Monthly Archives: September 2014

The Swarm, the Warm and Avoiding Harm

Posted on 2014-09-27 by velobum

Last night as I was reading “Travels in Siberia” by Ian Frazier before crawling under the covers, Mammoth Lakes was hit by a swarm of small earthquakes. People who don’t live in an area subject to earthquakes might say that … Continue reading →

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Legging Day #1

Posted on 2014-09-26 by velobum

Portents of winter arrived today in Mammoth Lakes. A cold and stiff wind blew down from the Sierra Nevada under a sky patchy with fast gray clouds. Mario and I had planned on riding up Tioga Pass today, but climbing … Continue reading →

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Out of the Saddle (and into hot water)

Posted on 2014-09-25 by velobum

Leg break today. We decided to rest the corpus and lay off the climbing. Instead we went to visit the tufa towers at Mono Lake, and a couple of backcountry hot springs near Bridgeport. As I mentioned in a previous … Continue reading →

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Lake Effect

Posted on 2014-09-24 by velobum

June Lake, Silver Lake, Grant Lake. A series of freshwater lakes and streams that ultimately flow to Mono Lake, which has no outflow and is salt water. (images courtesy of Google maps) Today Mario and I rode from Mammoth Lakes … Continue reading →

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Fire in the Hole

Posted on 2014-09-23 by velobum

Yesterday evening the devil sat on my shoulder and whispered in my ear, “Ride to my postpile tomorrow, you won’t regret it.” This morning I passed the thought on to Mario and we succumbed to the temptation. Up Minaret Road … Continue reading →

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The Hot Spring Solution

Posted on 2014-09-22 by velobum

Normally, 2000′ feet of climbing does not bother me (much), assuming the grade is reasonably 8% or less and I’m not starting too far above sea level. But starting at 7000′ and climbing up to 9000′ is a different matter. … Continue reading →

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Lake Isabella Circuit

Posted on 2014-09-20 by velobum

Today started out backward. Mario, my Cuban pal who runs on Cuban time, was up and ready to go at 7:00am. He was not known to wake by 7:00am when he was employed, and since he has retired 7:00am typically … Continue reading →

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The Mystery of the Downtube Shifters

Posted on 2014-09-16 by velobum

“What are those?” asked Heidi, pointing at the downtube of my bike frame as we were working up the motivation for starting the ride today. When we realized she wasn’t kidding, we all busted out laughing. It was the best … Continue reading →

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Smog City Cycling

Posted on 2014-09-10 by velobum

Back in high school, waaaayyyyy back, there was a guy in one of my classes who had this catch-all phrase for real-life stuff that happens outside of the make believe confines of the secondary school classroom. Generally bad stuff. He … Continue reading →

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Out of the Saddle – Piedras Blancas

Posted on 2014-09-05 by velobum

Generally meaning… climbing out of the saddle or sprinting out of the saddle. Standing on the pedals and opening up that corpus to, hopefully, squeeze just a wee bit more ooomph for however long you can maintain it. Today, however, … Continue reading →

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