Catching Up (The blog, not the bike!)

What inspires me to write this blog?  Maybe an epic ride?  Maybe some related story?  Or some cool cycling pictures to share?  Since my big “life change” back in late April, I guess I’ve had my share of rides!  And pictures.  But now I can say with confidence that one gets lazy upon retirement.  Yep, I’m proof since I haven't written a thing in quite awhile!  So, what’s been happening?  Quite a bit, but I’ll stick to the rides.  Mostly.   ;-)

I’ve obviously been spending more time riding than writing. It’s been almost 6 months with no entries.  Much has happened in this short time.  Some good, some not.  I have had many great rides.  I got a new bike.  If we stray a bit from the premise of this blog, we can talk about how we’re fucked as a country…. but don’t blame me.  What's wrong with half this country?  Ok, I got that off my chest.  Onto cycling issues…here we go with a little about each of the ride highlights!

MDR.  The 26^th annual Memorial Day Ride went off without much of a hitch….4 great days riding south to Santa Barbara.  Except it was without our usual leader!  Poor Janine had some family issues to deal with that couldn’t wait, but the ride still proceeded.  A few of us stepped in and tried to fill her shoes.  I say tried, since it took 3 guys to do her job.  Things went well, but the ride was smaller and mellower than normal.  That was ok.  The 40 or so of us were not of normal hammerhead inclinations.  We steadily and slower than normally rode the coastal route down through Big Sur and got through without any incidents.  While the mellowness was welcome, I hope our leader returns next year!

Trips.  Following the MDR, I had three trips back east, including one more back to Florida (for my Dad’s surprise 80^th birthday!) and two to New England to visit friends and family.  Riding in both places was pretty good, on my “Florida Orange” Trek in Florida and on borrowed bikes in New England.  Including on a borrowed Moots cyclocross bike!  I was lucky enough to have my friend Eric hook me up with his friend Chuck who lent me his CX bike.  I had a great time on it and was pretty impressed, to the point of making an offer and buying it!  It’s something I’ve been thinking of for some time and even alluded to in a post.  You’ve heard about gravel bikes and/or adventure bikes?  I wanted to get off the road a bit and with this new (for me) bike, I can do that!  Cyclocross bikes are pretty adaptive.  And with retirement, maybe, just maybe I deserved a little sumpin’ special!  So after a bit of delay, I bought the bike, a Moots PsychloX!  It’s a beautiful frame and fit me pretty well.  Cantilever brakes, wider tires (32mm and 38mm) and a 13-30 cassette.  It even has S&S couplers for breaking down for travel and fitting into a special small box.  Not necessary, but a nice bonus!  It’s early December now and I’ve already put over 1,000 miles on it!

Time!  So, this retirement thing is certainly agreeable with my ride schedule!  I’ve been able to get many 200+ miles per week weeks….check out the weekly records on strava for the year.

I’m happy with this little "development" and if the weather cooperates, may hit an all time record miles (~8300) by the end of the calendar year.  I think I mentioned this before….I just hope lots of riding doesn’t become a “job”; that would get boring.  Let’s just keep it fun!  That’s one of the reasons for the Moots purchase….it opens up the door for some “mixed” riding (paved/dirt) so it all stays somewhat fresh.  I know…it’s a “first-world problem” (too much riding), but I’m just trying to keep it fun!

Santa Cruz.  One of the more epic rides was with friends Howie, Vlad and Matt one-way to Santa Cruz.  We took BART to Millbrae and headed over the hills and down Skyline Drive before dropping down to the beach. 77 miles and about 7000 feet of climbing and we all made it ok.  It was a beautiful day of empty roads until about 10 miles out of Santa Cruz. The tiring effects seemed to be delayed a bit, but I had some unusual knee pain for a couple of subsequent days.  It got better in a few days, but I’m getting old.  One never expects or needs these reminders!

I need to be remain appreciative of all the great places to ride around here.  Including Sonoma, Pt. Reyes, Diablo, Mt. Hamilton, and Davis, where I did a number of rides in the past few months.  And friends who can join for rides too.  We live in a great place for riding!

France!  Of course, some of my most memorable rides of the year were in France with Caryn, Jeff and Shelley.  Riding on quiet rural roads with incredible beauty and history was unparalleled.  And once again, like two years ago, we got lucky with warm late October weather down there in Southwest France (St. Cyprien).  We had a week of sunny days to ride, but also do touristy things like tour the castles, taste great food and drink wonderful wines!

Oh, when back in Paris, let’s not forget taking Aunt Annik on a rented tandem ride through the beautiful grounds at the Palace at Versailles.  That’ll be hard to match!

Here is some posted video of the tandem ride with Annik!!

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Suggested Reading!  I dragged a book along with me to France, but didn't get far.  When back, I finished the humorous and eye-opening cycling book from Brit Tim Moore titled: “Gironimo: Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy”.  The book was about the unbelievable difficulty and inhumane conditions of the Giro that year.  Think self-support, bad food, bad roads, inclement weather, and very heavy bikes.  Out of 81 starters, only 8 men completed the 8 stage race around Italy.  Each stage was close 400K long with little or no support.  And the author's goal was to ride as much of the same course as the riders that year and on the same type of vintage bike.  Phew.  He wasn't nearly as fast as the original racers, but he did finish!  Forgetting the "race" past of the race, here is a quote the writer included (from Alfredo Oriani, 1897), under which I think I can live by.

The true pleasure of the bicycle is freedom.  You may go where you wish and when, stop wherever takes your fancy, as carefree as a horse ride, not confused and constrained by railway carriages and timetables.  The bicycle now allow us to conquer space and time…..

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Here are some final words.  With my newly available time, I’ve been developing a list of bucket list rides……Old Route 66, RAID Pyrennean, riding across the old USA.  More fodder for future blog entries.  Keep an eye out. That’s probably enough boring bike stories for one entry.

And now excuse me if I stray a bit.  It’s been about a month since the election debacle of 2016.  Phew.  That was unexpected.  And unwanted.  And the shit continues with our lunatic tweeting wackjob PEOTUS.  In my view, one potentially desirable impact of this new president might to spawn a whole new generation of protest songs.  Or to resurrect punk rock and make it relevant again.  From the campaign rhetoric, this seems to be the only redeeming impact.  I wrote a letter to the SF Chronicle editor the week after (11-11-16).  It was never published, but since I’ve got your attention, this is what I said:

Wow.  What a week.  The surprise election results and now Leonard Cohen’s death.  It would seem that for at least half of us, his melancholy lyrics and tone would feed the despair (and for some, thoughts of Canada).  But as Leonard’s songs sometime recover with more hopeful endings, so must we.  Democracy can sometimes be painful and oh, this week was just that for many here in the Bay Area.  But we have no option but to carry on.  Despair can exists in song lyrics, but should not in life.  This is not the time to give up or become violent.

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And just when we thought 2016 was enough of a shitshow with the election and many musicians passing away from old age, KALX lost four of its station volunteers in the Oakland “Ghost Ship” nightclub fire on Dec 2^nd.  At this point, the tragedy has claimed 36 young lives.  A sad statistic seems to be that KALX has more than 10% of this number.  I had only met one of these 4 folks, DJ Cherushii (Chelsea Faith Dolan) and didn't know her well at all.  But she was a very integral part of the station, as well as her EDM community.  It's hitting the station hard and shows that KALX is a tight community in the face of this sad event.

To a better 2017 with lots of safe, fun riding.  Carpe diem……because you just never know.  Knowing that even Leonard Cohen can sometimes get upbeat, we'll bounce back.  Thank goodness for cycling.