The last day of January

And I waited until today to decide that it really was important to me to get 500 miles this month. I hadn't done less than 500 in quite some time. Despite not having any bike goals this year I just couldn't stand the thought of finishing up the month with less than 500 miles.

I hopped on the bike at 4:15PM and looked for at least 60 miles. I rode from Butteville and took French Prairie to River Rd, then took the Wheatland road loop toward Keizer. When I reached 31 miles I turned around and rode back. (1 mi for buffer!) I picked the roads because I knew they would have low traffic. The weather was dry but a bit chilly as the night progressed.

I had my standard two Superflashes on the back, a bright front blinkie, as well as my Stella 3 really bright LED light on the helmet. Seeing and being seen was not an issue.

Rolled back into Butteville with enough miles to salvage a 500 mile month. Not many miles compared to what I've been riding, but it will have to do for January.


..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........62..............0.............0..........0..........62
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502

Year to date ..........................................a paltry 502

4 separate bike rides today,

4 separate bike rides today, only 73 miles total, but each ride got more challenging. Now going to Portland Wheelman banquet.
(posted via phone)

Update:

Friends have remarked that they can't figure out why my mileage is so low, I ride every weekend. Well folks, when you ride 30-40 miles in a day it doesn't add up very fast! Today I continued my short ride ways, but at least today I rode 4 of them!

I started off with plans to ride about 150 miles of the Willamette Valley Bikeway. I got about 8 miles into it and just lost interest. It was cold and foggy...and I didn't have to ride.... so I didn't.

When I got back I Dave was preparing to ride a 20 mile hilly loop from Wilsonville to Sherwood and back. I jumped back on the bike and joined him.

I just got back from that, put my bike away, then checked email. Social bike group member Art posted a last minute ride from Gateway to take in 30 miles of paths and some roads. I decided what the heck and joined Art and Gerson. As I prepared to ride I got a call from a friend who could be ready to ride by 3 and was looking for company. When Art's route got close to Troutdale I took my leave and met up with my 4th ride of the day, a run up the Sandy River and into the hills above Corbet.

I had an invitation to attend the Portland Wheelmen Touring Club's annual banquet and once I left my riding partner I had to pedal hard back to Gateway in order to make it to the banquet on time. Thankfully I have a 24 hr Fitness membership, and had suitable clothes along. The gym was just 2 blocks away from the banquet. Despite a 20mph+ run from Troutdale back to Gateway I was still about 10 minutes late to the banquet, but the line was still formed for food, so I was good to go, and my space at a table was being saved for me. ;-)


..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........73..............0.............0..........0..........73
Jan.........412..............0............21..........7.........440

Year to date ..........................................a paltry 440

January in the Columbia Gorge?

January in the Columbia Gorge? Wow, no wind, no rain, no snow or ice, and warm temp! Perfect day to ride.....and I did!

I rode with Paul, Monica, and Meridith. We started at Edgefield and headed up the Sandy River. A very common route for us, but then took two roads that Paul had scouted out that were new to the rest of us. Very nice, low traffic, scenic, ...and hilly!

..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........32..............0.............0..........0..........32
Jan.........339..............0............21..........7.........367

Year to date ..........................................a paltry 367

the low mileage continues

Rode a whopping 4 miles round trip tonight, but got to hob nob around with other bikey folk at a bicycle art/photo show.



..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today.........4..............0.............0..........0...........4
Jan.........307..............0............21..........7.........335

Year to date ..........................................a paltry 335

new brake pads

Just bought new brake pads for my Zipp carbon wheels. $50 OUCH! They better stop me really well!

Evening update:

Went out for an evening ride. The weather was just too nice not to do some pedaling.
Started in Tualatin and luckily ended up there as well!


..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........24..............0.............0..........0..........24
Jan.........303..............0............21..........7.........331

Year to date ..........................................a paltry 331

Wilsonville Century...sort of

5 of us took off today with intentions to ride the Wilsonville Century. I had thought about checking the Canby Ferry status last night, with all the recent rain and all, but forgot about it until this morning as we shoved off. It was only a long mile to the ferry status sign so we just pedaled it. As it ended up, yes it was closed because of high water. I had failed to load my "high water alternate" route onto the gps, so we just winged it. I missed a turn in Hubbard but did eventually meet our original course in Mollala, with only 6 bonus miles, with 2 of those being the out and back to the ferry sign. We reached Mollala at mile 33 today.

We enjoyed the weather, not as good as yesterday, but still good for January. I haven't ridden many miles this month, and it showed. When we got to Keizer and stopped for a bit to eat we talked about our route back to the start and all agreed that we didn't need to ride 106 miles, 100 would be just fine. We followed our original route across Windsor Island until we hit River Rd. At that point we took French Prairie northward for a more direct route. We hoped to shave off about 5 miles.

When we got near St Luis we jumped eastward over to Butteville Rd, than at Donald jumped eastward again to join Boones Ferry Rd. As it ended up, we only rode about 40 miles of our planned route, the rest was by guess and by golly. We arrived back being about 2 miles shy of our one hundred, easily remedied by a loop around some local streets.

We pulled into where the vehicles were parked with 100.1 miles on the gps. Not bad.

I commuted to and from so ended up with 103 total today.

Harder than it should have been, but mission accomplished.

..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today.......103..............0.............0..........0.........103
Jan.........279..............0............21..........7.........307

Year to date ..........................................a paltry 307

bike riders

I rode with Portland Velo today. Our social bike group may have more members, by over double, but Portland Velo members actually ride bike. ;-) Whereas our BOB group today had 7 riders, Portland Velo had over 150 riders.


The sun was out in full force, an absolutely gorgeous January day. We made 41 mile loop from Hillsboro out around North Plains then to Forest Grove before making our way back to Hillsboro. With a group this large the organizers split us into smaller groups based on pace. I choose the 16-18mph group. I should have picked the 18-20mph group instead. Despite not riding much this month I still have pretty decent power in my legs and that was evident today as I just pedaled away from my group on the little "hills" along our route. We'd regroup on hilltops. Toward the end of the miles some folks really dropped off. My 16-18mph group was down to 14 coming back along Evergreen. I finally got the go ahead to pedal on through. I did.

It was nice to see that many cyclists today. Well, not all agreed. There was a neandrathal driving a pickup near North Plains who stopped to talk to me. (why do I attract these yahoos??) He told me that he just wanted me to know that he didn't appreciate us clogging up HIS road. I smiled, told him to have a nice day......and after he drove away out of hearing range, added "A$$hole"

Other than that it was a good day...and even this incident wasn't too bad...we grossly outnumbered and out muscled the guy.

I can't hardly believe I few miles I've logged this month. I guess that's what a lack of cycling goals will do. I don't recall ever riding so few miles. I will add a bit to it tomorrow, leading a group of 7 on a 100 mile ride. The weather is predicted to be a repeat of today's perfect weather.


..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........41..............0.............0..........0..........41
Jan.........176..............0............21..........7.........204

Year to date ...................................................204

French Toast

I canceled the planned 100 mile ride today. It just looked to be too wet to have fun, and this year if it isn't fun, .... I'm not doing it! ;-)

I did however join the Vancouver Bicycle Club today on a French Toast ride. 9 of us met at Maria's at 10:30 AM for French Toast. It was pouring rain as we arrived. By the time the French Toast was consumed..(yummy, thanks Maria!) the rain had stopped. We rode the first 30 miles or so of the ride without a drop of rain falling on us. We even saw the sun shine on us!


The last 8 miles our luck changed though. It poured on us as we pedaled along the 205 bike path and made the turn onto the Springwater Trail. Luckily the day was warm (in the 50's) and we didn't have far to go.

Before long we arrived back at Maria's, the starting point and finishing point of today's ride. Nice ride and good folks to ride with. ...oh, and that French Toast was really good too!

..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........38..............0.............0..........0..........38
Jan.........135..............0............21..........7.........163

Year to date ...................................................163

A tale of two cities

I was to lead a ride from Hillsboro out around Hagg Lake and back today for my social bike group. The forecast last night said freezing fog with a 60% chance of snow for that area today. It had not gone above freezing in the area on Saturday. I canceled the ride due to those conditions. This morning I was glad I did, it was 30 degrees with freezing fog at 8AM today, with precipitation showing on radar in the area.

A friend decided to ride in the area anyway. I'm glad I didn't.



However, in Portland it was a relatively balmy 38 this AM. Dave and I decided to ride from Wilsonville towards the Steel Bridge in Portland. Friend Art was leading a slower paced ~25 mile ride from there out to Kelly Point Park and back. We figured if we could make it there in time we'd join Art and the 24 folks who said they would be there.

I had a phone call just as I was heading out the door from a friend in need of automobile trouble shooting. It took almost a half hour out of ride time. Dave and I had to get on our horses to make it there, but we did....with 3 minutes to spare! ;-)

We joined the 10 folks who actually showed up (meetup groups are such flakes!) and had a good, albeit slow ride with them. The best part was that the day was pretty good for riding bikes. There was only one short duration rain shower about 1/3 of the way into Art's ride. The rest of the day was pretty darn decent, very light winds, comfortable temperatures, and good company.

After the ride we all visited a bit at a local pizza establishment.

Dave and I pedaled off from pizza and took a bit longer route back to Wilsonville, crossing the Oregon City Bridge one last time before it closes for a two year repair project early this week. From there we rode to Willamette then Turner Rd/Mountain Rd/Advance Rd, and back into Wilsonville.

All tolled, 72 miles with 2875 ft of climbing. Both numbers a bonus over what we would have logged on the planned Hillsboro/Hagg Lake ride.

A surprisingly good day on the bike.

..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........72..............0.............0..........0..........72
Jan..........97..............0............21..........7.........125

Year to date ...................................................125

artificial bike!

Wow, I'm really mixing up my modes! Yesterday my first off road ride, today my first ride on the lifecycle in a long time.

I had gone out to take my mom's Christmas lights down. I was joined by a friend who wanted to finish up a workout in the gym so we stopped by 24 Hour Fitness on the way back. She went for the weights, I hopped on the lifecycle.

I logged 7 artificial miles on artificial hills in 20 minutes.

..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today.........0..............0.............0..........7..........21
Jan..........25..............0............21..........7..........53


Year to date ....................................................53

fat tires and dirt?

I had an invitation to ride mountain bike today. What, you mean people ride bikes on dirt? I had slicks on my mtn bike and the knobbies are stored a distance from me so I knew that today's adventure couldn't be too gnarly. We rode from near Kennedy School in east Portland over the Broadway Bridge then out to Forest Park. An easy climb up Leif Erickson ensued, then we descended Fire Break 5, a route that was described to this road rider as "single track".

There was ice and snow on the roads and paths in the park today. My slick tires were sliding around a lot. I was picking my way down a narrow section of trail on a steep side hill when the front end jumped to the left and was heading toward a large tree at the edge of the trail. I was off balance due to the previous tree that I had maneuvered by so this time the only option was to turn down the hill off trail. I figured I'd just brake to a stop in the shrubbery and regroup. Instead I went for a 2x roll down the hill with bike and I alternating who as on top! By the time it all came to a stop I had a chain wrapped around the spindle that looked like it might be toast, a tweaked front deraileur, and a bent hanger on the back. Not enough tools to fix it along.

Daylight was running out so the attempt was made to just get out. My riding partner made tracks to get back home and return with her car to sag me in. Along the way she phoned to tell me that the Fat Tire Farm bike shop was closed for remodel but that they had informed her that there was a bike shop on 21st that was open.

I had no ability to pedal so I used my bike as a kid's scooter. The mountain bike doesn't coast like a road bike! :-( I did eventually arrive at the bike shop, 11 minutes before they closed at 5PM. I was glad that ALL my bikes have at least a front blinkie as well as a red super flash on the back.

A new chain and some adjustments got me back in pedaling mode. I rode about 10 blks to where my ride was waiting. We loaded my bike and proceeded back to Kennedy School.

Had a bite to eat, an adult beverage to drink, and spent some time talking about the day's adventure..............Kevin's first mountain bike ride.

Counting the non pedaling miles (which were harder work than than pedaling!) my speedometer shows 21 miles.


..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb......total
Today.........0..............0............21........21
Jan..........25..............0............21........46


Year to date ............................................46

A new year

I drove through the night following the San Diego Christmas Bike Ride to be back in Portland in time to join my fellow Northwest Butts on Bikes friends on a New Year's Day ride. We did a 25 mile route on paths and secondary roads to cross both the I-5 and I-205 bridges. A highlight was a brisk tailwind assisted run down the Marine Drive bike path. Sally and I were having a bit of fun and setting a pretty spirited pace.

Weather was a bit chilly, but dry. We finished up at a donut shop for a little visiting time.

A good start to the year.


road bike.......rollers.........mtb......total
Jan 25..............0.............0........25


Year to date ............................................25