle chilly probalby in the upper 30's.  So off I went climbing up Springville and then headed west on Skyline, zipping along all bundled up in winter atire, showerspass jacket, leg warmers and arm warmers and proably a t-shirt and jersey and of course gloves.

I was going along fine enjoying the low evening sun and figuring on being home well before dark,  maybe a turn up Old Germantown for another little climb...  However it wasn't to be and my fun little ride soon came to an abrivated end...  I was rolling along and

Cycle Oregon 2010

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Summer 2010 Training

save for future posting

How not to shift gears

So within the first month or so of being a happy Volpe owner I headed down the road on my favorite 12 mile loop ride.  I made it up the first hill and then was heading up the second hill.   At that time climbing a hill was a pretty big deal for me.  I was just learning how to shift properly and needless to say I didn’t understand that you really need to shift prior to needing to shift.  You see a derailleur works best when the chain is passing through it quickly when moving slowly the rear derailleur struggles to move the chain to a different cog.   Don’t even think about shifting the front derailleur with low revs on the crank, it may happen but your poor front derailleur won’t like it one bit!

So on that fateful day up the horse farm hill I went, nearing the top it gets really steep and I found that I needed to down shift in order to keep moving, think turtle speed and you’ll have an idea how fast I was going.    So I clicked away on my front derailleur and with a gnashing of teeth and chain things began to happen very slowly.  Note it is really a bad idea to change gears when hardly moving and applying max torque to your crank arms which for me is about 144 ft lbs of torque, which is really good! Lots of cars barely make that much torque though I only produce about .5hp but that is a whole different story.  Anyway at 144 ft lbs of torque and fighting gravity components start to fail….  And thus I found out what it is like to break a chain.  Just as that happened the local home owner Jeff  took notice of me and came over to see what was going on.  He was nice enough to offer me a ride home in his ’76 ford pickup which I graciously accepted. 

Of course the next day I went up to the Neighborhood LBS, located just a few minutes from my house and got 2 SRAM replacement links which are great!  I installed a new link in just a minute or two and had my chain back together and was ready to roll again.  Or so I thought.  Turns out my front derailleur was a bit out of whack as well.  After a few minutes of tinkering with it I decided the complex two screw adjustment system might as well have been a Swiss watch and gave up.   So I loaded the bike up and took it down to the store I bought the bike from for them to fix it.  After all they did do lifetime derailleur and brake adjustment free of charge!   I’m really glad I brought it to them instead of my N-LBS as it turned out there was much more wrong then I knew.   First of the front derailleur wasn’t out of adjustment it had actually pivoted on its mounting ring and was completely out of place.  Once the mechanic corrected that issue he spun the crank a bit and informed me that my crank was also bent and I would need a new one of those as well..  He promptly informed me that Bianchi’s warranty was completely junk and they would say that I’m a big guy and that was the reason the crank bent.  But he said they sold a lot of Bianchi’s and thus he would just put it through on warranty and get me a new crank seeing as it was only a month old.  After a few days they called and it was ready so I went down and picked it up.  They got me an upgraded crank to a Tiagra triple which was pretty sweet as it was now a 52-42-30 instead to the Sugino  XD500T which was a 48-38-28 and made of recycled beer cans.  So I got a better crank and can now go a lot faster owing to the larger chain rings.   He also told me that additionally I had bent the rear derailleur hanger but thankfully it was a steal frame so they were able to just bend it back.  All of that and no charge!  I should have just left the chain broke as well!

First Rides

After getting my bike home I did what everyone should do:  I jumped in my car and went out to explore a  bike route!  Of course, that's what you SHOULD do!    So, I drove out from my house out Kaiser road and on to Skyline and then back down Springville and to home.  It wasn’t far--just about 12 miles--and though it had some hills it didn’t seem so bad at all.  Sometime there after I went for my first bike ride.  I put on my fancy Sidi bike shoes,  unaware of the need to learn to clip in--and the critical skill of unclipping--nor the proper timing that goes along with unclipping.   I think it was a Saturday that I went on my first real bike ride.   I started out Saturday morning and started up Kaiser road.   I remember the first hill;  it climbs maybe  30’ or so in total elevation spread over 100 yards or so.   I started up that little hill and to this day use it as my measure of how in shape I am.  When I’m in good shape, I climb it with no issues at all, but it is a little work when I haven’t ridden in awhile.  So anyway I climbed that first hill and then was over the top and racing down and along to the first turn with a second little climb.  Up I would go an even shorter little climb but no less daunting to a new cyclists.  Having met that challenge I would continue on and then fly down the big curving descent on Kaiser road.  Only to come up against the indomitable challenge of climbing up Kaiser to the intersection with Germantown Road.   In those first rides and the months to come I would have to drop down into my triple chain ring and pedal for all I could to climb up the hill to the top.  Once at the top you weren’t done as Germantown road is crowned and you would have to come to a stop on a steep hill prior to climbing over to crown on Germantown, before getting to the relatively flat relatively short part of Kaiser as it passed in front of the horse farm/stables.   Once past the stables the climb started again. On the first ride I remember struggling up the sweeping climb cranking endlessly in my little chainring and big cog as I climbed my way up the hill.  Along the way you had to avoid clumps of cement and black top that had spilled off a truck years ago leaving little speed bumps that though were only 4” in diameter were impossible to avoid as I wobbled up the hill struggling to keep going and to keep the front wheel on the ground!  Cresting that hill there is a delightful old farmhouse and what was a cool old barn.  Perhaps I’ll write about the barn again in a future post.  Anyway passing the barn you continue on the road and get back to the climb up another short climbing/turning hill.  Finally reaching the first nice flat / down hill bit of road since Springville.  I remember there was this crazy big Holstein steer grazing in the field in front of a field of grape vines and a large house set way back from the road.  The Holstein is still out there some 5 years later grazing and living a good all be it oversized life.  He is the biggest poor old Holstein I’ve ever seen, no doubt the experiment of a “tax shelter” farmer turned pet.  Poor guy has no friends, no pasture companions just himself grazing in the field living a life of solitude life grazing in the field.   Well after the steer you zip down the road cranking hard and spinning in the big chainring before making a big right turn only to be confronted with another climb up a seemingly endlessly step hill.  On that first ride I was able to make it to the top of the hill.  Following close along the side of the ride, all the while looking down into the ditch lined with sharp broken rock and dreading the time when I certainly would fall in undoubtedly getting all cut up bruised and broken.  That day I was able to make it to the top of that hill but upon reaching the top I was completely worn out and unable to go on, so I turned back for home.  Going home was much easier than going out, unfortunately you still however need to climb the steep Kaiser road hill, which is quite steep and goes around a blind corner with no shoulder.  I made it home that day and was quite happy though sad that I didn’t make it around my whole 12 mile loop.  I put the Volpe in the garage resolved to try again.

In the beginning

It was March of 2006 and I was shopping for a bicycle.   I really didn't know much about bikes or cycling at the time but was all set to get a bike I could comute to work on.   So I went down to my local bike shop Rivercity Cycle. I had previously checked out a few bikes there and for some reason came to the conclusion that I needed to buy a Bianchi.  Originally I was interested in the Castro Valley but didn’t like it as it had fenders and a front dyno hub!  Certainly neither of those were very cool and I wanted something fast!   So I went with the Volpe which the salesman told me was the same frame as the Castro Valley but it would be faster!  I had never even ridden a 10-speed style bike before and had no idea where to put my hands on the handlebars, having graduated from my Schwinn Cruiser to a mountain bike.   So after going for a brief test ride along the East Bank Esplanade I was convinced.  I went back to the shop and placed an order for a bike.  Within a week or two my new bike arrived at the shop and I was told it was ready to go.  So I went down and picked it up.  They also set me up with a helmet and a pair of shoes!  Now shoes are kind of a big deal for me.  You see, I don’t have easy feet to fit being they are size 52 euro or size 16 for all those of us on the western side of the pond.  When the sales guy brought out 3 different pairs I was blown away!  Usually when I buy one pair of shoes, I buy whatever I can find as I generally don’t find size 16s at the local store.  So anyway, they sold me a pair of Sidis and I was out the door.  I think total cost for the bike, shoes and helmet was about $1000 during their March sales event.  And thus began my love/hate relationship with my Gang Green Bianchi Volpe.