The moon was in the Seventh House and Jupiter aligned with Mars, peace guided the planets, and a record 33 riders turned out for the annual Mt. Hamilton ascent last Sunday. Yes, the above picture is no PhotoShop creation; it’s 31 of the 33 lucky people (David Gaus is taking the picture and Rana is still readying her bike) who got to climb up to the Lick Observatory at the top of Mt. Hamilton on a beautiful sunny and warm—by autumn standards—day. Twenty of the 33 were not (yet) Different Spokes members, so special kudos to David Gaus, the ride host, for his tremendous outreach effort! There have been a couple of Lake Tahoe Weekend Spectaculars that may have been this crowded but it’s likely this ride will take the record at least for the modern era. I asked David what he had done to beat the bushes to get such a robust turnout. Besides posting it on the Different Spokes Facebook page, he also invited those who had participated in his and Bob McDiarmid’s ALC Sunnyvale training group as well as Team New Bear Republic. The rest were friends of all of the above. It goes to show that a little PR and outreach never hurt!

Speaking of records, six women rode—more women on the Different Spokes ride than I’ve seen since the days when Sharon Lum was leading Cinderella training rides and Chris LaRussell was President. Other notable Spokers in attendance were Brian Leath (Apparel Coordinator), Roger Sayre (Secretary), Ron Hirsch (Membership Chair), and William Bir (former Event Coordinator). Jaime Guerrero graced us with his presence as did Adrienne Ratner, who finally seems to have conquered a terrible chronic knee injury brought on by an accident on ALC some years ago, and Joseph Dintino and Lamberto Domingo, our two newest ride leaders.

Previous Mt. Hamilton rides, which are almost always in the fall, have seen frigid temperatures that have made us wishing for more layers on the descent. This year the weather was graceful with 60s all the way to the top making it “not too hot, not too cold.” Many who started with windbreakers, leg and arm warmers were shedding them during the ascent. Sharon Lum’s route wisely starts at the Berryessa Community Center rather than at the base of the climb. This gives you several miles of flat and gentle uphill to warm up for the climb proper. Then it’s 18 miles upwards with just two short descents in the middle to break up the monotony.

On climbs this long and with a group so large it’s near impossible to stay together—everyone rode at a pace that would get them to the top. Only Rana didn’t make to the top, her effort being derailed by a wrong turn (Roger and I have done that as well in the past. You only make the error once!) and running out of water. Despite the continuous and prolonged effort needed to get to the top, everyone seemed to be in high spirits; we certainly saw lots of smiles as we climbed.

At the top the view of the South Bay was spectacular—clear for miles—and cyclists and motorbikers alike were enjoying the scenery. Often you don’t want to linger at the top at this time of year because the wind is howling and the prospect of a chilling descent urges you to leave immediately. In the past I’ve lamented the lack of a coffee stand at the top—it would be the perfect way to cap off the climb (well, that and a chili dog with fries). So this year I took a thermos of coffee for Roger and me only to find out that they’re now serving hot coffee in the observatory gift shop—that’s definitely an improvement!

Oh god, that lunch was good! After meandering through the dark recesses of the Port of Oakland and the varied, interesting neighborhoods on our very own local island, Alameda, we hit the jackpot with a fantastic mid-ride uppïges Mahlzeit (delicious meal!) at Speisekammer. But I’m jumping ahead…

The motivation for this ride (besides wanting to eat at Speisekammer, hence the Oktoberfest excuse) was to check out a part of the Bay Area I’d never been to, the Port of Oakland, despite having lived here almost my entire life. Unless you drive a big rig for a living or just dig container ships there seems to be no sane reason to venture anywhere near the Port. It’s a butt-ugly industrial area usually ruled by noxious, diesel exhaust emitting trucks and no where safe for cyclists to be riding. At least during the week. On the weekend the Port shuts down and it changes from “no-cyclists’-land” to an interesting area to explore on two wheels. The other reason was to check out Alameda; I hadn’t set foot there in almost twenty years and I was curious how the community has coped with the decommissioning of Alameda Naval Air Station.

After starting at Macarthur BART the six of us (Roger and I, Lamberto and Joe, Joseph, and Omar) rolled out to the Alex Zuckerman Path but then took the detour to the Port instead of heading out onto the Bay Bridge. It got gritty pretty quickly: bumpy, urban debris, and the occasional homeless person with supermarket cart. There was a complete absence of big rigs; in fact the entire time we were out there we encountered just three (!) cars. The Port was absolutely asleep; the most exciting activity we saw was a group of workers crudely lopping off the tops of a row of streetside trees (I guess professional arborists were too expensive to hire). What we did discover is that the perimeter of the Port has a couple of hidden parks, parks that are probably savored by port workers on their lunch breaks, Port View Park and Middle Harbor Shoreline Park. Who else goes there? They aren’t near any housing, shopping areas, or anything even slightly attractive. Right on the water these quiet refuges seemed disconsolately parked opposite the cranes that unload all those ships from China. But they afford really nice views of San Francisco and Treasure Island as well as any container ships! The latter park even had a three-story tall observation deck with binoculars so you could really see the sights!

After checking out a few gravel paths we were soon back in Oakland proper and rolled through Jack London Square before we were back to Gritty Part II on the Embarcadero, the frontage road of the Nimitz. The good news is that there is now a marked bike lane on the Embarcadero and although not mobbed with cyclists, it was at least being used despite the car traffic. Once we crossed the Park Street bridge to Alameda the traffic suddenly became more intense but not intolerable. Alameda being less industrial and more residential, local cars were out doing Saturday errands and judging from the playing fields, were full of parents hauling their kids to baseball or soccer games. We explored counterclockwise the perimeter of the island all the way to Point Alameda, the former Naval Air Station. The last time I was there the Navy was just shutting down. Since then not much as changed. When you enter you’re greeted by a fighter jet on a pedestal and a long row of barracks now empty, boarded up and full of broken windows. But the playing fields were full of kids and the parking lots were completely full! At the edge of the old landing fields the large warehouse/hangars have been taken over by a distillery, a beer brewery, and a wine company. Another hangar has become an indoor roller hockey site and fitness club that was also bustling with young adults. Otherwise there wasn’t much other development, which is probably bad for the City of Alameda but meant that the former military site is still evocative of its past. We stopped at the USS Hornet Museum—how many of you know that this renowned warship is even parked in the middle of the Bay Area?? This historic naval vessel played a huge role in the Pacific front during WWII including at Iwo Jima. In later life it also recovered the returning Apollo astronauts from the first landing on the moon. We didn’t go in (we were getting very hungry) and will save that for another visit.

We hied through residential Alameda along Shoreline Drive, where Alameda has a beautiful beach and new (well, new to me) protected bike lane. Along the way we got a very interesting tour of the housing in Alameda. We passed a slew of Craftsman, Mediterranean, and Victorian houses—who knew that Alameda was full of Victorians!—in beautiful condition too. There were also scads of hideous 1960s duplexes and some weird apartment buildings but given the expensive cars—e.g. Porsche 911s—in front I’m guessing they’re no deals. Alameda is like a living housing museum and the eastern side of the island away from the former base has beautiful neighborhoods, like something out of Mayberry RFD.

Well, we finally made it to Speisekammer, which is just off the main drag, Park Street. It has plenty of outdoor seating with umbrellas and bike rack for convenient parking within easy eye view. The day started off overcast but by the time we were at Speisekammer it was brightly sunny and balmy mid-70s temp so we opted for the outdoor tables. We ended up with quite a diverse lunch. Roger was channeling Berlin and ordered a currywurst with a pretzel; Joe had the vegetable strudel with goat cheese; I, the “farmer’s breakfast” (eggs mixed with yummy roasted potatoes and bacon); Lamberto, the Bratwurst with sauerkraut; Joseph, the Weisswurst; and Omar, the pork roast. Yeah, it was that good. Oh yeah, and there were a few beers to celebrate Oktoberfest. Judging by the crowd, Speisekammer is a very popular place, and a great spot to have a mid-ride food orgy. Well, sort of…after those beers we still had to do a few miles back to BART before napping was allowed. But this was a Social Ride, so it was all mighty, mighty good. Next month: the Baltic at Point Richmond for yet more German food!

Lamberto and Joe led their first Different Spokes ride yesterday, a pleasant loop from Orinda up Pinehurst and down Redwood Road. Seven folks showed up including Jeff from Livermore and Carl from San Francisco! Ostensibly a B-pace ride, our ride leaders were gracious in waiting for Roger and me despite our protestation that we knew the route and didn’t have a problem with the group keeping to its stated pace. Both Joe and Lamberto did a great job of shepherding all of us and waiting at each turn to make sure we didn’t get lost. The weather finally turned cool over in Contra Costa so we had a really enjoyable ride rather than the usual sweat-fest. The cooling trend wasn’t lost on everybody else either: there were crowds of cyclists rolling every which way including up precipitous Pinehurst. Hikers and mountain bikers were out too: every trailhead parking lot was full with many cars parked along the roadway. The view of the Bay on Skyline Boulevard was particularly spectacular with the cloud ceiling and sunshine. Back in Orinda we dined al fresco at Petra Cafe. Lamberto had a lamb platter, Joe the gyro, Carl a falafel wrap, while Roger and I each had a vegetarian Greek platter. There’s nothing like a Sunday ride ending with a great meal!

This past weekend Roger and I again rode the tandem on the Valley Spokesmen’s Tour of the Sacramento River Delta. This is a two-day ride starting at Brannan State Recreation Area that wends up levee roads on various islands in the Delta to Sacramento and then returns the next day. It is about 60 miles each way and it is almost dead flat with the main elevation gains being riding up or down levees. But it often has the challenge of headwinds off of the Pacific; last year the winds were grueling returning to Brannan Island but this year it was pleasantly benign. The riding is almost entirely rural and away from car traffic, a real delight after riding in the Bay Area. The Valley Spokesmen has organized this ride for many years and unlike the Cinderella, which it also puts on, it’s a much smaller event, about 200 riders plus support volunteers. It’s open to anyone not just Valley Spokesmen members and it clearly draws from a variety of local clubs including Fremont Freewheelers, the Benicia Cycling Club, Delta Cyclists, Grizzly Peak, and of course Different Spokes!

What struck me about the ride was the number of women. Although I’m not privy to the exact numbers, visually it appeared there were an equal number of women and men. Cycling has historically been a male dominated sport and mixed clubs tend to be mostly male, so it’s quite an accomplishment to achieve gender parity on an event that is not specifically catering to women. Certainly Valley Spokesmen has the street cred from putting on the women-only Cinderella Classic. That event also raises thousands of dollars for women’s/girls’ organizations including A Safe Place, Bay Area Women Against Rape, Shelter Against Violent Environments, and many others. Bonnie Powers, one of the original founders of the club and organizer of both events, and her husband have long championed female involvement in our sport. Valley Spokesmen also has an ad hoc subgroup, Feather Pedals, which focuses on bringing up new riders. Not surprisingly many of the Feather Pedalers are women and there were many sporting their jerseys this weekend.

Different Spokes is a much smaller club than Valley Spokesmen (103 members vs. 763) and we don’t currently offer a major event such as the Cinderella or even the TOSRD that would attract a wider base let alone more women. Female membership in the club has gotten to be borderline token with only eleven women. Neither diminishing membership nor increasing gender disparity seem to concern Spokers. Without any initiatives we are probably looking at the trend to continue. It might be the case that current members are just happy (or at least indifferent) with the way things are today: a smaller club with markedly reduced female membership. I would hope that is not the case but if so, then what is to be done?

Well, this weekend tour was fantastic not just because of the beautiful roads and pleasant ag scenery but also because of such a diversity of riders: slow and fast, young and old, men and women. I’m just sorry it wasn’t Different Spokes.

Mmm, that pesto lasagna was delicious! Not to mention the panini, cannelloni bean soup, and heirloom tomato bruschetta. But I’m jumping ahead…

The September Social Ride brought out nine folks and interestingly none of us were from San Francisco; everyone hailed from the East Bay—Kensington, Walnut Creek, Livermore, and Orinda. And it was almost a completely “new’ crowd, with only Roger and I having done Social rides this summer.

Luckily we got an early start at Lafayette BART because it turned out to be a fairly typical, hot summer day in Contra Costa. It also happened to be weekend of the Lafayette Art and Wine “Festival” (a.k.a. your suburban typical street fair) so the downtown was blocked off and traffic was promising to be nightmarish if you were in a car. We headed out to Walnut Creek and quickly got on the Iron Horse Trail heading north before diverting onto the Contra Costa Canal Trail. Those of you who have the misfortune not to reside in Contra Costa County may not realize that we have a canal system that was originally designed to pump Delta water to the farms and orchards that used to cover the area. One of them is the Contra Costa Canal and it makes a horseshoe-shaped loop through the county and has an accompanying multi-use path that is managed by the East Bay Regional Park District. It’s a great way to get around and mostly avoid car traffic. Also, EBRPD has done a lot of repaving this summer to get rid of the cracks and jolting roots from the trees that line the canal, making the ride even more pleasant.

After rolling north all the way to Highway 4, we got on city streets and toured the Contra Costa County Animal Control Shelter, CCC Sanitary District, and the CCC Gravel/Asphalt Yard before fleeing back onto the Iron Horse Trail going south. We kept to a conversational pace and there was a lot of yakking going on. What did we gab about? Oh, things like: David’s horrible LifeCycle crash but then awesome ALC bro’ deal on a sweet new Cannondale Synapse to replace his mangled sled; the loveliness of working in the California State prison system; why French people don’t invite you to their house; more Kaiser horror stories (as if I hadn’t experienced enough already); how much used Vitus frames go for on EBay; Derek’s butt. You get the picture: nothing important and only the absolutely vital! As Bobby Troup said, “They all meow about the ups and downs of all their friends; The who, the how, the why — they dish the dirt, it never ends.”

We got to 54 Mint Il Forno in downtown Walnut Creek just before noon. It was time for a break, as it was really starting to heat up. 54 Mint Il Forno opened a few years ago originally as the bakery site for the restaurant. But now they serve dinner as well as lunch. Why these Italians left their home to serve real Italian food to Californians, I don’t know but it’s been a grand blessing for us. When you walk into their small storefront you get to gaze at the gallery of Italian sweet, baked goods and also some things that look almost French such as bignés (= beignets in French) and éclairs. Surprisingly only Cameron immediately ordered some Italian cookies proving that he lives by the adage that life is short so eat dessert first. The rest of us swooped on the various kinds of panini, lasagna, salads, and in my case the soup and bruschetta. It was a mountain of food and more of us would have gorged on the sweets afterwards but honestly we were all mighty full.

After lunch Derek and David headed back to Rossmoor, Joe and Lamberto headed back to their place a few blocks away, and the five of us rode back slowly to Lafayette BART in the 90+ degree heat. The average speed was about 11 mph, a tad faster than the 8-10 mph in our ride code but easily within the ability of this group. Next month: Speisekammer in Alameda for German food!

The 2015 Orinda Pool Party had 24 attendees, the most ever. Despite seesaw weather all summer here in Contra Costa—heat waves followed by spells with colder than normal temps—the day of the Pool Party we were lucky to hit it just right with sun and mid-70s. Perhaps it was the forecast that brought out the crowd, perhaps it was offering two rides instead of the usual one, or maybe it was the end of post-AIDS LifeCycle ennui. We had the usual, ‘classic’ route up Pinehurst and down Grizzly and Wildcat, and we added a second route for those who wanted more of a workout, just five miles longer, that went out to Lafayette and up the Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trail before rejoining the regular route. Seven folks did the regular route, ten the long, and seven folks did neither and came just to the party.

Both routes have a moderate amount of climbing with the added challenge of short but gritty steepness at the top of Pinehurst. But any recreational cyclist can do the routes riding piano. David Gaus and I led the regular route and it was a chatty affair, in fact like a slightly faster Social A ride! Besides the usual club gossip and girl talk several of us had a long discussion of the recent Velonews article on heart injury and overtraining as we, of course, climbed up Pinehurst. Perhaps that’s why we took it at a “festive” rate rather than redlining it all the way up. Some of us senior members are getting uncomfortably familiar with medical terms like “atrial fibrillation” and “supraventricular tachycardia”. Then triggered by Doug Dexter’s recounting of his recent partial knee replacement, we had to go into boring war stories about our own knee and hip issues. Thank god no one started talking about crashes or head injuries else we might never have shut up about such a depressing subject. The chatter was only briefly interrupted by gasping on the steep upper section of Pinehurst and resumed all the way to Sibley for a rest stop that turned into another round table. Fortunately no one seemed to be in a rush!

This year we had just one female participant, Rana. The low number of women turning out for club events continues to be a challenge for us. We lost a couple of women when we had to reschedule the pool party because of the unexpected BART closure at the beginning of August and they couldn’t make this new date. Rana was fresh from a bike tour all the way down from Alaska (!) and was sporting a fractured bottom bracket housing that creaked every time she pedaled. She quickly allayed my concern, explaining that it was the bottom bracket assembly and not the bottom bracket of the frame itself that was cracked!

We made it to the Brazilian Room in Tilden Park where I was to phone Roger to let him know the group was about a half-hour away from arriving, only to find out there is no cell signal. Seriously? At the center of Tilden Park where there are countless weddings and events?? Thanks, AT&T! By then those on the long route finally caught up, so we all ended up arriving at the party at the same time save for David Goldsmith who had missed the turn at Wildcat and ended up lost somewhere in Tilden Park. He eventually found his way back to the route and arrived long after we’d given him up for dead.

While we were cavorting in the Berkeley hills, Roger and Jim had done a marvelous job of final tidying and set up as well as preparing the appetizers. Almost everyone ended up jumping in the pool to cool off and refresh. No artful synchronized swimming was seen in the pool; instead folks were continuing to gab up a storm while reposing in the water.

There was tons of food; among the notables were Andrew and Evan’s delicious and beautifully displayed heirloom tomato salad and Doug O’Neill’s fabulous homemade oatmeal cookies.

The non-riders who attended weren’t just the “bike widows”. Some Spokers opted just not to ride, including Dennis Nix, former DSSF VP and new Apparel Coordinator Brian Leath and his partner, and the Den Daddy Derek Liecty. Derek was freshly back from a long 4,500 mile car trip in Europe, another check mark on his bucket list. Apparently he got five speeding tickets too!

Folks must have been enjoying themselves because it was late in the afternoon before they took their leave, sliding down the hill to BART and thence to home sated and tanned.

We’ve had two summer Social A rides this summer. In July we did the Three Bears out of Orinda ending with lunch at Petra Café; in August we left Millbrae BART and toured Foster City and San Mateo before a delicious lunch at B Street & Vine.

On Saturday July 18 Andrew, Adrienne, and Amyel joined me on a leisurely jaunt around the Three Bears. My husband Roger would have joined us but he had the misfortune of falling off a rock terrace in the garden and injuring his leg! The Three Bears is usually considered a challenging ride and one not really suited for casual cycling, but I beg to differ. Almost any ride can be made a leisurely ride simply by slowing the pace, and that’s easy to do when you’re chatting up a storm. (Okay, it is helpful to have the right gearing too!) Group rides can turn into mini-competitions unless you set the right atmosphere—you’re out to enjoy the company as well as the ride. I’ve never been sure why this classic East Bay ride is called the Three Bears because there are more than three hills and there’s nothing “just right” about any of them. In any case we ended up mostly staying together until Amyel, excited about just having completed AIDS LifeCycle for the first time, had to bound up Papa Bear. The weather was perfect: not too hot, not too cold, just right! Afterwards we went to downtown Orinda for a delicious al fresco lunch at Petra Café, which serves Greek/Mediterranean cuisine. Doesn’t that veggie sampler plate look fab? I think all would agree that the ride was just hard enough too and it made savoring the food all the more enjoyable on a sunny day.

On Saturday August 22 we had a bigger turnout, seven of us: Roger and I, Sharon Lum, Dennis Nix and his friend Richard, David Goldsmith, and Doug Dexter. Both David and Doug are known for their turn of speed, but Doug was recovering from recent knee surgery and David, well, he just wanted to do an easy ride for once. The weather again cooperated and we were greeted with a gorgeous day on the Bay—sunny, mid 70s, and a slight breeze. This made riding along the Bay Trail especially enjoyable, taking in the crisp views of wetlands, planes landing at SFO, and Mt. Diablo in the distance. Riding along the Bay Trail is a great way to do a social ride. You’re mostly free of car traffic, you can comfortably ride abreast, everybody’s moving at a slow clip enjoying the scenery, and there are plenty of places to stop for a brief a respite, take photos, or just to sit quietly. Well, we didn’t do any of the latter but we did mosey, and there was a lot of conversation taking place. We got to explore the bike paths in Foster City before crossing over 101 to San Mateo for lunch. I thought B Street & Vine would have been emptier on a weekend but I was terribly wrong—it was near full and the back patio was being used for a baby birthday celebration. Also the building next door was being repainted, so B Street didn’t have any al fresco dining in front. But we lucked out when the host was able to seat all seven of us indoors immediately. The bruschetta plates were the hit of the day—B Street has a huge variety and they allow you to pick any four for your lunch plate. But I gave it a pass because I had to have their cream of artichoke soup: it gives Duarte’s Tavern’s—the gold standard—a run for the money. After a long lunch and gabfest we moseyed some more through suburban streets back to Millbrae where David’s true nature just had to shine as he took off down the street.

Our next Social A Ride will be Saturday, September 19, where we’ll tour the Contra Costa Canal Trail and the northern leg of the Iron Horse Trail on our way to 54 Mint Il Forno in Walnut Creek. See the Ride Calendar for the details!

What is a typical Different Spokes ride? A cursory glance at our ride calendar shows a variety of road rides, in fact only road rides. In 2014 there wasn’t a single mountain bike ride listed—all 108 rides were on the road. The shortest ride was the Three Bears at 23 miles led by Stephanie Clarke and the longest was an ALC Marshall Wall ride at 105 miles led by Joseph Collins. If you tally up the mileage for all the club rides in 2014, you’ll discover that the average length of a Different Spokes ride was 55 miles. The average terrain rating was 3.25, where 3 means “moderate hills with some challenges” and 4 means “hills, some steep climbs, with some relief”. In other words, the typical ride was a bit more than moderately hilly. Finally, the average pace was halfway between B and C, i.e. between “moderate” and “brisk”.

So, it appears the typical DSSF ride was a road ride with a B/C-3-55 rating. If you think about it, that kind of ride is beyond what most recreational cyclists would do on a regular basis. They might do a ride like that as a challenge, as something atypical and extraordinary but not as, say, a default ride. A little closer look at the details shows that of the 96 club rides (I didn’t include Jersey Rides because they have a varied rating depending on the route taken), 57 were B rides, 19 were C, 18 were D, and a measly 2 were A pace rides. Most the rides were listed as B very likely because that’s the “sweet spot” for rides, i.e. supposedly not too hard, not too easy. But well over a third of the rides were either C- or D-rated, i.e. for strong, fast cyclists. If you were looking for a leisurely ride, well, you had a grand choice of just two rides, Ron Hirsch’s Bike to Bakeries ride or the Fall Social Rosie the Riveter ride.

The apparent majority of B rides would lead you to think that most Different Spokes rides are at a moderate pace. But the number is deceptive because, in my experience, many of these rides attract quite a few strong riders and the average pace can actually be quite high. I suspect that there is also some subtle pressure on ride leaders to list their rides at B pace; we’re a small club and a ride that is listed as a B will likely attract more riders than a C or D ride. The B ride has become the default “everybody” ride and more people will show up because in unspoken DSSF culture an A ride is interpreted as “slow” and C or D is interpreted as “race pace”. But this subtext isn’t available to newcomers to the club so a first ride can end up being a slap in the face. On the positive side club B rides always have a few regroups so that slower and faster riders can regroup and hang out, albeit for a short time. But being “dropped” and riding alone might discourage a newcomer from attending another club ride. And, there aren’t slower rides they could try given the dearth of A rides.

Although I haven’t looked at other clubs’ ride listings in detail, I suspect that they have a similar distribution of rides, i.e there aren’t enough easier rides. For example, the Valley Spokesmen club recently sent out an email to its membership asking for more leisurely paced and no-drop rides listings. And this is from a club that is much larger than Different Spokes and even has a dedicated new/slower rider subgroup, the Feather Pedals. As I mentioned in a previous post, ride leaders are likely to be the avid recreational cyclists and the more dedicated club members. So, given their limited time for riding they’re going to list rides they want to do, which are rides at their ability level.

There are really two issues at play here. One issue is the type of rides offered—our ride calendar is slanted towards harder rides—and the other is an ‘accurate’ description in the ride listings. I’ve written at length on the former and the effect it has on some newcomers and slower riders, and here I want to focus on the latter. A ride that ends up having a pace faster than the listing has two effects. First, it introduces some uncertainty in the minds of those perusing the listings. Will that ride really be conducted at a B pace or will it be faster? Riders who can’t keep the pace don’t get to socialize as much or otherwise enjoy the company of LGBT riders if they’re off the back for most of the ride. Those persistent enough to return might, through time, figure out which ride leaders lead fast rides regardless of their advertised pace and avoid those rides, or they learn to enjoy socializing only at regrouping points. But most people would just stop coming on club rides and look elsewhere for socializing. Second, it “raises the floor” for other rides: ride leaders get used to a certain perceived pace as the “B” pace regardless of any objective measurement such as average speed or average speed on the flats. And, if the same people keep showing up and accepting the pace, then it becomes the de facto “B” pace. For ride leaders there is also herd mentality at play: ride leader X lists his rides as B rides and I can keep up with him, so I should list my rides at a B pace too.

The club ride code has morphed through time. Here is the old club ride code (circa 1980s):

Terrain

1 – Mostly flat, easy grades, suitable for beginners (25-miles Bike-A-Thon route, Sausalito bike path, Sawyer Camp Trail)

2 – Few low hills, a challenge (e.g. Cañada Road, Tiburon Loop)

3 – Moderately hilly, some challenge for the average rider (e.g. Twin Peaks, Marin Headlands)

4 – Hilly, some steep climbs with some relief (e.g. Mt. Tam, Berkeley Hills)

5 – Very hilly, steep climbs, for strong riders (e.g. Mt. Diablo, Mt. Hamilton)

Pace (speeds assume a flat ride)

A – Leisurely, with many stops (10-14 mph)

B – Moderate, with occasional stops (13-17 mph)

C – Brisk, with few stops (16-21 mph)

D – Steady, strenuous, with very few stops (20+ mph)

The old club ride code attempts to provide something other than subjective guidance. If you’ve ridden some of the example routes, then you have an idea of how hilly the ride will be. Most people know how fast they can ride on the flats and can determine whether they can keep a B pace or not. If there is one fault with the old ride code it is that the pace categories are very broad: 17 mph is much faster than 13 mph yet both are “moderate”. Nonetheless ride leaders can check their pace against the pace categories to figure out if they’re pushing it or going too slow, at least for flat rides. One problem with the old ride key is that pace on the flat doesn’t reliably translate to pace on a hillier ride. For example, generally a heavier person may be able to keep the same pace on the flats as a lighter person but that is usually not the case when the route becomes hilly: the lighter person usually is faster. So, what might be a “moderate” pace for a lighter person ends up being “leisurely” for the heavier person!

On the current club website the ride calendar has a different ride code. The terrain key is mostly the same as the old ride code although the example routes have been eliminated. I think we would do better to add them back. But more importantly the pace key has no objective speeds. The B pace is “moderate, occasional stops”. Now, what does that mean? Moderate means different things to different people and provides essentially no guidance at all except that it’s harder than “leisurely”. “Moderate” and “leisurely” can only be interpreted subjectively, i.e as perceived effort. The word “pace” is ambiguous because it can be used to refer to an objective rate, e.g. 15 miles per hour, or to a subjective assessment of speed, e.g. “moderately fast.” Without objective guidance, words for pace end up being interpreted subjectively as perceived effort. Two individuals can rate the same objective pace (15 mph) as leisurely, moderate, brisk or strenuous because it’s dependent on their conditioning. A subjective pace key is not going to be very helpful for riders in deciding whether they should attend a ride, i.e. whether they’ll be able to keep up with the group: how would they know how fast a ride is going to be led on any particular day?

If, however, you delve a bit deeper into our website you find another ride key linked to “About Our Rides” (i.e. at http://www.dssf.org/dssf_html/ridekey.php). I’m not sure where this ride key came from but it’s actually better than the one in the ride calendar. Again, the terrain key is the same as on the ride calendar but the pace key includes not just average speeds but moving averages as well:

Average speed                 Moving average speed

A – Leisurely, with many stops                     (5-7 mph)                                (8-10 mph)

B – Moderate, with occasional stops            (7-9 mph)                               (10-12 mph)

C – Brisk, with few stops                                 (9-13 mph)                             (12-15 mph)

D – Steady, strenuous, with very few stops (13+ mph)                              (15+ mph)

Note that the speeds for each category are significantly lower than in the old ride code. That actually accords fairly well my own experience and correlate well with my Garmin data. Those average speeds look very low but keep in mind they include stops and incorporate flats and hills.

One could argue that both subjective and objective descriptions of pace have their flaws and neither is better than the other. Objective average pace suggestions obscure the significant difference between a ride done at a consistent speed versus one that oscillates between very fast and slow—both might have the same average speed. The best job I’ve seen for trying to provide guidance to participants is the Grizzly Peak Cyclists ride code. GPC suggests that you time yourself on the Three Bears loop in Orinda. Your time determines the typical pace you would be comfortable riding according to their ride key. Yet nothing prevents a GPC leader from inaccurately listing the pace of a ride and only corrective feedback from participants might encourage the ride leader to change the listing the next time. In other words despite having a more objective way for determining your pace, you still are at the mercy of the ride leader’s skill at accurately listing the pace of their ride and their zeal in sticking to it.

Ride pace may technically be independent of ride length and hilliness but it’s not surprising that they actually go together. Cyclists who are stronger generally prefer to do longer and harder rides, so a faster paced ride is likely to be longer and probably have more climbing too. So what happens when the B ride starts to inflate? Not only does it get faster, it also might get longer and involve harder routes, and I think that is happening as well. That means for the B-paced rides, they also become longer and hillier overall.

So why do so many rides get listed as B rides regardless of their difficulty? In all the years I’ve been in Different Spokes I’ve rarely if ever heard a complaint that a ride wasn’t led fast enough vis-a-vis the ride listing, but I’ve certainly heard complaints about rides being led faster than some riders felt they could handle. Was that misjudging one’s ability, being fooled by the ride listing, or the ambiguity of the pace key? Perhaps all three. Of course participants can ride at whatever pace they’re comfortable doing as long as they know the route or have a map, so the real concern behind the complaint isn’t the pace per se but that getting dropped is lonely and discouraging and not the social experience one is looking for in a group ride, as if being LGBT in the first place—even here in the Bay Area—wasn’t isolating enough. Group rides are inherently social, so when riders can’t keep pace, no matter what the listing, they’re probably not getting the socializing they were hoping for. I’m not blaming ride leaders for this situation: ride leaders who list challenging and fast B rides really do think they are riding at their B pace. But the assessment of pace has been skewed that “moderate” now encompasses such a very wide range of speeds and it isn’t a helpful label.

In my opinion the B rides have become problematic. They’ve become faster, a bit longer, and overall a bit harder. It’s the “moderate” ride but acts more like a “brisk” ride. With the current dearth of A-paced rides, this leaves those who are discouraged by our “moderate” B rides with no alternatives. Has there been a similar speed up on A pace rides? Unfortunately we don’t know because so few A rides are listed these days. Perhaps if enough A rides were led, we might see that they too have undergone inflation and become faster than originally intended. Newer riders probably should be cautioned about B rides even though they are the only viable options in the club given the lack of A rides. Increasing the number of A rides will be difficult given the general lack of interest in leading rides at all coupled with the club’s lack of a core group of ride leaders who like to ride slow(er).

The solution for the meager number of easy, leisurely paced rides, awaits. But the solution is easier for the “fast” B-paced rides. Ride leaders can take a look at the recommended moving average speeds at the club website (and included above) and use it in selecting a pace label rather than basing it on solely on how difficult it feels. If this had been done last year, I suspect that quite a few “B” rides would have been classed as C (or even D!) Note that I’m not suggesting that rides be led slower, just that ride leaders who are entertaining listing a ride at a B pace attentively evaluate whether they are actually going to end up having a ride that conforms to the DSSF ride key—there’s nothing wrong with listing your ride as a C or a D if that’s the pace you plan to take.