Friday MoMiles - Stinson

This morning did not disappoint for a ridiculous MoMiles “commute”.  As usual, the starting point was Corte Madera Peets at 5.15am (which means a 4.50am from my house).  Ominously, my cell phone was blowing up in my backpack as I was riding to the start.  Typically, any communication the-morning-of is a sign of bad things to come.  Only flakes or changes of plans happen within 15 minutes of the scheduled departure time.  Luckily, today we had only a minor augmentation and a bit of good news.  There was some construction on the freeway (StravaMo drives – not rides - to Peets … what a wuss) so StravaMo went one more off ramp in the right direction to meet us.  More interestingly, StravaMo, being his typical friendly self, met a guy on vacation from Arkansas looking for a bike ride.  StravaMo convinced this guy, Skyler, to join us for the MoMiles adventure.  By 5.19am, Skyler, Bryan and headed off to meet Mo.

Sunrise over Four Corners, Mill Valley

Without getting into too much detail, this Skyler fellow is a bit of an interesting story.  It seems that young Skyler is on a 4+ month vacation with his wife (sounds awesome so far), staying in their truck camper the entire way (um … less optimal).  He is/was “self-employed” and at a place with work that he could get a way for a while.  And his wife “did the corporate thing” and didn’t really like it so she quit.  There’s certainly more to this story, but I did not get it all.  I am guessing that he is either Bill Clinton’s Press Secretary or an heir to the WalMart fortune.  Either way, he is a good guy and a strong cyclist.  Skyler brought both his mountain bike and road bike on the trip.  And his wife brought her Cyclocross (that’s a good woman).  Despite his Arkansas twang, you could tell that he was from out of town because he rode a standard double set-up versus the compact.  This just made him stand the entire route and beat me up every hill by about 30%.  And, by the way, leave it to Strava Mo to a) meet and chat up some random dude at a park and b) convince him to join us on a ‘casual morning ride’.  Well done, Sir.

The Seven Sisters

Back to the ride which, itself, was rather uneventful except for two minor details – it was ridiculously long and painfully full of elevation.  We did the Four Corners thing, up to the Mountain Home Inn and Pantoll and then down to Stinson (where I had never been on a bike before).  Then, strangely, we headed north back towards Fairfax ... curious as I started five minutes from Fairfax just two hours prior.  With the coast line came a fierce headwind and a chill.  And the giver that I am, I opted to lead the peloton for much of the pull.  At about mile six of the coastal route, just south of Bolinas, we made an abrupt right turn and headed over an aggressive cattle grate in the road.  Little did I know that this grate marked the beginning of Bolinas/Fairfax Road, a road which I was only familiar from the Fairfax side.  It turns out that the BoFax route from Highway One has a nickname among cyclists, ‘Climber’s Delight’.  Well … not being a climber, this hill was far less than delightful.  Being already tired from the Highway 1 pull, the rest of my group quickly separated themselves from me.  I spent the majority of the 4.3 miles, 1,488 feet of elevation and 39 minutes pedaling in low gear, meditating that the crest would soon be within view.  I told myself that I thought the peak was about 1,000 feet.  When I got to 1,000 feet, I still couldn't see the top.  At 1,200 feet, still not top in sight, I let out a ‘whoop’ for all of Marin to hear, and I got a ‘whoop’ back from one of my pals at the top.  It seems that they beat me by about five minutes and were more than pleased to be resting while I continued my trek. 

Bolinas Lagoon Lagoon from the Seven Sisters

Bryan, Skyler and Mo were waiting for me at the Ridgecrest intersection.  I had no clue that I was heading in this direction, but I had been there before as part of the Alpine Dam loop to Seven Sisters.  As I rode up, I realized that my climbing was not done yet.  The sisters lay ahead before the Mill Valley descent.  Are you kidding me?  Another four miles and 600 feet?  Bryan and Skyler bailed back to Marin while StravaMo and I headed off and up.  I don’t remember much of the sisters except for the concept that I lost track, unable to count as to which of the seven I was on and when.

1,500 feet up looking over West Marin and the Pacific Ocean

Fast forward to Mill Valley and the Bike Trail and Alexander and Fort Mason.  I looked down at my Garmin and noticed that my total altitude for the ride was in the 4,800 range.  Of course, I could not get to work after four hours of climbing and not cross 5,000 feet.  So Mo and I made a conscious effort to hit a few extra San Francisco Hills on the way to the Embarcadero.  We rolled from Northpoint up Stockton Street passed my first apartment in San Francisco (what up Dorwin!!) and continued up Lombard to near the base of Coit Tower.  When my altimeter read 5,035 feet, I was satisfied and we rolled to the office.  After my shower and breakfast, I downloaded to Strava my morning’s effort.  And, as karma can do to you sometimes, the heavens spoke … 55.7 miles, 13.6 mph pace and FOUR THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED NINETY NINE feet of climbing.  Are you shitting me?!?  One foot?  I could have picked my bike up over my head in a triumphant celebration to cross the 5k barrier?!?  This was doubly insulting as my century a few weeks back came in at 99.1 freaking miles.  I don’t know what I have done to anger the Strava/Garmin gods.   But I am certainly not on their approved list.  Bastards!  

Thanks for dragging me around, Mo!

The Black Mamba

Completing the loop on my broken bike, all I can say is that Performance Bikes went above and beyond to rectify the situation.  

 

As a refresher, my old bike experienced a fatal malfunction on 5/14/2012, a snapped chain stay.  I texted the shop with pictures that afternoon, and dropped the bike off at the shop the following day.  The Manager of the shop, John, assured me that he would take care of the situation (just like he assured me that my weight was no issue with the carbon bike that I originally bought).  He offered me an upgrade to a better frame with a better carbon (I didn’t know that were grades of carbon) and he would transfer all my components, wheels, etc off of the old bike.  Within a week, on 5/21/2012, my new frame had arrived from the manufacturer.  But we had a new problem … it seems that the new frame has a different bottom-bracket than the old bike.  So John had to order a new bottom-bracket and crank set.  Another week, 5/29/2012, and the new parts arrived.  I swung by the shop on 5/31/2012 to check on the build progress.  The new frame was hanging on the rack and my old bike was in pieces on the ground.  And the next day, 6/1/2012, I received the call that the bike was ready to be picked up.

Some bike porn specifications for you aficionados out there (of which I am not one):

The old frame:

http://www.performancebike.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/mProductDisplayView?viewType=images&productId=1091226&catalogId=10551&storeId=10052&langId=-1&pgGrp=&itemId=

The new frame:

http://www.fujibikes.com/bike/details/altamira-102

As you can see, the new frame does not have all the fancy green lettering that shows on the website.  It is matte black on black, kinda stealthy.  It goes perfectly with my fluorescent yellow bike jersey that I wear in the dark mornings.

There she is, The Stealthy Steed.  This shot also gives you a glimpse into my ADD when it comes to the organization of my work bench at home in the garage. 

From what I have been told, said in my best Phil Liggett accent, “This frame was on the podium at the last Giro de BlahBlahBlah.”  I’m pretty certain that the frame did not have a FatGuy on top of it when it crossed the finish line.  That said, the frame alone retails for more than I paid for the entire Scattante.  I surely cannot complain.  New frame, new crankset to full 105 gruppo and a tune-up, all for $30 -the cost of some spacers and new cabling.   Pretty sweet.

Big Birds

Quickly upon the commencement of my ride this morning, I saw a cool Red-Tailed Hawk dive down and grab a mouse out of a field.  Then, on Magnolia, another hawk/falcon jumped out of the brush with a talon-full of grass, presumably to build a nest.  It became clear that this morning’s ride would be the ‘bird’ commute.  Having seen turkeys almost every day this week on Camino Alto, I mentally committed to stopping to snap a few pictures if I bumped into them again today.  Predictably, I saw a group of three turkeys as the downhill portion began.  They were a bit high on the hill but I was able to get a few pics.

Disappointed by the zoom on my iPhone, I rolled slowly down the hill looking for another group of birds.  As I picked up speed, I passed a lone bird within a foot of the white line.  I doubled back to get a better shot.  Unfortunately, I had put my phone back in my backpack after the first group of turkeys.  In my rustling around in the backpack, the turkey hightailed it up the hill.  Still, I got a good picture and also practiced my ‘gobble-gobble call’, yelling back and forth with him (her?) a few times.

Satisfied with the turkeys, I continued the normal commute.  I snapped a shot of the Snow Geese that are traveling through Marin.  Large groups of these guys are standard Mill Valley Bike Trail (as are lots of ducks).

Having ridden pretty slowly up through Sausalito, I was doubly pleased to pass a guy riding up the Alexander climb.  Then just as I was cresting the first hill, I was joined by BryanB hammering up to meet/pass me (he doesn’t really have to try that hard).  Bryan used me as an excuse to not work in a Headlands Loop (he is training for The Death Ride, http://www.deathride.com/, in July) and we rode together into Fort Mason.  We decided to stop and send a picture to StravaMo who has not been riding much due to an injury.

Then Bryan dropped the bomb on me.  Since we skipped the Headlands, he insisted that we do the Hyde Street hill up to Lombard and then finish on Columbus Avenue through North Beach.  Noting my eye-roll, Bryan said, “Don’t worry.  You have the Cross bike.  Those gears will get you there.”  I took the bait and we headed up.  The Hyde Street hill is about one-fifth of a mile at an average of 17.8% grade (compared to the “stupid” Wildomar climb in Mill Valley on 5/11/12 which is half the length but a slightly steeper grade, 19.8%).  The hill is divided into two sections.  I did pretty well on the first two-thirds as the hill flattened for 30 feet at Chestnut Street.  Then the ride continued straight up to Lombard Street.  At the mid-point of the last third, the bike was literally stopping between each revolution of the pedals.  My lungs were hanging there, but my legs simply could go no further.  It took all the effort that I had just to unclip out of the pedals and catch myself from falling into the Cable Car tracks.  I walked the last 50 feet to a panting Bryan waiting for me at the top.

Hyde Street was not to be for me this morning.  But I will conquer her one of these days.  And closing the loop on the Big Bird theme … Being unable to finish the Hyde Street hill, I, obviously, was the biggest turkey of the day.

Not According to Plan

It all started pretty standard.  Amy wanted to run in the AM, so I slept in until 6.15am and got off to a 6.50-some departure.  This was my fourth ride in this week, with two round trips, so I was feeling pretty beat.  As I got on the bike, I decided to spin super-easy with the goal of hammering for a single five-minute section of the entire ride.  Rather than take Camino Alto, I wanted to take Meadowsweet and destroy StravaMo’s PR going up that hill.  Keep in mind, this is not an easy task for me.  StravaMo had dozens of runs up that hill, some slow and some fast.  And he is a much stronger climber than I am and weighs at least 50 pounds less than I do.  But, hey, it would be fun trying.

To give myself an unfair advantage, I started hitting the pedals well before I got to Peet’s coffee.  I figured that Mo and crew start the Meadowsweet hill from a standstill.  I could gain a few seconds by giving myself a running start.  By mid-hill, however, it was pretty clear that I did not have it in me.  Sadly, I bonked and cruised the rest of the way.  Whether it was the dead legs from the weekly commute or the old bike … I just didn’t have it in me.  I did beat my own PR by 9 seconds (from 5 minutes 1 second to 4 minutes 52 seconds) but Strava Mo is safely 25 seconds ahead of me at 4.27.

Having worked up a pretty good head of steam going up Meadowsweet, I somehow got comfortable in a particular gear in the big ring and sorta just kept it going – contrary to my original intention of a slow roll.  I caught my breath and beat the lactic acid out of my legs going down the hill passed the school and the Post Office. And by the time I got to the Mill Valley Bike Trail, I was feeling pretty strong.  Not really paying attention, I looked down at the Garmin and noticed that I was going around 20 miles per hour, well faster than my usual pace.  There was no wind to speak of (neither tail nor head), but I somehow got to that speed and kept it there.

I then recalled the Strava Segment ‘Blithedale to Financial District’.  Despite my riding from Blithedale to San Francisco every day, I don’t trigger this segment.  I turn off the Embarcadero down Battery Street to go to work where this segment wraps around the Embarcadero to Market Street.  My 2 percent digression from the route disqualifies me from ranking.  So, while still in Mill Valley, I decided to keep up the pace and continue on the Embarcadero to get a good time on this segment.  I felt OK going up to the Bridge (I did that segment in 6.32, 22 seconds off my PR).  But I really got in the groove on all the flat sections of the ride – the Bike Trail, Bridgeway, the Bridge, Chrissy Field, etc.  Once I put the effort to get up to speed, it takes pretty little energy to maintain that speed.  But the initial push can often be more work than I am willing to exert.

Parking my bike in the garage, my Garmin read 22.6 miles versus the typical 21.5ish and the clock read 1 hour and 19 minutes of elapsed time.  On my usual route, anything south of 1 hour 20 minutes is a good pace for me, so I knew that I had put in some good times this morning.  Downloading the data, I put in my third fastest time ever on the ‘Commute TT’ from the Bike Trail to Chrissy Field.  And as for the ‘Blithedale to Financial District’ segment, I destroyed my old time, cutting almost 7 ½ minutes off of my previous record – 47 minutes 59 seconds down from 55.25 (and taking the lead from Jeff C in the Muy Buenos Dias crowd by nearly 3 minutes).

As I reflect on this morning’s ride (cue soft music and birds chirping), it dawned on me that I did all of this ON MY OLD CROSS BIKE.  Yup, the same bike that I complained on Wednesday, “… it is also a slug going up hills (even harder than normal) and a significant effort to keep the bike moving at the same speeds that the road bike can achieve.”  And I did this totally solo, with not a single second of drafting throughout the ride.  The solo part makes sense, as I tend to be a chatty Cathy on group rides.  But the cross bike thing baffles me.  I guess my quick pace mostly depends on my mood.  But if that is true, then why spend thousands of dollars on fancy bike equipment?  I should just sell my new carbon bike (which should be built by the end of next week) and buy a $300 Cruiser.

Cross Bike, A Moron and a Douche Bag

"Cross Bike, A Moron and a Douche Bag".  Isn't that the title of a Tom Wolfe novel?  Or maybe Hemingway.

This morning’s ride could not have been more pleasant.  The sun is up by 5.50am so the need for bike lights is almost gone.  I have been braving Downtown San Anselmo without a front light simply for the ease of not worrying that the lights will get stole off my bike in the new garage.  It is not quite regular short-sleeves weather yet.  But I can feel it around the corner.  The winds are crazy at this time of year.  But that just gets me a little more exertion and exercise.

The Cross bike is holding up as a fantastic replacement bike while the new bike gets built up.  It is amazing how comfortable this cross bike is compared to the old race/road bike.  I don’t know enough about bike geometry to tell you whether it is the wheel base or the angle of the fork or the 28mm tires or whatever.  But I can tell you that I am flying downhill these days.  For some reason, it is just feels safer to go faster downhill.  That said, it is also a slug going up hills (even harder than normal) and a significant effort to keep the bike moving at the same speeds that the road bike can achieve.

I have not mentioned one of my road girlfriends on this blog before.  But Johnny and I saw her this morning again.  We have bumped into this moron several times over the last 12 months, always in the same place ... Battery Street (the very end of our commute) between 6.50 and 7.10am.  She drives a white, older model Nissan Altima with the license plate starting with a 6 and ending with 567 (I’ll get the full plate one of these days).  Anyways, on our first memorable encounter with the moron, we were merging from the  Embarcadero onto Battery.  There is a bike lane that on the left of the car traffic on the Embarcadero which allows bikes to turn and ride on the left hand side of Battery..  As we start to turn, out of nowhere, this moron starts honking, yelling and revving her engine.  She got inches from our rear wheels and then sped off around us.  Johnny caught up to her to give her a talking-to and all I caught was the end of the exchange;  the woman screaming the F-Word and waving her coffee in one hand and cell phone and cigarette in the other.  After seeing her a few more times, Johnny and I vowed to get the better of her in future exchanges.  Another time, I was riding in the left-most lane with a lot of other car traffic when this moron sped up a bit too close to me.  I gave her a look that probably was not too nice, and before I could say a word, she busted out with some serious F-Bombs, and called me both the C-Word and the N-Word (I have been called a lot of things in my time, but never the N-Word.  I have been previously called the C-Word).  Note to self … this moron is crazy.  This morning, we saw her again.  Being the jerk that I am, I rode up past her as she was stopped at a red light (surprising that she even stopped) and got right in the middle of the lane in front of her. Johnny followed me to do the same.  As the light changed, I lead out and she blasted by us ON THE LEFT IN THE LANE FOR METERED PARKING.  As she swerved back into the correct driving lane, she jerked her wheel in our direction and would have hit us if we had not slowed down to avoid her aggressive move.  Catching up to her again at the next red light, the smoke from her marijuana joint was as obvious as day.  She threw out a few cuss words and we opted to let her go without further issue.  One of these days she is going to kill someone on Battery Street.  Even without my provocation, we've seen her fly at 50 miles per hour down that street.  She must do the same thing even on the days that we don’t see her.  So much for San Francisco’s finest.

And then the Douche Bag … As I was hanging up my clothes in the gym locker, preparing to get in the shower, cooling down from the moron interaction, a fellow bike rider walked up to the locker next to mine.  He was dressed in all black gear, full pants, jacket, bike hat under his helmet, all matching with Colnago labels everywhere.  But the thing that caught my fancy was the fact that he was still in his bike shoes and booties (booties also matching Colnago brand).  I couldn’t resist.  I said, “Booties in May?  That’s pretty aggressive.  Where are you coming in from”.  He response was classic.  He looks at me with his nose turned up and says, “Its pretty windy where I ride.  It gets cold.  Gotta protect myself.  I come in all the way from Sea Cliff.”  I just giggled and nodded having just ridden in five times the distance of his commute in a tornado ... wearing just a long sleeve under top and mountain bike shoes.  Douche Bag.

Friday MoMiles

StravaMo has an amazing talent.  He can turn my leisurely 21 mile commute into a hellish climbing extravaganza.  He can somehow get from Peets in Corte Madera to San Francisco via Alpine Dam, Muir Woods or even Stinson Beach.  I have previously shared a MoMiles rides with you; the Cliff House, Ocean Beach, Golden Gate Park, Twin Peaks ride of April 6^th.

This past Friday, Mo had a special treat in mind for me, Mount Tam West Peak.  Bryan B. joined Mo and me for the adventure.  This made for even more personal torture as Bryan and Mo have a Strava game-within-the-game on every single incline , trying to outdo eachother and set PRs around every corner.  And, it goes without saying, that these two knuckleheads combined weigh less than I do, and they both climb like jackrabbits.

My vantage point for the majority of the ride

The ride started rather uneventfully with a 5.25am departure from Peets, and a spin over Meadowsweet and Horse Hill.  We made a right on Blythesdale and headed to Downtown Mill Valley.  As we started to climb Cascade, Mo made a comment about ‘saving myself’ and ‘preparing for a really steep but short pitch’ that they had wanted to climb but had never done before.  This ‘really steep pitch’ turned out to be akin to climbing a freaking ladder.  It seems that the forefathers of Mill Valley ran out of flat real estate and decided to build houses on cliffs.  This hill was only about 1,000 feet long, but it was well north of 20% of pitch the entire way.  The road was so ridiculous that the concrete was grated perpendicular to the curbs to help traction for the cars.  Bryan and Mo got ahead of me pretty quickly (shocker) while I did my best to keep the bike upright.  In the lowest gear, the bike came to a standstill after ever every revolution of my pedals.  I had to zig-zag from curb to curb just to keep the bike moving  and not falling over.  When I finally made it to the top, I made the proclamation, “That was fu&*ing stupid!”  That comment kept Mo entertained for the rest of the ride and week to come.

Sunrise from Four Corners

The rest of the ride was a ride that I had done previously, but we did it backwards.  After doing Alpine Dam and Seven Sisters from the Fairfax side, the bomb down through Mill Valley is a quick one.  All I remember from that descent was how badly my hands hurt from applying my brakes for 20 minutes straight.  That said, riding the hill upwards was especially brutal for this fatty.

Tam Valley and the Pacific Ocean

Downtown SF and Twin Peaks in the distance

One last funny tidbit … At about 6.40am, we passed Pan Toll and approached the entrance to the peaks.  However, the gate to the climb was locked – Park Open 7am to Sunset.  Mo and I lifted our bikes over the gate and squatted through the slats.  Bryan decided to go around the gate, traversing through the wild flowers.  As he grabbed his bike, Bryan quipped something about the ‘weeds’ and ‘ticks’.  And as we looked down, a huge tick was crawling up his leg.  Those little guys are super resourceful.  And it reminds us that as much as we think we are in charge, we really are just playing in their wilderness.     

I may need a bit more than a tune-up

Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?  I am obviously way too much man for the Scattante.  Before I bought the bike, I did all sorts of research.  But the main question that I could not get a clear answer was whether I should go for an aluminum bike or full carbon.  Everyone told me that the carbon technology was the better way to go and it was worth the extra bucks.  My bigger concern was whether the carbon frame could handle my weight and the tremendous power in my lower body (chuckle).  Based  upon everyone's assurances, I went for it and went all carbon.  After seven months and about 3,500 miles, I was super pleased with the bike frame.  My only issues with the bike were the fancy light-weight race wheels with which it came.  The wheels needed to be trued almost every week.  After less than 2,000 miles, I had completely destroyed the original wheels, breaking over a dozen spokes.  I replaced them with a fancy set of touring wheels which didn't do the trick either, then settled on some sweet Deep V Velocity wheels that have yet to come out of true in 500 miles.

I was pleased with the frame, that is, until this afternoons commute home.  About half way up Camino Alto, I stood up to try and catch Johnny.  As I torqued up, I felt a huge skip out of the cassette.  I couldn't quite figure out what had happened.  I tried to adjust the cables but just shrugged my shoulders and kept going with the casette skipping all over the place.  As I pulled onto my street, I really felt sluggish.  Upon dismounting the bike, I spun the wheels and noticed that the back wheel was rubbing against something.  I checked the brakes ... nope ... no issues.  I spun the wheel to check for true and the wheel didn't even make a full rotation.  Something was very wrong.

And there I found it.  The chain stay had literally cracked in half.  The outside of the stay was severed but the inside held enough that the bike didn't fall completely apart.  Thank god it held on the Camino Alto downhill section.  I could have been in for some major issues if the rear of the bike had fallen off at 30 miles per hour.

I'm almost positive that the frame is still under warranty.  And I am certain that the guys at the bike shop will take care of me with a new frame and then some.  Should I go for the same frame?  Should I try out every frame for new geometry?  Aluminum but upgraded components?  Steel?  Titanium?  The options are limitless.  I guess I have to wait to see what the shop says.

But this is definitely going to put a crimp in my chase of StravaMo's all-time mile tally as he will be riding all week.  And what am I going to ride in the meantime?  God forbid I have to drive to work!!