I wrote about my early experience with tubeless road tires last year; you can find that article here. Since last August I’ve put another 700 miles on those wheels and I experienced my third puncture a few days ago. As I mentioned before, one of the downsides of running sealant in tires (tubeless or otherwise) is that if you do get a puncture it often will not seal immediately especially if it’s more than a pinhole. In the meantime as your wheel is spinning around it’s ejecting sealant in every direction. Since it’s winter the bike now has fenders, so I didn’t notice I had a puncture until I got home and saw the Orange Seal sealant on the mudflap and on the inside of the fender. Upon inspection the 2 mm puncture was completely sealed. The astonishing discovery was that the tire had lost less than 10 lbs. of pressure; in other words, even though it looked like the contents of the tire had been massively spewed out, it must have sealed very quickly, so quickly that I didn’t notice the loss of air pressure. I was impressed—I was able to continue riding as if nothing had happened! Of course if there hadn’t been a fender in place I would instead likely be trying to launder dried latex sealant out of my bike clothes. Although it wasn’t raining when I got the puncture, you can imagine how miserable it would have been to replace an inner tube while getting drenched. I can see the advantage of running tubeless tires with sealant during our rainy season. So far, so good…
Year: 2018
Ride Recap: Social A Ride—Brunch at Hideout Kitchen
Continuing our strange waterless winter we had another stellar warm and sunny day, perfect for a comfortable Contra Costa ramble and a killer brunch. Temps in the mid-seventies in February? Not unheard of but truly unusual especially when it’s not just a single day but a week of it! Six of us rolled out of Orinda BART heading to Moraga to take the Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trail to Walnut Creek. We met Derek at the edge of Rossmoor and rolled through the back neighborhoods of Alamo and Walnut Creek. The only untoward incident of the day was the explosive flat Peter had just before the second rest stop. I was impressed with how his eensy-weensy Lezyne pump managed to get his tire pumped up hard without a jillion strokes.
Well, the point of the day was to get to Hideout Kitchen for a delicious Sunday brunch. It’s always hard to estimate when the group will get to the lunch stop so I didn’t make a reservation. Unfortunately Hideout Kitchen is now a popular spot and we ended up having to wait over a half-hour for a free table. Comfortably ensconced in their outside patio we passed the time in idle chitchat. After a multi-year absence Ryan returned to Different Spokes and hopes to start riding more regularly again; Peter had ventured all the way up from San Jose for our little ride. Soon we were seated and service at Hideout was quick and thorough. Roger and I had omelots; Derek, Ryan, and Stephen various kinds of panini; Peter, a very healthy looking Cobb salad. Only Greg went for the speciality of the house, a waffle sandwich (!)
With brunch dispatched it was a short hop back to Orinda BART. Next month: Ryer Island for some very flat levee roads and hopefully spring blossoms!
Ride Recap: Four Bears & A Happy Pig
In two words: [x] building, where x = {character, muscles, VO2, confidence, ego, delusion}
It was really the wrong time of year to lead a ride like this; it was short and sweet but long on the climbing. RideWithGPS said over 4k of vertical but when the day was done it was “only” about 3,700 in under 35 miles. How did we do that? By climbing the Three Bears, Pig Farm, Reliez, Deer Hill, Happy Valley, and then Papa Bear. It wasn’t the total vertical that made the ride challenging; it was the steepness of the grades. They are all short but they are all double digit (well, not Baby and Mama Bear perhaps). The worst was Deer Hill, where Garmin said it was 15% (and I believe it!) But all the others were well north of 10% too.
Roger surprised me by saying he was game to do the ride after we had ridden a 40-miler the day before. The only other person mad enough to do this ride was Dylan, a former Spoker, who was awesomely enthusiastic about doing such a tough ride. We kept it at a B-pace and ended the day with an average of 11.5 mph, which is right on the spot. We survived those climbs by doing them all at a reasonable pace and not gunning it. We also rested at the top of each and every climb, taking plenty of time to imbibe and chat. Dylan hadn’t done most of these climbs before so I inflicted the full history lecture on him. Maybe that increases the TSS?
We lucked out with a cold but very sunny day with calm air, perfect for all those hills. We got back to Orinda and Dylan had to run. But Roger and I got lunch at one of our local and favorite eateries, Geppetto’s, which has delicious sandwiches and soup.
My legs were very tired afterwards!
Ride Recap: Social Ride Treasure Island to Assemble
It was a classic “you couldn’t ask for better weather” ride yesterday. After a night of mild rain we were greeted by clear skies and bright sunshine. As well as chilly temperatures. But the wind was calm and the Bay was classic flat water. The January Social Ride went to Treasure Island by the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge, explored the island, returned, and then went up to Assemble in Richmond on the water. Derek was the only casualty of the day when his e-bike battery mysteriously gave up the ghost not long after the start. By trading batteries and head units we were able to pin the problem down to his battery, which oddly enough indicated it had a full charge yet would not provide any power. So he had to return to MacArthur BART while the four of us—Roger, Jim, Roger Sayre, and I—proceeded on. It was Roger Sayre’s first time on the Alex Zuckerman path and he proceeded to take photographs liberally. With the old span completely gone, the view to the South Bay is unobstructed and marvelous now. There still isn’t much to see on Treasure Island except for the exceptional views of both SF and the East Bay from the shoreline. Afterwards we went back to the East Bay and headed up the Bay Trail to Assemble. Because we had dawdled we got there pretty late—2 p.m.—but there was still a hefty lunch crowd. Needless to say the food was pretty damn good. I had a bowl of homemade clam chowder, the others had omelets or other breakfasty food. Roger complained that his house fried potatoes were not fully cooked—an unusual error at Assemble. On the other hand I had to have a plate of fries and they were perfect. Back to MacArthur BART after a pleasant jaunt along the bayshore!
2018 Fast ‘N Fabulous Kit!
FastnFab, our sister club in NYC, has a new kit coming out this June. This year’s iteration features a very New York graffiti design. The kit is made by Verge and you can see sizing here. Bob Nelson at FastnFab wants to have all orders no later than January 31 and delivery will be June 1. Cost is $80 for the jersey and $86 for the bib shorts. There are upgrades available too—contact Bob for more information: fastnfab@gmail.com
On the right side of the pic Bob is modeling the full kit.
2018: Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Good riddance to 2017! Last year started with a whimper: after a nice New Year up Mt. Diablo we got tons of incessant rain. In contrast we seem to be heading into a dry winter—bad news for long showers and green gardens but great news for cyclists! Last year was also a quiet year for Different Spokes. Whether it was due simply to constant bad weather in the first third of the year who knows. In any case we have some great changes in store for 2018.
First, we are soon going to able to offer official club dirt rides again. Our insurance has not covered off-road riding but that will change by the beginning of February. After that expect to see mountain bike and mixed terrain rides appear on the ride calendar. Of course those of us who are non-asphalt inclined have been riding where we please. But now we’ll be able to do it officially rather than on the down low. If you’re a mountain biker or just like to ride on unpaved surfaces, you’ll have even more reasons to ride with Different Spokes.
For those of you who like to ride less quickly you’ll be happy to know that Roger and I have a full schedule of Social A rides for 2018, at least one ride a month. We will be taking in some new routes, sights, and naturally fab eating places such as Treasure Island, Angel Island, and dining at Gaumenkitzel (yum!) as well as old favs such as the American River Bike Trail, the Arastradero Preserve, and eating at Sogno di Dolci in St. Helena and Assemble.
Saddle Challenge is coming in March. Need some incentive to get in the miles? You can look forward to Saddle Challenge Mile Eater rides to get you to your mileage goal for the month and kickstart your season. Will they be the usual boring routes like Mt. Tam or Tiburon loop? Well, maybe a couple will be but you also can look forward to some unusual rides such as out to the Spirit Ship on Mare Island and riding on Delta islands! Why ride the same roads over and over?
Last but not least we might actually see the return of the Lake Tahoe Spectacular Weekend this summer. I’ve been receiving moderate interest. If I can get at least ten firm confirmations, then I think it will be a go. Stay tuned.
What else can we look forward to in 2018? Last summer after several months delay we saw the opening of the SMART commuter train in Marin that now allows for extended riding in Marin and Sonoma without getting in a car. BART managed to open the Warm Springs extension in Fremont after an even longer delay. Hopefully that won’t happen again with BART’s Milpitas and Berryessa stations, which are scheduled to open this June. At last we might actually be able to do our Mt. Hamiton in the Fall ride without using a car to get to the start at Berryessa Creek Park! The SF-to-SJ ride has always ended at the Diridon Caltrain station. But for those of us who live in the East Bay and don’t want to take the Caltrain back to SF, the lessened mileage to Berryessa will be much better than to Fremont or Warm Springs. But wait there’s more: BART’s Antioch extension will open this May. Getting to Black Diamond Mines Regional Park for righteous fire road rambling will be easier. Getting to the Delta to enjoy levee roads will be easier too but it will require you to ride your bike over the Antioch Bridge, which is indeed open to bicyclists and even pedestrians. Brannan Island State Park is just across the bridge as well as Rio Vista and beautiful rides such as Ryer Island. Getting across the Antioch is a bit hairy: there is a shoulder but the traffic (including semis) ostensibly is going 55 mph. There is often a numbing crosswind or headwind off the Delta. Nevertheless it is possible to bike it and it’ll be a lot closer than starting from Bay Point.
Finally, the last of the roads closed by 2017’s storms will open. Calaveras will reopen to weekend use in the near future (before the Primavera Century in April) and by October should be open daily. Skyline Boulevard (Hwy 35) just south of Castle Rock State Park should also reopen this spring. Further south Caltrans hopes to have Highway 1 at Mud Creek open by late summer, which will finally allow David Gaus’s long-delayed Big Sur Adventure to be held.
The Chain Letter 