“Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there.”
— P.J. O’Rourke, “Parliament of Whores”
It’s true; the catastrophe remains. The bright side — yesterday, anyway — could be found along NM 337 south of Tijeras.
My fellow velo-geezers and I decided to skip our usual Wednesday spin through the Sandia Foothills in favor of an extended climb to the southeast, from the corner of Homeless and Hungry at the eastern edge of The Duck! City to the Morning Star Grocery, just past the Carolino Canyon Open Space.
From El Rancho Pendejo we’re talking 42 miles round-trip with about 2,400 feet of vertical gain. I rode down to meet my compañeros at H&H, which Google Maps calls “Tramway and Central.” From there, it’s nothing but rolling hills, wide shoulders, and a single stoplight where Old Route 66 meets NM 337.
This is a two-bottle ride in cool weather, which it was; I started out wearing arm and knee warmers. In summer you can resupply as necessary at Los Vecinos Community Center or the Sandia District ranger station; toilets are available at both spots, too. For anyone feeling the urge at the turnaround there’s a porta-john outside the Morning Star.
The ascent from the stoplight to the grocery, nine miles or thereabouts, reminds me of the climb from Manitou Springs to Cascade, which the Mad Dogs did now and then in the Before-Time, when we still had the mighty legs of mastiffs instead of the quivering pins of Chihuahuas.
But while U.S. 24 has the shoulders of a young Calista Flockhart, NM 337’s shoulders are padded and smooth as a zoot suit, especially since both shoulders and highway recently got a fresh coat of asphalt. We got this intel preride from one of our number who reconned the route last Sunday, solo. Most manly.
One of these days I have to stop and snap some pix of this ride. But in a group I tend to get caught up in aimless chitchat interrupted by minor acts of aggression because hey, we may be old but we’re still cyclists. There will be attacks and counters.
Meanwhile, anyone out there feeling the ravages of time and contemplating an e-bike should know that our senior road warrior, who is 82, covered the whole route without electrical assistance and took his pulls in the paceline on the way back, too.
How’s that for a bright side, younguns?
Mad Blog Media 
Sounds like my idea of fun. Or, as I’m prone to say during times of raucous suffering, “If this is fun, we’re having it!”
Did I steal that from you?
If you did, I probably stole it from someone else first.
You’d like this ride and a few others in the general vicinity, too. Bring the M-dogg out and if we can find some fun, why, we’ll have it.
On that one climb during our Santa Fe ride, Andy asked me if we were doing “epic shit?” I said yes, we are now in rarified air, literally and figuratively. Sometime cyclists forget that a 42 mile ride with some serious climbing is to normal folks some epic shit! Especially of you are 82 years old.
The 82-year-old recently bought himself a new $3,500 road bike, a carbon Trek with plenty of those modern bells and whistles. I think this is the one. It gives him a better climbing gear and more comfort on the descents.
When it gets too chilly to ride he skis.
Dude is an inspiration to us all.
Truly inspirational. My goal in life is to walk up to the lift ticket window at Alta a few weeks after my 80th birthday and demand my free lifetime pass. I’ve seen several ski buddies do it over the years and it remains my highest ambition.
Also, I bought one of those Trek Domanes 10 years ago and I haven’t broken it yet. Maybe I need to ride it more…
Damn Chris….Alta has some steeps. You must be pretty accomplished on the slats. My 80 year old brother in law still snowboards and skis the trees through powder. He’s in such good shape it’s mind boggling
You’ll git ’er done, podnah. You certainly manage to keep mind and body on the move, and that’s the way to do ’er.
And hell yes, you need to ride that bike more often. Chase Alex and the M-dogg around the Wine Country a couple-three days a week.
One thing I have noticed about these geezers is that only a couple of them venture off-road. The trails here can be unforgiving, and it goes without saying that the ones closest to us are the ones most likely to be overflowing with knuckleheads, who are even more dangerous than the spiky rocks, spiny vegetation, grumpy buzzworms, etc.
I haven’t been out there on a cyclocross bike in a week. Maybe I should have a go at it today while everyone’s busy prepping for the Balloon Fiesta.
I don’t dare use a cross bike on the technical trails near my house. The Double Boinger handles better and doesn’t rattle my teeth out so less chance of injury. The Rail Trail is great for a gravel or cross bike and a nice 35 mile out and back.
Khal: With age comes wisdom ….. and constant re-evaluation of the risk/reward ratio, eh?! 🙂
That 1:1 low gear is great for old farts. I cobbled together the same ratio on my old CAAD-5.
https://labikes.blogspot.com/2021/03/old-farts-need-bikes-too-or-mass-bike.html
My granny low on my ancient RANS Stratus was 24/34 on a 28mm wide 700C. I seldom needed it in north central TX, as most inclines could be handled with the middle 34 ring, but there were a few places where I needed that short gear as I was riding from Dallas to Sherman to see my GF for an overnight so I had clean clothes and civvys for wearing in Sherman plus a few toiletries in the bike box behind the seat on the trip up, plus a load of stinky clothes for the trip back. And the loop handlebar of the Stratus did not make for an easy push for those few walls up and back.
Fo’ troo. I’m running a seven-speed, friction-shifting, 46/30T 13-34T setup on the New Albion Privateer, with 38mm tires at 60/65psi, and lemme tell ya, bruh, that setup is the shit. Spin when you have to, mash when you feel like it, and stay comfy all the while.
I’ll dust off that bike later today. Got Covid, flu, and RSV boosters yesterday and woke up this morning feeling like I was run over by a bus.
Khal: Please strike my earlier comment about age and wisdom. Especially as a scientist ….. why would one try three items at once, not knowing the effects of their interactions …. and then not knowing which one(s) caused the problem? 🙂
I agree. That sounds like a little bit much all at one time to me as well. But then Khal probably volunteered for a comprehensive study about cycling and recovering from three vaccinations administered in a single day.
I’m flying out of state later this month so wanted to get it all over with at least a couple weeks in advance.
I’ve had the covid booster and flu shot at once before and it was not a big deal. This one hit me hard for about 18 hours but I was able to get a brisk, 21 mile hilly ride in on Friday afternoon. So I guess it was one of those experiments in how many shots one can get at once and still ride the following day.
‘shoulders of a young Calista Flockhart’. Classic.
Remember “Ally McBeal?” I always wondered how she managed to get out of bed in the morning without breaking one of the bones she needed the most.
Poor Old Herb. Not only have I never laid eyes on a New Albion Privateer, but I never saw Ally McBeal. Calista Flockhart ? is as unknown to me as having a Chevy pickup driver NOT trying to whack me with their passenger mirror as they pass me on my bike. For some reason I find the F-150 guys cut me more slack. On the plus side you can hear Wrangler drivers coming for miles and you can get ready to bail as back here it’s pilot is likely a gal texting. Yeah….stereotypes but goddamnit …too often true.
Herberino old scout, I can give yis a helping hand here.
Behold the New Albion Privateer. It was the last bike I reviewed for Adventure Cyclist and is a cousin to the two Soma Double Crosses in the garage.
I’ve since taken off the rear rack, and exchanged the Soma Hishou saddle for a Selle Italia Flite and the 10-speed IRD cassette for a seven-speed Shimano from Rivendell. This is a great steed for the horsing around I do in these parts. If I ever went back to Mark Nobilette, begging for a second custom frameset, I’d ask him to provide clearance for 42mm tires.
• Click here to embiggen.
That is a beauty! I remember your test on it, and I was tempted mightily. But, I bought the Double Cross Disc instead.
With your forgiveness , I would like to change topics for a minute. I bet Herb know all about Eva Cassidy. I just discovered her last night. She was a singer, who tragically left earlier, before the world discovered her. I think one of the best voices I have ever heard.
POB I do have her “Best Of” 2012 CD and agree she could spin a song to her favor alright. Another case of real talent versus the awful noise coming from hip hop and endless rap drivel. There….I said it. I can appreciate everything from Bluegrass to Jazz-Hard Rock to Classical and everything in between . But having someone curse to me with a synthesized, monotonous drum beat isn’t music. Poetry maybe? I’ll crawl back in my cave now…..
I thought you might be aware of her. You can imagine how I was memorized by her voice and, style, and how she worked a microphone when we stumbled into the Blues Alley videos on youtube.
POG- I’ve been thinking about it for waaay too long….
Given all those bikes, and that you seem to favor the Flight saddles no matter the steed, do you get hyper anxious about setting the seat/bar heights identical? I know the frame angles surely feel different on the old joints as they percolate through the pedal stroke. For me, if I don’t get the set up on every bike spot on it feels like I’m either wearing Danny DiVito’s pants or LeBron’s shoes.
Herbivore, old weedeater, I’m not as fussy as I used to be. True, I favor the Selle Italia Flite saddle … but I also have SI Turbos on two bikes (Bianchi Zurigo and Rivendell Sam Hillborne); an SI Turbomatic Gel Flow (Voodoo Nakisi; and an SI Nekkar (Co-Motion Divide Rohloff).
In addition, the Fleet includes a WTB Laser V Team (Jones) and a truly ancient Vetta (Voodoo Wazoo) taken from a Team Crest Pinarello Prologo TT time trial bike that may have been ridden by Greg LeMond (but probably not).
Meanwhile, the DBR Prevail TT still sports its original Avenir ti’ saddle from 1994.
Adding complexity to the mix, I started using 175mm cranks off road back when longer arms were in fashion, and still have those on several bikes. Once I decided that for the sake of my knees I should strive to spin rather than mash I started moving back to 172.5mm, but some of those 175s are just too cool to abandon (two elderly Shimano XT subcompact triples, a couple Race Faces, one Adventure Components, etc.) The Jones has 170mm cranks. Jeff Jones likes them shorties, and they seem to work for me on that bike.
Frame size is all over the map, too, from 55cm to 58cm, and I’ve cycled through a whole bunch of changes in stem length and rise.
Oddly, I think that all this variability has spared me some of the aches and pains common to the elderly cyclist. My carcass never knows what it’s in for from day to day.
Oh, yeah, almost forgot: When I was still racing cyclocross and considered it the most important thing I was doing on the bike I switched everything over to left lever brakes rear, right lever brakes front, a la the old Eurodogs. I’ve been switching back to standard braking practice whenever I happen to think about it, which to be honest is not often. And still rock this setup on the two Steelman Eurocrosses and a couple other bikes, so I do a quick memory check before I roll down the driveway. Ain’t nothing quite like that sudden departure from the vehicle when you hit that front brake hard by accident.
Aha!! So you don’t use lasers and advanced calculus and geometry to get all those saddles and bars just right. I think you are right that having variety in position is better for the old bod. Avoids repetitive stress syndrome. I know a lot about where that leads. Didn’t change paddles or angles when I was a kayak guide and had both elbow’s rebuilt.
Bruh, I only just managed to pass algebra (or was it geometry?) with a D, otherwise I would still be in high school. My mother did not pass along her aptitude for mathematics, though I owe her big-time for sharing her love of reading.
I was a little stricter about cyclocross setup in the Before-Time, trying to make race and pit bikes as close to identical as possible. For example, a saddle that in mid-remount is not precisely where you expect it to be can spoil your race and/or set you to singing soprano in the pope’s choir.
My first track race involved a sprint and subsequent seatpost malfunction. That was an interesting moment. It’s fascinating to realize how long one can wind down thier out-of-saddle sprint when said saddle is out-of-service.
I had my seat height off by a centimeter a few years back and I think it caused me all sorts of minor misery.
https://labikes.blogspot.com/2020/06/one-centimeter-and-3400-feet-or-its.html
No contemplating an e-bike for my soon to be 80 road warrior husband. He just completed the Mountains to Coast ride across NC for the second time with his buddy who is 74.
Well done to your husband and his riding buddy! The M2C looks like a Feat of Strength, for sure. Especially if they were camping.
I did the Adventure Cycling Association’s Southern Arizona Road Adventure back in 2010, but that only covered 220 miles in a week. A Sunday spin by comparison.