spokenword

I don't recall a specific thread in that manner, but when I was experiencing knee pain after a few months of riding around on my ANT custom Club Racer, I dropped by Landry's on Commonwealth Ave. near BU, and talked to Scott Gertsl -- who sorted out my issues with pronating my right knee with a set of orthopedic insoles and also gave me a second set of eyes to confirm that I needed to shorten my stem reach by a bit. Never had any fit problems since, and I went on to finish Paris-Brest-Paris, a 750 mile ride with an almost insignificant amount of hand numbness and absolutely no knee pain. I highly recommend them.

Also, when I bought my Trek 520 from Ace Wheelworks, I had a free basic fitting done for that and found them to be rather decent.

BostonRoadee

I think the fit expert you're thinking of (who I've mentioned in this thread, and elsewhere on BF) is Sean Brennan at Wheelworks. I have had really great experiences working with him two different times (with great results), and I believe that donrhummy will back me up on that -- we rode together this weekend, and he told me he had the same experience with Sean as I did. Generous, takes his time, great guy, great fit.

donrhummy

DEFINITELY! I'm not a fan of wheelworks but Sean is friggin' incredible. Not only is he far and away the best bike fitter out there but he's an extremely generous person too. I had a number of fit issues and he actually allowed me to have 4 different sessions with him (despite my only paying for one) to make sure we'd fixed all the problems. He wanted to isolate each issue and then have me ride for 80+ miles to make sure they were fixed (since testing/fitting in a store is no where near the same) and get my feedback. I've now gone 2 years without an issue.

Shostakovich33

Im new to the forums/cycling and wanted to know which wheelworks location does Sean work?

Thanks guys!

sherbornpeddler

Communicating off line, I put in a strong vote for Roy at Grace Bikes in Holliston. He's state of the art and uses multiple methods (static and dynamic measurement, laser, video, extensive interviews and generous demo bike program), very, very thorough and has customers from all over New England.


Hills: To get hills into my workout I'm a fan of incorporating local loops like: Strawberry Hill-Westwood-Dover-Medfield (undulating, not steep side roads), Hopkington-Upton-Grafton (longer, a little more traffic) and afore mentioned Weston-Lincoln (a few hills to work into nice, generic area rides). Nothing here will prepare you or Sastre for the Alpe d'Huez, but will nicely mix up rides.

BostonRoadee

Sean is at Belmont Wheelworks, Shostakovich.

bostongarden

In town from Austin and I'll be at Wells Ave this Sunday (July 27)....hope to see some of you there or on the roads...in Boston poimanently (said like Curly in the 3 stooges) after mid-August...hop

Broms

Hey All,

New to the forum, found it a week or so ago and love it. I have been mountain biking for the last ten years (my house backs up on Lynn Woods) but prior to that I was a road rider (last road bike was a mid 90's Cannondale SR800). I am in the process of shopping for a new ride and I am leaning toward a Scott Sportster P2 so I can get a better road ride than my MTB but also still be able to hit an occasional trail or so. I also want to be able to commute the 18 miles from Lynn to Burlington.

Its great to read the local section of the forum and I look forward to possibly seeing some of you out there.

DogHermit

Hey BR (et al.) /

Wanna try a 30-40 mi tomorrow or Sunday and getting bored with the ride from C-Port to rt 95, so I want to bike-rack it out to Weston Center-ish and ride out and back from there. You mentioned that that area was a cycling crossroads, and that you know a few decent routes thereabouts - if you get a sec, would you forward on to me? Going to do the lil' hill climb up Newton at the end...

Thanks - tDH

BostonRoadee

DH, nice to hear you're spreading your wings...

Knowing what I do about your riding, here's what I'd suggest:

https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2112461

A gorgeous loop that includes some of the prettiest cycling I've seen in MetroWest.

Now, for some perverse reason, I started this loop where you and I left off last week -- the top of Newton St./Weston. The whole thing only adds up to 25 mi. (and I don't have any more time to add to it) but you could easily add this 11-mile loop in once you get to Concord Center (it starts only a block or two from where the first loop passes most closely to the center of town):

https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2078768

That'll get you a nice solid 35-37 miles. You won't need to add in Newton St. hill unless you want to; there are a couple of small hills that are at least the same level as Newton St. on the first loop I gave, above (roughly btw. mile 2 & 3, and mi. 18 & 20). The rest of that loop, and the second loop, is basically "flat-to-rolling" and very pleasant, few stoplights, etc.

Hope you enjoy -- let me know. I'll be out of town starting tomorrow for a week, but let me know anyway, I'll find a way to check.

Edit: There's tons of parking right in Weston Center, just turn left on Boston Post Road off of School St. Then, either immediate rt. on Townhouse Rd. and park anywhere on right hand side... or stay straight and park in front of the businesses on Bos. Post Rd. (don't think there are meters there). Also, there's a lovely grocery store for drinks and snacks to the left on BPR a hundred yards or so (and down a short driveway) after you turn from School St.

BostonRoadee

My Beantown friends, the time has come to break the news: After finishing grad school in May, my wife and I decided to relocate to the Amherst area. I have found a good job in the area, and we just settled on an apartment in Belchertown (SE of Amherst) today.

So, I'm afraid I'm going to be leaving the ranks of the Greater Boston cyclists (unless you want to call this the "Even Greater Boston Roll Call" thread). Over the year since I returned to cycling, I have learned and loved and hated the roads around here so much, I feel a little choked up about leaving. My favorite routes! My well-known hills! That stretch of potholes at the top of Park Ave. in Arlington! It's all like family...

And you folks have been generous in helping me, particularly with posting route suggestions (in particular, Buzzman's inspired 45-miler through WestonLincolnConcordEtc.). You listened, commiserated and encouraged as I (finally!!) got over my knee issues and began to stretch to 35, 45, and now 56 mile rides this summer (and counting...).

Some of you have ridden with me (shout-out to DogHermit and Donrhummy!). Spokenword was good enough to breakfast with me, and inspire me with stories of his prodigious distance cycling. SW, you really got me thinking. I've been researching distance cycling ever since, and starting to think of my cycling future more in those terms. Thank you for that significant conversation; hope I can tap you for more sometime.

I'll be here for a few more weeks, til mid-August, and then it's "Go West, (middle-aged) man." You'll be hearing from me til then, but I thought it would be good to give advance notice that I'm taking off.

Sob! :-)

wils0nic

I don't think I've posted here.
Lexington checking in.

deburn

Hey BR, congrats on the new job! Sorry that you'll be moving but we'll still meet on BF!

CerveloFellow

newbie here too. Ride the CRW Sat. a.m. fitness ride regularly and roam the Newton/Weston loops quite a bit.

Would love to hear from others here, maybe arrange an after-work spin?

buzzman

My rides back to Newton from Western MA go right through your area. I might be doing the "commute" on Saturday of this week (weather and work schedule permitting).

Watch the knees on the hills out here. But get ready for some nice rides- it's real pretty out this way and the possibilities are endless.

Hope to see you out on the road and best of luck with your move!

BostonRoadee

Deburn and Buzzman, thank you for your kind words! It's been great getting to know you electronically. Buzz, I'll never forget my first few times riding that sweet route out by Water Row. But yes, I do plan to find lots of routes out west that blow eastern Mass away, hopefully riding right out my front door (just down the street from me, you can see the Holyoke Range rising up).

Knees are MUCH better -- a ton of yoga to release the glutes and hip muscles has seemed to work miracles, and I'm doing intervals and climbing repeats like old times again. FINALLY. What a freakin' relief.

Best to y'all -- we move out there on Monday (8/18). There doesn't seem to be a thread for the Pioneer Valley, so I might just start one, just like I did this one! Never was very shy...

Suzie Green

Good luck with your new digs! Who knows, I might see you on a ride out that way some time. I don't get down into the Northampton area very much, but sometimes I do ride west of the Quabbin and have made it down to Belchertown once or twice. I need to start looking for some mountain bike terrain around the route 202 area.

BostonRoadee

Suzie, I forget: Are you from Western Ma.? Or do you just get out there a lot?

Suzie Green

I'm actually north-central, west of Fitchburg up in the Gardner area. Most of my riding is down around Mt Wachusett, and out to the Rutland-Barre-Petersham area to the northeast of the Quabbin. I don't get down on the west side of the reservoir very often as I don't much care for riding on rt. 202 south of rt. 2 but I have been down on the east side of Quabbin into Hardwick.

BostonRoadee

We're getting a bit off topic (I promise not to take this too far, folks) but Suzie, why don't you like riding 202 south of Route 2? From what little I've heard, I'll be using 202 to get to a few good rides.

I've heard Barre and Petersham are nice!

Suzie Green

Actually it's not as bad as it used to be after some repaving. But sections of it have very little travel space in the breakdown lane, and it gets a lot of 60 mph drivers. Since the northern 10 miles of it is VERY hilly, I get a little spooked with the cars going by and not having much road space to ride in. I much prefer Rt. 32 down through Petersham, Barre, and up into Rutland. This is a great road to ride with lots of room off the travel lane. I'll use Rt. 32 and Rt. 68 to do a nice 50 mile loop.

FormerBMX'er

Same...I rode the CRW 28 just today.

ZIPP2001

Hi Suzie Green, BostonRoadee !

I ride thru your area all the time, I live in Winchendon and most of my riding takes me thru Gardner. BostonRoadee I did 202 into Belchertown then rte. 9 into Worcester to rte. 12 home just a couple weeks ago. Route 202 has some great roling hills, you have alot of great routes out there to ride. Maybe we can get together for a ride in the future.

daveydave

DonR and BR - definitely want to thank you guys for your recommendation on Sean Brennen at Wheelworks for my fitting. Sean was able to put me into a better position, took a great deal of extra time, explained everything well and will be available for follow up.

Practice Ride for Mt. Washington - lower back killed for a few days
Fitting with Sean - took some stress off the lower back
Race up Mt. Washington - felt great after. Was fine 2 days after the ride.

BR - Best of luck my friend! Sorry we never got that ride in, but at least I now know who to ask for some rides out in Western MA!

Dave

BostonRoadee

Dave,

Congratulations on completion of that CRAZY race! Well done!

I, too, am sorry we never got that ride in. Thanks for the best wishes.

I'm *really* glad Sean worked out so well for you. Hope you tell him Harry said "Hi." He's a great guy.

I've already covered about 120 miles out here in my first week or so, and the cycling is terrific. But much more hilly. 'Course, that wouldn't bother you!