For a measly $20 you can support Different Spokes—that’s the cost of an annual membership. Different Spokes survives on folks willing to fork over a pittance. Almost all of you live in the Bay Area and know that $20 doesn’t get you very much. It’s way less than the cost of a good bike tire, about the cost of two cheap inner tubes, and just a bit more than a decent lunch. In a world of $4 lattes an annual membership in Different Spokes is a mere trifle to support your local LGBT cycling club!

We’re coming up to the end of the year when it’s time to renew. I know it’s easy to ignore that email reminding you to re-up especially with the prospect of yet another orgy of profligate holiday gifting. But your membership helps Different Spokes keep the lights on so please don’t ignore it. Membership dues barely pay for the ongoing running costs of the club. And by “running costs” we don’t mean Tony’s fabulous Rapha outfits! It means the web hosting, the liability insurance, our PO box, and just part of the expenses for our regular events such as the holiday party, the club picnic, and the Fall Social.

There are many other community organizations that deserve your donation or membership. If you are pondering whether to give that $20 to us or to the ACLU, in the era we are living in you know where it should go! But we hope that Different Spokes’ existence will continue to provide you with lots of fun, camaraderie, and relief from the grim reality in which we live. So please join/rejoin for 2018!

You don’t want that day to come when you click to get to the ride calendar and instead you get “404 Page Not Found”!

One does not willingly don shackles except under duress…or when the prospect of pain and pleasure mix to provide a heady bromide. Regardless I am now your ride coordinator at least until another slave/volunteer steps forward, in which case I will happily step aside. Let the games begin…

We have not had a formal ride coordinator for almost two years. In that time certain niceties have been lost such as David Goldsmith’s tracking of miles ridden by club members and his grisly list of riding stats. However he has been gracious enough to handle ride waivers in the interim and we owe him more than a simple ‘thank you’ for his tenure first as ride coordinator and then as ride waiver mistress as well as for originating and planning the Ride Leader Appreciation dinners. It’s nice that the club is finally doing something to thank ride leaders beyond mere verbal appreciation.

Reign of Terror

Here’s what I hope to shepherd along as your RC.

– Increase knowledge and awareness of the club insurance policy especially for ride leaders.

– Increase retention of new riders.

– Provide feedback from ride participants to ride leaders.

– More mountain bike/dirt rides!

– More delicious food on club rides!

– Find/train my replacement as soon as possible.

If you have pearls of wisdom (or discipline) you would like to share with me as I embark on this journey, contact ride-coordinator@dssf.org

Canyon Bridge. Instead of awaiting a new permanent bridge, the town of Moraga is planning on installing a temporary one-way bridge to replace the existing one that was irreparably damaged by earth movement and rains this past winter. This is not only good news for the tiny town of Canyon, which is now isolated from Moraga by the lack of a functioning bridge, but also for cyclists because the new structure is currently set to be up by mid-September. We shall see. Before the bridge can be constructed the plan will undergo environmental scrutiny and mitigation and also have to get clearance from Caltrans. Unfortunately this is long after the 2017 Orinda Pool Party is scheduled to take place, so we will have to go with alternate routes.

Morgan Territory Road. We’re getting into the hot season over here in Contra Costa and not ideal weather to take on Morgan Territory Road. Nevertheless we may have a repaired road by the end of July. The slide repair is scheduled to begin—finally!—in July. This will require that the road be shut down although a temporary access road is in the works using Leon Drive. Unfortunately this goes through the Marsh Creek Detention Facility and so the Sheriff is issuing temporary passes to those eligible to use it, namely residents, and whether anybody else can go through the Detention Facility grounds is unknown. But it looks like the general public will not have access.

Alhambra Valley Road. Repair to the major washout of Alhambra Valley Road started on June 12 and is expected to run to the end of September. A new 60-foot bridge with shoulders for cyclists and pedestrians will be included. Here’s hoping that the Three Bears will be open in time for the Fall Social!

Palomares Road, Redwood Road, Calaveras Road. All are still closed with NO estimate on reopening (and in the case of Calaveras, if ever).

Skyline Boulevard (HIghway 35). Several sections of Skyline Boulevard over on the Peninsula failed this past winter but by far the worst was at Mile Post 10.5 where a 50-yard length of roadway slid down the hill. There is no reconstruction of the old roadway planned. Instead a new alignment into the hillside will be constructed along with a robust retaining wall. Caltrans hopes to have the road open by the end of 2017.

SMART Train. So things didn’t go as planned and the Sonoma-Marin trainline didn’t open this spring as was hoped. Federal approval of SMART’s safety new high tech safety system, “Positive Train Control”, which automatically stops the train if it detects a potential collision, is not in place yet. The original plan was to have free fares from the spring opening until July 4. Now that that is impossible SMART is going to offer free preview rides. The first one took place today; the next two are on Saturday July 1 and Tuesday July 4. For those two days there will be three trips offered from the Sonoma County Airport station to the Marin Civic Center (for the Marin County Fair). You can see the schedule here. Additional preview dates for the subsequent weeks will be announced. Note that it’s first-come, first serve. There is no word on whether bikes will be allowed on these preview rides.

Following up on the May 3 posting, East Bay Regional Park District rangers are issuing tickets to cyclists who use the closed Valle Vista trail to circumvent the Canyon bridge, which is closed indefinitely. From the Lamorinda Weekly:

“The East Bay Regional Parks District is serious about enforcing the closed trail from the Valle Vista staging area to 1700 School Street, warned Moraga Town Manager Robert Priebe in his report to the Moraga City Council at its recent meeting. The portion of the Lafayette Moraga Trail was closed as of Jan. 21, 2016 due to a mudslide. “The closure is causing people to trespass on private property on Augusta Drive and to cross EBMUD property,” said Priebe. “The park rangers are issuing citations.””

No surprise here. Of course, they have to see you in order to issue a ticket. On the other hand, on Augusta you have to ride immediately next to someone’s house in order to get around the trail closure, which is legally trespassing but more importantly is just rude.

You probably are aware that a week ago there was a gigantic landslide on Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast covering a quarter-mile of the road with up to 40 feet of debris. Combined with the earlier destruction of the Big Sur bridge to the north, a sizeable section of the scenic route is now almost completely cut off to traffic including bicycles. You can read more about it here or here.

David Gaus has been planning a Different Spokes bike trip down Big Sur and over Nacimiento-Fergusson Road for several years. For one reason or another—conflicts with Double Bay Double, in particular—it hasn’t happened. This year was going to be it until winter storms had their way with NorCal and the bridge was irretrievably damaged. In March Caltrans estimated that a new bridge could be constructed in six months, putting the earliest reopening sometime in early fall if everything went well (though it never does). But this newest disaster is estimated to take at least a year to be corrected. Unless a miracle happens we shouldn’t expect the Big Sur coastline to be fully open before next summer—it is after all more than a million tons of earth that have to be removed (and it can’t be dumped in the Pacific) and the slide isn’t stable yet to be worked on.

However a club ride partway down the coast and over Nacimiento-Fergusson Road could take place after the new bridge is erected since the landslide is further to the south. We shall see. Doing the ride before Highway 1 is fully reopen would likely mean having to deal with a lot of car traffic also heading up Nacimiento-Fergusson, which by the way is a serious uphill grunt. I wouldn’t recommend it; car traffic is bound to be intense as everyone tries to skirt the landslide, and the road is very narrow with no shoulder. It’s a lovely ride especially if you like climbing. But doing it with a line of rental Mustang convertibles racing by you would kind of kill the buzz. After topping Nacimiento-Fergusson you end up going through Fort Hunter Liggett and then on to King City, or if you’re adventure minded you can take Indians Road all the way to Arroyo Seco Road. This latter route is serious backcountry cycling and Indians Road has had its own landslides in the past. There’s no help out there so you’d best be prepared. I’d like to hear a report from any daring soul who goes out there this year on its condition. I’m willing to bet that Indians has had some serious erosion and/or landslides as well.

Ten years ago Roger and I went down the Central California coast, starting at Asilomar and down Highway 1 to Cambria. From there we went up the infamous Santa Rosa Creek Road—on our tandem no less!—over to Paso Robles and then up Arroyo Seco Road to Carmel Valley. We were lucky and had a two fog-free days when we were on Highway 1. The views are incredible from a car (specifically, a Ford Mustang convertible, top down ‘natch!) and being on a bicycle allowed us to enjoy them even longer. And lunch at Nepenthe sitting on the outside deck with a view of the coast is always delightful (and delicious). Let’s hope Caltrans is able to get Highway 1 cleared soon.

A couple of days ago I went on the Seaview Trail, which runs from the top of Vollmer Peak above Skyline here in the Berkeley hills down to Wildcat Canyon. I hadn’t been up there since last September; it’s completely intact although winter rains seem to have made the rock gardens in the trail a bit more challenging than I remember. I also checked out the Nimitz Trail, which I mentioned in the last post, and saw that EBRPD has done some reconstruction of the section that slipped a couple of months ago. As you can see in the photo, they simply plowed a dirt roadway around the slip. I was taken aback: wouldn’t they reconstruct the old asphalt roadway? Then I realized that despite the historic nature of the Nimitz it’s now just a trail, and rebuilding an asphalt road is a lot more expensive than plowing a dirt surface. I’m speculating that EBRPD decided that this was an expedient first move, and if it holds up it may be the last move as well. Perhaps they’ll slurry seal the dirt surface. Just like county roads, fire roads don’t get a lot of love these days. You may recall that Carquinez Scenic Drive was left to rot for 35 years and it was well on its way to Planet of the Apes status before EBPRD took it over a few years ago and rebuilt it into a lovely multi-use trail. It takes money to maintain trails and fire roads.

Since Different Spokes is de facto a road bike club, it’s understandable that members are concerned about road closures caused by our epic winter rains. Roads such as Old La Honda, Skyline, Palomares, Bolinas-Fairfax, Mt. Hamilton, etc. are the meat-and-potatoes rides of our club. When they’re closed or obstructed, we all take notice. However mountain bike trails and fire roads have also had a hard winter; we just didn’t pay much attention to it. By this time of the year I’ve usually ridden a slew of the fire roads over here in the East Bay. But the incessant rainfall has kept me off the trails. I don’t like to churn up the trail and leave tire trenches, widen the trails when I try to avoid the lakes in the middle, and in general despoil them when they’re boggy. Plus, I hate cleaning my bike. When I was young I loved to clean it up after every ride. But now I have better things to do than hose down, dry, and regrease everything. Consequently I’ve stayed away from the dirt all winter.

I did manage to get in a ride on the Nimitz Trail when we had a dry week in April. Most of you probably don’t know about the Nimitz. It’s the remnant jeep road from Inspiration Point in Tilden Park that went out to the old Nike missile silos. It’s asphalt partway and then turns into a fire road which eventually ends up in Richmond. It makes a great mixed surface route, or if you don’t like to ride on dirt it’s a quick getaway into the Berkeley hills. Once you’re on the ridge there are great vistas in every direction, and with our verdant spring you feel like you’re miles away from suburbs when you look over the green hills and fields. As you can see in the picture the Nimitz didn’t make it through this winter without serious erosion.

This past weekend we rode off to check out Old Finley Road, which is east of Danville. I’ve written about this old farm road before. It’s a holdover from the early 20th century and it’s now part of the East Bay Regional Park District and Mt. Diablo State Park. If you’re ridden on Camino Tassajara—perhaps you coming back from going over Morgan Territory and were heading to Danville—then you’ve seen Finley Road. The part of the road that is still public and paved is Finley Road and it starts at Camino Tassajara. Finley deadends at some private land but the parks have a right-of-way for trail users to traverse it into the parks. This section is what is now called Old Finley Road it and it’s now a fire road that parallels Tassajara Creek up to a ridge and then drops down to Morgan Territory Road. It’s an interesting cut-through and a different way to do the Morgan Territory loop because it avoids the car traffic on Marsh Creek Road, which can be quite dangerous, yet you still get to do the most interesting part of Morgan Territory, namely the climb in the woods up to Morgan Territory Preserve.

Old Finley has been in excellent shape and is doable on a standard road bike, although having a fatter tire certainly makes it a less bumpy ride as well as giving you a little bit extra traction on the short sandy sections. In any case, I hadn’t been on it since last summer. It was a big surprise for us to discover that Old Finley Road has been severed in half by the destructive power of Tassajara Creek! We entered the park, where Old Finley is under a canopy of trees, and a short distance later we were confronting a ten-foot drop into the creek. The road had been completely destroyed, cut in half. You can see the culvert that was under the road allowing the creek to run through. What you can’t see clearly in the pic above is that both ends of the culvert have been compromised, the upper opening has been partially crushed by a fallen tree trunk and the lower is partially blocked by a pile of large boulders. It’s easy to see what happened: when the volume of water in the creek rose, the culvert wasn’t able to handle it and the water backed up, rose, and eroded away the roadway, which was nothing more than dirt. Even the current creek flow, which is quite low, is running around the culvert.

It’s still possible to get up Old Finley but you have to portage your bike across a fairly deep chasm. Hikers have made a path down to the creek and over but it’s not easy and if your bike is heavy—Roger’s e-bike is over 50 pounds!—it’s a loathsome task. I rather doubt that the EBRPD has Old Finley Road high on its repair list given how isolated the fire road is. However the road appears to be a bona fide fire road, so you would think it will have to be restored enough for a fire truck to traverse Tassajara Creek again. For the time being you’ll have to dismount and carry your bike across. But it’s worth it!

I just looked at the weather forecast for this coming weekend and guess what it says: yep, rain both days. Is our epic winter a good thing or a bad thing? There’s an old Buddhist (or Taoist) story that you may have heard before. An old farmer, who had worked his crops for many years, one day had his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “Maybe,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed. “Maybe,” replied the old man. The following day his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses and was thrown off and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “Maybe,” answered the farmer. The next day military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. “Maybe,” said the farmer.

Other than last January 2016 being pretty wet, we’ve had it easy for the past five years with very mild and dry winters. Whether you consider it karma, global warming, or a sign of the Apocalypse, we are having a near-record year for moisture. That’s great for the drought, agriculture, our gardens, and wildlife. But it’s hell if you’re a cyclist. Well, maybe. Multiple rides in Valley Spokesmen and Grizzly Peak Cyclists have been cancelled this winter due to rain; in Different Spokes we don’t even bother to list rides. (Is that because the other clubs are full of optimists and we’re pessimists?)

But even for cyclists rain and cold are neither good nor bad. It certainly doesn’t prevent people from riding in Seattle or Portland. Rain is just a fact of life in the Pacific Northwest. It’s as much about mentality as it is about the weather. If you like riding your bike, then riding your bike when it’s raining can be made endurable if not pleasingly pleasant by the usual: appropriate raingear, lighting, and choosing suitable routes. For years I commuted to work even when it rained and I developed an amenable attitude. But it wasn’t what you probably think: it wasn’t being stoic, rather it was exactly the opposite, i.e. looking forward to the freedom of the wind and rain on my face and being outside doing one of my favorite activities. I’m not preaching becoming a hardass and ignoring the cold or damp; instead I’m advocating being prepared so that you minimize those niggling annoyances and can focus on the fun. I mean, what’s the point of complaining about what just is?

I’ve been riding a lot this winter. I’d like to fantasize it’s about being a hardass and “training”. But the truth is that I like riding whether it’s raining or not. There is a vernal waterfall in Moraga that you only see when it’s raining hard; I love riding past it and feeling the spray. Riding by the local creeks has been amazing this winter too. What were near-dry arroyos are now curtains of water flowing through reeds. And with some of the road blockages, on the bike I can slip by and enjoy it all by myself without being pestered by cars.

However there is one thing I don’t care for: having to clean my bike after a wet ride. It’s another chore, one that I used to attend to diligently but now instead often just throw the bike in the workshop and let drip-dry. If it ain’t broke, I don’t fix it anymore!

That’s all it takes for your bike to be stolen. This past weekend a Valley Spokesmen member had her expensive Wilier road bike nicked at the Peet’s in Alamo. She had parked it unlocked next to the Peet’s and went inside. When she wasn’t looking—maybe she was in line to order—a thief cased her bike, quickly grabbed it, and threw it into the back of his accomplice’s pickup truck and it was gone. The whole thing took less than ten seconds. Interestingly the entire incident was captured on video, which you can amuse yourself by viewing here. I haven’t heard if the thief has been apprehended, but the license plate number (8X17757) was recovered from the video and that doesn’t bode well for the thieves. Incidently this theft was picked up internationally and put on the front page of Cyclingweekly.co.uk a few days afterwards! You can view that here. [Update: the thief was apprehended later the same day.]

How many of us have done the same? It’s just a dash in to get a latté/card/Big Gulp/drop off a letter. A sad fellow in my town Orinda had his commuter bike stolen from in front of the post office when he went in to check his mailbox. The thief took his bike and left his trasher, which sat in front of the PO with a sign from the victim. Years ago I had a bike stolen when I went in to buy a birthday card. It was locked but not locked to something. But it was front of a Muni stop full of people in Noe Valley. When I stepped back out, it was gone and no one at the bus stop had seen anything! Really? You didn’t see anyone pick up a locked bike and walk away??

On club rides when we stop for a break, we always have at least one person stay back to watch the bikes while the others get lunch or buy snacks. But when you’re by yourself, you’ll have to depend on the kindness of any nearby strangers to watch your bike. Another option is to carry a small cable lock. They’re pretty light—mine is less than a half-pound—and fits easily in a jersey pocket. It won’t stop the thief with a cable cutter but it will deter the kind of thief you saw in the video, providing that you lock your bike to something. Even with a lock it’s important to keep an eye on your bike outside. And leaving a locked bike unattended outside is not a deterrent to a real bike thief; U-locks can be broken in just minutes with the right tools. The only safe bike is the one you’re sitting on.

You can view a status report on the Sonoma Marin Area Rapid Transit multi-use path here. The route runs from San Rafael up to the Guerneville turn-off north of Santa Rosa. Portions of the route are unfinished, mainly due to pending permits. But major sections of it are complete. Perhaps one can presume that the entire route should be completed by the time SMART starts running later this spring.