Sean’s Blog

Funky chicken in David’s backyard.

This past weekend, I flew out to Cincinnati to visit my friend David who I wrote about a couple of years ago here. He and his wife live in an old brick Victorian in Cincinnati’s Northside District and the chicken above is one of four living in his backyard (amongst a garden of fruits, vegetables, spices, and soon to be rainwater collection barrel slash tilapia pond). When I met David, five or so years ago when he was working in San Francisco, he really inspired me to start thinking about the way I live and how to live resourcefully. He is an advocate of the Slow Food movement and he even practices some of these ideals in his industrial design career.

I didn’t really know what to expect from Cincinnati, honestly. I imagined it as some flat Midwestern farmland state with a pretty ordinary lifestyle. I was pleasantly surprised by all of the progressiveness and similarities to Northern California. I really got the impression that there is a budding Slow Food community that has been years and years in the making. There were quite a few restaurants we visited that sourced a majority of their meats, vegetables, and spices locally. In the case of Chalk Food + Wine some of their spices were even grown in an indoor garden in the restaurant’s basement. In addition to that, rent in some of Cincinnati’s up and coming neighborhoods are very affordable and as a result there are quite a few twenty and thirty-somethings starting new Slow Food ventures.

For even more information about local eats in Cincinnati, check out the Central Ohio River Valley Food Guide.

Earlier I mentioned that David applies some of the principles of Slow Food to his design process. He has a vision of replacing the car with a vehicle that has the human powered benefits of a bicycle and the aerodynamic, utility, weatherproofing benefits of a car. He will reference how much innovation the bicycle design went through during the Victorian era (from early wooden draisine to a very likeness of today’s bicycle design) and is inspired by the possibility that we are amongst another revolutionary period in the way we travel.

David is a really talented industrial designer and he has gone through several iterations of vehicle design. Unlike many of the concept vehicles out there that are designed to be imagined, this vehicle is something that is actually designed to be built. And that is truly something that separates a great industrial designer from a great artist.

You can keep in touch with David’s work in the following ways:

Twitter
Flickr
Blog

And since he’s relatively new to the Web2.0 sphere, give him some online love!

It looks like Zach’s getting all buddy-buddy, but he’s actually preventing me from falling out the side of this shot.

To date, this is the longest one day ride I’ve done. I’ve had my eye on the Davis Double for a few years now and this year I finally pulled the trigger.

Days leading up to a bigger ride, I usually feel a little anxious and excited. I tend not to sleep quite as deep and this ride was no exception. The morning of the ride, I awoke at 2:45AM (a full hour before my alarm was set) and was wide awake. Time to roll.

I met with Zach, Quintin, Travis, and Tina of Mission Cycling and a couple of their friends Kelly and Theran at the start. I have all of these guys to thanks for making the ride really enjoyable. These guys were fantastic company.

In the past, the Davis Double was described to me as the easiest double century in the California Triple Crown series. The first third and final third of the ride are relatively flat with the concentration of climbing coming right in the middle. According to CTC’s site, there was about 8,400 feet of climbing. I had heard that the course was closer to 6,000 feet and taking a look at this site, I see that there are a couple doubles that have a little less climbing. But hey, who’s counting anyway?

The first leg of the ride started on a strange note. My cycling computer wasn’t registering anything and I was puzzled. It was early and dark out and I was awake, but not so alert. I had put on my front wheel backwards. Go figure. So that threw my mileage off for the rest of the ride which wasn’t so bad in the start, but my arithmetic slowly deteriorated as we closed in on 200.

The first section of the ride went by quickly and soon we were approaching the climbs. I had chatted with Kelly (who had ridden with Zach in the past) and he described Zach as a “billy goat.” I wasn’t really sure if that was a compliment or an insult, but once we hit the first inclines I knew what he meant. Like a blast of billy goat lightning *pew*, he was gone.

This brings me to a point. There comes a time in most of my longer rides where I’m usually hurting a little. Yesterday, I think I came up with a good way to describe the feeling. I call it the “aw, fuck it!” moment. Somewhere around mile 110 or so I was climbing up a hill and I could see Quintin up ahead in the distance. I could see the sweat beginning to bead in my forearms and I thought to myself if I can keep Quintin somewhere in my sights, I’m making good progress. Then I started to think, “I wonder if you spell Quintin’s name like the director Quentin…what’s his last name? Quen…quin…Quincy Jones. Wait, that’s not right. Quentin…Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Ehh? Aw, fuck it!”

After finishing the final big push up Resurrection Hill, it was mostly downhill or flat for the remainder of the ride. I was feeling pretty good, but not so fresh in the legs. The guys recognized this and refused to leave me behind. They sheltered me back through the home stretch and like a godsend at around 20 miles from the finish a 6’10″ guy joined our paceline.

The end.

En route to Valley Ford

Sunday’s 200k started on a sadder note. The San Francisco Randonneurs RBA, Rob Hawks, had informed us during the pre-ride meeting that a fellow randonneur and avid long distance cyclist, Tom Milton, had passed away of a heart attack during Saturday’s Devil Mountain Double Century. I had not met Tom personally, but I could tell that he was admired by many and incredibly accomplished. Tom was the founder of Selle An-Atomica and is credited for stirring up the waters of leather bicycle saddles influencing Brooks to bring back their Imperial model after retiring it for many years. In 2009, Tom Milton was inducted into the California Triple Crown Hall of Fame for completing 50 Double Centuries in the California Triple Crown Series.

Rob spoke of a conversation he had with Tom and how they shared the excitement of all the new riders coming out for the 2010 brevets. Being a new rider with the San Francisco Randonneurs, I am incredibly excited and privileged to have found such a dedicated group of cyclists.

So far in 2010, this has been my fourth brevet ridden. The conditions were ideal. Leaving the rain gear at home and bringing nothing but arm and leg warmers was a sigh of relief. This is usually the time of year when I start ramping up the mileage on weekend rides in preparation for something long, but thanks to the SFR schedule I can say that I am feeling really fit and have gained a lot of confidence in my riding abilities.

I have learned a lot so far this year. I’ve ridden roads that prior to this year I had only been on in my car; I’ve learned about the importance of a big breakfast; and I’ve met some really great people who love bicycles.

Thank you to those who ride and those who continue to inspire us to ride.

More photos from this ride can be found on my Flickr page.

This weekend I did something that I wanted to try for a long time. Bike camping.

It all started with an email conversation with my friend Jacob. I think we were talking about painting an old bicycle frame or something and the conversation quickly turned to packing up some gear and spending a weekend outside city limits. At the time, I was two weeks past my first 300k ride with the SF Randonneurs and was on the fence about riding the 400k that was coming up. I hadn’t ridden much at all since the 300k and was still a bit intimidated by the length, so it was an easy sell.

There were six of us on board and between all of us there were a couple of trailers, some commuter bags, and backpacks. I decided to take the plunge and pickup a BOB Yak after doing a little online research and getting the thumbs up from a couple of friends that already own one.

Owning a BOB equals instant popularity. Usually, I get the waves and “good mornings,” etc. from fellow riders, but hundreds if not more miles usually pass between actual conversations with strangers on bikes. A man in Sausalito had been watching me ride and commented on how well it appeared to track. Spokey, from The Bicycle Works (a non-profit DIY bike workshop), gave me tips and pointers on how to maximize my enjoyment…like parking it at a 90 degree angle to use as an improv shelter using a small tarp or strapping a backpacking backpack to the trailer when using public transportation on adventure rides. Someone on his bike asked me where the good spots to go bike camping are like I was the seasoned veteran. And I even passed by a group of 20 or so hipster cyclists in Chrissy Fields and a guy yelled out, “hey that guy has a BOB. Yeeeeaaahhhh!!!!” Or something like that.

And that was all in maybe 70 miles or so.

By the way, I was able to max out at around three sleeping bags, two tents, and clothes for two in the BOB. At that point it looked like stuff was going to overflow. The ride quality was still manageable, but I would say the comfortable limit to the trailer is probably gear for two (one tent, two sleeping bags, clothes, and food).

The Ride. Day 1: SF to work and back to the Marin Headlands

I rode the trailer into work on Friday and after work the six of us came from our respective locations and met at the Bicentennial Campground in the Marin Headlands. This turned out to be a really great spot to meet since it is really quick to get to from San Francisco and is easily accessible by bike. There are three two-person campsites and they are free to reserve. The catch is that it can only be reserved three times a year per person, so I guess this is where a good buddy rotation comes in handy.

Aside from the six of us, there were no other campers anywhere nearby so it felt like nature, but ironically we had the Golden Gate Bridge and city nightscape just across the bay. I’m not sure of the policy, but I would love to go back for a night time BBQ because having the city lights as the backdrop was really, really cool.

There is water a mile down the hill from the campsite at the visitors center and the nearest market is near the bottom of the descent from the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito which is probably three to four miles away with some decent climbing on the return trip. The market doesn’t seem like the type to stay open late in which case you would probably have to make a trip further into Sausalito.

Day 2: Marin Headlands to Samuel P. Taylor State Park

I should mention that on the weekends I like to sleep in and a bike camping weekend is no exception. Since the night was pretty cold for the clothing I brought along, I was in the tent by around 9 and back out around 9. That made me pretty happy.

The ride from the Marin Headlands out to Samuel P. Taylor State Park near San Geronimo is one that I have done quite a bit. So I am pretty familiar with the route and places to stop to eat and refuel. However, lately I have been noticing a cafe on Bridgeway Avenue that has bicycles hanging up in the window. I figured we had to check it out. I didn’t catch the name, but It’s called Cibo and it’s just past the main downtown area as your headed north on the left hand side. Their french toast was pretty fucking amazing! And they serve Blue Bottle Coffee. I’m not really a coffee drinker since I’m really sensitive to caffeine, but I’ll usually stop to get a cup of Blue Bottle when I see one around.

Samuel P. Taylor has a bicycle campsite that requires no reservation and is $3 per person. It is a communal 10 person campsite. I spoke with the park ranger and she said that they never turn away bicyclists though even when they reach capacity. They will put them in other areas if necessary. We didn’t know about the bicycle campsite when we were making plans and ended up reserving a family campsite. We were the only ones with an empty parking spot among the luxuries only modern man can think of.

I believe you can drink the water at the campsite and the closest market is the one you pass two miles prior to reaching the campsite. This market closes at 7. They have a good $5.99 breakfast, tasty sandwiches, and milkshakes.

The ride back home was pretty much clear sailing. Since we’ve started to see the early hints of spring here in the Bay Area, the roads are beginning to get crowded with cars, cyclists, and tourists. We stopped for the $5.99 breakfast at the market in Lagunitas and about 15 minutes after we arrived all the bike parking and tables had been filled by people on their Sunday rides.

We trucked through the rest of the ride home with a shower and clean clothes as our inspiration.