# Video & pics of first mountain ride of the summer



## freighttraininguphill (Jun 7, 2011)

*First mountain ride of the summer*

Last weekend I took my first high altitude ride of the summer, since the temps in the valley were over 100. Even in the mountains it was kind of hot, but much more tolerable. I decided on Ice House Road in El Dorado County, since it's a long climb.

I rode my 32 lb Rockhopper because I didn't feel like getting 2 flat tires from the goat-head thorns on this road. The thick 26 x 1.95 Specialized Hemispheres are much more flat-resistant than the tires on my road bike.

I climbed Ice House Road from US 50 to Granite Springs Road, then up that to the top at 5,709' elevation. I rode down the dirt road a little longer then turned around, descended, and finished the climb up Ice House Road to the Crystal Basin sign.

Ice House Road wasn't a really hard climb, just long and hot. Once I turned onto Granite Springs Road however, the altitude hit me like a wrecking ball and the suffering started. 

Bottom of Ice House Road climb:










View from the top of Granite Springs Road:










Top of Ice House Road climb:










A closer look at the mountains from the above pic:










About to descend Ice House Road:


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

Boy they are putting signs on pretty shallow grades now days.

BTW looks nice, were there really no cars?


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## freighttraininguphill (Jun 7, 2011)

MB1 said:


> Boy they are putting signs on pretty shallow grades now days.
> 
> BTW looks nice, were there really no cars?


Thanks!  Hehe, I wish there were no cars! There were lots of cars. For the pictures, I waited until there were no cars to take the photo. For the video, I edited out many of the cars. They annoy me too. I'd rather hear the chirping birds and my bike sounds than motor vehicles.


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## freighttraininguphill (Jun 7, 2011)

*More mountain fun, this time on a folding bike*

I rented a car for the weekend for two trips to the mountains to do some climbing. Since it is a PITA to put a full-size bike in a typical sedan, I took my Dahon Speed D7 folding bike, which only has a 7-speed drivetrain.

The first climb was the Lake Tahoe side of Kingsbury Grade, which is about 3.5 miles long with a max grade of 12%. The steeper parts were a sufferfest and I had to ride out of the saddle on the first steep part. I got passed like I was standing still by a female triathlete (judging by the type of bike she was riding) who said "Good job". I barely heard her, so unfortunately the camera didn't pick it up. Female cyclists are so encouraging!

After I reached the top at Daggett Summit I climbed to the real summit at the top of Bigler Circle. After that I checked out another nice steep climb. It showed grades up to 17%, yet somehow I was able to ride the whole thing in the saddle.

Next was Ski Run Blvd, which has a 21% section on the last block. I had to ride that section out of the saddle, barely turning the cranks. Good suffering!

Top of Kingsbury Grade:


Dahon Speed D7 at Daggett Summit by kittyz202, on Flickr

View from Daggett Summit:


view from top of Kingsbury Grade by kittyz202, on Flickr

I saw a couple of these signs:


'please share the road text later' sign by kittyz202, on Flickr

I saw several of these in different colors:


Dahon Speed D7 next to bike sculpture in Lake Tahoe by kittyz202, on Flickr

View from the top of one of the climbs above Kingsbury Grade:


snow-capped mountains around Lake Tahoe 7-9-11 by kittyz202, on Flickr

Top of the 17% max grade climb I found near Kingsbury Grade:


Dahon Speed D7 with mountains in background 7-9-11 by kittyz202, on Flickr

Top of Ski Run Blvd:


top of Ski Run Blvd climb by kittyz202, on Flickr


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## freighttraininguphill (Jun 7, 2011)

*Longest climb yet on the folding bike*

Today I went to Reno to watch the Geiger Grade Hill Climb TT. Of course you know no mountain trip is complete without a ride up said mountain, so the Dahon came along with me in the rental car again.

Geiger Grade is 7.7 miles long with an average grade of 5.3%. After watching the riders in the hill climb suffer, I had to do some suffering of my own, at my own pace of course. I'm strictly a recreational/utility cyclist.

Here's where I watched the riders:


view from Geiger Grade facing downhill by kittyz202, on Flickr

View from that same spot. You can see Mt. Rose, the sufferfest of all sufferfests, still with snow.


view from Geiger Grade by kittyz202, on Flickr

Made it!


Dahon Speed D7 at Geiger Summit by kittyz202, on Flickr


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## rodar y rodar (Jul 20, 2007)

Nice reports, Freighttrain! I`m curious about how fast you feel safe at when descending on the Dahon. A (possibly true) anecdote that I heard about Geiger Grade is that Greg Lemond once beat the official timer to the top at one of those organized TTs, giving an estimated time of about 28 minutes, which would still be a record if it were proveable. The world may never know...


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## freighttraininguphill (Jun 7, 2011)

rodar y rodar said:


> Nice reports, Freighttrain! I`m curious about how fast you feel safe at when descending on the Dahon. A (possibly true) anecdote that I heard about Geiger Grade is that Greg Lemond once beat the official timer to the top at one of those organized TTs, giving an estimated time of about 28 minutes, which would still be a record if it were proveable. The world may never know...


The descent was badass! Never had to touch the brakes, nice and smooth for the most part. Since I lowered the bars as far as they would go before starting the ride, I believe it helped the stability on the descent. When I descended Kingsbury Grade the day before, I had the bars a bit higher and the descent sucked!

I heard the same thing about Greg LeMond holding the unofficial record of 28 minutes. The official record is 29:25, held by Bobby Julich.

Wanna know what's humbling? Watching the riders fly by at speeds similar to my flat ground cruising speed, looking at the results from either this year or the year before (possible typo on website), noticing that the fastest woman was about 40 minutes and the slowest 1:02, then thinking about the 1:09 it took me to climb it. Granted, I'm not racing or time-trialing, but my heart rate was pretty high most of the way up.

I'm sure the pain I started experiencing in my left gluteus muscle about a mile from the top didn't help matters either. The Dahon still has the stock saddle, which may have contributed to the problem. When I got off my bike at the summit that muscle cramped up so badly that I couldn't walk, so I had to stand around for a few minutes before descending.

I need to try it again on my road bike. :wink5:


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## rodar y rodar (Jul 20, 2007)

freighttraininguphill said:


> Wanna know what's humbling? Watching the riders fly by at speeds similar to my flat ground cruising speed,


I hear ya there- the same thought occurs to me frequently.
Glad to hear the nice report about little wheels down maxi grades.


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## Ridgetop (Mar 1, 2005)

Awesome, my back yard literally on Geiger Grade. I've wanted to ride into Ice House but have never done it. Roads all over the place up there. Great report.


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## freighttraininguphill (Jun 7, 2011)

Ridgetop said:


> Awesome, my back yard literally on Geiger Grade. I've wanted to ride into Ice House but have never done it. Roads all over the place up there. Great report.


Thanks!  Before the hill climb TT started I drove over the other side of the mountain through Virginia City and Gold Hill. Nice steep stuff over there. I definitely have to ride that with my road bike someday. No way I'm taking the Dahon up that! 

I noticed what looked like some steep roads near Ice House as I was climbing it. I'll have to check those out someday too. :wink5:


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