Sam Woo ride

 The weather was lovely this weekend with cool temperatures and mild winds. Amber wanted to ride Sam Woo so we agreed to do that. Edgar wanted to come along which would make it his longest ride ever. We altered the route a little to use all of Bayside Drive starting at mile 17 which was a great decision.

We were very hungry by the time we got to The Brig in Dana Point, but we knew we would be at Sam Woo's in 25 miles, so we were restrained as we ordered. They have a large outdoor dining area so that went well.

We got to Sam Woo's before they ran out of dim sum, but we were too late for custard tarts :-( We should have ridden faster :-)

Thirty miles later and we were back at the cars. A great ride and congratulations to Edgar.

First 100k on the Brompton

My first real ride of 2021 was a 100k on the Brompton - it was actually 72 miles which makes it my longest Brompton ride yet. It's definitely harder riding the Brompton, even on the flat. I feel like I rode a century. While I was waiting for Amber I rode the Brompton on gravel which it handles very well, but I think the small wheels make hard work of gravel and dirt.

The main problems were my backside (which is to be expected given that I am riding on a partly broken in Brooks B17) and my hands (which is more of a problem). I wish I had more hand positions, but I can't think of anything I can do to improve comfort there.

I've been looking at stem mounts for my Wahoo and decided to design my own 3D model because I just can't find any online. I sent the first version off to my friend with the 3D printer. We'll see how well I did. It reminds me of a tiny radio telescope.

This is how it came out - perfect!

Bragging rights

Well, if you're reading this, you survived 2020. Congratulations.

For some reason the pandemic actually increased my miles ridden. Perhaps the time I didn't spend commuting to work was spent on my trainer. We have started to shift brevet dates back in the year so we're hoping we can run a full series in March and April. The events will still be two weeks apart so there's adequate recovery time.

For those of us hoping to complete a 1200k, it seems as if the organizers are being very flexible about prerequisites. If we can't complete an SR in 2021, that probably won't be a problem although it might make success more challenging.

It's a bit distressing to see an entire year's work reset to zero today. But if that's the cost for getting out of 2020, I'll pay it.