March 10 ride write up

Sorry for the delay in the write up.
here it is.
March 10th ride recap
Two groups of riders assembled at the usual spot. Theresa Smit, Sara
Powell along with Kevin Smit and Ernest Davis were about to leave as
Theresa's Phone rang. It was Beth Gonzales calling to say she would
meet the group along the route at Green Hope High School.
The group of 4 rode together as the Ladies were riding very strong at
the start of this ride. They must have been in a hurry to meet up with
Beth. Kevin was focused on working out the kinks in the rebuild of his
1979 classic bike. He has spent several evening tearing down all the
components, soaking and cleaning them, then replacing any worn out
items, (special ordered some that are no longer stocked at local bike
shops). He also replaced all cables and cable housings, brake hood
covers, and wrapped the handle bars with new Bright Yellow tape. Kevin
did bring the bike into the new age by adding a computer/heart rate
monitor to the bike.
All the old components worked as if they were new. The one item that
created any issue was the new heart rate and speed monitor. According to
this new monitor Kevin was riding at 30 mph when everyone else's
computers suggested a more moderate 13 miles per hour.
Once the group arrived at Green Hope we met up with Beth who was on her
brand new never ridden Trek bike. After a quick adjustment of her
speedometers magnet on the front tire she was ready to ride.
Kevin was still struggling with adjusting the settings on his polar tech
speedometer. Ernest ran several calculations in his head to try and
help dial in the proper number into the computer to indicate the proper
wheel size.
The Ladies were already a long way down the road before Kevin and Ernest
tried the new settings in Kevin's speedometer.
Still wrong.
Kevin would ride next to Ernest and change the settings on the fly.
After several of these attempts the two bike speedometers were within
.01 mph of each other.
This took the team until mile 24 of a 31 mile bike ride to finally dial
the computer in.
This was partly due to the fact that Ernest was feeling really strong
and would constantly attack the hills leaving Kevin far behind. This
resulted in Kevin having to work real hard to catch up, with Ernest
having to coast for great periods of time so we could finish dialing in this
new component.
In all Kevin's bike performed well. Kevin performed as an out of shape
old man would. Ernest is clearly ready for the season and will be there
for anyone to challenge.
The Ladies enjoyed their ride as they chatted at the same pace they
rode. They did take a detour prior to climbing UpChuck Hill. They
thought they could go around the hill through the new construction area
known as Dell Webb.
Alas they found no way around this short and challenging climb.
A great day with head winds in all directions.
The season is off to a good start.
At the end to the ride we met a gentleman named Ted who is the ride
leader for many of the Cycling Spoken Here rides.
He invited us to join them on Saturdays. I believe they leave from the
bike shop starting at 9:30am. They break into several groups with more
than 50 riders in attendance.
This is something to consider.
What we propose for this Saturdays ride is to join the training ride for
the MS 150. The cost is $15 with two distance choices of 24 or 31
miles.
See the link below for details. http://www.msfits.org/kickoff_2007.html
Please indicate whether you plan to attend this ride and we will try to
hook up.