|
rbent Forum
https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl General Category >> Ride Reports >> St. Jo 125k Permanent https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl?num=1253403460 Message started by Bud_Bent on Sep 19th, 2009, 6:37pm |
|
Title: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by Bud_Bent on Sep 19th, 2009, 6:37pm Steve, Peggy, Nelson, Ray, Greg, Paul, and I left Bolivar this morning at 6:30 am to ride Ray's new St. Jo 125k permanent. This route an out and back that goes through Forestburg, then on to the turnaround control at St. Jo. It's plenty dark at 6:30 am these days. Lights were definitely needed for the first miles. It's pretty steady elevation gain from Bolivar to Forestburg. I pushed pretty hard to keep from falling too far back, but lagged behind anyway. We made an unofficial stop at Forestburg, then rode on to St. Jo. There are some pretty tall hills between Forestburg and St. Jo, made even more scary by wildly driven trucks hauling some kind of wide load monstrosities. They looked poised to tip over at any second going down these hills. I didn't see it, but heard that Ray got a closer look at one of them than he wanted. Nelson had some bike issues starting in St. Jo. I struggled coming back on the hills to Forestburg, but there's lots of downhill on the rest of the route, and I finally started to feel like I was moving decently. This was a truly beautiful day, mostly cloudy with a low in the upper 60's and a high in the lower 80's and not much wind, just great riding weather. I was a tired camper by the finish, and a cheeseburger from the Valero that's the start and finish control was very good. I finished in 5:35, ended up with 78.6 miles, and had an on the bike average of 16.8 mph. It was great company as usual with this bunch, thanks everyone. To rest and recover from this hard ride, I went home and hung a ceiling fan. Nothing like relaxing on a Saturday afternoon... |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by Kwijybow on Sep 19th, 2009, 8:24pm Very pleasant day for a ride, finally a dry 6+ hours. As Bud mentioned I had a couple of issues. As I was pulling into St. Jo I detected an ominous thumping coming from my tire and basically had time to pull in to the control and quickly deflate the tire before it blew out of a bulge where the tire was separating from the bead on my brand new Stelvio. The pips were barely worn off with less than 200 miles on it. I threw on the well worn spare I had, but in the process managed to mess up my front Paul V-brake and would have been in trouble if the store owner had not had some pliers. I need an addition to my repair kit for these brakes. Unfortunately my fix was not sufficient and I finally figured out the main reason I was going so slowly was I was dragging the brake something awful. I finally unclipped the front brake and felt like I was flying the last 10 miles. In addition I had re-used the tube from the near blowout, and apparently it had developed a slow leak, so between my brake dragging and stopping to pump up my tire every 30 minutes or so I finished well behind the others. Still very much enjoyed the ride, and hopefully will get my new bike issues resolved soon. I think it has a lot of potential and looking forward to what it can do. Take Care, Nelson. |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by Killer Bee on Sep 19th, 2009, 9:20pm Thank you Ray for a good route. Definitely a good route to get prepared for the TT's. It was good to see Greg & Paul again. AND it's always good to see Nelson, Ray & Bud(and Peggy of course). The scary part was hearing that Ray had a close encounter of bad kind with a semi-trailer carrying a wide load(as Bud mentioned). There was more vehicle traffic on the route today than I remember from a few weeks ago when we rode Nelson Live Long & Prosper. Since I had my Kazoo helmet on today, I couldn't hear much as we rode together early. There was a fair amount of "Coneheads" today on the ride. Nelson, Peggy, Ray & myself all wore our TT helmets. |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by FlyingLaZBoy on Sep 19th, 2009, 9:43pm Good ride, glad I made the trip up!! This was a perfect "tuneup" for next weekend's TTTT. I felt good throughout, and hit the return leg hard, finishing the last 26 miles from Forestburg in 1:15, and 5:24 overall. Following Kent's comments earlier about using a lumbar pad, yesterday I added a section of gardening kneeling pad under the seat foam as a lumbar pad, and it felt really good -- it changed the concentraion of force against hard pedaling from my upper shoulders/back to the lower back area, and I think it helped significantly for all the climbing this route has. Somewhat humorously, I stopped at Plano Cycling on the way back to pick up stuff for TTTT (canopy, flyers, etc.), and found Chas there, having his V3 worked on -- apparently, as soon as he started actually riding, the rear wheel spokes loosened up, and his wireless computer wasn't reading. So his airport ride was cut VERY short, and PCF fixed up everything just fine. Then we headed back to Rowlett, and I took him on a 20-miler around my area -- working him out pretty good, and giving me a century for the day! [smiley=thumbsup.gif] |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by bikerteam on Sep 20th, 2009, 8:13am Paul - let me know if/when you post the video/pictures of the truck that could have taken my life! That's by far, the closest call I've ever had. Was descending that hill at 30 plus, and no place to pull over when that "wide load" truck decided to graze me, then the flags in the rear slapped me hard enough to knock me off the bike. I was very fortunate. Great ride everyone - it was a pleasure to ride with our group again. Everyone rode strong, except me. After the first 25 miles to Forestburg, I found brake rub. Thought I fixed it, and didn't check it when we got to St. Jo, as I focused my attention in trying to help Nelson with his bike. The return from St. Jo to Forestburg has some tough climbs, and I went off the back. I started cramping just before Forestburg on the return. Found the brake was rubbing still, almost locking out my wheel. Loosened the brake all the way and Nelson and I left for the last 25 miles to Bolivar. Upon my return to Bolivar and mounting my bike on the bike rack, I said something to Greg, who had already finished. He came and looked, and guess what... My rear wheel was way off center on the drop outs. Paul mentioned something not looking right around mile 30, but I didn't think about this being the issue. So, I rode all day with significant brake interference. No wonder it was a tough day! I can be so dumb sometimes, over looking the obvious. |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by aikigreg on Sep 20th, 2009, 2:09pm I thought you rode pretty strong in spite of it Ray, until there at the last when it obviously got the better of you. I was riding pretty hard for myself and barely keeping up. I hope that license plate number comes out and we nail that sucker. Are you bruised? If so, please take pictures. I had a great time with everyone. We don't get together often enough and there were these great moments throughout the ride when I'm sitting at the back of the group, watching a string of fast bents making a turn in the road, 10 feet apart. It's cool to see a big all bent group riding fast. All yuo guys are so ready for next week. I just hope I can make it through. Looking forward to the pictures, Paul! |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by Pedalin` Peggy on Sep 20th, 2009, 3:17pm I agree with Greg we need to ride together more often. I had a great time. What a fun group of guys, never a dull moment. I felt good all day, I rode the last 26 miles hard. I love that part of the route bent perfect rollers with a few hills thrown in just for the fun of it. After the TTT I think we need to do a just for fun ride and all stay together like we did back in the day. Good luck to all!!!!! Ride hard and fast. :-* Pedalin Peggy |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by FlyingLaZBoy on Sep 21st, 2009, 5:30pm Here's a rather disturbing video of what Ray is referring to... I saw them approaching in my rear view mirror, and decided to pull over... No license plates viewable from what I can see... http://i977.photobucket.com/albums/ae256/pbrown8js/RBENT%20StJo/th_BStJ_Coast2Trucks.jpg (http://s977.photobucket.com/albums/ae256/pbrown8js/RBENT%20StJo/?action=view¤t=BStJ_Coast2Trucks.flv) |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by aikigreg on Sep 21st, 2009, 6:00pm Anybdy able to read the plate of the rig or truck? I sure couldn't. crap. |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by AustinSkater on Sep 21st, 2009, 9:24pm Does Texas require oversized load permits? If so, would that convoy be on record for using that route. |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by Tom Nuchols on Sep 21st, 2009, 10:07pm Yes: Permits are required if you get caught. Permited loads are not allowed on some roads. Your are required to have permit for over lenght , over width and over weight. Tom |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by goatstick on Sep 21st, 2009, 10:45pm Ok. I gave in... Wanted to stay out of this one. :^) This is one issue that really ticks me off. I've had a number of incidents with oversize load trucks. I've been run off the road twice (chased one down, broke off one of his trailer flags and threw it at his cab to make sure he'd notice and hopefully get stopped for a missing flag), nearly had my head removed from my shoulders once, been hit in the back by a truck mirror once (destroyed it - ha), had one guy intentionally try to run over me with his heavy equipment trailer once, and several other really close calls. Every time I was trying to be 'nice' and share the road. No more. Any time I see an oversized rig now, I take a much of the lane up as I can, usually weaving to make it look like I'm a crazed lunatic. Quit having close calls that way so far, though I sometimes get horn blasts, and every time they do it, I take up more of the lane - to make sure they connect the honking with me taking up more of the lane. Note that most of these rigs were running well over the posted speed limit at the time. Mirrors required... |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by FlyingLaZBoy on Sep 22nd, 2009, 8:32am Rght there wit'cha.... take that lane, whenever feasible... this was a little unusual, in that it was a pretty good downhill and the bikes were going 30+ mph with NO shoulder, but the "advance warning" pickup truck that passed me (safely) was what made me start checking my rear view mirror for what he was leading... I'm just glad that nobody got seriously hurt. |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by goatstick on Sep 22nd, 2009, 10:04am Yeah. I can't see any valid reason for an oversized load to pass you when you are doing 30mph on a small 2-lane. I try to make 'em slow down until we can get to a place where I can safely pull off the road or they can safely pass me, meaning they need to slow down before passing me at any rate. |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by bikerteam on Sep 22nd, 2009, 11:54am Paul - great pictures and video. You can hear me yell "that truck hit me", as I'm pulling over at the bottom of the hill. Please email that video to me: ray_torrey@msn.com You can see that first wide-load, the one that grazed me just before it passes Paul, that is it no where near the middle of the road, but all the way to the right. Then after it passes, I move into the middle, then pull off the shoulder just ahead of Paul. Very scary... |
|
Title: Re: St. Jo 125k Permanent Post by FlyingLaZBoy on Sep 22nd, 2009, 1:59pm bikerteam wrote:
It's too big to email, but you might be able to download it from Photobucket, where it's posted... Or I can put it on CD for you... Paul |
|
rbent Forum » Powered by YaBB 2.1! YaBB © 2000-2005. All Rights Reserved. |