Dry Seat = Happy Cyclist

This past year when my fellow cyclists were packing their things and getting prepared for the big ride I remembered seeing someone mentioned that they needed to get a shower cap from a local hotel. This seemed weird, then I realized that he was using it to cover his bicycle seat overnight so that it wouldn't be wet in the morning. This is so smart. If it wasn't for seeing his post, I don't know if I would have ever thought about this for when I am getting prepared for my ride next year.

So, thanks to my new sewing machine and a little research online, I found a tutorial for an oil cloth seat cover. There are at least two stores downtown that sell oilcloth so I made a little trip to see what my options were. What I found out was that oilcloth patterns are very fruity, and I mean that literally.

 

Luckily the hardware store also had plain red oilcloth. This was perfect since my bicycle is red. I purchased a half yard figuring that would be plenty for one cover, but might be enough for two or three. It also gave me the extra in case I messed up the first one. 

I got out my giant pad of Newsprint figuring that it would be good for pattern pieces. I grabbed one of my bicycle seats that was similar in size to the one on my road bike. This one was the original seat for my mountain bike. I didn't want to deal with taking my seat off and messing up my fitting by not putting the seat back on in the correct position. Anyways, I traced my seat and then added a half in all the way around for the seam allowance. I also created a small pattern piece for the side of the cover that was four inches wide. In order to find out how long it needed to be I needed to get out the sewing tape measure and determine the circumference. Mine was 33 inches, so I added an extra inch just in case. 

Next, I measured out and traced my pieces onto the backside of the oilcloth. I managed to get three sets of pieces on my half yard with extra material to spare. (I'm sure i'll come up with another bike related project for the remaining fabric) I used a red Sharpie so that the ink wouldn't show so much if it bleed through, which worked out pretty well. 

 

Once I had all my pieces cut out, the first thing to do was create the little casing for the elastic. I forgot to take a photo of this, but all I did was fold over 3/4th inch on the long edge of the side piece and sew along it making sure that there is enough room for the elastic. I used a 3/8th inch wide elastic. When I make the other ones I think that I will fold over 1 inch to give more room for the elastic (it was a little tight getting it in there). After that was done, it was time to sew together the seat and the side piece. I started in the middle of the back of the seat and made sure to leave about a half inch extra on the side piece so that I could sew the ends together later. This was a little tricky because of the curves of the seat as well as the fact that the oilcloth doesn't really want to bend and gather. I managed to get it shaped properly and didn't do to bad of a job with sewing evenly around the entire thing. 

After the side piece was completely attached I sewed the ends of the side panel together but left the top inch unsewn so that I could still get the elastic in. I cut a piece of elastic that was about 6-8 inches shorter than my circumference. I attached a safety pin to one end of the elastic and fed it through the casing. This part can be tricky as well. My first attempt didn't go so well. About half way through the safety pin pulled off the elastic so I had to start over. The second time, about an inch from getting it all the way through, the pin opened up and stabbed me in the thumb. In the end, I was able to get the elastic all the way through the piece and gathered properly. I sewed the elastic together and then finished sewing the ends of the side piece together.

The sewing is complete. Time to turn the right side out and test it out.

Looks like it should work pretty well. It fits snugly enough without it being too difficult to get on and off. I usually don't leave my bike outside so I may just have to test it out with a spray bottle. I also realized that the front of the cover is a little longer than it needs to be, but that's okay because if I make more of these and possible sell them to some of my friends it will hopefully make it able to fit on a variety of seat sizes. 

All in all, another successful bicycle related craft project! 

ALC South Bay Thank You Party

On Thursday I headed down to the South Bay to attend the ALC Thank You party that was being held at the Doubletree hotel in San Jose. It is quite a trek for me, so I made a day of it and visited some old friends while in the area.

Since I was down south early, I figured that I would head over to the hotel early and see if they needed any help setting up. Luckily when I arrived there was a group of the Cyclist Reps standing in the parking lot. I recognized one of them because he had been on a SBB ride earlier this year. I introduced myself and headed inside with them. A couple minutes later two of my fellow Blazers arrived with their Halloween decorations. We quickly got to work distributing pumpkins, spiders, spooky candles, various body parts in jars, skulls, etc. around the room.

They also had two tables set up for any new riders to be able to sign up for the ride as either a cyclist or a roadie at a discounted rate. They were able to get 13 new riders signed up at the event.

Once everything was set up I went and changed into my nice clothes. I didn't end up taking any more photos after that because I was too busy mingling. I had such a good time talking with some friends that I hadn't seen since before their ride in June as well as meeting some new people. I also brought my ornaments with me so I was showing them off and managed to sell about 15 during the party. So far my ornament fundraiser is going very well. 

The ALC Thank you party was amazing. There was such a great turn out and so many South Bay Blaze'rs were there. It was a great opportunity to meet many of the SFAF staff and all of the other cyclist reps as well as my rep. I left the party so pumped to be a part of this amazing event and surrounded by so many passionate individuals. Can't wait for the ride next year!!!

Add a little Cycling flair to your Christmas Tree

As you can see from my previous posts, I've already started with my training for ALC. However, there is one thing about ALC that might scare me a little more than the thought of riding my bike 545 miles in 7 days. And that would be the fact that I need to raise $3000 in order to even participate. That is a lot of money!!! The most I have ever raised before was a little over $600 for the Tour de Cure that I did in June this year. So, in order to help make the fundraising easier, I came up with a way to combine my love of crafting and a way to raise some money. 

I found a good tutorial online (http://www.bicitoro.com/guest-post-bike-chain-ornaments/) and made some tweaks to find out what worked best for me. I was able to get a lot of the supplies that I needed rather inexpensively. I found some cool colored chains online at a discounted price and then I got several used bicycle chains from Sports Basement for free since they were just going to be thrown away. The first thing I needed to do was to clean the chains. This sounds easier than it was. I ended up using several different cleaning solutions and cleaning the chains multiple times. Below are some photos of the cleaning solutions I used (Simple Green, Speed Chain Degreaser, Greased Lightning, and CLR). Make sure to get a pair of rubber gloves otherwise your hands will be stained with grease (trust me, I didn't have the gloves at first). 

Here you can see some of the chain that I had. The color chains were brand new, but they were pre-greased. I didn't realize that was going to be the case, so that was a little disappointing when I opened them the box. The used chains were covered in dirt and grease. This is where the gloves and little scrub brush really came in handy. 

After the chains are cleaned, the next step was to separate the sections I needed to make the different ornaments. For the 5-point stars, I needed 10 links. For the snowflake ones I needed 12 links. Thankfully, my bike multi-tool had a chain tool on it so I didn't need to go out and purchase a separate tool. As handy as this tool is, it is also a pain in the hand! The pins on these chains are stubborn (for a reason, you wouldn't want your chain falling apart when riding). 

This is where I turn to the tutorial (http://www.bicitoro.com/guest-post-bike-chain-ornaments/) because it really explains the whole process very well. Also, I forgot to take photos of this part of the process because with the paint on the chains, my hands got pretty messy with grease/paint & metal flecks. Not the best time to be messing with my phone. If you look at the black rubber part on my tool you can see all the red paint flecks that stuck to it. 

Since using the chain tool to loosen and tighten the link pins caused the paint to chip, I decided to clean the ornaments up with a little spray paint of the same color as the chain. I didn't originally plan on doing this, but I felt that it was better to paint them and have a nice solid color as opposed to leaving them with the chipped paint. So I went to the store and picked up some Rust-oleum spray paint in gloss. If you do this, you need to make sure that you do it in a well ventilated area, so down to the garage I headed. Luckily I had a bunch of cardboard boxes sitting around since we just moved a couple months ago.

Once the paint was completely dry, I added a little ribbon so that they can be hung on the tree. To wrap them up for easy distribution I created little bags with a Thank you label. I just used a template on Word and added a hand stamped bicycle. 

 

Here are about 30 of them ready to go. I'm going to be taking them with me to the ALC South Bay Thank You party that is being hosted in San Jose this coming Thursday. I am planning on selling them for $15 each with all of the proceeds going to my ALC ride. I really hope that everyone likes them and I am able to sell them all. I have put a lot of effort into this project (I started it back in August), so it better go well!

Retro Renegade Ride

Yesterday's ride was a retro renegade ride. Since there was TRL training this weekend, there wasn't going to be a usual Guinea Pig ride, so one of the Blazers decided to host a renegade ride. He went with the GP ride that got rained out a few weeks ago. This was perfect for me because it was actually the route that I missed because I had family in town. I'm so glad I got to check out this route because it was a gorgeous ride.

The ride started out with a little more renegade then planned. We actually headed out in the wrong direction. I kept looking at my route sheet, thinking that we weren't going the right way but everyone else near me didn't realize the error. At the first traffic light we hit a red light and someone finally agreed that we were not going the right way. Oh well, at least the way we went met back up with the planned route. We have the tendency to head out of the meet-up point the same way for almost every route, so when a route takes us a different way it usually has to be over emphasized that we are going to head out in a different direction.

Once we got back on route, everything went well; that is till we hit Altamont Road. Altamont started out fine with a gradual hill; but as you can see on the elevation chart above, it gets steep very fast (see that nice big hill around mile 6). I did a little cross training towards the top. It definitely was a nice day for a hike :) or as I deemed it, a hikecyle.

After the climb up Altamont, we had a pretty crazy downhill on Page Mill. I am not a fan of the fast downhill, especially when you throw in a few hairpin turns. I'm just starting to get more comfortable with going around 30 mph on downhills, but adding in sharp turns still scares me. I started going too fast for comfort so I wanted to slow myself down, and tried to feather the brakes. That was helping, but with one of those hairpin turns quickly approaching, I held the brakes. The result was a high pitch squeal. Not good, that meant my brakes were starting to overheat. Luckily there was a road that I could bail out on before the turn. I was able to stop my bike so that I could continue on down the hill at a slower speed. One of these days I will be able to handle the downhill better. When I have some more money to spend, I also plan on taking the Savvy Bike 201 Climbing + Descending.

After the first rest stop at the Arastradero Preserve, we headed out to Alpine Road and turned left towards Roberts Market in Portola Valley. As I was pedaling along on Alpine, I started to get this feeling that I was getting heavy. I knew my legs were tired, but I just felt very heavy and didn't think it was my legs that were really the problem. At the stop sign we turned right and headed down Portola Road. The downhill was a nice break. As the road started to head back uphill, another rider passed me and I realized I was feeling heavy again. I happened to look down and found out that I had a flat tire. I'm so tired of getting flats! The pro to this situation, I've gotten pretty good at changing out tubes. In no time I was on my way.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. There were a lot of turns on this route, which caused several people to get lost or make multiple U-turns. I only had one issue in which I passed up a turn; however, knowing that the area was in a grid layout, I just went up the block, made the next two rights and got back to the road I was meant to be on in the first place.

All in all, I ended up with a very beautiful, scenic 36 mile ride with an awesome group of friends.

Conquering those Hillz & Skillz

Today a friend of my put on a Hillz & Skillz class in Portola Valley. I'm all for learning new skills and practicing old ones (especially when it doesn't cost me anything, other than the gas to get there).

Since I was heading down later in the morning than I usually do for my weekend rides I made sure to leave about half an hour early. Well, I guess I didn't really hit any traffic because I got to the meet-up point half an hour early. We were meeting at Roberts Market in Portola Valley, and when I got there I noticed a bunch of signs warning on no parking for anyone other than customers or employees. Well, I didn't want any trouble so I decided that I was going to park my car at the Arastradero Preserve parking lot if I could find a space and then just bike over to the meet-up point. The Preserve is only about 2.5 to 3 miles away, so it was a good warm up ride.

The class started with a general overview of what the plan was for the day. We talked about how often, new cyclist tend to be very scared of hills and after seeing the upcoming route's elevation chart back out of the ride. I used to get nervous about hills after seeing the elevation charts and then I realized I was being dumb and just stopped looking at them. Most of the time the chart makes the hills look worse than they are. We also went over the ways we mentally get through long tough hills. There are so many times that I've almost talked myself out of doing a hill when I know a round-about or decided to get off and "cross train" AKA walk my bike when I still have the power in me to actually bike up the hill. I've begun realizing just how much of a mental game it is. When I get to that point I start to remind myself that if I get off my bike its just going to take me longer to complete my ride. This tends to work, because by the time I'm usually too tired to complete a hill its towards the end of my ride anyway and I have gotten to that point were I'm just ready to be done.

Next we headed to a nearby school and took over the parking lot. We went over some basic riding skills including balance, positioning, and handling. Utilizing the cones that happened to be there already, we set up a little obstacle course to practice counter steering. It was actually pretty fun to weave in and out of the cones. I was happy with how well I did.

One of the skills we also practiced was 'bumping'. I am not a fan of this but, it ended up going pretty well. For this skill practice, we partner up and then ride close enough to each other to bump elbows. This is to help you keep your composure when you are riding and someone comes up very close to you unexpectedly. This doesn't happen often when you are riding (unless you are racing, I believe). 

With about an hour or so left we headed out to practice climbing and descending. Nothing is more fun than going up and down the same hill, over and over and over. I hope you sense the sarcasm. It really wasn't that bad. Going up hill seated and then changing to standing isn't too hard, until you find out that you are supposed to push your bike forward when you stand up. That felt odd, but that was the skill that we were learning. I also found out that I need to ride more like a duck! I know that seems odd, but the idea behind that is that your upper body should remain calm while your lower body does all the work. I tend to bob in my upper body when I get tired and try to push myself up the hill. I learned today that actually uses more of your energy. So no more bobbing... more ducking. Wait, that sounds wrong, but it's right. 

When it comes to descending, I usually fear going fast. However, today I actually think I hit a new max speed. Looking at my bike computer I hit a max speed of 37 mph. I think that practicing handling and getting more comfortable in the drops is really helping me to gain some confidence in descents. Also knowing how to perform an emergency stop properly helps because you know that if need be, you can lean on that skill to help you stop.

All in all I think that today's class was a great success. It was the first time my friend has done this and I think that he did an amazing job. I learned some new things and got in some good practice. I ended up doing only 14 miles of riding this week, but that is fine by me.

Baby got some new shoes

Today I opted out of the GP ride. Instead, I stayed home with the hubby and got some very much needed cleaning/organizing done. Plus, I'm planning on attending a Hillz & Skillz class put on my one of my SBB buddies tomorrow, and well, one trip to the South Bay is enough for a weekend. After reorganizing and cleaning up the garage I decided it was time to put on the new tires I just bought for my bike.

I decided to go with something different this time as opposed to going with the same tires that my friend provided me with when I purchased my bike from him. I didn't really have any issues with the brand of tires I had before, but thought that I would try something new. I've heard people highly recommend GatorSkins, but I wasn't ready to drop that kind of cash on tires (they are like $60 each). I scanned over the SBB posts on FB to see any other recommendations and found that someone really liked the Vittorias. So, after realizing that they came in red I decided those were the ones. They also had many good reviews on Amazon (so my decision wasn't actually only based on looks, although that did play in to my decision).

GOODBYE Michelin Dynamic Sport.....    HELLO Vittoria Rubino Pro

Getting the new tires on my bike was a pain in the butt! It was not easy to get the tires to be round again after they have been folded up and flattened in a box for who knows how long. I was able to get the first side of the tire in but I needed the hubbies help to get the second side completely on. Unfortunately, when I got the first tire on I apparently pinched the tube somehow, which meant that I had to take the tire off again (at least half way) to get a new tube in. Not fun. The second tire went on just as stubbornly as the first, except this time I didn't end up needing a second tube.

I love the new red tires on my red bike! My baby looks good! I Just hope the red on the tires stays this vibrant.

Moving On Up... Jefferson Avenue

I almost forgot to write about my ride last Saturday. I remembered that I hadn't posted about it last night before going to bed, and almost wanted to get back up and write this before getting some sleep.

Anyway, on to the ride. Saturday's ride was the eighth in the Guinea Pig series and would take us from Sunnyvale to Redwood City for a total of 48 miles. There were a lot of hills planned for this ride, with Jefferson being the biggest one of the day. It was a long, exhausting day.

I got to the meet-up point early again. With an almost 2 hour drive from home to Sunnyvale, I've been making sure to leave around 7am (which means I've been getting up at 6:15am, and I am NOT a morning person). This is probably the only time I will enjoy the drive, because at 8am, SF is not so busy, which makes driving down 19th Ave to get to 280 not so bad.

As I was just hanging out, getting my stuff gathered up and geared up for the ride, I saw my friend riding in. He did the majority of the ride earlier (he started his ride at 6:15am). While we were standing there chatting, he took a look at my bike and noticed that my tires were looking a little shabby. He suggested that I get this stuff called Shoe-Goo that could help extend the life of my tires by filling in any little holes or gashes in the surface of the tires. I told him how I have gotten two flat tires in the month that I've been riding up in Sonoma County and how I have never gotten a flat in the South Bay. Well, lets just say I totally jinxed myself with that one.

The ride time approached and we all rolled out. About five miles into the route and POP, WOOOOSH! Great! Flat tire! Like I mentioned earlier, I jinxed myself. Two other riders stopped with me to help/keep me company. The good thing is that I've been getting a lot of practice recently, so changing the tire was pretty simple. This time, it was the rear tire, which is the more annoying one to change, but I was glad because I had just changed the front tire two days before. Obviously I've got a problem; either it is under/over inflated tubes or the tires are worn out. Or it is just dumb luck, who knows.

I made it to lunch without any more tire issues. We had lunch at this little place called Prima Deli. I got there right around lunch time and it was pretty busy. I figured that was a good sign that they must have good food. The downside to them being busy is that it took a while to get our food. Oh well, I enjoyed the break from riding, especially since the biggest hill of the day was yet to come.

After lunch was the big climb up Jefferson Ave. I had to stop several times, but I made it up without cross training once. Its on roads like these I realize how much I hate climbing. Little did I know that this climb wouldn't actually be the worst one of the day. The worst road ended up being Westridge Road. The bad thing with Westridge was that is was up and down. Just as you would get a nice little downhill, the climbing would start back up. By this point we had already done about 35 miles and some 2000 feet of climbing. Needless to say, I was exhausted and so done with this ride. The whole time I was thinking I should have just stayed on Alpine. At least I know what that road had in store and could more easily handle it. Oh well, the only way to get stronger is to keep with it and not cut yourself short. No Pain, No Gain!!

The remainder of the route wasn't as bad, it just was so hard to keep pushing yourself to get to the end. I just wanted to go home (which unfortunately meant, get to my car and then drive for 2 hours). The final stretch on Foothill and Fremont were so exhausting. When I get really frustrated or really tired/exhausted I usually want to cry. I had this feeling so many times while doing the Tour de Cure. Well this feeling came over me on the final stretch, but my body was so exhausted that it couldn't even expense the energy needed to cry. That is how tired I was. Well, I made it to my car finally and was cheered in by some fellow Blazers. I love how there is almost always an SBB teammate cheering or ringing the cowbells to remind you that you have just finished an amazing ride. It is surprising how much that can wipe out all the pain, struggles and tears from a strenuous ride.

On my way home I made a pit stop at the Sports Basement in Presidio. I needed to get my brakes looked out because they have been sticking a little causing them to rub on my rim after breaking. I kept having to adjust them during the ride. This is most likely because I changed my brake pad myself, but we're not going to get into that. The bike tech took a look and added some lubricant to the brake lines. With some minor adjustments he made sure that the brake levers worked more smoothly and the brakes won't stick. He didn't charge me anything for labor. I just have to say that the guys at Sports Basement are awesome! He did mention that it might be time for some new tires... so I guess that will be my next purchase.

Sonoma Co = 2 Rest of the Bay = 0

I got in my regular mid-week ride today. I didn't do my usual 20 mile-ish ride, I actually ended up only doing about 14 miles. There were a few factors that played into this shortened ride. For one, I think that I need to get my bike looked at, because I feel like it might need some tuning up. There are some rubbing noises that I just can't seem to figure out and my chain still hits the derailleur in certain gear combinations. Also I was feeling a little tired and slow today. And then to round it out, I ended up getting another flat tire. That makes it 2:0 for the flat tire counter (Sonoma County=2  vs Rest of the Bay Area=0). I am really not enjoying the roads around here. I've ridden a good thousand miles in the South Bay / East Bay / Peninsula without getting a flat tire. Then in the month or so that I've been riding up here in Sonoma County / Petaluma I've gotten two flat tires. Not so much fun, but I guess the practice for roadside tire changing will come in handy for future flats. I now need to hit up a bike shop and get some extra tubes, that was my last new one.

 

I ventured to Helen Putnam Regional Park, and to my surprise, there were actually some paved paths. It was nice to have a paved path in a park to get off the streets.

I love the hills up here in Sonoma County. I really enjoy seeing the various layers of hills in the landscape and you can just see for miles and miles. If only the hills were more green; there is a little too much brown out there.

 

I came across this little pond and water shed. I decided that it was a good place to take a little breather. So I sat down and enjoyed a cliff bar.

As I headed out of the park on my way back home, I came upon this little treasure. Yes, that's right, it is a PAY PHONE!!! :) Who knew these still existed? Just kidding, I know that they are still some around, they are just few and far between.