Hi Gang,
I had a little bit of down time on my computer. Had to relieve my machine of the choaking dust that was inside! My machine has to operate in "field" conditions. I'm behind on several personal communications which I will catch up on today I hope; but I've been engrossed in framebuilding and painting and don't want to upset my momentum. I did want to relate this "vintage" ride story I took yesterday.
Here in San Diego there is a Sunday ride, called the "JB Ride", that is a stiff 35 miler leaving from Rancho San Diego and climbing up to the East County community of Alpine. Yes, JB was there, as was framebuilder Bill Holland. Notice the name "Alpine". Yes, it is UP! There is a lot of climbing on this ride. Long and reasonably steep. A solid group of SD riders form up at 8am Sunday. Pretty much everyone rides modern hi-tech bikes and equiptment. The closest thing to vintage are "Fast Eddie" who frequently rides an orange Eddy Marckx and Sterling Peters who rides his DeRosa. The rest of the bikes are Holland Titanium, Cannondale, Lightspeed, etc. sort of things with snazzy wheels. I showed up with the '72ish Lippy outfitted with Weinmann centerpull brakes, a triple crankset, and a 5 speed freewheel. Everyone else was running 10 spd rear and two chainrings; 20 gears to my 15. It seemed odd. It looked odd. I'm starting to get a little bit of fitness back from a few rides here and there, so I'm using these rides for "training". I figured I'd hang as long as I could and ride the rest of the way at my fastest pace I could maintain. That's how I get back into the swing. Up in Alpine is a small coffee shop where the group reassembles and then the fun begins. The trip down from Alpine is ABSOLUTELY a GAS if you love high speed decents through curvy roads.
The ride rolled out on one of the most glorious days I've ever seen in San Diego. I wasn't even wearing my tights; only long sleeve tee shirt under my wool jersey and some shorts. The ride rolls out for about 10 miles before all of a sudden there is a climb which begins to sort out the players. I was last up the hill but the slight dip downhill on the other side allowed me to catch up. Another mile or so and the road pitches up again, this time for about 3 miles. Sterling and I climbed up the thing most of the way together until near the one of the junctions where everyone waits for stragglers where he shed me. Within a minute everyone was there so we proceeded to climb the rest of the way to the summit and make the slight decent to the coffee shop. I bought Joe a cup of Joe and we had a wonderful mountain community coffee break. Then back to the bikes and the LONG downhill ride to the valley floor from whence we came. JB likes to be at the front on decents so he doesn't have to worry about other riders. I'm the same way. The first curvy decent I followed JB from a short distance back as I got a feel for these curves on this bike. I'd only put in 7 or 8 miles on it before this test (see my previous write up for the maiden voyage). It was high speed fun. JB really knows how to open it up on these roads, he has ridden them countless times. It was fun to watch him scream down the hills wide open, no brakes neccessary and you got to hit the gas in 53 x 13 to close any gap or make a high speed pass. I think there was a pack of about 7 or 8 of us on this strech. Left turn at the bottom and then a flat stretch for about a mile before part two of the downhill leg begins. This road cuts through Harbinson Canyon which is one lane each direction, steep and twisty and about two or three miles long to the bottom. I love this decent. I start off in the front and open it up from the top and try to maintain speed for the duration of the drop. Midway down and just the right distance ahead a minivan pulls onto the road which would have made a nice draft. Unfortunately another car was up ahead going too slow and we had to slow a bit and then lost it as they accellerated too fast. If I'd had a little more poop and a 55 x 12 I could easily have caught the van but not this day. The group made it to the bottom and I pulled off to let the line pass and they went by too fact for me to hang on. I'd blown my wad. That's OK. I rode the 10 miles back to the start pretty much alone. As I was plodding along "Fast Eddie" rolled up behind me and tried to give me a tow. I couldn't hang as he was maintaing one gear up from my 53 x 18. Apparently the decent was too fast for him though, he said he tried to stay with the spearhead but we just got away from him. There you go, I still go downhill like an angry bowling ball, but I need some work on my level of fitness. A few more death rides and I'll be getting close.
The fun part of all this is that I'm having every bit as much fun as the rest of these guys, perpaps more than some, and I'm riding a dinosaur. A touring dinosaur, and I'm having a blast. Sure, if you're racing then ride modern stuff, but for pure fun any decent bike works. Sometimes just being the oddball, the only person with external brake cables on their bike, is fun in itself. I'm looking forward to the day sometime soon when I make the climb on this ride on the Jackson trike. I assure you boys and girls, the day is comming! I can hardly wait to see the looks on their faces!
Ride your vintage bikes folks, as if I have to engourage anyone!
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA