The Glade 4.0

LOL, someone is using Alex-speak! I commend the above post. (with actor, reactor...)

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"The map is not the territory."

I guess I just dont understand the venom. You've accused me of being
a) a rabid Obama supporter
b) a character assassin
c) a defamer

I admited I made an assumption (actually a guess, I specifically stated it was a guess) I admitted I was wrong. What exactly do you want?

Did you read what I wrote? It's a shitty thing to assume about anyone, because it's assuming someone's character is incredibly cheap and petty. I may not have been as verbose about it originally, but I just took the time to write it out plainly, or so I thought. I have no idea why'd you assume such a thing about someone here.

Lex: yes. Go have a Southampton Publik Double White Ale for your troubles.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

Good job, man, no matter how tired! Do you have a link to the route? Would love to see it, knowing California.

I've started riding to work again, it feels good. Not sure I'm ready for a century, though.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

By the way my mom calls it "Alex speak"... we had a big argument about whether I should use my own definitions when I say things, or whether I should use dictionary definitions to facilitate communication. The argument went unresolved.

Also I don't know what that beer is, but it sounds good.

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"The map is not the territory."

See, this is what I don't get. I wouldn't consider posting a very mild obscure protest of a warning to be cheap and petty. Not a good thing to do? Sure. But not cheap and petty. Therefore I don't think misinterpretting a post as being such a protest post is that insulting. The timing of it (occuring not long after the warning) made it an even more likely possibility.

In short...you are overreacting.

I apologize if the initial post seemed obtuse, but I had a really hard time getting the image to work, and by the time I did, I was out of time to draft my "rant" about the lack of time in my schedule to spending doing hobbies like cycling, thanks to work, family and social obligations. I really need to find one of the jobs that lets people go cycling at lunch (one of the popular lunch routes is right past my office, but I just can't take the 2 hours needed to ride, eat and shower).

As for getting called out for "flaming", I took up my concerns and criticism of the process directly with DFK in PMs. It has been a cordial conversation, and while I questioned some of the inconsistency in the approach, especially with a specific moderator, and calling out posts at the same time stating they aren't rules violations, I wouldn't stoop to this kind of drama. However, I can see where Riov could equate the two. I did find the response and assumed meaning interesting though, and somewhat telling.

As for the route Aethein, I'm not in California, so I'm not sure it would be of any benefit. That said, the first 50 miles was around a local lake, then across the valley break for 20 miles or so, mostly climbing but not steeply, then the last 30 miles was 17 mile climb up the water shed, and 13 miles downhill (and some back up) to the start point.

I give props to anyone willing to excercise. Personally it's just not something for me, I'm more of a fun/leisure while possibily losing weight type of person.

Might have been me who started this all off by saying that I thought it was about drama.

OK, sorry, I was confusing you with Katas! Katas, Ladas ... Ya know, I'm gettin' up there in years, cut me some slack. Katas lives in Sacramento.

Can you ride to work? Depends on how far, how much you sweat, etc. I used to ride 25 miles round-trip 2 or 3 times a week, but kids (dropping them off at daycare, etc.) put the kibosh on that. I'm closer to work now (5-6 miles, haven't measured it exactly), and since they're now at the same school, can do a drop off and then ride. I hope to be able to do this twice a week, try and get some base back.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Most weekends I can ride to work, if there isn't something else I need to be doing that day that requires a car, such as stopping by the grocery store, headed to the inlaws, etc. Its 8.79 miles from my house to work, but its such a short ride, I take a more indirect route and extends the ride into the 20-25 mile range, depending on which turn I feel like taking. It also gets me off some of the less bike friendly roads.

I can't do it during the week because I'm responsible for getting my son back and forth to school. Even if I weren't, at my position, I need access to a car from the office for site visits, clients meetings, walk-throughs, etc.

Its one of the thing I really miss about living in Charleston (lived in an apartment on the Battery)... I worked downtown, lived downtown and could easily ride my bike to work every day. I only used my car once to twice a week... once for groceries and the second time on the weekends I went to my parents for dinner.

Of course, I also wasn't married, and didn't have children back then.

you probably dont want to know the things I'm assuming about you then....

Congrats. No small task there...

Waaaay back in the day, mid 90's when I was living in Colorado Springs, and was racing and doing a lot of training, I rode something called the "Hardscrabble Century", which is a 100 miler through the Sangre DeCristo's in Colorado. I really enjoyed it. The morning was all climb, while it was still cool. Most of the rest of the ride was a long slow decent back into Pueblo where the thing started.

I wish A) I had done more of those, and B) I could still do one (or even ride at all) :p

I fail to see how this comment in any contributes to the thread, or could result in any positive outcome, regardless of your smiley emote.

Road or mountain bike terrain? On the cross country trip, we would occasionally have local cycling groups join us for the day, and out west, they were almost always mountain bike groups. While it was nice to have other people to chat with, have them tag along for fun, it was also painful in how slow they were. Our average speed, especially in the high desert areas of that region, was usually in the 28 MPH range. They best they could muster on flats for any distance was about 20 MPH, usually in the 16-18 MPH because of all the rubber they were pushing. When you are averaging 72 miles a day, that 10 MPH off is huge.

More like don't care.

so you dont care what I assume about you, but you do care what I assume about someone else? help me understand here.

I have road tires on my mountain bike, but, yeah, I really can't average much over 15 mph by myself with a loaded bike. I should probably invest in a good touring bike (at my age, my knees need that third chain-ring).

Of course, that would mean that I actually have time to go on a bike tour. Maybe when my kids are in their teens, take 'em on a death ride.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Here is some help in your understanding. Your reactions in this thread have lead me to believe that your assumptions are retarded. Therefore I don't really care what assumptions you may have about me, as they will likely be just as retarded.

You know Aethien, you asked about routes in California... I should have thought of this earlier, but we did have several days in California that you might enjoy. I no longer remember the exact roads, but I recall enough detail that you could probably find it if interested.

Our first day we started in San Fran (some great day rides while we were there just waiting to start the cross country) at the west end of the Golden Gate, rode across to other side, took a hard right down to the base and followed that road out through Napa Valley. Overall, it was a pretty gentle ride, nice scenery and little traffic. Seems to me it was 40ish miles total, so doable in a few hours (we did some sightseeing on the way).

The other day that sticks out... we stayed overnight in Jackson, CA (in an old "wild west" hotel) and rode that morning from there to Kirkwood. That was our 4th day on the trip, and it was really rough, considering Jackson is around 2,600 ft above sea level, and top of the mountain you climb before the slight downhill to Kirkwood is over 8,000 feet. If remember, it was a single road the whole way, so no turns or detours, but its been a few years.

Here is a map of the course (sorry about the annoying ads on that site)
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-st ... /199311460

Definitely all pavement. It's apparently no longer being organized.
http://www.clubhypoxia.com/?q=node/157

This was back in the early 80's right about the time the mountain biking boom was starting.

I rode this ride with some guys I raced with (track and road) from a team based out of Colorado Springs, and we had some favorable winds, and rode in a pace line when warranted. It was really more or less a training ride for us. If I recall we averaged about 34mph. I know at one point on one of the big descents, my computer speedometer was blinking "55", which means we were going somewhat faster than that. Pretty scary stuff.

Wow. 55+, and all in a pack, I'll bet. Gotta trust your buddies on that. I hit 45 or so on a road bike on a big descent here in SoCal once, and it was pretty ****' fast.

OK, no more road bike talk. One bike is enough (I know, what kind of bike guy am I?!).

Sounds like a fun ride over the Sierras, Ladas. I looked up Kirkwood - somehow, that name rings a bell. I think that one of the first cross-country car trips went through there or something. Wish i could find the reference.

Looks like some fun country to ride, in any case.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Kirkwood is a big ski resort, so you might be familiar with the name from that.

The fastest my bike speedometer has ever read was coming down the White Mountain... it told me I was doing 62 MPH, which I think was pretty close. We were supposed to be in the city (actually 2 cities since it straddles the state line) for the 4th of July parade and we had 20 minutes to be there, and we were 15 miles away by the sign just downhill from the top of the mountain. We made it in 15 minutes (one big downhill to the city). It was fast enough my spokes were whistling. I hit 55 the day we came down the mountain from Kirkwood headed to Carson City, but we had to sling shot off each other on the downhill draft to hit those speeds. The 62 MPH was just me, crouched as low on the bars as I could get.

34 MPH is a good pace. I'm assuming you were running drafting lines with rotations to maintain that. We did some if we got behind schedule, but most of the time we rode in small groups of 2-4 people chit chatting as we went, sometimes stopping for pictures or detours to site see.... or in one disastrous case, stopping to go for a swim in a lake to cool down when we were outside Tonapah, only to find out the lake was salt water. That sucked so bad, and we had another hour and half to ride.

Well, not exactly. Pacelining is mostly effective on the flats or slight grades , and in strong head or side-wind conditions. You wouldn't stay in close proximity on a fast descent like that.

On a slight tangent, one of the memories that stands out from that ride, was passing a couple on a tandem cycle. What's crazy is I remember passing them at the midway point, after about 4000 feet of climbing. I wasn't the strongest climber going, but it's pretty hard to imagine that they were faster on those steep grades than I was (we all started within a few minutes of each other). They actually had to slow down on the descent, which is when I passed them. I had to do a serious double-take.

I wish I had pictures of that.

OK, good. I wasn't thinking a paceline, just a big group. Glad you spread out!

Did you ever read the Bicycling review of a triple? They put three strong cyclists on it, said it was terrifying how fast they went!

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Hmm. Not being a roadie, nor ridden a tandem, I've never really considered that it would differ greatly in speed/efficiency.

I take it that it has an advantage, in that the drag and bike weight overhead for adding the second rider is negligible in comparison to a solo rider, thus making the second rider's marginal contribution greater?

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades