Hi All, I had a nice trip to the Bay Area starting last Sunday, and my original intention was to join two rides (Esteban's and then Manny's), but for various reasons neither of these worked out for me. But I'm pretty lucky, and 4 days of great bike shenanigans happened anyway:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46035786@N07/sets/72157639418587383/# Day 1: Manny agreed to meet me in the city. He had limited time, but that will never stop him. He showed me the route through SF called The Wiggle, which gets you across town avoiding hills. Then he showed me the fun trails that climb up to Sutro Tower. It was a perfect ride. Thanks Manny! After the ride, he and I checked out a pinball arcade and then got coffee (and we each got a free book called Strangeland) before Manny took off. From there, I went solo into Marin County and spent the night there at the Holiday Inn Express that lies on the bike path between Sausalito and Mill Valley. Note: If you look at the photos, you'll see a special Day 1 cameo! Day 2: I enjoyed a nice slow Day 2 start, since I was already up in the thick of things. After coffee in Mill Valley, I went up Railroad Grade. I met a nice couple riding mountain bikes, and we chatted on the way up. The person riding the full suspension Trek was Grant Peterson, and that is not misspelled, and he was not the guy who started RBW. Really nice chat up the hill. From West Point Inn, I used Pantoll Rd to get to West Ridgecrest to Fairfax-Bolinas to form the clockwise circuit of the mountain to end up in Fairfax. Gestalt Haus in Fairfax is a nice stop, but there was no room on the bike rack! In Fairfax, it was already 3:30, and I needed to get to San Mateo at a reasonable hour for New Years Eve with the family; that's where the Larkspur Ferry saves the day. I took that to Caltrain, and I was in San Mateo eating chili and playing games by 6:30. Day 3 was a separate day ride with family at Tilden Park. Pretty good hill-climbing family this is, since we went all the way to the top of Seaview trail. Hard, varied, fun ride. Only two photos of that though. Day 4: No photos, but I took the bike from Berkeley out to Walnut Creek to talk to the employees, see the Cheviot, get a headlight, and see the Hatchet store. Typical, pleasant Riv visit. I learned something interesting about the Cheviot. I was told that the 60 cm Cheviot is designed with a headtube height typical of a very tall bike like a 65 or 66 cm bike, so the 60 cm Cheviot can fit very tall people. The Cheviot is beautiful in person. While I was there, Will was selling one to a customer; it was the second Cheviot ever sold, but as of January 2, still none in the wild. And as for the BBH store, it's definitely worth a visit; it's a neat store. Thanks for reading my story. -Jim W. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
