Well, I have been a big fan of Uvex Helmets for a few years now. They are light, comfortable and stylish. They have an internal mesh so no bugs fly in. Especially BEES! If you have ever had this happen you can appreciate this little wonder. What really sent me reeling into the upper echelons of bicycle geek heaven was the discovery of a small detachable helmet light. It's made and by and for Uvex helmets and is really clean. The blinker is so small you easily stash it in you seat bag and whip it out and click it on your helmet when you get caught in the dark as I seem to do. here's a pic...

        

Massages.
 After our big ride on Saturday, it was time to unwind with the magic fingers of our very own Karen Duffy. Karen has a sort of built in radar for finding those knots and tension areas. After, turning the ladies into a mass of Play-Do, we headed over to
The Vineyard House in Santa Ynez. Owner Jim Sobell is an avid cyclist who has raised over $100,000 for Lance Armstrong's Livestrong Challenge. Jim once again dazzled us with yet another incredible meal. If you are ever in the Santa Ynez Valley, you owe it to yourself to make a stop at The Vineyard House.  It's sort of a French Laundry for Solvang without the pricetag or the yearlong reservations. Certainly, this was the highpoint of our trip.
 
Well, here's to another great weekend....
Luke

        

Ya gotta love riding bikes in Solvang.....
Country roads, wine country, little traffic and abelskeivers.
This was to be our first Ladies event and I wasn't sure how old Luke would fit it. Karen from Lotus of Light (our hospitality partner) had suggested organizing a women's retreat long ago and I agreed to give it a shot but I would need some help on this one. Months ago, I contacted my good friend Juli Kennedy to come out and be the ride leader. Not only is Juli a sweety and about the nicest person you'll ever meet, she is a top notch cyclist with years of riding. She competed in the Furnace Creek 508 racing over 250 miles across the desert. She agreed to be ride leader and that made me feel a lot better better about hosting a women's cycling weekend.

  Our weekend started early Friday afternoon with an easy warmup ride. The weather was clear and sunny and made for fantastic riding. Of course we had to stop for some winetasting at Kalyra. (featured in Sideways) I love this place and have been a member for some time now. They have a really nice 2005 meritage called MC2. Just go get it....

  The next day started a bit cold, misty, and cloudy. I was a little worried it might damper our riding but the ladies were in good spirits. Our first order of business was to ride over to downtown Solvang for breakfast. And what did we have?  Abelskeivers of course!

These little gems make make the perfect fuel for cycling and are a tasty treat as well.
 
  We then set out on our big ride for the weekend. Our destination was Tres Hermanas. Winery way up on Foxen road. Not surprisingly, we had a pit stop at Fess Parkers for more winetasting. Famous for portraying Davy Crockett in the 50's and 60's, Fess has built one of the biggest vineyards in the region.  Juli had purcahsed some wine along with some Orange Zinfandel Mustard.... sounds good huh? The nice thing about a supported ride is just throw your stuff in the truck. Need a jacket, some water, a snack?... Just flag down the truck. Karen was our SAG driver and did a great job keeping an eye on us.
  From Fess's, it was another 6 miles to Tres Hermanas. Tres Hermanas is sort of new on the wine road having opened in 2001. They have beautiful secret garden that is just the right spot for a picnic.

I had sent Karen off to market with a basic list and she went above and beyond my expectations. The food was perfect and was also visually delightful.
  Probably the most memorable thing at Tres Hermanas is the Horse... In the tasting room they have an adult sized mechanical horse you can ride that gallops and plays the Bonanza theme.
Here, Pamela was the first victim....I mean jockey to saddle up. I popped in a couple of quarters and they started off and a nice comfortable trot. I said "pull back on the reigns" Expecting to stop, Pamela was more than a little surprised that the horse took off at break neck speed.
 
  After we all had our turn on the horse, it was time to head back towards Solvang. The road back is basically downhill with a couple of hiccups. And by hiccups, I mean short steep climbs. We made short work of them and got back to the hotel in plenty of time for.....

continued in part deux.
Luke

        

Hi Folks, just wanted to give a recap of the Seattle Bike Expo. This was the first time  I have worked the show representing America by Bicycle and Luke Manohans. I actually have worked it twice before for Santana Cycles. Because of my previous experience with the show, I knew that this was the the most effective expo in the country and we had to be there. People of the great northwest are die hard cyclists. It is not a question of if they ride in the rain, they just do. Down here in Socal, I have to admit that we are fair weather cyclists and that's fine by me.
 



  My weekend started Friday morning with a canceled flight, a 4 hour delay, and a re-route to Denver. One funny thing about the flight, they showed " The Day the Earth Stood Still". I had already seen this steamy pile of remake bad idea and was not looking forward to it.  The funny thing though was the scene where GORT the robot takes control of 2 airplanes and crashes them into each other. On the flight though, no plane crash scene.... I guess they don't like to show plane crashes on domestic flights to Seattle. So, we the audience are lead to believe that GORT is just happily flying his new toys all over Manhatten like a kid with a new slot car set. I dunno.... funny.

  When, I got to Seattle I was pretty pooped and was starting to feel a scratchy throat. So, I tried to get a good nights sleep. When I woke up, I felt like I had gargled with broken glass and sounded like Harvey Fierstein calling from Mexico. When I got to the show, I come to find that our booth was outside in a giant tent. Not indoors as promised. On top of that, it had rained all night (what were the odds) and the parking lot tent had an inch of water that we all stood in. There were carpets but they were all soaked and everyone's feet were wet. I thought, (I am going to die... this is it. It started with a cold but I didn't take care of it, turned into pneumonia, and then I died.)
  Well, I didn't die. I slogged it out and talked to hundreds of people, gave out all my catalogs and believe that we made some good contacts.

Luke

        

Last week I took my old 2002 KHS Flite 800 out. I have hung on to this bike because I like riding it so much.  After all it was the starting point for the creation of Thundercles. (my custom Ti Santana Single Take-a-part)
The Flite 800 is made from Reynolds 853 and is a sweet ride. The unique thing though is the gearing. After a derailleur incident, where said rear derailleur was cursed at and then thrown in a river somewhere in Missouri..... I installed a borrowed XTR mountain derailleur which works great. I began to scheme and realize that I could put an 11-34 mountain cassette as well. That would give me some great bottom end for those mountain days. If I did that, couldn't I run some big chainrings as well? I ended up with a 42 and a 56! on the crankset. wow what a difference. My top gear is a 56-11 which equal 134 gear inches. In a nut shell, that means each revolution of my crankset would turn one revolution of a virtual 11 foot wheel. That's a lot of distance covered! It feels like the Six Million Dollar man chasing the bad guys.

Sure it's not perfect, The jumps between gears are huge and the chain rubs the big ring when you cross chain but hey, you shouldn't cross chain anyway.
So forget triple and compact cranks, I think this is a great setup for cross country riding. It's easy to swap out cassettes after those mountains.
Luke

        

Last Saturday's  ride was neato....
Our GAC member Lissette returned after a little hiatus and this time time she brought a friend. Well more than a friend, her fiance Brett. Brett's been wanting to get into cycling and come ride with us. He was worried about keeping up but actually he's pretty fit. Kinda like  Stone-Cold Steve Austin fit. Well, we thought maybe him and Lissette should ride my Tandem. They would have an easier time staying together. (he he)  I've been saying that tandems are more efficient and faster for years but now I got to really feel the difference. After some awkward, parking lot test driving, we took off down the towards the river trail. Craig and I didn't even try to lead as we just slid into the air pocket behind the tandem and hung on. I love tandems and really miss riding mine. I actually prefer it to a single. They are fast and feel stable like riding a motorcycle. Plus a lot more social.

  On the way down the river trail, we cruised around 25, the way back was a different story. The bike path has steps every 200 yards or so that drop about 10-15 feet in 10 or 15 yards. They make for a fun little turbo boost when you ride down stream. Riding upstream they can really hurt. I invented a little game called called the "Evil 17". The goal was to stay at exactly 17 mph on the return. It's really hard without speeding up before the steps. It was working out pretty good but the steps got bigger and steeper. On top of that, Craig thought I was trying to drop him and he hung on tenaciously like a bulldog. We both crested the last monster step and were gasping like fish outa water. Great game...A bike path with built in intervals.
Of course, the ride ended with our final sprint to the house. This time no photo finish... It was old Luke by a long shot... No 2nd place trophy for Craig. Just a big plate of crow. Here's a picture of Craig with a nice flower.....

Luke

        

Sunday was another beautiful California day! It was about 75, clear skies, and most importantly, a rockin tailwind. We're were invited out to my friend Yanah's family restaurant. Casa Trejo is in Yucaipa about 53 miles from my pad.  Perfect. The plan was to head east,have a sag stop at the halfway point at Germ's house, an arrive at Casa Trejo by 5:00.  Craig and I started out from Glendora and felt the tailwind right away. We were cruisin along around 20-25. 

One problem...
 The traffic lights. I think we caught every single one from here to Fontana. You know how they say you shouldn't speed in you car becuse you'll catch every red light?
Well I think if you are going slower than traffic, ie bicycle speed, you catch all the reds as well. So, always ride as fast as you can.
  We arrived at Germ's feeling pretty good. Germ's, ever the gracious host set us up with some ice water, granola bars, and chips. Or more importantly,hydration, carbs, and electrolytes.
It was a nice break but we had to get movin to make our 5:00 dinner bell. Just past Fontana, I was pleasently surprised by a smooth country road through rolling hills. I've never been through these parts before and promised myself to do some more exploring here. The final 7 miles was an easy climb up to the resaurant. Problem was, we already rode 46 miles and were feelin the effects. The last 3 miles was a GRIND.... We were both pretty happy to finally get there.
  I was starved and started out with a nice Cadillac margarita before dinner... whoah...
Craig did the same. I got up to go to the bathroom and felt like Dean Martin trying to find his keys... I saw Craig get up and heard him chuckling to himself...Nothing like booze when you are drained and have an empty stomach...
Dinner came quick and I plowed through my Chipotle chicken.....yummo.  One thing about Casa Trejo... they are not stingy on the spice. The salsa kicks.  Real authentic mexican that makes me proud to be a Cailifornian.

Luke

        

Well had great ride today with my old friend...... I mean nemesis Craig. We posted another Friday Morning GAC ride. Unfortunately, our participation was down 33.3%, so it was just me and Craig. We set out and headed east on good old Route 66. The last time we rode, I had been working out a nasty cough. My energy was low but I hung on. Craig was feeling good because he dropped me on the climb up to Mt Baldy. "dude...you ok?" "Argarlargar!!!"

Now it was Craig's turn to be summoning lung oysters. So I took advantage of that and steered us up Morgan Ranch. It's the place in Glendora where people like to build castles. Aside from that, it's a cheeky 1 mile climb with an average 10% grade. We started climbing at a nice clip and were soon battling it out.  Why did I bring this jacket?!? Why is Craig shifting gears? Did he upshift?!?!?!?!Damn it's hot out here!!
Craig fought valiantly, but in the end, good triumphed over evil as I crested the hill.

It's good to exploit the weaknesses of your friends. Especially, when they are sick.

Well the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful until the end. In the last 200 yards, I swung way out and started to make like I was sprinting, lookin back and weaving across the road... total Joke... Craig wasn't joking. Oh crap he's serious! So, we both ended up flying up my street dodging cars and lungs burning....
Well, it ended just like Rocky 3.... Apollo and Rock frozen in mid punch, both connecting.
Eye of the tiger.......
Luke

        

So Sunday....Karen and I took our Mothers and Munchkin (juicebox) out to do some winetasting at one of my favorite vineyards, Filippi.
I'm a member there but still love to go "sample" wines I've already tried a dozen times. In early, 2008 they released a couple of  bottles, one called "Big Joe" and the other "Velluto". Both were amazing and WAY out of my budget. Usually they don't even have those for tasting. Maybe because they're friggin expense?!?!?! Well anyways, On Sunday not only were they pouring Big Joe and Velluto, but they had a special weekend price. Woooo Doggy! In my budget! I made a quick text to the G.A.C.(Glendora Association of Cyclists.) Ya, I had some extra bottles to get now. Karen and I agreed to split one and make some good grub.I could justify that. So maybe there's some benefit to this economic downturn.... CHEAP WINE!!!!  People coming together to subsidize their wine habit.

And another thing.....Instead of braggin about that new boat,hi-def big screen, or piece of bling, Let's get comfortable with braggin about that amazing bargain we found. Let's shout out what cheapskates we are! Face it, we still gotta buy stuff...But we need to be good shoppers everybody and not ashamed of saving some scratch.

Luke

        

Well our Tour of California is well under way. I believe this to be the best thing to happen to cycling in since Lance. As evidence of the incredible turnout, I'm not alone. What a great sport for the family. It promotes a healthy endeavor, the games are basically free to attend, and the action is non-stop. (if televised ).  The Tour of California could be the springboard to something bigger.
"The Tour of the USA." Ya, I know it's a long way off.... but can you imagine? The Peloton flying across the desert, winding up and over the Rockies, or barreling through the Holland Tunnel?  I don't know why Americans aren't into cycling like the Euros. Maybe that's why. Are we just a car culture? Is NASCAR so different from the Tour? Well YES.... Can you imagine a NASCAR event where there are teams of of 9 cars working together to get their one team leader across the finish first? WHooo Dogggy!
I guess that's what I'm getting at that if Americans knew more about the tactics, and strategery of cycling, they might dig it more....