Sunday, November 15, 2009

ACA ride: Reagan Ramble

Friday afternoon I picked up my new (to me) bike from Jack and Adam's, a 2001 Jamis Quest that a coworker had kept in her shed for the past 8 years. 200 miles, and aside from a rusty chain and a flat tube, in good condition. A longer stem, new pedals, and swapping out the seat, and it was a good fit and ready to go. My first ride out on the veloway had an unfortunate fall on the big hill when the rear tire slipped out. After the adjustments on the trainer and the ride in the back of the truck, I didn't check it out like I should have. So when I stood up to climb and unweighted the rear wheel it came out and the chain caught and I fell over. A tiny bit of road rash on my elbow and a sore neck from holding my head up were the only injuries. Some cyclists stopped to help me put it back in place, and I rode the loop back to do the hill again, the second time successfully!

And he will be called Jamis, which is not all that creative since it's the brand name, but there's a story there. At the YO Ranch Adventure Camp, one of the best loved directors was named James Rice. On opening day, one of his favorite spiels to the campers was about how it was hard to learn, remember, and pronounce all the new names correctly. For instance, his name was James Rice, pronounced, Jay-miss Ricky. So he understood it when people got his name wrong. So Jamis (aka James) will be the name of this bike.

So Saturday, two other T3ers invited me to go on an Austin Cycling Association ride with them instead of the group ride doing the same old dam loop. I've been a member for about a year, but have never made it out on a ride. It's only $25 and you get access to their maps. And really, you don't have to join, all the rides are open to the public, but I think it's a good idea to support cycling in Austin.

Captain Queso, the leader of Team Queso which is a little group inside T3 that has occasional get togethers over margaritas and queso, and Nancy are both thinking about doing IMAZ 2010 also. And Captain has been really helpful and has offered to be like a mentor to help me get there. So she rode with me on the ACA ride while Nancy went ahead. Jamis was great- amazingly comfortable right off the bat, especially the seat. A three hour ride, and no pain or chafing at all. I think it's the steel, and also the positioning. I don't want to be disloyal to El Sueno, my tri bike, but Jamis is a really nice ride!

So we opted for the 33 mile route, though there were ones from 12- 65 available. We started from the Brushy Creek Lake Park out in Cedar Park, and it was surprisingly busy, almost as busy as the Town Lake trailhead under the Mopac bridge. Lots of runners, and training groups, probably training for 3M and the Austin Marathon. So we get started at 9 am, and it's a great route. Up north on Parmer, and then off into some quiet county roads. There were some surprising hills, one of which I got to the "uh oh, I might not make it up and won't be able to clip out before I fall over" moments, even with the triple! We got a little lost, but not too bad, and then had a little break at the convenience store. And then the cold front started moving in, which wasn't cold so much as windy. And the headwind made the last 10 miles back a little tough, but not horrible.

We met Nancy back at my car, they had ridden from their houses about 15 miles away and planned to finish it, for a total of about 60 miles! I'm not quite at that comfort level, but hopefully after a winter of riding, I will be. And I'm excited to try out some new routes with the ACAers. A lot of them are further away, but I'm happy to drive to get to some clear roads and learn new routes. Plus, Jamis makes me want to ride more too!

2 comments:

everybody's entitled said...

Hooray for Jamis - and you!

KB said...

Nice shout out to the YO.

Hard to believe 33 miles isn't a big enormous deal with lots of crying. Impressive really.