Rode the river trail today. It’s a 75 mile route that starts in Corona and takes us to Huntington beach. We finished it in about 4 hours. After the we finished the ride we went to Slater’s 50/50. Good ride. Now it’s nap time.

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This past week Chris was out of the country and Bruce got sick, that left Tony and I to this weeks ride. Orginally bcbc was going to ride from Santa Barbara to Fullerton but as a rule we won’t ride major distance rides with less than 3 riders just in case someone gets hurt. Tony and I thought it through and picked the Irvine to San Diego centry.

We met at the Irvine amtrek train station at 7am and begun our ride at 7:30. The weather couldn’t have been better. The air had just a little crisp bite and sun was just starting to warm things up.

We rode through Irvine to the 133 which goes down into Laguna. The canyon was almost empty of cars making it comfortable on the parts where the sholder vanishes.

Once we were on pch it was a quick shot to the bike path in Dana point.

We got at this beach around 9am. It was our 20 mile mark so we were maintaining our 15 mph goal at this point. Not bad.

From Dana Point we continued along the beach through San Onofre.

We past the plant early which is why it’s still overcast. I got a flat tire in the camp ground area which ended up being a good thing for Tony. He was cramping in his left leg for the last 10 miles or so.

The route continues along the beach and even crawls under the 5 freeway onto the base and then you ride on a runway on the base. We were told that sometimes jump jets land and take off while bikers are riding on it. Man what would I give to be there when that happens. The route we were on takes us back under the freeway and onto the 5.

Our 40 mile rest stop ended up being the rest stop on the 5.

We ended up talking to a caltrans worker who warned us about semi drivers. Apparently they tend to ride the shoulder and clip bikers.

We stopped for lunch about 4 miles later at the Del Taco outside the base. This ended up being a good break because we met some bikers who ride that route all the time. They told us to ride on to the base that they let single riders onto the base all the time. The base turns around large groups of riders because they don’t want all those riders on the base but singles are cool.

The remaining 50 miles of the ride go quickly. There are stunning views of the coast along with awesome houses.

We got to the 80ish mile point a little late in the day but were having a great time. The 80 point is the Torrey Pines road hill. It’s a long hill that grinds riders all day long.

After that hill Tony and I were feeling the ride and were ready to get to the train station.

We got to the downtown San Diego train station around 5pm so with breaks it took us 9ish hours to get from OC to SD. Not bad.

My gps after ride.

The train.

The sunset when I got back to OC.

Greg

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Seeing that none of the group has been up to a back to back ride lately we figured that we’d need to get one done soon. So BCBC is going to ride from Santa Barbara to Fullerton. It’s a little over 160 miles and should make for a good 2 day ride. I had hopes that Chris could come this ride but he is out of the country. Looks like his first back to back ride will be the Bay2LA ride.

I’ll post details for the ride as they come up.

-Greg

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As May gets closer the pressure is starting to rise.

This years Bay2LA ride will be our second time making the ride. We will be down one rider from last year (Bruce) but up one new rider (Chris, my brother).

We are making the ride in May this year partly because May was a better month for the group and partly because the trade winds will have shifted and we shouldn’t face that head wind like last year.

We looked at what we were able to finish last year, 400 miles in 5 days, and figured we needed 6 days to really finish our ride. This means we will be aiming at 80 miles a day rather than 100 every day. We will still have one short day (heading to big sur) and one long day (going through big sur).

Wish us luck as we start to buckle down and train these next 6 weeks.

Greg

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Check out these photos from the Tour de France this year. There are some really sweet photos in here.

Boston.com

I found this route and think we are going to give it a shot this weekend.

Brea Canyon

Looks like this is going to become a yearly ride.

We signed up for Tour De Foothills.
Its a metric century thru the foothills of Upland.
Check out the ride here: www.tourdefoothills.com

Tony and I did this ride last year. At that point it was the hardest ride we had done. It took alot out of both Tony and I. This year we get to share it with Bruce and Chris tho I think it wont be as rough.

Ok so its been awhile from my last post.. But I thought I’d put up a video from a recent ride.

This is from one of our regular training rides. The route takes us thru the Santiago Canyon area of Orange County. On the last hill before we get back into Irvine there is a hill that if you pedal you can get up to 40 mph. Quite a rush. The biker in the video is Bruce. I followed him half way down the hill but then pushed a little to get up to 39 mph.

This weekend being a long weekend the guys and I wanted to go somewhere to do a fun ride. After much deliberation we thought the ride around Lake Tahoe was just what we needed.

Should make for a fun ride.
There are a few things that are disturbing..
#1
The lake sits around 6000ft with a climb to just over 7000ft. Most of my rides are in the 300ft range with our highest climb to 1100ft. Its going to be thin air for us.
#2 Its suppose to rain. Yup.. 30% chance of thunder storms. Thats still means 60% chance of perfect ride weather. (the glass is half full)
#3 Our plans include the drive back right after the ride… 70mile ride then an 8 hour drive home.. hehe we’ll see if that comes together..

I’ll keep ya posted.

After our ride on Saturday Bruce and I dropped off our bikes for some TLC from some mechanics. Being Performance member got us a quick lube drive train check.

The mechanic took a look at Bruce’s bike first and discovered that his chain was beginning to stretch out. When that starts to happen it can wear down the teeth on your cassette and crank (the gears you see at the front and rear of the bike). The quick fix is a new chain (about $60 for a new one) if you put off changing a chain you may need to replace both your crank and cassette (total of $300). I guess hearing those numbers motivated Bruce to purchase a new chain. Now normally a chain doesnt wear that fast but we figured out that early on when he first got his bike he didnt know how/when to shift and stretch out his chain.

My bike was next on the rack. After seeing how bad Bruce’s chain was the mechanic went straight for my chain. I was thinking “after 14 years it might be time for a new chain.” Turns out my chain is still quite healthy. But you cant get a good mechanic down and after about 15 mins of tooling around he found out that my left shifter (it handles the front derailer, the gear near the pedals) wasnt working right. He said it could be something as easy to fix as a new cable or might be the whole shifter.. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that its just the cable or housing. I’ll keep you posted.

We both had our bikes taken in for the drive train clean and lube which was $60. After the extra care we both paid for its going to cost about $100 each. I figure that after 14 years of not seeing the caring touch of a mechanic I can afford to pay for the work.

I’ll post about the quality of work done later. Everything I’ve found said the guys at Performance do a good job. We’ll see.

Greg