Moon Shadows are Evil
- Thread starter stb222
- Start date
I supported a GTLuke type person and purchased this picture:
So glad @Mountain Bike Mike didn't ruin it with his abnormally large head. You can see him lurking in the shadows though.
So glad @Mountain Bike Mike didn't ruin it with his abnormally large head. You can see him lurking in the shadows though.
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
I'm very self conscious of my big head and skinny calves. One of the main reasons I lift weights is to try and make my body more proportionate with my huge head. In my mid twenties, I was successful. Cycling shrunk me back down to a circus freak. Thanks Kev! 5 years of therapy out the window! 😉
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
I am here for you dude
Good Look'n out Brah!
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
Found the other one, gotta work on the pose, son.
Damn, caught me either mid sit / stand... Now I know and knowing if half the battle!
Funny I had to blow up the photo to make sure it was 2 dudes on bikes.Found the other one, gotta work on the pose, son.
Wasn't sure where to put this,
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rapha-and-team-sky-announce-end-to-clothing-partnership/
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rapha-and-team-sky-announce-end-to-clothing-partnership/
Sometime Work Kills Your Life and Sometimes it Allows You to Live
Three weeks ago, I was told that I was selected to be part of a new training program at my company that consisted of 4, 2.5 days sessions over the next 4 months. I don’t travel much for my job and on the home front it is obviously a tax on my wife, but this opportunity for this training was too good to pass up from a professional perspective. And if you know anything about me, you know damn well I will find a way to ride pretty much anywhere I go. I was very excited to find out that the February sesh was in Irvine, CA, which for February is probably the best domestic location my company has to offer, riding wise anyways.
To my surprise, there were multiple places to rent a bike and I could have rented a super awesome fred sled with Dura Ace DI2 and Carbon Clinchers but I decided the extra cost probably wasn’t worth it. So I went with the cheaper option and it turns out the shop is owned by people from Wayne, NJ, so it just felt right. I Uber’ed my way to the shop and within 20 min of arriving at the shop, I was spinning my legs in 80 degree temps. I had planned my route mainly from Garmin and Strava suggested roads and had a 60 mile route loaded up. I was very close the mountains but it all seemed that the roads were dirt / jeep trails but I managed to fine some paved stuff.
So Irvine is a completely planned community, right down to the mother fucking people. At first it seems great, 4-8’ bike lanes on every road and I mean, every GD road, however all the roads are 2-3 lanes on each side with the intersections having turn lanes, so this mean so big ass intersections, .i.e., you can’t blow lights…but more on this place later….
When ridding in new locations, I always feel nervous in both an excited and uncomfortable way. The stuff I ride at home, I know every road, the traffic, the cracks, the bumps, the shortcuts, the light cycles, the stop signs I can blow, the places I need to pay attention, the places I can zone, fuck, I even know around what times a certain cars passes me if I take a certain route for my morning rides. I pay attention like that, maybe it is a control thing, IDK, but it is what I do. In new places you know none of this, it is all new and it is unnerving but I need to see what is out there, I have to experience it with my own eyes. I don’t want to hear about it, I want to see it, feel it, breathe it, fucking live it. This need cancels out the unknowing of what is down that road to a certain extent, but it is still there…
So I am so stoked on this new place, waiting at the lights of endless suburbia is tolerable and it is 80 degrees. I notices kids riding bikes, walking and skateboarding from school, with no parents, it feels strange and awesome at the same time. So I kinda notice I am consistently going up, but not really enough to slow me down much until the first hump to get over. Garmin route apparently takes me on a trail, which I ignore because I don’t want to flat 15 min in when I only have two tubes and the guy at the bike store didn’t really give me a good feeling when he said “I wouldn’t throw too much at these tires” when I asked about the jeep trails. So anyways, climbed up and over these foothills, two, maybe 10 min efforts on moderate grades and boom, everywhere in front of me looks like this:
This is actually a side road, which I am still on a highway, but everywhere I can see looks like this picture. Stokage. So I am maybe an hour in and the temp and no humidity is getting to me in that I am sucking down water, fast. So I stop at a convenient store / library in Silverado, which is a strange little “town”, if you can call it that. I get a snickers, that explains @rick81721 and @Mountain Bike Mike when the temp dips below 35, and go on my way.
The climb is gradual but always there. I come to a closed park gate and naturally, go around it. So now I am on a paved road which probably has never been maintained since it was built, except for removing debris, which consisted of dirt from mudslides, rocks the size of basketballs and large branches. It also has these stream crossing made of concrete that was covered in a deathly slippery moss. I anticipated this, so got across three of them without issue. But most sections are fine:
So I know this road turns to dirt eventually and I keep going. I see a bobcat on the road about 30 yards ahead and she sees me and bolts. So now, being 15-20 min from that gate, I start to feel uncomfortable that if that little mother fucker ate my face, I would probably not be found for awhile considering this area is closed.
But the JC is looking down on me, so I know it will be all good:
The road consistently gets worse and some sections are dirt:
But good condition, so I keep going. So it was either the JC making me uncomfortable (most likely the case) or that little mother fucking bob cat, but I turn around when I saw it turn into a jeep trail in the distance. Going back down I realize it was more of a hill than I thought and it sure is nice flying downhill after an extended period of climbing.
I head back the way I came and the Garmin route again had me on a legit trail, so I went back to the main road because I knew it connected me back towards me other climb. It is maybe 4:30 now and I see my first mtb’er. Getting off the main road, I see 2 more and climb up a road with them for a min and exchange pleasantries. Again, pavement ends at this gate, which was far more legit than the one I went around. Notice the mountain lion sign…
and stop to enjoy some SoCal
and at this I am faced with my first steep climb and while it was relatively short, it stung with grades probably close to 20%
But then you go downhill for two miles….
I see 2 mtb’ers go into a trail head at the top of the climb and by the time I descending, at least 15 more. I stopped at the next intersection to call my wife and son and see at least 25 more all heading towards the same spot. It is about a half an hour until dark, they obviously had lights and errrone was on 5-6” trail bike. A few with + tires and, thankfully, not a signal damn fat bike. I knew the mtb scene out here was good, but man, not like this. In a 15 min period I probably saw more mtb’ers than ones that rode in NJ in the entire month of February. I am not going to lie, I was mad jelly in this moment.
While waiting for my son to call back, some roadie asks me if I want to follow him up this climb and I tell him I am waiting for a call and he insists because the road is dangerous. I curiously ask in what respect and he says, this road is very skinny and this is the only shoulder you have. I couldn’t help but chuckle considering the road had a 20’ wide lane and a 3’ shoulder, basically luxury fucking cruising, but I guess I can see his perspective when your used to roads with 4-8’ shoulders. It was getting dark but I had a light and blinky, but I wasn’t concerned about the traffic in the least. So make my call, climb this hill, which hurt, and bomb the fuck outta the other side but my rental bike was super twitch going downhill, but man was it fun twistiness.
I catch that roadie on the next climb and talk for a min then descend back into suburbia. It is dark now and tons of cars. The lights are endless and I have to wait at the lights because there is no break in traffic and the intersections are so damn wide. So after wasting some life doing that, my garmin route dumps me on a MUT behind a highschool stadium, with large bleachers that smelled like teen spirit and where, no doubt, so boobies were squeezed, some D’s were sucked and maybe even a few cherries were popped under there…
Anyways, the trail degraded quickly and I decide to find a different way back. So now, I am 3 hours in, its dark, I am on unfamiliar roads (however, they are ALL the same, so not that unfamiliar) and I just want to get back. Waiting at the lights is torture but the route back is all downhill, not exaggerating, so the riding is easy. Hell, you don’t even need to pay attention to the road because the pavement is perfect and there is no debris. I get back, eat some dinner and crash hard at 9:00……it was a good day.
Just Like NJ but Totally Different
Three weeks ago, I was told that I was selected to be part of a new training program at my company that consisted of 4, 2.5 days sessions over the next 4 months. I don’t travel much for my job and on the home front it is obviously a tax on my wife, but this opportunity for this training was too good to pass up from a professional perspective. And if you know anything about me, you know damn well I will find a way to ride pretty much anywhere I go. I was very excited to find out that the February sesh was in Irvine, CA, which for February is probably the best domestic location my company has to offer, riding wise anyways.
To my surprise, there were multiple places to rent a bike and I could have rented a super awesome fred sled with Dura Ace DI2 and Carbon Clinchers but I decided the extra cost probably wasn’t worth it. So I went with the cheaper option and it turns out the shop is owned by people from Wayne, NJ, so it just felt right. I Uber’ed my way to the shop and within 20 min of arriving at the shop, I was spinning my legs in 80 degree temps. I had planned my route mainly from Garmin and Strava suggested roads and had a 60 mile route loaded up. I was very close the mountains but it all seemed that the roads were dirt / jeep trails but I managed to fine some paved stuff.
So Irvine is a completely planned community, right down to the mother fucking people. At first it seems great, 4-8’ bike lanes on every road and I mean, every GD road, however all the roads are 2-3 lanes on each side with the intersections having turn lanes, so this mean so big ass intersections, .i.e., you can’t blow lights…but more on this place later….
When ridding in new locations, I always feel nervous in both an excited and uncomfortable way. The stuff I ride at home, I know every road, the traffic, the cracks, the bumps, the shortcuts, the light cycles, the stop signs I can blow, the places I need to pay attention, the places I can zone, fuck, I even know around what times a certain cars passes me if I take a certain route for my morning rides. I pay attention like that, maybe it is a control thing, IDK, but it is what I do. In new places you know none of this, it is all new and it is unnerving but I need to see what is out there, I have to experience it with my own eyes. I don’t want to hear about it, I want to see it, feel it, breathe it, fucking live it. This need cancels out the unknowing of what is down that road to a certain extent, but it is still there…
So I am so stoked on this new place, waiting at the lights of endless suburbia is tolerable and it is 80 degrees. I notices kids riding bikes, walking and skateboarding from school, with no parents, it feels strange and awesome at the same time. So I kinda notice I am consistently going up, but not really enough to slow me down much until the first hump to get over. Garmin route apparently takes me on a trail, which I ignore because I don’t want to flat 15 min in when I only have two tubes and the guy at the bike store didn’t really give me a good feeling when he said “I wouldn’t throw too much at these tires” when I asked about the jeep trails. So anyways, climbed up and over these foothills, two, maybe 10 min efforts on moderate grades and boom, everywhere in front of me looks like this:
This is actually a side road, which I am still on a highway, but everywhere I can see looks like this picture. Stokage. So I am maybe an hour in and the temp and no humidity is getting to me in that I am sucking down water, fast. So I stop at a convenient store / library in Silverado, which is a strange little “town”, if you can call it that. I get a snickers, that explains @rick81721 and @Mountain Bike Mike when the temp dips below 35, and go on my way.
The climb is gradual but always there. I come to a closed park gate and naturally, go around it. So now I am on a paved road which probably has never been maintained since it was built, except for removing debris, which consisted of dirt from mudslides, rocks the size of basketballs and large branches. It also has these stream crossing made of concrete that was covered in a deathly slippery moss. I anticipated this, so got across three of them without issue. But most sections are fine:
So I know this road turns to dirt eventually and I keep going. I see a bobcat on the road about 30 yards ahead and she sees me and bolts. So now, being 15-20 min from that gate, I start to feel uncomfortable that if that little mother fucker ate my face, I would probably not be found for awhile considering this area is closed.
But the JC is looking down on me, so I know it will be all good:
The road consistently gets worse and some sections are dirt:
But good condition, so I keep going. So it was either the JC making me uncomfortable (most likely the case) or that little mother fucking bob cat, but I turn around when I saw it turn into a jeep trail in the distance. Going back down I realize it was more of a hill than I thought and it sure is nice flying downhill after an extended period of climbing.
I head back the way I came and the Garmin route again had me on a legit trail, so I went back to the main road because I knew it connected me back towards me other climb. It is maybe 4:30 now and I see my first mtb’er. Getting off the main road, I see 2 more and climb up a road with them for a min and exchange pleasantries. Again, pavement ends at this gate, which was far more legit than the one I went around. Notice the mountain lion sign…
and stop to enjoy some SoCal
and at this I am faced with my first steep climb and while it was relatively short, it stung with grades probably close to 20%
But then you go downhill for two miles….
I see 2 mtb’ers go into a trail head at the top of the climb and by the time I descending, at least 15 more. I stopped at the next intersection to call my wife and son and see at least 25 more all heading towards the same spot. It is about a half an hour until dark, they obviously had lights and errrone was on 5-6” trail bike. A few with + tires and, thankfully, not a signal damn fat bike. I knew the mtb scene out here was good, but man, not like this. In a 15 min period I probably saw more mtb’ers than ones that rode in NJ in the entire month of February. I am not going to lie, I was mad jelly in this moment.
While waiting for my son to call back, some roadie asks me if I want to follow him up this climb and I tell him I am waiting for a call and he insists because the road is dangerous. I curiously ask in what respect and he says, this road is very skinny and this is the only shoulder you have. I couldn’t help but chuckle considering the road had a 20’ wide lane and a 3’ shoulder, basically luxury fucking cruising, but I guess I can see his perspective when your used to roads with 4-8’ shoulders. It was getting dark but I had a light and blinky, but I wasn’t concerned about the traffic in the least. So make my call, climb this hill, which hurt, and bomb the fuck outta the other side but my rental bike was super twitch going downhill, but man was it fun twistiness.
I catch that roadie on the next climb and talk for a min then descend back into suburbia. It is dark now and tons of cars. The lights are endless and I have to wait at the lights because there is no break in traffic and the intersections are so damn wide. So after wasting some life doing that, my garmin route dumps me on a MUT behind a highschool stadium, with large bleachers that smelled like teen spirit and where, no doubt, so boobies were squeezed, some D’s were sucked and maybe even a few cherries were popped under there…
Anyways, the trail degraded quickly and I decide to find a different way back. So now, I am 3 hours in, its dark, I am on unfamiliar roads (however, they are ALL the same, so not that unfamiliar) and I just want to get back. Waiting at the lights is torture but the route back is all downhill, not exaggerating, so the riding is easy. Hell, you don’t even need to pay attention to the road because the pavement is perfect and there is no debris. I get back, eat some dinner and crash hard at 9:00……it was a good day.
Just Like NJ but Totally Different
Last edited:
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
California Dreaming
1:30, 2:30, 3:30, fuck.
As much as I want to get out there and ride, if I go out at 1:30, I will dead for my mandatory team building this night. Getting up at 4:30 Eastern time had me first wake at 1:30 but I feel back asleep, but 2:30 was like wide awake time, wtf, but eventually feel back asleep and was on the bike just before 5:00, normal. The main goal was to hit the climb at Laguna Beach that is really steep.
Towards the coast trades suburbia for gated suburbia but with rich people comes money and crazy bike path infrastructure. These two lane paved bike trails are everywhere and they even have areas where the 10’ paved trail is rough for the runners so it is paralleled by a 10’ dirt path (picture taken the next day).
I mean, WTF. What you can do when you have the space and the money.
It is just past the full moon, crystal clear and with limited light pollution in the canyons between the gated communities, I can see the landscape around it. I hate to call it magical, but man, magic was had. I revel in a moment that most people will never see. I get over the coastal ridge and laid out before is the Pacific drenched in moonlight. I am treated to a 2 mile descent to the coast. It isn’t particularly steep, maybe a 30MPH descent without pedaling much. 2 lanes in my direction, I am in the middle of the right lane, not a car around when all the sudden I see a mass of grey fur directly in from of me. The fur moves and it is 3-4 raccoons appearing to be having either an orgy or trying to make a World War Z zombie tower/ladder. Maybe they were fucking zombie raccoons. Well, I screamed like a bitch, they ran right, I went left and I assume they took their zombie tower activates elsewhere as I escaped unscathed.
I hit the coast Pacific Coastal Highway. Forget the pictures you see of PCH, they are someplace else, it is a highway down in this location, not a two lane winding road. This is a 6 lane highway. Of course, the widest bike lane / shoulder in the history of bike lane / shoulders, so it really doesn’t matter, the road itself just doesn’t look romantic. But, the sun had yet to warm the eastern sky, the moonlight was reflecting on the water and I emerged myself in me on the bike, in that place, in that moment.
A few miles of rolling terrain, mostly spent staring at the moon on the water, brings me into Laguna Beach. The climb I have on tap looks to be a nasty little sucker and as I turn off PCH, the road starts to rise fairly quick and then goes downhill for a short section and then the climb proper starts. It gets mean, quick, and has a nice large switch back in the middle. I am crawling, already bottomed out in gearing and when I make the turn out of the switchback, the grade really kicks up, maybe not quite as steep as the “wall” section of Fiddlers Elbow type stuff but for this section is for 3-4 times the distance of that really steep section on Fiddlers. Ouchy topped with ouchy sauce. For me, these steeper grades are just about turning the pedals over. Cadence goes out the window first, smoothness second and then standing just to turn the peddles over. The temptation to stop is great, but obviously not an option. The temptation to paperboy is great, but I would like to leave this hill with my dignity in-tact. The pain eventually ends as I reach the top and I bomb back down. I stop to take a picture from the switchback as the sun is bringing first light.
I was going to ride the sister climb next to this one but time was getting short so I stopped one more time to see the moon on the water, from a spot that didn’t suck
More chilling on PCH, staring at the water, the hills, the houses perched on said hill and then the climb out. Not particularly steep, but almost the same elevation and long. Stop to take this pic but the sun was just a tad too far over the mountains:
The downhill on the other side was a screamer but the bike held me back and it was getting some serious speed wobbles from the front end, which makes for a sad, bloody panda if you push the boundaries.
So now I am back in suburbia land, but the hills break it up and the lights aren’t quite as bad because it is still before rush hour. I passed some guy on a mtb bombing the one hill and was sorta surprised he rolled up beside me at an intersection a few blocks away. We started to climb a small hill, I pass him and next light, there he is. So I size up my competition in this cat 6 standoff to see that he has an electric bike. Even so, I guess it doesn’t have much juice for extended hills because I pass him when the grade goes above 3-4% and give him the out of the saddle lookback for what I am certain is the last time I will see it, which it was. I am victorious in this battle on the bike and hopefully in my sarcasm for this recap.
The California workforce must go to work at 9:00 because at 7:20 it is still quiet when I roll into the hotel, 20 min to spare, shit, should squeezed out a few more min……
California Dreaming
@Mitch , one more Cali post where I will touch on Irvine Stepford Central
1:30, 2:30, 3:30, fuck.
As much as I want to get out there and ride, if I go out at 1:30, I will dead for my mandatory team building this night. Getting up at 4:30 Eastern time had me first wake at 1:30 but I feel back asleep, but 2:30 was like wide awake time, wtf, but eventually feel back asleep and was on the bike just before 5:00, normal. The main goal was to hit the climb at Laguna Beach that is really steep.
Towards the coast trades suburbia for gated suburbia but with rich people comes money and crazy bike path infrastructure. These two lane paved bike trails are everywhere and they even have areas where the 10’ paved trail is rough for the runners so it is paralleled by a 10’ dirt path (picture taken the next day).
I mean, WTF. What you can do when you have the space and the money.
It is just past the full moon, crystal clear and with limited light pollution in the canyons between the gated communities, I can see the landscape around it. I hate to call it magical, but man, magic was had. I revel in a moment that most people will never see. I get over the coastal ridge and laid out before is the Pacific drenched in moonlight. I am treated to a 2 mile descent to the coast. It isn’t particularly steep, maybe a 30MPH descent without pedaling much. 2 lanes in my direction, I am in the middle of the right lane, not a car around when all the sudden I see a mass of grey fur directly in from of me. The fur moves and it is 3-4 raccoons appearing to be having either an orgy or trying to make a World War Z zombie tower/ladder. Maybe they were fucking zombie raccoons. Well, I screamed like a bitch, they ran right, I went left and I assume they took their zombie tower activates elsewhere as I escaped unscathed.
I hit the coast Pacific Coastal Highway. Forget the pictures you see of PCH, they are someplace else, it is a highway down in this location, not a two lane winding road. This is a 6 lane highway. Of course, the widest bike lane / shoulder in the history of bike lane / shoulders, so it really doesn’t matter, the road itself just doesn’t look romantic. But, the sun had yet to warm the eastern sky, the moonlight was reflecting on the water and I emerged myself in me on the bike, in that place, in that moment.
A few miles of rolling terrain, mostly spent staring at the moon on the water, brings me into Laguna Beach. The climb I have on tap looks to be a nasty little sucker and as I turn off PCH, the road starts to rise fairly quick and then goes downhill for a short section and then the climb proper starts. It gets mean, quick, and has a nice large switch back in the middle. I am crawling, already bottomed out in gearing and when I make the turn out of the switchback, the grade really kicks up, maybe not quite as steep as the “wall” section of Fiddlers Elbow type stuff but for this section is for 3-4 times the distance of that really steep section on Fiddlers. Ouchy topped with ouchy sauce. For me, these steeper grades are just about turning the pedals over. Cadence goes out the window first, smoothness second and then standing just to turn the peddles over. The temptation to stop is great, but obviously not an option. The temptation to paperboy is great, but I would like to leave this hill with my dignity in-tact. The pain eventually ends as I reach the top and I bomb back down. I stop to take a picture from the switchback as the sun is bringing first light.
I was going to ride the sister climb next to this one but time was getting short so I stopped one more time to see the moon on the water, from a spot that didn’t suck
More chilling on PCH, staring at the water, the hills, the houses perched on said hill and then the climb out. Not particularly steep, but almost the same elevation and long. Stop to take this pic but the sun was just a tad too far over the mountains:
The downhill on the other side was a screamer but the bike held me back and it was getting some serious speed wobbles from the front end, which makes for a sad, bloody panda if you push the boundaries.
So now I am back in suburbia land, but the hills break it up and the lights aren’t quite as bad because it is still before rush hour. I passed some guy on a mtb bombing the one hill and was sorta surprised he rolled up beside me at an intersection a few blocks away. We started to climb a small hill, I pass him and next light, there he is. So I size up my competition in this cat 6 standoff to see that he has an electric bike. Even so, I guess it doesn’t have much juice for extended hills because I pass him when the grade goes above 3-4% and give him the out of the saddle lookback for what I am certain is the last time I will see it, which it was. I am victorious in this battle on the bike and hopefully in my sarcasm for this recap.
The California workforce must go to work at 9:00 because at 7:20 it is still quiet when I roll into the hotel, 20 min to spare, shit, should squeezed out a few more min……
California Dreaming
@Mitch , one more Cali post where I will touch on Irvine Stepford Central
