One of the best things about saying adios to that part-time web-editing gig is that I have my weekends free for the first time in several years.
We left Weirdcliffe for Bibleburg in part so I could reconnect with other cyclists. But a guy who works on Saturday and Sunday misses a lot of group rides, and I found myself riding mostly solo, as I had among the hill people. There’s nothing wrong with that — OK, it does cause the hair on your legs to grow — but it sure doesn’t prepare you for cycling in company.
This I relearned yesterday when I joined my first group ride in the better part of quite some time.
It was a small group and a short ride, and I failed to distinguish myself (surprise, surprise). There were a few small hills, the pace was a little quicker than my usual slothlike advance, and my rusty pack-riding skills had me out in the wind more often than necessary. Plus I was riding my second-heaviest bike, complete with fenders and burly 700×32 Vittoria Randonneur Cross rubber.
However, as we all know, it’s not about the bike. Nope, nossir. It’s about the booty, and I’m presently wearing too much of it.
At least I wasn’t the first guy to holler “Slow down!”
Mad Blog Media 
Ya, the group ride -I lived for it for 20 plus years, and last year I quit going, and then had the idea I could just slide in on a few – I was getting dropped by old people fat people and even those posers on their $$$$$ bikes ( I ride a 20 year old Cannondale). The horror! So I dropped down to the B- group and could not even hang there. So I am
back to solo riding and spin classes – can’t get dropped in spin class and my larger than yours ass doesn’t get in the way on the climbs there.
Hey, Rick — yeah, trying to slot back in after an absence is a bitch, eh? I don’t even think about doing the weekend rides here in Bibleburg, but I have a couple of 50-something friends who can get together on a Sunday for a leisurely fat-burner if I can pry them away from wives, girlfriends and children. It makes the miles go by a little faster.
I’m so slow I could drop myself.
Hell… I’m a group ride all by myself. That said, it’s been almost spring like this January in Iowa, which means I’m still batting a thousand w/respect to riding outside. Maybe that and the Tuesday night trainer SufferFest will allow me to sit in when the group rides here resume. (and all of my Jedi wheel sucking skills. “This is not the wheel you seek. Move along”)
Velo Knight you would be! Hmph!
Nice. I to took the path from Westy to Hell Paso County only to find myself regularly hanging on for dear life to the tail end of the peloton of commoredery commonly found here on any given Saturday or Sunday. Happy Trails!
Grizz, I hear you. The weekend rides here are insane — or, at least, they were the last time I tackled one. The Sunday ride to the AFA is the better of the two, but only barely. Those dudes will drop you like an empty GU wrapper.
I gave up on groups when we still wore a leather hairnet as skull protection. I have only gotten slower and uglier as time passes and I don’t miss the squirrels one bit
Keep the safetyoff with the snark. We need you to help keep the pinheads off balance.
Kathleen Turner does a great job channeling Molly Ivins here in LA. Maybe there is hope for society?
Grumbly, I filed the trigger sear off on the snark a long time ago. It’s full auto now. And good on Kathleen Turner for flying the Molly flag. I miss that woman. She warned us about Shrub, but did we listen? Noooooo. …
That butt floss saddle looks out of place on that bike. Needs more Brooks!
Sarwin, I’m riding a Brooks Swift Titanium on a Pashley Clubman and I like it a lot — but I’m seriously hooked on the Selle Italia Flite. Don’t recall when I started riding it, but it gradually insinuated itself onto every seat post in the garage, save one, which sports an ancient Avenir ti’ with a similar shape.
I’ve got Flites on everthing, too. Even thinking of fitting one out on the Water Closet with some obvious modifications.
Never got bit by the squirrelly group ride bug. Until recently to slow to make it worth the danger. Now that the ferritin is where it belongs I ride with the same 3-6 folks whose bike handling is predictable and precise.
Fast is fun, but better with good friends.
Winter has come to our part of the flat lands. Lots of XC skiing this weekend. Whole new set of muscles hurt now.
Ben, we used to have a great mid-week ride here when Team Mad Dog Media-Dogs at Large Velo — TMDM-DALV for short — was still a going concern.
A half-dozen of us would meet on Thursdays, if memory serves, and do a nice long ride out to the boonies and back. Trading pace, shooting the breeze, sprinting for odd landmarks like fire hydrants (hey, we were dogs, OK?).
These were no-drop affairs with lots of bad Phil ‘n’ Paul imitations (“He’s lit the blue touchpaper … he’s dancing on the pedals … here comes the man with the hammer!”). Big fun.
I’d like to get something like that going again, but the herd has thinned and these days it’s tough to get away during business hours for a few hours of playtime.
You’ve hit on an issue with group rides. You write you failed to distinguish yourself – is this important? The best group rides in my foggy memory are those where: a) everyone did their fair share at the front – the stronger ones took longer pulls while the weaker ones just pulled through and off b) as a indicated, they were organized with no bozos “attacking” off the front, jacking the speed up every time it was their turn. c) people knew HOW to ride a straight line, blew their nose only at the back of the line, etc. d) someone was in charge of the thing and made sure nobody was dropped, even if they had to ease back and put a hand onto the slower rider’s back and push them up into contact with the group. The rides described here sound more like a RACE though of course there’s no official finish line so each moron can decide on their own moment of “victory.” This kind of shit drives more beginning riders out of doing any more than riding around by themselves than any other situation that I know of!
Oooh, that soapbox step’s getting harder to climb down from as I get older.
When I was a new racer, I felt obligated to show I had some ability to drive the bunch. Later, I was politely told to lighten up, i.e., not to get to the front and raise the pace above what is tacitly agreed to by the group. Especially since its easier to overreach that way and blow up down the line on a long ride. As Larry sez, someone has to be in charge and coach new riders as well as put the smack down on experienced ones if you want to encourage folks to join the fun. We had a couple fine teammates who filled that description of being senior mentors.
Nowdays, my riding is often alone, either commuter riding or getting out of town for a mental health break after work or on weekends. My better half shares the tandem with me often enough and that’s usually all the company I need. Besides, it seems everyone is younger and faster or older and faster than I am. I guess that is good. Its a tough job to be the old slow fart, but someone’s gotta do it.
Don’t feel bad Patrick, I tried a few times last year I was thinking that after a few good solid weeks on the bike I could hide in the group for a while. Needless to say, that plan didn’t work so well.
What’s even worse is this smart ass kid I know pretty well kept dropping back to see what my problem was. I ask him if he thought being close to 60 and enjoying beer and burritos might be a factor. He coldly told me “No” that I was always that slow even 17 years ago. Now I ride alone or with some old farts that promise to ride slow and only for a few hours because they are expected back at the “Home” by a certain time.
Señores … thanks for the support. I was riding with some younger, exuberant types, and I don’t begrudge them their frivolity. It was actually fun, kinda, sorta, until I realized I needed a few more oxygen-intake ports than comes standard on a 1954 O’Grady.
I enjoy a good group ride, the sort in which the group knows its participants’ skills and limitations and nobody gets dropped unless s/he is a total tool and has it coming.
As you know, if you have the legs it’s a pleasure to drop back to a straggler and do tow-truck duty. And if you’re suffering, it’s nice to have some backup.
But in this instance, I was the new kid in school, a role I know well. There was no hazing involved — it was more like, “Hey, here’s how we do things around here, wanna play?”
I ain’t lying — there were moments when I thought I was done and would have to slink home, droopy tail between flabby legs. But someone else hollered uncle first and I finished without soiling my chamois.
And nobody was shelled in the creation of this website post. The group rolled in together.
In that sense it really was a laughing group. Only we were all laughing with, rather than at.
All this discussion about group rides makes me think of how well organized the Davis Bike Club was with their rides long before you had the chance of picking up the smell of pepper spray in the air.
They had a different group ride every day of the week. The old fart retired group would ride out to Woodland for breakfast on a weekday morning. There was a women’s only group, and on weekends their would be the hammerfest group going out Lake Berryessa. My favorite was the Wednesday night ride.We would have as many as 70+ riders show up. A great learning experience for all levels, double pace line at moderate pace learning how to rotate at the front and improve your bike handling skills. The first 12 miles out was controlled and everyone stayed together.
A couple of senior guys from the club acted as coach/enforcer to make sure everyone was welcome and learning group riding skills.
At the 13 mile mark we turned on to a quite country road where the fast guys could open it up and sprint at several spots along the way. Everyone would then regroup at a small country store and ride at a moderate pace back to town. A very sane, safe and fun group ride.
Those were the days, eh? Mine were with the South Bay Wheelmen in Southern California. As a recovering marathon runner I had the endurance to help with the flats on the way back home if the strong guys would push me a bit up the hills so I didn’t get dropped. I still thank Bill Ron (one of the senior members back then) when I see him at Interbike. Are there any of these kind of rides left these days or have they all become the “Saturday Morning World Championships” for those too chicken to actually pin on a number? People trying to boost fragile egos by beating up on others in these “races” really wind me up. It was the same in my moto daze, we’d go out for a spin on Saturday morning and some moron would blast by, then brag how he “beat” so-and-so. We’d always suggest these folks get some leathers and number plates and join us on the racetrack next Sunday, but there was always some excuse as to why they couldn’t do that.
I’ve been doing this for a long time and every group ride I’ve been on turned into a race. I just ride alone now.
Nice set up on your Soma DC Sir, lovely looking bike.
Thanks, Ryan. I bought one for Herself some years back and she liked it so much I snagged one for myself.
It’s a very utilitarian machine, the kind I’ve come to appreciate. Strip it down to the bare bones and it makes a serviceable cyclo-cross bike (which it was in its original form). Add fenders and you have a foul-weather bike. Add racks and panniers fore and aft and you have a light-duty touring bike suited to pavement and gravel roads.
I’ve ridden it in all three configurations and it has yet to disappoint. And you have to like the basic black, right? Always in fashion.
There seems to be one crucial (to me at least) point missing in all this talk about group rides. It’s January….aren’t any roadies worth their chamois supposed to be doing this oddly foreign concept of “base miles”? That’s what I often wonder in these discussions…the time to hammer and the time to relax and smell the lack of roses (it IS January after all). I’ll confess to the Tuesday Night World Championships mentality (and Saturday morning too, but it’s a lot more tongue-in-cheek then) when it’s Daylight Savings Season. But from about November through March ‘ought’ to be small ring season. That’s how it is for me at least…and somewhat for some of the people I ride with during this time.
After all…those who insist on riding one speed all the time are doomed to ride one speed all the time. They might get slower, but they most certainly won’t get faster.
You speak the truth, Barry. I recall one of the local strongmen riding a fixie during base-mile season — and long before fixies were cool — because he didn’t want to be tempted to push a big gear too soon. It was all about smoothing out the spin and logging those fat-burning miles.
I often rode a ‘cross bike with road rubber to limit my own gearing choices. It’s pretty hard to get all aggro’ with a 46-tooth big ring.
For me, riding with a group of folks is, well….riding WITH a group of folks rather than “racing” against a group of folks. Of course in Italy I often get paid to do that, but even for free it’s what I enjoy – everyone taking their turn at the front, smoothly moving to the back of the line, interesting conversation within the group, etc. Otherwise I’ll ride by myself or with the one who coined “people are stupid”. She used to joke about the “January racers” when she trained in Santa Barbara, the jerks who jacked up the speed and sprinted off every chance they got, only to be nowhere when the actual races began. Her group would just let them go, nobody would chase – some would figure it out, others never did. Nice bike – reminds me of my “winter” bike, a LeMond Poprad, all steel, with fenders and some fat Challenge Paris-Roubaix rubber. I find the wind conditions make way more difference in the pace of my rides around Iowa than what bike I happen to ride, since they ALL have the same MOTOR! I have a tough time believing I’d go any faster or have any more fun riding a 15 lb “plastic-fantastic” with slab-sided “aero” wheels, despite what all the advertising says.
My last two additions to the stable have both been Cr-Mo steel utility bikes, a Salsa LaCruz and a Surly Long Haul Trucker. They are just a lot of fun and in the case of the LHT, fills my need for something I can fiddle with incessantly as well as ride it. Well, the K1100RS is fun and can be incessantly fiddled with, too, but for way more dinero than makes sense for this guy. Especially if I want to be sleeping in the house rather than in the garage.
The LaCruz fits the bill that POG’s Soma does–a good all around bike that can be stripped down and go reasonably fast with light hoops (well, as fast as the motor) or outfitted for Operation Barbarossa with sturdy wheels, cross or off road tires, fenders and panniers. Its main limitation is fitting fenders and panniers around the disk brake bosses, but that is improving as more stuff comes on the market for disk brake road bikes.
Right now the Trucker, which can take all but the most outrageous knobbies (I was recently riding it with the 26 x 2.1 inch version of Richey Crossmax tires for winter ugliness) is festooned with both rear and front pannier mounts, as I dug out the Blackburn Low Riders that I took off a Miyata Speciallisima some time ago; I used it in that configuration on Sunday to go for a ride via all the shopping stops I had planned for the day. For a winter ride/errand fetching, its nice and one can sure get a workout. But its also wearing a set of fast Bontrager wheels, so I can fit it out with some fast slicks once the weather improves.
I’ll always be partial to a fast and light pure road bike in the stable, so no fear of me getting rid of the Six-Thirteen or anything less performance oriented than the Co-Motion Primera for twofer riding. Especially here in the mountains, a light, fast, nimble bike is way too much fun. But like Larry, I think the current generation of sub fifteen pound plastic fantastic stuff, way too over-optimized for obtaining that last 0.1 mph on the flats, is getting a bit silly.
The dear departed Ms Ivins also warned us about rick “goodhair” perry, but many of the repugs still are clueless. Is something in the water in Texas? fluoride?
I also bought a LHT for commuting and general use this year rather than tryto ressurect a 80s vintage Cannondale R500 another time. Rode 26×2.o knobbies on fire roads and single track at Chino Hills State Park in honor of MLK. Spectacular day.
Rochester, New York fluoridated its water back when I was a kid. Our Republicans were so moderate that nowdays they would be drummed out of the party. So not sure it is fluoridation.
For MLK Day, we took a long walk in the snow with the dogs and practiced getting the car sideways in a mountain snowstorm on the High Road to Taos. My new neighbors, from Florida and South Carolina, celebrated MLK day by putting up a big Confederate flag. Kinda took me aback. Its tough for me to look at that flag, having been, as a small kid, raised in a nearly all black part of Buffalo where my best friend was a black kid. Spent most of my adult life living in two multicultural states, Hawai’i and New Mexico. Its even tougher for my spouse to see that thing. She is South Asian and has been called N*gg*r on several occasions by people who just see dark skin and automatically get stupid. So I went out and put up the Stars and Stripes, just ‘cuz.
Maybe its something about the intense sunlight south of the Mason-Dixon Line baking on the skull? Fuckin’ A, I don’t know. The only logical answer is Heather’s.
A nice peace sign flag seems like suitable non-violent response. Might even get them to move on.
If they’re new to the area, you can hope they will eventually realize they’re not in SC/FL anymore.
If they’ve been there a while…oh well, you know now what you must do.
Never been a shortage of white trash, and none in sight.
Sons of Confed. Vets types around here who who are serious about the ‘heritage, not hate’ thing fly the Bonnie Blue Flag or the actual Stars & Bars, but never the damn Battle Flag. That was co-opted by the redneckery even before my time.