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The absence of rear suspension in some form or another is a feature that I must admit is missing on this bike. Even a single pivot without articulating linkage would have been appreciated. I have gotten over it as I don’t notice it as much over the wintry terrain where I normally ride as the roots and rocks that I encounter along the singles are covered in snow or ice and the bigger tires absorb much of the bumps. The Mastadon Pro Fork with its 100mm of travel does a pretty decent job of soaking up any drops and ground chatter. It steers precisely and it or the Rockshox Bluto would make a great addition to most any fat bike. I can only see things changing as more manufacturers begin to catch up and realize that fat bikes are not only being ridden on sand and snow. I could see Trek possibly offering an e-version of their Farley in the not-too-distant future.

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they all seem to be very reluctant to make them. The market is there.
 
I went and gone ride Pearl Harbor Bike Path. Setting on riding the entire length 15 miles and back. But the sky started to turn gray. Weather is unpredictable here on the Island. I chicken out and turned around at the 5 mile marker.
There are many streams that flows into the harbor. I figure it would be an interesting theme for my Sunday ride to photograph my bike on bridges that crosses these streams.
Low tide on south shore of Mc Grew Point. There were lots of oysters free for the taking but not edible there are signs posted saying do not eat shell fish. I may go back for mangoes tho. Tree is freaking loaded this season.
I took a detour and went to Palama Market in Pearl City to buy Korean rice cake and a shot of 8oz Red Bull.
Just chilling now. Drinking Stolichnaya.
Then remove and replace chain on Da Ridiculous Bike.
 

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Destination: Del Mar
On Saturday, rode the Coast Highway south to my Surface 604 dealer in Solana Beach to pick up a new bike battery (bad USB port on the original).

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Kudos to Surface 604 and San Diego Electric Bike (web photo) for making this warranty swap so easy. Now I can replace at least some of the phone charge eaten up by RideWithGPS without stopping.

From Solana Beach, pedaled 3 more miles south to my turn-around in Del Mar, where all subsequent images were taken. Del Mar is the next beach town north from La Jolla. Together, Del Mar and La Jolla claim some of the best beaches and most scenic coastlines in all of SoCal — with the real estate prices to match. Downtown Del Mar adds a seaside village feel to that mix.

20230402_110811.jpg
Doesn't get any more Del Mar than this: On the right, City of Del Mar lifeguard headquarters with standard-issue red Toyota pickup out front. On the left, Poseidon, a fabulous beachside seafood restaurant with badass Lamborghini sportwagon out front.

20230402_111244.jpg

Surf conditions at Del Mar this day. This is an unusually large and fancy lifeguard station, even by SoCal standards. Little oval plaques acknowledge its many wealthy donors.

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Looking south along Poseidon's rear deck with the La Jolla Peninsula in the distance.

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A shot from that same deck in January.

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No problem choosing an entree when forbidden purple rice is on the menu! And just how did Poseidon get hold of forbidden rice? The waitress was forbidden say.

20230402_111836.jpg

Rail isn't the first thing SoCal brings to mind, but the San Luis Obispo-San Diego rail corridor happens to be the second-busiest intercity line in the US. Just around this bend, the Del Mar segment runs smack on the edge of a slowly retreating sea cliff. Result: Fabulous scenery for AmTrak and commuter passengers, colossal headache for regional transportation authorities.

The threatened tracks were closed for repairs and/or reinforcements at least twice in the last year alone. As befitting a place as posh as Del Mar, they'll eventually be moved to billion-dollar tunnels beyond the waves' reach.

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A wave-cut bench a few steps south of Poseidon back in January.

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Two fine parks grace the Del Mar shore — Powerhouse Beach below the tracks on the north side, and Seagrove Park above on the south. Seagove offers views like this one to the northwest. The white signal post marks the failing track.

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Of course, into every charmed life some rain must fall. These zillion-dollar beachfront homes a mile north of Poseidon are still under repair after being pelted by rock-throwing storm waves in January.

Every day, I count my lucky stars for our new home in Carlsbad, 12 miles up the coast. But if Del Mar had been affordable, that's where we'd be — not least for the Del Mar Dog Beach, here seen with Roxie legally off-leash last March...


Off-leash dogs are 11th-degree black belts at being in the moment, and it can't help but rub off on the humans around. Add many dogs eager to play, a shallow sandy bottom many yards out, and waves to splash in at a stunning Del Mar beach, and you have a strong contender for Happiest Place on Earth — at least in our book. The nearest off-leash beaches are at least 30 minutes south and well over an hour north.

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The dog beach straddles the mouth of the San Dieguito River, here hidden just this side of the sea cliffs. Before the rivers draining San Deigo County's west slope were dammed, this was the largest, complete with an impressive gorge carved through hard granite some 20 miles inland. The flow at its mouth, still strong, delivers lots of sand to this and other Del Mar beaches.

Little traffic on the Coast Highway all the way to Del Mar on this beautiful Saturday at 0930 but bumper to bumper much of the way home at 1130. No doubt a taste of what our first tourist season here will be like.
 
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Destination: Del Mar
On Saturday, rode the Coast Highway south to my Surface 604 dealer in Solana Beach to pick up a new bike battery (bad USB port on the original).

View attachment 150953
Kudos to Surface 604 and San Diego Electric Bike (web photo) for making this warranty swap so easy. Now I can replace at least some of the phone charge eaten up by RideWithGPS without stopping.

From Solana Beach, pedaled 3 more miles south to my turn-around in Del Mar, where all subsequent images were taken. Del Mar is the next beach town north from La Jolla. Together, Del Mar and La Jolla claim some of the best beaches and most scenic coastlines in all of SoCal — with the real estate prices to match. Downtown Del Mar adds a seaside village feel to that mix.

View attachment 150949Doesn't get any more Del Mar than this: On the right, City of Del Mar lifeguard headquarters with standard-issue red Toyota pickup out front. On the left, Poseidon, a fabulous beachside seafood restaurant with badass Lamborghini sportwagon out front.

View attachment 150950
Surf conditions at Del Mar this day. This is an unusually large and fancy lifeguard station, even by SoCal standards. Little oval plaques acknowledge its many wealthy donors.

View attachment 150952Looking south along Poseidon's rear deck with the La Jolla Peninsula in the distance.

View attachment 150957
A shot from that same deck in January.

View attachment 150958No problem choosing an entree when forbidden purple rice is on the menu! And just how did Poseidon get hold of forbidden rice? The waitress was forbidden say.

View attachment 150948
Rail isn't the first thing SoCal brings to mind, but the San Luis Obispo-San Diego rail corridor happens to be the second-busiest intercity line in the US. Just around this bend, the Del Mar segment runs smack on the edge of a slowly retreating sea cliff. Result: Fabulous scenery for AmTrak and commuter passengers, colossal headache for regional transportation authorities.

The threatened tracks were closed for repairs and/or reinforcements at least twice in the last year alone. As befitting a place as posh as Del Mar, they'll eventually be moved to billion-dollar tunnels beyond the waves' reach.

View attachment 150966
A wave-cut bench a few steps south of Poseidon back in January.

View attachment 150959
Two fine parks grace the Del Mar shore — Powerhouse Beach below the tracks on the north side, and Seagrove Park above on the south. Seagove offers views like this one to the northwest. The white signal post marks the failing track.

View attachment 150964
Of course, into every charmed life some rain must fall. These zillion-dollar beachfront homes a mile north of Poseidon are still under repair after being pelted by rock-throwing storm waves in January.

Every day, I count my lucky stars for our new home in Carlsbad, 12 miles up the coast. But if Del Mar had been affordable, that's where we'd be — not least for the Del Mar Dog Beach, here seen with Roxie legally off-leash last March...


Off-leash dogs are 11th-degree black belts at being in the moment, and it can't help but rub off on the humans around. Add many dogs eager to play, a shallow sandy bottom many yards out, and waves to splash in at a stunning Del Mar beach, and you have a strong contender for Happiest Place on Earth — at least in our book. The nearest off-leash beaches are at least 30 minutes south and well over an hour north.

View attachment 150965
The dog beach straddles the mouth of the San Dieguito River, here hidden just this side of the sea cliffs. Before the rivers draining San Deigo County's west slope were dammed, this was the largest, complete with an impressive gorge carved through hard granite some 20 miles inland. The flow at its mouth, still strong, delivers lots of sand to this and other Del Mar beaches.

Little traffic on the Coast Highway all the way to Del Mar on this beautiful Saturday at 0930 but bumper to bumper much of the way home at 1130. No doubt a taste of what our first tourist season here will be like.
Looks like a fantastic day to be at the beach whether you’re watching other strollers from above or surfer dudes doing their thing. 🤟Life is good.
 
I popped out for another ride this morning and despite the cold and eerie fog conditions the four trails that I took on were in surprisingly good shape. No audio soundtrack on the video other than the noise of the wind and those tenacious studs as they chattered away along the ice and hard pack. Music to my ears! :cool:


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Started out riding this skinny along the Garden Heights single. I’ve never had much success with TTFs in the past but on this occasion, I came out clean.

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A temperature of -14C wind chill certainly helped speed things along and at no time did I have to deal with soft, slushy snow. Even many of the bare, patchy sections were frozen solid which kept me and the Wookie relatively spotless.

It was clear that the recent warm weather has made an impact on the ever-dwindling snow pack along the trails. With temperatures forecasted to rise to +14C by the weekend, there will be little left behind if any. It might be good opportunity to finally hit the road after a long five + months of winter. 👍

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A couple of precipitous descents made things a bit more interesting and kept me on my toes.

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Closer to the end of my ride along the Heritage Ranch single, the skies finally cleared as the sun burned off what remained of the fog.

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Looks like a fantastic day to be at the beach whether you’re watching other strollers from above or surfer dudes doing their thing. 🤟Life is good.
No shortage of things to watch at the beach, but my faves are the waves themselves.

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The science is fascinating — lots of counterintuitive things going on out there. But I've also been talking to surfers coming off the beach to learn to see the waves through their eyes. Life is good.
 
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San Juan Islands known for Orcas or Great Whites?
You will sometimes see Orcas in the neighborhood, true.

But to clarify something that is a pet peeve, from the Wikipedia article on Orcas Island:

The name "Orcas" is a shortened form of Horcasitas, from Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo, the Viceroy of New Spain who sent an exploration expedition under Francisco de Eliza to the Pacific Northwest in 1791. During the voyage, Eliza explored part of the San Juan Islands. He did not apply the name Orcas specifically to Orcas Island, but rather to part of the archipelago. In 1847, Henry Kellett assigned the name to Orcas Island during his reorganization of the British Admiralty charts. Kellett's work eliminated the patriotically American names that Charles Wilkes had given to many features of the San Juans during the Wilkes Expedition of 1838–1842. ... The similarity to the name of the orca, which is popularly associated with coastal Washington state, is coincidental.
 
I took this pic a couple of weeks ago to illustrate why I put knobby tires on this bike and leave them on year round. This is an urban path believe it or not, and this is the route between me and several essential stores (Costco and Home Depot in particular). Wind happens year round here and the only bike path from A to B can get completely submerged. This was only about 6 inches of sand... a bit further on the drifts went as high as 10-12 feet and essentially erased the path and covered part of the roadway. Thats all pavement 12 feet wide behind me.

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Today I found they finally had moved those sand dunes back away from the path which was now re-opened. So, noticing the parasails were out in force, I detoured over and did a little overland travel to the edge of a bluff, where they do their turnaround and pass over you only maybe 20-30 feet overhead.

One of them had a passenger and the gal shouted down to me "come fly with us!". I told her I had room on the bike so come on down and lets go for a ride. There are six of them in the photo if you zoom in and look really closely.

Pretty sure she just wanted me to rent her passenger seat for a ride.

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Things got off to a sluggish start this spring but we’re also beginning to experience some warmer temperatures that we’re more accustomed to seeing. Still, a slower snow melt means that we might put on an extra layer before heading out on one of our daily training rides especially when the wind picks up and blows cold air off of the open fields. My better half doesn’t appear to feel the effects of the crisp air and couldn’t be bothered with leg warmers on this particular day. There is also plenty of winter gravel along the side of the road but nothing to get too worked up about. For me, it’s a nice transition from riding trails all winter long.


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Things got off to a sluggish start this spring but we’re also beginning to experience some warmer temperatures that we’re more accustomed to seeing. Still, a slower snow melt means that we might put on an extra layer before heading out on one of our daily training rides especially when the wind picks up and blows cold air off of the open fields. My better half doesn’t appear to feel the effects of the crisp air and couldn’t be bothered with leg warmers on this particular day. There is also plenty of winter gravel along the side of the road but nothing to get too worked up about. For me, it’s a nice transition from riding trails all winter long.


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Its strange seeing you on the road bike again, hopefully many more tarmac rides to come soon 👍 It looked amazing with the snow and dry tarmac, no doubt it was rather chilly but your wife is made of strong stuff! ;)
 
Finally topping 60 degrees today! Nice 30 mile ride up and around Saratoga Lake and back down a nearby bike path on the Creo. Supposed to get a little warmer every day this week, I should be able to pile on a few miles.

Approaching Saratoga Lake at the bottom of the hill, peeking through the trees:

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Not the worst view in the world:

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Finally getting around to actually paying attention to the data on the Specialized Ride app. 985 feet elevation, 75% motor off, 20% Eco, 5% Sport, only 21% of the battery used. The Creo is such a nice bike to just ride by itself!
 
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Its strange seeing you on the road bike again, hopefully many more tarmac rides to come soon 👍 It looked amazing with the snow and dry tarmac, no doubt it was rather chilly but your wife is made of strong stuff! ;)
Believe me, it's soo nice to be back on the road again after 5+ months even though I did rather enjoy my time on the wintry trails. Temperature yesterday was a cool 6C with a 19km wind blowing in from the SE. Today felt even colder without any help from overcast skies which obliterates the warmth given off from the sun's rays.
Finally topping 60 degrees today! Nice 30 mile ride up and around Saratoga Lake and back down a nearby bike path on the Creo. Supposed to get a little warmer every day this week, I should be able to pile on a few miles.
Looked like a gorgeous day to be out for a ride around the lake, Dave. I'm envious of your surroundings. Actually, those sentiments go out to anyone who rides where it's relatively warm and green. :)
 
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