Did anyone ride the shinerbash 2005.....it was the best ride ever for me.

It was a great ride, and I look forward to riding it again from Austin on 5/6/6 -- Shiner Bash (http://www.shinerbash.com/home.html). Who's in?

Here's my log from last year (a repeat of an earlier entry in this forum):
The ride was nearly perfect. The morning storm front was about 35 miles wide, moving at 20 mph and about 30 miles ahead of us at the start, so initially the course was wet, but then things turned quite sunny. I rolled out at 7:19, about seven minutes behind the main pack. I saw a lot of flats -- I think a lot of riders inflated their tires in the cool weather prior to the start, then attempted to ride in the area that looked like smooth road, but, given the wet conditions, was actually the debris channel of the roadway. After more than an hour of slow and careful riding in wet conditions, the weather cleared, the pace quickened, and I made good time to the 34 mile point, then decided to make a pit stop at the third official rest stop. I had a six-minute turnaround and got back on my bike, but could not lock into my left pedal. Initially, I thought it was just dirt on my cleat, but, upon closer examination, it turned out that I broke my pedal. I went back to the rest stop, purchased super glue and duct tape at a proximate convenience store, and rigged my pedal. Twenty minutes later, and after a small mishap that resulted in a super glue drip and a scratch on my frame, I was back on the road. The rest of the day I was careful not to sprint, stand, or use a heavy gear, as I did not want to put too much pressure on the pedal (this slowed me down a bit). The prolonged stop left me well behind other riders of my pace, so I wound up either solo or leading a slow pace line until I dropped it. Additionally, my contortions to fix the pedal and consumption of too much liquid at the rest stop during the ordeal necessitated another pit stop at the next rest stop, which was the 47 mile point. Unfortunately, I could not get either foot out of the pedals (at the time, I could not determine if it was dirt or a super glue drip on the right cleat), and had to have people both catch and launch me (I left my shoes attached to my bike). About four miles later, I found a nice pace line, but it stopped at rest stop five, and I did not want to bother, given my pedal problem. The course then turned south on US 95, and faced a headwind for most of the next 32 miles. I was solo for a while, then rode with a young kid (probably college age) in good shape. We picked up a few other riders on our way to Flatonia. Our pace was not rapid, but we took turns out front blocking for the others, and it helped. The group stopped at rest stop 6 at Flatonia, where the Austin route merged with the San Antonio route, but I forged ahead another eight miles to rest stop 7 at Moulton. I stopped at Moulton to ensure that I had enough water for the final 17 miles. Back on the course, the headwind and gradual hills were getting to me. A couple of guys from Austin passed me about a mile outside of Moulton, and were kind enough not to complain while I sucked their draft for about eight miles (initially, they were riding casually, side-by-side). I was then rested, and offered to pull my duty, so I pulled most of the way to the Brewery. We did not stop at the Brewery, but slowed our pace for a leisurely tour of Shiner as we rode a few more miles to the finish at the municipal park grounds. I rolled across the finish line at 1:04; my odometer indicated I had been on the bike 5:05:35 (out of the 5:45 the ride took me), and my average was 17.4 mph for 89 miles. If it had not been for the pedal problem, I probably would have cut 12 minutes of rest stops (I would have saved 20 minutes of fix time plus about three minutes of shoe time at my other stops, but would have stopped at the Brewery and probably made a quick stop elsewhere), hammered the cranks a bit more, and probably would have been in a few more fast pace lines (cutting 12 -25 minutes off my ride time), but, overall, I was satisfied with my ride.

aejc

Oh man the Shiner Bash is on May 6th? They certainly don't make it easy for us mountain bikers to participate in these things, first I miss a TMBRA race to do the MS150 and now I miss the Shiner Bash as my home TMBRA race is on that weekend.

Oh well mountain biking all but closes down over the summer so hopefully I can find some road events to do during the summer!

What was it like last year...I heard it was very commercialized and you had to pay for items at the rest stop...I am not saying that...I just heard it from hear say a few months ago. I was thinking of making this ride this year from Houston...Thanks.

I rode the Austin route. Various bike shops had services and items for sale at rest stops (if you required repairs en route), but all snacks and drinks at the official rest stop tables were included as part of the ride cost. There was also a nice shower set up (semi trailers with flash heaters abd individual stalls) at the end. Admission and enough tickets for a light meal at the actual BASH afterwards was also included, but recognize that is a concert/festival, so if you wanted to stay and drink lots of beer, you'd need some extra cash.

If anyone has a ride back to Austin from Shiner on Friday afternoon (for those of us parking cars overnight), please contact me.