Fun with roadies: at least he wasn't wearing yellow
We’re back once again in the Outer Banks (OBX) of
North Carolina, enjoying a few days of fun in the sun
with Caren’s sister and family. It’s always a fun
trip. We get a nice big house up at the northern end
of the area, just north of Corolla Light House. It’s
a bit crazy with 5 couples and about 8 or 10 toddlers
running around -- generally screaming or sleeping,
and the kids are even worse.
Anyway, one of my favorite activities here is to hop on my bike and go for a nice longish ride. My daily ride at home is quite hilly (about 27 km, with 500 metres of aggregated ascent). Here, things are pretty flat. So, I put a pair of “skinnies” on my bike -- slim tires for the flat road conditions here. Also by comparison, I generally average about 17-18 km/h on my daily ride, but here I’m finding 25 km/h is quite feasible to maintain, even on my “fully” -- full suspension mountain bike.
So, today I headed out for a ride after we took the hounds on the beach for a romp and made a breakfast that couldn’t be beat. At just 44 km, I didn’t go insane, but I did enjoy the ride very much. Then the fun began...
On my ride north, I’d just come out of one of the subdivisions around Pine Island when I encountered a “roadie” -- a road bike. The rider was sporting full roadie gear, including elbow rests and aerodynamic head gear. I wasn’t trying to show him up or anything, but I pretty quickly caught up with him. I drafted him for a km or so, but then he slowed down to rest his legs a bit and I all but catapulted past him. It’s a pretty safe but general rule that roadies do NOT like being passed by mountain bikes, and being passed by a “fully” is about as full an affront as one could find.
Sure enough, within a couple km, he wanted to show me that he wasn’t going to be beaten by a fully. Zoom, he passed. He certainly had every advantage, and I was just there for a fun ride, so no problem. But then, by Tim Buck II, I had caught up to him again. He seemed a bit surprised, but no big deal. Then, he swerved a bit to avoid a car coming out of a coffee shop and zoom, I launched past him again. He was NOT pleased.
To avoid a nuclear showdown, I pulled into the next beach community and rode for about 5 km parallel to the highway. Figuring I’d averted a full fledged war, I left the subdivision and got back on the highway. There he was again... This was too good to let go.
I quickly caught up with him by Corolla Light, when he slowed down to turn into his own (presumably) subdivision. I had to brake a bit to avoid him, and he quickly looked back at me when he heard the noise. The look on his face was completely priceless. He was a beaten man. But, I am after all a gent-ul-mun, so I refrained from passing him outright. I was out for a leisurely vacation ride, after all.
It was about as much fun as I could have on two wheels -- at least with my pants on. Another GREAT day in the OBX!
Anyway, here’s a Google Earth image of my 44 km ride below for your amusement -- click on the image to download the Google Earth KML file and view it in your own Google Earth browser. (I use a Garmin Edge 205 GPS on my bike to track my rides. Together with a wonderful software package called Ascent, I can quickly export Google Earth XML files to visualize my rides. It’s lots of fun.)
Cheers,
Ken
Anyway, one of my favorite activities here is to hop on my bike and go for a nice longish ride. My daily ride at home is quite hilly (about 27 km, with 500 metres of aggregated ascent). Here, things are pretty flat. So, I put a pair of “skinnies” on my bike -- slim tires for the flat road conditions here. Also by comparison, I generally average about 17-18 km/h on my daily ride, but here I’m finding 25 km/h is quite feasible to maintain, even on my “fully” -- full suspension mountain bike.
So, today I headed out for a ride after we took the hounds on the beach for a romp and made a breakfast that couldn’t be beat. At just 44 km, I didn’t go insane, but I did enjoy the ride very much. Then the fun began...
On my ride north, I’d just come out of one of the subdivisions around Pine Island when I encountered a “roadie” -- a road bike. The rider was sporting full roadie gear, including elbow rests and aerodynamic head gear. I wasn’t trying to show him up or anything, but I pretty quickly caught up with him. I drafted him for a km or so, but then he slowed down to rest his legs a bit and I all but catapulted past him. It’s a pretty safe but general rule that roadies do NOT like being passed by mountain bikes, and being passed by a “fully” is about as full an affront as one could find.
Sure enough, within a couple km, he wanted to show me that he wasn’t going to be beaten by a fully. Zoom, he passed. He certainly had every advantage, and I was just there for a fun ride, so no problem. But then, by Tim Buck II, I had caught up to him again. He seemed a bit surprised, but no big deal. Then, he swerved a bit to avoid a car coming out of a coffee shop and zoom, I launched past him again. He was NOT pleased.
To avoid a nuclear showdown, I pulled into the next beach community and rode for about 5 km parallel to the highway. Figuring I’d averted a full fledged war, I left the subdivision and got back on the highway. There he was again... This was too good to let go.
I quickly caught up with him by Corolla Light, when he slowed down to turn into his own (presumably) subdivision. I had to brake a bit to avoid him, and he quickly looked back at me when he heard the noise. The look on his face was completely priceless. He was a beaten man. But, I am after all a gent-ul-mun, so I refrained from passing him outright. I was out for a leisurely vacation ride, after all.
It was about as much fun as I could have on two wheels -- at least with my pants on. Another GREAT day in the OBX!
Anyway, here’s a Google Earth image of my 44 km ride below for your amusement -- click on the image to download the Google Earth KML file and view it in your own Google Earth browser. (I use a Garmin Edge 205 GPS on my bike to track my rides. Together with a wonderful software package called Ascent, I can quickly export Google Earth XML files to visualize my rides. It’s lots of fun.)
Cheers,
Ken
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