Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Route map

Since I was back in the office on Wednesday, I went for a bike ride with Vikki at lunchtime. She was decked out in her new pink Fat Cyclist jersey. It was hot, and we did the Arcadia loop, since that’s a relatively flat and easy ride. Nothing remarkable happened, aside from seeing a pair of deer on the road in Sierra Madre, and the fact that I got a flat right after that.

It was August 7, 1977, and I rode a race in Pittsburgh, PA. The race was in Schenley Park, across the street from Carnegie-Mellon University. The course had a straight uphill stretch along the edge of the campus. There was a right turn at the top and short level stretch. Then a long downhill with big, sweeping switchback turns. At the bottom it met up with the uphill back to the finish line. I was riding in Juniors at the time, so the race would have been something like 15 miles.

The course was nice. I particularly remember the downhill as being very exciting. The road was a bit rough, and going around the turns at high speed was great fun for a 17-year-old.

Somewhere along the way, two guys broke away. I missed that, but I managed to make it into the second breakaway. There were four of us, and we got a good gap on the pack. The downhill was faster for the four of us than it was for the pack, since we didn’t have to slow down for the turns.

At the finish, I just coasted across the line. I figured I couldn’t do worse than 6th place, and that was good enough for points toward my Category 2 upgrade.

This race meant that I had one first-place finish, a fourth-place finish, and with sixth place in Rahway in July, I had two sixth-place finishes. So now I just needed one more top-six finish to get Category 2.

I have no pictures from that day, and I don’t even remember what my prize was. But I do remember it as a very fun day.

Route map

Today’s ride was number 7 in the “Noodling” series. It was a ride involving lots of hills and riding around to nowhere in particular. It was fun.

We started off going up into Altadena. That was where we saw the guy with the big fox-shaped sign advertising breakfast at Fox’s restaurant. Then we went across into La Cañada, and up and over the big hill by a roundabout route to come out on Chevy Chase. Then back up the hill to pass the school at the top. On the way down, we saw some deer on the side of the road, including a young buck.

Coming out on Linda Vista down by the Rose Bowl, we rode south a bit, and then headed up the big hill on Glenoaks. At the top, we continued on and came down on Patrician Way. This was novel, since we usually do this hill the other direction.

At the bottom, we were at Ave 64. One of the guys made an offhand comment about how he would have enjoyed riding up the hills more if he were 15 years younger. I think we all felt that way, and that was when I noticed the ‘Anti-Aging Institute’ across the street.

We went south on Ave 64 and then turned on La Loma to go up and over another hill. Then we went down the other side and turned to go over yet another hill. There was a part of the route marked ‘Extra Credit’ that involved going up Romney, which was a very steep hill. Then we rode Fortune Way, which took us to Easy St, which seemed entirely appropriate.

In Highland Park, I found a two-piece sectional couch abandoned on the side of the road. Then we rode down through the arroyo and across the freeway to come out on Monterey Road. From there, we headed straight across South Pasadena and San Marino, and then back into Pasadena for our snack stop at the Corner Bakery on South Lake Ave. The pigeons there are quite brazen, and walked right under our chairs to scavenge crumbs.

After the snack stop, we rode straight across the Caltech campus and then back to the park. When we got there, I had 34 miles, so I rode out to Arcadia with Newton just to add a little bit more.

It was a very nice ride.

44 miles.
cycling

Today’s bike ride was an unusual one. Gene has made up a series of “Noodling” routes for the Sunday morning rides, and today I went along on a test-ride of #8 in the series. This one went up through La Cañada, La Crescenta, and Tujunga.

We started out from Victory Park in Pasadena and headed north into Altadena. We passed the Zane Grey estate along the way. Then we rode into La Cañada.

Heading up Crown Ave, we were passed by several L.A. County fire trucks, so we rode a bit farther up the hill to see if we could see the fire. But there was nothing obvious, so we just continued on. We rode across La Cañada on Journey’s End Drive, which seemed like an odd name for a street. Then we went down to Foothill Blvd to cross over into La Crescenta.

The ride up Briggs was pretty grueling. It’s a long, straight street that goes right up the hill. At the top, we turned left and rode over to Rosemont and then up Pinecrest. This was yet another steep and long hill. And to top it off, near the top was a warning sign about mountain lion sightings in the area. We attempted to maintain a brisk pace, but it was hard to do on the 15% grade.

Pinecrest ended at Pine Cone Road, which we took back down the hill. It’s something like a 20-25% grade, which makes for an exciting downhill ride. This is the road that figures prominently in the first story in “Los Angeles Against the Mountains” in John McPhee’s book, The Control of Nature.

Coming back down the hill, we headed north into Tujunga. Since this is part of the City of Los Angeles, the road immediately became more rough and wretched. But we did see a mailbox with hot-rod flames and a very amusing house that looked like something the Vikings might have built.

Crossing Foothill Blvd, we headed down the hill some more. I saw a couch on the side of the road. This one looked like its former owner really like the right-hand end of the couch. It looked like Homer Simpson’s “ass groove”.

The street we’d planned on taking turned out to be an unpaved road, so we ended up having to improvise a different route. It worked out all right, and I even found another hot-rod mailbox along the way. We finally came out on Tujunga Canyon Road, where we turned right and coasted down the long downhill back into La Crescenta.

We didn’t stop at the bakery, since this was just a test ride. Instead, we just continued on towards home. Then I got a flat. The hole in the tube looked like a big thorn or something like that. I patched it and pumped it up. I gave the camera to Gene to take the picture, but it didn’t turn out, so I have no official record of this flat tire.

Finally, when we got back into Pasadena, we saw the roadside vendor selling bonsai trees at “STUPID PRICES”.

It was a fun little ride.

42 miles.
cycling

Today’s ride was to San Dimas for a bagel at the Bagelry. It was a typical summer day. Cool in the morning, but promising to get very hot later on.

The route out there is very straightforward. This ride involves lots of long, straight roads. Along the way, I found one abandoned couch. It was sitting on the sidewalk in front of Inflictions Tattoo on Cypress St in Covina.

When we got to the Bagelry, we were glad to see that the tables in the shade were available. So we sat down and had our bagels there.

Coming back, we headed west on Gladstone, which is always fast, since it’s very slightly downhill. We were cruising along pretty fast when Newton hit a small sharp rock and got an instant flat tire. I whipped out the camera to take the obligatory picture for the Flat Tire Gallery. The rock made a pretty big hole in the tire, so he had to put some electrical tape on the inside to cover the hole. Then we were back on the road.

At the end, the group split up in Arcadia. Some wanted to take the less-hill route up Orange Grove, while a few of us opted for the more-hill route on Grand View. But in the end we made it back to the park. I took a somewhat roundabout way home from the park, and I got a flat on Los Robles. Since I was alone, I had to do the picture Myspace-style, with the camera held at arms-length.

Even with the flats, it was a nice ride.

50 miles.
cycling

Today’s ride was one that didn’t really go anywhere in particular. We just went in a big circle around the San Gabriel Valley. There wasn’t much notable about it. Andre showed up and got a flat before we even left the park. Other than that, there wasn’t much to take pictures of. Still, it was a fun time.

Here’s the route, as recorded by Gaurav’s bike computer: http://www.allsportgps.com/Data/ActivityDisplay.aspx?tripId=76717

50 miles.
cycling

Route map

Today’s lunchtime ride was the Lida loop again. We like the two-mile downhill at the end. That’s great on a hot summer day.

The only funny thing I saw was the house for sale with the big banner advertising “LOW PAYMENTS/PAGOS BAJOS”. You don’t see that often around here.

Right after that, I got a flat. So I sat down in the shade of a building and fixed it, while Eric took the picture for the Flat Tire Gallery.

Finally, it was time for the nice, long downhill back to the office. Along the way, I picked up two more abandoned couches.

It was a very nice ride, even with the flat tire.

The year before last, when we were on vacation at Lake Tahoe, we found my parents’ old slide projector in the closet at the house. There was a carousel in it filled with slides of bike races I rode back in 1978. Included were the big races in Hartford and Fitchburg on July 4th weekend, and also the races from Super Week in Milwaukee.

This year, Cathy took these slides to Ritz Camera and got them all scanned onto a DVD for me for Father’s Day. So I’ve been going through them and sorting them out. Today I put up the first set. This is from the Hartford Criterium in Hartford, CT. At the time, the race was sponsored by Travelers Insurance, and it had a very rich prize list. This race was very popular with racers on the east coast. They had a little sticker with the Travelers umbrella logo that they put on bikes when they passed pre-race inspection. Lots of racers kept this sticker on their bikes long after the race was over, even going so far as to glue it back on if it fell off.

Apparently, they are still doing this race now. It was on Memorial Day weekend this year.

The race is held on a short course around Bushnell Park in downtown Hartford. The Category 1/2 race was relatively short. My recollection is that it was something like 25 miles. There were only a couple of real corners on the course, so the race was very fast. I don’t remember much about it. I just stayed in the pack the whole way, and I didn’t place. But it was an exciting race, since it was a big pack on a fast course.

So here are my pictures from that day. It’s old-school racing at its best.

Today’s ride was Gene’s “South Pasadena Cafe” route, which takes us up through La Cañada and then down through Glendale and Glassell Park. Then we climb Mt Washington and pass the Self Realization Fellowship before heading back through Highland Park to South Pasadena to our snack stop at Kaldi’s. I don’t have a route map for it, but it’s pretty much the same route as we’ve done before.

Along the way, I spotted a pretty girl with a nice tattoo filling her car up in Glendale. We also stopped to see the tiny house we’d looked at last year. At the time, it was for sale. 450 square feet, boarded up, and listed as “uninhabitable”. But today it appeared that someone had bought it and was fixing it up.

In Highland Park, I spotted an abandoned couch, so I got a picture for the Abandoned Couches Blog.

When we got to Kaldi’s, Jon took my picture in front of the Twinkies and Ding Dongs. Apparently, it was hot. I didn’t realize just how sweaty I’d gotten.

I was glad to see the big steel girder next to the toaster. That meant that the brick building had been reinforced, so it wouldn’t need a warning sign like the one we saw in Covina one time.

After the stop, we headed home by way of San Marino and San Gabriel. When we got back to the park, I rode back up to Woodbury Road to get photos of a couple of other abandoned couches we’d passed earlier. There was a pair of them on Hill Ave, and then one on Woodbury, followed just a few blocks later by another. It was a very good day for feral-couch spotting.

Finally, on the way home, I saw a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s car going through the drive-through at Jack-In-The-Box. I guess those guys have to eat, too.

It was a very nice ride.

50 miles.
cycling

Well, I was supposed to go riding today. I rode my road bike in this morning. But when lunchtime came, I changed my clothes and pulled the bike out into the hall. At that point I noticed that the front tire was flat. The front tire on that bike has a funky valve that sometimes doesn’t seat properly. So I reached for the pump to pump it up again. That was when I realized I had no pump. And I recalled Gene’s sage (and probably hard-won) words of wisdom:

“Each bike should have its own pump so you don’t have to remember to switch the pump when you switch bikes.”

Yep. Them’s words of wisdom.

So I changed back into my regular clothes and started walking. I walked to the bike shop that is closest to my office. In this case, it’s Incycle. I don’t go there often, even though Gene mentioned that we can get a discount for being members of Foothill Cycle. But since I was in a bind, it was the place.

I got there and found a suitable pump. I took it up to the register and asked if I could get my discount. The guy looked at me like I was asking to see Bigfoot. He rummaged around in the papers under the counter and finally, grudgingly, gave me the discount. Sheesh. The whole point of offering a discount on products to groups of people who are enthusiasts for your product is to create word-of-mouth to get people to patronize your business. And if they ask for the discount, that means it’s working. But then the exact wrong thing to do then is to treat them like they’re doing something wrong. That negates any possible good, since any time I tell the story of how I got a discount at Incycle, it’s going to be accompanied by the story of how the counter guy acted like he thought I was trying to examine his prostate. Sheesh.

But in the end, I have a new pump on my old bike, and I was able to pump up my tire for the ride home.