It was unseasonably warm again today with temps in the 55-60 degree range, not that I am complaining. The wind also calmed down a bit and rolling out of the garage I decided to head up the Ventura River Trail and shoot some pics. The light was fantastic this morning.
I made it out to Santa Anna Road in time to catch the sun rise hitting the mountains,
But played around too much with the cameras and gear to cover the distance I had hoped for. I had picked up some new batteries for my wireless camera trigger the other day, and the improvement in range and performance is incredible. More lonely-boy self portraits to follow soon. Heading home:
In time to play a bit with the family before getting back to work.
This morning there was only a bit 
time for a quick toodle around down town and to close the loop along the beach for a quick surf check. After yesterday's comment about living in a smaller town I thought about expanding a bit. 
Work brought me to the Ventura area four years ago. When it was time to find an apartment, a garage for the tools and gear, and close to town and the beach were the key criteria in the search. We ended up in a town house two blocks from My wife's work, a few blocks from down town and the beach. We are able to walk down town for dinner and shopping, there are at least four local bike shops within two miles of the house, the ocean is blocks away. Most of our produce comes from the weekend farmer's markets either up the street on Saturday or I use the Sunday market ten miles away as an excuse to put in some extra saddle time. Things like Costco or the nicer food markets are a bit further, but still very accessible by bike when you need to stock up on supplies. In the last few years my work was as close as a three mile pedal to the job site, and at worst 65 miles in the car down to Los Angeles.
The only downside, well I am having a hard time coming up 
with a downside. I did not even ge to expand on the mountains to the north expanding into the Los Padres National Forest, or the fact that if we did want to venture into LA it is only an hour or so away. This is not meant to be a sales pitch for Ventura. Think about what you do to live and work and how to structure your life so that you can do the things you want. For me that is getting out of the car, onto the bike, into the water and having maximum time to spend with my wife and daughter. 
Every time I take work that puts me behind the windshield for hours on end I regret it, I am trying real hard this time to not lat that happen again. It is possible to have things come together so that you can do it your way, though you have to do it and not wait for it to just show up.
If you find you current situation less ideal than you would hope, particularly from a transformational cycling situation, just get out and make the best of what you have. Things are probably better than you think. In my four years here in town I have discovered and been able to share more than many people who have lived here for decades. The key is getting started, get outside, commit to using your legs to get around town. When that gets boring, commit to not going the same way twice to get to the same places for a whole week or more. Most of all recapture your time and have fun.
Finally found the confluence of factors to get back into the water for a short window in time this morning. It felt good, cold, but good. The current wind conditions have the water temps in the 50s with air in the upper 40s, brrrr. Still it was wonderful taking some pictures from the other side of the sidewalk.
The
GoPro® Helmet HERO™ Wide Camera
performed pretty well for my first day in the water. I ran into some of the same snags many users do with water spots. I had tried rain-x as recommended, but my bottle was ancient as we do not use it often out here in SoCal.
The wife's cruiser performed perfectly as well, although my hands were frozen by the time I made it home. Much to her dismay it has morphed into the family surf cruiser, with the baby we now surf in shifts. The bike is paying the price for its time locked up in front of the ocean.
Living in a small to medium-sized town near your work and playgrounds definitely makes the car light lifestyle so much more accessible. The temperate climate is just the frosting on the cake.
I was out in time to catch the moon set this morning over Santa Barbara, tonight is the full moon
Full moon tides combined with swell for sea water puddles along the coast.
About 3 miles into the ride I crossed paths with a pod of dolphin surfing down the coast in the other direction, ended up chasing them a mile back to grab some pictures.
Lets see if the rest of the day is as good as this morning. Have fun, Play outside.
The baby had us/me up super early this morning and I could not go back to sleep. Left a little earlier and was able to get a little more distance in, 28 miles. The swell is up but the full moon and morning high tides are keeping me on the bike and out of the water. Good lights are part of the combo that make riding in the dark a pleasure, my DiNotte 140 has been going strong fo ra few years now. One of the other components are fatter cushy tires that are a little more forgiving of the imperfections in the road, Rivendell Jack Browns are my tires of choice.
View towards home from Rincon Point, Queen of the coast. Time for a break and some pictures.
First shot is with the
GoPro® Helmet HERO™ Wide Camera
. I have mostly been shooting hand-held, as this morning's shot propped up. While the pictures are not what you would get with a DSLR, the quality is still shockingly good. I have not even begun to explore the video capability yet due to my own software limitations, that though will not be a hurdle much longer. The beauty of this camera is in the size, simplicity , weather resistance and durability. I moved from a Canon DSLR to my Panasonic GF1 to scale down the size. This takes it two steps further and the camera is always in my bag.
Winter Blues January 16 2011, 0 Comments
Another sweet Sunday ride to market in the Bag(s)
Third trip this week with the Roadeo loaded, Every ride I love this bike more and more.
I am so glad not to be living an a place that freezes and stays frozen for months.
Another incredible day, and I had an hour and a half window for Opie(grandpa) to baby sit. I decided to combine errands with the workout. I have a 15 mile loop that lets me hit two grocery stores. Total load and therefore spending are limited by taking the Roadeo. Temps were in the low to mid 50s and wind was crazy, one of the days where you have a headwind more than 3/4 of the ride. 
The layering system for errands is pretty different from what I wear for my morning or non-errand rides. Most of the time I am layered up in some combination of merino wool and polyester to fend off the morning chill. When I know that there is going to be more stop and go, time in stores etc. I wear what most would consider normal street clothes. Flannel being one of my favorite of layers for the cooler months. Today I busted out my new Patagonia Fjord Flannel Shirt in Fusion Orange that the wife picked out for me as a Christmas gift. This is their heavier flannel, and just happens to be a great color combo for playing in traffic. I ride most of the year in long sleeves for sun protection. In the winter, flannel provides a great top layer with just a little wind resistance and the ability to quickly adjust buttons or roll up sleeves as needed. Today there were more than a few adjustments as I had everything from a 15mph tail wind to shady cross winds and then a tail wind home. This shirt ROCKS, it is the first heavyweight flannel I have added to the rotation in years. I have three older ones in the closet, one 8 years old, like silk and covered in patches. I can only hope that this shirt goes the distance as well
Two stops and about 35 lbs of groceries later I was on my way home. As discovered this past weekend, judicious placement of the load has had little detrimental effect on the performance of the Roadeo. This time I was pushing the limit up front with 10lbs, a gallon of tangerine juice, up front in the acorn bag. Another 15 -20lbs in the rear and the frame bag stuffed with rice pasta, yogurt and salsa.
One thing that really helps with the loading, comfort and stability is getting the Rivendell Jack Brown 33.3mm wide tires back on the bike. The added cush soaks up absolutely everything between the crappy roads and the rim.
I have been pushing the limits of how I ride this bike loaded. Rivendell states that they will not put you on a roadeo if you are over 250lbs. I would likely agree that around that weight load the bike becomes compliant to a point where you really need to be paying attention to what you are doing. At the moment I weigh in at about 220lbs. I am working to get that down another 10 lbs and use this as a nimble allroad touring bike for the summer.
Have fun, and get outside!
Update: The shirt is gone for the saeson, What is left in flannel is going fast at the winter sale, time to buy your AC cotton, review coming soon
I could not resist the title with all the love the Roadeo has had with its model name.
Today was much nicer out than last weekend's ride across town to the Channel Islands Harbor farmer's market. Partly cloudy, light breeze and in the upper 50's not quite shorts weather.
With fair weather for the forecast and working out some touring ideas for the spring I spent some time in the morning putting the Jack Browns back on, pulling the fenders and Roughy Toughys off and rotating the Carradice Nelson longflap back on. I have been dropping a little weight and figure that gives me more loading room on the bike without fear of overload and wonky handling.
Market was a success with the dry weather the farmers are able to get more out of the field and not have as bad of mud to contend with. All three bags, Acorn Hobo, the Frame Bag and Nelson were all stuffed to the max.
It would be a lie if I said there was NO change in handling, but nothing went terrible in any way, no wobbles, shimmy, weird pulling or such as can happen when the load is bigger than rider and bike were meant to transport. Cruising speed through the fields was about the same loaded or not.
Riding no hands was easy as always. All of the above needs to be considered in light of the fact that this bicycle is designed and intended to be a lightweight club racer. I am not advocating that you all ditch the heavier touring bikes to load up the club racer, but knowing how and what you bike is made of and can do is a good thin in my opinion.
The Bounty: 2 Dozen eggs, 2 onions, 3 cloves of garlic, 3 heads of brocoli, 1 cauliflower, a bunch of carrots, bag of beet greens, bunch of collard greens, 7 avocados and a large bag of vegetable chips. Not bad for a lightweight steed burdened with my 215 lb self and all that produce.
Next up is to work out some gear lists and see if I can get it in the bags for some quick S24O spring rides.
Back out to the canyons on what was a bit colder than I expected morning. Temps at home were around 37, but out in the fields and back in the canyons there was frost. The wool worked and the wind breaker never came off. The only things that suffered were my feet, next time I will pack some extra socks.
The star of the show today is my new
GoPro® Helmet HERO™ Wide Camera
. In my quest to better capture the rider point of view on my cycling adventures, I opted into one of these little power packs. The angle of view is about 170 deg and grabs a far wider line of sight than the lenses I currently have for my other cameras. Out of the box impression is really good. I want to use it a bit more to form a better review later next week. The two biggest plus points are the wide-angle and waterproof for the rain. The only downside so far is the signal to noise ratio, using the camera for still captures there are a lot of throw aways while the camera is running on autopilot strapped to your helmet. So here are today's light grabs.
Looking back towards Point Mugu
Frigid and frosty in Wheeler Canyon, I was not really prepared for this and my feet are still a bit chilly..
I still am amazed at times how many miles of near empty back roads there are. It is particularly nice when they are freshly re-paved...
Island views for the ride home, crystal clear weather before the next storm
Have a fun and safe New Year, enjoy the weekend and get outside.
Back into the rain again this morning.
I have been spending most of my time up in the Ventura River Valley the last few weeks as my coastal rides have been plagued with mud flows. This morning I decided to set my sites east and head back up into the Santa Clara river valley and start exploring some of the tributary canyons I have previously ridden past. The rain makes this a little more fun since there is water in the creeks and rivers. Today's particular target was Wheeler Canyon.
The rain through the night and into the morning was pretty heavy and hopes were high for some water in the creeks, lighter traffic in nice too.
Not raging rapids, but better than dry creek beds. The ride home was wet all the way with the clouds starting to break up as I worked through the foothills back into town.
I did not cover the amount of ground I had hoped for in the time window. I would like to blame it on tires, rain or 45 deg weather, but my legs are lagging a bit after the Holiday. I look forward to sharing some of the beauty and resources we have in this region. There is a long history in the river valley, with the native peoples, agricultural and ecological changes over time should give me plenty to learn about and share within the context of cycling exploration.
Get out and enjoy you home town, find something new to you this week.
I made it out to Santa Anna Road in time to catch the sun rise hitting the mountains,
But played around too much with the cameras and gear to cover the distance I had hoped for. I had picked up some new batteries for my wireless camera trigger the other day, and the improvement in range and performance is incredible. More lonely-boy self portraits to follow soon. Heading home:
In time to play a bit with the family before getting back to work.
