Wow! Excellent route. Good work! On Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at 1:01:11 PM UTC-7, Bill Lindsay wrote: > > > Back at the very beginning of my Rivendell career, in 2009, I was pretty > much strictly a roadie. My Hillborne and the idea of "country bike" opened > up my world in many ways. One of those ways was the idea of enjoying > taking the long way from A-to-B. Over that first year or so I hatched an > idea for my 40-mile commute from El Cerrito to Union City. Rather than > treat it as a hilly road ride with a couple dirt trail detours, I > contemplated doing it as a 25 mile mountain bike ride with a few road > connectors. I had most of the route in my head, but there were still > several trails that I needed to add but had never ridden. Now that I have > a cool GPS unit, I was able to build my route on RideWithGPS and upload it > to my device so I wouldn't get lost and wouldn't have to resort to the map > 50 times. > > Anyhow, here's my route, discreetly edited to begin at a starting point > close-by but not-too-close to my front door. RideWithGPS Extreme > Commuting <https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27311348> > > I did the ride for the first time this morning, which felt like a cool > accomplishment, since I'd been thinking about it for several years. It was > ~42 miles and about 4700 feet of climbing, and it was pretty freaking > hard. There were several pitches that my GPS assessed as >20% grade. > There were rocky, bumpy, rooty sections that made my BMC Monstercross feel > like serious underbiking. The undeniable highlight is that these mountain > bike trails are by definition car-free, and that was delightful. I might > decide to do the SFRandonneurs Marin Mountains 200k as a solo Permanent in > May, and this Extreme Commute route is a great training ride for that. > > > <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Jz22LXTcZRA/WuDdwqa6e-I/AAAAAAAAD3I/hsosxTr348girSLFWsr8SJlXK398kDFuQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0397.jpg> > > This was one of the 20% grades, which is hard to see in the photo. My > four finger salute was to celebrate passing 4,000 ft of climbing at this > point. > > > <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3_z9GQ8-mHQ/WuDd4PWZ5PI/AAAAAAAAD3M/j6q2GXFzkNY9uvKReXBoLZRQuTjEJdniQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0395.jpg> > > > > > So, make a plan, set a goal, see it through and celebrate > > Bill Lindsay > El Cerrito CA > > P.S. One of the reasons I was able to pedal up 20% grades was I just > installed my turkey vulture shifter kit from Analog Cycles, which allowed > me to run a Deore XT clutch rear derailer with Shimano 10sp indexed barcons > (on Thumbies). I was glad to have a 26x36 low gear. > > >
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