When Things Go Wrong, Looping Through the San Gabriel Valley

In the past couple of weeks, I've been riding a 100 mile loop through the San Gabriel Valley. Starting off with the only real climb of the trip, and an easy up hill at that, and ending as the sun went down over southern California, despite the summer heat, and distance, I had found a wonderful ride, that with a few rest stops, was very doable, and a great work out. But, the one thing about getting out there, whether it's on foot or a bicycle, is that things go wrong. Yesterday, with an earlier than usual start, I thought I would speed along and get home at a more reasonable hour, with plenty of day light to spare. Instead, I found myself getting back to my apartment after fourteen hours, dirty, exhausted, and ready to fall into bed.
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With a 7:30 start, about three hours earlier than I usually get going, I rode across my neighborhood, knowing that just five miles in I would be done with the only steepish climb of the day. Using a route I've already described in my post of 6/22/09, "Riding Along the San Gabriel River." I quickly rode into Pasadena, and then headed east towards Rancho Cucamonga, my turn around point. Not wanting to add a second climb through the main Monrovia business district along Foothill Blvd., I cut down Santa Anita, and then turned onto Colorado Blvd. While Colorado in Pasadena is the main business drag, lined with stores, fast food places, and Pasadena City College, in Monrovia, it has the look of a forties or fifties small town. Since I thought I might write about this loop, I had clipped my small, palm sized digital camera to the Camelbak hydration pack. At the old Monrovia high school, a white concrete building with an old fashioned copula on it's roof, I stopped, unhooked the camera to take a picture and got an exhausted battery message on the screen. A little thing. After all in the first version of this blog, I rarely added pictures. Of course, had I known that that would be the first of a long string of problems, I might just have given up and headed home right then and there. But I didn't of course. I just shrugged and carried on.
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Moving east along Colorado, I passed through a much smaller, and except for the new condos, a much older business area than the one on Foothill, then to Colorado's end at a nice, shaded, public park. With southern California's shortage of open space, it's always nice to run across one of these older parks from when a town like Monrovia was a stand alone community with farm land between it and the next small town over. Around the park, and then along the Duarte Bike Path, something else I wrote about in the 6/22/09 post, and then across the foot bridge to the San Gabriel River Trail. The first time I did this loop through the San Gabriel Valley, I did what I hadn't done when I rode the San Gabriel River Trail to the ocean at Seal Beach. I headed north, to it's beginning where the San Gabriel River comes out of the mountains. Flat then a series of bumps as the route goes over flood control barriers, it goes under conveyor belts that are used to move river rock from the quarries, past an abandoned and water filled quarry pit, and then to a road which I would use to get back down to Foothill Blvd., which I would then use all the way to Interstate 15. One of the necessities of a long, summer ride in southern California, is to stay hydrated. I had wanted to use the water fountains along the trail, and save the water in the hydration pack, just in case. But, the fountain I was planning on using had a line of the homeless, filling up their water bottles. For those who complain about such things, I would remind them that we have decided that lower taxes are more important than finding shelter for our fellow Americans. That might change when enough of the middle class lose their homes to foreclosure.
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Back on road, I was headed back to Foothill, when I noticed that the bike was feeling kind of soupy in it's handling. I've had too much experience with flats not to recognize a tire that was loosing air, fast. Oh well, flats are part of cycling, and when I ride one of my bikes with clinchers, I always bring along, depending on the distance, one or two spare tubes. After a quick change, I forced enough air with the hand pump to get moving, found a gas station, put the Presta/Schrader valve adapter on, and filled the rear tire. Well sort of. I run 115 psi on my bike, and the gas stations pump stops at about 80. Why didn't I turn around then and there? It's possible to ride, and ride well, with an under inflated tire, but it's also slower, and a lot more exhausting. It's not like riding in sand, but it requires harder work, and with a weather forecast in the mid 80's, and for California, high humidity, it would have made sense to have gone home.
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A quick note on Foothill Blvd., which might help the reader in making sense of some of these descriptions. Foothill runs from San Bernardino County to Sierra Highway, near Santa Clarita. If it ran continuously it would be one of the longest city roads in California. It doesn't. It disappears, reappears in a different spot, and can be quite confusing for those who haven't travelled it. My guess would be that when it was first laid out, it wound it's way around hills, and streams which have since been leveled or filled in. Foothill may suddenly change names, but there is another street named Foothill five or six blocks north or south. Usually.
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But, I didn't turn around. I headed east on Foothill, which changed names to Alosta and then, became just plain old route 66, at least informally. Funny, but when the old route was decommissioned, no one gave it a second thought, and now cities and towns are trying to revive it and make money off of it's fame. Fine by me, I like old roads. And then, suddenly, the signs all read Foothill Blvd. again. There are lots of things to recommend a particular route to the cyclist. It can be scenic, technical, or might be lightly used. Foothill isn't really any of those things. What it is is wide, with a designated bike lane for much of it's length. There are lots of places to stop for a quick bight to eat, or places to get cold drinks. The road undulates, but most of the climbs would be best described as minor. If it's hot enough, or if there is a head wind, they can be pretty tiring, but once at the crest, it will either become flat, or a nice long downhill will follow. Those down hill sections aren't steep. The cyclist won't build up a lot of speed, but it's possible to do a few miles at a lick with not a lot of effort. Headed east, once past the city of Upland, the route becomes an easy ride to Rancho Cucamonga.
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But not for me. Once again the ride was becoming soupy. The first flat was the rear, and now it was the front tire that was slowly draining. I didn't really give it much thought. The fact is, there is a lot of broken glass, thorns, pieces of metal and all the other weird junk of city life out there. I had already rode by empty balloons, high heeled shoes, underwear, and dirty dishes. If I had been riding a little slower, who knows what sort of junk I would have seen. I actually thought of myself as being somewhat lucky at this point. There is an REI in Rancho Cucamonga, and I was only about a mile away. It would only be a matter of putting in the second spare tube, and then I would buy a couple of more spares, just in case. I've always had a policy of saving a tire after it's first puncture, repairing it and then putting it in the emergency rotation, and then tossing it after the second flat. When I had started this ride, I was rolling on two patched tubes, so the new ones that I would buy were something I had on my to-do list anyway. The guys at the store even let me use their floor pump to inflate both tires to the proper pressure.
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After finishing up with all the flat repairs, I continued east, passed under interstate 15, and then made my turn around at Etiwanda Ave. I would only be on Etiwanda for less than a mile, before I turned on to Arrow Route, another nice wide road, with plenty of space, and a designated bike lane. But as I made my turn something didn't feel right. It was as if my rear wheel was sliding out form under the bike. I stopped and pressed my finger into the rear tire and felt it give way. I couldn't believe it. I was loosing air in a tire for the third time.
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This is where I rant. It was becoming clear this wasn't just bad luck. My three month old tires, albeit tires with about 800 miles on them, were worn out. This is the rant: I'm old enough to remember when all Continental tires were made in Germany. I'm old enough to remember when all Vittoria tires were made in Italy. They aren't anymore. I was riding Continentals, made in south east Asia, and they just don't last as long anymore. For years, I rode nothing but the German made tires on all of my bikes. A couple of years ago, on my main ride, I gave up on the Continental sew-ups when they started, just blowing for no good reason whatsoever. They weren't going flat, they were BLOWING UP from the inside out. I went to Vittorias, also made in Asia, which haven't blown, but they puncture a lot easier than the older, Euro manufactured tires.
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Was I glad I had purchased two new spare tubes at the REI! I changed tubes, and turned north on a side street back to Foothill. Arrow Route doesn't have a lot of businesses right around the I-15 and if I wanted to use a gas station air pump, I would have to go back up to Foothill. After I had enough air in the tires to ride comfortably, I cut back down to Arrow for the ride west, back towards home. I've ridden this section of Arrow into a head wind, and even though it's not a steep uphill, it can be tough. The wind, yesterday, was coming form the side, and it dried the sweat, and worked as a natural air conditioner. After passing back into Upland, I got off of Arrow and onto an off road bike path. Following an old red car trolley right of way, this path, if ever completed, will run from Claremont to Rialto, just short of San Bernardino. I got off of the bike path in downtown Upland, took a quick look around the old town center, headed back to the bike path and got another flat tire. It seems like I've spent a good deal of my life around cheap behavior, and as such, I make a real effort not to swear around people I don't know, who might be offended by such language. I couldn't help myself. I let loose a real tirade of every obscenity I could think of. After venting my anger, and after getting a few dirty looks from passers by, I installed the last spare tube. There is a Metro Rail Station in Upland, and I thought about going to the station and buying a ticket back to L.A. One of the nice things about Los Angeles area mass transit is that it is very bike friendly. Trains and light rail allow bikes and buses have bike racks on their front bumpers. But, I'm either stupid or stubborn. I thought that if just rode carefully, and kept my eye out for anything that might cause a flat, I could nurse myself the last 30 or 35 miles home. What a mistake. Eventually I cut down from Arrow Route to Arrow Highway (Almost as confusing as Foothill.) and stopped for a quick bight to eat before continuing on my way home. When I got out of the Del Taco, my front tire was flat as a slightly curved pancake.
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That was it. the ride was over. Even if I could have found another tube, it would be for naught. I was in San Dimas, and it was a long way home to Atwater Village. The buses along Arrow Highway went to El Monte, but the buses along Foothill went to Pasadena, and there is a bus from Pasadena to within four blocks of my apartment. I pushed the bike back through the old town section of San Dimas, and then up San Dimas Ave. to Foothill. I didn't bother to look at the bike computer to see how long the walk was, but it took about 45 minutes. If I wasn't so tired, it might have taken less. I've got to say though, my fellow cyclists are a good bunch. I had two different riders stop and offer me a spare tube. It was tempting, but it would have been taking things under false pretenses. My days ride was over. Luckily I didn't have long to wait for Foothill Transit bus number 187. I had a pleasant conversation with another bus rider about his experiences with mass transit in L.A. county. I wasn't so lucky form Pasadena to Atwater Village. A young, drunk, or maybe stoned, rider shouted out about getting bit by a pit bull, called African American riders, black skins, accompanied by whooping sounds, and harassed the women riders. At least it was only verbal. At 9:30, 14 hours after I left home, I opened my door, showered off the dirt, and went to bed.
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My actual route: Glenhurst Ave. to Tyburn St. to La Clede Ave. to Fletcher Dr. to Eagle Rock Blvd. to Lincoln Ave. to Ave. 54 to Buchanan St. to Aldama St. to York Blvd. which becomes Pasadena Ave. which becomes Monterey Rd. to Fair Oaks Ave. to Walnut St. which becomes Foothill Blvd. to Santa Anita Ave. to Colorado Blvd. to Shamrock Ave. to Lemon Ave. to Bradbury Rd. to Orange Ave. to Buena Vista St. to the Durate Bike Path to it's end to Royal Oaks Dr. to Encanto Parkway crossing the visible bike/pedestrian bridge across the San Gabriel River to the San Gabriel River Trail north to it's end, exiting on San Gabriel Ave. to Foothill Blvd. which becomes Alosta Ave. (Route 66) and then becomes Foothill Blvd. to Etiwanda Ave. to Arrow Route to Rochester Ave. to the intersection with Foothill Blvd. returning on Rochester to Arrow Route, to the bike path in Upland to Euclid Ave. to Arrow Route, to Claremont Blvd. to 1st St. to Indian Hill Blvd. to Arrow Highway to the intersection of Bonita Ave. and Arrow Highway, then on foot, Bonita to San Dimas Ave. to Foothill Blvd. and then on bus to Atwater Village. Total mileage riding: 75.33. Of the three times I've tried this loop, the longest was 102.13 miles. Had I been able to continue, I would have stayed on Arrow Highway to Live Oak Ave. to Longden Ave. to San Marino Ave. to Huntington Dr. to Fair Oaks Ave. to Monterey Rd. which becomes Pasadena Ave. which becomes York Blvd. to Eagle rock Blvd. to Fletcher Dr. to Riverside Dr. to Glendale Blvd. to Glenhurst Ave. This is the route that I used on the second of the three trips.