...
 

could i be in good form in time if i start next week?

i still havent found a good ten speed at a garage sale....

If you are looking for someone to draft, and you don't want
 

to go Archaea or Steel blue fast, you may like me, especially given that there is a reasonably good chance that my wife and I may do the ride on our tandem. Tandems pull very. very well.

One of the criticisms I have of biking as a sport is the focus on expensive gear. I like expensive gear, but I ride becasue I like riding, not becasue my stuff costs more than somebody else's stuff. So if you might like to ride, and you want to use a mountain bike, go ahead! Riding is fun regardless of the price of your steed. Somewhwere in my garage I have a couple of 26" slicks that I have never used; I'll bring them along just in case somebody needs them.

it's not the gear, it's the engine that counts.
 

Most of the stuff you can pick up now, if it's fairly recent is better than down tube shifting and clip-ons.

One Ebay, you can buy stuff dirt cheap that is lightyears better than what you could have purchased ten years ago.

Ride because it's fun. However, a good fit is more important than cost of gear. Sometimes the costly stuff feels better, but only after you know what to look for. If I had had costly stuff, not borrowed stuff, at first, I would not have known what to look for.

A funny story. Now I've been riding only fifteen months. However, when I do things, I tend to go crazy.

Well, my "friends" loose term there, thought it would be humorous to see me suffer on a three day stage race. Mind you, I had had three "rides" total. No miles whatsoever on my legs.

I borrowed an aluminum bike, with a woman's seat (big mistake) and suckered into it. It had four thousand feet of climbing the first day. After a couple of miles and the first surge I was dropped. So what was supposed to be a road race became a lonely, long time trial. I went 3h45min for a 58 mile race. Slow doesn't begin to describe my race. I suffered, and suffered. It ended with a one mile ten percent grade. I hated my friends.

Next day was worse. Third day, forget it.

Rule one. Don't trust friends when you're starting.

Rule two, buy a man's seat, not a woman's seat.

Rule three, get in shape a bit by yourself before riding, let alone racing.

Re: Steel and Blue, for those of you who've done Solvang
 

Arch, it's not a brutal century. It had between 4000 and 4500 feet of climb. Of all of the centuries I've ridden I'd say Solvang is the easiest.