Meeting fellow riders

I never thought I'd find myself intentionally going to the Tenderloin, but there I was at the home of the SF Aids Foundation attending the first Aids Life Cycle meeting. Though a bit disappointed to see only 16 or so people at the meeting, it turned out to be a good experience. The program leader was hilarious!

The 25 minute wait for the MUNI bus ride back home was worth it. Russ gave me one of his promotional items - a bike bag! It felt a bit heavier than I would imagine. After getting home, I tore open the plastic wrapping to find there was something in the bag! A brand name tool made by Topeak!

This was also a great opportunity to get responses from veterans of the ride to a couple of my biggest worries concerning the ALC ride.

"How long is the Quad Buster?"
There's a portion of the ride that is a long uphill ride. It's one of the bigger obstacles on the ride that people are always worried about. I've heard rumors about how difficult it was, but wanted to hear from some veterans first hand. It turns out that that Quad Buster is only 1.3 miles! I had read elsewhere that it was 4 miles and have been looking for 4 mile hills to practice on. Glad to hear it's much shorter.

"How do I transport my trike back to SF once I reach Los Angeles?"
No need to disassemble the trike and find a box for it to ship by Fedex. There's actually a company that will round up bikes at the finish line and drive them back to SF's Golden Gate Park for $55! That pretty much relieves me from my biggest worry. Fitting a 43lb awkwardly shaped trike in a box would be a bit of a challenge.