Originally posted by MB1 in the forums… click here for the original post.

It was freezing when we woke up but by the time we had our bikes put together and took a little spin we were in summer clothes. Had a great dinner watching the sunset from outside on the patio.

Of course there was a little flight to Florida in between our waking up and that riding.

Nice!

Lakes and Hills.

For the last 3 years we had ridden Gator Week in Florida, actually an 8 day supported tour doing about 100 miles a day. We liked the distance but most of the route was not all that scenic and the places we stayed were not all that good. One part of the ride we always enjoyed was the rolling hills and lakes just west of Orlando in Central Florida.

So this year we decided to base ourselves out of Clermont in Lake County and do a whole bunch of loop rides.

Miss M did all the research and somehow managed to pick the highest hotel in Florida for our base. Now of course we are not talking any real elevation but every ride started with a couple miles of cruising downwards and finished with some out of the saddle. It cracked me up every time.

We quickly figured out why it was named “Lake County”. On the windy days there was nothing to block the howling winds-worse than hills actually.

Sure was pretty though.

…the rest of the ride report can be found in our forums here.

Originally posted by Ridgetop in the forums… click here for the original post.

I had to get one last night run in before the snow hit today. It’s coming down right now but still not sticking, so I’d thought I’d post the few pics I took while riding. My wife bought me a new 12-24mm lense for my DSLR so I threw it in my camel back and road the 14 miles into town. The temps were in the 20’s and my water bottle froze through. Thankfully I was well layered and was wearing ice climbing gloves (best darn biking investment I’ve ever made for icey weather riding thanks to the recommendation by one of the commuters on this board). Thankfully I brought along a little tripod also. The first shots are of Virginia Lake which is a little man made puddle in the middle of town. I often go for the night shots on this lake just because I like the reflections of the Peppermill Hotel Casino in the background. By the way, if you have the money and like a nice suite, that place is both romantic and very nicely done up. Anyway, continuing on from Virginia Lake I rode down to Wingfield River Park and took some shots down the river. Usually I try photographing lower down as there is more light, but I liked this angle tonight. Heading from there I just had to get a picture of the big ol’ and green Silver Legacy Casino. It reminds me of a glow in the dark toy. From there it was down to where the local panhandlers hang out over the train trench. They ignored me, but I would have too with all the black spandex covering me from head to toe. Shot some pics of Fitzgeralds and back down towards the El Dorado. I tried to get a bus in the last shot but it only came out as a slight blur in the lower right hand corner. Oh well, still learning this far fangled DSLR thingy.

Originally posted by Ridgetop in the forums… click here for the original post.

Siena is an awesome town situated on a series of small hills. The city is stacked up on itself and makes for quite the picture opportunities. As far as just wandering around this was one of my favorite places. Lots of tourists, but it was hard to beat the thrill of exploring all the little alleyways and hills. It also has the Duomo which competed with Florence with regard to making the fanciest church in the area. If you don’t mind a few tourists, I highly recommend visiting this city and would happily do it again. The flags are for the various contradas, or districts that compete with one another within the city. Siena is famous for a horse race that takes place around the central plaza. 10 of the 16 districts are selected to race their horses around the plaza with jockeys attempting to hold on for dear life and not really succeeding too well at it. Riding through town is a challenge so don’t say I didn’t warn you! But, there are some great hill climbing routes through narrow alley’s if you are into that sort of thing. The gellato, pizza, and wine is awesome stuff and fuels your climbing attempts.

Anyway, if I didn’t bore all of you to death with so many pics I’ll post another section later next week. Got to say, even after two months I’m still in a slight depression looking out at our cold brown fall coming on. Tuscany is an addicting place. I didn’t want to leave. . .

Originally posted by Ridgetop in the forums… click here for the original post.

Day three was the classic ride through the Chianti countryside. We rode through the main Chianti wine region and through the Monti di Chianti. The route went up the Passo Sugame which was a switchback climb up through some impressive forested hills. At the top we stopped for refreshments and dodged the hordes of horse flies that would plague us on several of the rides over the next couple of days. These suckers are tough and fast, and when they bite you’d think their mouths had flames attached. For the fun of it Brian and I were able to track them up to 28km per hour on the bikes before they began to fall off. Made it a bugger when climbing the slow steep roads. We descended into Greve for cappuccinos and then climbed up to the village of Panzano. Lots of great views of vineyards and forests. We then climbed up to the Castellina in Chianti and took an extra loop to Radda. The climb to Panzano was hot and buggy but what a great view when we got to look up at the town on the mountain. I took pictures of the riders below. For whatever reason I felt good this day and had broken away to climb ahead and snap shots of the other riders. We climbed up into the town to a beautiful church and lunch under a big fig tree and great views of the valley below. And then it was on to Siena!

Part 2 of Ridgetops original post “September in Tuscany”. click here for the original post.

The passes and climbing were my favorite part. The temps were in the low 80’s with large thunderstorms in the evening that helped to cool things down for sleeping. Although ultimately we would end up on the island of Elba, right now I was only thinking that horseflys were the most evil creatures on earth and where the hell was the next wine stop! Luckily lunch was always there waiting and there were lots of towns in between where I could at least get a caffeine fix to keep me going. Riding through the towns brought many new challenges, but luckily the Italians and million German tourists were pretty good at watching out for us hapless American tourists. But honestly, the people we met were probably some of the nicest people I had ever run into. I couldn’t understand 99% of what they were saying, but the arm waving and smiling seemed to work.

Originally posted by Ridgetop in the forums… click here for the original post.

Sorry it took so long to post these. I road this from September 4 through the 19th. I took over 2000 pics and its been hard to get them edited and reduced in number! One of the rides that will leave a good mark in my memories took place for me in September. My wife and I decided to ride (or zig zag ) across Tuscany over about a two week period. It was an organized ride through a touring group that focuses on “adventure” type vacations. I was pretty doubtful at first due to the total cost of everything, but boy am I glad we did it.

This picture post covers the first three or so days. We started in Bologna and ended up in Siena zigzagging through the Chianti Mountains outside of Florence before heading into the Monti de Chianti. We stopped at so many little towns for wine or coffee that I don’t remember all of them, but I know this pics include a stop in Montemarciano, an awesome medieval town at the top of a mountain (all our rides always had plenty of mountain tops to visit!). We had cappucinos (sp?) on the edge of cliff overlooking the Val D’Arno under a giant fig tree next to a church. I. Talking about awesome stuff. We then climbed up to the town of Loro Ciuffenna where we had lunch. We then doubled back to Dan Donato before heading over to Siena the next day. The route was awesome, the horse flys horrible, and the scenery beyond belief. Outside of the horseflys (I clocked these things at up to 28km/hr and they were still keeping up and able to land on me!)

It’s hard to describe everything so I thought I’d let my overly numerous photos do the majority of it. Quick note, the guy holding up his arm with all the blood is my friend Ken. He and three others went down in the first mile of the first day due to slick roads and new tires covered in mold release. Unbelievable. They went down in succession with a crunch. Lots of roadrash and bruises but nothing too permanent. The bottles were from a restaurant that we asked to see his wine cellar. The guy was unbelievable. Thousands of bottles of wine rotting and going bad down there. Oh the humanity!

Originally posted by MB1 in our forums - original thread can be found here.

Nothing like adding a little weather to the evening commute to liven things up.

Same ol’, same ol’ really. Went down to the garage, unlocked the steed, rode past The Wall and Lincoln to meet Miss M. Cruised up the Mall just because we like to.

Rain? No bigie when you have the right clothes and fenders.

We have the right clothes and fenders.

So does ComMUTter Man (although there is nothing you can do about the wet leaves except ride carefully).

We were careful.

Up around the Washington Monument I noticed another thing about wet, late fall days.

It gets dark early.

We have lights, the camera has a flash.

MB1
Flashy
Well; not really.

We did our usual commute; 14th Street Bridge over to Virginia, upstream on the Mt. Vernon Trail to Key Bridge, back over the river into Georgetown. Adds a few sweet miles, misses a whole lot of nasty traffic.

One great thing about this time of year and this weather-the trails are nearly empty and all the fools without lights and the right gear are home till the spring. We LIKE this time of year.

That is about it.

After Georgetown we take the Capitol Crescent Trail (the dark, wet CC Trail (I can’t believe it but there was some chump out there on a bike without lights, rain gear or fenders )) to the Tunnel, up the hill (watch out for the wet leaves and laugh at the traffic) and pull into the back.

Turn off the lights; the commute is over.

At least ’till tomorrow morning.

MB1
Done

Originally posted by brianmcg in our forums - original thread can be found here.

So I decided to go on a little ride on Thanksgiving day before I stuffed myself. Downtown Cleveland is a fun place to ride around and take pictures as it is generally pretty deserted. Enjoy.

HO HO HO. Santa checking out my bike. Wow, those bars look high. I was futzing with my brake lever position and now I got those way too low and the bars are now turned up like a crazy persons. It doesn’t look that bad in person, I promise.

A picture of “The Ol’ Woolen Mill”. This place is huge. They used to make lots of wool clothing here. If only Rivendell had been around to sell some wool t-shirts back in the day they might still be open

Neat little barber shop. I picture Andy, Goober, Floyd and Barney hangning out here playing checkers. This is the O.K Barber Shop. Their nemis is right down the street, The Great Barber Shop.

I don’t think in Mayberry next to Floyd’s Barber shop there was an extreme skate shop named “Asylum”

I took this picture before, but I had different bar tape on.

Cafe Roma. Great little restaurant. Deserted street.

More deserted streets. It reminds me of the opening scene of “Vanilla Sky”.

Neat bell in front of the courthouse.

I had the whole place to myself.

The obligatory shot of the best bike shop in Cleveland.

Ride Report by Argentius - originally posted here

Do you know how many pictures I can get on a pair of AA batteries when it’s 34 degrees out? I found out that it’s about 25. That’s okay, because the distance views I was hoping to get were just mist, anyhow.

But we’ve got a new trail, or, at least, part of one. It’s not officially open yet, but it’ll be the “Milton Interurban Trail.” I posted some pics from the (as yet) still unpaved section farther north back this summer.

You’d never know how close to the freeway this is.

Tacoma’s Stadium District had a few shots, at least. Stadium High got famous in a movie when I was in high school, I guess. It’s a pretty impressive building, especially for a public high school. Word was, it was going to be a fancy hotel in the 19th century, but the original builders ran out of cash and sold it to the city…

If you like cobbles, you’ll like a lot of Old Town Tacoma. They pave over some of these, fix others, and just plain leave some. For a long, long time. Here’s “court C,” just past stadium:

About once a year or so we like to get the car serviced. The dealer is out in Tysons Corner.

Not that all of the area isn’t messed up traffic-wise but Tysons Corner is outstanding. For us though the bike trails aren’t too far away from the dealer (one of the main reasons we chose that dealer).

Drop it off nice and early, a couple nasty miles in ‘burb hell and it is time for the W&OD trail.

Pretty nice riding at sunrise on a nice warm fall morning.

Traffic looked bad on the beltway but I wasn’t on the beltway.

Traffic on the trail picked up as I got closer to town.

The W&OD wasn’t all that crazy for a MUT but when I turned onto the Custis Trail the excitement level seemed to ramp up with every mile.

It sure beats driving.

Most folks turned off at the Key Bridge so the little stretch Mount Vernon Trail I used was quite calm. A short hop across the Potomac on the Roosevelt Bridge and “Hello Work”!

Work wasn’t bad today but there was this car to pick up.

Bike ride!

I had to get across the mall to meet Miss M before crossing the 14th Street Bridge and taking the reverse route from this morning.

The Mount Vernon Trail gets pretty busy on a nice warm afternoon. The Custis Trail is always a fun little climb. After those the W&OD seems almost calm.

Almost.

Still it beats driving.

We have always noticed a big difference between the morning and evening commutes.

Mostly in the morning anyone out just wants to go about their business and stay out of everyone elses way. In the evening OTOH there are always sport folks out looking to race anyone who dares go faster then them.

Miss M won’t put up with that foolishness (let’s face it, we have seen far too many stupid crashes on the MUTs to ever want to play games while riding). No one is allowed to get on our wheel-too bad since I was hoping to get some pix of Miss M blowing through stop signs for Gregory Taylors thread but we were going way too fast at the intersections for me to be comfortable shooting.

Other than that is was a very nice evening to ride and we were treated to a subtle sunset.

Alas, every so often as we were enjoying our ride we would catch a view of traffic-not pretty. Why anyone would ever deal with that on a regular basis is beyond us (and alas we were getting an idea of what we were going to have to deal with driving home).

As for driving; let’s just say that we would rather ride.

Turned out to be about as bad as we expected (took us a nasty hour and a half to get home driving (a lot longer than it took us to get out there on our bikes)) but at least the car is taken care of for another year.

MB1
Ride your bike.