HC Bike/Cycling Thread

[MexicanDragon]

As a consumer of fine camera equipment...

When did you leave the Nikon camp?

**BRENT**

[Dreadhead]

Had a very nice hot ride this morning. My buddy got through his first century and I had a nice easy ride in general. Feeling good for the Back Roads Century in 2 weeks,

 

http://app.strava.com/activities/190780073

http://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/dreadhead/lakes-and-grapes-century/

Edited September 6, 2014 by Dreadhead

[CD44hi]

I have a great ride today too!  Did my goal of riding the century course to the bail out point. I feel pretty good after the ride. It was challenging.

 

73.7 miles

7553 ft of climbing

 

I didn't see Ben. But he texted me that he finished around 5:30. I am eagerly waiting to hear how was his ride.

 

Weather got stormy on the afternoon. Huge thunderstorm with high winds. I have to say that just looking at the storm come rolling in from the distance up, from the mountains, was both scary and awesome. I was not very thrilled to be carrying a rolled up rain jacket in my jersey pocket, but let me tell you, when that storm rolled in, I was very glad I had it!  I rode around 2 miles in the rain and then pulled over into a supermarket's building to wait for the storm to pass. I was very, very lucky that the storm came around in a favorable area to find shelter. It would have not been fun to deal with it on the open. It lasted about 45 mins then moved along and I picked it up again to the finish.

 

I rode this saddle: LOL. Joking aside, I really find it comfy. After all, the padding is on the shorts!

 

Something I got from Maine to celebrate!

[n_maher]

A map of yesterday's suffering.  Overall, a great ride.  Wish I'd been better hydrated and not fighting off cramps for the last 50 miles but we managed a respectable pace regardless.

 

[Dreadhead]

Nice work Nate. I've been there with the cramps etc and it's no fun. I really like Nuun for keeping me from getting them.

 

After this weekend's century I'm now trying to decide between A (18-20) and BB (16-18) groups for the coming ride. I am pretty sure I can  hang with the A but I am doubting myself.

 

Edit: Decided to play it safe and make sure I finish and do BB. I also set up a fundraising website through the American Cancer Society in Memory of Meaghan's mom:

 

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Chris_Kent

Edited September 7, 2014 by Dreadhead

[n_maher]

Good luck Chris, that should be a very comfortable pace for you.

Also, donation sent.

[Nebby]

Today I finished the second of two centuries of the weekend, so I'm pretty tired right now .

 

Civil War Century was brutal with the heat and humidity in the first half, followed by a thunderstorm in the second half. Luckily I was only about two miles away from the rest stop when it started to sprinkle a bit, so my friends and I managed to get to shelter in a reasonable amount of time. We took a long break in there, between my friend who had some major cramping issues and the thunderstorm.

 

The final 30 miles or so weren't actually too tough and was quite enjoyable since the rain cooled everything down a fair bit. All in all, the heat and humidity were the toughest factors of the ride, I don't remember ever seeing so many folks laying in the grass or stopping on the side of the road to cool down.

 

Tour de Chocolate Town sounded like a fun ride and I heard good things about it so I signed up for it as well, thinking I'd choose which distance I'd ride on the day of, depending on how the legs felt. Well I started the ride and my legs felt fine, but it became apparent that my cardio system was really hurting, because my heart rate was not as responsive as it should be to my effort and it really didn't want to go into zone 4 or above.

 

Given that, I figured at that point I'd just spin my way through the century and simply finish instead of trying to achieve any sort of specific finish time. That's basically what happened, with me just barely squeaking by the final rest stop at 15min before close and getting to the finish line 15 min after they closed (it would've helped if I had started earlier, rolling start began at 7am but I didn't get there and going until 8 ).

 

That being said, the course is really nice, especially the short 17mi and 33mi options. The longer options are decent too, but I thought their rest stops simply sucked for any long distance riding. The lesser stocked rest stops had water, Gatorade, and Hershey Kisses, while their "better" stocked rest stops had water, Gatorade, Hershey Kisses, Payday bars, Honey Stinger protein bars, and a couple other junk food snacks. That might work for some, but not for me.

 

All in all, it was a challenging weekend. Now I'm going to sleep. 

 

Civil War Century (going from a friend's strava):

105.8mi

7,956ft

 

Tour de Chocolate Town Century:

102mi

5,982ft

Edited September 8, 2014 by Nebby

[Voltron]

Congrat Ben, that is quite an achievement.

[grawk]

yes, mind boggling

[n_maher]

Holy shit! Well done, Ben!!

[raffy]

Awesome job Ben!

[CD44hi]

WOW! Ben that is quite an achievement! You must be ready for a long night sleep. Well done!

 

I agree, yesterday was pretty sticky hot-humid. I also remarked to Julie on the amount of people taking breaks lying on the grass. At some point I stopped by a yard sale that had a sign out by the street for cold water and soda. ha ha, pretty smart if you ask me. Let me tell you that coke felt sooo good after the monster hill following the first rest stop.

[Dreadhead]

As other's have said nice work Ben. A two century weekend is awesome! Sounds like both of them were an adventure.

 

I've always wanted to do an brevet at some point. These guys do a bunch of different from 200km to 1000+km events: http://dcrand.org/dcr/

Maybe next year we should try and push the envelope. I personally would like to try for a 200km with the goal of a 300km event. That said I need more time on the bike to get my body used to it again.

 

My "second century" was hiking around the National Zoo for 4 hours with a 40 lb baby carrier and baby combination on my back. It was not in the same league but it was some good exercise.

[Nebby]

There was a house that had a nice cooler with ice and water in it along with a sign saying free water/ice. It was the one of the longer intervals between rest stops so it was a perfect place for a refill. I need to track down what house that was and send a thank you letter, it was really really nice of them to do that.

 

WOW! Ben that is quite an achievement! You must be ready for a long night sleep. Well done!

 

I agree, yesterday was pretty sticky hot-humid. I also remarked to Julie on the amount of people taking breaks lying on the grass. At some point I stopped by a yard sale that had a sign out by the street for cold water and soda. ha ha, pretty smart if you ask me. Let me tell you that coke felt sooo good after the monster hill following the first rest stop.

 

Here's a video of the Tour de Chocolate Town start route:

 

[Dreadhead]

Anyone have recommendations on where to try and sell mountain bikes in the DC area? MORE or just Craigslist or somewhere else? I've pretty much decided that I don't really want to learn how to be a good mountain bike rider and I currently suck at it. Anyone have a friend who wants a 2011 FS XC 29er?

 

I'll get my offroad/fire road fix with a cross bike if I need to. I'm currently thinking of just buying a cheap Giant TCX SLR 1 with 11 speed Shimano 105 and mechnical disc brakes because my shop will give me a great price and they have them in stock now. I know I'd be better with hydraulics if I was riding it a lot but for doing the C&O canal ride etc I think it will be just fine and it's good enough to figure out if I like cross racing.

 

[Nebby]

The "DC Used Bicycle Marketplace" group on facebook is a pretty decent spot to post an ad, seems to get enough traffic to warrant posting there before diving into craigslist.

[Dreadhead]

Cool. Thanks, just sent a request to join. I will also post with my team but I doubt I'll find any takers.

[CD44hi]

I have only done Craigslist. I've sold 2 bikes there, but it was answering to "wanted."

 

My experience has been that selling higher priced items on CL is pretty slow.

 

Good luck Chris!

[VPI]

Trying to sell a mountain bike on Craigslist has made me want to kill the world.

 

I have a guy now that wants to take my MTB to Pennsylvania for the weekend to try it out before buying.

[Dreadhead]

Sorry Jeff that sounds pretty shitty. I guess I can take solace that if I dont succeed in finding a buyer I can just keep it in my basement indefinitely.

Edited September 8, 2014 by Dreadhead

[Nebby]

If your bike would fit me I would actually be interested in it, Jeff. I have a friend that wants to take me along for some downhill riding and it'd be a sweet bike for that. I've heard enough CL horror stories that I think it'd be an absolute last resort for anything I'd be interested in selling

[jose]

My left arm...

 

I was donwhill and I touched a tree.  I was lucky because I did not fall but...     

 

 

 

[Nebby]

Ouch dude! That looks like a bad hit!

[jose]

I just need a little iodine to my wound and a new "ESI Chunky" grip

Edited September 8, 2014 by jose

[Dreadhead]

^ Ouch! That kind of thing is why I am not interested in Mountain Biking anymore

Edited September 8, 2014 by Dreadhead