Just tooled around town on the Trek 420. I went out to a park right outside of town. The river had overflowed and flooded some of the forest around the path- overnight it all froze- I got there at a time when it was beginning to warm up and the ice was cracking as it was melting- it was a cool, if not creepy sound echoing throughout the forest.

I swear it's rained just about every day this month...

Finally got out for a ride. We got 20 miles up-canyon before a little standing water on the road scared the two Nancy's I was riding with and forced a retreat back down the mountain. They let me ride across and then refused to follow, so I had to cross back over. 40 miles and ~2100 feet of climbing.

Maybe its time for an old Paramount with fenders?^^^^^^^^^

Took out my "new to me" Cannondale I built and painted for the first time yesterday.

Excellent work. I'm nauseated now, but the bike looks great.

Went riding at night through Mission Hills and Hillcrest here in San Diego. Sorry for the crappy cellphone pic and wrong side of bike, ah well!

Very nice photo essay! I drove along I-89 for years from Boston to Montreal to visit my then, finance. I had always wanted to take a detour and wander around up the other side of Lake Champlain to sight-see and then enter Canada from the New York border. I should've when I had the opportunity. Looks like nice countryside.

I snapped this before tonights ride, and before I had drivetrain carnage!

This area I ride in was a very active bluestone quarry till about 1900, give or take. The holes in the rock (bluestone) were all drilled by hand and are approximately 6 feet deep or so. The workers would drill the holes, then break off large chunks of rock and shape it into smaller ones. From what I've seen in this pit, the rock here is probably most suitable for sidewalks, curbing, and architectural purposes. The bluestone industry slowed down with the discovery of Rosendale Cement, which ironically, happened less than 15 miles from here. From Havana Cuba to San Francisco, bluestone from this area of Ulster County was sought after and used for the purposes listed above.

It still sits here, waiting for the next group of quarrymen. Time has stopped in this small corner of the woods.

Today was our April club run, a meandering ramble through Needham, Natick, and Wellesley, MA (plus a few assorted towns on the way and back home to Brookline, MA). Some fine British steel turned out:

My 1960 Ken Ryall:


Bob's 1950s Flying Scot Continental model:


Check out the Simplex RD action on the 3-speed block!


Chuck's 1959 Mercian:


Chris's 1970s Mercian:


Scott's 1940s Raleigh:


The knickered crew!


One casualty was the front Bleumels fender on my Ryall. My front wheel took up a thick stick while we were covering some rough stuff:


A great time was had by all (except my front fender).

Neal

Here's head cam video of my ride Thursday evening after work, on a 1992 Grandis Max, with Columbus Max lugged oversize elliptical steel tubes, and some vintage components including TA crankset and Modolo Master Professional brakes. Ride was 14 miles with 2,200 feet of climbing. Max speed on longer downhills was 45, 47, and 43 mph. This bike with its Columbus Max tubeset handles well with this 200 pound rider on it.

A quick out and back. Mérida-Motul-Mérida, under overcast skies. A headwind going out and a tailwind coming back. 55 miles. 84 degrees when I rolled out the door at 6:30 and 94 when I returned at 10:30. Springtime in Yucatán.

Sweet report, Neal! Those are some beautiful old machines and some dapper, knickered fellas.

I didn't ride 100 miles, but i did ride 30 on my new Fuji Newest 3.0 with my new Shimano M520 pedals. I rode with my riding partner Lisa on the SRT (Schuylkill River Trail).
I'm officially a cyclist now I'm told. I took my first fall trying to get out of the clippless pedals. Despite to crash I had a great day.https://www.bikeforums.net/images/smilies/thumb.gif
https://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/31445322

Well I have no pics to show of yesterday morning's ride with forum member JPTwins, but we did take a nice 36 mile ride. I was on my Trek 560, JPTwins was on his Fuji S-12-S. We met in Brookline, MA, and headed out Comm ave past Boston College and made our way out to Weston. Came back through the lovely Lincoln countryside, getting to ride past the amazing Walter Gropius home. For the last leg we took Trapelo Rd through Waltham and Belmont, back to Somerville.

Then for a biking encore, his family met up with mine, and we rode all the kids on a motley combination of tandems, trailercycles, and even a tandem trailercycle! We rode a whopping 1.5 miles to Cambridge Commons, let the kids play on the playground while we enjoyed a picnic lunch. JPTwins and I stopped for a beer while our wives took the kids for ice cream. Then we all met up, finished off our beers, and rode home.

Here is a photo of our tangle of steel:

trailercycles.jpg

Yesterday was the first day for shorts as the temperature climbed suddenly into the low 80's. That is quite a change versus the past 7 weeks of riding while wearing Patagonia expedition weight.

Was supposed to be home sick (actually, I was home sick: sinuses, ears and left eye infected). Sun was shining, and a ride on the Raleigh made me feel a bit better. Guilt ensued, but I'm glad I did it anyway. About 10 miles, and the only pleasantly not-ill hour of my day. Sun, blossoms and a good breeze will cure many problems, at least for a few minutes.


raleighblossoms by snarkypup, on Flickr

This is the only picture I have of my recent trip out to Sauvie Island, northwest of Portland. I wish I had brought my real camera, the lighting was spectacular.

Yesterday, my buddy Bob and I did a fine 85-mile tour of the swamps and bogs in southeastern Massachusetts. We took advantage of the commuter rail system, taking the morning train out of Boston southeast to Attleboro, MA, rode southeast from there through swampland and rural state parks to Hixville, MA, then headed east and north through cranberry bogs to Plymouth, MA, where we just missed an earlier train, but had a fine dinner and caught the last train back to Boston. It was a coldish, windy day, so we fought headwinds whenever we were heading east without cover, but fortunately, a good chunk of the ride had plenty of forest cover to temper the winds somewhat. All went well mechanically until we were back in Boston and heading for home in a steady rain when Bob's drive-side pedal ripped out of his TA crankarm as he was starting up at a light. We were very glad that didn't happen in the middle of nowheresville. I zipped home on my bike (which was only a couple of miles), got in the car, and swept up Bob and his bike. Otherwise, it was a great day. And now the pics:

Given that we planned on riding lots of primitive roads/paths, the ride called for fat-tire bikes. We were both riding 650B 42mm Hetre tires.

My Ebisu ready for the ride:


Waiting for the train at Boston's South Station. Bob's bike is a newly repainted SR w/ added canti-posts and a few other adjustments for 650B wheels. The work was done by CircleA in Providence, and it's a beauty not well captured by these photos:


After a single-lane river crossing in Berkeley, MA:


An old stone bridge crossing yet another river (lots of water on this ride):


We spent a great deal of time noodling around in Fall River/Freetown State Forest, where the best roads looked like this:


But most of them looked like this:


The Hetre tires absolutely rocked for this terrain. We were riding over small logs, lots of rocks, and straight through those puddles.

Huh? We didn't have a problem on our bikes:


Our southernmost destination was Hixville, MA, where we had an awesome Portuguese sandwich:


Cranberry bog on the way to Plymouth. The colors are amazing (but not well captured by this photo):


On the train back home:


Neal

Neal, wow, great photos and trip description! I was thinking of you while I was hunkered down out of the rawness in front of my wood stove..

I'd be interested to know why Bob's pedal pulled out of his crank arm, seems to me you're getting good at this type of rescue! Did he go down? I'm still figuring out what went wrong when my pedal stripped out at the traffic light in Watertown..

Scott

Thanks, Scott. Fortunately, Bob didn't go down, mainly because he was just starting from a stop, so he didn't have much momentum or speed at that point. It was pretty interesting to see his pedal still attached to his foot via toe clip but not attached to the crank arm. I would have taken a pic if it hadn't been dark and raining. I'm not sure what the cause was, but I don't think the arm is repairable as he pulled out lots of material. He's going to try and clean out the threads with my Park tap, but I think it's too far gone.

Neal

Great photos, Neal! A 650B machine is on my list.

Thanx for that post Neal... I grew up in Middleborough, dated a girl in Freetown, and had family connections (Portuguese) throughout the area...brings back memories.

Gotta ask:
What kind of sandwhich?
Where did you eat in Plymouth??

-Mark in St. Louis

Thanks, Mark. Some terrific riding in that area. On the sandwich, Bob told me not to ask what the filling was (!), but it seemed to have ground pork and some spicy sauce. The bread was that amazingly light Portuguese roll. The restaurant is called Roo Bar and is in a complex near the Plymouth commuter-rail station. I believe it's been there a while, but now has a new owner who spent some time chatting with us. I had lobster pizza and a couple of pints of Mayflower IPA--highly recommended!

Neal

Linguica? Mmm.

I saw your name on here, Colonel, and thought I would see your ride report. But no, not yet. I did a nice, easy 29 miles out and back to the south. Every time I ride south, I get pressured to race--that's their training, and racing ground. So I told myself I was doing intervals of two minutes on, three minutes off. But I invariably forgot that I was supposed to be pushing during those two minutes, and finally just went through the motions of shifting into a higher gear and increasing my cadence.
Lovely ride report, Neal.