3/05/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca

I looked out this morning and once again I saw relatively clear skies and almost warm temperature. I was glad I spent the time to service my bike, clean the rear cassette and chain and pump up the tires. I got dressed, ate breakfast and watched a little news before leaving the house to ride over to the group ride parking lot. As I pulled up I saw three of our regulars and two new riders waiting for me.

I have to admit looking at the two new riders, Nathan and Jesse I thought two riders from Team Giant were joining us for our Friday ride. Both look big and strong and they seemed to be riding new Giants as well. As we made introductions the group kept growing till we had 14 riders in the A and B group and 3 in the C group. I made sure everyone knew where we were going and we got ready to leave at 3 minutes after 9 am. With all groups combined we had 17 riders heading to Acacia and making the left onto Kirby.



I was very impressed with the group as we turned off of Kirby and headed through the housing tract towards Johnson. I found myself riding next to Quick sticks and Highlander with just about as many riders in front of me as there were behind me. It was cool enough for leg warmers and I had a base layer under my Army Jersey but I didn’t need arm warmers or long fingered gloves today. I could see this was shaping up into a good day. Socrates and Cossack were riding at an easy pace in front of me and Highlander and Jesse were off to my right and slightly behind. T-3, Hit man and Duramax were following in the back. Rocket pulled up beside me and got my camera to get a shot or two of me before we got to Johnson. Then he quickly got back in front and lead the group around the corner and then over to Wentworth and left towards the airport



Once we were all together on Wentworth we were joined by Casey Jones coming off of a side street, Egan I believe, and we got our first look at the road rash her had acquired in his crash on Monday. It seems as if he hit a bad spot on the road riding back from a side trip he and Attack had taken after our ride Monday. It seems as if there was minor damage to his bike but it looked like he had taken a goodly amount of skin off when he hit the pavement. Still it was good to see him up and riding even though I knew how much pain he had to be in. Still he was riding strong and decided to stay with us aas we headed towards Winchester. We all made a quick turn on Cawston and then a right on Walden Weaver road by the airport when someone yelled from the back that we had a flat. Turns out Jesse had he first flat on his first group ride with us. We all turned back to watch him fix the flat only to have Duramax show us all the proper way to change a flat.


Once the flat was fixed we were back on the road and headed for Stetson to make the turn towards Warren Road. It is always interesting to ride by the airport just in case we get a chance to see one of the small private planes take off or watch a helicopter landing. Today we saw some planes but none were taking off or landing so we all lined up single file and followed Rocket to Warren Road. Once passed Warren Stetson becomes pretty traffic light so we normally spread out and once again talked and visited with each other while we move toward California Avenue. Attack Cat and Socrates were leading towards as we got close to the turn with Rocket and Cossack not far behind. Highlander and Quicksticks more or less led the next group with Duramax and Beuwulf about 25 yards behind and T-3 and Hit man were a few yards behind that. Once on California the pace slowly picked up and we started to spread out on Stowe when Rocket lit the after burners and Cossack took off after him. I tried to hang on for a while but it was soon clear we were pulling away from the rest of the group so I backed down before I ran out of air.


We regrouped at the corner of Stowe and Winchester and then the A group started to pull away as we headed for Domenigoni. I told rocket that if they got too far ahead of the B group he was to feel free to take them up to the Marina before we got there. As we watched the A group took the turn towards Leon and opened a gap between us. They made the U turn and were heading back towards Hemet well before the B group got to Leon. We watched the A group break up at Winchester and closed a bit on the splinter group. They pulled away again after Warren road where we lost Power Surge as he headed back towards Sun City. We lost Casey Jones at Sanderson and regrouped with the splintered A group at the Marina entrance. Attack cat pulled ahead as we headed for State Street and we lost him before we got to Mcsweeney.

When we turned back towards State and Domenigoni we could just see Attack Cat in the distance and we lost him again on Stetson when we turned on Columbia. We decided that we were running a bit late on Lake and Stetson so we shortened the ride to head over to Carl’s and meet up with the C group. Some of us stopped for coffee and some had to head home but it was a good day. I ended up with 38 miles by the time I got home. I hope Jesse and Nathan join us again even if they look like they could run over me without even breathing hard.