The true Adequate Riders, Adequate Speed

I never have a computer on my bike, I have no way of knowing how far, fast, altitude, cadence and all those other details about a ride that sometimes can be nice to know and sometimes those are the details that can take all the fun out of riding. I have no intelligent device with Stravia or Garmin gps to measure and record routes.
A few years ago when I was riding alot with Gabe and my brother used to come out every so often, he was always asking about speed, mileage. I used to just laugh and say it didn't matter, none of us were left behind, we chatted and chuckled and never felt dead at the end therefore it was always an adequate amout of miles at an adequate speed. Eventually I gave into his requests for a speed and just said 17mph just seemed like an adequate cruise speed.

Somewhere on the road between Seattle to San Fransico a roadside speed monitor captured our speed and it really was the true Adequate speed.

Arcata to Gaberville

We set off from Rob's pretty late. Me and Sandy spent a bufty night in the comfy bed and woke up late. Rob got his stuff ready to pick up his goats to take them to a kids beach party. We nipped into town, had breakfast, went to Revolution Bikes and bought brake blocks and new tyres and set off at the late time of 1pm. We rode a non eventful day until we got to the Avenue of The Giants. This was a section of the ride that I had been looking forward to. I called all the Trees we saw 'sticks' that is what they are in their rawest, most natural form and these sticks are fucking huge and beautiful. They just tower over you and the lush green canopy that they create. Breathe taking, awe inspiring, humbling the adjectives are endless. The trails through the woods would be an incredible walk to take but sadly we only skirt along edges of the roadway. Flickers of masked sunshine create atmosphere, which is randomly broken up by bright, shards of light. We coasted through the quiet road, enjoying the splendour of nature. I got my first puncture but it was no hardship to have to stop and fix it in this area. Sandy and Taj both took plenty of photos as we rolled on the visual, tarmac conveyer belt. My camera had long ranout of battery life and i had no disposible camera at the time.  An excellent casual ride brought us back into the urban setting of Gaberville.

Texting, sexting, shitting

This is the ascent out of Crescent City, it wasn't anywere as near as scary as we'd been lead to believe. Sandy thought he'd send an illegal text saying he was, 'pure shitting it'. I was cruising on the other side of the carriageway and Taj2k was calmly monstering up the climb wondering what all the fuss was about.

We ain't scared of no goats

Kalmoth to Arcada

We set off without breakfast and rode to meet Rob Jenson at a gas station on the highway. Rob had been following the trip on Faceblaster or Fairdale or somewhere on the interweb and got in touch to join us for a day on the trip. Sure enough Rob was on the roadside and after some coffee and snacks he lead us off into secluded forest roads. Apart from being a BMXer for Solid Bikes, Rob has been a park ranger for this area so, as we casually rolled down through the roads on what can best be described as a bicycle conveyer belt, Rob was dropping tree knowledge bombs on us. Star Wars, Jurassic Park were filmed in the area. He was spotting birds and wildlife for us. He escorted us to a herd of Elk, knew where a rescue helicopter was going to land. Rob was a great riding escort, Rob was a great BMXer. Sandy had a bunch of coverage once doing inverted x-up wall plants and admitted that the first person he saw doing that trick.
We rode along for a bit with a solo girl called Cleo, or Cloe or something beginning with C. She was riding to LA and was travelling on a super limited budget with a tarp and a hammock as her accommodation. She was the Queen of Adventure, Seth would have been proud of her. Rob was such a dude that without any prompting he instantly handed her his details and welcomed her to hang the hammock in his garden. What an accommodating dude. All I could think was, Sandy and Taj know some epic dudes.

We arrived into Rob hometown, Arcada and we went and hung out with his pals at Revolution Bikes. This was one cool shop. We got food, beers, various chemical sets and hung out in the sun on the pump track in the back of the shop. Taj did some art on the tree stump. I was determined to do a lap on the 16inch bike only to end up in a heap, in the dirt with the bike wrapped around my body.
As the sun set down, we followed Rob to get food, next thing we know is we are at a huge allotment garden. He took us to meet his goats and next thing he is inviting us to milk one of them. So funny, so bizarre. This had been one day of lolz, experiences and sights.
We stayed at Rob's that night. We did laundry, he cooked an epic meal with his home produce. He was the hostess with the mostess. Me and Sandy snuggled down into the most comfy bed ever. Cloe had settled into her hammock in the garden. We'd had such an epic day I forgotten that we been riding all day. Rob is a pure Solid dude. Amazing.

Le Tour

Adequate Ride, Adequate winning speech.
Sir Bradley of Wiggins.

Random shots