Andy's words » Travel

Penumbra of Climbing

andy — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:16:06 +0000

On Saturday I did Terrible Two and with that completed California Triple Crown Stage Race.

Here is a recap:

Mulholland Double ~ 208 miles, 16,470+ feet of climbing
Devil Mountain Double ~ 206 miles, 18,600+ feet of climbing
Terrible Two ~ 200 miles, 16,480+ feet of climbing

It was totally awesome; I recommend to everybody.

As for the individual doubles I did so far, here are my comments:

Solvang Double ~ great first double. It is relatively mild and the scenery is great.
Davis Double ~ looking at the profile it would seem easy, but it is really hard because of 100+F all day. Make sure to start early, get those flat miles in as quickly as possible and have insulated water bottles.
Mt. Tam Double ~ lots of climbing, but you do it early in the ride. I recommend this one to everybody.
Knoxville Double ~ shares a lot of roads with Davis Double. When I did it it was not nearly as hot and it was still hardly bearable.
Mulholland Double ~ absolutely mind blowing scenery. It is a lot of climbing with one of the longest climb towards the end.
Devil Mountain Double ~ unlike Mulholland, which has relatively mild climbs, this one is in your face climbing. Just when you recover from one climb, there comes the next one. The toughest climb is Sierra road at 160 miles. And to hit you again, there is another climb at 200 miles.
Terrible Two ~ pretty nice scenery of Napa and Sonoma. That said, Sonoma county has in my opinion the worse roads in the area. Be prepared for some serious potholes, gravel, non-paved roads, etc.

From organization stand point, anything organized by cycling clubs is best. Knoxville Double and Devil Mountain Double trump everything else. Their organizers go above and beyond. Mt Tam, Terrible Two, and Davis come close behind. Lots of quality doubles, for example Mt Tam and Terrible Two, will have valet bike service at the rest stop. This way you can go grab some food, while they take care of your water bottles and your bike. Solvang and Mulholland on the other hand are organized by Planet Ultra, which for some reason has some serious organizational problems. They do rides on awesome roads, but they do beginner mistakes, such as forgetting water, running out of food, no sunscreen, etc.

But hey, go out and ride!

Sui generis intersection

andy — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:27:32 +0000

Sometimes, I think civil engineers are out there making fun of everybody…

I wonder what they were thinking when they designed this marvel…

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Daedal Rider Friend

andy — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:42:26 +0000

After a great weekend in Yosemite, I checked my e-mail and found this e-mail from my friend Gracie:

Hello friends and family,

For those of you who don’t already know, this week I am embarking on a journey riding my unicycle from Canada to Mexico off-road. At 2,705 miles, this is the longest off-road cycling route in the world. My friend Matt Burney and I will both be on unicycles and leave for Canada this afternoon in an attempt to become the first people ever to complete this route on unicycles. We are excited to ride to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

To follow us on this journey, extensive route info, the blog, and donation info, please see the main trip website: http://divideby1.com.

…

Here’s to another summer of crotch soreness!

Rock n roll,
Gracie

I am a huge fan of charity activity, such as biking, running, and, in Gracie’s case, unicycling. So, check her website for the ride information and make sure to send her an encouraging note, as well as donate some money.

Bombinate the Message

andy — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:34:55 +0000

Sorry about all the videos lately, but looks like some really good stuff out there.

Propinquity to the Glorious Finish

andy — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:55:45 +0000

I finally completed my first double century: Solvang Double. Here are some highlights.

Double century is actually not that much harder than a regular century, provided that you eat and drink all the time and don’t stop too much
I wish I asked the organizers about the food, so I wouldn’t have to drag stuff with me. Turned out that they had enough vegan options.
I should have a small tube of sunscreen with me, just in case. On the first rest stop, they did not have sunscreen, so I borrowed some from another rider. Of course I did not apply enough of it, so now I have some funny tans.
I wish I didn’t spend that much time on the rest stops. I should really just have a quick snack, quick bathroom break, and go.
I got to get a smaller camera, so I can take it for the rides with me
I wish I dropped my clothing somewhere around Saint Luis Obispo and pick it up next day.
Either I have to get a better GPS that lasts longer or I have to finish the ride in less time. The GPS ran out of juice after about 12 hours, so I only have 190 miles recorded.
Two more and I have the California Triple Crown.
I will still call this one as a part of Century a Month.

Froward Towards Driving

andy — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:49:43 +0000

TreeHugger has a great article comparing cars, buses, and bikes. They compare the real estate sacrificed by each mode of transportation.

This image pretty much summarizes everything.

(Image: Press-Office City of Müenster, Germany via TreeHugger)

Full of Wanderlust

andy — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:20:49 +0000

Talking about starting a new year with a bang. First JC, myself and a bunch of other people did a 70 mile bike ride from San Francisco over Golden Gate bridge all the way to almost top of Mt. Tam. Phenomenal trip. Spectacular views of everything from gorgeous City by the Bay and the ocean. The visibility was so good that we actually saw Farallon islands. My friend BC has a bad luck of hitting Golden Gate in bad weather. For some reason I only bike across when it is spectacular.

So, yesterday, I took my bike from my place in San Jose over Calaveras road, all the way to the top of Mt. Diablo and back. This was my January Century a Month ride. What was the most amazing is that the temperatures were in the 70s. And this is in January. Felt like summer all the way there and back.

Cornucopia of Happiness

andy — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:47:02 +0000

Vigorous Climbing In Slovenia

andy — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 05:50:19 +0000

Here is a little video from my recent trip to Slovenia, where I did a lot of cycling. Among other, I biked from Ljubljana to Koper and then to Novi Grad, Croatia. All together about 107 miles.

Enjoy.

Divagate From the Pack

andy — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:07:30 +0000

EC and I attended a road bike race on Sunday in Benicia, California. This was my first road race and it showed. I did several rookie mistakes, but I finished the race and I was not the last. And hey, sustaining close to 25 miles per hour for 30 minutes with lots of turns is actually pretty good. After about two thirds of the race, the pack dropped us and a small group of us was trying to finish the race. That meant no real drafting, no real pace line. We were all over the place. But all said and done, we were not the last.

Couple of things for the next time:

Practice taking corners at hight speed. One time in the corner 4 I hit the road with my pedal, which freaked me out for every turn from there on. That slowed me down significantly.
Get warmed up before the race. Starting racing with a cold body may work for 10 minutes but not for 30 minutes
Eat after being warmed up not on a cold stomach.

Riding With Cupidity

andy — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:02:44 +0000

On Saturday I was riding the famous Tour of The California Alps: The Death Ride. It is a 130 mile bike ride with 15,000 feet of climbing on which you go over five passes. Well, you really go over three passes, but you go over two of them twice.

Let’s see, where to start. I loved the terrain. I so want to go back and do it again. Overall the ride was relatively easy. Yeah, there was a lot of climbing and hot, but the climbs were relatively mild and the views were spectacular. The toughest climbs were in the 10% grade, but most of it was around 6-7%. It was also great to see so many riders. The organizers closed most of the roads, so cyclists were uninterrupted by the drivers.

I finished the first part of the ride without any effort. Riding over Monitor pass was great and bombing down the back side was super fast. I was getting speeds of 50 miles per hour. The views were out of this world. Also, the road was super smooth. It was a bit tricky to pass slower riders and at the same time avoid riders coming up on the other side of the road. But I came to the bottom without any issues.

Ebbetts pass was a bit trickier, since it has more turns and the road is not in as good of a shape as the Monitor pass. However, it was just as enjoyable. From the Monitor pass, the views were mostly of the valley, where as from the Ebbetts pass, the views were of the canyon and trees. Again, I did not have any problems going up Ebbetts pass, but I did feel slight stomach discomfort. Since it was nothing bad, I ignored it.

Unfortunately that is where the fun stops. On the ride down Ebbetts pass, I started having serious problems with my stomach and, well, think of a waterfall but while riding. At the lunch spot, I sit there until my stomach calmed down and then I continued the ride. Unfortunately my stomach was acting up for the rest of the ride. At the bottom of Carson’s pass, they had showers for the riders, which felt really good, but in retrospect was a bad idea. I continued the ride up Carson, but got caught in a hail at the Picket’s junction. This together with me being cold at this point and not being able to ride fast to warm up because of my stomach, pretty much put a kibosh on the ride. I stayed there hiding under the trash can cover and a in the warm van until the hail and rain stopped and then hitched a ride part of the way down the mountain. I had an ok time that evening but I started getting sick again next day and the day after.

So, what caused all this mess? Who knows. It may have been Subway or cantelope that I usually don’t eat. I also tested a bunch of goodies at the expo. Perhaps it was the pasta dinner. Or maybe something I had during the ride. It might have also been elevation, heat, rapid decent, rapid ascent… Or finally it could be a combination of all those factors.

However, taking all this into account, I would still not miss it for the world! The sights are phenomenal, the roads are great, and support was out of this world. Looking forward to finishing this next year.

Subvert the Society

andy — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:04:16 +0000

I usually don’t do this in a public forum, but I have an announcement to make. I am coming out. Out of being a quiet fringe person!

I am a CYCLIST and I am proud of it!!!

Since I moved to CA in June last year, I rode bike to work every day but 3 times that I drove and couple of times somebody else drove me.

My shortest commute is about 6 miles. That means in the year since I came here I probably spend more than 3000 miles commuting (or about 136 gallons of gas with 22mpg). You can do a simple math to see that my $400 single speed commuter bike is more than payed of. But its not about the money. It is about you. And I mean YOU personally. You benefit from me doing this. So does anybody you know. Except perhaps if you know people working for the oil companies or car industry.

Also, since carbon is such an enemy (though I love my carbon bike), according to EPA, a gallon of gas burned in the car produces about 19 lb of carbon (1), so I saved about 2584 lb of carbon in the air. Maybe a bit less because I breathe harder when cycling. To be super conservative, that is about 2000 lb. Each tree in the forest can take somewhere between 2 and 15 lb of CO2 per year (2). That means I could plant anywhere from 133 to 1000 trees and get the same effect.

And of course, do people really like to be stuck on the 101, 237, 280, 880, 80, …?

So, let me ask you this question:

What can we do to persuade you to bike to work or take public transportation to work every day?

To close this e-mail, let me quote some of my favorite bicycling related philosophers:

“… You may say that I’m a dreamer; But I’m not the only one; I hope someday you’ll join us; And the world will be as one…”
“… Look at us we’re beautiful, All the people push and pull but, Let’s just go out and ride, Talk about the things we’ve tried…”
“… Lets take a ride, and run with the dogs tonight In suburbia; You cant hide, run with the dogs tonight; In suburbia…”

Finally, when you are biking to work and a person on the bike next to you smiles at you and/or waves at you, please do me a huge favor. Smile and wave back!!!!

Clamber Back Down

andy — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:18:50 +0000

Have you ever done something that was so crazy you thought at the same time: This was awesome!!!! and I am such an idiot!!!! Well, I did that on the way from the ride. It turns out that I got so excited that I totally forgot how to ride a bike… SAFELY!!!

But first thing first. This weekend I did an awesome bike ride organized by San Francisco Bicycling Coalition called Seven Hells of SF (Steepest Hills of SF III) Tour. There were about 20 to 30 people of various skills. The leader gave us a ride sheet and disclaimer. Something about gruesome death and dismemberment.

So we started the ride and soon we were at the first climb. One cool thing about that climb. On the way to it, some surfer dude from a jeep pulled half of his body out of his truck and asked if we are doing that climb. Upon confirmation, he exclaimed: YOU GUYS ROCK!!! In a surfer dude lingo.

So, since the first climb was super tough and I wasn’t prepared for it, I lifted the front wheel and the bike turned quickly, so I had to step off the bike half way up the climb. But I quickly jumped back on and finished the climb. Next climbs went without incident, but I did have to repeat one, so that the ride leader some photos of me.

Awesome ride and SFBC did a great job organizing it.

Ok, so the crazy thing. On the way back, I was having way too much fun riding over the hills of SF. I was going up and down roads and avoiding the stopped traffic. Do you know you are way faster on the bike in SF? Anyway, on one of the downhills, actually on the flat section in the middle of one of the downhill, the guy in front of me made a quick stop. This caused me to squeeze my break, but unfortunately I squeezed the front one a bit too much… This was a bad idea, since it caused my rear wheel to lift. For some reason I was still moving, but I was propped up on the front wheel. I knew I was going to die, but I enjoyed the moment anyway. It was, for the lack of better word, AWESOME!! Some strange luck or supreme being’s intervention caused my bike to fall back on both wheels and I was able to ride away with nothing but a slight whiplash. And I had a huge grin on my face. I am talking the grin that would shadow the sun. I just did a front freaking endo with my bike and recovered. I figured out that the people behind me are probably still washing their pants.

Ok, that is it… I escaped sure death on Saturday, which means I will probably get ran over by an ASSUV today.

Rejoinder to a Wish One Year Ago

andy — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:07:53 +0000

Last year on June 9th, I entered California. On today’s day I started working here.

Bye New York

Happy Anniversary California!

Vehement Climbing

andy — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:29:32 +0000

All I can say is yeehaa!!! Sequoia Century, 112 miles plus ride from home and back; 130 miles (or 6.2 English Channel widths (at the shortest point); 43 Mont Blancs; or 24 Mount Everests) and 9000 feet of climbing (or 8.5 Eiffel Towers; 3.4 Burj Dubais (after completion); or 26 football (soccer) pitches according to SensibleUnits.com). Century a month all the way…

How many times do you have opportunity to zip at 25 miles per hour down the coast with phenomenal views or down the hill at 50 miles per hour with nothing to protect you but your bike and your helmet. And finally, have you ever drafted a house?

During the ride, we were passed by a truck with a trailer driving a house at almost exactly 35 miles per hour. At that point one of the riders from my group pushed the pedals faster to catch the truck and draft it for the next five to ten miles. When we finally saw him again, he had an extremely large grin on his face. He said he was pedaling in the highest gear with almost no effort.

The climbs in the second half of the ride were challenging, but nothing I could not do. On the ride guide the second half of the ride looked like a steady climb over 30 miles, but in reality it was a long series of short steep climbs. It was especially hard on a relatively steady climbing section, where the route arrows pointed towards a country road that was super steep. But at the top of the climbs there was a rest area with refreshments.

Also, toward the end of the ride, I realized that my leg warmers I showed in my pockets fell out somewhere during the ride. That means I unintentionally littered the gorgeous California hills. Sorry…

I feel bad for people who missed this ride. It was well supported, great roads, perfect weather, and finally, great group of cyclists.

Halcyon Cycling in Slovenia

andy — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:40:20 +0000

Turns out I look for good websites about cycling in Slovenia all the time, so I decided to put a list together. But since somebody already did this, I will only post the link to them. Here we go: Trails MTB / Road, Forum. This page includes pretty much anything related to cycling in Slovenia and even some information about other countries.

Intransigent Beauty

andy — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:02:51 +0000

Happy 71^st Birthday Golden Gate Bridge!

It only takes a tiny corner of
This great big world to make the place we love;
My home upon the hill, I find I love you still,
I’ve been away, but now I’m back to tell you…

San Francisco, open your golden gate
You let no stranger wait outside your door.
San Francisco, here is your wanderin’ one
Saying “I’ll wander no more.”
Other places only make me love you best,
Tell me you’re the heart of all the golden west.
San Francisco, welcome me home again;
I’m coming home to go roaming no more!

The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay,
The glory that was Rome is just another day,
I’ve been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan,
I’m going home to my city by the bay.

About Golden Gate Bridge

Plethora of Miles

andy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:16:41 +0000

This time Century a month for the month of March was from Sunnyvale to Santa Cruz. This is a really nice ride with one unfortunate problem. There is no really good way to make a loop. It is pretty much there and back. Not that that makes it any less of a fun. During the ride I noticed couple of interesting things. One is that after crossing Skyline, it seems like you are going down hill all the way to Santa Cruz, but on the way back, it did not seem like I am climbing all the time. Second thing is that there is a cute “Healthy Fast Food” place in Santa Cruz. It is in the downtown and it felt really great. Finally, there are annoying drivers everywhere. After whole day of biking, some idiot wanted to do some road rage behind me, then he passed me super dangerously and then in the next intersection the whole thing repeated. What can you do.

While riding through the Stevens Canyon, I stopped at the memorial site for Matt and Kristy. Check out some photos from the ride.

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Transmute the Commute

andy — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:20:55 +0000

My vehicle makes 100 miles to three energy bars and about a gallon of water.

Great Ride Desideratum

andy — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:31:59 +0000

I was selected as a rider in the Death Ride: 129 miles, 15,000 feet of elevation gain. It is either going to be super crazy, or super crazy!!