2016 - Social Tour Season

[ratz]

In the north of the U.S., August marks the start of Social Bike Tour season. So here's a thread to post those events.

Tour de Tonka 2016 was on our list for this summer; it's usually 3000+ bikers riding routes from 16 to 100 miles. It's one of the better run Social tours I've been to over the years. Ranks up there with WI's Door Country Century and the Horribly Hilly Hundred.

This year Samantha, PluckyBlond and I rode the 67 mile route. Not a big deal for Mom and Dad but Sam had zero time to train this year; and had ridden 22 miles on her Quest 559 as she was too busy pulling double shifts for college money. So of course we threw here on the Silvio 2.x on Monday for the first time every; and then after 2 hours of parking lot drills on Friday; she went out and rode all 67 miles on the Silvio.

This worked out pretty good; PB and I just sprinted from rest stop to rest stop and then waiting for Sam, fuel her up verify all good; then off we go again. I'm pretty sure the same 250 or so riders that we kept re-passing after each rest stop got really sick of use making their 20mph look really slow. The nice head wind helped a lot too.







Beating most riders to rest stop number 1




Mile 30

 

[ratz]

And the rest









And of course the required video clip of the day..... Taken about 2 minutes before she dropped me on the next segment; can't give that woman a 1 minute lead if you want to see her before the next rest stop.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ftmdatsir5qbktk/IMG_5557.mp4?dl=0

 

[ratz]

Two last ones of why I say doing the slow speed drills is the best practice. This would be after about 36 miles on the Silvio ever; first 20 doing drills in the parking lots to humor dad.



Showing off




And yes she was moving pretty fast for the stationary camera lens

 

[super slim]

I think you have lost the Silvio 2.0!!!!

 

[ratz]

I think you have lost the Silvio 2.0!!!!

Yeah after that performance on no training we officially made it her's. Now I need to find a v20 frame for Pluckyblond's trainer.

 

[super slim]

Yeah after that performance on no training we officially made it her's. Now I need to find a v20 frame for Pluckyblond's trainer.

I know this might sound a bit left field, but could you raise the base of the indoor trainer so the BB height, of the redundant Dark Green Quest, is the same as the Vendetta, bend the rear seat post to get 21 degrees with the front raised, and do Emeljay's QX100 front triangle mod so it is like a Silvio, and add drop bars or Bull bars.
The idea is to get a Quest V3? dimensions of seat height, angle and horiz + vertical distance to the BB, and handle bar position, to be the same as the Vendetta!

When will we see some photos???

 

[ratz]

I know this might sound a bit left field, but could you raise the base of the indoor trainer so the BB height, of the redundant Dark Green Quest, is the same as the Vendetta, bend the rear seat post to get 21 degrees with the front raised, and do Emeljay's QX100 front triangle mod so it is like a Silvio, and add drop bars or Bull bars.
The idea is to get a Quest V3? dimensions of seat height, angle and horiz + vertical distance to the BB, and handle bar position, to be the same as the Vendetta!

When will we see some photos???

Green Quest is other daughter's bike; and the Q559 isn't redundant as we use that for lessons & trail riding; but yes we did roughly that with the Quickr's but you can't get the same position exactly; and the flex in the front boom is too much when doing the hard core training at 125% FTP. For just aerobic riding it was ok; but for specificity training; even using a Silvio to train for a Vendetta was sub optimal.

 

[super slim]

I forgot about the front boom flex?

 

[DavidCH]

In the north of the U.S., August marks the start of Social Bike Tour season. So here's a thread to post those events.

Hey Bob,

Are those standard Cruzbike Jerseys? Looks much better than the one on the website. Love the Logo "Designed for Joy".

I wouldn't hesitate to buy one of those.

Thanks for posting

 

[ratz]

Hey Bob,

Are those standard Cruzbike Jerseys? Looks much better than the one on the website. Love the Logo "Designed for Joy".

I wouldn't hesitate to buy one of those.

Thanks for posting

Those are from the retreat; they are really cool; they are club fit; and the actual jersey has the technical design specs of the bikes on them. I don't know if they are selling them on the website or not it's quite possible they are reserved for special functions. If you really want them; I'm guessing if you signed up for the ambassador program and then emailed Lucia {at} cruzbike {dot} com, if she had any left you probably go to the front of the line to buy them. The good news for the Big and Tall guys is these run really big in the sizes. I'm wearing a Small; so I suspect she or Robert have got a lot of larges and x-large.

 

[BJ686]

Great pics, and congrats to your daughter on the long ride with little training. Question on your bike set up---Are you running your DS 500 rear lights during events like this, or are they too bright for other cyclists?

 

[ratz]

Great pics, and congrats to your daughter on the long ride with little training. Question on your bike set up---Are you running your DS 500 rear lights during events like this, or are they too bright for other cyclists?

We run them in EMS blink mode on the rides; and nobody complains about them at all, what I get is a lot of "where can I get those". If I run a steady on-off pattern that tends to annoy people. The only time I shut them off is if I'm running in seasoned pace line where the group is good enough to stare at the wheel in front of them, Running as Sweep or in a B or C ride the lights actually help keep the group together; and frankly as Sweep I can control the cars from behind to the advantage of the whole group. Once they see me they are alert for the rest. You really can see these from two miles away which gets the drivers attention long before they get to us. I use to worry I was annoying people; but I've asked 100's of people now bikers and drivers and the all approve hands down that result is worth it. I tend to think the wimpy lights are more annoying because the cars can't really see them; so the only one looking at them is the bikers, so what's the point in the daytime, and I also find some of those blink patterns more annoying, but that's getting into the purely subjective.

What I really think is that people are becoming more aware that good lights make a difference. When I get asked "why do you run lights in the daytime", my stock answer is that 2 ton pickup trucks now come with daytime running lights that you can't turn off. If they are a safety advantage for a 2 ton truck then they are a safety advantage for my 25 lb bike. That always gets the nod of approval from the questioner.

 

[Always-Learnin]

And the rest

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And of course the required video clip of the day..... Taken about 2 minutes before she dropped me on the next segment; can't give that woman a 1 minute lead if you want to see her before the next rest stop.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ftmdatsir5qbktk/IMG_5557.mp4?dl=0

Now that's just too cute. You're blessed.