Bike Rides: February 2015

Thursday, February 26, 2015

2015-02-26 - Quick Ride to JTN{P HQ to Blow Out Cobwebs

Bike: Road
Miles: 9.1
Start Time 4:50
Moving Time: 0:42:16
Elevation: 240
Avg Spd: 12.9
Max Spd: 30.6
Temp Out: 70
Temp In: 68

I went down to Palm Springs this afternoon to talk to a surgeon about fixing my herniated navel. I will hear tomorrow if the insurance company is going to go for it or not. I stoped in Yucca Valley on the way home and got groceries. I put them away and the set out for a short ride to Luckie Park. As so often happens I ended up going about twice as far as I planned but it is all good.

I moved the bike seat back about 1/2" last night and it seems better. I stopped at the Joshua Tree Bike Shop on the way down and got a new seat bag and a pair of Stop Flat Strips. I have been using the seat bag I bought in 1988 or 89 on my road bike the last 4 years. I decided it was time for a new one and the one I got has a superior attachment system. It is a small version of the one I have on my 3 speed city bike, a Topeak. It also has a light hanger loop on the back so I can easily run two tail lights. I noticed when I stopped for photos that the bike looks like an ambulance from the back. Good! I added one of the Stop Flats to the kit so I can put in in the tire the first time I have a flat.

I have put 50.9 mile on the new bike in 3 days. I found out at the doc's that I have shrunk from 6' 1" to 5' 11 12". That was a surprise. I checked it as best I could myself when I got home and it appears to be true. Revolting!

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

2015-02-25 - Airport Loop and Home via Downtown.

Bike: Road
Miles: 26.0
Start Time 10:18
Moving Time: 2:13:31
Elevation: 561
Avg Spd: 11.7
Max Spd: 30.2
Temp Out:
Temp In: 70

A nice ride to the airport and home though JTNP HQ and downtown. Yesterday evening I had to put the sleeves on my vest and this morning I had to take them off. There was enough West wind to make the 6 miles back to town less than fun but the bike performed flawlessly. I am really enjoying it. Of course in a few days or weeks the thrill will wear off and it will just be another bike but for now it is a love affair, endorphins and all!

The famous long lonesome road (snowcapped Mt. San Gorgornio in the left distance):

The West wind:

At JTNP HQ:

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

2015-02-24 - To JTNP HQ and Around town on New Nashbar Carbon 105 Bike

Bike: Road
Miles: 15.8
Start Time 3:43
Moving Time: 1:28:26
Elevation: 642
Avg Spd: 10.7
Max Spd: 30.0
Temp Out: 62
Temp In: 60

The bike arrived about 12:30 this afternoon. The first thing I noticed was how light the box was. A good sign! I got it in the house and opened the box. Since the frame is carbon fiber and potentially fragile I was concerned about it arriving intact especially after reading some reviews by people who had received damaged specimens. I was impressed with the packing job and everything was in good shape. All the frame tubes were wrapped in bubble wrap then foam and items like the front wheel, crank arms and handlebars were zip tied to the main bike tubes to prevent any movement.

Sadly I had most of the packing material off and the handlebars and front wheel in place before I thought to take any pictures:

After finishing the assembly and adding pedals, a few items from the old bike and air to the tires I took it outside and rode a few hundred yards. It was obvious that the handlebars were too low. Other than that everything seemed fine, the shifting and brakes were good. I came home and flipped the steering stem over, making it point up instead of down and added the remaining items from the old bike to the new one: computer, phone mount, pump and mirror. My intention was to use my old wheelset on this bike as it is of better quality than the wheels on the new bike. I switched the fronts with no problem. After removing the cassettes from the back wheels I discovered that the 11 speed cassette from the new bike will not fit on the old 9 speed wheel freehub by just a fraction of an inch. After messing with it awhile I gave up and put everything back the way it was. I may find way to make the swap work. If not I will just live with the new wheels.

By the time I had everything together it was about 3:30. I decided to suit up and try the thing out. There was a pretty healthy North wind blowing so I had a nice wind assisted ride to Luckie Park. Since the new bike has a double crank instead of the triple of my old rig I have been having some apprehension about climbing on the new machine as it is missing the two lowest gear combination I have available on the old bike. I wanted to see how it would go so I turned west on Joe Davis Road on the south side of Luckie Park and climbed the 1/2 mile up to Desert Knoll Avenue. It is a nice 4-5% climb with a short 9% section at the end. It went well. I next went up to the JTNP HQ where I stopped to take a few pictures then did another 1/2 mile of 4% up to Baseline Road. I had been considering various routes to get home. I decided to go up Ocotillo which parallels Adobe Road to Two Mile Road and then to Luckie Park where I would use the rest room and put the sleeves on my vest (the wind chill was getting intense) and finally climb back up the 2-4% grade to Two Mile, cross Adobe Road and continue on to Mesquite Springs Road where I would turn North and ride downhill to Raymond and hence back to Adobe and home via Amboy Road.

The bottom line is that I will not be as comfortable on the steepest grades with this bike but I will be able to make most of them. So far I am very pleased with the bike, it is definitely a step (or two) up from my old unit. It has at least one difference that I am trying to adapt to. The 105 shifters have an upshift lever that is placed the same as and is sized and feels the same as the downshift lever on the old bike which means that several times on climbs I shifted to a higher gear when I thought I was going to get a lower one. It is not a huge problem and I am sure I will adjust to the new layout in a few rides. The new bike is 5 CM smaller in labeled size than the old bike which is slightly too big for me. After an online chat with a Nashbar rep and measuring a few tubes on my old bike and comparing the length to the size chart for the new bike I gambled on the smaller size (the option was a 59 CM). It seems to have worked out. I can hardly tell the difference in size or seating position between the two. The most notable difference is the weight which is a good thing! There is nothing to do now but ride the bike and see how it does over time.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

2015-02-21 - To JTNP HQ and Home via Mesquite Springs

Bike: Road
Miles: 11.4
Start Time 4:38
Moving Time: 0:57:11
Elevation: 401
Avg Spd: 12.0
Max Spd: 37.1
Temp Out:
Temp In: 72

A quick evening ride to park HQ and home through town and Mesquite Springs Road. I used the 30 x 24 combination as the lowest gear to approximate what climbing will be like on the new bike. It left the Chicago Area Thursday and is to arrive here Tuesday.

2015-02-20 - Evening Ride to Luckie Park

Bike: Vilano 3 Speed
Miles: 7.3
Start Time 5:05
Moving Time: 0:44:54
Elevation: 122
Avg Spd: 9.7
Max Spd: 19.2
Temp Out:
Temp In:

Pleasant evening ride to Luckie Park.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

2015-02-19 - Airport Loop and Home Via Two Mile Road

Bike: Road
Miles: 26.0
Start Time 10:56
Moving Time: 2:07:09
Elevation: 525
Avg Spd: 12.3
Max Spd: 27.5
Temp Out: 70
Temp In: 78

Nice ride to airport, JTNP HQ and home through town. Beautiful day, very light NE-E wind and light traffic.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

2015-02-17 - Another Easy Local Ride

Bike: Vilano 3 Speed
Miles: 5.6
Start Time 5:34
Moving Time: 0:33:57
Elevation: 118
Avg Spd(M): 9.9
Max Spd(M): 21..5
Temp Out:
Temp In:

Nice ride to Luckie Park and home in the dark on 3 speed. I had adequate light from the tire dyno and led headlight combo unlike my ride down from JTNP Sunday evening using a small battery powered light.

Before going out I added a hold down bolt and grommet to the Ural sidecar and cover to hold the side of the cover closed over the passenger entry step through. I have had this in mind for some time and finally got to it. The cover has stretched over time and the side of the cover has been blowing up to expose the low spot in the car side. I have had one item, a Croc shoe sucked out and possibly an expensive electric vest (either sucked out or stolen at a rest stop in AL). This will hopefully solve the problem. I had to grind down the head of the pretty chrome license plate bolt I used as the stud to fit through the not so large grommet I had on hand. The last photo is of the factory studs which hold the rear of the cover.

Visible in the second photo is one of the tiedown rigs I added at the suggestion of my friend Dale in Florida. There are 2 at the front and 2 back of the car and they have turned out to be very useful for securing a bicycle to the car and luggage inside:

Monday, February 16, 2015

2015-02-16 - Goof Off Ride Around Area

Bike: Vilano 3 Speed
Miles: 6.0
Start Time 5:28
Moving Time: 0:41:56
Elevation: 0
Avg Spd(M): 8.6
Max Spd(M): 14.8
Temp Out:
Temp In: 70

A short ride around the area just for fun.

2015-02-15 - To Joshua Tree and Home Through JTNP

Bike: Road
Miles: 57.5
Start Time 12:18
Moving Time: 5:26:56
Elevation: 3316
Avg Spd(M): 10.6
Max Spd(M): 36.7
Temp Out:
Temp In:

I woke up to a beautiful warm sunny day. My choices were to bicycle the 58 mile JTNP Loop or hike the 16 mile Boy Scout Trail. By the time I decided on the bike ride and got myself together it was 12:20 and I left home with an empty belly. I had 2 Luna "nutrition" bars and a Cliff Bar on hand which I took along with my wool sleeves, vest/jacket sleeves and a very light pair of wind pants. I decided to avoid messing with my seatpost rack and bag so stuffed this all in my jersey and vest pockets. I had only the two water bottles which the bike will mount. I felt it would be cool enough to cover the 33 miles from the West JTNP entrance station to the finish with 2 bottles which turned out to be true, in fact I arrived home with a full bottle.

This ride is basically 44 miles of uphill followed by 14 miles of very steep downhill. There is about a 1K elevation gain in the 19 miles between home (1800') and Sunburst Park in the town of Joshua Tree, my first rest stop, and first 9 miles out to the top of the first bump on Highway account for 700 feet of it. These miles were a slog, my legs felt like spaghetti, I was tired, lazy, I wondered why I was doing this and so on. Once I got to the point where I had had a brief and slight downhill (15 feet in 2 miles) I felt much better and could see that I was going to be OK.

Since I last did this ride they have resurfaced the highway and made the shoulder much better. It used to be like riding on a widely spaced washboard. Now it is more like a pool table and is 8-12 feet wide out as far as the junior college at about 13.5 miles. Beyond the college the shoulder varies from around 30" to less than a foot to the turnoff to Sunburst Park. The traffic was as light as I have encountered on the highway to the college but after it got quite a bit heavier (of course). All in all it was one of the more pleasant rides to JT and I did it in record time, under 2 hours. It is always a pleasant ride when one is not hit by a car going 55-70.

After eating one of the Luna bars and drinking about 2 bottles of water with electrolyte tablets in them I started up the hill into the park at 2:30. This was the low point of the ride. The 6 miles from the Sunburst Park to the West Entrance Station are the steepest on the ride (some 10% grade) and Luna bar must have been 90% sugar and it really knocked me out. It took a full 1/2 hour to recover from it (I tossed the second one when I got home). It took over an hour to do the 6 miles to the entrance where I stopped and drank about 2 and 1/2 bottles of electrolyte water and refilled for the last time. Beyond the entrance it took another 35-40 minutes to climb the 2.5 miles to the top of the first summit in the park at about 4K feet which is OK, my riding is not about speed but persistence. I made a quick "nature" stop here and took a couple of photos and moved on. It was already 4:15 and I could feel a chill in the air and it was less than two hours until dark and I still had 2 more summits and about 16 miles to the start of the downhill and 30 miles to the finish at home.

I pressed on skipping my usual stop at "Quail Springs" (no sign of any spring or any quail). I stopped at the Ryan Ranch Trailhead at the bottom of the climb to Sheep Pass, the first remaining summit and high point of the ride (4500'), to use the pit toilet and eat about 2/3 of the Cliff Bar with some water. The climb and the subsequent one to the pass at Jumbo Rocks went well and I got to the top and started down about 6:00 in the gathering dusk. I had planned to stop at Jumbo Rocks and put on my sleeves and maybe the wind pants but it actually got warmer after the sun went down so I decided it was better to use the 5-10 minutes the stop would take to see where I was going rather than to dress up. The slight North wind which had helped me over the two passes kept my speed down to 25-35 which was a good thing in the low light. By the time I got to the North Entrance Station it was pitch dark. I did not have a good headlight with me, but one designed more to be seen with than to see. I had some shivering by the time I got to the entrance so I stopped and put on my wool sleeves. That was enough as it was getting warmer as I descended.

A thing I have not mentioned was that I was amazed at the amount of traffic on the road into the park from Joshua Tree and in the park as well. I got the impression at the West station they were letting people in at no charge. I asked the ranger at the North station and he said yes, it is a President's Day custom. For the most part the traffic treated me well but there are always a few who don't think it matters or are not paying attention, etc., and who defy the CA 3' bicycle law, and they can scare one pretty badly. The good news is that as I was coming down to 4.5 mile steep straight from the North Entrance to Highway 62 at about 35 mph in a pitch black evening the traffic got very heavy behind me and lit up the road a good part of the way as each car passed. As there was virtually no uphill traffic I was given ample clearance by all vehicles (for a change). All the rear facing flashing lights, the reflective farm triangle and the piping on my jacket/vest seem to really get the attention of drivers after dark. It is too bad more don't notice and care for bicyclists during the day.

I arrived home about 6:30 and was famished. I ate a multi-course meal of quick foods, went to the hot tub, did a bit of email and then went to bed. All in all a nice day.

Sunburst Park: