Three of us rode up to Acton from Woodland Hills today, Andrew Lockton, Rod Shorey and I. It’s about 43 miles to Acton from Rod’s house and, oh boy, the wind was blowing. It was like Alice in Wonderland. No that’s not right. It was like the Wizard of Oz. You know the windy scene when the house is flying and the lady on the bike goes by the window. It was that windy. In our faces all the way up to Acton.
Right near the Fire Dept on top of Balboa, were Mike Arnt used to work, we met up with two other riders, Jaime (pronounced Himie) and Dave.
We passed the spot of the famous tire change of ’88. In the spring of 1988, 6 of us were riding along Soledad Canyon and came upon a young mother and 12 year old boy. They had a flat tire and Rod and I stopped and did a quick change of her tire. She was basically afraid of us. We opened her trunk, took out the spare and jack, while teaching the boy how to change the tire. I remember saying to him, “We aren’t always going to be following you on our bikes, so you’d better remember how to change a tire for your mum.” The whole stop went really smoothly and we were back riding again in just a few minutes. Oh the memories, so many of them.
When we turned around and started to head back, that strong headwind was now at our back and were rode 35 mph for the next 45 minutes. Very different from the 13 mph on the way up, faster is always more fun. But, just being out the bike on a sunny 80° day in January is enough to make you smile, even when you’re legs give out on the way home and every little bump practically stops you.
The sun was so strong I got a sun burn on my back through two jerseys, not to mention my arms and nose. Yes, my nose is now delightfully oversized and red, and with my thinning racing stripe, all I need to do is die my hair orange…