"Country roads take me ....someplace...please!"

The weather guessers gifted us with indescribably beautiful atmosphere for the weekend of the "Fall Fondo."  It's the seasonal remake of the infamous Barry Roubaix gravel race.  It's like coming home for me.  I lived about 100 yards from the course until they started the race.   The race didn't drive me out, I moved, then they had the race. I had nothing to do with it and thought the whole idea was preposterous until it got famous.  After all, these are the roads I used to go to Wal-Mart.  How could you make a race out that?  Well they did and it turned out to be pretty good.  This is the first time I participated in one of the events because the weather in March, when the main race occurs, is stupidly nasty and I wouldn't ride in it if I was forced.  The fall ride is not a race and a bunch of CV enthusiasts used it as an excuse to get together.

Tim Potter had organized the CV gathering and was there

 with his collection of vintage bikes, jerseys and parts.

He has a huge collection of photos of the event!

Greg Parker, who now owns the "Heron" brand will have new frames in production later this year.

They are truly gorgeous, I didn't want to throw your opinion with the lousy photo I took, but trust me they will be great bikes, built of Reynolds tubing by Waterford .

People came rolling in on road, touring and mountain bikes of steel.

Steve Cox once again solidified his reputation by taking on the Barry Roubaix course

on a 1960's Frejus track bike.  Yes, I said fixie on the Barry Roubaix.

  The man is a BADASS, 

certifiably crazy, but he got it done.

Beyond the 10 or 15 of us riding real bikes, there was a few hundred enthusiasts riding the normal collection of fat, cross, mountain and even a couple of tandems.

We all basked in the glory of the day and the season,

as well as the legendary sand mire of Sager Rd.

I only found myself walking 20 feet of the damnable pit,
 so the Hunq done me proud in that regard.

The rest of the roads were pretty much as we had found them a couple of weeks ago.

The ride was relatively easy and I just had to help a few people out with the route.

They would stand at an intersection and stare around in a circle muttering something about Garmin.

I would just yell the proper direction, they would say; "But Garmin..."  

"Garmin didn't live here, follow me."  I would say.  Some did, some got lost.

Sooner or later, everybody made it back to sample some Founders beer,

and talk about old days when bikes were more than plastic toys.

There was music, a big fire bowl and did I say beer?

The CV people had plenty to discuss,

like correcting the upgrades to stay period correct

or just saying fuck it and using zipties
and duct tape to keep your saddle from splaying.

A good first attempt this year, hopefully it will happen again and maybe the Riv contingent from a couple of weeks ago will be adding to the head badge collection.