Last week we completed the second stop in the tour for our book, The Rules; The Way of the Cycling Disciple. For the first two, we partnered with Rapha to do a five-to-six hour ride and then sign the books at the shop afterwards. In both cases, I was amazed by the quality of the riding and by the ride leaders themselves, Robert in NYC and Eric in SFO. Between the two, I have to say SFO takes the crown for an amazing ride outside a city; the views were stunning, we got to ride up a gravel road up to Mount Tam, and rode like howler monkeys on fresh tarmac on the way down.
Another great bonus from the ride was that I finally got to meet @Nate, who has been part of our community since 2010 or so. We’ve had several near-misses over the years but this time it finally worked out. He and Bicycle Time‘s editor Gary Boulanger took me for a lovely ride around the bay on Friday and a nice dinner in Cow Hollow. It was great meeting two longtime friends in one sitting. The next day was 100km covering about 2020 meters of climbing along breathtaking scenery with a great group of riders. Here is @Nate’s report from the ride and signing.
Yours in Cycling,
Frank
—
The Rules booksigning juggernaut rolled into SF last weekend, in the person of Keeper Frank. I’ve been trying to get @frank down here for a ride for a couple of years, and it finally came to pass.
Friday evening Gary Boulanger and I took Frank for a ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. Once we got off the bridge I thought we’d be out of the wind, but there was still a good bit of it. Thankfully we had the Dutch Monkey with us to punch a hole in it. There were some postride refreshments but no staying up till 1 am drinking this time around.
Back at the San Francisco Rapha Club on Saturday morning the Giro was being shown in HD on two large screens, and espresso was consumed. @HMBSteve was there, along with a large contingent of Rapha club ride regulars. In celebration of the Rules, the start of the Giro, and the recently-offered Rapha Pantani jersey (beautiful piece of kit, if you have the scalatorissimo to pull it off) we had some serious climbing on tap.
After a briefing by Eric, our able ride leader, the group of about 30 headed out, once again across the Golden Gate Bridge. Our double paceline soon found itself strung out on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais. The second half of the climb was on Railroad Grade, a gravel fire road, which was a blast – feasible on road bikes, but in sections you had to pick your line, and often the surface was quite rough. The only thing for it was to hammer as hard as possible so as not to lose momentum.
After a stop at the top of the mountain, we descended to the ocean, rode along the coast, worked our way back over the flanks of Mt. Tam, and headed back to San Francisco. Passing through the Presidio, Eric took us by the headquarters of Lucasfilm, where Star Wars obsessions were duly indulged.
Back at the Rapha Club, @frank, aided by some Chimay, signed every copy of The Rules in the club. It was very cool to see how the Rules resonate with so many fellow cyclists, whether they have only recently taken up the sport, or have been at it for most of their lives. And it was a blast to share our fine local roads with @frank.
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Budgetatus option: nothing sexy, just a Bell Sweep, found NOS in orange/black/white, slightly shopworn, for a song. Couldn't abide the thick/double straps and heavy turnbuckle, so I transplanted the retention system from a crash-damaged ProLite. Looks great with the V-kit: business up front, party in the rear.
Merckx. We went for awesome rides in Marin. I personally witnessed @frank's FMBs cause a large rock to levitate in the air while we rode up RR Grade. To paraphrase what Benjamin Franklin said about beer, the roads Marin are proof that the Gods of Mt. Velomis want us both to be happy and to suffer -- yet all we can talk about is helmets. It is my fault for being so coy above; here is Darth inspecting @frank's headgear:
Nothing to see here, move right along.
@frank
Weird, I seem to have no issue with that...Jawbones tuck in there upside down with no issues.
@VirenqueForever
Hah, OK, now you've nearly got me convinced... I'll have to find a place that stocks them around here and try one on. I'm sure I can make a good argument for needing a summer and winter helmet. As long as I get my wife one, too.
@pistard
Bell sweep was my favorite-ever helmet except - and this is an issue with all Bells - the two sweat pads on the front are placed precisely over my eyebrows and the helmet sits low on my forehead, which means that when I get my V-Face on my brow squeezes the sweat out of the pads and right into my eyes. Massive suckage.
@Nate
AWESOME QUOTE.
And what could be better than nitpicking over helmets? Best conversation we've had in ages.
@frank
I suppose there are a lot of helmets in that picture.
@Nate
Frank, forget Darth! How about coming up to Toronto to meet Mayor Ford and sign some books,EH??
Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular post!
It is the little changes which will make the biggest changes.
Thanks a lot for sharing!