Sunday, May 31, 2009

Early Birds - North -- Mile 12: 3 flats

Sunday, usual procedure and ride to the start, today: EBs N route.
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This one always stands there (you know it if you ride "here")....

A nice group of about 25 (over the thumb estimate, did not counted) "birds" started out and came to a first stop at mile 12 to wait for a flat being fixed. Just rolling again, some suspicious hissing from another cycle...

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A while that 2nd was almost fixed all sudden some explosion like booom close to Py of a tire on a bike not even moving -- what the heck is going on....??? Flat #3.
Alright, that seamed to be it for the day and the remaining part of the ride was trouble free. A nice Deli stop and good return ride.
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Ride stats -- solid steady easy constant moving at 36.4 km/h (group) today, no wind. Just a good fast finish more or less all together.... (all of Py's ride, the peak on left was the easy going to and from the start):

Time and Distance cumulated at various speed zones

Saturday, May 30, 2009

RP2IPBP - a few more today

What a beautiful day. A good sized group found together, some on the fly on-off's as usual, nice and good ride. Just enjoy the photos.

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Review the ride: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/8338343

Ride stats:
Time and Distance cumulated at various speed zones

Monday, May 25, 2009

Going off road - RP/RCA

What a nice holiday Monday, very comfortable conditions and perfect for a ride in the woods (or around the trees). It's a long while ago since he hit this so close by trail -- he should do this more often again!

Just a good moving but still comfortable ride, a great mix of fun, a few good pushes and recovery :-)

Also good seeing and riding with Kris again!

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Stats: Simply all of it, about 1h40 total time on the trail.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Early Birds South - water vapor in the air = faster ride?

Usual morning procedure... and leaving at 6:30am for Manorville on dry roads but quite some fog in this Island. Water condensing even on warmer or similar warm surfaces due to this mornings over saturation plus water droplets in the air... and thus his glasses were covered with droplets in very short time -- impairing vision a bit.

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Shortly after start a flat caused the nicely sized peleton to stop and wait. Good chance to dry up these glasses again -- but did not helped long, not even a minute...

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However, good enough and once in a while a wipe with the glove/finger did the trick. Flying on Dune Road, it was really water in the air -- condensing water dripping from the helmet, kind of strange... and over the bridge, this time really easy with more or less no wind.

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From here the moisture slowly got cleared up by the sun. 7-11 stop as usual....

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And flying back at good pace as well, finishing up with some pretty good fast group of 3, then four in a little tiny break away until the finish -- nice team work and fast.

May be a little advantage by the high humidity and high amount of water vapor -- did you know the density of very moist air is significent less than of dry air?

Follow the ride here.

South Stats of today (incl. Py's to/from):

Time and Distance cumulated at various speed zones

Saturday, May 23, 2009

RP2IPBP - nice and a good breeze from East

One more ride out to Iron Pear Beach Park. A nice day, but extremely dry and dusty with a nasty mix of dirt and pollen flying all over. One new rider, they tried there best to give him shelter from the element wind... Py took a bit care so he did not got lost on his way back.


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The "RP2IPBP" route for all again to remember:


View Larger Map

Usual A+ pace for this 55mi typically 2h40..45 moving time.

Here today's stats, slower return.

Time and Distance cumulated at various speed zones

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Bloomin' Metric 2009 - #4

This years Bloomin' Metric 2009 was a bit less color full and the forecast was predicting a high chance of rain in the morning -- never the less Py signed up long ago for this beautiful rolling ride in Connecticut, winding around scenic reservoirs, climbing in little gauges with pretty waterfalls and some very nice hidden back roads.
A full-size photo is available to those with permission.

4:45am his radio came on, usual morning procedure. Outdoors the more of the severe kind of thunderstorm with heavy rain of the night stopped but all was dripping and wet, kind of warmish, humid and feeling like water was still in the air, heavy drops occasional falling of trees -- but silence this early, no wind at all. Checking radar -- pretty much clear, a few localized spots still, not much in CT, a bigger system far way, did not looked like any concern to Py.

However, for sure a messy start and ride to the ferry boat -- the old Tarmac bike would do the trick for toady. Packing essential and a few extra tubes, short shirt in case it may get warm or he needs an extra layer, dry socks, may be handy on the boat at return and the pump in his little Camelback.

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Ready to roll to the PJ Ferry he left a few mins to 6am. The ride was very quite that time, wet, messy and sandy roads as expected -- in just 34min he got tp the dock. A few rider were already there and more showing up, to his surprise some without bike -- hu????
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Lots of talking.... as all sudden some wind picked up and a uncomfy rain shower set in -- what just add to the scare of the early morning scene........

What so ever, Py was prepared and for sure not going home now, the waiting room was cosy and the ferry as well. A 2nd breakfast on the boat with some SBRA sponsored bagels -- very nice -- thx!

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Approaching CT the sky got a bit brighter and the rain was gone, it was surprisingly more or less dryed up in Northern CT! Only the moved in cold front presented a chilly nasty cold wind and it took Py a while to get warm.

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Big thx to the organization and Sound Cyclists in all aspects and in particular for the special SBRA group ferry checkin :-) !!!

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Py took off for the "Metric" (100k route) with only two more "A" riders, but had a lot of time to take photos and finally little after the 2nd water stop picked up the pace on his own a little bit, a fly by... to the "Finish", pretty much boring from the "riding" part of view, but the scenery was nice and a welcome change.

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At the "Finish" he grabbed a big sandwich... looked as bit around before navigating his own way back to the ferry. Finding himself at the dock just a few minutes after the 1:30 boat left. Oh well, no hurry today, just chilln out on the harbor. A smooth journey back to LI and ride home.


Stats: 147km

Partial Route and Stats:


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Time and Distance cumulated at various speed zones

Saturday, May 16, 2009

RP2IPBP - nice day, fairly warm, overcast and no rain

This one was a go for sure! Slight chances of rain on the forecast but nothing on the radar this morning -- good and go...

Moving out east at a steady fast pace.

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The return was even faster. Little unexpected detour due to road closure on NC.... added about one or two miles -- with little guessing they took Randall up and Lilco back to NC.


Ride Stats:

Time and Distance cumulated at various speed zones

Sunday, May 10, 2009

EBs South -- 2nd time South and a wall of air

Sunday, Mother's Day ride today with the Early Birds going South once in a while again. A very nice day, just a strong Surface Wind: W 37G55mph. Flying almost effortless East and on Dune Road (forgot to mention: yes, little flooding still, but just two bigger potentially salty puddles, no big deal), but the pay back was not waiting long, turning onto that bridge at end of Dune Rd felt like hitting a wall of air -- up or downhill did not really made any difference -- totally open and unprotected the wind was blowing across and against the small group shaking every rider, needed to watch out not getting blown off the bike... Py thinks that was the strongest wind he ever experienced at that bridge so far.

The return ride was not as fast, but moving OK with that wind, any little protecting from the woods was very welcome.

Ride Stats -- some how broad and double peaked speed distribution:

Time and Distance cumulated at various speed zones

Saturday, May 09, 2009

No RP2IPBP - flooded roads - recovery & bike service day

Py was glad he took the bike to cyclo commute to the Camp on Friday -- a nice day, as this Saturday morning it was raining and roads were flooded all over -- he canceled his RP2IPBP ride. A good day to go back to bed for a good recovery day and late brunch :-)

Later he did some updates on the club's website, still some unresolved minor issues with some formatting... Argrrr. But a lot of little things also got done.

Also he fixed his old Tarmac road bike... this could impossibly work fine any longer as he finally pin poinetd the trouble of the terrible annoying imprecise shifting:

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A new cable and housing, put together from sitting around left over Nokon MTB parts -- works just fine and looks good:

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Sunday, May 03, 2009

EBs North again -- light drizzle and low flying

Today Py got up early to ride once more to the Early Birds starting from today at 7:30am in Manorville again. Very little wind, fully overcast and mist in the air, but roads still dry out North -- the weather forecast is calling for increasing chance of rain -- well, hope the best that it holds off for the next hours to come.

Even with that conditions, quite a good number of the Bird's showed up, it must be really bad no one comes.

Starting out at good steady pace, the stronges EECT rider(s) seamed to have some long contineous and strong pull in mind and two kept going. The big groups got to stop at flat #1...

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And got moving again at good pace with little tail wind, averaging 36.1 kmn/h all the way out east. Here at the quick reassemble stop after "teh tanks" run.

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And stopping at the Cutchogue Deli for Coffee.

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Also the return ride was about teh same steady fast pace with 36.0 km/h average, well executed stops and turns on wet surface. A really exemplary pace lined ride in all aspects. The groups stayed togther quite most of the time until the very last strait and final run back. One more flat stop.
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The rain/drizzel intensity increased to the end and Py took the opportunity for a lift back home -- Thanks to Kevin.

Stats later -- MB not working right -- OK, here they are:

However, 36.0k m/h average over the 88km -- 108km for Py total.

Time and Distance cumulated at various speed zones