I’ve been in Austin for six months – although only cycling for four – so it’s time to share my initial impression of cycling in Austin. I’ll cover the bike shops, clubs, group rides, organized events, routes, road conditions, drivers, online community, and weather.

These are my limited observations, so they may not accurately reflect anyone else’s experience. Ready?

Downtown Austin from Town Lake boardwalk

Downtown Austin from Town Lake boardwalk

Mellow Johnny's Friday Truancy ride

Mellow Johnny's Friday Truancy ride

The Fire Ant Tour

The Fire Ant Tour

The Veloway

The Veloway

Bike night at the Circuit of the Americas

Bike night at the Circuit of the Americas

Looking back from the top of Ladera Norte

Looking back from the top of Ladera Norte

Bike Shops

Austin is still dealing with the fallout from everyone’s favorite independent bike shop being bought out by Trek in 2020, in an effort to force Specialized out. The friendly Austin Trek staff are trying their best, but they’re hampered by being brand-tied and the bad blood the company earned in that buyout. In a city preoccupied with losing “the old Austin”, it was a prime example.

Specialized is recovering, but slowly. They’re now based in a cramped showroom in an inconvenient mall north of town, but much of their operation is run from a sketchy, anonymous warehouse in South Austin, while presumably looking for more functional retail space.

Of course, you can’t talk about bike shops without mentioning Mellow Johnny’s, still owned and operated by Austin’s disgraced former pro cyclist. I found the shop unfriendly, but their support of the local cycling community robust.

There’s also a Rapha store, which – in addition to hawking their overpriced wares with a pretentious attitude – coordinate some popular group rides. And there’s also REI and several small neighborhood shops of unknown quality.

Clubs & Group Rides

There are lots of opportunities to ride, although surprisingly few of them are run by the local bike shops. Here are some highlights.

Mellow Johnny’s has a popular Friday Truancy ride of their own, but many of their rides are led by the Violet Crown Cycling Club, which I naturally refer to as the “Violent Crowd”. Due to time conflicts, I haven’t been able to ride with them yet.

The Phenom Cycling Club runs a couple challenging hilly group rides. That’s fine I guess if you want a hard workout, but they predominantly cater to young racers, and don’t spare much attention for laggards.

Long-distance riders are served by the Hill Country Randonneurs. However, they require membership in Randonneurs USA, whose policies I take exception to, so I really can’t ride with them.

There’s an exceptionally popular monthly Breakfast Club ride which again I haven’t made because of timing. I’ve heard mixed opinions about it.

There’s also an overnight Full Moon Ride every four weeks. I enjoy night rides, but it’s a pedestrian ride. Although they’re around, I’m really not interested in the casual populist rides like Critical Mass, Social Cycling Austin, and some of the Meetup groups.

Aside from many group rides happening at difficult times (i.e. early mornings and Saturdays), I haven’t found anything that suits my level: non-competitive but serious enthusiast. There’s lots of rides for young, fast, elitist racers; and plenty for slow, pot-smoking townies and commuters; but nothing for us devoted middle-of-the-road riders that I’ve found.

Organized Events

Here’s another area where I’m struggling to find my place. Perhaps it’s because of the Texas heat, but despite scouring the online ride calendars, I’ve found shockingly few organized events around Austin to suit my preferred ride distance of 100 to 200 KM.

One option is the infamous Hotter’n Hell 100 (August), although that’s a solid 5-hour drive away!

And there’s the Texas MS 150 (April), whose century route starts in Houston. I passed on it this year, having lost too much fitness over our move.

Austin is also home to the Livestrong Challenge, which several New England friends take part in, so hopefully there’ll be reunion opportunities when that rolls around in September.

And there are occasional smaller, less-familiar rides. Rather than enumerate them here, I’ll point you to my work-in-progress Austin Cycling Calendar webpage.

For my Pittsburgh friends, there’s a local semi-organized hill ride in the spirit of the Dirty Dozen. The Tour das Hugel takes place in November and incurs a whopping 175 KM with 3,200 M of climbing.

But so far I’ve only managed one 100 km ride, the Fire Ant Tour up in Gatesville, which I wrote about here. It was fine, but I’m still searching for my first century even as we enter the forbidding heat of summer in Texas.

Routes

There are a couple unique cycling facilities that are especially noteworthy. One is the Veloway, a winding 5 KM circuit that is limited to cyclists and skaters. It’s a delightful wooded loop on the south side of town. However, it’s a bit far to ride to, and I imagine it gets busy on the weekends.

And in the spring and fall, the Circuit of the Americas racetrack – which normally hosts Formula 1, NASCAR, and MotoGP races – regularly opens their 5 KM track to cyclists from 6PM to dark. It’s a memorable experience, but again it’s a bit far away to make it a regular event.

For racers, there are criteriums at the Driveway: a private track designed to instruct auto racers. Not being a racer, those are of limited interest to me, save perhaps as a spectator.

In terms of bike paths, there are a couple around town. The most noteworthy is the Southern Walnut Creek Trail, which is pretty long, quite rideable, and one viable way to get out of the city and into the outskirts.

Shoal Creek is partially an on-street bike lane, but there are off-street segments. While it looks like a straight route into downtown, part of it is shut down long-term, and it’s more suited to leisure rides than getting somewhere in good time.

And there’s an extensive network of jogging paths around Town Lake. While scenic and featuring an amazing investment in elevated boardwalks over the river, these gravel paths are crowded with oblivious tourists and locals, so they’re of limited value for road cyclists.

I’ve spent a lot of time exploring Austin’s roads, but I’ve still only just scratched the surface. As when I moved to Pittsburgh in 2015, I’ve had excellent luck identifying fellow roadies through Strava’s Flyby utility and then following some of the routes they frequent. That’s given me insights into popular local routes as well as further afield (such as over toward Manor, or out Spicewood Springs and the Volente loop).

And I’ve found several methods of getting from my base in the Northwest Hills across town or into downtown, including Balcones Drive to Scenic Drive or Pecos Street or Exposition; or Winstead to Atlanta; Jefferson or Bull Creek or Shoal Creek; 51st Street for heading east; and Mesa and Jollyville heading north.

As for hills, we’ve got hills. I’m on the border between the flatter terrain to the east and the hilly terrain of the Hill Country’s Balcones Escarpment to the west. In fact, I have to climb a short but vicious hill just to escape my little cul-de-sac. But I’ve explored some local hills that would be right at home in Pittsburgh, including the infamous Ladera Norte, which is now part of my regular workout. If you wanna climb, there’s no shortage of it; but (unlike Pittsburgh) there’s plenty of nice flat riding, as well.

Road Conditions & Drivers

My memories of Austin from before I moved were of narrow roads with no shoulder and high-speed traffic, and that’s proved out. But those are the urban roads and suburban highways that are popular for cars; there are other roads that are calmer and quieter, and in town there are a number of side-roads that are adequate for cyclists getting around town.

And there’s a fair amount of bike infrastructure, including my first experience with parking-protected bike lanes, which are about as appealing to me as licking an electrical outlet. God save us all from well-intentioned bike advocates!

Road surfaces vary a lot, but they’re generally rougher (and thus slower) than I’m used to up north. The rural roads bake in the sun and can develop dangerous cracks. I managed a quadruple snakebite puncture by hitting one of those on a descent! And down here they use the term “sealcoat” for their variant on the universally hated oil-and-chips road surface treatment, which Texas uses more than any other state.

Drivers… For the most part Austin drivers have been surprisingly conscientious, although there are hundreds of online tales of absolutely insane driving. Of course, there’s self-important drivers going too fast for the conditions everywhere, and streets that pit all road users against one another, but in 200 hours of outdoor riding over four months, I’ve only experienced one legit instance of harassment on the bike.

Connecting Online

Another surprise: I have yet to find any useful Austin cycling forums online. There’s the Reddit group /r/BikingATX, but it’s not especially active or useful. If there’s a forum that’s commonly used – say, hosted by one of the bike clubs or something – I haven’t found it. Honestly, Strava has been the most useful online resource for finding other riders, clubs, and routes.

The best events calendar I’ve found has been the state-wide WheelBrothers Texas Bike Rides page.

Weather

From February through May, the weather was absolutely stellar. Of course, we had temperatures below freezing for short periods (including a devastating ice storm), but most of our days were between 10 to 25° C. That was delightful.

Then the heat came. We’ve had four straight weeks with high temps around or above 37°C, which limits outdoor riding to either mornings or short daytime rides. Save for a couple major events, summer is the off-season for riding.

Which brings up the question of when and where to use the indoor trainer. Over the winter, I could get away with riding it in the unheated and un-insulted garage, so long as it wasn’t too cold outdoors; but I wonder whether it makes more sense to bring it inside. Over the summer, it’s too hot to ride in the garage, but I’m not convinced it’d be much better if I set it up inside. Still needs some figuring out, so we’ll see!

Conclusion

The bottom line is that I’m getting settled and finding my way around both the cycling community and the city, but with a lot more still to learn. I can’t quite say that Austin is a cycling utopia, but I think it’s quite workable.

Specific things that I still need to look at are:

  • Check out the group rides I’ve missed, including: Violet Crown, Taking Care of Business, Breakfast Club, Major Taylor, and Rapha
  • Find more organized 100 to 200 KM and imperial century rides
  • Find the subset of roadies around town that aren’t hardcore racers
  • Build up an inventory of routes and rest stops for longer solo rides outside of town

But for only having been on the roads for a few months, I’m pretty happy with Austin’s cycling scene. And delighted by the weather, even at its hottest!

It really wasn’t anything special, just the regular 25-mile “Team Decaf” Tuesday night group ride out of Highland Park.

At the same time, it was a rare and special event, for several reasons.

Beginning with the most mundane of those reasons: it was the first Team Decaf ride of the year. That’s normally a chance to catch up with riding buddies I haven’t seen all winter long, and perhaps test one’s legs to determine one’s current position in the hierarchy of speed. The first group ride always has a bit of a “reunion” feel to it.

First post-Covid Team Decaf group ride

First post-Covid Team Decaf group ride

Sunrise on the castle climb in Zwift's new Japan-themed world

Sunrise on the castle climb in Zwift's new Japan-themed world

But never mind this year, this was their first group ride in more than 1½ years, as they've been on hiatus since October 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. After such a long break, getting back together felt like an extremely special occasion.

For me, this also (hopefully) marks my return to outdoor riding. I actually did a couple outdoor rides back in March, but Zwift’s Tour of Watopia and my mission to reach Level 50 kept me on the indoor trainer through the end of April. With those out of the way and a new all-time record fitness level, I was all set to rediscover the hilly roads of Allegheny County as the calendar ticked over to May...

I started the month with a couple outdoor rides, only to be sidelined with a bad case of achilles tendonitis. Between my injury and additional downtime around my Covid-19 vaccinations, May was a near-complete write-off. The only things that got me on the bike (gingerly!) were the final PMC group rides of the season on Zwift, and Zwift’s release of a new Japan-themed virtual world (which I must admit is pretty cool). Meantime, my fitness absolutely plummeted. That’s what happens when you cut your training down from 200 miles per week to less than 50.

However, I’m now fully vaccinated, which means this was also my first time riding with any other people in more than 18 months. During the pandemic lockdown, I rode 7,700 miles; only 1,250 of them were outdoor, and all of those were solo.

So with all those milestones, yesterday’s group ride was memorable and even a little emotional. Enough so that I felt inclined to actually smile and photobomb. My ankle felt reasonably good, although there’s enough pain — both on and off the bike — to constantly remind me that I’m not 100 percent, or even 90 percent.

The next question is what will the summer of 2021 riding season look like?

The first order of business is getting my achilles fully healed and ramping my mileage back up. That might take quite a while, both because tendonitis is a long-term injury, and it is aggravated by overuse. So returning to long endurance rides is going to be a slow process.

I don’t know when I’ll be able to return to full century rides, which has implications for my goals for this year. I’d like to hit the Akron Bicycle Club’s century in July, do some kind of “reimagined” Pan-Mass Challenge ride in August, and either the Epic Tour in Toronto or the PMTCC’s three-state century in mid-September. And I’m eager to get my milestone 100th century ride under my belt, whatever that winds up being. But there’s no way to know when — or whether — any of that will happen.

In the short term, it’ll be a bunch of short rides, probably sprinkled amongst lots of recovery days. And putting some time into my PMC fundraising, as well. That’s really all I can do until I’m injury-free and back to full fitness.

It looks like my return to normalcy following the Covid-19 pandemic will be a very slow, gradual one.

Who drives more than 8 hours, does a 100-mile bike ride, then drives another 8 hours home? Well, here’s the thing...

Last winter, when I was spending a lot of time on the indoor trainer and Zwift, much of it was riding with an organized club called “The Herd”. Because we use Discord for voice chat, over time you get to know people and form friendships irrespective of where folks are physically located.

The Herd's Fast Group

The Herd's Fast Group

Caught in Samsara!

Caught in Samsara!

The Herd @ LHT

The Herd @ LHT

Tim W. & Chris S.

Tim W. & Chris S.

Brad, Chris A., & Tim W.

Brad, Chris A., & Tim W.

Ornoth @ Little Traverse Lake

Ornoth @ Little Traverse Lake

Chris S.

Chris S.

Tim W., Timm M., Brad, & Louise

Tim W., Timm M., Brad, & Louise

Tim W.

Tim W.

Tom

Tom

Chris A.

Chris A.

Ornoth @ Grand Traverse Light

Ornoth @ Grand Traverse Light

Early in the year, The Herd announced their first big real-life get-together, at the Leelanau Harvest Tour, an organized century ride in Traverse City, in the northwestern corner (the pinkie) of Michigan. Since that’s just within a day’s drive from Pittsburgh, I added it to my calendar.

In the end, we had 16 attendees: several from around Toronto, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, eastern and western Pennsylvania, but also individuals from as far away as Boston, Oklahoma, and one of the group leaders (Marius) traveled from Norway!

Several of the ride leaders had met one another before, but for others it was their first time meeting other Herd members in person. Gathering to meet "online-only" friends from various locations is a familiar feeling for me, having gone to the internet’s first-ever Chatcon in NYC in 1985, several Where’s George meetups, and having run a dozen "summits” in various locations for DargonZine, the internet writers’ group I founded in 1984.

The Herd event was extra ironic for me, because our 2005 DZ summit actually was held in Traverse City, co-hosted by a writer based in Ann Arbor. I never imagined I’d visit there once, never mind a return engagement fourteen years later!

So on the morning of Friday the 13th I hit the road, leaving Pittsburgh at 7:15am. A long drive with a bad achilles (right foot, of course) wasn’t a lot of fun. The weather was fine except for my brief passage through a rain front, but I arrived, got into my downtown hotel, and showered.

I was surprised there was no group meeting Friday evening, but that gave me the opportunity to dine at one place in Traverse City that I really wanted to hit: a Thai restaurant with the amusing (to a Buddhist) name of Samsara! Samsara (wikipedia) being the name for the endless cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth, I had to get a selfie and make a couple inside jokes.

The place had no pretensions. Located in the side-back of a strip mall, with a linoleum floor, drop ceiling, and about six tables. My “ghang gahree” was delicious, but was served "Thai-hot”.

I returned to the hotel and bedded down, a little disappointed that with such a short amount of time to spend together, there was no welcoming activity before the ride. But that was tempered with the understanding that other folks might take their pre-ride preparation more cautiously than I do.

Saturday morning I grabbed some Gatorade and drove up to the Suttons Bay ride start, where the petulant ride organizers made dozens of us stand in line while they strictly waited until 7:30am for the official opening of registration. After gathering my cue sheet, wristband, and tee shirt, I pulled my bike out of the trunk and began putting everything together, happily discovering that the group’s van—where everyone was to meet up—had parked a couple spots down from me.

I don’t know why technical difficulties tend to crop up at major events, but this is where my trials began. Having brought my Nut-R mount for my GoPro action camera, when I went to attach it to my rear axle, I couldn’t close the wheel’s quick-release, even after removing the Nut-R. I feared I might not be able to ride, but Julie H. wrenched the quick-release back into shape so that it would close properly. But even then, I had trouble threading the Nut-R onto the quick-release and wound up not using it at all.

We waited around for everyone to get ready, assembled for a group photo, and rolled out about 20 minutes later than the planned 8am depart. The first 11 miles were along the Leelanau Rail Trail, providing a pleasant warm-up and the opportunity to chat, enjoy the beautiful morning, and take a few action photos.

With 16 riders all having different expectations, priorities, and experience levels, it was inevitable that the group split into fast and slower groups shortly after we left the bike path, when a gusty headwind and a couple small hills provided natural sorting mechanisms. Although we weren’t pushing it at the front, I found myself in a reduced group of five, with Brad H., Louise B., Chris A., and Tim W.

At the Mile 25 rest stop, my GPS battery was low, so I went to connect it to the portable battery I carry on long rides. I usually attach it to my handlebars with an elastic band, so I can ride and recharge the unit at the same time; however, my elastic chose that moment to disintegrate, and I discovered that I’d somehow misplaced its backup. I fell back to using an extra hair band, which only barely worked.

We began the second segment with three additional riders: Tom W., Timm M., who had flatted, and Chris S., who had paced him back to us. As the course turned north through Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the eight of us enjoyed a delightful tailwind on a long section of smooth pavement. While pulling at the front, I amused the others by sitting up, taking my hands off the bars, and flapping my arms like a seagull leading a formation of birds.

All too soon, that segment ended at the Mile 39 rest stop, which fronted on the stunningly blue waters of Little Traverse Lake. I consulted the mechanical support dude, who remembered that new inner tubes often come wrapped with an elastic, so I happily used one of those to secure my external battery.

The next section featured consecutive rolling hills, which the group ate up without complaint, and long stretches along the banks of Lake Leelanau. We saw an occasional tree with a tiny bit of color, but that ominous hint of autumn was made up for by the brilliant gradations of blue in the lakes and the perfectly clear sky. The turquoise waters were repeatedly compared to the Caribbean.

At the next lakeside rest stop we said goodbye to Chris, Tim, Timm, and Tom, who resisted our attempts to persuade them to switch from the 65-mile route to the full hundred. Although eleven Herd riders had registered for the century, only four of us continued on: myself, Chris A., Louise, and Brad, who diligently pulled at the front, as he’d done nearly all day.

Passing through the tiny town of Northport, Louise flatted, but we were fortuitously spotted by the SAG wagon driver, who had been fetching coffee for his crew, so we were back on the road in short order.

After navigating a three-mile construction zone, we reached the end of the road: the northernmost tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, which featured a state park of the same name, as well as the Grand Traverse Lighthouse. We stopped and marveled at the high surf and the azure expanse of Lake Michigan, then returned the way we’d come, back through the road construction.

The final 25 southbound miles were a slog against the headwind we’d forgotten about on our way north. My achilles began hurting, and as the miles added up, our group of four lost cohesiveness. At the Mile 84 rest stop, the others inexplicably left without waiting for me; I promptly caught them up, but by this point we were riding at our own individual paces. The route had a fun and interesting finish: a gradual, mile-long 3% descent, followed by a mile-long 6% climb and equivalent descent right to the finish.

At 4pm I completed 101 miles, discovering that the parking lot where we’d started was almost empty. I’d expected the team to hang out at the lunch offered by the organizers, but they’d all gone back to their lodgings to shower. The four of us who had ridden the century together packed up and followed suit.

Between the easy pace, the 4pm time, and the fact that everyone else had gone home, I figured we’d ridden ridiculously slowly, but it was actually a 7h38m century, which is casual but not especially self-indulgent.

After the ride, I went back to my hotel, showered, and headed to the group’s post-ride gathering downtown at Seven Monks Taproom. I nibbled some ribs and socialized, enjoying more time with both the friends I’d ridden with and those I hadn’t. But it was awfully loud, and I was hoarse by the end of the night.

After abbreviated sleep Friday night, Saturday night was worse, with a thunderstorm that left me fully awake at 4am. I opted to try the hotel's 6am breakfast, which was utterly indefensible.

As the rain tapered off, the bleary-eyed group gathered for a final brunch meetup at the “Flap Jack Shack”. One of the odder moments was when David T. perceived a likeness between me and the portrait of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, then extended that idea to others in our group. We chatted and pretended to eat for an hour and a half before everyone went off on their own again: some homeward, others following their own local plans.

Tired, headachey, and nauseous, I went back to the hotel and slept for a couple hours, skipped dinner, and watched some footy until bedtime.

Having planned to be ready for group activities on Sunday, I’d booked my hotel through until Monday. After another uncomfortable night, I was up early for the long drive back to Pittsburgh. Along the way I passed the immediate aftermath of a tractor trailer that had Storrowed itself: misjudging a bridge and peeling itself open like a can opener. But the day’s real highlight was arriving home, receiving a warm welcome, and passing out in bed.

Looking back on the event, other than a couple missed social opportunities, I only had two minor disappointments. Although Herd team jerseys have been in the works for nine months, they weren’t available by the time of the ride. And the event’s date unfortunately collided with one of my favorite Pittsburgh events: the Every Neighborhood Ride, which I rode in 2018, 2017, and 2016.

But overall, it was a wonderful time. I enjoyed the ride’s route, the gentle terrain, gorgeous lakes, and especially the delightful weather. After the wettest year in recorded history last year, somehow all of my major rides with fixed dates in 2019 have had stunningly beautiful weather. And it was great being able to meet and ride with so many Herd members whom I’d previously only known online.

This was my record-setting 13th century of the year, and the final major event on my calendar. Honestly, after nine 100-mile rides in the past 12 weeks, the prospect of not having any more centuries is pretty appealing! The Herd gathering was a very rewarding and fitting way to close out the high season, and now it’s time for some well-deserved rest, healing, and a trip to the doctor to treat my achilles injury before contemplating a return to Zwift over the winter.

One of the plans I hatched during the off-season was to get a group of riders together for dinner in March to build excitement for the coming season and to plan what rides we were going to do. Last year, Jay and Paul and I constituted a core group of riders who did a number of events together, and we had a few peripheral riders (Mark, Eric, Andy) tag along from time to time. Our hope was that we could convert a few of those hangers-on into core members of a cohesive, motivated group of cyclists.

I started out with a list of nine. Before I announced the dinner, we grew to eleven by adding four, but losing two. After the announcement, we lost five more, which brought us down to six attendees. And another person bagged the day before the dinner. Then one attendee canceled by text message, 15 minutes after the dinner had begun. Suddenly we were back down to our core group of three guys, plus one new girl. This was not the turnout I had hoped for at all.

Despite the sparse attendance, we confirmed our goals for this year, which aren’t that different from 2009; the major rides will continue to be Climb to the Clouds and the Flattest Century. Paul and I will ride from NY state to Sturbridge the day before the Pan-Mass Challenge. I may join Lynda for the Outriders ride. Hopefully Jay will reprise his Memorial Day cookout and ride up Wachusett. Plus we’ll do our usual few group expeditions to places like Cape Ann and so forth.

The real question is whether the people who bagged on us for dinner will actually show up to ride. On one hand, it would be nice to drag people like Mark and Eric and Charlie out; but if it’s just Jay and Paul and I, we’ll still have just as much fun as we did last year. So while the low turnout is a disappointment, it’s not a catastrophe.

And we did have fun last night. Joined by Jay’s friend Mary, we had Indian food at the Bombay Club, which recently moved from Harvard Square to the South End. The group consensus was that the food rated a seven or eight out of ten. Then we went to Ben & Jerry’s on Newbury Street for ice cream, which was fun. Then I had everyone up to my place for more conversation and a little feline talent show put on by the Gradler. Ultimately, we are all really motivated to get the cycling year started. I just wish that others had been there to share in that enthusiasm.

Well, I’ve finally gone and done it. After a couple years of wondering why there wasn’t a PMC community on LiveJournal, I’ve gone ahead and made one. Obviously there wasn’t a lot of demand before, but I’m hoping that the presence of an actual community will bring a few riders and volunteers out of hiding.

I suppose it’s possible that it could become a substantial community, but I’d be just as happy if membership hovered in the 10-25 range, so that it remains a small, close group. I can certainly envision holding a little LiveJournal PMC community meet-up in Bourne on a certain Saturday afternoon next August!

Of course, even that much activity is still a questionmark. The group might not even attract enough people to get off the ground at all. But if it helps even a few people make connections, or helps one new rider have a more enjoyable ride, then I’ll be happy with it. I think the only way I could be unhappy with it is if it became really big and attracted spammers and trolls and became an unfriendly, un-fun, and unwelcoming place.

So if you’re someone who has a connection with the Pan-Mass, come join the [livejournal.com profile] pan_mass community.

And please let your friends know about it, because I’d really love to see it take off and provide a meaningful, enjoyable service to folks.

Thanks!

Big weekend for cycling, even if I didn’t do any long rides as such…

First, Saturday night was a party for all the Quad Cycles riders who participated in the Mass Red Ribbon Ride and the Pan-Mass Challenge. Graciously hosted by Jeff Ichikawa at his loft, it featured a barbecue and good conversation with Bobby Mac and a dozen or more riders. And we also got to see lots of photos taken during the two rides, some of which will appear shortly on my cycling photos page.

We also had a viewing of the three hundred photos that Joseph Santos took during a Quad Cycles training ride on August 19th. Joseph has a sweet Nikon D70 DSLR isn’t afraid of using it, and so the photos page will also be graced with one or two of his shots soon, as well. The updates are coming fast now!

Orny rides like the wind thru Rehoboth

The photo you see at right, however, came from the official Pan-Mass Challenge photographers. It’s the first close-up shot they’ve taken of me in my five years of participating in the event, but it was really worth the wait. You can click on the photo for bigness, or you can just head on over to my newly-revised cycling page, where it’s the featured element. Verra snazzay, I must say!

You can also get to my 2005 PMC ride report from there, although I didn’t tell you that! The writeup is complete, but I’m still adding and arranging the photos that go with it before I announce it to the public. So feel free to check it out, but come back again later to see the additional photos I’ll be adding!

But wait! There’s more!

I was in the bike shops this weekend, and one of the things I did was finally replace my five year old Shimano cycling sandals. They’ve served me very well—about 12,000 miles worth!—but they’re getting a bit stinky, rusty, and worn, so I picked up replacements, which I’ve actually been looking for since before the PMC. They’re almost identical to my old pair, but I’m having a bit of difficulty with the new cleats, which are being obstinate about clicking in and out. That’s okay, though; they’ll work their kinks out soon enough.

In addition, last week I thought about the list of big-ticket items I’ve been jonesing after since getting a steady income: a new laptop, digital camera, GPS, bike, iPod, cell phone, CD player, speakers… You get the picture. When I thought about it, something became obvious: I can buy any of those things during the winter except for the bike. Bikes you have to go test ride, and you can’t get a decent test ride in January, so…

This weekend I started out test riding the two bikes I’ve had my eyes on. I’ve long wanted a light, fast road bike that also had a more relaxed fit and more supple ride than a racing bike. Racing bikes are twitchy, skittish, rough, and not even remotely ergonomic. I found two bikes that made a good compromise between speed and smoothness, climbing ability and all-day comfort. And this weekend I tried them out.

I tried them both out at two different dealers. I did a 9-mile loop around the crater-strewn roads of Belmont that include Park Street hill via Spring Street on Saturday, and a 12-mile loop in town that included Summit Ave today. Both were good tests of the bikes’ ability to deal with flats, wind, climbing, insanely rough roads, urban traffic, descents, and so forth. I put each bike through about 21 miles and nearly two hours of riding.

Months ago, I was pretty sold on the Specialized Roubaix. It’s really the first bike of its kind, that intentionally tries to produce a softer ride and more relaxed position within a bike that still can cook. But in the weeks leading up to my test ride, I discovered the new Cannondale Synapse, which has received great write-ups that make it sound as compliant as the Roubaix. It also is a much prettier bike. But the more I rode them, the more I was sold on the Roubaix.

The Synapse Ultegra isn’t a bad bike, and I might well choose it in the absence of the Roubaix. It was definitely more responsive and faster off the line and in sprints than the Roubaix, but it also transmitted more road noise to the rider. As I say, it’s a beautiful looking bike, but ultimately looks are secondary to comfort and fit, and neither shop I went to could provide me with a test bike any larger than a 56cm frame, which is kinda like putting me on one of those tiny bicycles you see clowns perform on. The final negative is that the wheelbase was so short that in a turn the front tire could hit my toes as I pedal, which is something I really want to avoid.

The Roubaix Comp Double, on the other hand, rode a bit like an Oldsmobile. It was plush and absorbed road shock, almost to the point of having a bit of boaty bounce as you ride along a straight, smooth road. It sure didn’t want to sprint or shoot off the line, but once it was spun up, it felt like it just wanted to keep going. The seat was far superior, but the clearcoat carbon finish is a bit ugly. The position is much more upright, and I tested the 58cm model. There was plenty of clearance between my toes and the front wheel when cornering, and the Roubaix had a little display of what gear you’re in on the shifter-cable, a nice design feature that the Synapse lacked.

So I’m very much leaning toward the Roubaix right now. Of course, I have to let Rustem at Quad Cycles have a crack at me, but I really don’t think he carries a bike that’ll knock the Roubaix off the top of my list. And I’m out of town next weekend (on a trip you’ll no doubt hear more about), so it’ll be a couple weeks before I jump, anyways. I might also wait a few weeks to see what Specialized says about the Roubaix for 2006.

But even if I can’t jump just yet, it’s nice to have some time to think the decision over, and it definitely was a blast trying out some new, happy wheels.

I know some folks are anxious for an update, so here’s a little debrief on how this weekend’s Pan-Mass Challenge went.

I think the defining feature of this year’s ride was my friends.

In my previous four PMCs, I always rode alone; I didn’t know any of the other riders at all. But for some reason, this year I ran into all the people I’d met at my weekly training rides at Quad Cycles in Arlington. So instead of riding by myself, over the course of the weekend I ran into no less than eleven people I already knew well: Charlie, Jeff, Tony, Steve, Julie, Caitlin, Elena, Maria, Joe, Ed, and Stephanie! It made the ride feel like more of a celebration, and it was awesome to be able to share it with people I know, many of whom were riding in their very first Pan-Mass.

And now you can go see several of the Quad Cycles crew enjoying their rides, because for the first time ever I took some photos during this year’s PMC. You can check those out at the URL:

http://users.rcn.com/ornoth/bicycling/pmcphoto05.html

The other big thing to observe about this year is the dramatic contrast between all the crises I’ve had to deal with in the past two months versus how amazingly well the ride went.

In June and July I took a new job, had a close friend hospitalized for over a month with life-threatening medical issues, had a gushing water leak in my ceiling from my air conditioner for about a week, had to get the ceiling repaired, took an incomplete in a class due to all that, and had a big dispute with a bike shop that had done incompetent repairs. On top of that, just a week before the ride I was having significant “seat issues” with my bike, and then capped it all off when I threw my back out helping a friend move. The eight weeks leading up to the PMC were just one implausibly long string of emergencies and problems.

However, all that bad luck nicely reversed itself for the PMC weekend—so much so that I’d say it was my most pleasant ride of them all.

I had absolutely no physical problems. My “seat issues” didn’t return, and my back pain went away completely except for when I was sitting up in the car. My wrists, which bothered me in previous years, were fine, and my neck also was much better than in previous years. My legs were great, and I finished strong, with very little of the usual fatigue. I could have easily gone much further on Sunday than we did.

And there were no mechanical problems this year, either: not even a broken spoke or a puncture! Not bad, for an aging cheap hybrid bike with 15,000 miles on it!

Unlike previous years, I was supported this year by my friend Sheeri, and her presence was both helpful and very welcome. She put herself and her vehicle at my disposal, and made a big contribution to seeing that everything went well for me, so no problems there, either!

And the weather was just incomparable for riding. It was sunny and warm without being hot, and even the wind cooperated. I understand that it was only the second time in the PMC’s 26-year history that there wasn’t a strength-sapping headwind blowing down the long, exposed section of Cape Cod as we approached Provincetown.

And, of course, after finishing I indulged in my regular post-ride ritual of spending the afternoon at Race Point Beach, which really helped me relax and put all those lingering crises behind me. So not only was this year’s ride a wonderful experience, but it also gave me a great opportunity to step back and recharge my batteries a little, which I desperately needed after so much turmoil.

Of course, the real reason for the ride is to raise money for cancer research, treatment, and prevention, and even there I have good news. Over the weekend, a number of large donations came in, and I’m happy to report that if all the employer matches come through properly, I will not only meet my minimum, but quite possibly set a new personal fundraising record this year! While the ride’s fun, the cause has a great deal of personal meaning to me, and having a successful year raising money is a real cause for celebration.

So let me take this opportunity to once again thank you for helping make all of that possible: both my own ride as well as the important contribution we make together to eradicating cancer. This was an exceptionally good ride, and I very heartily appreciate the support you’ve given me.

A travelogue full of anecdotes will follow in a week or two, hopefully including some additional photos taken by the PMC organization (this year I’m very hopeful that I’ll be in a couple). And you can also look forward to a final email from me after the PMC presents its annual check to the Jimmy Fund in November.

Thanks again, and I hope you had as great a weekend as I did!

Today was one of the sporadic BRC bike rides, which wound up being only three people, averaging all of 9 mph over 38 miles. Still, it was up around Cape Ann, which was really quite beautiful, once the sun came out. Still, I didn’t want to overdo it, because I’ve been having some pain in my right knee, and am keeping an eye on it.

As I did last time, instead of getting a ride home from Manchester (where the ride starts), I biked the additional 30 miles home. I made much better speed, but I also am having just a hint of knee pain. I really hope that doesn’t become an issue, because I have some important long rides in the next six weeks.

Frequent topics