CCRBENT Ride!

Today was the first CCRBENT social ride.  CC is for Collin County, and RBENT is the Recumbent Bike Enthusiasts of North Texas. RBENT is the "parent" group that we all belong to.  The ride was a chance for some area recumbent riders to get together, have a pleasant ride, and then go eat!

The plan was for a 16mi jaunt out in the county, and bagel sandwiches to follow.  So at 9am we met up in the grocery store lot.  10 folks showed--Jayg, ActionLad, Testersbc & his wife TerriA59, me, TonyW, JimFPU, Jim's friend Betty, Ken and Denman.  The recumbents outnumberd the trikes by only 1, and Jim's friend was on her DF bike.  It was a great turnout for a first-time social ride.  Our goal is to schedule a ride like this once a month.

 ActionLad had his big video camera, and shot a lot of nice action scenes.  Boy, he is REALLY FAST on his Catrike 700!  I shot some video too, with the GoPro, but have not edited it yet or put it up on our Youtube channel.   If I got some good shots, I will post them later here.  ActionLad's Youtube channel is "Palm Victory" so you might check there first, for better videos!

Bikewise, it was an interesting assortment.  Bacchetta Ti-Aero, Bacchetta Giro 26, Rans Stratus, Rans Xstream, Cannondale DF, Cattrike 700, Speed & Expedition, Terra Trike, and a Musashi.

This was officially a No Drop ride, so we rode at an easy pace, and if folks got ahead, they waited for others to regroup.  It worked well, despite my being the only one on the ride who knew where we were going!  OOPS!  I didn't think to print out a map for folks--though I had posted the RidewithGPS file on the forum thread where we set up the ride. 

We rode the loop counterclockwise, which was nice for the folks who were tired, as the pretty section is slightly downhill that way, and has a wonderful tree-tunnel over the road.  The shade was welcome too, as it was a bit hot and sunny.  We also encountered a lot of downed trees and limbs across the roads that had not been cleared from last night's storm.  Apparently it blew a lot harder just north of the Monkeyhouse than I realized.  At one point the road was almost totally blocked.  Cars had to squeeze by in the ditch.

I had a great time--I don't get to ride with other folks very often, unless it is a paid ride, and even then, there are not a lot of recumbents at the pay rides.  So this marks the largest recumbent group I have ridden with.  We had no trouble with traffic that I know of, and it seemed like the ride was a popular idea.  So my goal is to try to have a ride like this once a month.  Since winter is typically mild here, we ought to be able to ride year-round without much difficulty.