Not about Rivendells, but I thought I'd share this due to several points of general interest to the group--black and white film, bike community in general, some cool history. It may be among the shortest rides reported on this list. I didn't ride my Rivendell, because it's a tandem, and this is *really* not the kind of riding my wife is interested in.
Old Priest Grade is the old road rising from the lower Sierra Foothills to Big Oak Flat and Groveland on the northern route to Yosemite. What modern SR 120 climbs in 4.6 miles, Old Priest Grade climbs in 1.8 miles. The grade averages 14 percent and maxes out at about 17. There is a pullout about halfway up the hill that the locals stock with gallon bottles of radiator water. It has heavy car traffic due to drivers avoiding the slow speeds of trucks, buses, and RVs ascending and descending on SR 120. There are multiple blind corners and little to no shoulders on OPG, so when open to traffic, OPG is a pretty unsafe place to ride your bike. There are much safer steep hills to climb. Youtube has lots of people acting stupid on OPG. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/31054658 Tom Frost, one of the pioneer Yosemite climbers, passed away on August 24, 2018. He was also a photographer, and he documented climbs in Yosemite from the late 50s and the 60s in black and white. He was also a cyclist and had recently wished to climb OPG; he even commissioned a frame by Rob English for the feat. There is a documentary of his life, climbing, and photography currently in production, and the film company worked with the climbing community and locals to close OPG for a hill climb on the one year anniversary of his death. Footage from the event will be part of the film. The Motherlode Bicycle Coalition helped with ride operations. About 100 riders, including about 30 invited to an unsanctioned race, made the climb and enjoyed breakfast at the Priest Station Cafe at the top of the grade. Rob English won the race at about 15 minutes, while us regular folks clustered around 28 minutes which inspired the surprisingly previously unused #snailspaceline. Local roadie Erv Kroeker made the climb at 78 years young. For more see: https://motherlodebike.org/2019/09/05/tom-frost-memorial-hill-climb-on-old-priest-grade/ Info on the film with trailers and clips, articles about Tom Frost's photography etc. I'm not a climber, but I found his story to be pretty interesting: https://flatlanderfilms.com/ Photos of the event including black and white finish line photos (Starts with racers--gets funkier as they go on including tweed on fixies--I'm guessing he won't be wearing that jacket to his next job interview. Fellow Riv owner Jack Becker is photo 36 on his Bridgestone, yours truly 67--just another hill to climb): https://flatlanderfilms.com/bike-ride/ Carl Baker, Columbia, CA -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/b17a8f95-0e9c-41e7-b932-2c1349302391%40googlegroups.com.
