Pismo Beach Pic From the Road

Yesterday we rode to Pismo Beach. It was beautiful!

Sunday through Today

So, as you know, Sunday, we rode from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. On Monday, we rode from Santa Cruz to King City. It was 107 miles of beautiful wine country with lots of difficult hills! We did another 60 Miles today with a fun lunch in Bradley, population 120. The lunch was great! Selling burgers for $5 to the Lifecycle riders every year helps raise money to support school programs including sports, music and arts programs in Bradley. Every year they raise over $10,000.00 with this lunch alone!! Speaking of lunch, we are eating so much food!! This morning we had a really big breakfast of eggs, muffins, yogurt, potatoes, english muffins, corn muffins, oatmeal, chocolate milk and coffee. Every day there are 4 rest stops with cliff bars, orange slices, bananas, gummi fruit and potato chips. And lunch is big, too...sandwiches, wraps, carrots, chips....we are consuming tons to keep our energy up! And of course, we're drinking about 5 water bottles filled with power aid each. We're tired but having a blast! Stay tuned....

Monday, June 1st - 107 Miles

Today is Santa Cruz to King City, 107 miles of very different terrains. With all of the Stop Lights and Signs it took 1.5 hours to leave the city of Santa Cruz....wow! Of course we start along the coast with incredible views! Both Danny and I were feeling refreshed and ready to ride (Lots of snoring in camp, but we got used to that). Again, who put hills in California's topography? Fun, but sometimes daunting.. Tons of Strawberry fields greet you with such wonderful aromas it's incredible. The day was a long one.....I (doug) got a head of Danny for half the day and just kind of rode on my own. Somewhere toward the end we met at a rest stop and got to do some neat rollers (rolling hills)....Power your way up, haul ass down, power up....etc etc......Good cross winds at the end of the day, but a tailwind for at least 20 miles in the middle of the day made it bearable!

The First Day - San Francisco to Santa Cruz

Orientation day was quick and easy.......today is SF to Santa Cruz! There was soooo many people at Opening Ceremonies, it was beautiful. The Positive Pedalers (all HIV positive riders) walked in unison with the "riderless" bike.....a bike that should have a rider, but that rider is no longer with us. It was awesome, and made lots of eyes leak. Then we stretched!! Heard some speeches and filtered out to our bikes. We were off, it was foggy, and people were cheering........what a way to start a Sunday morning. Somewhere around Daly City I (Doug) got my first of 3 flats. For some reason I was frantic to fix it and get riding, it's not a race, there is no hurry, but that first day is so exciting, you just want to ride! The other thing we quickly noticed about this 87 mile day is Hills, Hills, Mountains, and Hills.......Fixed gear is fun for climbing, but not so much for the decent. We stopped at every rest stop (always 4 per day, plus lunch and dinner) and really took in the beauty of highway 1. Danny got himself a Tic (thought he was having a leg cramp until we saw a hole and some little legs coming out) but medical took care of that at lunch. We arrived in Santa Cruz to cheering and much needed showers..........and the first of many GREAT dinners! They fed us VERY well.

Orientation Today

We leave for SF in about 30 minutes......Start watching this blog, I'll get some photos and stuff up later tonight......see ya on the road!!

Doug and Danny!!

Just over 2 weeks away!

Jumping for Joy that the ride is almost here! Danny and I are basically in the planning stages and past much of any "training" stages. I think we are as ready as we can be to ride fixed gear bicycles for 7 straight days and 545 miles. I'm looking forward to the ride and will be updating this blog as well as my facebook everyday of the ride. So, it's all about, how are we getting to SF, where are we staying, who is going to get us to the Cow Palace at 4:30 a.m. and who will pick us up and when, in LA 7 days later!........Keep on checking, we'll update as we go!.....This is going to be an experience like no other!

Been Too Long

Don't worry, I'm still riding my fixed gear, but I did get a new geared bike......why not have other options right!.....So I know it's been a while since we've posted, don't worry though, we are training, beggin for money, and taking care of bikes! I'm up and over 150 miles a week, and trying to keep the training in high gear. The spring winds suck a$$ though....Danny and I have a GREAT show on May 2nd at the Kennel Club....All of the proceeds go to the ride, so get out and see us. I'll get together a post specific to the show and with all the details soon. In the mean time, visit our Lifecycle pages at the bottom and donate if you can! Take it easy, and Ride for Fun!!!

Doug

The Amgen Tour and I got in Lance's way!

We were hanging out on a blocked off street before the time trials were going to happen. I was being a dork and doing track stands (basically balancing in place) with a friend in the middle of the street.........I looked behind me and realized a car had stopped just 2 feet of hitting me because I was in the middle of the road..........I rode away and watched the car pass.......15 feet later it stopped and some dude gets out and starts walking towards the team area........tons of reporters start running up and yelling "lance" questions...........So I almost got hit by, and totally was in the way of Lance Armstrong on the way to the time trials.........I know, it's a silly story, but fun!

Not much new to report, I rode in the wind and rain to work today..........ughhh, not fun, but still feels good to pedal!

$425 Raised

That is the number of dollars I have raised for my ride that starts on May 31st. I am so grateful for the financial support I have received from my friends, but I need more. I need to pull together another $2,575. (cracking my knuckles) Let's do this!!!

http://www.aidslifecycle.org/about/

-danny

Typical Man

I am home sick, and in bed. I have been unable to go to work because of my asthma. When I get a cold or the flu, allergies or a cough, my lungs tighten up. This time, my (step) son passed on his germs that he picked up from being a sweet 3 year old boy. Poor little guy was sick and with fever and couldn't sleep at night. He joined his mom and I in our bed during his terrible sleepless nights meanwhile his germies made their way into my chest. He really had it bad for about a week! Hearing his tiny chest rattling all night made us so sad.
When I get the sickness, it lays me out hard. This time around, I caught it relatively early. Other times I try to fight it,and would not give in, trying to outlast it like a typical man. HAHAHAHA! So far, that has never worked.

Today I am starting to feel a bit better and I can't wait to get back to work... and on my BIKE!!! My bike hangs over head right next to the fireplace and I am always looking at it. Thinking about cleaning it up and lubing the chain. It has been hanging there for over a week and has not been ridding as it deserves. I bet the tires are low too. But I just keep looking at it. I bet I will not be able to ride it for at least another week or so. I need to be fully better before I take off on it again...

-danny
It's an old picture, but you get the point...

REPRESENT!!!

I must have one of these, VATO!
-Danny

Bikes are Bikes

I had just turned 5 years old when my dad taught me how to ride a two wheeled bicycle. It was an old rusted hand-me-down from my sister Sandra, originally purchased at a thriftstore. I can picture it as a 1950's style cruiser with a red and white spray paint job my dad did behind our tool shed. I remember the way the over spray of white paint felt on the plastic sun baked grips, all cracked and rigid. Dad really tried to make things appear to be new or better than new when he purchased things from a triftstore. Regardless, it was one of the happiest times in my life for I experienced freedom for the first time.

I was only allowed to ride my bike in my back yard for the first year by myself, but as I gained trust from my mom as a "peddling pro", I slowly rode my way out to the front of my suburban home. Just shortly after, I was riding up and down my street which lead to my friends house a couple of blocks away. By 7 years old I was either on my skateboard or my BMX bicycle on a daily basis. Most kids my age in 1981 were riding bikes and had little to no experience with riding skateboards. So, I was part of a neighborhood BMX gang called "THE GENERAL LEE'S" after the car the Duke boys drove.... Yes, it's true I wanted to change my name to Luke because it was both Star Wars and The Dukes of Hazard related... It just didn't fly with my mom or my first grade teacher...

My BMX bike turned into a road bike in the late 80's then to a mountain bike in the early 90's. Through the 90's I juggled back and forth between a cruiser and my mountain bike. Today I ride a fixed gear conversion. If I had the space I would have as many different bikes as I could store. (Fixed, Track, Mountain, BMX, Cruiser, Road, Vintage, Time Trial, ETC...) Because my personality finds change refreshing and exciting, it would be awesome to be able to have a bike to suit my current moods. When I see a dirt trail, I wish I could tear it up with a mountain bike or a BMX. When I need speed, a geared bike or my fixed gear. When I cruise Critical Mass, a vintage 3 speed or lowrider bike would be sick!

Just like everything else, bike trends come and go. (Riding fixed gear isn't so cool anymore, geared vintage bikes are back! LOOK OUT!!!) That's all fine and dandy, but it's the freedom you feel when riding a bicycle that doesn't change. And that is what I will always love about my bike!

-Danny

Riding with a racer, A crash, and damn broken spokes again

This past weekend saw some absolutely beautiful weather for riding and what did I go and do? I drank too much on Friday night so my attempt at a 30 mile ride on Saturday was riddled with a throbbing headache and all around soreness. I did make the ride anyways and felt good afterward. My band played the night before and apparently I just needed to get it out...........bad news for training. On to Sunday, I didn't drink too much Saturday and figured I'd get a ride in early afternoon but my buddy Bri who actually races road bikes called me early to do a "short" little ride. I realized that my gearing is not ideal for riding hard and fast..........ugh, we were doing about 22mph the whole time, which is about 4mph faster than what I average........good for the heart, bad for my stamina. 4 miles into what amounted to a 20 mile ride for me a car pulled left in front of us, Bri broke hard left and braked, I did the same only clipped his rear wheel and went down hard.....I bruised my poor little bottom but felt ok..........4 miles later my headache from the day before was back...........ugh, I went as far as I could but had to turn around..........I do believe I'm going to get a road bike as well..........I'm going to do the Aidsride on my fixed gear but I want to haul ass on a road bike too. Oh and yesterday I heard a pop and lost 2 spokes on my rear wheel again.........it's getting too expensive to keep fixing so I think I'm going to look into some new wheels.............damn bikes are expensive!! .........

-Duggy V.

Time to start fundraising

As daunting as the idea of riding all those 545 miles is, the harder part is thinking about Danny and I having to raise 6000 dollars........Ughhh......it is for such a great cause that I don't feel bad, I mean I'm not trying to sell candy bars to fund a trip to basketball camp (not that that's bad either, but I think the concept of the ride and the way it funds aids research is bigger) so I feel like I can really sell it, but again, asking/begging for money is tough. So, I'll be sending out my emails, and working the angles, and hopefully we can concentrate on training and our friends, colleagues, and family will help with the money side of things!

- DUG