Kitsap Color Classic

Last Sunday I rode the Kitsap Color Classic. This is an Cascade Bike Club organized ride, one of the last of the season. Aden was kind enough to give me a ride to and from the Ferry. The ride was great, if you click through the picture above you can see all the shots I took. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted because I am still using my old canon. The new canon died and I am still waiting for the replacement camera to arrive (a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3).

The ride was moderately supported and since I was with Aden I was with 6 riders besides myself who were looking out for me and vica versa. If you click through the pictures you should see the riders, Susan, Allen, Al, Amy, Lee, and Aden. We got a later start to let the day warm up. The ride was absolutely beautiful and not insanely hilly. It was about 3800 ft of climbing if you did 62 miles. My bike handled wonderfully. I rode my Raptobike as you can see in the photo above. There were some significant hills including one of more than 20% grade. I saw a number of riders walking up that one. I rode up it though I was short of air at the end of the 1/2 mile hill. I had no issues with the FWD slipping on such a steep hill, though I am sure it would have been an issue if it had been raining.

I only rode 54 miles as I discovered a crack in my front rim at mile 25. My poor rim hasn't been the same since the STP abuse in July. I have been trying to "get by" while waiting for the new rim to arrive but now my front wheel is dead. I rode it home and it is now in the garage. I am working various options to get the raptobike out of the shop as I don't want to ride my backup bikes.