December begins. My first ride I did some exploring east of the park at Ortega. On my way back from that I ran into Josh, my neighbor from down the street. Josh had introduced me to this area almost two months ago. We had a good chat on the way back home and his fitness and pace kept me working.
This is that time of year when our weather swings between summer-like heat to dead of winter chill. In full sun, out of the breeze it can feel hot, but a few meters into the shade and breeze will chill me to the bone.
This new area has afforded me more climbing on a relatively flat ride plus a good bit more bike path with almost no traffic to fret. I like it. My latest ride exploring out that way netted me close to 60km and 333m of climbing. I’ll be doing this more before upping my work and getting back to the Santa Margarita route.
I noticed on my 4th ride of the week that while on the drops I could see my front axel ahead of my bars. In old school fit parlance this would indicate a too short stem. I got to thinking more about this. Today while servicing the drive train I had the chain in the wax pot and the bike up on the hooks. I was cleaning and messing a bit and noticed the stem was lettered along the edge of the bar mount.
I know I had looked this over quite a bit when I was flipping it over and don’t recall seeing this I’d always assumed it was the OEM stem that is spec’d to me 100mm. I guess not. And from just a guess I think 100mm would now be about right. Maybe even 115mm. I found a very expensive solution. The Roval stem and bar combination from Specialized. I won’t be doing that. I’ll see how things feel come January and maybe stop by the not so local shop to see if I can find a stem to swap out. I want to keep my screws astray are titanium.
One other insight from this cleaning exercise is that my hot waxed chain remained amazingly clean thanks in part to the near completely dry conditions I ride in here. There have been a couple of misty rides, but nothing mucky or truly wet. The chain barely left any grime on my hands and no real grit at all. My process of cleaning and rewaxing takes me around four hours. Not big deal at all. It would be quicker to use two chains and swap dirty for clean, then clean and rewax the dirty chain while still riding. Since I need a day to recover anyway I time this work to that and get by with a single chain in the rotation.
Ultrasonic cleaner using a solution of Simple Green for an hour then rinsed by hand and blown dry.
The chain comes out of the rinse looking nearly new. Then into the hot wax for an hour or so.
Stirring the wax makes it opaque whatever additive is in there swirls to cover the chain.
Wiped down with wax set.
And back on the bike, ready for more riding.
The first group ride in a long time was fun. Then I broke another spoke on the rear wheel.
Another $30 repair is waiting. I might get it back to ride Tuesday, but probably won’t get to ride until Wednesday. Maybe.
So, I’ve been shopping obsolete wheels. Bicycle Wheel Warehouse has some $600 or so wheels that would be very similar seeming while adding tubeless option. I’m not sure I want to go there. But, I can still run tubes instead, so all is good there. Buying new wheels will add some life to the old bike as this spoke breaking thing is becoming a habit. At $30 per spoke replacement by the shop, I’m also looking at buying a full set of spokes and rebuilding the wheels. The spokes wouldn’t be aero, but at least they would be new.I need to pull a wheel and look and make some measurements.
So, this morning a wheel set was ordered from Merlin Cycles. These will extend the life of the old Roubaix until I can talk myself into buying a new bike. I figure 2025 will be about time.
The new wheels were delivered six days early. From UK to my door in seven days. That is crazy. Merlin Cycles in UK delivered.
The first ride on the new wheels was a success. I felt good and fast, even if I wasn’t so much. A little more exploring was done. Next, I’ll get to some real time in the saddle and maybe sneak in one more gran fondo for the year.
The socks I ordered along with a new set of 10-speed cogs arrived. The cog set had shuffled apart into a rattling mess inside the box. Easy enough to sort back to assembled then tucked back into the box for later when I do finally need it. The socks? Well, they are bright safety yellow and very tall. I thought I was buying the same as I’d previously bought in white. Nope. So, I’ll be wearing them out as the tallest socks I’ve ever ridden a proper bicycle wearing since the days of tube socks and cut off jean shorts were cycling attire.
Wiped the muck off the bike from the mud ride on Thursday. Put the electrics on chargers and hung it back on the hooks.
Christmas Eve Ride was just under 3 hours. Good ride. Our weather being perfect chill conditions for summer kit with arm and leg warmers and a base layer. I needed my wind vest only right at the beginning then once I hit the top of all my climbing the ride back through the harbor was chilly and mostly in shade.
Nothing like the last week of the year to squeeze in a Gran Fondo for the month. Hard effort used up all I had in the tank. I did have to make a circle around the park, then around the block to turn over 100km.
Baselayer, leg and arm warmers and the wind vest. Never got quite warm enough to fully unzip the vest and remove it. Never got quite cool enough to use the neck warmer either.
Colder ride for the first recovery after the fondo.
My goal was to keep my average heart rate below 120bpm. I managed that, just with 117bpm. The hill efforts with construction and a bit of chasing pushed the power and heart rate up.
Good ride, but chilly with no vest. My base layer got wet under the summer jersey. I’ll get this layering thing figured out with enough rides, often enough.
Last ride for 2023 was with the Orange County South Riders. The ride did not go as planned for me. My alarm woke me at 6am. A quick breakfast of oatmeal and dried fruit then kit up and get on the road just after the sun was up, but not quite over the hills. It was a damp and light drizzle morning that greeted me when I opened the garage door.
The King tides and big waves had no doubt battered the beaches as well. I expected sand and rocks at Capo, but it was much worse than I’ve seen before. If I were smart, I’d have used the sidewalk along Coast Highway to the north end of the parking lots, but I wasn’t. Even with fogged over glasses and the clouds obscuring the sun, I gave the sand a go. Nope.
Down hard on my left side in the rocks. Just ahead of my left elbow, the front of my left shoulder and my left quad taking the biggest hits on rocks with my momentum powering the damage. I even managed to mash the ribs on the left side of my back.
I took a long ten count to decide if I’d broken anything and still wasn’t exactly certain once I sat up and began taking deeper and deeper exploratory breaths. Ribs were fine, just sore. No stinging pain there. Feeling for blood along my arm, shoulder and leg I found none. As ever the back of my left hand had taken a scrape.
Nothing serious at all. I made the start point for the group ride and ended my part of it when we got back to North Beach.
Home, showered and napped I’m feeling the soreness, but it is slowly getting better.
Totals for the month:
Distance: 866.23km
Climbing: 5,408m
Time: 9 hours
Totals for the Year:
Distance: 5,003.3km
Climbing: 35,188m
Time: 215 hours, 37 minutes
Goals for next year are to increase the distance, climbing and time. As always drop some weight, but mostly to keep having fun.
Along The Way 