Ram-Representin' at Levi's Fondo - Sonoma County Ride

[James Warren]

Hey All,

I rode the "King Ridge Fondo" in Sonoma County, CA on Saturday. Here's a link to the ride information site:

http://www.levisgranfondo.com/

I took the Rambouillet and had a great and memorable day cycling. The ride offers a Medio option, a Gran option, and a Piccolo option. The Gran is 100 miles and climbs an epic thing called King Ridge in Western Sonoma County. The Medio is excellent as well, just not as grueling; it's 62 miles or so and includes a huge climb called Coleman Valley Road (or so I thought it would include that hill - more on that to come!) I did the Medio which did not actually include the King Ridge road.

In my flickr collection, the first photos you'll see are shots of the riders waiting to start both in front of us and behind us. I had never been in a crowd of cyclers so large:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46035786@N07/6202867616/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46035786@N07/6202867802/in/photostream/

The first part of the ride left the suburbia of Santa Rosa, and quickly became a ride with the quintessential Sonoma County beauty and featured a long climb up to the cool town called Occidental. The density of people diminished, but the climb was still pretty packed. I got a couple "nice bike" and "old school" comments. People were very friendly in general, but no one was really interested in my little plugs for mixed surface rides. The Rambouillet with Jack Browns and 24-34-46 front gearing and 11-34 rear gearing felt great. Indexed 9-speed Shimano shifters and long-reach Ultegra brakes. I was a Baggins bag-matcher with Keven's bag in the rear and Bar Tube in the front. John's Irish straps held my extra pullover to the outside of Keven's bag. I thought I might need it at the coast. Shot of the bike at after-event valet is here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46035786@N07/6204865456/in/photostream/

The Rambouillet was perfect for this ride. And it provided some needed safety. With the high density of people, there were some downright dangerous shenanigans going on. I saw a careless rider almost kill himself and another guy while descending the Bohemian Highway as an oncoming car was approaching. The careless guy was already riding way too far to the left (wrong side of the center divider on a road known to have auto traffic) and upon hearing "car up" from other riders, he lost control by hitting the center reflectors and then actually making bike-on-bike contact with an adjacent rider. I thought for sure they would crash and be hit by the car, and I THINK I could have avoided the ripple, being a bit behind them. By some miracle, they stayed up, and I was so grateful. Anyway, for the rest of that descent, I was thankful for the Jack Browns as I just descended straight over bumps in the road that was crowded with riders of varying skill levels, many of whom were riding around bumps and holes. I could ride straighter and with more care for safety because of my wider tires, but I didn't feel any sacrifice in pavement riding performance.

The bike climbed great all day, especially on the dirt. DIRT, you say! I found out upon registration that this year's Medio and Gran Fondos offer an alternate route that takes Willow Creek back from the coast instead of Coleman Valley. Willow Creek is the perfect mixed surface ride that riders of Ram/Homer/Hillborne/BombaHunq would love, and many on this list have recommended it over the years. I had wanted to do it, and finding out that it was made a part of the official route this year was a huge bonus. A lot of regular road bikes took this option this year, because the word had gotten out about how nice it is. My frequency of passing other riders rose tremendously when I got the Ram on that Willow Creek climb, probably because of the tires and the gearing. Just a classic Riv ride, even though I was the only one I saw all day on a Riv. My brother said he ran into a road rider who decided to try it, and unsolicited, the guy told him that we was a convert to mixed surface riding. Here's a photo of Ram in the unpaved Redwoods before the climbing really began:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46035786@N07/6202868362/in/photostream/

I took most of the Willow Creek climbing in the 34/34 and was just starting to think I might be out of the small ring all day when I came upon this awesome wall-like climb that might have been 15% or so. (Someone on this list might know.) I had to go all the way down to 24F/34R, but again, it was a case of the Rambouillet being ideally set up for this - really low gear meant I could keep pedaling. A large number of the road bikes I saw had to walk this part due to high gears, steep hill, and dirt. But I think they still had fun. Here are a couple of movies of climbing, first with some road riders, and then getting close to the top:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46035786@N07/6202357959/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46035786@N07/6202877006/in/photostream/

During the dirt section, I ran into Mauricio, who builds Rebolledo bikes. He and I had talked at the San Diego custom bike show in 2010, and it was good to see him again. Really nice guy, and here is his sweet ride:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46035786@N07/6202868212/in/photostream/

The Soulcraft guys were also in the general group he was riding with, I think.

What else can I share? I had a scary flat on a fast paved descent toward the end of the ride (and not during the dirt section!) I think riding the flat tire during the ensuing high-speed, downhill slow down caused a spoke to brake. It was great to be able to (after some truing) have the clearance to ride home incident-free after that, and the mishap in no way spoiled the great day. Another testament to the smart design of a Rivendell.

Miscellaneous: Here, you'll see one of our post-ride rewards, paella:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46035786@N07/6204863632/in/photostream/

And here is a shot of a Steve Rex bike I saw at the start. I wish the hand wasn't covering the red stem that matched the head tube:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46035786@N07/6202867954/in/photostream/

And here is sample from the Renovo wood frames booth:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46035786@N07/6204347839/in/photostream/

I strongly recommend this ride with the Willow Creek option. In fact, I thought I might see someone from the list. Another idea: it would be simple to do an awesome No. Cal Riv ride. We'd meet in Sebastopol, head to Occidental, partially on the bike path, go down the Bohemian Highway to River Road, and then at the coast pick up Willow Creek. Dirt riding will be the highlight. Then back to Occidental and complete the loop ending in Sebastopol. Then after the ride, we go to Hopmonk Brewery.

But far be it from So. Cal me to organize a ride in the North. I think I might be stepping on some toes! ; - )

Thanks for reading,
Jim W.

[Michael_S]

Nice post Jim, Looks like a great ride with the dirt sections. I normally stay away from Charity rides and such due to the unknown rider skills issue but this one is on my list for someday.  I find it very fascinating that they had a dirt section on a ride like this. It's like preferred  ridding terrain for most of us on this site but for the CF bikers with 700-23's it probably was fairly challenging.

 

~mike

 

 

[reynoldslugs]

As a Rivendell rider from Sonoma County, I offer sincere thanks to Jim
W for a very nice report. I try not to go on and on about it, but the
riding here is truly fabulous. Bobke's list of 50 Things to do Before
You Die includes the King Ride ride, witht the Meyer's Grade descent.

Thisi year I rode on a Roadeo; our scenery is great, but the roads are
wonderfully crappy, so 32mm kojaks were the best tire choice.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41563482@N06/sets/72157625765337223/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41563482@N06/sets/72157625377490164/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41563482@N06/sets/72157625470080748/


Maybe 1% of the bikes were steel, everything else generic Specialized
or what-have-you.

Thanks all that joined the ride. I'd be happy to organize a Rivendell
Owner's Gran Fondo - -Mike's route is good, or say meet in Monte Rio,
hit Fort Ross Road and Coleman Valley via gravel on Willow Creek - -
if there ever appears to be sufficient interest. These roads are made
for our steel bikes. Come any time. Here's what the ride looks like
on a sunny April day:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41563482@N06/sets/72157625169185335/

- Maxie (Reynolds lugs, lugged reynolds)

[cyclotourist]

This looks like a great event worth making the drive up for!

Jim, what % of the riders took the Willow Creek option? 

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Redlands, CA

[James Warren]

I'd say no more than 10% of the Medio riders. This is based on the few minutes I hung out at the Willow Creek turnoff eating a snack. I didn't count, but estimating from memory: 1 out of 10 maybe?

Gran (100 mile) riders probably did Coleman Valley, although they had the Willow Creek option also.

[James Warren]

Max,
Glad to hear you were out there too! Too bad we didn't run into each other, but I guess that was a longshot. I'd guess that Ram or Roadeo are just perfect for this ride.

-Jim

[cyclotourist]

Here's a write up I came across:  http://www.northbayvoice.org/20111002347/community-voices/musings-on-the-2011-gran-fondo.html

Sept 29th next year... just sayin'...

[James Warren]

Thanks David! Cool article.

 

And yes, Sept. 29 next year. Sounds good to me too. The organizers did a great job. You pay them, and they take care of it all. That would just leave us to arrange our Riv subculture meetups or carpools.

[James Warren]

Hey, look at name #300 on this list:

 

http://milliseconds.com/participants/final_list/division/140253

[cyclotourist]

Heck yeah, rocked the course... oh wait, that says DNF.... Uhhhm, nevermind...

[Esteban]

Jim - great write-up! I rode Willow Creek on this year's Old Caz 300k
- and it was truly a highlight. Those two slaps-in-the-face have a
name, the something-sisters.

I'm stoked so many people on race bikes took the dirt option. For an
event this big, that bodes well for mixed-surface riding in general.

Esteban
San Diego, Calif.

On Oct 3, 8:58 pm, cyclotourist <cyclotour...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Heck yeah, rocked the course... oh wait, that says DNF.... Uhhhm,
> nevermind...
>

> On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 8:24 PM, James Warren <jimcwar...@earthlink.net>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> >  Hey, look at name #300 on this list:
>
> >http://milliseconds.com/participants/final_list/division/140253
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: cyclotourist **
> > Sent: Oct 3, 2011 7:31 PM
> > To: rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com
> > Subject: Re: [RBW] Re: Ram-Representin' at Levi's Fondo - Sonoma County
> > Ride
>
> > Here's a write up I came across:

> >http://www.northbayvoice.org/20111002347/community-voices/musings-on-...

>
> > Sept 29th next year... just sayin'...
>

> > **

>
> > --
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> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> > rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
> > For more options, visit this group at
> >http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
>
> >  --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
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> > For more options, visit this group at
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>
> --
> Cheers,
> David
> Redlands, CA
>

> **