Moon Shadows are Evil
- Thread starter stb222
- Start date
Hell
So the HOH came and went and turned out to not be so hellish unless it was a cold day in hell type of theme going on or something. I was able to sleep in an extra hour to hour and half and hit the road around 7:30. I rode with daisies in my ass on the way there and it turned out that daisies were the fastest average of the day. I realized at some point I may miss the 8:30 registration cut-off and picked it up alittle bit but made it with no problem. After registering, I chilled inside to warm up and chatted with dustin for awhile and then pearl and ben when I came back outside. Pearl metions about my matchy-matchiness and I am not sure if this is his way of calling me a fred (cat 6 ‘til death) or not. Shortly after I was freezing my ass off and wanted the ride to get started. Headed over to the start area and met a few other people I have previously only known in a virtual sense. Met soundz for the first time and I’d be lying if I wasn’t disappointed that he did not talk like a robot. Also met capers and he totally acted like he knew me and later tells me that when he was a rock star he just got used to acting like he knew people because everyone knew him. Must be nice, rockstar. I had already made the decision to ride a more casual pace since I never, ever ride with anyone and some social interaction would probably do me good.
We started off and there seems to be confusion right from the start on the direction, which seems to be a bit of a theme of the day. First two dirt sections look like a pro race after the peloton passes with the number of bottles laying everywhere. As predicted there are a bunch of flats on the bottom of Hunter Road but I did not see any crashes there which I thought there might be. I hold up for soundz and capers at the first couple stop signs. Maybe 15 miles in dustin appears so for the next couple of miles I think it is me, dustin, capers and jimmy. I am happy to pull for these guys but everytime I am up front I check back and no one is there. Ugh, I am not good at pacing myself but I should have just slowed down and pulled, boo for me. On the downhill after montgomery I am by myself and slow up a bit on wertsville and look back and see a larger group coming so I open it up alittle and they don’t catch up. Cruise up rileyville and wait for them at the rest stop. Now hardtale70 catches up and I think I introduce myself to him for the second time that day. Can’t remember but feel I like a dumb as either way. Larry appears too and then someone informs me that martin has passed us at the rest stop. Ugh, this can’t be! However, 2 miles later we find martin along snydertown and I hop to jump on his wheel only to find that he is going like 15 mph, what a bummer.
So a good little group now and in a few miles I flat on rocktown. Boo for tubeless. I didn’t want to jinx myself that day, but the last time I got a flat was in October or novemeber and I have ridden like 3000 since then and in shit conditions, so I guess I was due. You can see the irony splattered all over my face in the picture capers too (below) that I was the only one in the (aside from martin) that got a flat and I was the only one with tubeless. Anyways, Larry steps up and changes my tire for me while I chill by the side of the road like the prima donna I am. So now we have a group of like 8 but that only lasts until Boss Road where I cat 6 it up the little roller and soon after find it is me, capers and martin and at some point after the climb around MP 51 martin turns into larry.
So at this point, I have stayed with this group longer than I expected as I knew I would ride off at some point. After a good conversation with capers and smothering larry’s final attempt at a break away, I figure it is time to go and about 20 miles from the end I ride off. See some groups here and there but things are pretty sparse at this point. My garmin is driving me nuts though because for some reason it is not recording my speed right. It would go from 14 mph to 30 to 0 and then back to 14, all while going downhill. On NJ 29 I had to be going in the mid-20’s and it was recording 14. I was starting to feel tired but not that tired and the sporadic readings was pissing me off. I have a cadence/speed sensor but I guess it became uncalibrated at somepoint, maybe when I got the flat. I know that at the beginning of each ride it calcs your wheels size, but I did not turn off the garmin since I started, so who knows. GPS signals in the last 20 miles may have been an issue also as I know with works stuff, we have had problems with survey grade GPS equipment in that area. In any case, it was annoying. I stop once to see if the magnet was close enough to the sensor, which it was.
Whatever.
Anyways, I roll into the end and wait for some pizza, which was delicious and chat with a few people. BTW, caffe galleria, which was where the pizza was from, is awesome. My wife and I eat there every so often and the tofu Aphrodite is some good snizzle. Anyways, I chill through the raffle, in which I did not win anything but was happy I got another cycling cap for being the first 150 that registered.
Decided to chill along 29 on the way home, which I really never ride that section of 29, but it wasn’t too bad with minimal traffic. I had a nice tailwind and was cruising but the damn garmin had me at 14 mph again, WTF. Near Washington Crossing I realized this damn thing was going to try and cheat me of my century, so I stopped and turned it off and back on. Looks like it recalc’ed the speed right and I made my century and was maybe only cheated of like 5 miles from my garmin. Felt good when I got home through the evening. What a beautiful day it turned out to be.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/75391655
Sour Sunday
The MBU gods blessed me and allowed a morning ride, which was a surprise. I took advantage of it and went to the best recovery place on the planet, which is sourlands. What better way to balance 6.5 hours in the saddle the previous day with super technical riding? I thought about riding six mile because of the cold temps, but have really been lovin’ sourlands on my trance x. So I woke up around 6:15, put a new chain on the trance and was off. Not a soul in the parking lot when I got there. Climbed up the easy way and did what would have been the old loop before 3 bitches was made. Felt good and was riding well in terms of dabs and such. Rode a few sections in boulderama a few times and made most stuff. Only dabs once between boulderama and post 1, which was nice. Climbed up to post 4 to check the TT route and then rode MR and 3 bitches. No dabs on 3B, which isn’t a huge deal but still a mini victory and proving that I am getting more comfortable with the trance’s long legs. Go back over to post 4 to put in a time for the TT route. Have not descended from post 4 in 2 years and a few turns tripped me up and had to slow a bit for some damn hikers but otherwise ok. Took a horrible line at post 3? and then botched the route and went to post one. I didn’t realize you were supposed to turn at post 2, so no time for me. Nice time will be faster anyways. Legs felt a little dead afterwards. Oh yeah, sourlands is mucho muddy so stay away with temps above freezing.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/75391589
Recovery?
Not slow enough I suppose but higher cadence ride in at just over an hour. At somepoint meet my short temr goals of 2000 miles by the end of march :whoopdedo and still have 3 days left in march. Nice morning but f this cold. I have the gear to ride in it but I want to put it away. What happened to spring?
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/75673977
So the HOH came and went and turned out to not be so hellish unless it was a cold day in hell type of theme going on or something. I was able to sleep in an extra hour to hour and half and hit the road around 7:30. I rode with daisies in my ass on the way there and it turned out that daisies were the fastest average of the day. I realized at some point I may miss the 8:30 registration cut-off and picked it up alittle bit but made it with no problem. After registering, I chilled inside to warm up and chatted with dustin for awhile and then pearl and ben when I came back outside. Pearl metions about my matchy-matchiness and I am not sure if this is his way of calling me a fred (cat 6 ‘til death) or not. Shortly after I was freezing my ass off and wanted the ride to get started. Headed over to the start area and met a few other people I have previously only known in a virtual sense. Met soundz for the first time and I’d be lying if I wasn’t disappointed that he did not talk like a robot. Also met capers and he totally acted like he knew me and later tells me that when he was a rock star he just got used to acting like he knew people because everyone knew him. Must be nice, rockstar. I had already made the decision to ride a more casual pace since I never, ever ride with anyone and some social interaction would probably do me good.
We started off and there seems to be confusion right from the start on the direction, which seems to be a bit of a theme of the day. First two dirt sections look like a pro race after the peloton passes with the number of bottles laying everywhere. As predicted there are a bunch of flats on the bottom of Hunter Road but I did not see any crashes there which I thought there might be. I hold up for soundz and capers at the first couple stop signs. Maybe 15 miles in dustin appears so for the next couple of miles I think it is me, dustin, capers and jimmy. I am happy to pull for these guys but everytime I am up front I check back and no one is there. Ugh, I am not good at pacing myself but I should have just slowed down and pulled, boo for me. On the downhill after montgomery I am by myself and slow up a bit on wertsville and look back and see a larger group coming so I open it up alittle and they don’t catch up. Cruise up rileyville and wait for them at the rest stop. Now hardtale70 catches up and I think I introduce myself to him for the second time that day. Can’t remember but feel I like a dumb as either way. Larry appears too and then someone informs me that martin has passed us at the rest stop. Ugh, this can’t be! However, 2 miles later we find martin along snydertown and I hop to jump on his wheel only to find that he is going like 15 mph, what a bummer.
So a good little group now and in a few miles I flat on rocktown. Boo for tubeless. I didn’t want to jinx myself that day, but the last time I got a flat was in October or novemeber and I have ridden like 3000 since then and in shit conditions, so I guess I was due. You can see the irony splattered all over my face in the picture capers too (below) that I was the only one in the (aside from martin) that got a flat and I was the only one with tubeless. Anyways, Larry steps up and changes my tire for me while I chill by the side of the road like the prima donna I am. So now we have a group of like 8 but that only lasts until Boss Road where I cat 6 it up the little roller and soon after find it is me, capers and martin and at some point after the climb around MP 51 martin turns into larry.
So at this point, I have stayed with this group longer than I expected as I knew I would ride off at some point. After a good conversation with capers and smothering larry’s final attempt at a break away, I figure it is time to go and about 20 miles from the end I ride off. See some groups here and there but things are pretty sparse at this point. My garmin is driving me nuts though because for some reason it is not recording my speed right. It would go from 14 mph to 30 to 0 and then back to 14, all while going downhill. On NJ 29 I had to be going in the mid-20’s and it was recording 14. I was starting to feel tired but not that tired and the sporadic readings was pissing me off. I have a cadence/speed sensor but I guess it became uncalibrated at somepoint, maybe when I got the flat. I know that at the beginning of each ride it calcs your wheels size, but I did not turn off the garmin since I started, so who knows. GPS signals in the last 20 miles may have been an issue also as I know with works stuff, we have had problems with survey grade GPS equipment in that area. In any case, it was annoying. I stop once to see if the magnet was close enough to the sensor, which it was.
Whatever.
Anyways, I roll into the end and wait for some pizza, which was delicious and chat with a few people. BTW, caffe galleria, which was where the pizza was from, is awesome. My wife and I eat there every so often and the tofu Aphrodite is some good snizzle. Anyways, I chill through the raffle, in which I did not win anything but was happy I got another cycling cap for being the first 150 that registered.
Decided to chill along 29 on the way home, which I really never ride that section of 29, but it wasn’t too bad with minimal traffic. I had a nice tailwind and was cruising but the damn garmin had me at 14 mph again, WTF. Near Washington Crossing I realized this damn thing was going to try and cheat me of my century, so I stopped and turned it off and back on. Looks like it recalc’ed the speed right and I made my century and was maybe only cheated of like 5 miles from my garmin. Felt good when I got home through the evening. What a beautiful day it turned out to be.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/75391655
Sour Sunday
The MBU gods blessed me and allowed a morning ride, which was a surprise. I took advantage of it and went to the best recovery place on the planet, which is sourlands. What better way to balance 6.5 hours in the saddle the previous day with super technical riding? I thought about riding six mile because of the cold temps, but have really been lovin’ sourlands on my trance x. So I woke up around 6:15, put a new chain on the trance and was off. Not a soul in the parking lot when I got there. Climbed up the easy way and did what would have been the old loop before 3 bitches was made. Felt good and was riding well in terms of dabs and such. Rode a few sections in boulderama a few times and made most stuff. Only dabs once between boulderama and post 1, which was nice. Climbed up to post 4 to check the TT route and then rode MR and 3 bitches. No dabs on 3B, which isn’t a huge deal but still a mini victory and proving that I am getting more comfortable with the trance’s long legs. Go back over to post 4 to put in a time for the TT route. Have not descended from post 4 in 2 years and a few turns tripped me up and had to slow a bit for some damn hikers but otherwise ok. Took a horrible line at post 3? and then botched the route and went to post one. I didn’t realize you were supposed to turn at post 2, so no time for me. Nice time will be faster anyways. Legs felt a little dead afterwards. Oh yeah, sourlands is mucho muddy so stay away with temps above freezing.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/75391589
Recovery?
Not slow enough I suppose but higher cadence ride in at just over an hour. At somepoint meet my short temr goals of 2000 miles by the end of march :whoopdedo and still have 3 days left in march. Nice morning but f this cold. I have the gear to ride in it but I want to put it away. What happened to spring?
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/75673977
told you GPS craziness.
During the beginning of the ride, you were losing us on the hills. After you got the flat, it didn't matter where .. I wasn't keeping up, however slow you were going. I rode with Capers most of the 1st half .. then by myself most of the 2nd half :hmmm: I still had a tiny bit left before the 2nd rest area and ahead of several people, but everyone passed me after that, I was going like 8mph for the last stretch.
I settled into a super mini-peloton about 5 miles before the 1st rest area. But Martin suckered me into chasing after you, that was a bad plan and burned me out quite a bit. I was surprised by how much he's progressed since last year. Must be doing something right.
I want to do more long rides regularly (maybe 3-4 times a month) so my legs get used to the ordeal. Seems like my limit is about 3-4 hours right now. I gotta start practicing my robot.
I settled into a super mini-peloton about 5 miles before the 1st rest area. But Martin suckered me into chasing after you, that was a bad plan and burned me out quite a bit. I was surprised by how much he's progressed since last year. Must be doing something right.
I want to do more long rides regularly (maybe 3-4 times a month) so my legs get used to the ordeal. Seems like my limit is about 3-4 hours right now. I gotta start practicing my robot.
You have to admit, that was some good acting. I even fooled myself into thinking that I knew who you were even though I had no idea. 😛
Good riding with you.
Fwiw, you didn't look like you were hurting, hence why i asked that one time. Just get em on the climbs, you notice that is where the most people fall odd
It was, you almost fooled me to thinking I met you before and forgot. Maybe that is why i totally didn't register meeting Brett
Ride home yesterday was more fast spinning but I fizzled a bit due to a constant headwind, which is pretty normal for my ride home. These temps blow but man, the days have been sunny and beautiful.
Last night I got everything ready, put spd’s on the ewr for plans to ride this morning. I drive in on Tuesday because I pick up my son, so it kinda works out. While I was taking the pedals off my trance (while it was hanging on the wall) I pulled the whole bike plus mount right off the damn wall. Damn cheap home depot mount. Oh well, guess I should have taking it down or something. Anyways, alamar goes off at 4:30, ugh, too early, debate not riding, hit snooze 3 times, check ipad, see it is 30* and eventually get up and on the road at 5:30.
Went to clayton with the ewr and its maiden voyage with a 650b front wheel, which I had previously only ridden around the neighborhood. Right out of the gate I am reminded how fast clayton is and how that first downhill is super fun. I am also reminded at how small this place is as I am at the climb on the backside before I know it. I also think why the hell do I have this bike setup SS? as I am spinning out all over the place. While I love the simplicity and quietness, but man is it a bummer on the downhills.
Anyways, about half way through the ride I start to hear a noise like something is loose. Chain seems ok so I don’t stop to look as it is not that bad. Gets louder and at the first downhill on my last loop I grab my rear brake and getting some mad vibrations and noise from the caliper. OK, don’t use rear brake. Shit sounds loike a rattle trap so I stop to look after the flat section beside the pond. I thought maybe a loose rotor and come to find I am missing one of the bolts that connects the caliper to the frame (see pic above). Bummer. I needed to get to work anyways, so I just climb back to the car and headed out. Still a fun ride.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/75918645
650b
First impressions are good. Really feels no different compared to a 26” wheel. Can’t really say it rolled over things any better since I never thought 26” wheels sucked at that, so who knows. In any case, I will be riding this wheels on this bike for the six back and places like 6-mile.
Last night I got everything ready, put spd’s on the ewr for plans to ride this morning. I drive in on Tuesday because I pick up my son, so it kinda works out. While I was taking the pedals off my trance (while it was hanging on the wall) I pulled the whole bike plus mount right off the damn wall. Damn cheap home depot mount. Oh well, guess I should have taking it down or something. Anyways, alamar goes off at 4:30, ugh, too early, debate not riding, hit snooze 3 times, check ipad, see it is 30* and eventually get up and on the road at 5:30.
Went to clayton with the ewr and its maiden voyage with a 650b front wheel, which I had previously only ridden around the neighborhood. Right out of the gate I am reminded how fast clayton is and how that first downhill is super fun. I am also reminded at how small this place is as I am at the climb on the backside before I know it. I also think why the hell do I have this bike setup SS? as I am spinning out all over the place. While I love the simplicity and quietness, but man is it a bummer on the downhills.
Anyways, about half way through the ride I start to hear a noise like something is loose. Chain seems ok so I don’t stop to look as it is not that bad. Gets louder and at the first downhill on my last loop I grab my rear brake and getting some mad vibrations and noise from the caliper. OK, don’t use rear brake. Shit sounds loike a rattle trap so I stop to look after the flat section beside the pond. I thought maybe a loose rotor and come to find I am missing one of the bolts that connects the caliper to the frame (see pic above). Bummer. I needed to get to work anyways, so I just climb back to the car and headed out. Still a fun ride.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/75918645
650b
First impressions are good. Really feels no different compared to a 26” wheel. Can’t really say it rolled over things any better since I never thought 26” wheels sucked at that, so who knows. In any case, I will be riding this wheels on this bike for the six back and places like 6-mile.
True that. Thats why I bang out 871347856925 laps from alternating directions when I go there. HOw is it? I'll be there tomorrow after work.
this morning it was frozen perfectness. Looked like only a few sections that would be muddy when it thaws
you damn sneaky bastard. i was trying to quote you when you deleted that post.
soulchild
Well-Known Member
Live Blog Post:
and you were asking about my bar angle?!?