3/28/2012

By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

We had a rain out Monday but it was Ok with me because I wasn’t in much of a shape to ride anyway. I had to change a flat on my Klein and with a bad hand it turned out to be quite a challenge. I could only hope that till my hand gets better I don’t have a flat while out riding. The other problem is with Shimano Shifters I can’t reach far enough with my sore hand to shift into lower gears for anything that looks like a climb. My hope was that today it would be better but in truth it wasn’t. Still I was willing to give it a try and met the group at Burger King for a half century Wednesday ride. It was still cool but it was supposed to warm up and so Torpedo, Blood Hound, Rocket, Huntress, Highlander, Wolf and I headed for Gilmore, Acacia and Kirby to get started.


It was a short light at Kirby so we were cruising down towards the railroad tracks and Cypress pretty smoothly. Highlander seemed in pretty good spirits and was talking away as we turned onto Cypress and made our way west towards Johnston. While my Klein is a good bike it is nowhere near as smooth as a CF bike and my hand would telegraph every bump to my wrist and then my brain. Needless enough to say I tried to miss as many bad spots on the road as I could.

Once on Johnston we got caught at the light on Sanderson and Torpedo took over and pulled us to Domenigoni with Blood Hound and Highlander right on his back wheel and I was in fourth place. Torpedo was keeping the pace right at 21 all the way to Warren and then over the dry wash. We hit 27 on the down slope but were back to 21 or so as we got to Winchester. We were in luck because the light turned green before we got there and we were still rolling when disaster struck. One of our riders misjudged his closing speed on Torpedo and caught a wheel overlap. The next thing I noticed was Highlander sliding left so I went farther left as a bike crashed right in front of us. It is always a sad thing to see a rider down and we all stopped to render assistance.

Not as a commercial but two things we need to remember is never overlap a front and rear wheel and the other thing is how important it is to wear a helmet. I know there is a debate by some cyclists that if we use defensive cycling we will not crash and if we do it will not cause head injury.

In all of the road bike crashes I have seen in the last 5 years every-one had helmet damage. This was one of the most damaged helmets I have seen. Just a word to the wise it is better to wear a helmet and not need it rather than to find yourself about to take a header into the pavement and realize you needed one.

By the time our rider was picked up Dura Max and Ocelot had joined us and we rode at a bit more somber pace towards Leon and towards the saddle. The pull was still right at 21 as we closed on the saddle. Rocket had left us for an appointment so we were down to Highlander, Huntress, Wolf, Torpedo and I as Dura Max and Ocelot took a different route than we did as we past Lindenburger.
We made it to Menifee and headed south to Holland before turning towards Antelope and then south again towards Scott road with Torpedo pulling us along at about 22. I felt at a bit of a disadvantage here because I had to pick a gear that was almost fast enough in the small ring but still low enough to use the big ring when I needed more speed. I couldn’t shift with my right hand so I would shift between the big and small ring in front with my left hand. This worked pretty well for me till we got down Whitewood and turned on Murrieta Hot Springs and then back towards the gas station on Benton. My legs complained about the climb on Winchester but I made it and we stopped at the gas station for a short break.

Once we were back on the road we quickly made our way north on Winchester and up to the light at Thompson. We didn’t catch it green so we sat through the read before heading west again towards Leon to start our run home. After the light turned we easily made our way to Leon and turned north.

It was an easy trip up Leon and back to Scott and then back to Menifee. We stopped for a moment so I could plug in my battery extender to my phone and then rode together back down to Domenigoni. At first I thought we would lose wolf again but this time he had to stay with us because he drove his truck to the parking lot today. We all stayed together as we went back over the saddle and headed back to Winchester. For some reason today seemed easy as we left Winchester and made it back to the dry wash and Warren. I even took a turn pulling back to Sanderson and we all headed back to Lowes to make the turn for Burger King.

Once back out onto Acacia is was almost a cruise as we turned back to Kirby. As the light turned to green we could all feel the relief of being so close to the end of the ride. It was a 50 mile ride but my average speed was in excess of 17 as we made the final turn and headed back to the cars. I stayed and talked to my friends for a few minutes and then headed for home. It had turned into a good day for a ride and I was just running out of energy as I pulled up to my house to finish 53 miles for the day.