Mono Pass south - 9/2006
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LKHC: Low-Key Party, December 9, 2014 - A remarkably small group of intrepid souls found their way to the rearmost corner of Sports Basement to attend the Low-Key Party, marking the end of the Low-Key Hill Climb season for 2014. Those of us in attendance enjoyed catching up, seeing old friends, nibbling on snacks, previewing next year's climbs, voting on next year's slogan, and watching Dan Connelly's wrap-up presentation. See you all next year.
| GPS track: | GPX |
|---|---|
| Bike Ridden: | Power Gold Rush |
| Distance: | 68.1 miles |
| Cumulative climbing: | 5370 feet |
| Total Time: | 6:00:35 |
| Riding Time: | 3:24:38 |
| Avg. Speed (moving): | 19.9 mph |
| Max. Speed: | 41.5 mph |
| Nominal System Voltage: | 24 |
| Battery energy capacity: | 1200 wh |
| Battery energy consumed: | 1077 wh |
| Wh/mi: | 15.8 |
| Battery Amps-Hour Used: | 43.1 |
| Peak Current: | 44.7 Amps |
| Motor energy to rear wheel: | 754 wh |
| Human energy to rear wheel: | ? wh |
| Total energy delivered: | ? wh |
| LKHC: | Results |
LKHC: Mount Hamilton, November 27, 2014 - My legs and feet were still a bit tired after last Saturday's hike in the Marin Headlands, but as I warmed up on the ride from home to Alum Rock Avenue and Mount Hamilton Road, my body loosened up. By the time I arrived at the busy start area I felt warmed up.
The weather promised to be sunny and dry in the morning and overcast but still dry in the afternoon in anticipation of the next series of weather fronts predicted to pass through the area over the following week. What we got was a cool clear morning followed by warming into the low-70's F by the time we reached the top of the Mountain some 4000 feet higher. No one complained about the weather.
My strategy on the climb today was to pedal as hard as I could for close to an hour and to keep the motor saturated at the software-limited 1000 watts input (which yields 750 watts output). I figured my body might be capable of averaging 250 watts on the climbs, giving 1000 watts total at the rear wheel. I was using new batteries this year that weigh about 2/3 that of my old set and held about 30% more energy. Lastly, warm dry weather over the last few days gave the roads good grip. I had a chance to set a personal record without using more power.
But, to do that I'd need to use the lowest gear that saturated the motor while managing the bike, cornering as fast as I dared so I could maintain as much speed as possible, and using my horn (set to its most polite "beep-beep" sound) to shoo other cyclists in conversation mode into single file so that I wouldn't be delayed or tempted to cross the double-yellow line to get by.
My typical cruising speed on the climbing portions was around 20mph, a little faster than that on the less steep first and second climbs, and a little slower on the final third climb. Some time was lost getting around several hairpin curves and one curve on the third climb sprinkled with sharp rocks.
The descents were faster, and a few spots required some caution. One left curve on the first descent where much of the gravel has worn off of the tar and gravel coating, a right curve early on the second descent that has a history of collecting rock fall, and the left curve, "Nils's Curve", before the Smith Creek Bridge that is stickier now that it has been resurfaced with new asphalt were the three that I recall. Although this is still mostly a climb, my mind was more often than not in descending mode that requires more mental attention to choosing the fastest line.
The climb went quickly and without incident other than my horn failing† just before I made the final right turn to head up the driveway to the summit parking lot. After I got to the top I rested a bit and talked with Jim Kern who had ridden up earlier. Other cyclists rested in the warm sun and kept watch below for the rest of the Low-Key bunch.
This year I decided not to take photos at the nose of the mountain as I had done in prior years. While the light was good there, the cross-hatch pattern painted on the retaining wall was a distracting and ugly background. I considered a spot further down the driveway just past the end of the retaining wall. My idea was to have a clear view while sitting on the ground as subjects look best against a non-distracting background such as the sky. There was a nice spot with good light, but I'd need to stand or at least to sit on a chair to get more than the opposite guardrail in the background.
Since there was no other photographer to assume a position at the finish line, and as I knew that photos would be needed to verify finish times, I rode back up to the finish line and got comfortable on the ground across from the finish line crew where I knew that other than being back-lit the subjects would have a nice background, even if I sat on the ground.
Experimenting with exposure compensation demonstrated that the best compromise to retain a decent background exposure with some blue sky and not to get too much noise in the subjects after compensating was +1.3 EV. I'd still need to tweak the images in post-processing, but the final product could work without using a flash.
I regret not getting a good photo of Chris Evans who finished first. Many other cyclists were climbing the Mountain that day, and just as Chris approached the finish line, one such cyclist was just ahead of him and managed to eclipse him over most of the final distance. A few others did not get good photos for this same reason. I also regret not getting photos of a few late finishers.
One problem I observed that I will have to remember for the next time is that cyclists most often looked at the timing crew and away from the camera as they crossed the line. This is understandable since they want the timing crew to hear their numbers being shouted. I'm thinking that an assistant in a clown's suit or similar ridiculous costume or an Air Dancer that roadside businesses use to attract attention might help. Or, maybe I should just sit amidst the timing crew.
Although I descended after the bulk of the crowd had left the summit, I quickly caught up to other descending cyclists on the twisting road. Since visibility is poor and opportunities to pass without using power are few—gravity gets me going fast enough on the descents—I waited a respectable distance behind so that slower cyclists ahead would not feel intimidated until I could pass safely. As it is less mentally-taxing to follow someone on a descent than to lead, I did not mind the opportunity to relax a bit and enjoy the ride. But, following slower cyclists meant dragging my brakes, and since my brakes sometimes screech, it is hard sometimes not to startle others I approach from behind. (Sorry, Dan!)
†The horn still made a soft buzzing, so I thought the batteries had just run down. But upon testing them I found that they held almost a full charge. When I disassembled the horn, a bunch of loose parts fell out, including the main diaphragm that had come unglued. The cheap device was apparently not built to withstand much vibration.
| GPS track: | GPX |
|---|---|
| Distance: | 9.6 miles |
| Cumulative climbing: | 2050 feet |
| Total Time: | 3:24:42 |
| Walking Time: | 2:50:31 |
| LKHC: | Results |
LKHC: Miwok and Marincello, November 22, 2014 - Due to the changing weather it was not until earlier that morning that Frank Paysen and I arranged to carpool from the south bay to Marin to participate in the penultimate Low-Key event of the year, the self-timed climbs of Miwok and Marincello Trails in the Marin Headlands.
While roads were mostly dry on the way up to Marin, we did get sprinkled on a few times. But it was not enough to keep us indoors.
We agreed to start at the Rodeo Beach parking area for several reasons, one of which was that it allowed both of us a reasonable warm-up before starting the climb up Miwok, and because it would encourage me to complete a figure-8 loop that had me finishing on the dramatic Coastal Trail, provided that Frank would not be kept waiting for too long after his ride.
After setting up our radios (so that we could keep in touch while separated) and our equipment, we were off, I on foot, and Frank on his cross bike. The walk from Rodeo Beach to the base of Miwok would be sufficient warm-up for me. Frank wanted more than that, so he climbed Bobcat Trail to its junction with Marincello as a warm-up. Near the top he encountered Dan Connelly riding the opposite direction who shouted, "You're going the wrong way!", apparently unaware that Frank was still warming up.
Meanwhile I had started up Miwok.
For several days prior (and several days hence) I had a seized muscle in my upper back that made carrying a pack and using walking sticks sharply painful at times. My muscles loosened up somewhat with the warm-up, but I would still get a twinge with each step. I wondered if the pain would worsen if I continued. It didn't.
I encountered a few Low-Key'ers descending Miwok and one who zipped past me uphill who bore a resemblance to David Collet.
One guy on a mountain bike was climbing only slightly faster than I was walking. I figured he wasn't riding for time.
I continued over the ridge and down Old Spring Trail, encountering only a couple of joggers and a couple of mountain bikers near the stables at the bottom who were not doing the Low-Key event.
After exiting the stables area I continued up Marincello with minimal delay, stopping only to tighten the laces on my shoes.
My idea was to hike these fast, lengthening my stride (preferably) and/or shortening my period (less-preferred) as necessary to saturate my aerobic ability. The grade up Marincello was just steep enough that I could get close to my anaerobic threshold without breaking into a running gait. The grade up Miwok varied more, and at times the grade was too shallow to make use of my aerobic capacity while walking.
Although I saw a couple of mountain bikers and hikers descending Marincello, no one passed me going uphill. In fact since being passed by someone who looked like David Collet I hadn't been passed by any Low-Key'ers on bikes or foot. I had expected to see Frank by now, but I had been unable to raise him by radio the last couple times I checked. We were probably on opposite sides of a ridge, so I didn't worry too much.
At the top of Marincello I waited for several minutes, and tried to call Frank again. No answer. I decided to continue up Bobcat Trail to the top of Peak 1041, the high point of the day. Unfortunately, this part of Bobcat Trail is closed to bikes, so Frank would not be able to follow me. On the other hand, climbing to or near the top of a Peak would give me good radio coverage to raise Frank, wherever he might be.
For the first quarter mile up from Marincello, Bobcat Trail climbs along a bluff just above the upper reach of Marincello. From here I could see some distance down Marincello, and while stopped I noticed figures moving quickly uphill on Marincello.
"Perhaps it was Frank or other Low-Key'ers,", I thought.
I waited until they drew closer, then snapped a few photos as they rode by below. Paul McKenzie, Bruce Gardner, Sarah Schroer, Amy Cameron, Dan Connelly, Jennie Phillips and Gary Gellin each rode past, but no Frank. A large group was gathering at the top of Marincello.
I thought of walking back down the hill to meet them, but then I considered that doing so would reduce the likelihood of my having time to complete my planned figure-8 loop along the Coastal Trail without making Frank wait too long at the car. After several more came by below and after seeing that there were no more about to arrive, I continued up Bobcat Trail to the summit, catching a glimpse of a well-fed coyote along the way.
When I reached the top my radio crackled to life. Frank had just finished descending the Old Springs Trail and was about to start up Marincello. He wanted to meet me at the top of Marincello so I could photograph him, but I told him I was already beyond that point. I suggested that we might get a better photo of him on the Coastal Trail, and that I might have time to meet him there without his having to wait too long if I continued without delay. He agreed.
I descended from Peak 1041 and was just starting on Wolf Ridge Trail when my radio crackled to life again. Frank had reached the top of Marincello. No Low-Key'ers were there—they must have descended already. Frank would descend to the car and meet me at the bottom of the Coastal Trail.
When I reached the top of Hill 88 I radioed Frank again. He had already arrived at the car and hoped I would descend before the sun set. I suggested he ride part way up the Coastal Trail that is mostly an old paved road to old military installations and bunkers on the hills.
I started down the Coastal Trail, walking as quickly as my legs allowed.
Along the way I saw children taking turns shadow-boxing atop one of the peaks in silhouette. At first I wasn't sure if I was seeing a human figure, a sign post, or another monument. But, then the figure moved and jumped.
I met Frank about 1/3 of the way up from Rodeo Beach. It was a fitting scene for the end of our day at the Headlands. Afterward we descended and then joined the heavy motor traffic back to the south bay.
| GPS track: | GPX |
|---|---|
| Bike Ridden: | Power Gold Rush |
| Distance: | 91.6 miles |
| Cumulative climbing: | 1900 feet |
| Total Time: | 8:19:54 |
| Riding Time: | 5:32:51 |
| Avg. Speed (moving): | 16.5 mph |
| Max. Speed: | 50.7 mph |
| Nominal System Voltage: | 24 |
| Battery energy capacity: | 1200 wh |
| Battery energy consumed: | 911 wh |
| Wh/mi: | 9.9 |
| Battery Amps-Hour Used: | 35.0 |
| Peak Current: | 42.7 Amps |
| Motor energy to rear wheel: | 637 wh |
| Human energy to rear wheel: | 276 wh |
| Total energy delivered: | 913 wh |
| LKHC: | Results |
LKHC: San Bruno Mountain, November 15, 2014 - Not having ridden the last three hill climbs, I decided to give this one a try. San Bruno Mountain is a short climb, and a good score requires an intense effort.
As a warm-up I would ride from home, about 35 miles from the start, by the most direct route: El Camino Real. Since I would be leaving home at 0700 on a Saturday morning I did not expect to run into too much traffic.
The last time I rode a similar route was in 2012 when I rode up Mount Tamalpais from home. On that occasion I had ridden El Camino as far as San Mateo Avenue, then headed east of San Bruno Mountain on Bayshore Blvd. and Third Street into San Francisco. The last time I had ridden El Camino Real all the way to San Francisco was in 2001 when as I recall it took Ron Bobb and me exactly two hours to ride from south Palo Alto to Mission and Beale. I expected the trip to take about as long today from Sunnyvale to Daly City.
As I rode north on El Camino Real, I could smell breakfast cooking in several spots: fried eggs, bacon, and hash browns in Redwood City and San Carlos, a strong whiff of devil's food cake in Burlingame, and as I arrived in Daly City, fried steak.
In Daly City I kept my eye open for East Market Street, but I did not see the sign. Had I checked a map before I left home I might have realized it was the multi-way intersection at the bottom of the climb up the hill to the county line. But, I pressed on up the hill until I reached John Daly Blvd. before I realized I had gone too far.
I turned right onto Hillside Road and descended back through Daly City until I reached East Market Street. Then I turned left and arrived shortly at Price Street and the gathering area for the climb.
There was some concern that the gate at Guadalupe Parkway and Radio Road would be closed, requiring a portage over a high guard rail or riding the long-way around past the entrance kiosk. I would not know this until Peter Chang arrived at the gate to check and then signal me as I approached whether I could turn right and pass through an open gate or would have to turn left and ride past the entrance kiosk. The guard rail was too high to be quickly negotiated without either my banging my shins or throwing out my back.
Also, since the climb was short I would need to make sure I used available power as efficiently as possible and to push myself a little harder than normal. As I had already used some battery energy on my ride from home I was no longer working from a fresh battery. My maximum power pedaling RPM would be higher than the motor's maximum power RPM at the crank. To realign these power peaks I would have to use the "turbo" mode (what I have been led to believe is 100% duty cycle, or close to it) on the controller to keep the motor spinning faster at its power peak. The problem with "turbo" mode is that the motor runs unstably at a partial throttle setting. To observe the 1000 watts input power limit, the computer-controlled throttle would at times be at some intermediate level. There was some risk that the controller would shut down after running in this mode for more than a few minutes. As it turns out, the controller ran continuously if a bit roughly at times. I expect that my efficiency suffered a bit.
As I approached Peter standing at the gate he signaled that the gate was open. So, I made a sweeping right turn across the threshold and onto the short crossover to Radio Road, checking for conflicting traffic from the usual direction as best I could. After I crossed the metal plate at the top of the climb, I turned around and proceeded downhill a quarter mile to a spot that looked suitable for taking photos. The spot offered a view of the Pacific Ocean, the Marin Headlands, Mount Tamalpais as well as views of San Francisco, including Sutro Tower, downtown, and the Bay. The latter would be obscured if I sat on the ground.
As in other weeks I shot in continuous mode while panning with the subject, then chose what I felt was the best frame for each subject. I again used Aperture-Priority mode with the lens wide open. On a few I used two frames, usually a distant zoomed shot with Mount Tamalpais in the background, then a closer, more detailed shot at a wider zoom. This was easier to do with slower subjects that gave me time to re-adjust zoom and re-frame.
To get a clearer view of the background I used the polarized filter. Unlike last week on Mount Umunhum, this week the undeveloped photos appeared washed out, the shadows harsh, color shifted ever so slightly (and unpleasingly to my eye) to a warmer temperature and greener tint, and consistently underexposed -0.7 to -1.0 EV, even though the camera setting was unbiased. Still trying to figure that out. Fortunately, I was able to compensate when developing.
After the climb I descended the east side of Guadalupe Parkway and rode with Ammon and Adela Skidmore as they showed me the reach of the Bay Trail in South San Francisco that I had never ridden before. Once we parted company, I continued south past SFO on McDonnell Drive, stopped to do a little plane-spotting from in front of the Airport Marriott where I shared the trail with several dozen others who appeared to be doing the same thing. I watched until the queues of planes awaiting takeoff and landing had exhausted themselves, then I returned to Old Bayshore Highway and Airport Road, seeing up-close a part of the Bay Area most familiar to overnight tourists, until I got to Coyote Point. I took the mostly Bay Trail route the rest of the way south to Stevens Creek Trail, getting lost briefly a couple of times in San Carlos and Redwood City before returning to city streets for good once I got to Evelyn Avenue.
It was an interesting day, but I was unexpectedly sleepy-tired by the time I got home, even if the numbers did not confirm a difficult day on the bike.
| LKHC: | Information |
|---|---|
| LKHC: | Results |
LKHC: Mount Umunhum, November 8, 2014 - Although I had wanted to ride the event today, I recognized that Will's difficult job as coordinator and permit-holder for the event would be more likely to go easier, raise fewer eyebrows, and form fewer frowns on the faces of those looking for a reason to deny future similar events by not having my bike added to the mix. I thought it best to keep this first permitted bicycle event on MROSD land as vanilla as possible.
An advantage of not participating was that I'd be able to take photos from the spot along the road that offers the best view of Mount Umunhum, a spot that is a conveniently short walk below the newly opened Bald Mountain parking lot that would have been too far down the road from the finish line for me to get to in time to catch the fast guys, had I been a participant.
While I was checking different spots and taking practice photos, an old man came hobbling down the road with a camera and folding chair. It wasn't until he got closer that I realized this "old man" was Mark King. He had strained a tendon in a knee during a foot race recently at Mount Diablo and was shuffling with a stiff leg.
After chatting with me for a few minutes Mark continued down the road a short distance around the next corner (so that he wouldn't appear in my photos) and set up camp.
For this set I adjusted the camera for wide open lens, tracking focus, continuous shooting, -0.3EV compensation, zoom usually between 40-50mm, and I slapped on the polarized/UV filter.
While the light was generally good, it turns out that the shots would have been exposed just right without any compensation. The polarizer had the effect of turning up the "vibrance" in Lightroom as well as clearing up most of the haze from scatter. The former I can do during post-processing, but cutting through the haze after the fact is harder.
While viewing the frames at home I saw that I had picked the best spot for photographing The Mountain, but the cyclists' images were small. At first I was disappointed. But, then I saw that while these photos did not show faces in detail, they showed the event in context. Facial recognition was still possible and even an occasional strand of spittle.
I tried not to over-process the photos this week. Radial filters were used on the cyclists themselves to bring out detail, and exposure was increased slightly on most frames. I did not add much vibrance as the polarizer gave enough of that effect. In fact, the background appeared to me a bit too lush in many of the images.
I experimented on a few frames by reducing saturation on all but the cyclists. The effect was interesting, but overall I preferred having a bit too much background saturation to not enough. I especially missed the deep blue sky of a clear day. Besides that it was extra work to un-saturate the background of each image. I tried an unsaturated background with a deep blue sky, but that looked artificial, especially at the land to sky transition.
Each participant and a few non-registrants were captured in at least one frame. Because I was situated far from the finish line, arrivals were more frequent than usual. More than once my camera's buffer filled up (or processor became overloaded) before I was finished taking a sequence of shots. After snapping some 12-15 frames, the camera went from one frame per 0.8 seconds to about one frame per 1.5 seconds. It doesn't sound like much difference, but that made capturing the best angle for each cyclist more difficult. A few participants were captured in only one frame.
Since I was over a mile from the finish line, identifying everyone by name took a bit more detective work than usual. I used Rich Hill's finish line photos--it would have been slightly easier if Picassa showed capture time to the second--related to the Results list to identify cyclists in my images. A few I could only identify by looking through my sets from previous weeks for the same bike, helmet, jersey, or even water bottles. One guy, second in this photo, had shaved his beard since my previous photo of him, but the combination of bike, jersey, water bottle, and neon frame glasses was the giveaway!
In the end I was happy with the results. As always I could tweak more here and there, but there is a point of diminishing returns.
| LKHC: | Information |
|---|---|
| LKHC: | Results |
LKHC: Calaveras-Felter, November 1, 2014 - I'll admit to being a rain wimp, at least when it comes to leaving a nice, warm and dry house and venturing outside while it's raining and to then be wet from the get-go. So it was while I prepared to leave home when I observed a steady rain falling from the sky.
Having missed the Berkeley Hills event last weekend for similar reasons (adding that I'd have had a long drive on I-880 on during the first rain of the season), I didn't want to miss another weekend. Although I wasn't eager to ride the climb on the clock where there was significant downhill and wet roads, I figured that the wet weather might offer some interesting photo possibilities.
So, rationalizing that I needed to drive my van at least once every two weeks to keep the seals sealed, I drove myself to the meeting area for the climb then up the climb itself, looking for a good spot to set up camp. By the time I was on the climb the rain had stopped. At least I wouldn't be sitting for an hour or more in a cold rain.
I found a spot near the top of the final 10% up-grade about 0.5km from the finish line. Although trees blocked the view of a low Calaveras Reservoir, the spot I settled on did offer a distant view of Sunol Valley and the McGuire Peaks in Sunol Regional Park. I had a decent view of Felter Road looking downhill, so I could see when cyclists were approaching. And, the telephone and power lines were on my side of the road and were for the most part not in the view I was trying to capture.
There being not many places to park along this section of Felter Road, I almost made the same mistake as on Welch Creek Road by parking across the road near a gate, a gate that formed the background on many photos. Fortunately, I had enough time to make a U-turn and park further uphill out of camera range, then walk down to my chosen spot. All of these things to consider! Next time I drive in the car to a photo shoot I'll bring a small stool so that I don't have to get my bum wet sitting on the ground.
With an overcast sky I expected few harsh shadows. Yet, even as I started I was aware that I would be photographing cyclists against a relatively bright if cloudy sky. I started with a +0.3 EV exposure compensation but moved in later photos to +0.7 EV. In hindsight I probably should have used +1.0 or +1.3 EV to minimize noise on the riders' faces, although with greater compensation I might have lost too much cloud detail. It was impossible to evaluate this on my tiny camera view screen, so I had to make my best guess.
I started with a shutter speed of 1/125 second. This gave a pleasingly blurred background as I panned with the cyclists as they passed, but it made for overly "soft" focus on the them due to tracking error and relied to much on cooperation from each cyclist to minimize secondary motion, bobbing heads and/or torsos. I steadily increased the shutter speed to 1/320 second where I was able to get more consistently good focus and still get a hint of background blur.
At the same time I wanted to try to get a view of cyclists climbing the steep road with a foreshortened background, pulling Sunol Valley closer. That required zooming the lens. Then I needed to un-zoom the lens to capture the cyclists as they passed closely. It was all I could do to manipulate the camera zoom in time to get the shots, leaving no time for further adjustments. During a lull I managed to program a new preset on my camera that used aperture priority with the lens wide open. This would give me minimal noise for both the zoomed and un-zoomed shots, and make for crisp images on the close pass. All I needed to do, then, was to manipulate the zoom between the distant shot and the near shot.
For each rider I took from three to fifteen frames, shooting in continuous mode, about one frame per second while keeping the camera aimed at the moving subject, then using the best one or two from those sets. Although some frames turned out better than others, I captured at least one of everyone in the event.
Getting all the photos edited and developed required a bit of work in Lightroom. In all cases I made liberal use of radial filters as a virtual flash, taking care as best I could to avoid tell-tale artifacts such as halos or added noise. The disconcerting multi-angle spotlight effect is in some cases difficult to avoid, although if I had more time I might be able to create the illusion of one light source instead of multiple apparent light sources.
Modest noise reduction was used on most photos to remove "freckles", visible grain on faces. And on a few mild color fringing required some manual intervention. The results are good enough for web display, but pixel-peepers could find flaws. There is more tinkering I could do, but there is a limit to the time I want to spend on the project.
| GPS track: | GPX |
|---|---|
| Bike Ridden: | Power Gold Rush |
| Distance: | 71.8 miles |
| Cumulative climbing: | 3780 feet |
| Total Time: | 5:00:23 |
| Riding Time: | 3:31:31 |
| Avg. Speed (moving): | 20.3 mph |
| Max. Speed: | 47.2 mph |
| Nominal System Voltage: | 24 |
| Battery energy capacity: | 1200 wh |
| Battery energy consumed: | 1078 wh |
| Wh/mi: | 15.0 |
| Battery Amps-Hour Used: | 42.3 |
| Peak Current: | 45.1 Amps |
| Motor energy to rear wheel: | 754 wh |
| Human energy to rear wheel: | 222 wh† |
| Total energy delivered: | 976 wh† |
| LKHC: | Results |
LKHC: Welch Creek, October 18, 2014 - I decided to make a day, actually half-day, of it by riding from home to participate in the Low-Key Hill Climb up Welch Creek Road. My ride to the start went smoothly, although it took me almost 2 hours, while I had budgeted for 1.5 hours. I tried not to ride too fast but also not to work too hard. It was supposed to be a warm-up ride.
During the promenade from the starting area in Sunol to the base of Welch Creek Road I took a number of photos backwards from the bike. The first page in the online album are all from this phase of the event. What I find amusing are the expressions on some of the riders' faces: a mixture of surprise and concern as I draw even, followed by smiles after I pass, once my intention is clear.
That reminds me of one occasion many years ago when I slowly passed a cyclist who let out a bloodcurdling scream as I drew even, then apologized a moment later when she realized she wasn't about to be slowly run off the road by the hood of some careless driver's car.
The climb went well, and after I arrived at the top I turned around and rode down the hill a short distance to stake out a spot to take photos. I hadn't yet ensconced myself in the ditch by the road when Hanns Detlefsen rounded the bend below me.
With this set of photos I erred by parking my bike across the road from where I sat. At the time I didn't think about it, but while I was reviewing the photos I noticed that some of the better photos of the riders clashed with the garish colors and shape of my bike, creating a confusing background. I intended to sit in the ditch slightly further downhill, but I saw bits of poop there (horse or dog), so I moved uphill slightly, not having time to think that I should have moved my bike.
I had too much light to take action shots with speed-blurred backgrounds. At 1/160 - 1/200 second or longer I couldn't stop the lens down enough to get the proper exposure. I need a set of ND filters.
So, instead of trying for speed blur, I used a faster shutter to get crisper images. I used mostly 1/400 second so that I could get a hint of blur, but on some photos I used 1/1000 or 1/2000 second to see if giving up all blur was worth the trade-off for marginally sharper images. The small lens on my camera has a deep field at all but the widest f-stops. It is difficult to get a field depth that stops short of infinity, especially in abundant light.
After the last rider came by I checked the time and saw that I had just enough time to get home and stop by the farmer's market near home before it closed at 1300. I descended quickly, then headed south through Milpitas, wasting no time.
On the descent of Welch Creek Road my rear brake screeched horribly when I applied the brake hard, as the rider who was following me down the hill could confirm. Seems to be a characteristic with these metallic pads I'm using. On the plus side, they make the brakes effective, but the noise is irritating and the brake modulation is not smooth.
After I got home I noticed that the edge of the brake rotor (203mm) had gouged a shallow groove (probably about 0.25mm deep) into my chain stay. I filed and polished the gouge lest it initiate a crack. This was the first time I had seen this occur. Before today's ride I had swapped the stock Avid BB7 203mm rotor for a Shimano RT-64L rotor, hoping that the Shimano rotor might run quieter than the Avid. The RT-64L rotor was true both before and after the ride, and the rotor edge clears the chain stay by 2mm. It's difficult to observe the system in use, but I suspect that when the brake screeches and vibrates during hard braking I'm getting some combination of the caliper and mount bending and rotor buckling out of plane, enough to touch my chain stay.
I swapped back the Avid rotor. While the Avid rotor screeches, too, it never gouged my chain stay during hard braking (which makes me think I'm dealing more with a buckling rotor problem). A quick measurement revealed that the Avid rotor is 2mm thick on the non-braking surface and 1.7mm thick at the braking surface. The Shimano rotor is 1.7mm thick overall. Perhaps the thinner material of the Shimano rotor allows it to deflect more during hard braking.
In any case I definitely won't be trying to mount rotors larger than 203mm on this bike, and I'll probably look for a replacement rotor that is as thick as is compatible with the BB7 caliper.
†I'm skeptical of this total energy figure obtained from Strava. My legs felt as if they had done more work. (Human energy is calculated as the difference between total energy and motor energy that I can calculate fairly accurately.)
| GPS track: | GPX |
|---|---|
| Bike Ridden: | Power Gold Rush |
| Distance: | 37.1 miles |
| Cumulative climbing: | 2250 feet |
| Total Time: | 3:42:34 |
| Riding Time: | 1:54:15 |
| Avg. Speed (moving): | 19.4 mph |
| Max. Speed: | 45.6 mph |
| Nominal System Voltage: | 24 |
| Battery energy capacity: | 1200 wh |
| Battery energy consumed: | 528 wh |
| Wh/mi: | 14.2 |
| Battery Amps-Hour Used: | 20 |
| Peak Current: | 40 Amps |
| Motor energy to rear wheel: | 369 wh |
| Human energy to rear wheel: | 127 wh |
| Total energy delivered: | 496 wh |
| LKHC: | Results |
LKHC: Sierra, October 11, 2014 - The morning air was cold and damp when I left home to ride over to the start of this year's climb up Sierra Road. My route across north San Jose is just about the fastest and shortest, taking me something around 50 minutes when riding at a decent pace.
The climb up Sierra Road was expected to be shorter than Montebello last week. I wanted to ride the official climb, but I also wanted to have time to find a good photo-taking spot by the road near the top so that the finisher's list might be helpful to identify the riders on the climb.
After waiting for some time in front of the group at the start, Lynn Sestak yelled, "Go!", and I went. After passing Joe in his car and then hearing the horn honk, I realized I had misunderstood. Lynn was yelling at Joe, not the group. I felt a little silly jumping the gun, but after thinking about it for the next fourteen minutes I concluded it was better for me to have jumped early than to have been too slow at the start and to risk delaying others. It would be easy to sort out my time afterward.
After crossing the line I circled back and headed down the hill to a spot just below the false summit where the light is good and an expansive view of the south bay is spread below. I chose a spot on the opposite side of the road so that I could capture this view. Christine Holmes staked out the other side of the road. We were both surprised by the number of first-time climbers who asked us if they had arrived at the top.
The first arrivals always go by quickly and are the most difficult to capture well. It also takes me a little while to get comfortable with the panning motion required that starts slowly then accelerates as the subject approaches to its nearest point. I started by standing, but after the first several arrivals, I sat down next to the road. This put plain sky behind the riders' faces instead of a busier background, and I think the shots look better this way.
I find that a shutter speed of 1/200 of a second is a good compromise between background blur and high likelihood of getting each subject in focus, especially if I lengthen the lens. The aperture was smaller than necessary at f11, but I had too much light. Maybe I ought to have used an ND filter, but that can cause reflections, especially when the sun is at an angle.
Even though I now had lots of sunlight in the right direction, sunlight was about 90-degrees to me at the subjects' faces, and I had positioned myself (again) on the dark side. Post-processing was needed to get the images acceptable for presentation. Shooting the photos was the easy part.
Climbers can increase the likelihood of seeing a good, properly-identified photo of themselves by doing the following:
| GPS track: | GPX |
|---|---|
| Bike Ridden: | Power Gold Rush |
| Distance: | 75.7 miles |
| Cumulative climbing: | 8630 feet |
| Total Time: | 6:50:47 |
| Riding Time: | 4:47:24 |
| Avg. Speed (moving): | 15.8 mph |
| Max. Speed: | 48.1 mph |
| Nominal System Voltage: | 24 |
| Battery energy capacity: | 1200 wh |
| Battery energy consumed: | 1093 wh |
| Wh/mi: | 14.4 |
| Battery Amps-Hour Used: | 43 |
| Peak Current: | 40 Amps |
| Motor energy to rear wheel: | 765 wh |
| Human energy to rear wheel: | 488 wh |
| Total energy delivered: | 1253 wh |
| LKHC: | Results |
LKHC: Montebello, October 4, 2014 - I didn't have much new on the bike this year, so I felt a bit blasé about doing the hill climb. I was using new batteries, but they weighed the same as the old batteries that I had been using on the hill climbs since 2008. The advantage of the new batteries is they have twice the capacity of the old, but that wouldn't make much difference on a climb where the old batteries still had sufficient capacity to get me to the top of the hill.
A couple of days before the climb I had rebuilt my rear wheel using stronger spokes (DT Alpine III) after discovering that an effective disk brake, effective enough to lock the rear wheel, was causing spokes to break on a wheel that had been built with thinner non-drive side spokes. I believe that the inbound non-drive side spokes were being fully de-tensioned during hard braking, and this was causing premature fatigue failure that started at the inside of the elbow. I could use the outing to stress-test the newly-built wheel on the descent. Also, since the weather was expected to be hot I took the opportunity to paste some temperature-sensing stickers on my motor and controller. I had never done this before and was curious to see how hot my electronics got when pushed to the limit. The lowest temperature sticker I had available was 60 degrees Celcius (140 degrees F).
My bike is limited to 1000 watts into the controller, which corresponds to about 750 watts at the rear wheel accounting for 75% system efficiency. To achieve this efficiency or close to it I need to keep the bike in the lowest gear that keeps a pegged throttle at about 1000 watts on my dashboard display.
Motor heat is proportional to power but extra heat can be generated by loading down the motor too much by using too high a gear. Controller heat generated is proportional to power but also inversely proportional to duty cycle. At lower throttle settings the controller is less efficient as the MOSFETs in the controller driver are switching off more frequently and producing higher peak currents when in the "on" state. I'd need to climb a steep hill in too high a gear, even at lower overall power, to generate more heat from the controller. I did this after the hill climb.
The bike ran well on the climb, and I might have had a chance to beat or at least equal last year's time if my tummy hadn't been complaining about not having fully digested breakfast. After I got to the top, I coasted a short distance down Montebello to take photos of the riders as they neared the top. I found a good spot that offered as a backdrop a nice view into the valley.
The only problem with this spot and most other spots on Montebello, is that riders' faces are backlit. Since I can't attach a flash to my camera, I did the next best thing by adding a virtual flash during post-processing. And since I could not predict whether cyclists would pass on the opposite side of the road or would cut the corner and pass close to me, I had to keep the lens wide, which meant that for some photos I threw away lots of pixels. The results are adequate for web display.
After the climb was over I rode down Montebello. The brakes worked well, almost too well. I could easily stop the bike with the rear wheel alone, but the brakes made a frightful noise when engaged hard. Next time I ride I'll use a different rotor on that bike to see if that helps reduce noise without hurting braking effectiveness.
After descending Montebello I headed over to Bohlman and climbed up Bolhman, Kittridge, Quickert, On Orbit, and Apollo Heights, then descended Bohlman. I climbed slowly at partial throttle to stress the controller a bit. I had never taken Kittridge from Bohlman to Quickert. A short segment is dirt and requires riding around two logs placed across the road, presumably to discourage auto drivers from cutting through. At Quickert a thin chain attached to steel poles is draped across the road, but I could ride around these obstacles.
After I descended Bohlman I checked the bike. Neither 60C sticker had turned color, which means that the temperature of both motor and controller stayed below 60C (140F), which is good. Perhaps I should have put a temperature sticker on my brake caliper. Its inboard pad adjustment dial had melted off completely. Somewhere on Bohlman Road is a small, melted black plastic dial.
Although I can still adjust the piston by hand--after having a previous BB7 piston seize up on me I had the foresight to slather anti-seize compound on the adjustment piston's threads when the caliper was new--, the detents of the plastic knob are no longer present, creating the possibility for the piston to rotate and unscrew with vibration. I think I need another disk brake solution. The Avid BB7's aren't robust enough for my application.
After my tests I rode up CA9 then north on Skyline to CA84 before returning home.
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