A modified ride

The plan today was to have a few members of my social bike group join me on a ride of "The Wilsonville Century". As is normal for the social group, half found other things to do besides ride bike.

The one who did show up arrived about 20 minutes late. I was still there waiting as it was frosty and I figured if I was riding by myself I'd wait for the ice to melt before rolling down the twisty road to the Canby Ferry since I could just ride a bit harder and still finish 100 miles before dark.

He was an inexperienced rider and arrived without full fingered gloves, long pants, glasses, water bottle, warm headwear. When I asked he responded that he'd warm up when he rode.

It took about 500 yds for him to realize that when the temperature is 30 degrees that a few different clothing options were in order.

We returned to Wilsonville and waited for RiteAid to open.
After a brief shopping spree he was ready to go.


By the time this was all done, and beginning to wonder about his readyness to ride 100 miles, I thought it best to suggest a shorter ride. We also avoided the twisty, shaded, surely to be icy descent of Advance Road.

There was a bit of fog around so I had front and rear lights on as we made our way across the Boone Bridge and out towards Donald.

It soon cleared up and we made our way to Gervaise, Duck Inn Rd, then over to Hopemere. We continued over the Wheatland Ferry then northward to Lafayette then into Dundee and Newberg. We finished up by taking Wilsonville Rd along the Willamette River to Wilsonville.

We ended up with 67 miles, a record for my riding partner today, and just under a 12 mph average, a record for me! (riding average, actual would have been MUCH slower)

It was a nice day to ride, beautiful weather for November!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles Today
.................67...............0.................67
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....860.....+.........0........=.......860
April total.....790.....+.........0........=.......790
May total.......901.....+.........0........=.......901
June total......543.....+.........0........=.......543
July total.....1322.....+.........0........=......1322
August total...1603.....+.........0........=......1603
Sept total.....1403.....+.........0........=......1403
October.........503.....+.........0........=.......503
November........220.....+.........0........=.......220
Year to date...9332.....+.........30.......=......9362 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

rain, rain, ride, rain

The weather has been a bit, shall we say, "drippy", but mostly I've been a combination of lazy and busy. Early tomorrow morning I lead a century ride with about 5000 ft of climbing in the first 50 miles. As luck would have it, it is predicted to be the only dry day in the last 10 or so.

I've spent the last few days getting ready for bike rides but not actually riding. I've been putting together details for a 400 mile ride I will joining the end of December in the San Diego area.

Looks to be a lot of fun. (and much drier than NW Oregon this time of year!)
If this looks fun to you register for the ride and join us! If you put me down as referrer I'll split the referral fee with you.

I also picked up some new winter cycling clothes. I found a good buy on a waterproof helmet cover, long cycling pants, and thermal skull cap with ear coverings. Now looking for a Showers Pass jacket..... on recommendation of my Oregon Randonneur friends. I used to have a nice set of neoprene shoe covers...until some scum broke into my pickup and took them along with a LOT of other stuff. My replacement shoe covers have never worked as well and aren't holding up either so I'm probably going to put those on my wishlist too!

I've been working on some vexing problems with this blog too. Seems that only about half the stuff on the right hand side is showing up. Where's my blog archive? Where's the list of followers? Where's the listing of organized rides for about 4 of the missing months? I'll keep muddling through it and see if I can figure it out.

And finally, take a look at THIS VIDEO of a guy who rides with helmet cams on all the time........and why you may wish to do so also.

another rainy day....another "quickshade" day!

Today I'll be bringing the same quickshades that I had set up yesterday and a couple of tables to the Cyclocross event at PIR. Figured it was already wet, why not? ;-)
A few members of my social bike group are racing there and we plan a little potluck to help cheer them on.

No biking for me today....... saw enough misery on the rider's faces yesterday!

helping fellow bike riders..........

.............In two ways today.

Today I am manning supervised bike parking at the Verboort Sausage and Kraut dinner.
Stop by and say howdy!

and just noticed this video, designed to refresh Portland Police on bike related laws. Good for us to be refreshed too, and to know the areas that are enforced more rigorously.

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Sunny day in Oregon...in November!

Time was short but couldn't pass up the opportunity!

I rode a quick 26 miles. Not enough time for long scenic rides, epic adventures, utilitarian ramblings..... just a quick little dash around the neighborhood.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles Today
.................26...............0.................26
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....860.....+.........0........=.......860
April total.....790.....+.........0........=.......790
May total.......901.....+.........0........=.......901
June total......543.....+.........0........=.......543
July total.....1322.....+.........0........=......1322
August total...1603.....+.........0........=......1603
Sept total.....1403.....+.........0........=......1403
October.........503.....+.........0........=.......503
November........153.....+.........0........=.......153
Year to date...9265.....+.........30.......=......9295 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The good, the bad, and the ugly

7 of us met this AM with plans to ride an Oregon Randonneur "Permanent". The good is that all 7 who said they were coming did so. Three randonneurs,(Cecil Anne, John Henry, Joanne) two social bike club members, (Peter and Doak) and two of us with "dual citizenship". (Elise and myself) The other good news is that the weather was gorgeous! A bit of a headwind developed beginning in the early afternoon but after riding Furnace Creek my idea of bad winds has been altered a bit. Probably a 10+ mph wind, enough to be bothersome but that's about it. It disappeared by late afternoon.

As we took off from Hillsboro this morning there was patchy fog so we had our lights on, front and rear for several hours. I was in the lead and managed to get through a traffic signal before it turned red but it caught the others. I pedaled on slowly figuring the others would catch up. I kept checking my mirror but still had not seen them by the time I got to Forest Grove, our first open control, about 10 miles in. I pedaled a bit beyond our mapped turn to collect my proof of passage receipt.
(McD..small OJ) While there it dawned on me that the others might have stopped at the 7-11 a few block before the turn and might now be ahead of me. I downed the OJ and hopped on the bike and started pedaling.



I finally got to a long straight stretch where I had good visibility for a couple of miles. I didn't see them. I still thought they might be ahead of me so I kept pushing to the second control. They weren't there, so I waited for a bit. After a bit I reminded myself that I avoid riding in the dark if I can help it. Daylight is getting short this time of year, and 120+ miles is just as long as it always is. I pedaled on.



The "bad" was that they didn't catch up with me and I didn't see them even when I got to Dallas. The route as an "out and back" so on my way back, perhaps 5 miles out of Dallas, I saw Cecil and Peter heading south. We waved but no words exchanged. Cecil Anne is normally one of the speedier riders so I expected to see the rest soon. That didn't happen. At that point I thought perhaps that the two I saw might have had mechanical issues and the rest might have been ahead and passed me in Dallas on the one way streets without being noticed.

I kept pedaling wanting to finish up before dark. Just before I got to Forest Grove, about 115 miles in, I get a text message from Doak to my cell phone. The "ugly": I returned a call and found out that just 5 miles in this morning John Henry went down and broke both bones in one leg. John Henry was transported to the hospital via ambulance and his wife Joanne cycled back for the vehicle and called it a day on the ride. Elise had ride shared from Keizer to Hillsboro with them so she was out for the day as well. There was plenty of stuff to keep them occupied at the hospital.

John Henry's description of the day is HERE

Some of my social riders didn't take the explanation of what Randonneuring is and it's expectations to heart. No cue sheet, no tire flat repair supplies, etc. I took a bit of heat for the actions (or lack thereof) of my guests....as I well deserved.

Hopefully the next ride goes a lot better.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles Today
................127...............0................127
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....860.....+.........0........=.......860
April total.....790.....+.........0........=.......790
May total.......901.....+.........0........=.......901
June total......543.....+.........0........=.......543
July total.....1322.....+.........0........=......1322
August total...1603.....+.........0........=......1603
Sept total.....1403.....+.........0........=......1403
October.........503.....+.........0........=.......503
November........127.....+.........0........=.......127
Year to date...9239.....+.........30.......=......9269 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

lazy

That's what I've been lately!

The impetus to get on the bike today was two fold, 1)dry weather 2) if I did not ride at least 13 miles it would be the first month since November of `08 that I did not log at least 500 miles. Lately I've been riding nearly 3 times that amount!

I shamed myself into riding a short ride this afternoon. Nothing long, nothing fancy, but at least got on the bike.

Sunday's weather is predicted to be nice and I've got plans to ride 200k with some Oregon Randonneur friends. Should be a nice ride.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles Today
.................16...............0.................16
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....860.....+.........0........=.......860
April total.....790.....+.........0........=.......790
May total.......901.....+.........0........=.......901
June total......543.....+.........0........=.......543
July total.....1322.....+.........0........=......1322
August total...1603.....+.........0........=......1603
Sept total.....1403.....+.........0........=......1403
October.........503.....+.........0........=.......503
Year to date...9112.....+.........30.......=......9142 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

More Furnace Creek content added

I had a lot of photos and video from the Furnace Creek 508 adventure that didn't make it into the presentation. Most of it didn't make it because it happened before or after the race. If you'd like to see them look on the right side of this blog right under the photo of my crew and I at the Furnace Creek start line.

....or just click [HERE]

And it looks like I've got to ride 13 miles between today and tomorrow less I fail to reach 500 miles for the month. It's wet and splashy out but I would hate to not make the rather meager 500 mile mark.

a month off, more or less

I've been busy with life's details and with the pressure of training for the `09 Furnace Creek 508 now past and the seasonal downturn in the weather taking place I just haven't been on the bike much in the last few weeks.

I did plan on riding with my social bike group this morning for a short two hour ride that promised to include some significant climbing. The weather was predicted to be dry in the early morning, changing to rain later in the morning.

It's tough to get a large number of folks in my social bike group out on the road this time of year and today was no exception. There were only two of us planning on riding today.

As it ended up, the trip leader was feeling under the weather and went to bed early the night before............only to sleep until 11 AM this morning!

So I sat in the predawn darkness waiting in vain for him to arrive for the 7AM start.

At 7:30 I finally decided I'd just as well ride.

I just tootled around the Scholls/Tigard area for a bit. I got in a 34 mile ride before deciding to cheer on a friend who was participating in the Run Like Hell half marathon in Portland. Then I went out to Hillsboro to watch Cyclocross.

I did manage to miss any rain on my ride. It didn't begin raining until I got to Cyclocross...... and those folks LIKE rain!

I'll have to start getting down to training for next year's Furnace Creek 508 soon, but I probably needed some time off the bike just to "reset".

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles Today
.................34...............0.................34
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....860.....+.........0........=.......860
April total.....790.....+.........0........=.......790
May total.......901.....+.........0........=.......901
June total......543.....+.........0........=.......543
July total.....1322.....+.........0........=......1322
August total...1603.....+.........0........=......1603
Sept total.....1403.....+.........0........=......1403
October.........487.....+.........0........=.......487
Year to date...9096.....+.........30.......=......9126 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Furnace Creek video

Okay, I know you're always supposed to be proud of your work but.........

I was in a hurry. Time was ticking quickly. I can always go back and spruce it up a bit later. The good news is that I just burned my Furnace Creek presentation to DVD. It's rough around the edges, I know I can find a better musical soundtrack if I just spend the time looking. I've got plans for this evening, beginning in 30 minutes. I've got plans to show the DVD tomorrow at a gathering of my social bike group. So, having this in hand is better than the alternative.

I have converted the presentation to a lower resolution/smaller screen size so it fits within blog guidelines. Click on the photo of my Furnace Creek 508 crew and I located on the right side of this blog.