Nope. I was the only person who arrived costumed and boy, did I feel dopey.
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| I enjoyed some Palestinian Conflict Kitchen cuisine beforehand. |
No one even knew who I was supposed to be! I mean, isn't it obvious?
Showing posts with label flock of cycles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flock of cycles. Show all posts
Friday, October 17, 2014
Feeling foolish at Flock
It's October 17th and today is the monthly Flock ride! That means everyone comes dressed in a costume, right? Yaaaaa!
Nope. I was the only person who arrived costumed and boy, did I feel dopey.
No one even knew who I was supposed to be! I mean, isn't it obvious?
Nope. I was the only person who arrived costumed and boy, did I feel dopey.
No one even knew who I was supposed to be! I mean, isn't it obvious?
Friday, September 19, 2014
Park(ing) Day and Flock
Su, Marko and I met for a day filled of riding around to most of the Park(ing) Day spots located all around the City. We started at the Mayor's Spot, which was beach-themed.
Here's some shots Su took:
We escorted Su back to her car and then we were off to the South Side.
Marko and I were starving so he suggested tacos on Atwood. Delicious, but I forget that Mexican food frequently uses Sazón, which has MSG. Not awesome. I got a minor case of the dizzies.
Flock was essentially a tour of many of the new bike lanes, minus the Saline Street lane, which we'd used to get up to Oakland. I hadn't used the Schenley Lane yet, so this was a bonus for me!
Some shots taken by my fellow Flockers:
We stopped at a grocery store to get some snacks to enjoy at the end of the ride at Point State park. Mikhail, having no panniers or bags on his bike asked me to carry a few items, and of course, I said yes! I'm a pack mule! I loaded Mikhail's purchases into my panniers and basket and we were off, but I guess I didn't secure his paper plates well enough... going through Lawrenceville, they leapt out of the basket and rolled through the street. The Fly6 camera captured it.
Interesting thing is, I had to lay the bike down to go retrieve the errant plates and this triggered the Incident Protection Function. This works when the Fly6 is tilted over more than 45 degrees for more than 3 seconds.
I started out the day talking with Su about leg cramps and dammit, I got a vicious bout of them in my thigh at the end of my night. I had to stop in the Penn Ave bike lane and stretch it out. My fellow Flockers asked if I needed help, but I told them I was just working out a leg cramp. Mick was kind enough to circle back and ride with me as the whole group was a few lights ahead by the time I'd gotten over the cramps.
The ride ended at the Fountain and I had to get going, it was a long day that started at 11:30 and took me 40 miles all over the city. So much fun with friends on a day off from work that I dedicated strictly to biking.
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| Lifeguard duties. |
The Mayor himself made an appearance, but only briefly as he went to his car.
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| He returned our wave. |
Off we went to visit the Spots, there were a few interesting ones along Liberty Ave
Then off to Lawrenceville for the mini-golf overload.
We escorted Su back to her car and then we were off to the South Side.
The Pièce de résistance was Thick Bikes' Spot; Chrissy went all out with sod, trees, plants, audio of birds chirping. It was chock full of awesome. Bravo.
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| Chrissy explained that the gnome was mooning the car. |
Marko and I were starving so he suggested tacos on Atwood. Delicious, but I forget that Mexican food frequently uses Sazón, which has MSG. Not awesome. I got a minor case of the dizzies.
Some shots taken by my fellow Flockers:
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| Ian, me and Marko. Ian really *is* that tall. |
We stopped at a grocery store to get some snacks to enjoy at the end of the ride at Point State park. Mikhail, having no panniers or bags on his bike asked me to carry a few items, and of course, I said yes! I'm a pack mule! I loaded Mikhail's purchases into my panniers and basket and we were off, but I guess I didn't secure his paper plates well enough... going through Lawrenceville, they leapt out of the basket and rolled through the street. The Fly6 camera captured it.
Interesting thing is, I had to lay the bike down to go retrieve the errant plates and this triggered the Incident Protection Function. This works when the Fly6 is tilted over more than 45 degrees for more than 3 seconds.
I started out the day talking with Su about leg cramps and dammit, I got a vicious bout of them in my thigh at the end of my night. I had to stop in the Penn Ave bike lane and stretch it out. My fellow Flockers asked if I needed help, but I told them I was just working out a leg cramp. Mick was kind enough to circle back and ride with me as the whole group was a few lights ahead by the time I'd gotten over the cramps.
The ride ended at the Fountain and I had to get going, it was a long day that started at 11:30 and took me 40 miles all over the city. So much fun with friends on a day off from work that I dedicated strictly to biking.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Leap-frogging through Pedal Pittsburgh and Serenity 2.0
Today was Pedal Pittsburgh, a large, supported event bike tour of Pittsburgh.
This would be my first Pedal Pittsburgh and my first experience as a cyclist in a large scale ride. For the past 12 years, I've been on the Staff side. It would be strange to be She Who Must be Served.
There are 4 choices of routes. I had trouble deciding which route to take, I would definitely have trouble with the 62 mile route, both in stamina and the hour at which one had to start. There was a 25 mile route with a 45 mile option. I'd have to tack on the 13 miles to get to and from the start line, so I would wind up doing 60+ miles anyway! There was also the 25 mile route, but that didn't include much territory that I hadn't already seen. I wanted to hit new places, like... Highland Park, Riverview Park, Frick Park. These were all places I'd not yet been, so I gritted my teeth and chose the 45 mile route.
It was hilly; really damned hilly.
Today's efforts earned me my first 30K steps badge at Fitbit! W00t!
Would you believe I wore wool? It's August and I'm wearing wool. I'd understood that wool is awesome to cycle in even in the summer, so I took the advice of seasoned cyclists and invested in some wool. They have nice summer sale on right now, so I got some winter base layers and some summer shortlseeves, a dress and a skirt. They're no warmer or cooler than the synthetics, but they cause you to slide around on the seat much less. They dry quickly too. Love the wool skirt. I'm somewhat anxious to wear the longsleeve wool dress and baselayers, but I don't want to rush the seasons.
At the start, I crossed paths with VB and Mrs Q. I got hung up at waiting for a train to pass through the South Side before we could continue, so I thought I'd never catch up and we wouldn't cross paths for the rest of the day, but I kept running into them in an accidental game of leap frog. I'd catch up with them, they'd ride ahead, I'd catch up and get ahead of them and they'd come up from behind and leave me in their dust again. I think it happened at least 4 times, funny. Naturally, I ran into Yale because: he's everywhere. I also played leap frog with Dan Y, he was at EVERY rest stop I stopped at except the first one in Riverview Park. Goes to show you how hard event staff work. Met Ms Garrison of BlackGirlsDoBike who was volunteering at a water stop and said hello to Mr Woods of Major Taylor again while he was running SAGs. He looked at Fizz and said "I see you've upgraded!". Waved at Mikhail while he barked from his marshalling station. Marko kindly drug Fizz out of the poor position I'd dropped her at the finish line where he was volunteering... she was just too heavy at the end of a long day to try and prop up. Volunteers are awesome.
Along the way, I got some nice shots of the new bike against some interesting scenery.
I'm finding that the Trucker is prone to depositing grease on my right inside calf. I'd show you a picture, but I'd already scrubbed off the grease.
Imagine it looks something like this:
...But on a bruised, chubby, oddly-shaped Popeye calf sporting lots of red and blue spider veins.
I'm having a hell of a time scrubbing it off too. I spent quite some time scrubbing away and some marks just weren't coming off no matter how hard I rubbed. Then it dawned on me: that's not grease, those are bruises and spider veins. Soap ain't fixing those!
The ride was rough, but fun. Everyone was friendly... like this couple:
The day's mileage was 60.29. I hit 60 at the casino on my return to base. I wanted to get a shot of the 60.00 on the computer, but I overshot it. A record!
This would be my first Pedal Pittsburgh and my first experience as a cyclist in a large scale ride. For the past 12 years, I've been on the Staff side. It would be strange to be She Who Must be Served.
There are 4 choices of routes. I had trouble deciding which route to take, I would definitely have trouble with the 62 mile route, both in stamina and the hour at which one had to start. There was a 25 mile route with a 45 mile option. I'd have to tack on the 13 miles to get to and from the start line, so I would wind up doing 60+ miles anyway! There was also the 25 mile route, but that didn't include much territory that I hadn't already seen. I wanted to hit new places, like... Highland Park, Riverview Park, Frick Park. These were all places I'd not yet been, so I gritted my teeth and chose the 45 mile route.
It was hilly; really damned hilly.
Today's efforts earned me my first 30K steps badge at Fitbit! W00t!
Would you believe I wore wool? It's August and I'm wearing wool. I'd understood that wool is awesome to cycle in even in the summer, so I took the advice of seasoned cyclists and invested in some wool. They have nice summer sale on right now, so I got some winter base layers and some summer shortlseeves, a dress and a skirt. They're no warmer or cooler than the synthetics, but they cause you to slide around on the seat much less. They dry quickly too. Love the wool skirt. I'm somewhat anxious to wear the longsleeve wool dress and baselayers, but I don't want to rush the seasons.
At the start, I crossed paths with VB and Mrs Q. I got hung up at waiting for a train to pass through the South Side before we could continue, so I thought I'd never catch up and we wouldn't cross paths for the rest of the day, but I kept running into them in an accidental game of leap frog. I'd catch up with them, they'd ride ahead, I'd catch up and get ahead of them and they'd come up from behind and leave me in their dust again. I think it happened at least 4 times, funny. Naturally, I ran into Yale because: he's everywhere. I also played leap frog with Dan Y, he was at EVERY rest stop I stopped at except the first one in Riverview Park. Goes to show you how hard event staff work. Met Ms Garrison of BlackGirlsDoBike who was volunteering at a water stop and said hello to Mr Woods of Major Taylor again while he was running SAGs. He looked at Fizz and said "I see you've upgraded!". Waved at Mikhail while he barked from his marshalling station. Marko kindly drug Fizz out of the poor position I'd dropped her at the finish line where he was volunteering... she was just too heavy at the end of a long day to try and prop up. Volunteers are awesome.
Along the way, I got some nice shots of the new bike against some interesting scenery.
 |
Flocker Street! |
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| Needed to get the Trucker in front of the Serenity sign. |
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| Another day in paradise |
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| I'm hoping the top tube pad will be covered in patches one day. |
Imagine it looks something like this:
I'm having a hell of a time scrubbing it off too. I spent quite some time scrubbing away and some marks just weren't coming off no matter how hard I rubbed. Then it dawned on me: that's not grease, those are bruises and spider veins. Soap ain't fixing those!
The ride was rough, but fun. Everyone was friendly... like this couple:
The day's mileage was 60.29. I hit 60 at the casino on my return to base. I wanted to get a shot of the 60.00 on the computer, but I overshot it. A record!
 |
| I noticed today that I have FI'Zi:k bar tape on FIZZ. Huh. |
Friday, August 15, 2014
"You've got something stuck in your spokes"
Yesterday, I picked up Fizz.
Twas a glorious day. I rode her back to base and began the enjoyable task of strapping and bolting accessories and gadgets to her.
I'm getting used to drop bars and the not-yet-tailored-to-me geometry. I hope to iron that out with a fitting with Adam next week.
The next day I went for a ride to see the new racks the Pirates have installed at PNC Park. I was stopped by a man who tried tell me that I had something stuck in my spokes. I explained it was intentional as well as explain what Yehuda Moon was. He introduced himself as an avid cyclist who hasn't been riding much recently due to a car-on-bike incident that left him with lingering concussion issues. He fawned over the bike (I mean, squatting next to it and giving a good look-over and everything) and we talked bike for a good 10 minutes while I tweeted my thanks to the Pirates for the new racks.
I also made sure to get some good shots of her leaning on stuff with a nice scenic background.
Friday evening brought me to the monthly Flock ride. I was reluctant to ride in a group being still wobbly on the new bike. I stopped at Thick to see if they could insert some spacers in my stem to raise it to a more comfortable level as a stop-gap measure before my fitting. Yes, at 30 minutes before closing time on a Friday, they gleefully accommodated me. My hands (which were in a fair amount of pain) felt a bit better, but Adam didn't like the angle of my saddle and adjusted it. I suspected I wouldn't make it a mile or so before my bits and pieces got angry. I was right. I stopped in Panther Hollow (new bike lanes!) to re-adjust it.
Sue was there and she snapped this shot:
The ride ended short for some reason. Odd. So, Marko and Yale and I tried to escort Sue back to her car, but we got separated in the Dead End that Saint Mary's cemetery is. My hands are killing me but I wasn't sorry to have gone, I did fine in a group even though I felt not entirely comfortable with the steering and braking.
Getting used to 26" tires and my brakes being in a different place: it'll take some time.
Twas a glorious day. I rode her back to base and began the enjoyable task of strapping and bolting accessories and gadgets to her.
I'm getting used to drop bars and the not-yet-tailored-to-me geometry. I hope to iron that out with a fitting with Adam next week.
The next day I went for a ride to see the new racks the Pirates have installed at PNC Park. I was stopped by a man who tried tell me that I had something stuck in my spokes. I explained it was intentional as well as explain what Yehuda Moon was. He introduced himself as an avid cyclist who hasn't been riding much recently due to a car-on-bike incident that left him with lingering concussion issues. He fawned over the bike (I mean, squatting next to it and giving a good look-over and everything) and we talked bike for a good 10 minutes while I tweeted my thanks to the Pirates for the new racks.
I also made sure to get some good shots of her leaning on stuff with a nice scenic background.
Friday evening brought me to the monthly Flock ride. I was reluctant to ride in a group being still wobbly on the new bike. I stopped at Thick to see if they could insert some spacers in my stem to raise it to a more comfortable level as a stop-gap measure before my fitting. Yes, at 30 minutes before closing time on a Friday, they gleefully accommodated me. My hands (which were in a fair amount of pain) felt a bit better, but Adam didn't like the angle of my saddle and adjusted it. I suspected I wouldn't make it a mile or so before my bits and pieces got angry. I was right. I stopped in Panther Hollow (new bike lanes!) to re-adjust it.
Sue was there and she snapped this shot:
The ride ended short for some reason. Odd. So, Marko and Yale and I tried to escort Sue back to her car, but we got separated in the Dead End that Saint Mary's cemetery is. My hands are killing me but I wasn't sorry to have gone, I did fine in a group even though I felt not entirely comfortable with the steering and braking.
Getting used to 26" tires and my brakes being in a different place: it'll take some time.
Friday, July 18, 2014
Bananas for Flock
Thursday I rode back to Conflict Kitchen and finally got my shredded beef, beans rice and plantains. NOM. I rarely get to have Latino cuisine, hubby never takes us to those restaurants, his adventure into exotic food goes as far as Asian/Chinese (yawn) and Indian.
After I left, I got the closest buzz to date I've ever had the pleasure of encountering.
There's the front view and the rear view, they came within 10 inches of me. Jeez.
On Friday, I was all set to go to a Pirates game with hubby, I was certain we had tickets and it was on my calendar. I need a calendar, I'm not so good at remembering dates long term.
So, when I asked him what time we should meet after work, he said to me: "Um, we don't have tickets, do you have your days confused again?"
I was rather disappointed in myself for screwing up another scheduled event, I'm getting really bad with this memory stuff!
The good news was, I could go to Flock! I'd missed it the last 2 months and was delighted not to be missing 3 months in a row.
On the way there, hubby called me: "You were right, we do have tickets for tonight's game." I was sad we were wasting tickets, but glad I wasn't losing my mind.
Oh, wait... hubby's starting to lose his faculties! *Sigh* I guess I signed up for that marrying someone 14 years my senior.
I had a chance to enjoy MORE of Conflict Kitchen's deliciousness. I had a fish salad and more fried bananas while I chatted with Marko, PaulB and Ian.
Flock was awesome as usual. I got to see a few more parts of Pittsburgh I hadn't before. I was amazed at how torn up Penn Avenue was. It looks like they're doing an archaeological dig!
I had to bail the ride early and head back so hubby would have to pick me up well after his bedtime. On the way there I encountered a child trying to steer his bike down Liberty Ave in Bloomfield carrying a bag and a half case of Pepsi and failing. I stopped and asked if he needed help, I mean, look kid, I have panniers! Don't kill yourself! But he declined my assistance, he said he wasn't very far from home.
Pepsi Kid: http://youtu.be/Ka1fZmviOgA?t=10m43s
A very good evening, seeing friends again. 19 miles.
After I left, I got the closest buzz to date I've ever had the pleasure of encountering.
There's the front view and the rear view, they came within 10 inches of me. Jeez.
On Friday, I was all set to go to a Pirates game with hubby, I was certain we had tickets and it was on my calendar. I need a calendar, I'm not so good at remembering dates long term.
So, when I asked him what time we should meet after work, he said to me: "Um, we don't have tickets, do you have your days confused again?"
I was rather disappointed in myself for screwing up another scheduled event, I'm getting really bad with this memory stuff!
The good news was, I could go to Flock! I'd missed it the last 2 months and was delighted not to be missing 3 months in a row.
On the way there, hubby called me: "You were right, we do have tickets for tonight's game." I was sad we were wasting tickets, but glad I wasn't losing my mind.
Oh, wait... hubby's starting to lose his faculties! *Sigh* I guess I signed up for that marrying someone 14 years my senior.
I had a chance to enjoy MORE of Conflict Kitchen's deliciousness. I had a fish salad and more fried bananas while I chatted with Marko, PaulB and Ian.
Flock was awesome as usual. I got to see a few more parts of Pittsburgh I hadn't before. I was amazed at how torn up Penn Avenue was. It looks like they're doing an archaeological dig!
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| "Hey, Marko, that camera's recording us right now. How much ya wanna to bet this shows up on her blog?" |
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| LOVE PaulB's hi-viz pink. It's not just for the ladies, fellas. |
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| K and VB practice 'Bicycle Face' |
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| These ladies suspected I had a camera on the bike. They weren't wrong. |
I had to bail the ride early and head back so hubby would have to pick me up well after his bedtime. On the way there I encountered a child trying to steer his bike down Liberty Ave in Bloomfield carrying a bag and a half case of Pepsi and failing. I stopped and asked if he needed help, I mean, look kid, I have panniers! Don't kill yourself! But he declined my assistance, he said he wasn't very far from home.
Pepsi Kid: http://youtu.be/Ka1fZmviOgA?t=10m43s
A very good evening, seeing friends again. 19 miles.
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