Last week I decided I needed to do a long ride on the Brompton with a medium bag attached, a semi-touring test. I thought it would be a good idea to make it a night ride after work to make it more challenging. So I decided to ride a century after work on the night before Thanksgiving.
I checked the weather forecasts and it looked like it would be cold with light winds in Anaheim on Wednesday night so I put fleece tights and a windbreaker in my bag and drove down to the Artic arriving about 5pm. It was already dark and about 70F with a light breeze. My wife texted me that it was very windy at home and would I be OK. I told her it was fine where I was. I noticed my aerobar bag rubbed on the medium Brompton bag so I had to slide it forward on the aerobars. I suspect it will not work at all with the large Bromton bag. I will have to try it out.
Everything went well as I headed to Huntington Beach but I realized my new Ergon GP4 bar ends were too high so I adjusted them at Huntington Beach. Then up the beach trail to Seal Beach with almost no trail traffic. At that point the temperature was down to 60F and as I headed inland towards South El Monte it dropped further so I had to put my tights and jacket on. By the time I got to the Shell on Peck Road it was down to 50F and I was at the limit of my gear. I prayed it wouldn't get any colder. However, the wind was still calm. Half my Monster went into the water bottle and half went into me along with half the grinder I had brought with me. I was pleased I was able to ride 50 miles on the Brompton without eating.
I quickly headed back to Seal Beach on the San Gabriel bike path because there was no way I was going to ride the Los Angeles river bike path in the dark, and when I was within five miles of the beach I suddenly got hit with a powerful cross/tailwind. It seems I should have checked the weather forecast for 11pm too, because it was much windier than the 5pm forecast. Of course I was about to turn into the wind - that goes without saying.
Once I got back to Seal Beach the temperature was up to 68F but there was a 30 mph cross/head wind all the way to Huntington Beach. The sand blowing across the beach trail was getting into my eyes, ears, mouth, etc. I'm surprised my Brompton has any paint left on it. Of course the Brompton bag did not help. There wasn't really much point going onto the aerobars with that sticking out in the wind. The weather sites say the wind was 27 mph, so we'll split the difference. I was averaging about 9 mph through this 13 mile section.
I started thinking about the other windy rides I've done and I can think of at least five that were windier. The worst was a 300k in San Luis Obispo. At one point we were riding across an exposed ridge with a 50 mph cross wind. It was impossible to ride our bikes. We had to get off, crouch down, and walk a hundred yards until we reached some shelter and could ride again. There were four Elliptigo riders on the event and one of them ended up being the first Elliptigo rider to complete PBP. I'm sure this is the ride where he realized he could do it. So, yes, it was bad but I've dealt with worse.
Of course, the turn inland kept me into the headwind but oddly it died down a bit as I headed inland for a while and then came back twice as strong once I was about 8 miles inland. I ended up with 96 miles (some math error somewhere). I had planned on finishing around 1am but didn't actually finish until 2:30am. If you look at my speed you can see where I hit the headwind at mile 70.
I learned a lot.
- Do not assume the weather will be the same for the duration of the ride
- The aerobar bag and large Brompton bag don't work together
- I will need better cold weather gear for Ireland
- I'm still a badass
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