Ultimate Bike Thread....

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Whoopseeeeee...
Here's the 32 video... (uptalking rules still apply)

[look 171]

Rode 5000 for years and still, I think they are a great tire. Been riding Pirelli for the past couple years and really like their tubeless tires. Super grippy and feels great. I also like Sshwable. Life is too short to ride cheap bouncy tires.

No matter the tire and how light or expensive, I was spat out the back today 20 miles in. It was Africa hot, 88 degrees (I am normally ok with that heat) and had no strength, light headed and packed it in. Rode back on my own. Slept for three hours. Ate something and felt great since. Its jsut one of those day

[sc_rufctr]

Team Cofidis (French).

Equipped with Campagnolo Super Record 13 speed - Wireless ($$$ ).

[gregpark]

Who here likes to climb? Actually no one really, it's painful. But all true cyclists are oddly addicted to pain and suffering and climbing is a big part of my addiction. I'm basically a sprinter who thinks I'm a climber. I ride most every day and do one or two climbs a week. I live in a long valley with pretty high ridge tops on both sides. There are at least a dozen little road climbs to pick from ranging from a mile to 9 miles long. None are easy and most are brutal. A typical climb here is a couple miles long and gains around 1300 feet, the highest climb being 2663 ft. These pics are from yesterday, about a 1300 ft. climb. You can see part of the valley floor at the start. The distant mountain is Mt. Diablo which I've climbed many times along with other bay area mountains, Tamalpais, St. Helena, Hamilton, all grueling long climbs. The toughest climb in my valley is Oakville Grade, only a mile long but mostly about 16% consistently all the way up (no breaks to drain lactic acid). If you stop, it's too steep to start again. If it's a hot day Oakville is out but I only tackle that thing maybe once a year.

[gregpark]

Surely not everyone here is a flat lander. Herr Oberst? You seem like a climbing type guy. I know Florida and a few other states are mountainless. Maybe South Austailia too, don't know

[herr_oberst]

7500 feet of climbing this weekend, in about 75 miles travelled in 2 rides. So far this year, 163,000 feet of elevation in 2200 miles travelled.. Can't get away from it where I live.

[gregpark]

Sounds like you're doin' the Death Ride! Tough weekend 😃

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by gregpark

Sounds like you're doin' the Death Ride! Tough weekend 😃

Fun weekend! I like to climb. I'm not the fastest when the gravity gets turned up, but I'm definitely not the slowest, and I'll grind it out with the best of 'em....

[look 171]

When we have nothing better to do, we sometimes go up to Mt Baldy all the way the ski station. The switch backs on the last leg is steep and it doesn't seem to end. 6400' starting at 600' with about 1 mile of flat or down hill somewhere in between. Haven't done it in a few years. This was part of the Tour of CA's route, about 40 miles.

Then there's Crystal Lake, 25-28 mile sstaright up with no place to rest, about 5700'. This is right near Baldy, then there's Angle Crest to Mt Wilson or beyond. Wilson is 5000', 18 miles if someone want to keep going, there's more and goes up to over 7000'. All are within 20-40 min drive from my house to the base of the hill. Nope, don't miss it at all. We go up once every 3-4 months for a bit of suffering but often we only do half the distance or we rather go up another road over 2000' in 4 mile to the horse packing station. These long drawn climbs takes too much time.

Climbing isn't so much using the super low, bail out gears getting there, Its the speed or keeping the cadence up. That makes me breath like hell. There's always some skinny dude that can just keep going. All I can do is hang on to dear life for 4-5 miles then I snap and its over. Its a rough deal this climbing.

[gregpark]

Cycling without hills is like what the Scots say about golf "If there's nae wind it's nae golf".
Unless you live in Florida or Texas of course 😊

[gregpark]

We were staying at a friend's place on Maui for a couple weeks so I rented a fairly decent Trek. I finally worked the courage to attempt Haleakala. I didn't know if people road up or not but figured they must. Didn't see anyone else riding up but dozens of tourists riding down in tour groups with a guide and all in ski coats. They didn't have to turn a pedal once in 12 miles. I bet I heard "you're going the wrong way!" 20 times. I carried 4 bottles of water and learned there's water on the way up and could have brought 2. Started out at the beach and banana trees and ended up at the 10,025 ft. summit. Part way up there's a toll booth and they charged me for riding a bicycle! I found out after there's a famous annual race to the top.
Oh yeah, i had my friends and wife pick me up at the top. Didn't trust the pinch brakes for a 12 mile decent
Edit: I looked it up it's 37 miles from the beach to the top. Don't know why i had 12 in my head but knew it had to be more because nothing is that steep on the climb, it's just a grind

[Racerbvd]

[look 171]

Bryon, do you get up in the morning and say to yourself, which bike do I take to the beach today

[look 171]

Originally Posted by gregpark

We were staying at a friend's place on Maui for a couple weeks so I rented a fairly decent Trek. I finally worked the courage to attempt Haleakala. I didn't know if people road up or not but figured they must. Didn't see anyone else riding up but dozens of tourists riding down in tour groups with a guide and all in ski coats. They didn't have to turn a pedal once in 12 miles. I bet I heard "you're going the wrong way!" 20 times. I carried 4 bottles of water and learned there's water on the way up and could have brought 2. Started out at the beach and banana trees and ended up at the 10,025 ft. summit. Part way up there's a toll booth and they charged me for riding a bicycle! I found out after there's a famous annual race to the top.
Oh yeah, i had my friends and wife pick me up at the top. Didn't trust the pinch brakes for a 12 mile decent
Edit: I looked it up it's 37 miles from the beach to the top. Don't know why i had 12 in my head but knew it had to be more because nothing is that steep on the climb, it's just a grind

10,000' is one hell of a grind and a long day in the saddle

[fanaudical]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

7500 feet of climbing this weekend, in about 75 miles travelled in 2 rides. So far this year, 163,000 feet of elevation in 2200 miles travelled.. Can't get away from it where I live.

That's a fair amount of climbing. Lots of options for that around Portland up in the hills. I'm on a hill in Sherwood, but am way out of shape to do that kind of vertical anymore.

My old game when I lived in eastern Washington was to spy a water tower on a hill and ride to it, then do another one, and another one...

[gregpark]

Originally Posted by look 171

10,000' is one hell of a grind and a long day in the saddle

4 hours, not so long. I had no knowledge of the climb and should have asked but didn't. At the top i realized I was overly conservative but I wasn't going for time. Some pros do it in 2½ hours. With about 6 miles to go I called my friend and said ok come get me. No way I was going to ride down. You'd need long fingered gloves and warm apparel. Haleakala produces its own weather up top and it snowed on me for the last 2 miles. It felt great because I was climbing but at the top i put on a wind breaker (I stuffed one in my jersey pocket just in case), layed the rental bike in the lava and waited in the little hut at the top for my ride.
The climb was long and I saw the same van pass me 3 times. Each time it was full of people and pulling a trailer full of mountain bikes for the tourists to descend. The last time the he passed me he gave me the pinched fingers telling me I was close to the top. When I was riding past one of the scenic look outs near the top a local couple watched me shaking their heads, I asked "dis da way to Paia yeah?" they thought that was pretty funny.