1st BF Fixie Ride

This was part 2 of the Taxi comeback.  This was a ride that we did a while, back but I did it on my regular road bike, with gears, and shifting, while Pete did it on his fixed gear.  Well, this was intended to be a fixed gear ride, so I went ahead and brought my IRO fixed gear bike.  I did this with some apprehension, as I had not done any climbing on this bike at all … mainly rode along flat bike trails with this.

There were a few hills of note that I was really weary of … first, the hill climbing out of Sports Basement to get to the bridge.  Then, there’s the descent into Sausalito, and unless you’ve ridden a fixie, you won’t know how fearful that is.  Since this is fixed gear, you can’t simply coast down the hill.  You have to pedal fast, just to keep up with the speed that you are going.  I like to coin this as descending like a bionic gerbel.  There’s also the climb going up Camino Alto, but the worst I think is the climb out of Sausalito over to the GG bridge … you know, the really fast downhill we went on???  I gotta climb up that coming back home!

I did surprisingly well … I guess you gotta conquer your fears by just doing it once … I wasn’t suffering as much as I thought I was.  I just had to make sure my cadence was at a manageable level, and if it got too hairy, apply the brakes!  After this ride, I think I will put on the rear brakes … when I bought it from Henry, he only had front brakes on … if I do more rides like this, I better put on rear brakes as well.  One thing this ride did … it sure tested my left hand braking skills.

As expected, I was the last of the fixies to complete the hills, but I was not the last one totally.  That actually did a lot for my confidence level.  When we started going on the Tiburon loop (which by the way is a great loop for fixies), I really got into a good groove.  In fact, I was ahead of everyone.  Once you get into a nice rhythm, you just wanna keep going.

After getting to Tiburon, we decided to take a few shots.  From Tiburon, on a clear day, you can get a great view of the SF Bay skyline … it was a little hazy today, so the visibility was not the best I’ve seen, but it wasn’t bad either.

We had lunch at one of Pete’s favorite Mexican restaurants.  This was not on the main road, off the beaten path a little bit.  This was nice, as it was not crowded, didn’t have to wait, and you can just sit down, and relax, and wait for your food.  Burritos are a nice way to chow down in the middle of a ride … I had the El Chewbacca.  hmmm … that went down good.

On the way back, the imfamous climb from Sausalito back to the GG bridge.  This is tough on a fixie, but it was still doable.  I was able to keep balance at all times, and I didn’t feel like I was rolling to slowly up the hill.  I just wonder where I had all this energy from?  I finally made it to the GG Bridge, and the next challenge was to cross the bridge with all the Blazing Saddles tourist traffic.  Blazing Saddles is a company that rents bikes for tourist to pedal across the bridge.  However, most of the people who rent either are not very strong riders, or they don’t know how to handle themselves on the road.  This makes for a dangerous combination on the GG Bridge.  In fact, I saw about 10-20 people, hanging out at one of the structures of the bridge, and blocking the way for cyclists to come through.  This almost got me in an accident, as I was trying to maneuver around them, and then another bike came head on to me.  Adding to the frustration at this point, there were a couple of kids, who were struggling around the structure, with the wind, and they were obstruction my way to get across.

Later on, I saw not one, but two Blazing Saddles riders, who were riding northbound, with one hand free, taking video camera shots as they cross the bridge.  Talk about risky!  Then, there are a number of other people who would just stop right in the middle of the path, to take a picture of the bridge … there are cutouts where you can take pictures, but I guess these folks didn’t know about that.  Dang … it’s just getting worse and worse out there.  So if you do plan to ride across the bridge, be very careful of those Blazing Saddles riders … big big hazard!

Return of Taxi

Lately, there has been something missing from the weekend BF rides … can’t put my finger on it.  Sure, we have the hammerheads, and we’ve got the great riding, but there is a void … hmmm … oh yes, there’s that taxi character.  Remember this guy?

Oh yes, Pete … aka taxi777.  He made an appearance today.  Okay, he led this ride, but still, it’s great to have him back on the road.  Hmm … has the time off the bike gotten to him.  Aches coming by???  All joking aside, it’s great to have him back, and he’s having another one tomorrow!  To taxi rides in one weekend … wow!

Here he is dropping in at Sports Basement, even though the actual ride started at the Golden Gate Bridge Visitor’s Center.  We had a small group, Chris, aka PizzaMan, who has a great racing season, Ramon, as you can see above, and one of Pete’s Aid’s ride buddies, Robert showed up.  We were anticipating Marco and Ruth coming on the tandem, but we never did hook up.  They were running late, and we never did hook up during the day.  Maybe we’ll see them on the fixie ride tomorrow, which goes around the Tiburon loop.

Now it wouldn’t be a taxi ride without pictures.  Except that these were taken by me … I’m sure Pete will get around to his pics, and will upload them later on BF.  This was taken as we were going through Mill Valley.  We were riding through at the same time a pack of about 20 riders were going in the same direction we were.  In fact, they basically went the same route we did … up Alpine Dam, 7 Sisters to Mt. Tam, then back.  Very popular route.

Now here’s a vision you don’t see very much … me at the front, taking a picture of Ramon who is behind me.  Well, he is winding down his training … funny, I’m ramping mine up, it seems.

Pete was thinking he was going to be behind us all the way, but that simply wasn’t true.  He was able to keep up, and not to my surprise, was ahead of me on the climb to Alpine Dam.  Even though he wasn’t riding the typical hills, he was still doing these short 20 mile rides on his fixie.  I think as long as you have that base mileage, you really won’t lose too much.

All in all, it was a really good ride, and great to see Pete back out there on the road.  Hopefully, we’ll see more of him.  However, he did mention he took off his computer, so he has nothing to look at on his bike.  Also, not doing any organized rides for the next year?  Well, we’ll see.

Personal Best up Montebello

I don’t know how this happened, but I got my personal best time up Montebello, 48:42.  I even tweeted that I’m going up Montebello, and expect to have a time over 1 hour.

I was originally going to try to get my personal best up Montebello on Wednesday, but it was hotter than I thought it was going to be.  I started off slow, trying to save my energy going up Montebello, but on that day, the heat drained me a lot more than I thought it was going to.  As a result, I only made it up past the first hairpin, and then I gave up … turned around.  Went on to do Mt. Eden, but even that was a chore.

So I was going to try to make it to the top today, no matter how slow I was going to be.  It was another hot one out there today, so it was time for the sleeveless jersey tonight.  As I started climbing, I was continually bothered by flying bugs, continually in my face.  This has a weird effect of distracting you and it appears to sap my energy.  As soon as I got past Jimsomare, it got a little better.  Soon after passing the school, I hear a familiar voice calling my name … it’s Ramon.  Cool … we proceeded to climb up the rest of Montebello together.

Perhaps the company helped me, as I had something to preoccupy my time with.  Overall, I felt strong, but that seems to be my pattern … feel weak at the bottom, but once passing the school, your energy gets a second wind.  The final uphill ramp came at about the 45 minute mark, and I suddenly thought to myself that I might be able to break the 50 minute barrier.  With this enthusiasm, I was able to power up the hill like I never have before.  It’s funny how you approach a goal, and you get this unknown energy from somewhere … by the time we made it to the top, I stopped my Garmin, and it read 48:42.  Woohoo … personal best!

We stayed long enough at the top to notice a darkish cloud to the south, which was the Bonny Doon fire.  Then, off in the distance to the east, we see another brown cloud … as I found out when I got home, there was another fire, southeast of Livermore.  But neither of those dampened my spirits today, and neither of them seem to affect the overall quality out there today.  Today is a good day!

It is possible to have a flat ride in the Bay Area

After yesterday’s brutal, vicious day of climbing in the heat, I needed a recovery ride today.  Timing didn’t work out to hook up, so I decided to look for a flat route on my fixie.

I can now say, it is possible to do a flat ride in the Bay Area.  Here’s a hint … don’t look for hills.  Wow, what a revelation … not looking for hills?  Wow.

Well, I actually do live in a boring, flat section of Santa Clara.  I went out to San Tomas Aquino bike trail, which starts out about 2 miles from my place.  It’s pretty convenient.

This is a bike trail that runs parallel to Great America Pkwy and Bowers, and is a nice alternative to the heavily traffic’d Great America/Bowers, San Tomas Expressway, and Lawrence Expressway.  Look ma … no cars!  There were quite a few riders, rollerbladers, joggers, and walkers out there, but not enough to cause hazards riding out there.  It’s good to see people getting out and enjoying the sunshine while we have it.  It was hot, but the sun wasn’t really intense.  I think the marine layer has thinned out, so you can still feel as if some of the rays were being filtered out somehow.  This made the ride not as hot as I thought it would be.

I made my way out to the bike trail that leads into Shoreline, and the golf course area.  I decided this was a good time to have lunch at Michael’s, which is a great hang out for golfers and bicyclists.

This is “Rengstorff House” … it’s supposed to be a landmark building, but me being so bad at history, I don’t know the significance.  I guess I can always look it up in wikipedia, but I’m too lazy.  I figured while I was here, I might as well take a picture of something of historical significance.

At this point, I had gone 15.8 miles, and 165 feet climbing.  Wow, that is pretty flat, for a ride in the bay area.

At Shoreline, they also have some small sailboats, and there were lots of people taking advantage of that offering.  Wow, this is almost like a postcard shot.  Very cool … Great day to spend time at Shoreline.

I continued on the bike path as far as it can go north.  However, it only goes as far as East Palo Alto, and then you have to get off the bike trail, and go on surface streets … um, that’s not a good idea.  East Palo Alto is a rough neighborhood, and at one time had the large per capita crime rate in the nation.  Nah, I think I will turn back, and go on the Stevens Creek Bike Trail back home, thank you very much.

I ended up with 31 miles, and 487 feet climbing.  I think that’s sufficient for a recovery ride.

Bohlmon, On Orbit, Hicks Kicked My Ass

Some rides are just meant to be epic … case in point, any time we do Hicks, the group decides since we are in the area, we gotta do Bohlmon /On Orbit. Well, we did this today, and it always has a way of kicking my butt.  Granted, it was pretty warm today, and Bohlmon / On Orbit has to be the toughest, steepest climb in the San Jose area.  Plus, there is absolutely no water on the route when you go and do Hicks.

Bohlmon and On Orbit is one of the fabled climbs in the San Jose area.  If you are in the area, and want a challenge, you gotta do this.  There are sections of 22% on this climb, and it’s not just a short section either .. one of the substantial portions of the climb are > 20%.

This this being such a hardcore ride, I wasn’t expecting a big turnout.  Michael had to cancel the last minute (I moved the ride back to 10 am to accommodate him, but too bad he couldn’t make it).  We had a great turnout … I’d say 13 people, which is huge.

I led the group on the way down to Stevens Canyon.  This was an aggressively paced group, and I was wondering how long I would be able to keep up at this pace.  We must have been averaging about a 20 mph pace going through the canyon … I knew that wouldn’t last, as soon as we hit Mt. Eden.  Mt. Eden and Pierce would be good warmups for the monster climb to greet us ahead.

Everyone on the ride was game for doing Bohlmon/On Orbit.  A right turn on Sixth Street, then right on Bohlmon, and on we go straight up.

Bohlmon is not a heavily traffic’d street, so that gives us an opportunity to tack up the hill.  If we didn’t have that luxury, this would be an even tougher climb than it already is.  The sun was out, and shining pretty hard on us.  As if the steep grade isn’t bad enough, we gotta contend with being exposed to the sun.

Two turns before the Bohlmon / On Orbit split, the grade turned really steep … I think I glanced down and it was 22%.  I alternated between a sit climb, and a standing climb.  This is one of those sections where you clearly grunt from the bottom of your gut, till you get all the energy you can muster up here.  My max heartrate was 178, and I can almost guarantee it was during this part of the climb.

As if the climb up Bohlmon wasn’t tough enough, the left turn on On Orbit was even tougher.  It’s not too much further to the summit, but sometimes there is only so much one can muster.  I saw Ramon stopped up ahead, so if he’s willing to stop, so am I.  While waiting for my heartrate to come down to a normal level, I decided to take a shot of Marco and Ruth climbing up on the tandem.  It’s still amazing they are making up here on the tandem.

After  catching our breath, we continue on some more.  I ended up stopping at least 3 more times before reaching the top of On Orbit.  This was an epic climb, and I’m glad I completed this.  It’s amazing to see the views when you are at the summit of such a climb like this … and just to think this is not the top peak in the area.

Ok, now to go down the hill.  Descending on these new wheels I got on my bike are fun … it’s a lot quieter than my previous wheels, and it just feels smooth as silk or butter.

Speeding down, I come around one corner, and I see the tandem off to the side of the road.  Crash???  No, tire blow out … and what a blow out that was.  As far as we can recall, it was probably due to the rims overheating, causing the tube to burst.  In fact, the rim was probably riding the tire against the road.  When we looked at the rim, there were a number of dents in it.

The tube wrapped around the fork … jeesh.  I’m amazed that they didn’t go down … I’m glad they didn’t, which is a testiment to Marco and Ruth’s handling of the tandem.

I’ve never seen a tube that was split apart like this.  They went ahead and fixed this, but later, we discovered there was some sidewall damage.  Eventually, the tube we seep out the sidewall, and cause another flat.  So we headed over to Summit Bicycles in Los Gatos for supplies.  Seems like every time we do this ride, we end up having to visit the bike shop.

It was pretty funny, one of the shop mechanic comes out and sees us … asks us where we are going … we mention Hicks.  He hates Hicks, and then when we tell him we just did Bohlmon / On Orbit, he starts wondering “what’s wrong with you” … I kinda wonder that myself.

After fixing this, some of us went on to Hicks, some others were running on a time crunch, so they headed back home.  Before getting to Hicks, you gotta climb Kennedy and Shannon.  It’s not too bad, but it does give you a precursor to the climb.  The climbing on Hicks doesn’t really get that bad until the last 1.5 miles, which pitches up really steep in excess of 15% … and this is all out in the sun.

I was riding with Reid, and as we started to climb the steep pitch of the climb, I heard him yell out … I knew right away, he was having cramps.  Damn … so quickly, I had him stretch, and gave him a couple of electrolyte pills.  I should have taken a couple myself, but I didn’t.  This would haunt me later on.  After a couple minutes of stretching, Reid was fine, and we continued on.  About 1/4 mile from the top, the pitch was too steep, and my energy had drained too low, to the point where I could not turn the crank.  All the water, Heed, Hammergel, and I still couldn’t turn the crank.  I had to walk it, at least until I got to a section of the climb where I could get back on the back, and pedal.

Some of us original planned to climb Mt. Umunhum when we got to the intersection … climb it at least to the no trespassing gate.  Well, that was a good plan, but unfortunately, some of us just didn’t have the energy to do that … I was one of them.  I just wanted to get off the hill, and descend off this friggin’ hill.

At this point, my energy continued to be low … any hill would be quite a chore.  We still had to climb back up Kennedy and Shannon, and that spelled doom for me.  I struggled to get up that hill.  I was so exhausted at the top of the hill, that I savored the rest time in the shade, before it was time to descend again.  I didn’t even think about getting food in downtown Los Gatos … I just wanted to get home.

At this point, each of us wanted to find the most direct route back home.  I just barely rolled in back home, and immediately crashed on the bed for several hours.  This really wiped me out, but I am glad I did it.  What an adrenaline rush!

High Tech Monkey

Being in Silicon Valley, in the networking industry, it is a pretty high brow industry. To get in here, you need very low level network details. For example, you need to know how to read a sniffer trace, or packet analyzer. Sure, anyone can record it, but not many know how to interpret the data. So you know the 7 layers of the OSI, but what does each of them do? Anyhow, this gives you an idea of the level of technical aptitude required to work at this level.

Ok, so now we have established how very technical this is.  When a customer’s network is down, you have to move quickly.  P1, network down situation, meaning lots of dollars are at stake.  With 10 years in the industry, I feel I know a bit about what type of information to grab.  Sniffer traces, snoop, debugs … I know how to analyze them … but sometimes, even the best engineers, won’t be able to determine the problem.  So here is where I become a monkey … can’t solve it, so escalate to engineering.  At this point, all I do is pass information back and forth between the customer and Engineering.

Sometimes, it gets to a point, where all I am is relaying data … Engineering would like to see … or … Engineer believes that … enough … so we get into a live troubleshooting session, where Engineering sees exactly everything that is on the customer box.  However, we never let Engineering directly interact with the customer.  That’s where me, the overglorified technical operator comes in to play, where I use my typing skills, and type in very technical commands.  Granted, a simple data entry operator wouldn’t know what to type in, but still, I felt like a data entry person, a high tech monkey.

Now it turned out the problem was not with our device, but it was an issue on the customer’s network.  But still, it took two days, 4 developers, 2 tech support engineers, 2 QA engineers, and 2 customer engineers to determine it is not our fault.  And here I was, in the middle … and does the sales manager thank anyone that was intimately involved in this?  Of course not … the weasel thanks my boss’s boss.  Just typical … sales …

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again … tech support is on the lowest level of species.  Sales are at the top, and tech support is below the level of the amoeba.  At this point, I can completely relate to Rodney Dangerfield.  I get no respect at all!