Tour de Palm Springs

Hey guys -

One of our biggest and best winter rides is coming up
next month. The Tour de Palm Springs usually gets
about 7000 riders, with a nice showing of recumbent
bikes and trikes. They have rides from 5 miles up to
a century, and the organizers do a great job. TdPS is
a nice mix - a big city event with TV coverage and
minor celebrities, but with a kind of friendly small
town feel to it. One of my favorite gradual downhills
is part of the long rides. Their website is:

http://www.tourdepalmsprings.com/

Please rattle my cage off-group if I can answer any
questions or provide any information. Look us up if
you do decide to do the ride!

Regards,
Wayne

32GO wrote:
:: Hey guys -
::
:: One of our biggest and best winter rides is coming up
:: next month. The Tour de Palm Springs usually gets
:: about 7000 riders, with a nice showing of recumbent
:: bikes and trikes. They have rides from 5 miles up to
:: a century, and the organizers do a great job. TdPS is
:: a nice mix - a big city event with TV coverage and
:: minor celebrities, but with a kind of friendly small
:: town feel to it. One of my favorite gradual downhills
:: is part of the long rides. Their website is:
::
:: http://www.tourdepalmsprings.com/
::
:: Please rattle my cage off-group if I can answer any
:: questions or provide any information. Look us up if
:: you do decide to do the ride!
::
:: Regards,
:: Wayne

Interesting profile for this ride. I wonder what it must be
like....climbing at the beginning, and the dropping until a hole! Good
think the climb out ain't so bad! I wish I could take a crack at this. Do
you know the total elevation gain?

"Roger Zoul" wrote in message
...
32GO wrote:
:: Hey guys -
::
:: One of our biggest and best winter rides is coming up
:: next month. The Tour de Palm Springs usually gets
:: about 7000 riders, with a nice showing of recumbent
:: bikes and trikes. They have rides from 5 miles up to
:: a century, and the organizers do a great job. TdPS is
:: a nice mix - a big city event with TV coverage and
:: minor celebrities, but with a kind of friendly small
:: town feel to it. One of my favorite gradual downhills
:: is part of the long rides. Their website is:
::
:: http://www.tourdepalmsprings.com/
::
:: Please rattle my cage off-group if I can answer any
:: questions or provide any information. Look us up if
:: you do decide to do the ride!

Interesting profile for this ride. I wonder what it must be
like....climbing at the beginning, and the dropping until a hole! Good
think the climb out ain't so bad! I wish I could take a crack at this.
Do you know the total elevation gain?

It's no fun to climb any kind of hill at all on a recumbent. A really great
ride is from Fargo, North Dakota to Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is all perfectly
flat and ideal for recumbents. Anyone who rides a recumbent in the
mountainous West is crazy as a hoot owl.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

Roger Zoul wrote:

Interesting profile for this ride. I wonder what it must be
like....climbing at the beginning, and the dropping... Do
you know the total elevation gain?


My simple answer to Roger's question is 'No'. I'm not
even sure exactly how that's calculated. The profile
(on the TdPS website) should give you an idea what to
expect. I've never done the century, only the 55 and
25 miles rides. On both long rides there's a gradual
climb from the start, with one short set of fairly
steep switchbacks, then the 55 gives you a nice long
straight drop on Dillon Road. Next is a gradual climb
of about 10 miles to the high point of the ride at
Sky Valley. After some really fun rollers, the 55
turns onto Thousand Palms Canyon, which drops 1000
feet over about 10 miles, and which is an absolute
blast on a tadpole, with swooping turns and no cross
traffic - one of those very, very FUN chunks of a route
that remind you: What doesn't go up doesn't get to
come back down!

The TdPS is, by SoCal standards anyway, a relatively
'flat' route, with no killer 'grinder' of a climb. No
one should have any trouble on the 55 at least, even
with stock Kettwiesel gearing.

Regards,
Wayne

"Edward Dolan" wrote in message
news:KvOdnQlAF4td0SjYnZ2dnUVZ_riknZ2d@prairiewave. com...

It's no fun to climb any kind of hill at all on a recumbent.

Well we each get to decide what is fun don't we?

Being a large person, I've always hated hills, until I got my first trike.
Once I got the trike, however, hill were actually fun. I pop it into my
lowest gear and just ride on up. I never have to walk up the hill. Nothing
is too steep. I think it's fun. It is hard work and quite exhausting but it
is also fun and satisfying.

Jeff

32GO wrote:
:: Roger Zoul wrote:
::
::: Interesting profile for this ride. I wonder what it must be
::: like....climbing at the beginning, and the dropping... Do
::: you know the total elevation gain?
::
::
:: My simple answer to Roger's question is 'No'. I'm not
:: even sure exactly how that's calculated. The profile
:: (on the TdPS website) should give you an idea what to
:: expect. I've never done the century, only the 55 and
:: 25 miles rides. On both long rides there's a gradual
:: climb from the start, with one short set of fairly
:: steep switchbacks, then the 55 gives you a nice long
:: straight drop on Dillon Road. Next is a gradual climb
:: of about 10 miles to the high point of the ride at
:: Sky Valley. After some really fun rollers, the 55
:: turns onto Thousand Palms Canyon, which drops 1000
:: feet over about 10 miles, and which is an absolute
:: blast on a tadpole, with swooping turns and no cross
:: traffic - one of those very, very FUN chunks of a route
:: that remind you: What doesn't go up doesn't get to
:: come back down!
::
:: The TdPS is, by SoCal standards anyway, a relatively
:: 'flat' route, with no killer 'grinder' of a climb. No
:: one should have any trouble on the 55 at least, even
:: with stock Kettwiesel gearing.
::

Ok...sounds like a wonderful ride. I think I looked at the elevation chart
and came away thinking that they climb was a lot steeper than it really is
over the first 16 miles or so....


:: Regards,
:: Wayne

"Jeff Grippe" wrote in message
...

"Edward Dolan" wrote in message
news:KvOdnQlAF4td0SjYnZ2dnUVZ_riknZ2d@prairiewave. com...

It's no fun to climb any kind of hill at all on a recumbent.

Well we each get to decide what is fun don't we?

Not really! There are universals that apply to all.

Being a large person, I've always hated hills, until I got my first trike.
Once I got the trike, however, hill were actually fun. I pop it into my
lowest gear and just ride on up. I never have to walk up the hill. Nothing
is too steep. I think it's fun. It is hard work and quite exhausting but
it is also fun and satisfying.

Riding UP a hill "is hard work and exhausting." Riding DOWN a hill "is fun
and satisfying." Glad we got that straightened out!

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

"32GO" wrote in message
ups.com...
Roger Zoul wrote:

Interesting profile for this ride. I wonder what it must be
like....climbing at the beginning, and the dropping... Do
you know the total elevation gain?


My simple answer to Roger's question is 'No'. I'm not
even sure exactly how that's calculated. The profile
(on the TdPS website) should give you an idea what to
expect. I've never done the century, only the 55 and
25 miles rides. On both long rides there's a gradual
climb from the start, with one short set of fairly
steep switchbacks, then the 55 gives you a nice long
straight drop on Dillon Road. Next is a gradual climb
of about 10 miles to the high point of the ride at
Sky Valley. After some really fun rollers, the 55
turns onto Thousand Palms Canyon, which drops 1000
feet over about 10 miles, and which is an absolute
blast on a tadpole, with swooping turns and no cross
traffic - one of those very, very FUN chunks of a route
that remind you: What doesn't go up doesn't get to
come back down!

The TdPS is, by SoCal standards anyway, a relatively
'flat' route, with no killer 'grinder' of a climb. No
one should have any trouble on the 55 at least, even
with stock Kettwiesel gearing.

Only if you got the mountain bike gearing (Sclumpf). The stock KW gearing is
only 9 gears and that will not get you UP anything.

Who the hell wants to do "a gradual climb of about 10 miles." I never want
to climb anything more than a mile.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

"Roger Zoul" wrote in message
...
32GO wrote:
:: Roger Zoul wrote:
::
::: Interesting profile for this ride. I wonder what it must be
::: like....climbing at the beginning, and the dropping... Do
::: you know the total elevation gain?
::
::
:: My simple answer to Roger's question is 'No'. I'm not
:: even sure exactly how that's calculated. The profile
:: (on the TdPS website) should give you an idea what to
:: expect. I've never done the century, only the 55 and
:: 25 miles rides. On both long rides there's a gradual
:: climb from the start, with one short set of fairly
:: steep switchbacks, then the 55 gives you a nice long
:: straight drop on Dillon Road. Next is a gradual climb
:: of about 10 miles to the high point of the ride at
:: Sky Valley. After some really fun rollers, the 55
:: turns onto Thousand Palms Canyon, which drops 1000
:: feet over about 10 miles, and which is an absolute
:: blast on a tadpole, with swooping turns and no cross
:: traffic - one of those very, very FUN chunks of a route
:: that remind you: What doesn't go up doesn't get to
:: come back down!
::
:: The TdPS is, by SoCal standards anyway, a relatively
:: 'flat' route, with no killer 'grinder' of a climb. No
:: one should have any trouble on the 55 at least, even
:: with stock Kettwiesel gearing.
::

Ok...sounds like a wonderful ride. I think I looked at the elevation
chart and came away thinking that they climb was a lot steeper than it
really is over the first 16 miles or so....

Roger Zoul has got it right and is being woefully mislead by Wayne Leggett.
To climb any of those freaking mountains in the Far West is a misery on a
recumbent.

Recumbents are wonderful, but only on the flats. If you are going to be
riding a bike in the mountains, you had better make damn sure it is an
upright.

Anyone on this group stupid enough to think a recumbent could hold its own
with the uprights on the Tour de France in the mountains.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

On this topic, but in another thread, Jeff wrote:

As far as downhill goes, I don't find it fun at all...
I find myself having to ride the brakes. It is not the
"whee" experience at all... Next to level I like going
up. My least favorite thing to do is go down...

I was sorta surprised to read this from Jeff. I suspect,
however, it has more to do with his choice of trike than
with any other more absolute factor. Jeff had an American
Cruiser or Tricruiser, an inexpensive tadpole with a very
high seat and joystick steering.

IMNSHO, the downhill experience of a modern low-slung,
stiff, stable tadpole with low-gain USS is a whole 'nother
rocket ride. There's no reason anyone should grab the
brakes until speeds get above 30 MPH on any kind of open
low-traffic trail or bike lane. I ride regularly with a
lot of different folks, some well up in their 70s, and I
rarely see anything but big grins as they come zipping
down one of our long, fast local downhills. Some of our
guys with (presumably) somewhat higher testosterone
levels routinely hit speeds in the 50s, and still, I
don't know anyone who's crashed a tadpole going that
fast.

There are a few low-cost tadpoles on the market now and
some older designs that I would not want to ride at 30
MPH, but even the $1300 WizWheelz TerraTrike Cruiser is
a stable, safe and FUN ride for most downhill runs. My
personal suggestion to Jeff and anyone else who worries
about a tadpole's stability at speed is to try one of
the new designs. I think you're likely to find a whole
range of cycling experiences you may otherwise have
missed.

If you see a photo of me coming down Thousand Palms
Canyon Road in the TdPS, I'll be going faster than 30
MPH, I'll be grinning and I won't be grabbing my brakes!

Regards,
Wayne