DSSF Holiday Spending Recommendations

Black Friday is coming. Do you remember when Black Friday was just “the day after Thanksgiving”? Yeah, me neither. Somehow Black Friday crept into our collective (un)consciousness and now it’s firmly lodged in place. That gets us all in the mood for a spending frenzy, which is why Xmas totally slays every other religion’s winter solstice. Spending money—often money that you don’t have (yet)—and getting goodies makes winter a whole lot more fun and tolerable.

More than likely any “gift guide” is going to be more a “what can I get for myself” guide. So if you’re contemplating getting a gift for someone else like a cycling bud, which often means just yourself, here is my list of recommended goodies.

Cycplus AS2 Pro electric inflator, $109

UPDATE: On sale now at Amazon for $88!

I wrote about battery powered inflators here. Once you’ve used an electric inflator, you’re never going back to CO2 cartridges or even a hand pump. The typical caveat applies: keep it charged and it’ll be ready to inflate fully about four road/gravel tires. That’s more than enough for 99.5% of your riding. No more tired arms, leaking air from the valve connection, and it’s fast. The only real objection is that it’s startlingly noisy. Everybody’s trying to get into the electric inflator market mania these days. The Cycplus is proven and reliable. This is the middle size inflator and it happens to be the one I use. If you’re really concerned about running out of air, get the larger model; if you think you’ll never need more than two tires to be inflated, get the smaller version, which is lighter but doesn’t have a readout of your pressure. These pumps could be improved if they offered a Clik valve version.

Clik valves, $12-28 for a set of two; $15-22 pump head

Speaking of Clik valves, these are definitely a plus but with a caveat. Clik valves are a better Presta valve. They have a slightly different shut-off mechanism, a spring-loaded pin whereas a Presta valve depends on the pressure in the tire to shut the valve. But the real pluses are the valve head and the proprietary pump head you must use are metal. The pump head clicks on and off positively so you don’t struggle or lose air. Unlike a rubber gasket in a pump head, these will last forever. You also won’t break off the tip of the valve like you can do with Presta valves. (Been there, done that unfortunately.) If you’ve got just one or maybe two or three bikes, it’s easy to convert them all over and buy a pump head. If you’ve got more, well, it’s gonna cost you because the Clik valves right now are not cheap like spare Presta valves. They offer a set of two valves for tubes or tubeless. Unfortunately battery powered inflators don’t come with Clik compatible heads yet. But in the meantime you carry the removable Clik pump head.

Garmin Edge 540, $250

Garmin enforces mandatory pricing on their stuff. So the only time you can get one of their cycling computers for less is when they have a sale. And they just put on a Black Friday sale of the Garmin Edge 540. GPS cycling computers are, admittedly, trinkets—you don’t “need” one. But they come into their own when you are riding on unfamiliar terrain. Almost all club rides have associated GPS routes in RideWithGPS. You can load the route into your Garmin and never get lost again (unless you want to). The Edge 540 will provide turn-by-turn guidance and display a map so you can literally see the big picture. Unlike its more expensive brethren that have touch screens, to control the 540 you use buttons, which sometimes involves a lot of button presses to do stuff that would be simpler on a touch screen. But hey, it’s $250 and you can get it now from any vendor that sells Garmin cycling computers.

DiNotte lights, $119 to $304

The days are short and if you’re riding while it’s dark, you need lights on your bike. There are a billion kinds of bike lights out there and many of them are okay. But if you’re serious about riding in the dark, you needs some dependable lights. DiNotte are American-made lights out of New Hampshire and they’ve been making some of the brightest lights for decades. I used to commute to work year-round and I’ve been using their lights for 20 years. They’re lithium battery, LED, blahblahblah—all that good stuff that everybody else has too. They sell only consumer-direct. Their service is great; I’ve had them repair old lights and replace lights that died, traded in old lights for new lights, and they always have spare parts. The catch is that their lights are expensive compared to newer Chinese brands like Magicshine, which also makes some seriously powerful lights. But the DiNotte engineering is topnotch particularlly their battery and charging. So you’re not going to burn your house down using DiNotte equipment. They also make some of the brightest daytime running lights and I’m using those now that I’m no longer commuting to work. In particular they have an eye-blistering daytime taillight that I use when I’m concerned about traffic. The good news is DiNotte just came out with a new self-contained headlight with a cut-off beam so you don’t blind other road users.

Fulgaz on HD television — Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again…

Fulgaz, $15 per month

Does anybody ride their bike outside in bad weather? Nah, that’s strictly for Rapha ads! If you’re riding at all, you’re getting on your trainer and pounding out the miles on some indoor cycling website like Strava, TrainerRoad, or Rouvy because staring at a blank wall while you’re pouring in sweat is so painful that distraction is a necessity. However if I don’t want to go outside, I’m on Fulgaz, Despite its name it’s not really a racing site. It’s secret sauce is that it shows real first-person video of rides around the world shot by cyclists. Some rides are unknown and some are famous monuments of cycling. You can connect your trainer to the Internet and pedal your way up Alpe d’Huez or the Dolomites from the comfort of your den/garage/mancave (sic). I’m an inveterate bike tourist so getting to see different rides around the world—some of which I’ve also done in real life!—is fantastic. It’s way less boring to go sightseeing by bike from your home than to chase avatars. It’s $15 per month and you’ll get your money’s worth.

GoFundMe: Charlie Cunningham

You probably have no idea who Charlie Cunningham is: a totally out-of-the-box thinker and engineer, he was responsible for a host of innovations in the early days of mountain biking as well as for his coveted aluminum custom mountain bikes. Ten years ago he crashed on Tam and ended up with an untreated intracranial hematoma. The outcome was major brain injury. His wife, WOMBATS founder (Women’s Mountain Bikes and Tea Society) and inveterate punster Jacquie Phelan, took care of him at home but eventually it became too much and now he’s in a care facility in San Rafael. His medical bills and care were and are monumental. And by the way Jacquie came to a Different Spokes club meeting back in the day and entertained us with her stories riding the pro mountain bike circuit and hanging with Los Boys, with which she could hold her own. She’s got a GoFundMe up for Charlie’s care. She also writes on the GoFundMe site with stories about Charlie, the old days, his current care and needs, and her own trials and tribulations as a long term caregiver. Donate what you can.

Incredibell, $18.50

If you’re tired of shouting “On your left!”, then it’s time to get a proper bell for your bike. If you’ve got a modern GPS computer, some of them have a built-in software bell. But I find it easier to use a real bell. A real bell is also an order of magnitude cheaper than a Garmin. Being analog you can also ring it as softly or loudly as you want and as insistently or calmly as you prefer. A software bell? Well, you get one sound. The Bell(e) of the ball is the Spurcycle but it’s $59. If you need more bling on your $15k bike, then get a Spurcycle. But for the rest of us mortals the Incredibell Omnibell is good enough and it has an adjustable strap to fit a variety of handlebar diameters. The Spurcycle has a longer resound time but the Incredibell is louder. I’ve been using these bells for years and they’re plenty loud and definitely less aggressive than shouting. The caveat is that the production QC of the Incredibell is variable, from okay to really good. So go to your local bike shop and test their stock until you find the best one. But even the merely okay Incredibells are good enough.

Lennard Zinn Substack, $50 per year

Lennard Zinn was for decades the technical editor at Velonews. When Velonews was sold to Outside Online, they axed all of their legacy editors. Getting rid of Lennard was a huge mistake. He’s a former national class racer, a framebuilder, and has an acute technical nous due to his physics background and his real life, intricate, mechanical experience. He’s researched and written about an extremely broad array of cycling tech topics such as wheel wobble, aerodynamics, tubeless, shifting systems, frame rigidity, drivetrain friction, you name it. He has continued his weekly writing on Substack. You can send him your technical questions and he’ll write a column in response. It’s well worth the cost if you’re interested in bicycle mechanics, bike repair, and contemporary bicycle technologies.

Lennard Zinn books

Lennard has also written the current bibles for road and mountain bike mechanics. His books are indispensable for clear explanations of how to repair, maintain, and upgrade your bike. He has just released the new editions of both Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance ($23) and Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Bike Maintenance ($28). Yes, Youtube videos are great for seeing how a repair is done. But Zinn’s explanations, charts, and clear drawings are just as good.

Ritchey Torque Key 5 Nm, $23

Allen or hex wrenches in various sizes are useful to adjusting the bolts on your bike. It’s especially important with expensive carbon fiber stems, handlebars, and seatposts to tighten them correctly in order not to break them, which is all too easy to do. (Don’t ask me how I know.) Lightweight aluminum parts can crack too if tightened too hard. (Again, don’t ask me know I know.) The solution is to tighten them to the exact force and no more. But how do you know how hard is too hard? Use a torque wrench! The most common parts you’ll need to tighten are the three mentioned above and they are often built for no more than 4 or 5 Newton-meters of force. Instead of buying an adjustable torque wrench, which is much more expensive, you can get a torque key preset to 4 or 5 Nm. It’s also small enough to carry in your seat bag. If you’ve ever been out riding and noticed that your seatpost or handlebars are slipping, a small torque key can get you home without you accidentally breaking your precious bike part. The Ritchey comes with six different ends—Allen, Torx and a Philips—which should take care of just about every part on your bike that needs tightening.

Ride Recap: One Piggy and Three Bears

Ed. Ride host Chris Chiang submitted the following report.

First off, congrats to Sara and Larry for completing their first Three Bears! Sara is a consistent and strong rider and a great road companion. Be sure to learn from her easing into the ride and finishing strongly on every challenging climb. Larry has come a long way since joining in June. He’s started to use me to pace like my own shadow but has tried to move ahead once he studies the route and elevation. I now have to up my own game!

The Three Bears is no walk in the park. I created this ride after doing a fabulous version led by Cathy and Nancy early June. The standalone clockwise loop from Orinda is around 18 miles, 1,800 feet, and back-loaded. Why not just leave out that front end and distribute—but increase—the load more evenly? So out came a counterclockwise version starting from Lafayette that includes big climbs on Reliez Valley Road and Pig Farm Hill, at 30 miles and 3,000 feet.

Dismissing my concerns and counsel, Stephen insisted I make the day even tougher and longer with more climbing, thinking that the club would have lots of post-ALC riders jonesing for difficult, nostril-flaring routes. So I slipped in my recently-devised Martinez loop instead knowing it’s not difficult and would provide a pretty diversion out to a new favorite coffee shop, at 47 miles and 4,100 feet.

We got nine riders for this ride: David G., Kurt, Larry, Nancy, Rick, Roger, Sara, and me at Lafayette BART; we met Stephanie down the road. Kurt is a newer member having ridden with David a few times but never on a club ride yet. Once we got on Reliez Valley Road riders slowly separated on this first climb. As I shifted to low gears, I suddenly heard metal-on-metal rattling. Rats, the chain had popped off and was stuck between the cassette and spokes. The plastic spoke protector experienced an unscheduled rapid disassembly and the indexing was now off as well. Rick double-backed and we managed to get the chain back on the cassette. No more shifting to the last gear or the chain will pop. We met up with the group and Stephanie at the turn onto Franklin Canyon Road. Big smiles and laughs, small cleanup of black grease.

Franklin Canyon is a charming climb. It’s a residential area mixed with front yard vineyards. A sugary, fermenting odor wafted in the air. Larry noted to Roger and me that this must be grapes drying into raisins. I chimed in that we three grew up in the Central Valley, which is raisin territory. We laughed and swapped tales about old local happenings there. I then watched Kurt up ahead miss the turn onto McEwen and yelled for him to return. More laughs. McEwen has a higher grade but not by much. It reminds me of Stage Road down in Pescadero and offers the spicy scent of wild sage that grows along the road. When the road began the quick descent, Rick zoomed by and Larry went after him. At the bottom of McEwen’s final 15% plunge, we took a sharp right to climb Carquinez Scenic Drive after waiting for Larry, who had taken a wrong turn. Thanks to Rick for thinking quickly and calling Larry by phone. Even more laughs. Carquinez Scenic Drive rides like a bigger sibling to Tiburon’s Paradise Drive, with water on one side and undulating climbers and rollers on the wheels. At one point we heard Amtrak down below heading into town on its way to Sacramento. Near downtown Martinez Kurt had a flat but quickly changed tubes. Larry’s battery-operated tire pump came in handy. Having a chill and collaborative group of cyclists makes a ride more enjoyable and safe.

When we got to downtown Martinez, we sure earned that cup of joe! Many other groups of cyclists were hanging out and Stephanie seemed to know a few. I happily chugged an icy cold-brew from my water bottle like a toddler with a sippy under the sun. David and Rick shortened the ride and returned to Lafayette while we continued westward on Alhambra Valley Road. After more dramatic bike-chain moments near Pig Farm Hill (with Kurt and Roger providing assistance), I was determined to finish strongly even if the bike was now functionally a low-gear fixie. This ride leader is covering the whole hog!

From the top of Pig Farm Hill I watched Roger zoom off and saw him next when he waited on Bear Creek Road. At the top of Mama Bear, I came to the group with Kurt fixing another flat. More laughs and club chats. I then watched each cyclist gradually pull away on the road, thankful that they’re with Stephanie while I’m playing catch-up. She’s a strong, experienced cyclist, a former ride coordinator, and a local who knows these roads well. We talked several times about co-leading a ride together, and now she’s the de-facto ride leader. While climbing the seemingly endless Papa Bear, I nearly slipped and stopped to steady. Once I began the rapid descent, I broke out into a big grin but then remembered that Baby Bear next is a small lump of steep bad ass. Imagine the elation when I crested that little twerp but then—clang!—the damn chain popped out of place.

At San Pablo Dam Road, we said farewell to Stephanie and headed toward Orinda. Kurt took BART home (exactly as I had intended for this option when I created the route, for backup and convenience) while Nancy, Sara, Larry, Roger, and I grabbed a quick meal. Nancy and Sara got ready to leave while we boys continued to chew and I mentioned to them that could they could take BART one station over to Lafayette if they had driven in. “Nah, no thanks.” Their composure said they knew a thing or two about challenging rides and they took off. Roger, Larry, and I followed shortly and returned to Lafayette where this fun, high-intensity ride began. Unexpected circumstances and contingencies conspired but failed to derail our plans.

Haha, we’re back and we’ll keep coming back.
–Chris Chiang

Ride Recap: Redwood-Norris

Ed. Ride host Chris Chiang recounts how his ride went on Saturday, November 1.

Redwood-Norris loop is a route I’ve been looking forward to ride. Tony had originally posted it on short notice back in May but I wasn’t able to make it then. I had an inkling that since it starts in the East Bay on the eastern side of the Caldecott Tunnel and runs for almost 50 miles and 3,000 feet, it would attract a special group of riders open to new experiences. Long story short today’s ride was fan-damn-tastic especially with Cathy, Larry, and Peter onboard! (Poor Rick called in sick so we’ll see about making it up in the future.)

The morning was foggy and dreary but my mood lightened up when I saw sunshine and blue sky on the other side of the Caldecott. From Orinda we took an easy pace through Moraga and turned onto Pinehurst Road. The climb was consistent and moderate as Peter and I commented about how Cathy and Larry effortlessly moved ahead with the former having announced earlier that she’s expected to be slow and the latter being a newer cyclist finally hitting his stride.

When we descended to Redwood Road, I noted about the road being on sport car enthusiasts’ radar so we should be alert. A few loud motorcyclists and sport cars zoomed by but maintained respectful distance throughout the length of Redwood Road. The climb happens in three stages with the third being the steepest. After the descent—be careful of potholes!—we stopped by Redwood Canyon Golf Course for a quick refuel and restroom break. This is a nice public golf course popular with passing cyclists and people have always been courteous and friendly from my previous stops. The nice golfer who took our group picture asked about our ride and mentioned about doing the Headlands on following day. When I told him of the sidewalk closure on the GGB for an event, he quickly said he’ll head for San Bruno mountain instead on his mountain bike. All the fellow cyclists you get to meet when you go beyond your usual comfort zone!

Leaving Castro Valley Peter and I took the wrong turn based on some internal glitch within RWGPS. After a course adjustment, we were then underway onto Crow Canyon Road. This is a fairly utilitarian regional road used by commuters to and from the San Ramon Valley. Surprisingly there was quite a bit of Saturday traffic. When the bike lane ended and the road narrowed, we moved cautiously in single file with me at the back with red blinking lights until the turn to Norris Canyon Road. Peter noted the newer pavement here. It’s mostly quiet and under tree canopy which would be so welcoming on a warm summer day. It starts at moderate grade but has two short stretches that go up to 10% as if to tease what’s to come. On the final climb I saw the canopy giving way to blue sky up ahead and I pushed to conquer that finishing 10%. At the top the road flattens with rolling pastures and farms on both sides. We took some selfies and were all smiles, amazed at how the big climb seemed far less taxing than expected.

After the descent and roll through the suburbs, we arrived for lunch at Sultan’s Kebab in Danville, another delightful and reliable go-to from Tony. Peter and Cathy got the combo (chicken and lamb) shawarma salad, Larry got the chicken, and I got the lamb. For my dish the dressing was tangy and the meat was smokey and gamey, just what lamb kebab should be. We lingered a bit and chatted while Peter ordered Turkish coffee and dessert. On the return we took the Iron Horse Trail instead of Danville Boulevard. The street route from Walnut Creek to Orinda seemed a bit long on a full tummy with some unexpected climbs and turns but Peter expertly navigated us back to Orinda BART. This route is a definite keeper for the adventurous.

—Chris Chiang

Learning About RideWithGPS Pt. 3: Sign me up!

If you are interested in creating and leading a ride, then RideWithGPS is an incalculably valuable tool and timesaver. But even if you’re just going to attend a club ride, you still need to know a little bit about RideWithGPS. The pandemic ended the handing out maps and cue sheets. Instead you are referred to our RWGPS site. There you can get a cue sheet, a map, or a GPS track if you use a GPS cyclometer for navigation. Without any of these you either have to follow another rider to stay on the route or you’ll have to depend on whatever personal knowledge you have of the ride leader’s route.

So there is a practical reason to use RideWithGPS: almost all club rides use maps, cue sheets, and GPS tracks in RideWithGPS. To access them you need at least a free account. If you do not have an account and you try to get the GPS track, RideWithGPS will prompt you to open an account. RideWithGPS also offers paid accounts that offer more features. The next step up is a Basic account ($5 per month) and this is the ‘sweet spot’ because then you’ll be able to get spoken navigation and offline maps, which are not available to free accounts.

When you join Different Spokes, you can then use our RWGPS club account. All you need is a free account. After you set up your free account, you can get that linked to our club account by contacting our RWGPS administrator, David Gaus (dagaus190@me.com). Once you’re registered in our club account, you will be able to take advantage of voice navigation and offline maps, which are features not included in a free account. A caveat is that voice navigation applies only to routes in our club library. Any routes you create and store in your free account cannot be used with voice navigation. However if you want navigation just for club rides, you won’t need more than that. Keep in mind that for non-club routes you will still have navigation but without spoken directions and you’ll have to look at your map screen to know where to go.

With a free account you will be able to explore the enormous RWGPS library for routes that interest you, load routes into your GPS navigation computer, record your ride, and plan your own routes. You also will have your own library of routes you’ve created or have copied from the RWGPS collection as well as tracks of rides you’ve recorded.

How Can I Check Out the Library?
Libraries are curious things. It can be like the junk drawer in your basement cabinet—you know, that huge drawer where you ‘store’ stuff you either don’t have the time to figure out where it should properly be placed so you can find it later or you just don’t have the time to deal with it and then promptly forget you have to deal with it at all. Or a library can be that neat, organized bookshelf with everything in alphanumeric order with its own Dewey Decimal Classification code.

My personal RWGPS library is more like the former; I have created and copied rides over the years and now it’s enormous mess. The club library is more like the latter. It is, believe it or not, curated and that is a blessing and a bane. Instead of storing every conceivable ride, our library is a cut-down collection limited to rides the club has offered over the years or have planned but not yet offered.

We also keep many historically important routes such as the first AIDS Bike-A-Thon and the AIDS Lifecycle ride to LA. Having a vast storehouse of routes makes it harder to narrow down what you may be looking for; on the other hand, having a limited number means that there might be just one route for a ride instead of including other interesting variations. Over the years lunch stops and route changes mean that a club ride is not a static entity yet it may appear that way if you look at our library.

To make things simple we have a set of ride collections that house the most popular rides. These collections are mainly based on Bay Area counties. For example we have a collection of the most popular San Francisco rides, popular Napa rides, and popular Marin rides, etc. We also have special collections such as our Pride rides, short fun rides throughout the Bay Area, and our getaway weekend trips. Check it out!

Learning About RideWithGPS Pt. 2: Groovy Things

RideWithGPS isn’t just a boring, pedestrian drawer full of local routes. It’s a gateway drug to getting your full-on bike exploration addiction. Fantasizing about cycling in the French Alps? Go into RWGPS and search for routes of any length and starting in any town you can find on a map. Looking for interesting gravel or mountain bike trips? You’ll find those in there too. Even if you aren’t looking for routes in the Malaysian highlands or in the Italian Dolomites—perhaps you’re looking for something closer to home—you’ll be able to draw on the riding experiences of thousands of other cyclists in your neck of the woods. Maybe you’re thinking of riding in the Mendocino area for a weekend. You can look up routes other cyclists have ridden and/or created in that area. You’ll get detailed information about routes allowing you to check out possibilities in advance.

Many cycling clubs use RWGPS to host their club libraries. You’ll probably encounter them if you prowl around an area. Once you find a route from, say, Different Spokes, you can search for other routes from that club or creator leading you to their collection. This will help you see what kinds of rides that club likes to do in their area.

Many cycletouring companies store their routes in RWGPS. This allows them to manage their own collections of routes and trips and distribute GPS routes to each tour member. However most companies keep their routes private. Club on the other hand keep their route libraries public since not every ride participant is a member. Exploring club routes will give you a great idea of the kinds of rides they like to do and what is popular in their area. Different Spokes Southern California, Windy City Cycling Club (Chicago), Outspokin (Denver) and Outspoken (Seattle and San Diego) all have RWGPS libraries.

From from the madding crowd. Back in the day club rides tended to be ‘simple’ routes using main roads. Why? Because it was too hard to lead a group on a complicated route with many turns and unfamiliar byways without losing people. No one liked to read cue sheets and maps often were not detailed enough if you did end up off-route. With GPS devices that is no longer an issue and ride leaders can select roads with less traffic even if they involve lots of turns and “hidden” roads because participants are kept on route by their Garmins. This allows for far less hectic and dangerous conditions by keeping riders away from main roads where most of the car traffic travels. And guess what? RideWithGPS also handles off-road routes and tracks. So if you’re looking for interesting trails or fire roads, you’re covered as well.

Are we there yet? Have you ever been out on a ride where you were wondering when you were going to get to the lunch stop, or the toilet, or just get to the end? With a GPS track you’ll know exactly how far you have to go instead of wondering how much longer before you can scarf down a Magnum bar.

Speak to me. Staring at your Garmin is bad habit and don’t we have enough already? Not only can it be dangerous but when the scenery is beautiful do you really want to be figuring out where that turn-off is? Yes, your device will give you a generic audible alert when it thinks you need to look at the map for something important like a turn. But you can go next-level with the RideWithGPS app in your phone: spoken directions. If you don’t want to stare at your Garmin while cycling, you don’t have to with RWGPS. With the RWGPS phone app you can load in your route and have it speak all the cues and the turn-by-turn directions. You can black out your phone screen to save battery life while running the app and still get audible cues. Such a deal!

Learning About RideWithGPS Pt. 1: What is it?

RideWithGPS is an Internet service where routes for cycling, hiking, and driving can be created, viewed, and stored. It has users around the world and you’ll be able to search for and look at routes just about anywhere you can ride a bike. Many cycling clubs use RWGPS because it is easy to use and it’s easy for club members to access from home, their phone, or anywhere via the Internet. RideWithGPS is one of a multitude of Internet based mapping systems for cyclists. Others include Komoot, MapMyRide, BikeMap, and even Strava. RideWithGPS allows anyone to create routes, keep a library of routes, record the tracks of rides, search for and look through the routes of a zillion other users, and of course it has all the relevant data to scare you from or entice you to check out a route: distance, elevation profile, a map, cues, and turn-by-turn navigation. In addition to hosting your route library, RideWithGPS also allows you to upload tracks of your rides for you to keep a record of your riding history.

Most of our club rides have an associated RideWithGPS route. If you use a cycling computer with GPS capability such as a Garmin Edge, Wahoo, or Hammerhead Karoo, you can download the GPS route and install it in your device. You can then enjoy turn-by-turn navigation without having to check a paper map or cue sheet. No longer fear getting lost (well, as long as you have battery life). Whether you’re on a club ride and end up by yourself or you’re just out cycling alone on an unfamiliar route, using GPS navigation with a RWGPS route allows you to ride and always make it back to your destination.

Interested in a club ride but don’t know anything about it? Just check out the RWGPS link in the listing to view the map, an elevation profile, number of climbs, hill gradients, and places you’re going to hit along the way including pit stops and food.

Even if you do not have and are not interested in using a cycling computer, you can still use RWGPS to get the map and cue sheet for a club ride or any ride in the vast RWGPS site. This gives you the freedom to download and print your own cue sheet and map of the route and not depend on the ride host to show you the route nor to hand out a route slip. And, if you’re a ride leader, you no longer have to provide any maps or cue sheet—just refer participants to the RideWithGPS route where they can get their own copies.

RWGPS also provides a free app for both Android and Apple phones. You can get a route directly through the app and then either refer to it in lieu of a paper cue sheet and map or, even better, use the app’s built-in navigation to guide you along the route. If you’re concerned about burning up your phone battery, don’t worry: the RWGPS app allows you to turn off your phone screen and it will give you turn-by-turn navigation by voice! I can’t think of a cyclist who does not have a mobile phone but there are still some who don’t use a GPS-enabled cyclocomputer. If you’re in that category, you won’t have to spend any additional money to take advantage of RWGPS–just use your phone.

RideWithGPS allows you to create your own routes and maintain your own ride library. But even if you’re not interested in creating routes, you can take advantage of the enormous RideWithGPS library to look for routes that might interest you. Visiting a new place? You can check out rides in the area with full details. RWGPS provides search tools for you to pin down interesting routes by location, distance, type, name, photos, etc. Some users even upload pictures they’ve taken along their routes so you can get an even better idea of what you’ll encounter. There are so many users on RWGPS that you can find new and interesting routes you’ve never set your bike on in your own backyard.

Learning about RideWithGPS: Introduction

In the early days of Different Spokes in the 1980s we had an actual club library. This was pre-Interent. If you were interested in a ride, you could look at our collection of guide books, some specialty cycling maps, our diverse collection of AAA maps, and a wad of cue sheets and xeroxed maps with routes outlined with Magic Marker. Or you could talk to someone in the club about a ride because we had monthly in-person meetings! The boxes of books, binders, and paperwork—our “library”—were brought to each meeting. This wasn’t too hard because they were stored in the back of the Park Branch library on Page Street where we had our meetings for many years. We simply lugged them out just before the meetings started and spread them out on a table. Later the library was closed for a prolonged renovation and we had to move our meetings to a new home. We relocated to the Metropolitan Community Church in the Castro, and without a store room we had to lug them to and from the meeting room. How do I know this? Because the library was kept in my old garage! And guess who was in charge of the library?

For those who wanted to lead a ride, this ‘primitive’ way of researching rides was actually pretty good. Print books almost always had accurate information if eventually outdated and you could talk to someone who had perhaps ridden the route if you hadn’t and could give you an idea of what you might encounter. But books are updated infrequently if at all and the information can go stale. Is that road still open? No way a book is going to help you with that.

Fast forward forty years and the club has a very different tool for ride research and creation: RideWithGPS. New guide books are a rarity and even AAA has closed its mapping division. It’s all Internet and GPS mapping now. So whether we like it or not, the new reality is Internet and computer based maps and guidance. New cars often come with GPS systems and even if they don’t, people are using their phones with Google or Apple Maps. So it is with cycling. In the Bay Area I haven’t seen a cyclist with a paper map in many years—just whip out your phone and look at a map application. I don’t miss the old days because now there is a thousand-fold increase in information about riding and routes on the Internet compared to print books. Whereas so much of route information had to be transmitted orally before—i.e. you had to meet someone who had already ridden a route—there is so much more information available digitally. And it’s often up-to-date and very detailed.

As a member of Different Spokes you have access to our club RWGPS library as well as many of the features of a premium account—it’s part of your membership fee!

Next up: What is RideWithGPS and how can it help me?

Ride Recap: Stinson Beach

Ride Leader Kate Dresher sends in this report on last Sunday’s ride to Stinson Beach:

Four riders—Nancy, William aka Milo, Darrell, and I—tackled the Mill Valley-Stinson Beach loop, returning via the climb to Pantoll Camp out of Stinson. It was a gorgeous ride, pedaling into and out of fog several times during the morning. Weather was superb—nice mix of cooler temps on the hills and the warmth of the sun shining in clear skies elsewhere. We considered shortening the ride when we arrived at a somewhat foggy Four Corners on the way out—to avoid possible pea-soup conditions along the coast between Muir Beach and Stinson—and are so glad we didn’t! Gorgeous day, fun outing and a great hill workout. No pictures were taken of the group. Oops! I think Milo took some vids of the fog….

Ride Recap: Spicy Saturday Mt. Diablo

Ride leader Chris Chiang submitted this report on last Saturday’s Mt. Diablo ride.

On this inaugural Spicy Saturday ride Kevin, Peter, and I formed a mighty trio as we aimed for Mount Diablo Junction. I put the ride together last minute when the day became vacant without a club ride. I was relieved that both Kevin and Peter joined to keep me honest and committed to the ride and thought it was phenomenal with just two-day notice. They’re both good riders and pretty chill road companions. From Pleasant Hill BART we made an easy and efficient pedal. At the North Gate ranger booth, we stopped to chat with the ranger to confirm road and weather conditions. There have been online chatters about certain ranger(s) issuing tickets to cyclists for seemingly technical and minor infractions. We did our best to establish rapport and flash some pearly whites before getting underway.

The climb is no joke and there are 8-12% sections right from the start. Kevin, being the superstar climber, pulled away like a little billy goat while Peter and I focused on our own rides. We passed multiple cyclists and were passed by others. There was hardly a single car as the day begins to warm. The road is narrow for two-lane traffic with moderate cracks in places and no shoulders. There are bike pullouts in places which cyclists are expected to use to allow trailing vehicles pass. A-okay and no problem. But it was also at a bike pullout where a cyclist got ticketed for not hand-signaling the return/merge back to the traffic lane. Apparently that ranger followed the cyclist and issued the citation even though there was a hundred feet or more separating them with no effect to any flowing traffic. Not even a warning, but a ticket!

I took plenty of water breaks while Peter passed me. I then passed him for the next few turns. We kept up this game of leapfrog until Kevin descended to us about a mile from the Junction after getting there himself. This time of year is Mount Diablo’s tarantula mating season. Male spiders from four to seven years of age leave the safety of their burrows to look for female spiders, including crossing the road. Someone showed Kevin a male spider and helped it gingerly to the other side safely. Typically the male dies in the winter after mating while the female lays eggs and get to live up to 25 years. The female might even kill and eat the male after mating especially if she’s hungry! If I were a tarantula, I’d gratefully be a fabulous gay one that safely climbs uphill to meet with my buddies.

Kevin showed us a rest stop with water spigot a quarter mile from the Junction. We then made a beeline to the Junction for some selfies and more hearty laughs about the poor male spiders. The descent was cautious but efficient as Kevin stopped to take pictures of Peter and me going downhill. When we were near the bottom where Mount Diablo Scenic Boulevard widens and begins to flatten, we each instinctively accelerated and started spinning. Peter chasing Kevin, and me behind responding, us laughing about the seemingly easy effort when we stopped at traffic lights.

We arrived at Lunardi’s in Danville in what seemed like 30 minutes, but…er…probably closer to 40. Kevin’s husband, Christian, joined us there and we had a quick meal together. Lucky Kevin then got in the car with hubby to spend the day with family. Peter and I decided to go off the planned route and just ride leisurely down the Iron Horse Trail. This is the nicer part of the Trail because it’s in between established residential area and mostly under the shade. We returned to Pleasant Hill BART a little past 2 PM. A quite enjoyable few hours on a Saturday with no worries to optimize weekend plans or commodify experience. Spicy climb indeed, and that’s why we ride.

Ride Recap: Happy Hour in the East Bay

TLDR: Same route, different refreshment.

“We forgot to take a photo!” Chris blurted out at the end of our little Ladies Who Lunch confab. So sorry, you will all have to settle for words, probably too many of them and of slight import to boot. But occasionally quantity does not belie quality–you be the judge.

It’s become a formula: start in downtown Lafayette and head up the Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trail to Moraga Common and back, then relax and enjoy some food and maybe an adult beverage of the hoppy kind. That last meal to Tutu’s had me thinking of doing a repeat but I also wanted to try someplace different. This time we ended our ride at Batch & Brine, which is just around the corner from Tutu’s and the Lafayette Public House.

It was the usual East Bay crowd: Roger and me, Lamberto and Joe, and Chris. Joining us this time were Kevin, a brand new member hailing from Seattle, and our club president Stephen. Kevin moves fast in more than one sense. While flying down here from Seattle for an extended work assignment he joined Different Spokes! He’s a member of Outspoken, the newish Seattle/San Diego LGBTQ club. Stephen intended to join us a couple of months ago but punted when he got too busy. This time he managed to show but minus the bike, so he met us just for the post-ride meal. Kevin on the other hand had to take off for a meeting so he couldn’t hang out over a meal. (Or, at least that’s the story he told us… maybe he’d had enough of us. Talk about hooking up!)

Although I didn’t get a chance to converse with Kevin more—he was up ahead most of the time and I was at the back—he did tell me he was relishing the Bay Area weather because Seattle is moving quickly into winter. I didn’t tell him that this wasn’t exactly normal. It has been an unusually mild summer and early October often brutalizes us with raging heat, which may be great for taking in Fleet Week and the JR but also can be a gruesome hurrah for raging wildfires. I expect we’ll see more of him on club rides unless he’s kidnapped by the ALC crowd.

When I greeted Kevin at the start he said he’d just met Stephen on BART coming over. Huh? Just an hour before Stephen had told me he couldn’t make the ride but would come afterwards. Yet he was already in Lafayette? A mystery. When we met Stephen after the ride, he said he decided to come over to inspect Lafayette, a burb he’s never been to. I suspect a lot of SF Spokers rarely set foot in any of the Contra Costa communities except on a club ride. That brought back a chuckling memory. (WARNING: club history dead ahead!) Back in the 1980s a particularly vitriolic hate organization, Lou Sheldon’s Traditional Values Coalition, was active in the Walnut Creek area. The Reverend Lou got his start with Anita Bryant saving children from evil homosexual men and lesbian gym teachers who preyed upon America’s youth. Lou started his own organization and a chapter promptly popped up in Walnut Creek. Back then Contra Costa was a red state. Pretty much everything east of the Caldecott was conservative. Club rides out here were jokingly referred to as secret forays into enemy territory ‘to gather intel’ despite the fact that Contra Costa was crawling with gay people who just weren’t as visible as the ‘newsworthy’ freaks paraded on TV every Gay Pride. Walnut Creek must have been a den of iniquity with its two rather non-discreet gay bars at that time.

We started the ride an hour earlier because the days are shortening quickly and we didn’t want folks to have to bring lights. Plus, it’s just safer to ride in broad daylight. The jaunt up the trail was a bit busier this time but not at all crowded. I ended up at the back talking with Joe all the way up. We did a quick turn-around at Moraga Common and zoomed back down arriving at Batch & Brine with plenty of daylight. By the way if you haven’t been on the trail yet, I highly recommend it. The Iron Horse Trail gets all the glam attention yet there are actually several rails-to-trails in Contra Costa that are a soothing getaway from traffic. The LMT is, in my opinion, the nicest and has the most rural ambiance of them all.

Although Roger and I had eaten lunch at Batch & Brine before, we weren’t sure how crowded it might be after work. It turns out Lamberto and Joe also had eaten there once when they couldn’t find another place that was open and they thought it was pretty good. Our fear was unfounded: it wasn’t crowded at all and we were able to grab a set of tables on the front patio without any problems and with our bikes parked right next to us. That’s when Kevin had to go to his meeting.

It was another long dinner that ended well after the sun had set. We didn’t leave until almost 8 PM. Roger and I got the fish & chips, Chris got a fried onion blossom, Lamberto the ribs, and Stephen an ahi tuna bowl. Joe had what I should have gotten, eggplant with curried lentils. It all looked great when it arrived. Unfortunately Roger didn’t like his fish and chips whereas I thought they were a solid “B”: the fish was cooked just right and the batter wasn’t soaked with oil. This time no one got dessert. Hmm.

This was another atypical Spoker meal confab: not a word was mentioned about club business or goings-on. Instead the conversation veered off into family histories; what growing up Catholic was like in the “old days”; why parent’s don’t raise their kids bilingually; dialect variation in France, Japan, and Italy; “world Spanish” versus Castilian; ex-pat life in Panama, segregation in New England; and cycling in Taiwan. Whew! There was a time when Spoker conversations unerringly ended up on three topics: club happenings, juicy gossip, and bikes. Times have changed. Or have we?

Daylight Savings Time ends on November 2. So the next Happy Hour in the East Bay will likely be next March or April after we’re back on DST. I’m thinking we may start in Walnut Creek next time to ride one of the other MUPs. On the other hand there’s a Filipino restaurant in Lafayette that might be a good place to end the ride. Stay tuned!