A few bikey things I likey.

These are a few not so everyday items that make my ride just a bit nicer. Some are from individual craftsmen, others are more widely available, and one is not bike specific. None are run of the mill.

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse

Some things are worth staying up late:

Group Dynamics

Saturday, December 11, 2010 - And now for something completely different.

To earn the Randonneuring R-12 award, I will have to complete at least one timed ride of 200K or longer, each month for a year.  After nine months of biking solo and semi-solo (solo in a group event) routes of at least 200k, this would be my first group ride, a 200k permanent with Randonneurs Katie, Keith and Angel.

The official Randonneuring organization of the United States (RUSA) defines a permanent as “like a brevet but you can ride it any time, not just on one specific date. Like brevets, routes can start and finish in the same location, but they can also run point-to-point, and can be any distance of 200km+. Permanents are open to any RUSA member."

Riding a permanent also gives you the opportunity to ride long routes that someone else has scouted and mapped for scenery and road conditions. This route was user friendly, with no extreme climbs. Although called a 200K, the actual length of this ride was 130 miles. 

On the way to the start, I wondered how the day would play out. The plan was for us to start, ride and finish together. I was pretty sure that none of the four had ridden together for an extended time. And when you think about it, asking four people to ride bikes together for 130 miles in freezing cold from sun up to sun down, when they don't really know each other, might be asking a lot.