NOV 10 So Cal Rat Rod Ride

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jwm

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Ah yes, folks, the Rat Rods just keep on ridin'. I doubt we'll top the insanity of the Halloween party night ride, but we can make a good effort. Or not. How about if we just get together and enjoy another afternoon of cruisin' the bike path, enjoying the beach, and generally celebrating being alive and well in this most wonderful of places to be alive and well in. Same Rat time, Same Rat channel: corner of Brookhurst and Atlanta, Huntington Beach. (see map) Meet up 11:00 am, ride rolls at noon. Bring a friend, or an acquaintance, or a stranger (as long as they're at least a little strange)
Look forward to seeing everyone.

brkhstatlanta.jpg


Oh- and we'll kick around plans for another night ride around Christmas. So if you don't have a friend to bring- bring a suggestion for a cold dark ride.

John M
 
How many people usually show up to this thing?
 
Hey, folks-
I sort of look at it this way-
If it rains on us we all get Epic Hard Core Awards. You know- for being so hard core and all. And what's the worst that can happen? Oh, yeah- we could get stuck on the river bed when this big flood comes, and then get washed out to sea and eaten up by a shark.
But we can deal with that kind of thing, as long as the bikes are OK.
All goofing aside- Weather service has a 40% chance of rain before 10:00 AM. I'll take that chance. It will probably be a lot like today- windy and cool, but very scenic. Dress warm. (But you knew that.) Maybe bring your second best bike- or your first best rider. This month we would usually be going to Newport. But we can always adjust our destination if there is a heavy wind so that we ride out into the wind, and have it at our backs coming home.
As far as attendance- we usually have in the neighborhood of a dozen to fifteen riders. Sometimes more. We are a not-yet-totally famous ride so far. But we come up with some cool stuff to do.
Look forward to seeing everyone.

John M
 
What was I saying?
Oh, yeah:
from a half serious post on facebook:
Sometimes if you get enough discomfort it actually turns into fun.
And then I think- What? Are you nuts? Wreck your bike with water, salt, and grit,...


Well, OK- there wasn't any water. But we had discomfort! And wind. And the wreck your bike with grit? Being the conscientious bikester that I am, I had just blasted the chain on the red bike with chain lube. I wiped off the excess, too. Or I thought I did. When I put the bike back in the truck to go home, the back end of the bike looked like it had been breaded by Colnol Sanders.
No fault to anyone who turned back. All kidding aside, the headwind on the bike trail was ferocious. The day was perfectly clear, and clean as it gets, but that wind was actually throwing sand in our faces. I thought I was crawling along in second gear, and then I looked back and found that we'd lost a bunch of people. When we re grouped, getting to the Pier was totally like the Mount Everest Death ride into the teeth of heck fun adventure. But we made it. We even got chili fries, warm stale coffee, and a bottle of Mountain Dew for our trouble. And a Hard Core Prize.

Oh yeah. We also got to watch the wind actually pick up some while we stopped for food. We got to ride back from Huntington Pier to the Santa Ana River with that jet stream wind blasting us along like a bunch of two wheeled kites. We were just riding that sandstorm like a wave. Just like flying. Just all kinds of fun.
And I had to take the chain off the red bike to get it clean. I dunked it in a little gasoline, and flushed out about half a teaspoon of grit. But that's why you get the Hard Core Prize.

John M
 
Still was an awesome ride!!

Kuddo's to "long haulers", but tottaly understand those who cudnt make it to the pier.

Defianatly memorable!

Got a cuople pics ill try to load on momday.

See yall in dec!!
 
Sandblasted, a good description, found sand where I shouldn't have found sand, don't blame anyone for heading back. Tough but still had a great time,
 
Thanks for posting the pics, Max. Glad you guys made it home OK. I spent the whole morning cleaning sand out of the bikes. I got almost half a teaspoon full of fine grit out of the chain on the red bike, but I ran out of gasoline. I had a new chain that I bought for the Spaceliner, so I just said heck with it, and put it on the red bike. I can use the chain from the red bike on the Spaceliner once I've given it a good flush. It took nearly a couple whole cans of liquid wrench, and WD40 type stuff to get the chain and derailleurs clean on Mary's bike. I guess you look on the bright side- I wanted to spend a day messing with the bicycles, and I got a perfect reason to do it. For that matter- everyone who got on the bike path yesterday, has the same task ahead of them. I hope you were all planning to do a major deep cleaning on your bikes just after this ride. :x Now there's no excuse not to do it. :cry:
And I just finished doing it here. :D For now both of the riders are all clean and well lubed. Ready for the next cruise.
And we're not doing bad- we've had nine official Rat Rod Rides, a parade, two city events, and a night ride. We've had challenging weather, at two rides (wind), and one event (heat at Tour de Fat). Three more makes a year for the So Cal Rat Rod Ride. Odds are good we'll face at least one more tough ride between now and March. Get an umbrella.

John M
 
When will the next ride be? I have a couple friends that wanna join in. Sux that usually the ride lands on a Sat I have to work. Me and my girl have added a couple more to out collection since the last ride we made it out to. Hope to see you soon! BTW, I'm trying to get a couple things going out here in the Pasadena/Monrovia area. I'll post when I get everything figured out. Looks like a Pub Crawl and a Bus/Bike ride. Gonna be fun!
 

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