Today's Ride

[FairfaxPat]

Re:

Thanks to you, too, History Man...

 

[halaburt]

Some shots from the main part of Pine Mountain Loop (the Fairfax, CA "Appetite Seminar"):

Crazy flat/thick air inversion with Mt. Tam poking out on top:

Back at the Hall of Fame... Breeze and Guy signing the SFO book as well as CK's and Kunkerz discs:

 

[Repack Rider]

Re:

After the ride I joined a thousand or so riders who were drinking beer while Joe, Otis and I signed everything that held still long enough. I think we signed a couple of babies.

Highlight of my day was meeting this Mexican mountain bike team. The inversion was so striking that everyone took a photo.

 

[26er]

Looks like a very nice event there! Not to mention the weather. Over here it's been the darkest November since they started recording sun hours in 1908. I miss my turducken...

 

[coomber]

Re: Re:

I really don't know who to blame for this ride? Was it a couple of guys who told me about this or even Picasso, but most probably Picasso as it took 5 years to re-open his museum in Paris !!!

As all the above events took place around the same time, I spoke to Mrs Davroos and said, do you want to go to Paris by bike? I told her how far it was, she was up for it as she'd ridden these distances before, but as we were staying over and going to some galleries, she wanted to take clothes, so we decided to take mountain bikes with a set of panniers

We set off at 14:46, and followed the L2B route, picking it up in Wandsworth, getting caught at every set of lights, and just after Mitcham, I picked up a puncture !!! Fixed quickly, and away we went. We had ridden this route 3 or 4 times, but riding in the night, going downhill was harder as you couldn't see the condition of the road !!!

Stopped off at Buddies in Brighton for a far to bigger meal, then rode into a headwind onto Newhaven, where we grabbed the ferry, had to little sleep before we disembarked at Dieppe

After the photos were taken, we set off and we ran into 2 problems. First of all, we lost the Avenue Verte signs, so we went around in circles in Dieppe, and then my 800 decided to factory rest itself !!! Once it was back, I found the route on the back and headed for the old railway line. In truth, it most probably is a good route, but with it being dark, the lack of sleep and the flashing lights, I thought I was going to have an epileptic fit !!! I tried the lights on full, but eyes were going weird. Sleep deprivation is really not a good thing !!!

We fought our way through, left the avenue and started following the roads I had planned, and it was far easier going as the sun was also coming up. We stopped off in Gisors for coffee as this was the first place that we found open and to warm up, and once back on the road, the next sign said that Paris was 88ks away. Pretty simple really, but then my mapping skills came into play, and I realised that I would never be a cartographer as the road we were on, became a dirt track, and then into a muddy field !!! So we pushed through it until we found a road, and two minutes later, we got a puncture !!!

Back on the road, we went from main ones to alleys and even through the middle of a gypsy camp !!! We saw it all, chased by dogs, it was a great adventure !!! But 15ks before the end, as we crossed the Seine heading for La Defense, there was bang and another tube let go!!!

Up and over the top of La Defense, we finally arrived at the Eiffel Tower in 23:50 !!! Maybe a little slow, but we were happy that we had cracked the 24 hours, so we took the photos and moved onto the hotel. before we hit the Picasso museum. I don't know if it was worth the 5 year wait as I had seen alot of the works at other exhibitions

The next day, we jumped on the train and came home

Worth quoting as that's brilliant. Well done.

 

[The History Man]

Re:

Twenty two miles and 1300 ft first ride on my latest. Lovely old thing. Apologies not being mtb but a lovely day.

 

[davroos]

Nothing wrong with it not being a mountain bike, we were out on our Quantums yesterday and possibly Merlins this coming weekend

 

[FairfaxPat]

Re:

I agree, Bender, a ride is a ride, no matter what bike you are on Today-Monday-After 3 days of much needed rain around here, I rode to SF Bay and back today-about 64 F. and partly cloudy...

 

[26er]

Great shot of the Tam dressed in clouds. Looks way more threatning than in sun shine. Got inspired to go climb my local ski station a few times. Not that long but steep as hell...

 

[FairfaxPat]

Re:

Yah, that looks steep! On another note, we got our Christmas lights up and running today...