DOUBLE FAIL on Fri 7/9 Millbway style II

The day started out good;  Made the BART train on time, snuck in a
coffee, and rode down to Millbrae listening to Le Show.

Fooled around with the add-fare machine and managed to get rid of one
of my many $1.10 tickets lying around the house.

There was a +1 followed by a -1 and I expected to ride solo, so I was
pleasantly surprised to find Michelle Cheng (hope I got your name
right!) waiting at the bottom of the escalator.

Off we rode, and made the left onto Millbrae Ave.

SNAP     And there goes my chain.

Michelle was very optimistic that between her chain tool and someone
more experienced than either of us eventually riding by, my chain
could be fixed.  Looking at the missing link piece, I was unable to
muster such confidence, so I confirmed that she was cool with riding
on by herself, and said goodbye.  I called my wife and asked if she
could throw the boy, the dog, and the bike rack in the car and come
pick me up, walked back to the station, and took the BART back to Glen
Park.

They were waiting for me when I arrived, which was really nice, and I
went around the back, pulled out the rack, stuck it into the slot, and
turned the crank to tighten it into the hitch receiver.

SNAP   And there goes my bike rack.

We made it home on the cotter pin and slow driving.

This is the 2nd time the attachment system on my rack - Thule "Helium"
- has broken.  I'm going to insist on getting it replaced with
something different this time.  Never again.

So much for my glorious return to SF2G.  Next week maybe.

--Andy

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7/9 Regular Bayway Style 3, Philz @ 6:15

Little chilly for a summer morning, and other than a small crash a
successful ride. 8 riders and we managed to pick up a few more along
the way, although we split into two groups by EPA.

Photo is after John took a corner with his inside pedal down and
caught some minor road rash.

Perfect style 3 pace at 14.7 mph, 3:05 (rolling time, including an
extra 3 miles that I rode to get to Philz).

http://www.strava.com/rides/133733

Nick

On 7 July 2010 20:11, Nick Pelly wrote:
> Not quite a NRLB, but we'll be taking it really easy, so if you think
> you can keep up 15mph for the distance you should be ok. Already have
> 2 riders confirmed.
>
> Roll-out from Philz at Folsom & 24th.
>
> Nick

Middle East (Bay) Way - Starting at West Oakland BART via the Posey Tube to Alameda Island

ToC (Table of Contents, not Tour of California)

1. New: West Oakland BART and the Posey Tube

2. New: Alameda Island to the San Leandra Marina

3. The rest of the way

4. Conclusion

5. Appendix

1. New: West Oakland BART and the Posey Tube

The ride starts at West Oakland BART and heads down 7th Street. I started a little after 6:15 AM and the streets were relatively empty, so it made for a chill start, just like Ammon and I had done some months back.

Up next was locating the Posey Tube, which for car traffic is the easten direction of travel. By some genius of urban planning, only one of the four possible walkways in the two tunnels to Alameda Island is open to pedestrian and bike traffic, and so when we had in the past tried to cross under via the westbound Webster Tube, we were looking in the wrong place. Once you know to go for the other tunnel, it is easy to find. This photo kinda says it all.

The Posey tube is loud and stinky and narrow. Stinky like sucking on a big rig's diesel exhaust as it gears down to climb up the highway 80 pass towards a Reno roadhouse. Loud like you can't even think to wonder where all this traffic came from. Narrow like the skinny jeans on an angry bike messenger working out their issues with authority while squeezing through FiDi traffic. (Enough with the poetics already.) The major concern for us bikers is the width. You can't ride fast, because there's a seam in the middle of the pathway that throws you off. And if a biker is coming the other way (like the dude with the motorcycle helmet and about 5 headlights I came across on this fine morning (sorry, no picture)), you both have to get off, squeeze to the sides of the walkway and slide past one another. It's totally doable, its just little bit of a pain. Kinda like the Bridge to Nowhere, it gives the ride some character. I recommend this ride for the mildly adventurous riding in a group of 10 or fewer.

2. New: Alameda Island to the San Leandra Marina

Once you are through the Posey Tube, you simply continue across Alameda Island to the waterfront and hop on the Bay Trail. There's a bike/ped bridge at the end of the island that takes you over to the land that the Oakland Airport is on. The only tricky bit here is that when you are just past the entrance to OAK, the trail starts up again, taking a sharp right out to the bay. From here to the San Leandro Marina was straightforward: just follow the trail along the water, and when the trail ends, stay on the surface streets next to the water until you reach the Marina.

3. The rest of the way

Same as previously documented. This day happened to have a stiff wind (10mph or higher) out of the west, so the ride became quite a slog for me. But every other time we have ridden this route, the wind has either been calm or helpful. Even though it was windy, I was tired and took time to take pictures and do minor route-finding, I finished the ride in 3 hours for a 15mph overall average (total of 45 miles).

4. Conclusion

I support adding this as a canonical SF2G ride. Thoughts? Shall we ride it together tomorrow?

5. Appendix

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brettlider/sets/72157624444878624/detail/

Route: http://www.strava.com/rides/128490

5/10 Bayway 6:45 RRR

Steel cut oats cooked in a crock pot overnight are awesome and made it easier to wake up when the alarm went off this AM.  I rolled out of bed, checked mail, saw everyone was bailing on the ride, checked the windows for rain and wondered what people knew that I didn't.  phone beeped and Kristine also -1'd, apparently she caught Hobe fever given the early hour.  It was a bit un-Hobe like to call a ride for earlier than 7 afterall.  That probably should have been the first sign he wouldn't be showing.

I was hoping to intercept peoples around the time they got to Cortland but left the house a bit too early to catch at Cortland and didn't think I had enough time for Sandbox so skipped pastries today in favor of seeing some dudes on bikes.  Cruised down Mission to Valencia and weirdly saw no other riders, I don't know that I've ever ridden that way and not seen anyone on a bike, freaky.  Got to Ritual and was sure I'd see it empty of life but instead found Trinh, Scott, Ted and Nils having a civilized conversation.  There was uncivilized talk about abandoning Colma way in favor of vanilla Bayway since our fearless ride-author was not to be found but eventually out of a sense of duty or hatrid of teh Cortland hurl we opted for Cemetery way.

The ride was mellow as called, no real sprints, we stayed together, exchanging a warmed up Trinh for a cold LeBaron at midway.  BTN was bypassed, Nils was flossing with his deep dish 808's in full effect.  Rain sprinkled, bugs were massacred and all was good with the world.  Let's do it again soon.

-s

tues 9 march 2010 TTTTTT MRLB RRR 06:30 DT4 - 22.0mph avg - bayway record attempt

nice. excellent work, all. that was "hella" fun. marvelous riding by everyone. a couple of teachable moments but overall quite safe. needless to say, the rest of my ride to apple was significantly slower.

~xton

sweet baby jesus, thank god that's over. stats in brief:

• dist: 42.43 miles (full bayway, including feral cats, plus the Lebariation bypass of the bridge-to-nowhere)
• time: 1:54:24 (-2:27 vs. previous record)
• avg: 22.3 mph
• avg hr: 169
• kcal: 1700
• riders (12): faye, space, xton, ted, trinh, hobe, ben, josh, michael, murph, nils, yours truly

detailed account, from my hazy twilight memory:

I must say it was with some trepidation that I witnessed the TTTTTT gladiators stride majestically into Ritual this morning, all grim-faced, steely-eyed, and girded for battle. would it be I to be first dropped? could the tandem live up to its billing as a man-mauler? or would it be trampled under the wheels of its erstwhile brethren? only Fate knew.

fearing cortland, it was suggested that we form a no-drop zone until Tunnel Rd., which to my relief was agreed upon. lucky too, as lugging the beast up the Hurl with skipping chain did not go well, and only by the gracious soft-pedaling of the host of riders were we able to reconnect with the pack.

making the right onto Tunnel, it appeared all was together, but then the hard men of the bayway let it be known that the time for jesting and mirth had passed, proceeding to put us all in the hurt locker, and shedding some riders as the pace ratcheted up.

it was then that my stoker, the powerful Faye, announced her presence by cutting in the afterburners and keeping us in contention with stroke after piledriving stroke.

approaching the hotelland ramp, I was privately concerned that all would make it thru safely due to unseasonably high speeds and the narrow, muddy, downright silly maneuvering required, and sure enough, a loud CRACK announced the demise of Nils' Zipp 404 (ouch), which introduced itself to the curb violently, yet soldiered on until terminally sidelined by a flat in feral cat land.

solid pacelining continued for miles without incident, until Ted's tire also gave up, and he was forced to abandon the lead group while putting in a career performance. it should be noted that he still recorded a blistering 1:59, despite the flat.

arriving at Sun, it was clear that the record was within reach, but xton was in no mood for celebrating. seeing fit to push the pace to a relentless 27+ mph, the remaining riders were made to pay for the privilege with currency they could ill-afford to spend, as the city limit sign of Lactate Land came into view.

exiting EPA, space suffered the third and final flat of the ride, and was forced to limp in only a few minutes back.

entering the bayshore super sprint, xton smelled blood and powered on with teutonic, terminator-esque efficiency, doing the lion's share of work while refusing to break a sweat or even breathe thru his mouth. as the group had been whittled to just 4 machines at this point, only the rules of engagement kept him from dropping his companions and basking in righteous solo victory.

at last it ended at charleston & amphitheatre, and then like keyser soze, poof! he was gone.

the rest of us bedraggled sweat-caked survivors -- michael, murph, faye & yours truly -- rolled into no-name, and tried to eat. I for one had no appetite.

thank you to everyone who showed up today. I think we can all agree that was the longest, most bad-ass TTT that has ever happened. it was historic*. once Nils determines the crash replacement cost of the 404, i suggest we take up a collection to buy him a new one. suffice to say, losing his power for the last 20 miles was a detriment to the effort.

*apologies to bikehugger

http://www.strava.com/rides/79785 (note the stats on strava are slightly different/slower than my garmin... I think the "stop timer" didn't register for some reason.

Agreed, Xton is AMAZING.

(And thank you for the vest)

-faye

I'm pretty sure xton on his own could have come close to this. He did the vast majority of the work. xton, you are an animal--very impressive stuff, sir.

-michael

Personally I got a flat with 8 miles to go after somehow sticking with the lead group until then in order to have a chance to hang with Hobe and Ben for a while. Ended up coming in at 1:59 and change.

Here's my track: http://www.strava.com/rides/79787

afterwards, got to do this: http://www.strava.com/rides/79786 -Ted

I really wanted a strava KOM so I let a truck flick me before Coyote Point so I'd have an excuse to get the KOM of the "Lebariation"

http://www.strava.com/rides/79788/segment_efforts/710224

-murph

Meh, it's OK. I'll get a replacement wheel tomorrow and pay crash replacement for it. I'm more frustrated by the fact that I didn't get to help out to my fullest potential... I was really looking forward to the long stretches of road towards the end.

-Nils

Sorry about the flat Nils, but it was a great excuse for me to drop off that slave driver of a pace. Wow. Here is my strava from SF, to Hillsdale. Had to cut off to go to my office in Belmont. That climb up Raulston was a beast after 30mph pacelining: http://www.strava.com/rides/79781

Good job to those who kept going to Google to set a new time!

For glory. For Sparta!! Stupid Bayway.

-Nils

A new record: 1:54 and change. I was there on the patio to watch them come in. -Brett L.

tuesday's forecast calls for moderate temps, strong tailwinds from the northwest (up to 37mph gusts), and it's time for some pain.

are you ready? then join us for the much-dreaded Terrible Tuesday Tandem Team Time Trial featuring the "Drop To 4" Most Riders Left Behind format.

myself and Faye will be piloting the cannondale tandem, and if anyone else has a tandem, bring it!

rules, should you elect to join this infernal pact:

• smooth pacelines, no attacks, sprints, or sudden accelerations
• no pulls of greater than 2 minutes
• no "pull" if you are going to slow down the group... just peel off, there is no shame in it
• no waiting, no regrouping (except to DT4 specs), one possible restroom break if necessary
• 98% effort until all but 4 are dropped, then weakest rider's 100% effort will dictate speed; goal is to arrive at finish with 4 riders
• full bayway including feral cats... BTN, maybe, depends on mud
• safety is more important than records, so no putting others in danger by running red lights w/ opposing traffic
• goal is >22.0mph average, and the average is a cruel mistress, which means in practical terms riding at between 24-28mph nonstop for just under 2 hours
• if we're lucky, we'll defeat the current record, 1:56:51, and maybe take down a few strava segments while we're at it. if we can beat 22mph, we should get there in ~1:54.

anyone interested?

-sc

ps - it will be hard to get the tandem over the hills at the beginning and we may well be dropped. c'est la vie.