Friday, November 26, 2010

Seattle Riv Ride 2: Day After Thanksgiving


Fremont Brewing, originally uploaded by Rob Harrison.
Had a (mostly) very nice ride today, the second Seattle Rivendell Ride, this time with iBobs as well. We met at Zoka Coffee just before 11am (civilized!). Let's see, this time it was Ryan from West Seattle on a Handsome bicycle, Andy on a Bleriot, Alistair on his own Centre Pompidou bike (clear epoxy with all the dimensions and angles, butts in the tubing marked on the outside) Jeff on a Curt Goodrich, Brian on his A. Homer Hilsen, Alex on his A.H.H., Russ on his Cassarole(?), Rob M. on his Bleriot (IIRC) and myself on my Saluki. After coffee we headed south along the Burke-Gilman. Weather was surprisingly good. Forecast was for rain and mid-40's, but the rain held off until later.

At 15th Ave NE we came upon a nasty bicycle accident. A rider was down and unresponsive after apparently fiipping his carbon bike, clipped in pedals still attached. We called 911 and stuck around as he came to, covered him with our jackets as he started to go into shock. A UW security guard arrived and offered a space blanket. We waited until he was in the ambulance to move on. From what we could imagine he must have hit one of the metal post covers in just the wrong way, and knocked his front wheel 90º and gone right over the bars and smacked the ground hard. Ouch.

Continued west on the Burke through Fremont to Ballard, north along Golden Gardens and up the switchbacks to 85th. Headed east again on 75th, various folks peeled off. Eventually we crossed under Aurora at the south end of Green Lake and Alex, Brian, Alistair and I headed south on Stone Way to Fremont Brewery. We were too early for the Urban Beer Garden, so ended up at Pacific Inn, where we had some of Fremont Brewery's Pail Ale. A tasty brew, accompanied by great conversation.

The rain made an appearance while we were at the Pacific Inn, and the rest of the way home to Mt. Baker was quite wet. I rode about 25 miles. Not epic by any means, but very enjoyable.

From today's ride I know that with the addition of a thin wool undershirt, my Bouré wool jersey, Ibex arm warmers and Showers Pass jacket on the top, and Bouré knickers with BMW socks designed for motorcycle boots, GoreTex booties and Rain Legs on the bottom, will keep me comfortable in the rain and down to 40º easily.

1 comment:

Stonehog said...

Thanks for organizing this, Rob. It was a great ride. I ended up with just under 24 miles back to Maple Leaf.