jimmuller 

Heal up quickly, @Ed.. Good to hear things are okay.

pastorbobnlnh 

Wishing all my "wicked good" New England friends a great ride tomorrow.

May the winds be calm, the temps in the 60-70s, and the tubes free from punctures!

Enjoy Sharon's cookies. @Ed. heal quickly. Miss you--- but FL weather has been superb this year!

jimmuller 

I hear you. I'd have the same problem if I weren't riding them to work. Still, that's not the same as riding off on a go-anywhere day ride.

Ed.

Cant retype the whole thing. Home with plates and screws holding the multi-pieces of my clavicle together.

Have fun!

Best,
Ed

pastorbobnlnh 

Dang Ed.! It sounds as if you were in the peloton during a multiple bike pile-up occurred. Those are some serious injuries! Do your fellow New England C&Vers need to set up a schedule to bring food, do bike tune-ups, and possibly mount one of those tricycle conversion contraptions on Geraldine while you mend?

Seriously, wishing you the best in your recovery! Take care of yourself, and maybe we should organize an easy recovery ride when you get the go ahead from the Doc and Mrs. Ed..

rootboy 

Oh....man. I wince for you Ed. That sounds like no simple collar bone fracture, for sure.
Best wishes for a proper and rapid healing.

jimmuller 

We rode L'Eroica Cape Cod today, Dennis to Wellfleet and back. It was a beautiful sunny summer day, except for the weather which was cold, windy, cloudy, windy, cold, and did I mention windy? (Don't you wish you had been there?) Nobody complained, not even about the weather!

Start: spiker, Prowler, Sharon, me, Alex, Frog, otg, Top506:


A quick pedal switch:


Top's Viscount:



Bikes in Orleans:


It's a real popsicle course!


Safely Across:


Lunch at the Wellfleet trailhead:



Finish (Frog seems missing but he had just made himself transparent for this pic). Prowler's "top men" finally came through with sunny skies just about when we reached the parking lot. Good timing.


44.7 miles. Sharon wore bike gloves inside her mittens with hand warmers. We all ate her cookies. And a good time was had by all!

pastorbobnlnh 

Wait one cotton pickin' moment! What did Top post in #74 !?! Hmmmmm!

And he shows up on a Viscount!?! What's all this about?



Great ride through less than ideal conditions. Glad you had a great time--- just enjoying Sharon's cookies is worth the wind. As I was weaving in and out of side streets and making laps around the nearby State Park I thought about you on the Cape. It was also windy here on the NW FL beaches--- but the temp was a perfect 74F. Hope to join you for the next ride.

top506

Post refereed to what I would ride 15 April, NOT what I'd ride on the 16th. Underlines my problem with too many bikes.
Besides, the Cannondale doesn't fit my personal vision of C&V.



I really don't ride the Viscount enough.

Top

otg 

Kind of funny, as I drove off The Cape, the sun came out strong and I needed sunglasses to drive. It was clear and warm when I got home to Connecticut, and my wife said it was that way all day! I would not change a thing about Saturdays ride, great time. Thanks all!

ScottRyder 

wow, everyone one was in my thoughts yesterday! I was homeward bound from Nicaragua and wished instead of sitting in a cramped airline seat I was on a Brooks saddle.

Windy and cold, I guess I'm not surprised, spring comes late to the cape, around Memorial Day. Then summer starts the day after.

Nicaragua was scorchingly hot, mid 90's and more humidity than my last visit. I did photograph some of the locals with their bikes, I wish I had had more time to get stop in get into some of the bike shops we passed. No racing lightweights down there, all MTB styles of some sort.

Ed, I hope your clavicle heals, the Coast Guard Beach bike trail in Eastham claimed mine many years ago. Too curvy, too fast and covered with sand. And that was the girl I was chasing, not the trail.

CasualBikerJay ... I'm in Eastham a lot, lets gets some time to ride someday when there's time.

I'm up for a CCRT Spring 2016 Ride Part Two if anyone else finds the time.

Scott

Ed.

Progress is good. Can type with two hands! I'll likely be sling bound for threeish weeks from last Friday, when I was screwed back together. Very impressed with the staff and approach of Newton Wellesley Hospital and New England Orthopeadics. If you're ever in the need, Dr Shah, and the rest of the team, were excellent. I've had more than my share of medical issues/working with MDs in technology, and there's a shocking number who aren't fit for human relations.

Thought you might like to see a photo from the day. My eye looks quite normal now, but my right leg sure has taken on some party color, LOL. All sorts of interesting hues.



Scott, that's hilarious! I, too, was run off the bikepath out near Ptown in the long ago days, in pursuit of a fair damsel. As for a second CCRT event, I doubt I'll be on the bike for probably 2 months. We'll see what the good Doc has to say.

Best,
Ed

jimmuller 

Lookin' good, Ed.. Good to hear you are progressing.

Scott, depending on the timing we are probably in for another. Lots going on now though.

Prowler 

I sure had a fine time on Saturday, all weekend in fact. I left PA on Thursday morning and got to East Hampton, CT around 1:00. I rode on the Airline State Park trail for a couple of hours. Pretty nice but variable surfaces - packed cinders, rutted track, loose sand, flooded sections, etc. Some fine scenery as it follows the old rail line fills across some of those valleys. Funny how things that were an environmental disaster then are now all healed and pretty. Just give the earth a hundred years to recover and there are possibilities.

I then drove on out to the Cape and camped in the Shawme-Crowell state forest in Sandwich. Nice place and I got a good site - could have had any of them as I was the only SOB in the whole place. Quiet. They do have one mens/womens building open all year with heat and warm water so I camped near that. One of the good things about camping so early in the season is that there's plenty of firewood lying around. Those place are picked barren by autumn.

Friday I went up to the Myles Standish state forest and rode about 2 hours on their paved trails. Good trails but rough most of the time, frost heaves and root heaves. I was glad to have the 27x1 3/8 tires. Even with those, as it turns out, I broke the rear axle - bent and cracked actually but holding . I could tell on the CCRT that something was off but the bike ran fine all Saturday. I found the break tonite when checking out the rear wheel. It did hold another 70miles or so after cracking and only broke thru after I removed it from the hub. Lucky, huh? Its already been replaced and the bike is back to work.

On Friday afternoon I rode the rail trail from North Falmouth to Woods Hole and back (21 miles RT). Very nice ride there too. Temps holding around 45 deg or so but sunny so I was comfortable but stayed zipped up all afternoon. I had previously found a nice set of benches across from the Institute, looking out on the harbor. Stopped there again and one was quite nicely sheltered from the cold wind but exposed to the warm sun. That just called for a nap - with one hand laced into the bike's frame - just in case. That's doing a day off right.

You've heard about the CCRT ride. Another sunny day dawned on Saturday, clear skies, light wind. Lingered at a fine breakfast place in Sandwich to pack away a plate of cinamon apple pancakes with walnut bits and syrup all over the top. Well fueled I then drove out to Dennis to the trail head. Upon arriving in Dennis I could see that it was all clouds - wall to wall. Stiff wind out of the north and 43 deg holding steady. "Ah, oh, gee, this should clear dontcha think?" Not.

We gathered anyway and stood around pretending that the wind was not that cold until we all said "Enough, gotta get cranking or we'll freeze standing here." So we pushed off and generate enough heat to be comfortable - pushing against the head/side wind under solid cloud cover. Not solar relief. Great ride though and great company. Interesting cycle cross bit at the road construction. They'd dug out the road and were replacing it so the 'ditch' we crossed was at least a foot deep. We lifted the bikes to prevent the chain rings from dragging in the fresh sandy berm.

Cycling was very nice but rest stops were not as our clothing was designed to control heat loss not hold heat in so we all chilled pretty quickly when the bikes were parked. Sharon's cookies were excellent fuel though so we each womped down a couple then got back on the trail. We made good time to Wellfleet then despite the head wind. You saw from the photos above that the lunch spot was not charming - still windy and dark and pretty cool. No one wanted to shelter in the out house though. Not THAT cold. The return to Dennis was easy, pleasant and quick as the wind was at our backs and the pavement rose to meet our feet. And the weather glass was in our favor so the skies cleared for the final mile of the trip. Good photo weather, huh?

I camped the third night in the forest (several other campers there on Saturday night). Each night was calm and down to 41deg but I was fine in my down sleeping bag. I skipped the camp fire Saturday eveing and turned in early. Therefore when I woke at 3:50am I said 'that'll do nicely'. I tossed the nylon motel into the trunk and set out. Just flew off the cape and down I95 then back to PA by 10:30am.

Thank you Top and Jim and Sharon and all the others. Thanks for organizing this again, for being such good company, for bringing such cool C&V machines. It was worth the drive. Looking forward to the next trip.

ScottRyder 

wow Ed, that is some serious injury .. scary!

I know this is off topic but the reason I couldn't join everyone was that I was just getting back from Nicaragua on Sunday. I finished up (for now) my photography project down there and I've enclosed a link to the images:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/140224795@N08/

I'm known as a black and white shooter so the color is fun. The new images do have more bikes tho!! My next project is a documenting some of the veterans from the last war in Nicaragua, between the Sandinista and the Contras. The healthcare was awful back then, especially for war type injuries. You see lots of scars, lost limbs and blindness.

ok, back to bikes! I'm thinking of doing the Nashua River Trail on Sunday .. the weather looks ok. Love the company if anyone is in the area.

Scott

rumrunn6

tempted to join Nashua but doing Passover w/ Wifey's family Saturday and Sunday getting 1/2 of my Son's stuff from his dorm

jimmuller 

I'll run the idea by Sharon. We've been talking about getting back out there. Mind, it's only about 13 miles from Ayer to Nashua but we can add some loops on nice local roads.

Glad you made it safely back to the Big Pencil. Glad you could make it to the CCRT to. It was a fun day! We're ready for another one.

Your axle might have been broken but the DO's effectively held the pieces in alignment. Good to hear you had no trouble fixing it.

Prowler 

Oh, I do like that - the Big Pencil. Even William would grin at that.

Yes the DOs mashed tight by the skewer while the skewer holds the axle bits in line is a good design feature. Antiquated? No way.

jimmuller 

So we are up for a ride on the NRRT on Sunday. Proposal: We meet at the Ayer trailhead at roughly 9:30 for a planned 10AM start. Round trip to the NH line is about 25 miles. There are some nice roads we can run before we return to Ayer. FWIW, the longest tandem ride we've ever done was 72 miles in that area with part on the NRRT. Very pretty ride. The adjoining roads have a few hills but nothing overly long. The few steep pitches are fairly short.

obrentharris 

Scott, something wrong with the Flicker link... "Page Not Found"
Brent

Sir_Name 

Sorry to have missed the ride, some time soon hopefully.

jimmuller 

Scott, are you in?...

So far we've heard back only from people who will be out of town or otherwise committed. Which means if no one else can make it Sharon may just ride somewhere else. Which is to say if anyone shows up and no one else does you'll know why.

ScottRyder 

Fixed the link, thanks for letting me know!

Scott

https://www.flickr.com/photos/140224795@N08/

ScottRyder 

Sorry for the late responses .. I don't check back here as often as I'd like.

I'll be there at the NRRT around 12:15 today. Text me if there's any late comers. 978.290.3467

Scott