Bringing the Mountain to Muhammad: Seattle Cogal
@Cyclops has taken it upon himself to organize North America’s first official Cogal right in the backyard of where it all started: Seattle, Wa. @Scaler911 and @McSqueak have confirmed that they will be driving up from Portland, OR to attend and we hereby invite any and all Velominati to attend.
We’ll be doing a no-drop ride on Whidbey Island, following a route that is not terribly hilly and easily accommodates varying distances, though I myself will be planning on a 100k or more. We’ll leave the Coffeehouse Bookstore in Langley at V minutes past 10 to give everyone plenty of time to find their way up to the island and into Langley. Route details will be published in the posts below when it is confirmed. (I have to do some research as I’ve not done the ride in it’s entirety myself.) Hope to see you there.
UPDATE: The route has been posted on MapMyRide. It is a 160km ride with the option to cut section off for those who are getting tired.
UPDATE: Those who are interested are invited to dinner Friday Evening at Quinn’s Pub on Capital Hill in Seattle. Please arrive as close to 6:30 as possible; late-comers will not be guaranteed a seat at the table if the place is full.
Yours in Cycling,
Frank
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Though there are two 2011 U.S. National Champions about 30 minutes down the interstate from me – southeast Idaho isn’t exactly a road bike Mecca. And I wear the V-Shirt whenever I’m traveling in the area to races (whether to participate or spectate) but I’ve only had one person recognize the Sign of the “V”. So the chances of running into or riding with a fellow Velominati are pretty slim. Let alone the demented brainchild of all this nonsense – Darth Strack. What’s a boy to do? Take the bull by the horns and make it happen my own self, that’s what. I figure that anywhere that I can drive to in a day is not too far to go for a ride so I’m off to Seattle to see whether this “Frank” character is indeed worthy to be praised or if he’s just some guy behind a curtain pulling levers and turning dials.
The plan is for a meet and greet (and eat and drink) Friday night Oct. 14 and a ride on Saturday the 15th. A few blokes from Portland way are planning on coming up as well so it looks like it is going to turn into a little Gran Fronkdo. Anyone that can make it is invited. We haven’t sorted out the details of the route or meeting place or time or anything important like that but we should have all that set in cobbles by early this week, so stay tuned.
@ChrisO
I like the sound of that Chris, let me know when you are planning on heading over here again. Hopefully it will be before I head to Turkey otherwise I am on my own again.
@All Normally my rides revolve around a place called Richmond Park in London. It is close to home, safe roads and a reasonable little circuit to pound out. It has been particularly enjoyable the last couple of weeks as the Deer in the park are rutting and seem to think me on my bike is a challenger after his hareem. So here is a quick video I shot today showing a little bit of the park and a couple of Deer.
@Drew
Absolutely – anyone who can manage to find their way here from where ever there are is welcome. We’d love to have you!
@snowgeek
If the route takes us up that way, we may indeed need to make a stop. Thanks for the tip! There’s also a classy shop there called “A Touch of Dutch”.
@Lepidopterist
Whomever wants to organize a Cogal in the UK or anywhere else in the world, please do – it’s great to bring a physical aspect to this virtual community.
Just go ahead an send us the details on the Cogal like @Cyclops did at our contribute address.
Update: I agree with the comment made by @Chris to try to avoid organized rides that require registration. The idea for Cogals is to make them fun, relaxed, and accessible. Not to say we can’t get a bunch of Velominati together for an organized ride, but maybe we’ll come up with another name for that.
@huffalotpuffalot
When the video panned away I half expected the next shot to be a stag coming at you with antlers lowered from off camera !
I will be back in November sometime for Son No 2’s birthday so up for a ride.
@ChrisO
Sounds great mate, if your back early enough the Devils Punch (ukcyclingevents) is on the 6th November otherwise I am certain you can come up with something interesting enough that I can actually survive.
Good point about the organised rides @chrisO. I’ll be doing the Hellof Ashown if anyone fancies joining me.
As for the Cogal, The Flling Leaves sounds good, or if people didn’t mind a bit of traffic, the upcoming Olympic route.
I would love to join you but central Texas is just a little too far away, especially with a week’s notice. Have a great ride, can’t wait to see the photos.
@Chris
I’m up for it. Let’s do one of the classics.
Will join you if you are somewhere glam in Euroland, just give me time to book a cheap flight
Does anyone bother with bike insurance? – my home contents insurers weren’t interested in the bike as an add on item, just in case £3k of carbone went walkabout in Fance etc – just hope no bad luck comes one’s way?
@Dr C
I’ve got some pretty decent looking insurance cover for my bike that covers travelling etc – new for old on bikes under a certain age, wasn’t too expensive. I’ll dig out the details in the morning and let you know what it is.
Speaking of beer – will someone find me someplace in the Seattle area that sells Maredsous 8. I can’t find it in S.E. Idaho, Salt Lake City, or Boise and I’ve been dying to try it.
@Dr C
My ’11 Scott is covered by AXA Bicycle Rider as an addon to my contents (renting in a condo) insurance. Mainly I got it so it’s covered when I fly with it. Covered for crashes when riding, too. Pretty sure I’d just tell ’em I was racing if I was and that would be covered, but as I’ve told them I’m not they seem very specific in their policy that I’m not. Lovely people, looking for a loophole, I’m sure.
Of course, this is in Singapore, but linked just to show you what I’ve done. SS MTB is covered under contents; just #1 bike individually covered.
@Blah
Whilst I only know about Australian insurance – as far as they are concerned they are very particular about insuring (or not) when racing. Most bike policies I have seen specifically exclude damage while racing – some even exclude damage whilst training for racing!? There are some that cover race damage – but u gotta look for them…
@scaler911
Hey, you being hung over should serve to make you slow enough that I can actually keep up on the hills. So drink up!
@Dr C
Oh, I’ll have that shit on my stem recording the whole ride, you better believe it. Loud and proud violator of that particular rule. Maybe I’ll run it in KMs, but maybe I’ll run it in miles just to be CrAzY!
@Marcus
AXA will definitely cover racing in this policy; they’ve just jumped on the fact that I’ve said I won’t be. Not sure if it would increase my premium (it didn’t seem that it would; the broker did the calculations with me and there was no modifier in the paperwork), but seems to me that the ‘recreational use’ clause is an out they could use if I was racing and made a claim. You don’t make huge profits from paying out if you don’t have to.
@Dr C
This is what I’ve got, Cycleguard. Haven’t had to claim yet so I’ve no idea how good they really are.
@Blah @Marcus
The Cycleguard insurance that I’ve got excludes racing, but it was an optional extra along with extended Euro trips and the like. I think most of the UK schemes operate that way.
Things worked out, I’ll be able to make it too. I’m very excited. A good friend and lurker Velominatus will be joining us from Portland as well. Rock!
@Dr C
if you’re a mamber of British Cycling then they have some extremely good cover at good prices
@Marko
That’s freaking awesome! Two Keepers on one ride. I’ll be like Peter when Moses and Elijah show up on the Mount of Transfiguration – “Lord, it is good that we are here…” Should I build some wheels or something…
@Cyclops
Thank you for organizing!
@Marko
Fuckin awesome! This is tuning into a thing, no? THE THING more likely.
I checked the forecast and we should be Rule #9 compliant. Sorry to say, I don’t run fenders on the race steed, and there’s no way I’m bring the Ritchey with the Powercranks (I’d just embarrass myself more).
Glad you can make it Marco!
@scaler911
It’s still a week away, I’m going to hope the forecast improves though Weather Channel says “few showers”, which isn’t bad at all.
@mcsqueak
Marko, even.
Yes, no fenders. Rule #9 is Rule #9, not some sissy version of it. Fenders just take the fun out of riding the rain. What good is a paceline without squinting and eating a little road grit?
These guys aren’t riding with fenders, I’ll tell you that much.
Enjoy. I will be doing V hill repeats as penance for living in NZ.
Foul Filth….I wish so badly I could make this gig. Sounds like a blast guys. If the pilgrimage is a happening thing next year, i hope to make it, but traveling ~2000-2500 miles takes me some time to organize
Enjoy fellow Keepers of the Cog!!
Just finished a two day bike event. Today was raining, lightning, and an unrelenting wind off of Galveston Bay. The back wheel water rooster tails were flying everywhere. Epic 120k of Rule #9. The day before was the same distance, had the wind, but not the rain – just not the same.
@frank
That would make a nice wallpaper.
@Marko
It was easy-
To: @Frank
From: @cyclops
Subject: You better be home, bitch.
@Cyclops
And a shit ton of grief in my direction I might add. Can’t wait to ride with the Potatoe State Champ!
@Cyclops
Bottleworks is only 3-4 km from Frank’s place and has every beer ever made.
I’m interested to see which jersey ‘clops wears? Does a state champ jersey have cred in another state? Hmmmmm
@Marko
I’ll be rocking the Velominati colors of course.
BAM!!!
@Cyclops
It’s crazy him minor the the difference in highs and lows is up there. Down here it might be 46 in the morning and get to 85 by 1pm. Which is why I need to invest in some cold weather stuff like base layers.
@Cyclops
Classic
I presume that V behind the cloud is a shitload of pain and suffering waiting to heap it down on you MFs
Enjoy
Another thought for a Euro Cogal, the Pyrénées is fairly well served flightwise from the rest of Europe. Somewhere like Bagneres de Bigorre is pretty close to Lourdes and Pau Airports and only an hour and a half away from Toulouse. Between the three of which there is a good number of airlines/flights/departure points. Given enough notice it should be possible to get some pretty reasonable fares. Accommodation should be pretty reasonable if you’re not after five star.
We’d then have access to some legendary tarmac – something like this maybe?
@RedRanger
The ocean moderates the temps for those guys, and the clouds limit solar heating. :)
But as a meteorologist, seriously, don’t use the weather channel (weather.com) anymore. Every since they were bought out they have let a lot of meteorologists go and the quality of their stuff has declined. Also guys, any product that goes more than 5 days out for the west coast is rubbish. More than three is still quite poor.
I’ll gladly provide some forecasts for you as things get closer, Something a bit more cycling specific and detailed.
@huffalotpuffalot
Bicycling just posted their own video with a buck:
@King Clydesdale
Interesting what you said about weather channel. Do you have a better site (or mobile app) you prefer?
I find it pretty accurate for Portland, but we are ~115km inland, and have a small mountain range between us and the coast. For example, this last Saturday was wonderful, and weather channel had been predicting that for almost 10 days, in amongst other days of rain.
However, the forecasting for coastal areas is crap. It’ll say “sunny and 65” while I’m sanding there, on the damn beach, freezing my ass off in a fog bank.
@King Clydesdale
Espresso vaporized. WIcked payback for the Rule #7 violation.
@mcsqueak
The weather service (weather.gov) would be a step in the other direction. They forecast out of Portland itself (the weather service has many offices across the country, each forecasting for their own respective areas, instead of the weather channel where they all work out of Atlanta, Georgia).
Accuweather.com is another alternative. Fog is tricky all around, and no one seems to forecast it well, however Accuweather at least will cloud up the coast when they think its going to be a gross day there.
Cool. Oct 15? I may be able to attend. I’ll watch for more details…
Off-topic side note: I have a friend here in Portland who just told me he is moving to Bainbridge island this weekend. Unfortunately too late for me to take advantage of for this weekend’s festivities, but certainly in the future.
How’s the cycling on Bainbridge island? I formally call for a future Seattle cogal on this island if it’s a good one for cycling.
@King Clydesdale
+ 1 ouch!