May 6, 08:56 PM by Steve | Entropy
Posted in Cycling |I got a message today on bikeforums, from a user “entropysix”. This was a bit of a blast from the past, because roughly two years ago he had messaged me about riding in Santa Barbara. I went and dug up those old messages and thought I would share them with you. It was an interesting reminder of how far I’ve come in a short period of time. At the time I had ridden maybe 2000 miles on my Allez Sport, just bought my new TCR, and never really done a group ride. Note that my user name on bikeforums is “umd”.
Entropysix
I noticed that you are from santa barbara, and I am too. I’m sort of a new cyclist, started in september really, and I was wondering if you might know what good groups there are for newbies to ride with around here.
umd
As far as I know the main organized group rides in town are put on by Echelon. The saturday morning ride would probably be a good start, but I’ve never been on it so I can’t really say from experience. I’ve been meaning to try to get down there one of these saturday mornings…If you are interested you can join me on one of my rides. What kind of distance, routes and speeds do you usually do?
Entropysix
I live over in Winchester Canyon, and I’ve ridden down as far as casitas pass by ojai.. it was around 76 miles (there and back), but I’m pretty slow still, and not a very good climber either (workin’ on it though!).
umd
I’ve ridden out to Casitas Pass as well, thats a good ride with lots of climbing. I was going for 100 miles that day but I double flatted and was rescued by the wife.I’m fairly new to road cycling myself, I picked up my road bike last August and rode the crap out of it and just rewared myself with a new bike last weekend.
I’d been thinking about it for a while and have pretty much now decided that tomorrow’s the day to hook up with the Saturday Morning Echelon ride. Looks like it shouldn’t be raining and not too windy… We can both be “new” there together if you are interested. For logistical purposes, it may make sense to meet up and ride there together—my house is Patterson/Cathedral Oaks area, so its on the way.
Entropysix
Ah, dang. Tomorrow I’m actually gonna go pick up my new mountain bike (‘06 gary fisher tassajara ) and go ride around with one of my buddies. Maybe next weekend.. Lemme know what it’s like to ride with those guys.. I heard they were pretty hardcore.
umd
Cool about the bike, bummer you couldn’t make it to the group ride. I did drag my butt out of bed and made it and had a good time. I plan on going on it again next saturday if its not raining. If your free you should definately come. There were some “hardcore” racer types but they don’t try to show off and push the pace. It was nice and friendly and they were very accomodating.
Entropysix
Ah, cool. I’ll have to see what I’m doin’ on saturday, hopefully I can make it (and get up that early!). If I go, it should be interesting, since I’ve never done a real group ride before, hehe.Also thinking about doing the firestone-walker classic (xc race) weekend after next, looks pretty fun.
° ° °
wow, you’ve come so far since then. Like maybe 30k miles…
— Kim at May 6, 09:23 PMCool, I wonder if I was on that Echelon ride
— bill at May 7, 09:54 AMI don’t know. The only person I remember for sure is Jim. He was really helpful, gave me lots of pointers, etc. It may have been that ride, or shortly thereafter, I remember Rob helping me back into the line after I somehow ended up on the front riding out to Glen Annie and nearly blew myself up! I wonder who I thought the hardcore racer-types were...
— Steve Weixel at May 7, 10:03 AM