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General Category >> Ride Reports >> Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
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Message started by aikigreg on Aug 16^th, 2008, 9:27pm

Title: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by aikigreg on Aug 16^th, 2008, 9:27pm

Warning to all - do NOT do the 100 mile version of this ride. According to Bud, the 70 mile is fine, but the hundred mile certainly isn't.

first, before I start whining, I had a great time with my best buds out on the day, and it was enjoyable ride - perfect weather and the first 50 miles was all you could ask for in a ride. I was VERy pleased at my handling of the tica on the stops and starts and climbs, which I was worried about, and my legs and brain seem to be finally learning when I can use the 55 tooth chainring without shredding my quads. It's nice finally having that bike in good order. On some stretches I just laid my head back on the neckrest and coasted or pedaled for miles without having to thinking about a thing. Very zen moments. Considering the terrain we dealt with, I though all 4 of us (Ray, Bud, Steve, and meself) made great time. I especially thought Bud did a GOOD JOB!

Got to meet cookie and powerbent, which was fun - hope you guys had a good time on the 50!

We had good pavement except for one stretch of nasty chipseal until we got basically halfway. Stopped in Waxahachie and had me a sammich. Then the fhit hit the shan, so to speak. It was 30 miles of terror for me as we hit mile after mile of horrible roads - can you even call em chipseal? Gravel spots all over the place, wooden slat bridged just aching to destroy a tire (one at the VERY BOTTOM of what would have been a 50 mile downhill. I can still hear the squeal of the brakes as I nearly turn Ray's V3 into a V3-Tica tandem :P. Then we had to reroute and do some bonus miles, which i didn't mind - they ended up being the best of the roads on the second half of the ride! I'll let Ray tell the reroute story :). Lots of traffic too - oh joy. Did I about sum it up right, guys?

Ah well, all in a day's work. Good time, good friends and a full century - who can ask for more?

Here's something odd though - I *finally* got my heart rate up to 170, at mile 39. I'm going to assume that's where we had that steep grade with the dog waiting on us at the top, but otherwise my Hr stayed below 160 the entire time, even when we're sprinting at pretty hefty speeds. One could assume that the garmin is not calculating the Hr correctly, but if it's not, could something be wrong with me with such a low max?

Afterwards, we had a great meal st Subway and Steve and I continued on to the coroplast workshop. I still dunno if I can do it on my own, but I at least understand HOW to make a wheelcover now, and I have enough coroplast that I can make a LOT of mistakes till I get it right! Thanks for your patience Bud.

Title: Re: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by Bud_Bent on Aug 16^th, 2008, 10:13pm

Yes, I enjoyed the 70 mile version of this ride last month, but the 100 mile route is more challenging than I care to tackle again. I thought I had ridden all the roads inside the triangle of Venus, Maypearl, and Waxahachie, but plainly, I hadn't. And this ride seemed to pick the roughest and toughest roads in that area, coming back from Waxahachie.

The other problem area was also unexpected. Going west, we crossed FM157 south of Venus on FM2258, which is further south than any of the rides I've done in this area, then went to turn north on CR206, to head to Alvarado. But CR206 was gravel for as far as the eye could see. Not just plain gravel, either, it was deep and perfectly smooth gravel, like it was going to be new chipseal as soon as they poured the tar on. It was so smooth, it looked almost like pavement, and obviously fooled Ray, as he turned too fast onto it and went down hard when his rear wheel slid out from under him. Greg and I were behind him, and it was a very scary looking fall to us.

But, Ray got up and rode strong the rest of the ride. I hope no serious injuries show up from it tomorrow. I think it's another reminder that one of the nicest things about a lwb is that when you fall, you don't fall far. Not knowing how far this gravel might go, we ended up taking a detour which added 1 or 2 miles to our ride, but kept us on good, low traffic roads.

In spite of how fast we took off (I still had over a 19 mph average at the first stop in Venus, 25 miles into the ride), the problem roads ended up slowing us down a lot, and I only finished with a 16.5 mph average. Total mileage was 100.9. Just as I suspected it would, the 100 mile route had a LOT more climbing than the 70 mile route. My Garmin had shown less than 1100 feet of climbing on the 70 mile route, but 3264 feet of climbing on the 100 mile route. That's still not a lot of climbing for a 100 mile route, but it does have some tough, steep, albeit short hills.

It was great meeting Thomas and Cookie. Doing a shorter route than us, they were long gone by the time we got in, so I'd like to see a ride report here from them. There was also a tandem recumbent there (I can't remember y'alls names, so if you read these reports, refresh my memory), so there was a total of 7 recumbents on this ride. That has to be some kind of record for an FWBA ride; I'm often the only one.

Riding with Steve, Greg, and Ray is about as fun as it gets, and the weather was really great, but we need to pick a little better route next time.

Title: Re: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by Strada177 on Aug 17^th, 2008, 9:18am

Despite all of the hurdles that Bud & Greg mentioned in their reports ,this was an "epic" to quote Ray . To me ,this turned into more of a "rando" ride than a traditional club ride. I'm sure some of those roads that we rode have not seen bicycle traffic in a while.

I had a blast(Good Job) riding with Greg,Ray ,& Bud. Always a good group. Everyone looked after each other. There were times when we hammered pretty good, some surprising climbs(too me anyway) ,& adventure riding(Bud called it "Trailblazing").

The only negative was Ray's mishap. But it certainly could have been a lot worse for Ray & the V3. Ray ,I hope your feeling "OK" to day. Have nurse Angie look after that sore knee/hip,etc...Thanks again for saving my day with the extra water bottle.

After the ride ,the wheelcover assembly was handled by Bud. I watched & thought "there's no way I would ever be able to do this without totally messing this project up." Thanks Bud for all of your help. Peggy's out on the bike now breaking in her new wheelcover.

What a good day!

Title: Re: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by power_bent on Aug 17^th, 2008, 9:26am

Good morning everyone;
Just wanted to take a moment and say it was great to meet all the people we did.We had set out to ride the 50 mile ride. Our lead guy made a few suggestions, we ended up going the 38 mile route. But we ended of going 43 due to the missed turns. Boy what an experience those hills were ! Hill after hill after hill!!But we made it. I was beginning to wonder coming to those last couple of hills. My legs felt like they were lifting weights going up those hills! Thanks for the experience! We made it back 11:30.

P.S. I feel for you Ray with that peagravel road. I fished tailed a bit myself ! :o

Title: Re: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by Strada177 on Aug 17^th, 2008, 9:30am

Congratulations Powerbent & Cookie for completing the ride. Very cool . It was nice to put a face with the posts on this forum. I hope to see more of you guys on future rides.

Title: Re: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by FlyingLaZBoy on Aug 17^th, 2008, 10:58am

Sorry I missed it all (but not the gravel)... I was in Abilene, taking the stepson to ACU and getting him settled...

Title: Re: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by SLOW_RIDER on Aug 17^th, 2008, 2:09pm

Guys, thanks for asking about Ray. When he got home his knee didn't look too bad, though there were a few small pieces of gravel in his knee still! However, when he took off his shorts, there was the biggest patch of road rash I've ever seen. It's about the size of an 8.5"x11" piece of paper, or from his rear end down to just above the knee. I can't believe he didn't tear his shorts.

Instead of going to church, he (as all you ego men do), EY wanted to go on a "recovery ride" with the hammer heads Texas Flyers. They are out doing a 50-75 mile loop around lake Grapevine. I'm sure Ray will give you a report later today.

by the way, I love the V3.

Angie Torrey

Title: Re: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by aikigreg on Aug 17^th, 2008, 2:56pm

make sure you pick him up some tegaderm for his rash - it'll be gone in days. Glad he's so peppy. I am seriously sore myself. My calves and upper quads get much more of a workout on the lowracer, and my trapezius muscles are tight and sore from being stiff and scared for hours!

today I'm going to wash the bike down a bit and go over the fork and boom and make sure they're all good.

Title: Re: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by bikerteam on Aug 17^th, 2008, 3:23pm

Yesterday was another epic ride. Greg, Steve, Bud and I had a fun time together, despite the road conditions. The four of started towards the back of a pack of about 30 riders. The pace was pretty fast, 20mph plus. Greg pretty quickly worked his way to the middle of the pack. About miles 5, as we finished a pretty good climb, Steve and I made our way to the front. As we descended, we broke off the front. Several miles later we catch a lone rider, a very fast female Tri gal. We exchange a few words, and Steve and I take off again. A short while later Greg catches us. We ride for only a few miles more, then wait for Bud. While the pack passes us, Bud is right there with them, riding strong. At mile 30 (?) we're at Venus. Everyone else seemed to break out for the 70 miles, while the four of us rode the 100. We made it to Maypearl pretty quick, then hit some rough patches of road on our way to Waxahachie, our half way point.

Bud leads us out of Waxahachie at a fast pace. Bud would slow only slightly on the uphills, but come screaming past us on the descents. Within 4-5 miles we turn onto the road from (or to) hell. At one spot, probably around mile 65, it reminded us of Nelson's story about being in Alabama and coming across the moonshiners. Even the dogs were looking at us as if they had never seen a human before. That's when Greg started expelling the most horrible smelling, well, you can guess....

Up and down we go, and every time we go down, at the bottom is an old wooden bridge made out of railroad ties. We cross very slowly, trying to not get stuck in the seams between the ties. At mile 75, and as we're descending a hill about 30mph, with Steve just ahead of me, and Greg directly behind me, Steve makes a quick right turn. I noticed the loose looking gravel, but assumed it was glued to tar. WRONG. I went down fast, and hard. All I remember is hearing a squeeling behind me thinking Greg is about to land on top of me. All of a sudden Greg and Steve are pulling the V3 off of me, and trying to pull me up. I pick some pebbles out of my knee and shorts, then check over the V3. My knee had a few cuts, but didn't look too bad. That road had gravel at least 1/2" thick, and we weren't about to ride on it. We took a detour, and thankfully Greg made a good guess and while we rode about 10-15 miles on unfamiliar roads, guessing what way to turn, we made our way to Alvarado at a fast pace. From there is was an easy 10-15 miles back to Burleson.

Wow, another epic adventure.... I get home and about to jump in the shower and I see a huge patch of road rash on my right leg and butt. It didn't hurt at all...

My stats were 16.8 avg speed, with 3275 feet of climbing. If we didn't have to slow to a crawl at the bottom of practically every descent to snail crawl over the railroad tie bridges, our avg. speed would have been at least 1 mph faster.

I got up this morning at 6am and felt pretty good. I asked Angie if she would mind if I did a recovery ride. I met the Texas Flyers, who are known as hammer heads. Honestly, we rode through Flower Mound towards Argyle, and at mile 15, I was at least 1/4 mile ahead. I turned where I thought they would go, but they kept straight. I waited for some slower rides that I know, and we eneded up makes a big loop around lake Grapevine. Got in another 50 miles today, at least 15 miles of anaerobic work.

Title: Re: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by Bud_Bent on Aug 17^th, 2008, 4:12pm

Glad to hear that no other injuries showed up today, Ray. I did the same thing a couple of years ago, getting road rash without tearing my shorts. When that happens, it's not deep road rash, and not full of dirt and bits of short material, so it will heal a lot faster.

Glad to hear you and Cookie finished your first club ride ok, Thomas. 43 miles is no small accomplishment. I'll look forward to seeing you on future rides.

Title: Re: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by Cookie on Aug 17^th, 2008, 5:35pm

It was great putting a face to some of the name on this site Saturday. It was truely a learning experience for me. :o All my rides to date had been in my neighborhood and the Bonner/White Rock loop. A couple of thing I learned is that my trike is not geared for speed and the up hills were real slow. The shipseal and pea gravel were ruff and noisy on 20" wheels. All and all I had a great time and look forward to many more rides.

Are there any other triker out there? If so were do you ride. I kind of felt like the lone stranger out there Saturday. :-?

Again thanks for the adventure. :)

Jerry

Title: Re: Gravelly Doggie Bridgey Stinky ride
Post by aikigreg on Aug 17^th, 2008, 9:53pm

I love to ride and race trikes but don't own one. Hmmm, maybe I should trade the volae for a nice trike. I can remember my first pay ride on my baron, which was in the hill country. I didn't know how to follow the routes and had never been off the trail before. It was the most hellacious 30 miles of my life.

It's like old what's his name said: it never gets easier, you just go faster! Nice job, guys.