Nice report Andy. I agree it's kind of a madhouse but it's a fun trip. I
ride in group about twice a year and nearly all my rides are unplanned with
no real destination so it's a complete change of pace for me. I did it in
one day which was my longest ride ever. I paid for it that night and the
next day but I'm pretty much back to normal except for a sore Achilles
heel. How guys do PBP and longer rides is beyond me.
The weather was a nice change from the recent heat wave....low 70's, some
drizzle, cloudy with mild to moderate head winds. There were some nice
changes to the course this year. The route through McChord/Lewis military
base was a wonderful change replacing the worst section of the ride. I
also made a 14 mile side-track and rode down the empty Interurban trail
instead of riding through the second worst section…the despised West Valley
highway. No stoplights, no crowds...nothing but a lot of baby rabbits!
Also a new trail between Centralia and Chehalis was an improvement.
The Rivendell performed flawlessly with no problems. The new Compass tires
are as good as advertised...very soft, smooth, however, I did experience my
first flat in 6 STP's. It was a big chunk of glass that likely would have
punctured about anything so I can't complain. The tire still has a small
"hole" that looks kind of vulnerable so I'll boot it from the back and hope
for the best.
I took a pretty moderate pace with the goal to avoid longs stops and keep
moving. Finished in 14:45 which was about 15 minutes longer than
estimated. I did have the puncture though and also stopped to help a guy
out….he fixed his flat but didn't know how to put the wheel back on.
I saw the aftermaths of three crashes. Two looked pretty minor but the
other one had rider was dusty and scratched up from head to toe. I thought
the behavior of the vast majority of riders was very good. I was ahead of
the big mass of two day riders though so I think most the people I was near
were fairly experienced. Saw one a-hole in Centralia throw water at a car
that was passing him…he said he was getting squeezed but I was behind him
and he was way over to the left. That seems to be my biggest beef….if you
are passing do it and get over! I'm kind of amazed nobody gets killed on
the highway in Oregon where cars and truck are flying by at freeway speeds.
Any it was a fun day but I'm ready to get back to my normal rambles. A
few pics here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/77502424@N00/sets/72157655744716946
Rob Markwardt
On Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 6:18:28 AM UTC-7, Andy Williams wrote:
>
>
> Successful STP! Ride report here
> <http://awilliams53.blogspot.com/2015/07/stp-2015.html>.
>
> Andy
>
--
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 rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
