The GAPS ~ Directions & Route

Driving Directions to Ride Start:

From Fayette County:

Get on I-85 and go north

Get on GA-400 and go north for 53.8 miles (to the end of GA-400)

Turn left onto GA-19

Go 5.6 miles (to Danlongega Court Square)

Turn right at square and then left immediate onto Park St

Go one (short) block and turn left onto Warwick St

The parking lot is immediately on your right

 

ORIGINAL TRIPLE GAP ROUTE
Miles	Leg	Turn	Comment
0.0	0.0		Dahlonega Gold Museum
0.0	0.0	R	East Main St
0.3	0.3	BL	Bear left onto GA-52
0.6	0.3	L	Onto GA-52
0.9	0.3	R	onto GA-52 @ light
2	1.1	L	onto Rockhouse Rd
4.2	2.2	L	onto Cavender Creek Rd
4.4	0.2	R	Porter Springs Rd
10.4	6.0	R	onto US-19
14.6	4.2	L	onto US-19/129 @ Turners Corner
22.4	7.8	~~	Top of Neels Gap (store on right)
25.4	3.0	L	Wolf Pen Gap Rd (easy to miss)
27.3	1.9	~~	Summit  Wolfpen Gap
36.6	9.3	L	GA-60 (store on right)
43.8	7.2	S	US-19 joins route
48.6	4.8	R	onto US-19 Buss
52.8	4.2	R	onto E Main St.
52.9	0.1	~~	enter Square and Finish!!

Friday Follies ~~ Oops!

Yesterday, I was scrambling to get ready for the evening ride.  It had been a long, full, and complicated day.  I’d thrown the garage door open to grab the bike.  I had one of the cyclocomputers in my hand.  As I reached to bring the bike down from the hook, I fumbled, the computer left my hand and…  BLOP …right into the oil catch pan.  The full oil catch pan.  (I’d changed the oil on my truck earlier, and had not then disposed of the used oil.)

I have a complicated history with portable electronics.  I’ve dropped cell phones (unintentionally!) into the toilet.  I’ve drowned them other ways too.  I’ve run over PDAs with my truck.  Back in the Walkman era, I trashed several.  I thought my first flip-phone was really cool, until the bike crash.

Way back in history we didn’t have fancy electronics to train with.  Our concept was different (and largely wrong) then.  Basically we got on the bike and rode as fast as we could for a long time.  We knew approximately the length of various training rides because someone had measured them with a car’s odometer.  In those days bicycle speedometers where huge and clunky, and only seen on the bikes of kids and the occasional eccentric adult.

One day, shortly after the “pocket” calculator became affordable, electronic gadgets for bikes started showing up on the market.  (This was just about the time that DOS 3.0 rolled out.)  They were called “cyclocomputers.”  I resisted them for a time.

I bought my first bike computer.  It was an amazing gadget.  It was both a heart rate monitor and a bike computer.  The heart rate function told me how fast my heart was beating!  The thing also told me how far I ridden the bike, and how long I’d been doing it.  It had a stopwatch in it too.  It had one other interesting feature.  I could be switched between two wheel sizes, so if a second mount was purchased it could be used on two different bikes.  I bought the second mount and used the thing on both my road bike and mountain bike.

That early cyclocomputer had an unadvertised feature.  It was an incredibly sensitive detector of power lines and of the early high frequency wireless security systems.  When I got close to either of these things, my heart rate would go to zero.  Incidentally, that feature took a while to figure out.

I thought the thing was amazing!  I used it a lot.  It changed the way I rode and trained.  Then, on a trip to Tsali, I had it on my bike.  I hit a “wheel eater” while transitioning one of the stream crossings.  I watched the magic device pop out of its mount and then land in the water.  Before I could begin to recover, the little gadget floated right down the stream and rapidly down the waterfall.

For a long time, bicycle computers were somewhat problematical.  They worked okay, until they were subjected to rain.  Then they died.  For a time, I rode with my computer wrapped in baggies, or condoms.  It often helped preserve them.

Eventually, the manufacturers improved the seals on the gadgets.  I became a fan of Sigma brand equipment.  It didn’t die when exposed to a mild rain shower.  I became a real believer when I left my computer in a pocket and ran it through the wash.  That was a pair of work pants.  I wash my own clothes.  For work clothing, I use the heavy duty cycle on the washer, and the “don’t screw with me, get it dry dammit” cycle on the dryer.  The computer lived through all that.  Amazing!  I’ve been a convicted user of Sigma brand equipment ever since.

Yesterday, as I watched the computer disappear into the dark and nasty oil, I didn’t despair.  There wasn’t time for that.  Instead a acted quickly.  I snatched a nitrile glove out of the dispenser on the wall.  (Doesn’t everybody have a disposable glove dispenser in their home shoe?)  I slipped the glove on and reached down into the pan, found the device by feel and retrieved it.  Then a grabbed a handful of paper towels from the shop dispenser, and wrapped them around the hand with the glove.  That contained the mess so that I could dash inside.

A fast trip to the kitchen sink, and large dollop of dish detergent, and then under the stream of warm water.  Scrub with brush.  Presto!  The computer was no longer coated in used crankcase oil.  And it still worked!

It’s nice to know that we are making some progress.

Of course, I’m still carrying my phone around in a zip-lock baggie.  Phones don’t like to get wet.  Will their makers ever catch up with Sigma?

Thursday Thoughts ~ “Inventions”

In the past week I’ve encountered a couple of historical oddities.  It really doesn’t matter what they were, the significant thing is that, at one time, a lot of bicycle folks thought they were the complete and total, can’t do without it, gotta have it, killer, HOT STUFF.  Of course, at this point in time, almost no one remembers these things.  They both have two things in common.  1)  They seemed like a good idea at the time.  2) Some Pro used them and seemed to go faster.  BLOING!  Instant marketing!

Something there is about the bicycle that makes a certain kind of individual want to tinker with it.  Improve it.  That’s kind of interesting, in that, since John Henry Lawson designed the first safety bicycle,* the basic design and shape of the thing hasn’t changed much.  Yes, there have been some successful variants, and materials have improved amazingly.  The look and shape of the thing has undergone some alterations.  But nothing truly major has changed.  It is for this reason that it is sometimes said that,  “The bicycle is the machine where they got it right the first time.”

In point of fact, if one were to somehow place an authentic reproduction of one of those very early “safety bicycles” in a bike rack alongside a collection of modern bikes, it would hardly be noticed.  For comparison, imagine parking a “curved dash Oldsmobile" in the middle of your local shopping center parking lot.  It would certainly draw a crowd.

The automobile has changed dramatically in the last 100 years.  By comparison, most of the changes in bicycles have been more of refinement.

However, the fact remains, some folks just can’t resist the urge to tinker around with the thing.  These tinkers seem to fall into two categories.  1)  The really serious and passionate.  2)  The Man With An Idea! (MWAI)

That first category is populated by folks who are passionate about cycling, who have educated themselves in various serious disciplines, such as engineering, materials science, human factors, exercise physiology, etc.  They tend to work for companies that produce innovative bicycles or bicycle accessories.**

The second category consists of well meaning, under-informed, folk who are convinced that if everyone would just listen to them, and completely re-tool the way the bike is designed, built, and ridden we would, at last, achieve Nirvana.  It should be noted that almost every example of this category is a relative newcomer to cycling.  They either don’t ride, or don’t ride much, or haven’t been riding for long.  And yet they stand ready to revolutionize our sport.  In other words, idiots.  Sometimes these folks are just socially functional eccentrics, afflicted with a relatively harmless mania.

Now we have come to a new era in history.  We refer to the era of the internet.  The era fo I.C.E.  (Internet Changes Everyting)  More specifically, with the new phenomena of crowd sourcing, a lot of these folks actually manage to get some product out there.  Add to that, there are always countless articles, available on the internet, that prove that the MWAI’s fantasy is founded on reality, and simply must be put into widespread use.

Then too, some of these apparent MWAIs are just plain charlatans, or some kind of con artist.***

Over the past 25 years or so, some MWAIs have actually managed, for a short time, to implement some of their manias.  At one time it was decreed that we would all be riding 650C wheels.    Does anyone else remember the Softride™ Beam?  Fortunately these things have now gone the way of the Nehru Jacket and the Leisure Suit.

*There is some argument on precedence here.

**Sometimes they start such companies, and sometimes they are quite successful at it.

***I am reminded of the big Saddle Scare of the 90s.  Riding a bicycle was supposed to make a man sterile, or impotent, or something.  This fire was fueled by several major market magazines.  It was based, in part, on articles written by a “noted urologist.”  And then, about two months later, PRESTO! this same urologist had designed a magical bicycle saddle that was going to save us all!  Just imagine that.

A Day on the Bike…

I was in a foul mood.  Never mind why, just accept that I was mad at the world.  Little things annoyed me.  Irritable was my middle name.  I didn’t feel like going out for a ride.  And the weather, in a word, stank.  It was a bit too cool, and raining, and dark, and evil out.

The thing was, I was committed to doing a very challenging long ride.  I had a training schedule to meet.  So I geared up, grabbed the bike and headed out.

As I rolled out of the driveway and up the street, I was wet-cat miserable.  But I noticed that the rain was tapering.  At least a little bit.

By the time I’d left the town behind, the rain had stopped and there were blue patches showing through the clouds.  The temp actually dropped a bit, but the sun was beginning to shine.  I stopped briefly and shed the outer layer, rain shell and rain pants.  I Folded and stowed them on top of the Carradice bag.  (Lovely design, that bag.)  My clothing now matched the conditions perfectly, and I was enjoying being less encumbered.

I crested a long, but not very steep grinder and turned into the light breeze for the long descent.  I couldn’t help but smile.  This was nice.

The wind stayed light, and danced all around the compass, now behind, now to the side.  The clouds disappeared.  The wind picked up a bit, and it seemed the temp dropped a little more.  I worked a bit harder, and body heat balanced the increased cooling.

I was getting a bit hungry.  I’d noticed that at every stop, for an intersection, or a quick consult on navigation, I felt the chill.  I found my way to one of my lunch stops.  This was an old homesite, long abandoned and falling slowly to ruin.  But the site had a set of steps that descended from a raised yard to street level.  I’d stopped here before, resting and eating while seated on those steps.

On this day the wind direction was such that I was out of the wind and fully exposed to the sun on that old stone stair.  Comfortable.

It was time to turn toward home.  I had a lot of climbing to accomplish on the way.  Basically, there was a very large ridgeline between me and home.  The next fifteen miles would be generally uphill.  (Of course that meant that the last ten miles would be mostly down.)

As I began the climbing, I noted that the wind had settled and increased, but…   It was a tail wind!  The breeze helped me up every climb, urged me along each flat, and was blocked on each descent.

The sun was lowering as I moved into the last five miles of the ride.  Shadows were growing longer.  My legs had that “good tired” feeling.  I knew I’d been working, but was far from over-done.  As I approached the town and home, I found I was humming tunes I liked.  Somewhere, in the last few miles, without noticing it, I’d started singing.

“How was your ride?”  my wife asked as I came in.

“Perfect,”  I said,  “Just perfect.”

Friday Follies ~~ Walking Home

It happens.  It’s the cyclist version of the infamous “Walk of Shame.”  It happens on a bike ride.  Life is good.  The rider is having a great time out on the bike, and then…  SOMETHING HAPPENS.  The “something” could be a mechanical, a flat, a physical problem, a crash, it really doesn’t matter.  For some reason the ride is not only interrupted, but the rider must walk back.  That’s right, walk.  Not ride a reduced “struggle home pace.”  Walk.  All the way back.  Walk home.

It’s happened to me.  Not often, mind you, but it has.  And more than once, damnit!

In the early days it seemed to happen with some frequency.  Bikes were a lot less reliable then, and I knew a lot less about preparing them and re-pairing them.  It astounds me to think of all the times I left home without so much as a pump, spare tube, or patch kit.  Believe me, the tires of that day were not the amazing wonders we have now.  (Kevlar hadn’t even been invented yet.)  More, I tended to ride hard, and with not much skill.  Things broke.  A lot.

In much more recent times things improved a lot.  Bikes became much more reliable.  I’d learned a lot.  But…  As I’ve often repeated, “Ride long enough, and everything happens to you, good or bad.”

There was the day back in the mid 90s.  The one I refer to as my worst day on a bike.

I was working a murderous job.  I had an insanely loaded “schedule.”  Time on the bike was hard to come by, and precious.  I managed to clear an afternoon for a good long ride.  Better still it was a lovely sunny Summer day.  With great joy, I saddled up and went.

I flatted about a mile and a half from home.  Spit!  Dirty word!  But after all, not that big a deal.

I broke out the supplies and replaced the tube.  Pumped it up, sweating like a pig.  (I did mention that it was a sunny Summer day?)  Flat repaired and rear wheel back in the bike.  Tools and tube stashed.  Off I went.

A couple of good hills later I had the second flat.  This time on the front.   Grr.

Fix flat and proceed to ride again.  (Of course I had committed both of my spare tubes.  That’s as in, all the spares I was carrying.)

A short distance later, the rear went down again.  (There followed a bit of an attitude adjustment session.)

I repaired the third flat.  Of necessity this meant locating a pinhole and patching it before re-installing the tube.  I was not a happy camper.  I made a decision.  A good one I think.  I turned around and headed back toward home.  My intention was to return home, pick up more spare tubes, cool off, do a thorough and complete tire inspection, and then resume riding.

I’d barely started to ride back before I encountered one of those hills I’ve mentioned.  About midway up the hill, the chain broke.  That provided me with some excitement.  Also, before I got back under control and got the bike stopped, I’d been treated to the enchanting sight of  the chain, writhing like a snake, slithering downhill, and off the road, and into the weeds.

Dismount.  Search for chain.  Find it.  Brush the crud off of it. Re-install chain and repair broken link.  (Don’t you carry a chain tool with you?  Doesn’t everybody?)

I’d just about finished packing up form the chain repair, when I noticed that the rear tire was flat.  AGAIN!!!  (If you’ve been counting, that was number four!)

After turning up the volume on the gumption control, I repaired the flat and (finally) started again for home.  I was still a mile short of the house when the fifth flat happened.

I think I showed admirable restraint.  For example, only a couple of birds and small animals died as a result of the language I used.  I did not pick the bike up and hurl it into traffic or the woods.  I just accepted the situation.  Clearly, I was not meant to ride that day.  I walked the rest of the way home.

As walks go, it wasn't really all that bad.  My total round trip was about five miles, and the final walk was roughly a mile.  Of course it was done in cycling shoes with exposed cleats.

It’s times like that, thankfully extremely rare, which serve to make the good rides all that much better.

Do you have a “Bad Ride Story”?

On Turning 50,000

This coming Saturday, 19 July 2014, I will hit an interesting milestone.  I joined South Side Cycling Club back in 2009.  At the very end of that year, I started using a feature of the club’s website to log rides and track miles.  Since that time, I’ve faithfully posted every ride and every trainer session.  This coming Saturday, I will cross the 50,000 mile mark.  Please note, that is not my “all time,” or “Life Time” mileage.  I’ve been riding a lot longer than I’ve been a member of SSCC!  (In fact, I have log books that go back over 40 years.)  So this 50K miles is only a fraction of my life’s riding.

But it’s a significant fraction.  This particular 50,000 miles has all been done since I joined the club.  I am pleased to have this particular gift.  I want to celebrate a little.  So I’m inviting everyone to come along.

On this coming Saturday, I should arrive at work with between 10 and 25 miles remaining before I cross the 50,000 mile mark.  I plan to leave from work, at Bicycles Unlimited, at 6:30 P.M., saddle up, and finish riding the first 50,000 miles of my membership in the club.  I’d love to have company on this.

It will be a road ride.  Bring your bike.  Dress up in your roadie kit, wear your helmet, and let’s all go for a group ride together.  What 

The Cobbler’s Children

The old saying goes, “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.”  Way back in history, back in the days of the guilds and villages, shoes were made for people by individual craftsmen, cobblers, who also repaired shoes and boots.  A busy and successful cobbler had a lot to do.  There were shoes tto be made for customers, leather to be purchased, tools to be mended, repair work that had to be done immediately, an apprentice or two to be trained and supervised, a lot of things.  The idea behind the old saying is that a busy and prosperous merchant could find himself without the time to take care of his own needs and those of his family.  In fact, often if a new pair of shoes was nearing completion, ones that were intended for the family, they would be purchased by a needy and demanding customer.

Those days are long gone.  Shoes are made in factories in Asia.  They make a lot of them.  There is very little left of custom craft in the world.  Small local bike shops are a large part of the custom craft that remains.  I work in one such shop, and I am often in something akin to the old cobbler’s situation.  I do enjoy working on my customer’s bikes.  Summer is our busiest time, and we are usually flooded with repair work, tune-ups, and modifications.  We also have to build a lot of bikes for sale.  To that list add, we support a lot of bike rides, do charity work, do fittings, give classes and training sessions.  What with all of that, I sometimes get caught a bit short in supporting my own stable.  (There’s your cobbler’s children.)

So, it was with a great deal of pleasure that I managed to sneak in an hour’s work on two of my rigs.  I got the super supple racing tires off of my Giant Defy and replaced them with the new, high longevity, high durability training tires.  (I’m saving the racing tires for something special.)  I also managed to do a complete brake job on my tourist. 

I’ll be especially interested in the tires on the Defy.  They are directional, and front and rear specific.  While I’ve had that sort of thing on mountain bikes, I’ve never had anything like that on a road bike before.  Should be interesting

The Return

It's been a long time....  Too long!

Like the hired man said,  "There's been a deal of trouble around these parts."

That might be a bit strong, but I've been dealing with some personal issues, things that absorb time and attention.  I'm not done with it all yet, but I do feel like I just might have turned the corner.

"So what's been going on here?" you ask.  I most definitely have been riding.  Sometimes not as much as I'd like, but never down to nothing.  I just haven't been able to write about it.  I'm hoping to change all that now. I doubt I'll be posting every day.  I'll do my level best to get out one or two posts per week.

Thank you all for your patience.

Oh yeah!  I guess, since this is a bicycle related blog, I ought to include at least some bicycle related content.  Here goes.

I rode the GA-400 Hospitality ride.  That was on Sunday 29 June.  The 3.5 miles on GA-400 were a complete blast!  The next section was hilly riding, working our way out of the suburbs of Roswell, GA.  There was a long stretch in the middle that was hilly, and mostly rural.  I've been recovering from the Headcold From Hell, so I opted to cut the ride a bit short.  I clipped off one of the 14 mile "do-loops."  (I am incredibly glad I chose to do this!)

By md-day it had become quite warm.  The route was leading us through some hilly country returning to Roswell.  Then I hit the bit with the "Three Sisters."  These are three seriously steep. challengingly long climbs.  Ouch!  My legs were almost sort of recovered as we cruised through downtown Roswell.

The trek along the Chattahoochee riverfront was okay, if a bit to crowded with car traffic.  And then I came to the last practical joke of the course.  "The Mother In Law!"  This was one more serious climb, leading to the very end of the ride.  I came as close as I've ever come to dismounting and just sitting down on that thing.  I did make it.

I'm glad I did the ride.  I won't ever do it again.  It would be a god thing if I never meet the practical joker who designed that course.

The Audax Rides

What the heck is an Audax Ride? The following definition is from the Randonnuers USA website.

Audax (oh docks) - A style of group bicycle touring found mostly in France, but also in Holland and Belgium to lesser degrees. A steady pace is set by a road captain, who is in charge of a group of fellow club members. In modern times the pace is usually about 22 km/h (13.5mi/h) between stops; the itinerary and resting places are planned in advance.

For the purposes of this blog, we are talking about doing a 200 kilometer (approximately 125 mile) audax style ride. Ours will go on Sunday, May 18, 2014.

Why should I do this thing?  One could be forgiven for wondering that.  Here’s an attempt at an anser:

• It feels good to meet a challenge (and 125 miles with a mountain in the middle certainly qualifies)
• It’s good to engage with others in a mutual goal.
• There is a sort of magic synergy that occurs when a group of riders decides to enter a non-competitive endeavor.  Somehow our strengths add and our weaknesses diminish.
• It’s an absolutely great day!

Getting Ready:

To aid folks in preparing for this style of riding, and this particular ride, I’m leading four “tune up” rides.

Audax Tune Up Rides:

2 March (Sunday): 1:00 PM, 45 miles (approx)

23 March (Sunday): 1:00 PM, 45 miles (approx)

13 April (Sunday): 11:00 AM, 65 miles (approx)

27 April (Sunday): 11:00 AM, 65 miles (approx)

I can pretty much assure you that, if you do all four of these, you will be able to handle the 200K. 

We will ride these in an Audax style. The group will stay together. The pace will be moderate. We will be riding a predetermined course. Anyone who is willing to abide by the intent and spirit of these rides is welcome to come along. The rides will leave from the front of Bicycles Unlimited, in Peachtree City, GA.

A necessary few words about the Tune Up Rides:  The group will stay together in mutual aid and support.  There will be no SAG.  We’re doing this as self-supported rides.  The terrain for these rides is (deliberately) more hilly and more challenging than that which will be encountered on the 200K.  The idea here is simple.  “If I can do something that is harder than the actual ride, then I’ll certainly be able to standup to the ride itself.”

There will be a fee for the actual Audax Ride, on 18 May. This fee will cover your lunch (sit down at a good restaurant), a post ride sandwich snack, and water refills along the ride. There are no fees for the “Tune Ups.” Ride fee is payable, in advance, by check or cash.  I don’t have enough info yet to set a precise number on the fee, but it will most certainly be no more than $30.00.

Hope to see many of you all there.

I'll be posting more info on all of this soon.

Oh yes, one last and critically important note: Helmets required on all rides.