Category: Cycling

Yesterday evening saw some blue sky and a break from the rain of the past week so I headed out for an evening social ride with the Native Planet crowd. I got to see and chat with some familiar faces from last years rides. The ride started from Green Lake and did a short loop over to the UW and then back along the Burke Gilman and up Stoneway. I went up and over on 65^th St. to the start so got a nice little bonus hill in.

All familiar territory from when we lived over in Wallingford but just nice to be out and about.

My new saddle wasn’t tightened enough so ended up moving on me as the ride went on. I had to stop at one stage and reposition it. I’m still trying to work out the best position and tilt for it but it certainly hasn’t been as uncomfortable so far as I thought it might be from all the horror stories of the breaking in period. (Though it’s only been 1 day so far)

I’m considering swapping my old road bike (Giant OCR3) for a fixed gear to use as a commuter.

I’m not really using it at all and like the idea of a simple bike for training purposes. A fixed gear is meant to really help your pedaling stroke as you can never stop pedaling – you stop pedaling, the bike stops! No coasting on the downhills, instead your legs are a blur at a high cadence.

In a way it would be back to the simplicity of my first real bike in Bangladesh in the late 70s, a high back bike with 1 gear that I rode everywhere. Though I remember never being able to keep up with the one road bike in my circle of friends that had … gears.

Here’s one bike I’m considering, the Redline 925.

Another is the Bianchi San Jose (a single speed which I’d need to get converted to fixed)

No riding for me this weekend as Susan’s away and so I’m full time juggling kids activities, from dance recitals to birthday parties.

I did manage to install my new saddle this morning. I’ve taken the plunge and decided to try a Brooks saddle (a hand made leather saddle from an English company which seems to be the saddle maker of choice for many randonneurs) . The idea is that this rock hard saddle molds to your body once broken in and is extremely comfortable. It’s meant to take at least a couple hundred miles though before it’s bearable so let’s hope it’s worth it.

Sheldon Brown’s website describes it as “The Professional series is most appropriate for vigorous cyclists who set their handlebars somewhat lower than their saddles. The leather is a bit thicker than other models, making the professional a little slower to break in, but making it the most durable model.”

First test will be on my Monday commute. We’ll see how much I’m hobbling around the office afterwards.  I’ve two weeks before a 300K so hope to have it ready by then. I’m generally averaging 100 miles a week at the moment.

The Bike Expo was on this weekend and I went along to it with Christian in the morning. Of course, we rode our bikes there. It was in a new location this year on the waterfront so most of the ride was along my daily commute.

We hung out there for a while admiring some nice bikes and gear on display. A lot of exhibitors and I ran into various people I know from the assorted clubs I ride with.

Saturday night saw my first exposure to Rockband. I went around to Clint and Kristeen’s place to rock out with them and Christian and Jennifer. Susan was on kid duty (she’d headed out the night before so fair’s fair).

We rotated through the instruments and vocals to an assortment of songs from “Roxanne” by The Police (which I sang with an under appreciated falsetto 🙂 ) to Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs to some more hard core rock offerings.

Pretty cool game!

The lads in fine form.

Sunday morning saw the start of the 2009 brevet season with a somewhat hilly 100k Populaire. The good weather saw well over a hundred people show up, which Eric and team managed to accommodate  well (considering only around 50 had pre registered).

The ride started in the U-District so I biked over there from our house for 9 am. We left on time as usual and started our loop around Seattle. The route found some nice steep hills to warm up the legs, actually ended up using my small chain ring for once on some of the steeper pitches after I went anaerobic. I paced myself a bit better on the later hills.

Susan and the girls had positioned themselves at the 15 mile mark at a local coffee shop to keep an eye out for me. (Ashley had been a bit upset that I wasn’t going to be around so this helped alleviate that). It was great to see them all on the café balcony at the top of a little hill cheering us all on.

I stopped to say hi and shed my rain jacket and then carried on to see if I could chase down the group I’d been riding with. (or rather the group I had just caught prior to seeing my cheering section after having been caught out at a couple traffic lights earlier in the ride and seen them vanish in the distance).

The ride went down to the Ballard Locks, where we had to dismount and walk across to Magnolia. A quick loop around Magnolia and then over to West Seattle we went. I’d joined up with some more riders by this time and rode with them for a while.

At the control at Lincoln Park I headed out with a group of 4 riders who kept a decent pace up the ensuing hills as we cut over to Seward park. 20+ mph pace lines make the flats go by pretty fast. We reached Seward park and after getting our cards stamped did a fast little stretch along Lake Washington Blvd. My legs finally decided that enough was enough at this pace and I dropped off the group to finish the ride solo and refuel. I actually ended up catching up to the group again just at the end so must have kept going at an OK pace even after I dropped.

The final stretch was through the Arboretum and then back to the Ave for the final control in a local Alehouse. A quick stop and then I rode home before I stiffened up to much.

A nice course and great day for a ride. All in all a good kick off to the season.