tsl

It was a dream come true.

I always wanted to be able to jump on with a fast group that I happened upon. Tonight I got my chance.

And not in the way you might think.

Now, nobody I know or ride with regularly disses me and the Portland. They know I’m a serious rider and the Portland is my main ride.

But I also know that, while it’s my dream bike, to most roadies, it screams FRED! I mean there’s the rack, fenders, 28mm tires, frame pump, relaxed front geometry, the disk brakes, oh, and all the lights and that big-@$$ reflector on the back.

But I’ve been working on the engine, you know? So it’s sort of a sleeper. Even when I’m in a jersey and bike shorts. Of course, my helmet sort of gives it away if you know what you’re looking at.

It was a beautiful night coming home from work tonight. A little more than an hour to sunset and I’m heading into it as I roll up to a Y intersection. I have the red, so I unclip and stop. Looked to the left, down the other branch of the Y, and here come a bunch of roadies.

I let the first three pass, and pulled out into a hundred yard gap before the next one. I spun it up to between 95 and 100 RPM and worked my way up through the gears. Next thing I knew, my speed was in the lower 20s and I was gaining on them.

Just as I was drawing up to them, I heard a car coming up behind me. I called out, “Car back!” The third guy in line did a shoulder-check, spotted me and hammered off to the front of the group. The light changed ahead and we all rolled to a stop.

“Hey,” I called out. “Where you guys coming from?”

“South wedge”, replied the chick who was now in third position. “We’re looping on back now.”

“Great night for it,” I said. “Just on the way home from work myself.”

And with that the three of them blew the red light. I rolled up to the crosswalk and engaged the rider behind me in small talk.

The light changed, I clipped-in, spun it up to 95 or so and snick, snick, snick, worked my way through the gears again. In the mid-20s now, I gained on the light jumpers pretty quickly. And I while I was working it, I wasn’t WORKING it, you know? (Average heart rate for the entire ride was 136 BPM, maximum heart rate was 159 BPM. I never went anaerobic.)

But they made it through the next light just as it turned yellow. I had to turn anyway, so I let them go. As I made my right on red, the guy behind me huffed up to a stop.

“Keep the rubber side down!” I called to him, waving.

Oh, I guess I forgot the best part.

My Tailrider trunk bag was bulging full of work clothes and library books, and my grocery panniers were bulging with 24¾ pounds of groceries. (Top round roasts were on sale! I bought two.) Yes, I added it up at home, although I didn't weigh the library books.

Oh the humiliation to be caught by a old Fred hauling home the groceries…

DnvrFox

Was the 10 year old girl the oldest?

Good stuff!

tsl

Boy, I'm glad you edited that post DF. I felt ready to smack you as it was originally written.

DnvrFox

My pleasure.

tsl

I suppose I should explain my reaction.

Around here hardly a week goes by that they don't nail some ******* on pedophilia charges. Even in jest, the mention that one chases little girls is enough to launch a police investigation. My job at the library involves working with kids. That sort of thing would get me put on leave without pay for the duration of the investigation. Around here, no one jokes about such things.

I know what you meant--that I couldn't catch an adult on a bike. But it could easily be read differently.

cranky old dude

Seems like in every city there's some old commuter guy out there picking
on poor hapless roadies. Aren't you glad it was you?

doctor j

Well, this sounds like a good thing. The roadies were able to have pie during their ride... a dose of humble pie! Well done.

bikerwannabe

Great story

Since I can probably only ride 20 mph for about 2 minutes, I doubt I'll ever have a story to match this one.

JetWave

Thanks for sharing, good story

The Smokester

Way to go, tsl.

ScrubJ

Great story! Just have to throw down from time to time : )

JanMM

Maybe if you'd been carrying a 40-lb. bag of water softener salt, you coulda caught those guys and made the stoplights and passed them. Sounds like you go faster with a load.

Metric Man

Perhaps you should have reached in and showed one of the roasts to the lady, mentioning they were on sale.

tsl

Oh jeeze. First DF has me chasing little girls, now you're suggesting I show my beef to women in the street.

What is it with you people out west?

tsl

Until a couple of months ago, I couldn't either. I'm not sure what happened or how, but the past six or eight weeks I've just taken off.

Metric Man

Seems kinda normal around here...after all, I do ride in the Palm Springs area on occasion.

BengeBoy 

Tsl, good story.

Louis

Next step is to buy one of those big front freezer ice cream trikes. I can see it now, tsl passing roadies on a big climb with "Pop Goes the Weasel" playing on the music box.

But seriously, way to go tsl.

donheff

Great story. Thank God the groceries didn't spill out on a bump. That would have spoiled the whole thing - or would it?

Metric Man

Now that's funny!

Floyd

Would a been good to be a 'little birdie' and listen in on their conversation...that is if they even considered conversing about this fast Fred..............

cllvt

That is a dream come true! Great story, thanks for sharing with us. I really enjoyed it.

Pardon my ignorance tsl, but what is a "Portland"?

I remember (many) years ago when I rode the hills around town a lot. I was out on my old bike with my son in a child seat on the back. I took a ride by the lake, then headed up the hill. As I pedaled up the hill with my son in seated position, I rode past a biker on a shiny sleek bike, dressed in tune with the racers of the time, standing and pedaling to beat the band. I sort felt bad passing him, but felt pretty good at the same time. Wish I still had the power on the hills!

Yen

Great job, and a great story well-told.

Terrierman

You're right, that **** ain't funny.

Mojo Slim

I love it. Makes me want to put fenders on my OCR.