Team rides are under way! We have decided on Sunday mornings at 9am at Our Town (Kingsway and Broadway) as a meet place. Anyone that wants to be involved in the "where the hell are we gonna go!?" discussion be there at 9. If you don't care, sleep in, get lost on the way, or are naturally fashionably late (like me), be there by 9:30 to roll out. Captain Shane has veto power on all stupid route suggestions, but also reserves the right to call a bluff and agree to lead the crew to Mount Baker and back by way of Kamloops if he so desires, so don't test him! Rides will hover between 60 and 120 km, with the first handful taking place in sunny Richmond, until the frost lifts. These are no-drop rides, unless your drive train has mice in it or your fenders are perforated, in which case you'll be asked to wear Bill Yearwoods home made TT helmet and asked to ride .5 km's behind us!
In an effort to keep the weekly discussion surrounding each weeks ride out of everyone's email in boxes it has been suggested we use the comments feature of this blog entry to discuss routing and themes. Feel like doing a run to Baker? Climbing all three North Shore Mountains? Field trip to the Richmond oval? Fixed gear valley run? Call it here. I also intend to update the blog on a "frequent basis", so bookmark this damn thing! See you on Sunday!
49 comments:
nice! - finally a cool van-shop ride to go on...
I'll be working at Bandidas on Sundays for the foreseeable future but I fully support the plan. That said, if anyone is looking for post-ride eats, I'll be happy to refill your coffee.
feb 1 - turnout is looking low. brandon is apparently resting his old man body and not riding. lowball loder is taking the day off as well. squires, and i quote, "will probably be drinking" but will do his best to show. that's why they call it superbowl wknd i guess - just don't stop drinking. kingpin koski informs me he will not be riding if it is rainy as his pretty rocky mtn doesn't do rain. personally, i don't have shit hot fenders so i may drop in and see if anyone wants to ride with me and my shitty fenders on my fixed. given the forecast for rain, i suggest you go hard and long on sat if you can get out as it looks to be the better day.
what?! i changed my shit up so that i could ride on sunday. lame.
i'm sure some of us will be there i'm just pointing out it's supposed to be ugly and there are a few definitely m.i.a.
heh. cool.
well for what it's worth, i'll be there no matter the weather.
I figured this was relevant. Taken from todays globe and mail...
THE QUESTION: "Why do most bicycles today have bare wheels without fenders or splash guards?" asked Gareth Estey of Charlottetown. "Have they stopped making mud?"
THE ANSWER: While all factors are always at play, style and weight are the main considerations for the high-end/advanced group. It may sound crazy, but you can spend hundreds of dollars for special kits of titanium bolts and screws to replace the steel ones on your bike, for a weight savings of maybe 35 grams. Fenders can weigh 200 grams and up.
Style affects specific groups, he says, where it may not be "cool" to have fenders (think teenagers).
Bicycles are complicated pieces of machinery, and for manufacturers and retailers trying to sell them for $300 or even less, compromises have to be made.
So there you have it: I'm a young teenage weight weenie who likes my BMC to look like a $300 bike. Now quit asking me why I don't have fenders.
Ha. Wtf.
So, the 8th.
Lets talk.
I SEE THIS AND WONDER WHEN ED IS GONNA BREAK OUT THE FLOWBEE:
New hairdos for Silence-Lotto
Team Silence-Lotto is looking good going into the new season – literally. The team has treated its riders to haircuts and new hairdos from the top Belgian hairdressing salon "Le Client".
"An athlete's image begins with how he looks," the team said, according to sporza.be.
"This year we have two particularly good looking riders in Greg Van Avermaet and Thomas Dekker," the team said. "And the other guys will go too, of course."
feb 8th. looks like rain. for the greater good of the team i believe i will break out the fenders so we can do the usual loop of ditchmond.
bring your rain jacket. that's for you, sean.
i didn't think i would ever see the day...
i want to do a good and long ride (4-5 hours) so i'm just putting this out there now.
so how much interested would there be in doing something a little more challenging tomorrow? like horseshoe bay to deep cove or barnett to balcara or something like that? the weather might not be too bad but even so i don't see how that would effect us and our ability to climb some hills.
any takers?
i'm easy, whatever. if it's cold/rainy richmond makes it easy for everybody to run home. but i'm easy.
fyi, you can't please all of the people all of the time...
well you made me happy.
for a first time ride out with such a wide range in ability and barber flatting twice i don't think it was too bad.
now everyone knows.
we going to golden ears this week?
me thinks golden ears on sunday. if the weather holds and it doesn't provoke a mutiny.
fyi, golden ears is closed so we'll have to brain storm something else.
hmm...i might just go do the vets ride, then.
Seb, Matt and myself completed the 90mile "ride" yesterday minus any mighty riders.
Please can we have our mighty team invites in our club inbox by 9am.
Thanks . K
we'll consider an invite for you when you a) learn how to ride in a group and b) learn to wear a helmet.
Appreciated the invite. It was a good ride with a solid pace.
Bummer the ride didn't go out to Golden Ears but still was nice meeting a gang of you.
yeah, once the weather gets a little warmer we can hit up some nicer valley routes. nick and i were hoping to do a stave lake ride in the next couple of weeks before racing starts.
some notes: anyone is invited to the ride provided a helmet is worn and general group riding etiquette is adhered to. primarily this means riding safely in traffic and keeping the group together.
like any training ride, there are points where we will go hard and have sprints/climbs etc. the key thing is to realize where this is and agree to it and to re-group afterwards. other than these hard points, the ride tempo will be to keep all riders together.
as a new ride, there is some learning process here but we are hoping this can be a friendly, inviting ride open to riders of all interests and abilities.
oh sorry, I thought I was - the dude on the 'dale 700 said you all knew the route and wait points?
- Kinda got the feel that was the deal when everyone left me & my "little fixie" all alone in the wind on iona, then we met up later...
My bad on the lid, next time(which reminds me I need a trim up there).
Still was goodclean fun :) good to finally get out. Looking forward to the longer rides out of town. Thanks.K
if it's of any help for anyone, this article has a decent set of guidelines for how roadies like to ride when in a group. it's a bit extreme in terms of proximity and such, but generally, it's a good outline:
http://pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6731
Nice one, thanks!
The diagrams in that post suggest that overlapping front wheels with the rider in front is okay. Is that general practice? Other links I've read about pacelining suggest that that's a pretty bad idea, especially with less experienced riders who may veer.
yeah, that's one of the areas where it's a bit more advanced. staying inline with the wheel in front of you with a reasonably close distance is acceptable with the cowboys i ride with.
any bright ideas for sunday? currently weather calls for showers. i understand that lowball Loder is abandoning us this week to go watch the last stage of T of C and then a week of training in sunny, old aged Tucson. Asshole.
i never did like that loder guy.
uhm. how about we play the weather by ear and if it's okay we head to whatever lake you've been speaking of and if it's crappy we'll make it even less pleasant by going around richmond...again.
those are two distinctly different rides.
i would like to head out stave lake way at least one, if not all three of the next few weekends before racing. if anyone is interested, it's about 150k.
and i agree, the richmond loop is the default if weather or time constrained.
what's the general route out to stave lake?
A question in the realm of rain etiquette: would a clip-on fendered track bike be suitable for tagging along the first hour and a half before I head to work? I like to ride hills in crap weather, and could stick to the back if I'm throwing too large a rooster tail.
Morgan
clip on fenders are adequate only if there's a good, long extension attached to them. otherwise, it's back of the bus.
Stave lake route is basically barnet or lougheed out to pitt river bridge, then dewdney trunk out to the stave lake dam. we go a little past it almost to mission then back on the lougheed.
as far as fenders go, full are appreciated but some (including myself) only have clip ons. but mine are good clip ons. no, really. so Morgman, come on out and run what you brung. general etiquette is to sit at the back if you are spraying but you are still welcome. hopefully the ride doesn't turn into some kinda trackstandfest where we are all fighting to be at the back.
Something like this?
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Stave-Lake
Sounds good, will see you guys tomorrow then. Hopefully it stays dry enough for my fenders not to be an issue this time. I'm working at noon, so I'll probably split off around Pitt River.
well it's a dark day without loder, but i will try and brighten it with bringing out the one and only coach claire cameron!
but will most likely not do 150k, so if anyone wants to turn back with me and keep me company, cool.
sounds like a good run - how was it?
- whats on the cards for this wk.end? (mt baker would be nice...)
the weather looks rainy/ugly on sunday so most likely just a ditchmond loop is up for grabs.
Hello Mighty garcons avec filles!
Le groupe ride sounds tres bon, but s'il vous plaît - les fenders are pour sissies. I bring my velo - no fenders, OK?
wait...what? are you trolling our comments section for our group ride?!
ah, c'est bonne! monsieur Brandon est, comme tu dit, un 'troll'! et s'expose , c'est magnifique! moi? je pense que monsieur Bonjour est monsieur Edwards.
mais, c'est possible que je meprends. cependant, au juste, 'fenders' sont requis!
en englais: THAT MEANS YOU MIKE!
not sure where the weather is heading this wknd so we'll see where that leads us on sunday. and it's daylight savings, so don't be late.
Thanks for the Birthday Bonk ride. I think some girl on a downhill mountain bike from the tri beat me up the ubc hill.....but it was a great ride!!!
yeah, i liked mixing it up with the sprints along the way. all of a sudden, richmond was kind of interesting.
hopefully people keep this ride going while us racer types are out in the valley for the next month.
anyone want to climb some shit on saturday?
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