Mark B
Zen MBB Master
This past Saturday, we had anouther SoCal recumbent bike gathering. There were only four this time, but we had a picture perfect day for riding!
Fredwina did a terrific job in setting up the route. She said there would be climbing, but in my mind's eye, it was pretty darned flat. It was almost 50/50 bike trails and city streets. The streets we were on were lightly travelled by cars and most had a bike lane.
We saw three other recumbents on the ride, a BikeE, an Easy Racer and a high racer (we thought it a Corsa). We got lots of curious looks from walkers and motorists, but had zero problems. We had a nice bathroom break in downtown Claremont before heading back toward our ride start. Fredwina kept surprising us with twists and turns; placing us onto really cool, hidden bike paths.
We got back to our ride start location with 34 miles on the computer. We had a bite to eat at the Taco Factory before we said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways. I had ridden over to the ride, so ended up with 80 miles. I caught a nice tailwind on the way home, but did get a little warm as I got further east.
We have plans to do this again next month. I have a nice route figured out in the Redlands area with a date of May 30. The route will be totally on streets and open road, but most are not heavily travelled. People around here are pretty used to seeing big groups on rides, so it will be fine. If you are not accustomed to group riding, or not comfortable on streets and highways, this might be a good way to get your feet wet. There is safety in numbers and like I said, this area is nice cycling country. We'll see lots of people out and about on bikes the day of the ride.
Redlands was Palm Springs before Palm Springs was even a wide spot in the road. It features many Victorian mansions and many, many craftsman style homes from back in the day. It has a lovely downtown area that harkens back to small town USA. Trees are plentiful and lots of interesting architecture. We'll start out by checking some of that out, then take on Greenspot which is a local favorite. It has just enough climbing to get your heart rate going, but not enough to rip your legs apart. There's nothing steep, just a lot of continuous moderate river/foothill grades. It's also kind of pretty out there with historic old steel bridges. The reward for your hard work is a really fun and pretty darned long downhill where you can unwind, catch your breath and roll like crazy without a stop sign, signal light, or other bother for a few miles. We'll stop for a bite to eat and some socializing at the Airport Express, the favorite destination for our breakfast club. After that, we'll continue back to the start with a well earned 35 miles under our belts.
The pace will be casual with plenty of regroups for slower riders. I have enlisted the help of some of my wedgie riding friends to help us out manning corners and helping keep us together between regroups, so there will be opportunities for stronger riders to "let their hair down" and slower riders won't have to worry about getting dropped or missing a corner. There will be route slips, for "just in case", but we will keep everybody together.
I'd like to see a good turn out from you local Cruzers; you won't be disappointed. We've had lots of fun the last two rides and would like to keep it going. Fredwina has the June ride figured out already, then we'll probably be wanting to get to the coast for July, August and Sept. to beat the heat.
Mark
Fredwina did a terrific job in setting up the route. She said there would be climbing, but in my mind's eye, it was pretty darned flat. It was almost 50/50 bike trails and city streets. The streets we were on were lightly travelled by cars and most had a bike lane.
We saw three other recumbents on the ride, a BikeE, an Easy Racer and a high racer (we thought it a Corsa). We got lots of curious looks from walkers and motorists, but had zero problems. We had a nice bathroom break in downtown Claremont before heading back toward our ride start. Fredwina kept surprising us with twists and turns; placing us onto really cool, hidden bike paths.
We got back to our ride start location with 34 miles on the computer. We had a bite to eat at the Taco Factory before we said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways. I had ridden over to the ride, so ended up with 80 miles. I caught a nice tailwind on the way home, but did get a little warm as I got further east.
We have plans to do this again next month. I have a nice route figured out in the Redlands area with a date of May 30. The route will be totally on streets and open road, but most are not heavily travelled. People around here are pretty used to seeing big groups on rides, so it will be fine. If you are not accustomed to group riding, or not comfortable on streets and highways, this might be a good way to get your feet wet. There is safety in numbers and like I said, this area is nice cycling country. We'll see lots of people out and about on bikes the day of the ride.
Redlands was Palm Springs before Palm Springs was even a wide spot in the road. It features many Victorian mansions and many, many craftsman style homes from back in the day. It has a lovely downtown area that harkens back to small town USA. Trees are plentiful and lots of interesting architecture. We'll start out by checking some of that out, then take on Greenspot which is a local favorite. It has just enough climbing to get your heart rate going, but not enough to rip your legs apart. There's nothing steep, just a lot of continuous moderate river/foothill grades. It's also kind of pretty out there with historic old steel bridges. The reward for your hard work is a really fun and pretty darned long downhill where you can unwind, catch your breath and roll like crazy without a stop sign, signal light, or other bother for a few miles. We'll stop for a bite to eat and some socializing at the Airport Express, the favorite destination for our breakfast club. After that, we'll continue back to the start with a well earned 35 miles under our belts.
The pace will be casual with plenty of regroups for slower riders. I have enlisted the help of some of my wedgie riding friends to help us out manning corners and helping keep us together between regroups, so there will be opportunities for stronger riders to "let their hair down" and slower riders won't have to worry about getting dropped or missing a corner. There will be route slips, for "just in case", but we will keep everybody together.
I'd like to see a good turn out from you local Cruzers; you won't be disappointed. We've had lots of fun the last two rides and would like to keep it going. Fredwina has the June ride figured out already, then we'll probably be wanting to get to the coast for July, August and Sept. to beat the heat.
Mark
