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RAAM Adventure

Saturday, June 3, 2006

All team members gathered at Pete Penseyres' house in Oceanside.  This was to be a shake down cruise for the real RAAM;  We needed to find out what worked and what did not work.  We needed to set up the bikes for night time riding; we needed to learn how to make the rolling transfer of riders on the open road without violating pages of RAAM rules.  We needed to get a feel for riding at full speed for 30 minutes, then cool off, stiffen up, and ride again when our turn came up.  We needed to learn how to live off Cliff bars, Cliff shots, and other energy drinks for 12 hours.  The train keeps on rolling, no time for Big Mac or a malt.  We also needed to expect the unexpected.

This is not a group of engineers.  (Ed. Note:  Pete is a retired Mechanical Engineer and in his retired mode, we have not qualified him as an engineer.)  Just getting the lighting system to fit on the bike and keep the Aero bars in proper position required some Cal Tech ingenuity.  Gary Byrne's light would not fit and after being jerry rigged, his light illuminated the far horizon, but did not do much for the pavement.  The bike racks donated for use by Jax Bicycle shop were terrific.  They were exactly what we needed for quick transfer of bikes on the road and a quick exchange of riders.  The first big glitch occurred when a flat tire was discovered on the rear of Gary Spencer's vehicle.  Off came the bike rack, and then all of the experts at bicycle tire changing got out the GMC manual to read how to get the spare out from under the car.  It looked like a government road crew, with Jim cranking the spare down and the rest of the group watching to make sure he did it correctly.  Glitch number 1 solved.  Glitch 2 was a lack of lighting for the rear lights on the bike racks.  This was not solved and we completed the trip that night without CHP assistance.

Jim; official tire changer



Are you sure that fits like that?



You want to do what??

We were only 45 minutes late to the Oceanside pier for our scheduled departure and our effort to duplicate the first day of RAAM.  All team members rode from the Pier to the bike trail (well, except for Ron-he fell over trying to get on the bike, a little like the tricycle rider on Laugh-In), and then east for about 12 miles to where the official race will begin.  We divided the 8 team members into two teams of 4.  Each team put a rider on the road with a chase vehicle to protect the rider from behind.  This is required during nighttime racing, but not daytime.  Glitch #3, the chase vehicle missed a turn and got lost.  Through a series of cell phone calls, we finally located Mickey and Dianne Cooper in the chase vehicle and they caught up with us before we started to climb out of the valley.  Lesson for the day:  make sure you have cell phone numbers logged into everyone's phone; we can't go anywhere without the support van; they have the food and water.

The weather was hot as we moved inland.  Temperatures ran up into the 90's and eventually hit 103 when we got to the Salton Sea at 10pm.  Looking east from Oceanside there is one obvious feature:  mountains.  Highway 76 and State Route 22 to Borrego Springs, CA set up a steady climb to the top of the mountains with an elevation gain of 6000 feet over approximately 85 miles.  Carl and Chuck climbed a steep portion of this mountain with ease, as befits their youth.  Highway 22 then spins rapidly downward for 12 miles down to Borrego Springs and another 30 miles to below sea level at the Salton Sea.  What took 5 hours, and the collective effort of 4 members from each team to climb, took about 16 minutes to descend to an elevation almost below where we started.  Pete, Jim and Ron did the descent in spectacular fashion, to the point that they outran the chase vehicles.  There was some confusion on the pick up point;  Since Ron was riding to try and get his 64 miles in on his 64th birthday, he stopped at Carlees Bar in Borrego Springs.  The vehicles stopped to pick him up and he had already made friends with the large drinking contingent in the bar.  We took a few pictures with Ron and friends and then tried to catch up with Pete and Jim.  They were not waiting for anyone and thought maybe we had abandoned them back in town.  That thought had crossed our minds.  A cold beer sounded awfully good about then.  But, Pete has warned us, just believe you are in Utah for the whole trip.

Chuck loading up the bike rack



Rolling Exchange of riders

We raced on to Salton City and then back to Borrego Springs, finishing up about 11:15pm.  Riders and crew were all tired, but exhilarated at the days events.  This will be some trip.  The long ride back to Oceanside took over 2 hours.  We unloaded gear, and then drove home.  Gary Byrne and Don Flanigan had the longest drive:  Santa Barbara.  I am sure they did not get home until 5 or 5:30am, just in time to go out on a long training ride.