It was indeed a fun gathering. We didn’t get far down the road before making a wrong turn. I had moved to the back of the group to make sure we had everyone back after the wrong turn, and talked to everyone as I moved back up in the group. I spotted Paul, Ray, Daniel, Robin, and Mark and Linda Metcalfe in the lead group ahead, so decided to speed up and join them. That proved to be easier said than done. They were taking photos, laughing, cutting up and such while I was huffing and puffing for all I was worth trying to catch them. After I finally did, I told Paul I was going to hide his fairing while he wasn’t looking.

There was a bit of light rain when we stopped at the turnaround in Tom Bean, but only a very short stretch of the road back was wet. The trip back was fun. I felt good, and since I had been wheel sucking most of the day (when I wasn’t trying to catch up, that is), I took a nice pull near the end, keeping us over 20 mph for a stretch.

There were some randonneuring first timers, both recumbent and upright, at the ride. I hope all the new folks enjoyed the ride. I was among seven rbenters who stopped in McKinney for lunch afterwards, and while I was tossing down entirely too much food, I had a great time chatting with the group. Great ride, everyone, thanks!

At the start.

Lots of recumbents on the ride.

Paul, me, and Ray.

This ride left out of the Alsbury Park and Ride in Burleson just after 8:00 am this morning. DJ showed up to ride with me, but got a call and had to leave before the start, so I was the only recumbent. This was probably the smallest turnout I’ve seen at an FWBA club ride. I guess most Fort Worth riders were at the Peach Pedal. I started out with intentions of doing the 100 mile route, but there were only three bikes doing this distance, and I was unable to hold their pace after a few miles. Rather than ride the entire 100 mile route alone, I joined Jerry and Larry, a couple of riders doing the 70 mile route, at a pace that better suited me.

This route goes from Burleson out to Venus, where the first stop is. Then it heads out to the rolling hills southeast of Venus, then loops around and goes west to Alvarado for the second stop, then makes a long run down Renfro Road from there back to Burleson. It was a really tough head wind going out. I didn’t really try to stay in constant contact with Jerry and Larry, choosing a more comfortable pace of my own that saw them drop me on the hills, then me catch up on the downhills.

At around mile 30, south of Venus, turning off Hwy 157, Jerry went down hard on his left side when he hit a patch of gravel. The way he landed, I was afraid he had hurt his hip, but all he had was scrapes and gouges on his arm, knee, and hand. We stopped there a few minutes so he could wash his wounds and recover a few minutes, then rode on. The wind was southwest enough that, even when we turned west toward Alvarado, it still felt like a head wind.

When we pulled into the last stop at Alvarado, the 40 mile group, which was doing a smaller loop, was already there, as were a couple of faster riders doing the 70 mile route. They all left a few minutes before us, but with a wind finally at our back, we passed all of the 40 mile riders on the trip down Renfro Road. The last several miles of it before I-35W is a mostly downhill stretch, so I opened it up and rode alone the last few miles.

At the finish, in ride leader Stan Ford’s vehicle, homemade peach sorbet was waiting for us. Of all the treats I’ve had at the end of a ride, this had to be number one on the list. I was searching online for a recipe when I got home. A bunch of us ended up standing around eating peach sorbet, and swapping medical horror stories. Of course, I have no trouble trumping everyone else’s medical horror stories, these days. I ended up with 69.8 miles, and a 15.7 mph average.

Steve and I rode the Puttin’ on the Styx 200k permanent yesterday. We were the only recumbents in a group of 8 bikes. We left out of Rockwall at 6:30 am.

We kept a fairly moderate pace all the way to the first control at mile 15.1. It wasn’t much further down the road before the pace picked up. As usual, Steve and I were riding off the back of the group, and were slow noticing that Jeff Elmer in front of us had been dropped. We took off, and after riding at 25 mph for a good stretch, caught the group. However, I was too blown up by then to stay with the group, and told Steve I was going to have to slow down. He could probably have stayed with them, but agreed that it was a faster pace than he wanted, and we slowed down, though still riding a brisk pace, mostly at 19 to 21 mph.

We were just a couple of minutes behind the group as we pulled into the next control in Kaufman at mile 41.8. We left right behind them, and watched as they pulled further and further away from us. George Elizondo would later tell us that Mark Metcalfe was taking pulls at 23 mph, Charlie and Pat on their tandem were taking pulls at 23 mph, and Richard Wittenburg was taking pulls at 21 mph. It would have been fun to see how long I could have hung with that kind of pace line on a flat route last year, but there’s no way I could do it for any length of time right now.

The ride took us into Gun Barrel City and Seven Points at Lake Cedar Creek on roads that were WAY too busy for me to be comfortable with. Our next control was supposed to be at Seven Points, mile 70, but we couldn’t find it. After circling the area, with vehicles backed up every direction at the main intersection, we finally found a store clerk at the Shamrock, who knew that the store which was supposed to be our control had closed. We were standing outside the Shamrock, debating what to do, when I saw the group appear at the intersection, and I shouted at Mark, asking what to do. He said not to worry about the control, that we were covered.

Jeff had come in a few minutes behind us. We took a break at the Shamrock, then continued on. Somewhere on the 30 mile stretch to the next control, fatigue started to set in on me from the earlier fast pace and the heat. My feet were screaming at me from all the miles of chipseal on this route. Steve and I slowed somewhat on this stretch, and he was starting to have to really wait for me on the hills (there wasn’t a really big hill on the entire route, though).

When we arrived at the next control at mile 103.3 in Crandall, George was waiting there. He had hung with the fast group for more than 70 miles, then had to ease off. I still showed a 17.2 mph on the bike average when we pulled into the control. That’s faster than I would have thought I was capable of for a century, in my present state. Jeff was just a few minutes behind us, and we took a longer break at this control, to cool off and give our feet a break. Steve and I both shed our shoes.

Steve and I rode with George and Jeff the rest of the ride. I knew I was going to have to ride a slower pace for the rest of the way, and the easier pace that George and Jeff set was welcome. We made an unscheduled stop at around mile 116, and again cooled off and rested our feet. I laughed as I noted that George, after riding his upright, put his feet up to rest them, while Steve and I put ours on the floor to get a break from the recumbent position. There were some rolling hills on the last part of the ride, and we did get a break from the chipseal here, but also hit a couple of stretches of really rough roads. There are quite a few small lakes and ponds in this area, surrounded by some of the most beautiful homes I’ve ever seen. We arrived back in Rockwall just before 4:30.

I completed the ride in 9:57. Total mileage was 131.7, with an on the bike average of 16.4 mph. Total climbing was 3600 feet. George, Steve, and I stepped into the nearby Luigi’s restaurant for a good Italian dinner right after the ride, and traded war stories of the day. I enjoyed the ride a lot, but this route is never going to be one of my favorites, due to all the miles of chipseal, and the high traffic roads in Gun Barrel City and Seven Points.

The original Reclining Flyers race team, Paul, Greg, Steve, and I headed to Kansas to visit the RANS factory and let Greg pick up his prototype Xstream. We had dinner with Randy and Kim Schlitter yesterday evening, and test rode bikes today.

This was a truly fun trip. Randy and Kim were great hosts, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to pick his brain and see some of his new design ideas. He’s a visionary in the industry and a design genius, I think. If you’ve never heard it, this interview with Randy about the history of RANS is pretty interesting.

If you ever get a chance to tour a factory that makes airplanes and bicycles, that’s a blast, too. And to top it all off, we got to ride bicycles. That Xstream has to be the most comfortable bike I’ve ever ridden, and we had lots of other new toys to hop on and pedal, too.

The company on the trip was outstanding, too. Usually, to have this kind of conversation with these guys, I have to yell over the 20 mph wind we’re pedaling against, while huffing and puffing to try and keep up. A special thanks to Steve, for driving us all the way there and back, to Paul for saving my bacon with the extra cycling shoes he brought, and to Greg for contacting Randy and putting all this together.

Kids outside the candy store.

Look at all the new toys.

Checking out the goodies.

Ready to ride.

Randy and Kim on the tandem, me on the Xstream.

I hadn’t done this GDB weekly ride since last year, and the route is quite a bit different. It’s still a fun ride with not a lot of climbing and no killer hills, so it seemed like the right ride for me today, since I’m just a little over a week after thyroid surgery.

Paul, I, and the rest rolled out right at 8:00 am and started the mostly downhill ride out to DFW Airport. As usual, we missed some traffic lights, and regrouped a few times, but we rode a fairly brisk pace.

After stopping at the Shell station where the airport loop starts, we were joined by Robert and Brian. It was great to see you again, Robert, and nice meeting you, Brian. I aired it out a bit on the loop, but the first part of the loop was uphill and almost directly into the wind, and was definitely tough. The other part that was really tough was just after the turnaround at the control tower. This was also uphill, and even more directly against the wind.

The trip back after the loop is always tough, since it’s 18 miles of mostly gradual elevation gain which seems to suit the uprights in the group better than me, and I’m usually blown up from a faster pace around the loop, but I felt pretty strong today, and Paul set a pretty reasonable pace for the small group we ended up with here, so I was able to hold up my end of the conversation for the most part, although my incision is so close to my vocal chords, I was getting a bit hoarse at the end. Paul and I joined Terrie and a bunch of the other riders for lunch afterwards, and the barbeque and ice tea went down very well.

The GDB folks are always friendly, and this is always a fun ride. I need to do it more often, and we need more ‘bents on it!

I notice some strange data on my gps software map, so I think the ride data needs some correcting. I’ll post it later.

Edit: I didn’t have any luck with Motionbased correcting the ride data like it usually does, but doing it on my own, it looks like I ended up with 56.0 miles and a 16.4 mph average. This is the first time I’ve seen that kind of error from the Edge 305.

After debating all week where to ride today, I decided to do the the 60 mile route of the FWBA Bicycles Inc club ride. This ride starts at 8:00 am at the Arlington Bicycles Inc, so it’s close to home, and it’s also across the street from where Rose works, so I was going to have lunch with her at 12:30 or so after I finished my ride. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan…

First, Rose told me this morning she was going to be too busy today to have lunch with me. Next, I showed up at the ride start at 7:30 all ready to ride ………………. except I forgot my shoes. It was 8:00 am when I returned with my shoes, and the riders were already massed for the start. When I signed up, I found out they were out of 60 mile cue sheets. I figured no big deal, if I end up by myself, I know the roads in this area well enough to get myself back.

By the time I got on my bike, everyone was already taking off. I was soon passing riders one after another when, as I passed Cheri Brown, she had a flat. Mark (I can’t remember his last name) and I stopped and fixed her flat. We were almost to Venus by the time we caught many riders, and the group we stopped with in Venus were all riding the 100 mile route. They were all saying I should join them. Since I just found out that I won’t be able to ride next weekend, I thought maybe I should be doing a longer ride this weekend, so I said what the heck, and joined them.

While the 60 mile route turns around at Venus, the 100 mile route goes south out of Venus, then turns west and goes to Grandview. It then turns north to Alvarado, then back the Venus, then back north to Arlington. The group of seven bikes I ended up with took long breaks at the stops, and tended to scatter a bit on the road. But it was a lively group, and I enjoyed riding with them. It was almost 4:00 pm when we finally pulled in to the finish.

I ended up with 99.5 miles and a 15.7 mph average. Total climbing was 3140 feet.

I bought this bike on May 17th, but it needed a little work.

I finally got around to getting photos taken of the assembled bike this evening. There’s probably still tweaking to do, but this is getting close. I ended up with my Sunlite bag behind the seat. I installed my 24 tooth granny chainring yesterday.

I’m still not sure this thin RANS seat pad and cover is going to be comfortable enough for me. Anyone want to trade their regular RANS pad and cover for the one inch lower thin one?

Photos show the beater wheels (old mtb wheels with 1.25 Kenda Kwest tires). I have HED wheels with Continental Grand Prix tires for my go-fast setup. Once I get the seat thing worked out, I do believe this is going to be one truly comfortable bike. I may try a few brevets on it, although it’s a pretty safe bet that I won’t be able to keep up with Paul on his.

Ready to take off

Cruising the ‘hood

Unclipped and ready to stop

One week after doing my first century of the year, I did my first 200k ride. It was the Rio Vista Rumble permanent route. 17 Lone Star Randonneur members left out of Lynn Creek Marina at Joe Pool Lake at 6:30 am this morning, heading southwest through Alvarado and Rio Vista, then looping back east, but more to the south, through Blum for a return ride through Itasca, Maypearl, and Midlothian.

The south wind was howling early, but the clouds with it were certainly welcome. That wind was brutal on the first part of this ride. I managed to stay with the main group all the way to the first control stop in Blum at mile 59. With that first control so far away, we also made an unscheduled stop at a store in Alvarado at mile 30. On the rolling hills coming back from Blum, I was dropped fairly quickly, as were a number of others, and I joined and split with a number of riders all the way to the last control at mile 95 at Maypearl. Ophan Hill, just east of Itasca, especially seemed to spread the group out a lot, and I was very slow getting up this hill. I kept catching individual riders on the downhills after it.

I left the last control with the main group, but as fried as I already was, and with the hills I knew were coming, I had no intention of staying with the group, instead getting up close and personal with my cue sheet, and riding at a comfortable pace, by myself the rest of the way. 1 mile north of Maypearl, the route turns onto Old Buena Vista Road. I don’t know how many of you have ridden the hill on this road, but it can be a pretty tough hill when it’s 100 degrees, and you’ve ridden 100 miles already. I was at 4 and 5 mph for a good stretch of it, but I didn’t stop.

The ride finishes up blasting down the big hill on Lake Ridge Parkway from Cedar Hill. I flew down this road so fast I ended up finishing just 7 minutes behind the group. I finished in 9 hours and 25 minutes. Total miles were 127.0, total climbing was 4500 feet. My on-the-bike average was 15.5 mph. 9 hours and 25 minutes isn’t exactly a blazing time for a 200k, but it’s faster than I thought I’d be able to do the ride today, and I had no health or mechanical issues, so I was pleased with the ride.

Rio Vista Rumble route

After lung surgery in December, and chemotherapy from February to April, I’ve been having a tough time recovering. My endurance seems to be slowly coming back, but I still seem to have no strength on the bike, and struggle to drag myself up any hill.

But, I decided it was time to attempt my first century of the year, at the Fort Worth Bicycling Association club ride today, called Bardwell or Bust. Today was typical almost-June Texas weather, sunny, humid, a howling south wind, and a high in the mid 90’s. The cue sheet that Jim Burrow, the ride leader, had emailed me showed an actual distance of 93 miles for the 100 mile route, so I arrived at the ride start early, and rode 7 miles on my own. I figured my first century of the year should really be 100 miles.

Before I left home for the ride, I grabbed Rose’s camera. I figured since I’m only capable of “stop and smell the roses” speed right now, I might as well really stop and smell the roses, so I actually took some photos.

We rolled out of the town square of Venus at 8:00 am. Our first stop was at the town of Maypearl at mile 18.4. The next stop was mile 35 at Italy. There, all of the other riders in the group I was riding with (translation: slow riders) split off to ride the shorter routes, so I ended up riding the next 20 miles to Ennis alone. When I pulled into the store at the stop there, on a bench in front of the store sat none other than Mark Metcalfe, along with randonneuring acquaintance, Cheri Brown. It seems I had caught Mark on one of his rare easy pace days, and I did the rest of the ride with Mark and Cheri.

I ended up with 100.1 miles, with a blazing on-the-bike average of 15.1 mph. The route had 3400 feet of climbing. This has to be the longest overall century time I’ve ever done, but hey, I did finish, and at this point, I’ll take that.

The start/finish at the town square of Venus.

The first stop at Maypearl. In case we needed cigarettes, they were on sale.

I stopped on the bridge over Lake Bardwell, a favorite crappie fishing spot, and took this photo.

Cheri and Mark.

After I joined up with Cheri and Mark.

Riding across Clark Lake.

Cheri and I at the last rest stop in Waxahachie.

Terry, Mark, Greg, and I did this ride today. Terry did the 45 mile route, while the rest of us did the 57 mile route. It started at Big Bucks next to Bass Pro, and headed down familiar roads north of there. The Carrollton Cycling bunch seemed like a great group of folks, and made us feel very welcome on the ride. But the so-called “moderate” pace of the group we rode with was a bit fast for me. I was off the back of the group enough, it reminded me of my beginning riding days. And when I saw that Hilltop Road was on the route, I figured I would end up doing some walking, but I made it up Hilltop without stopping. I was slow, but didn’t stop.

It was my longest ride on the Roadster, and in spite of my struggles to keep up, I enjoyed the ride on these very good riding roads very much. Mark was fast on the Baron, as always, and Greg was really strong on the V-Rex, too. That bike must really agree with him. After the ride, we had good food and conversation at Big Bucks. A very enjoyable day it was, but I am definitely toast, now.

Here’s a short video of me on the Performer Roadster that Mark Leuck did: