Nickel

Did some mountain biking in the Burlington Landlocked Forest. Forgot how much rockier and rootier it is out east. Unfortunately did not get any pictures.

godshammgod

Rode 10 miles in the damp and murk this morning to purchase myself an iced coffee and obtain a free "National Donut Day" donut for my fiancee.

Time well spent.

sherbornpeddler

Jim,
We are fans and are anxious to learn what you brought the post Acadian, Amtrak day.

sherbornpeddler

Nickel, Thanks for your post. I've never biked there and now know more about this oasis. It sounds like fun.

sherbornpeddler

Rod, I'll wait for your next post to learn about the Mysterious T.

Yesterday riding out from Cambridge on the Beacon St mysterious bike lane that comes and goes I ran over some glass by BC, wiped my front tire with my gloved hand and the small shard of glass didn't puncture the rear until after I crossed the Charles River on Washington St. (Rt16) in Wellesley.
8 minutes later I was back in the saddle with CO2 in my chilled tire, passed where Rts. 16 and 135 go their separate ways and made a beeline to Sherborn's traffic light and home.
Car and bike traffic from Cambridge to Beacon and west of Rt 128 was busy and, well, routine. Who is that lurking in the daylight?
Coexistence, is that you?

jimmuller 

SBP, thanks for asking but the answer is void. Yesterday I worked from home (a twice-a-week luxury) so I rode the Masi for an hour in the afternoon. Today I did not take the train/bike due to the weather. Tomorrow Sharon wants to do a tandem ride, and Sunday too. I'm hoping we don't have rivers in the streets tomorrow. On Monday, weather permitting, I will probably ride the Bianchi to the office. But I may choose to be crazy and ride something else.

Edit, after some thought about what you were asking: The post-Acadian, Amtrak commute was done on a black '87 Bianchi Brava, the same bike shown in the Cadillac Moutain/PLR pics. The Brava was the bottom of the Competition Series in the '87 catalog, apparently intended as an entry-level criterium bike because it has a high bottom bracket and is pretty stiff, straight gauge 4130 chromoly steel. The component group was the newly-introduced Shimano 105.

[Anyone not interested in vintage bikes may go to sleep now...]

I had so much fun building our tandem that I looked around for another project. My solo bikes then were a '72 Peugeot UO8 I'd bought new and a '73 Raleigh/Carlton Gran Sport I'd built from an abused frame into a rider. The Gran Sport is Reynolds 531 main tubes and fork, and is quite nice. The UO8 is a French bike-boom bike through much better than it's price would suggest. I figured the new project should be something very different, perhaps in the Italian style. I looked for months because most frames my size ("average") are either very expensive or non-existent. This frame showed up on ebay and I put in a bid I didn't expect to win.

I did win and then wondered whether there was so little interest because it was a dog. Hoping to make a better bike out of a potential sow's ear I chose the best components that seemed reasonable, 1st-gen Cyclone derailleurs, Tektro double-pivot brakes, 32-spoke wheels (currently with 25mm Gatorskins, 120psi), compact double crank, short-reach (80mm) stem. The result was spectacular! It's nimble and responsive, fits me to a T, is a stiff climber, and weighs 24lbs fully equipped. It is almost as much fun and as efficient as the Masi, though it doesn't quite know by intuition how I want to turn the way the Masi does. (The Masi is uncanny like that.) Come the zombie apocalypse if I get to keep just one bike I might choose this one because it shifts so nicely. On the other hand, if I have to ride both far and fast instead of just fast, it would be the Masi.

rholland1951

Well, I said "Howdy" to him in passing, and he frowned, so I guess he's going to stay Mysterious...

rod

jimmuller 

SPB, your posts continue to inspire. So much curiosity and so much joy. (BTW, is that a Serotta you're fixin' the tire on? A CF bike with a flattened seat stay, yet?)

mtalinm

commuted 26 miles today in the pouring rain. tht was rough

Nickel

Had a lot of fun. Good mix of climbs and descents, tight twisty turns, A & B line obstacle separation and many fun off-shoots from the main path. I bet during the summer it gets pretty buggy as it seemed kind of swampy (use of a lot of boardwalks for muddy areas and water crossings).

rholland1951

That was a lot of water to deal with!

rod

jimmuller 

That's exactly what I was thinking. Much H2O from the sky. If I'd dome my bike commute I would have been a fish by the end of each run.

jimmuller 

Invitation for a short camping tour! Last year we, accompanied by BF member berner, did a 1-night camping trip from our house in Waltham to Harold Parker State Forest. We learned a lot, things to do or take, things not to do or take, roads to take or avoid. We are thinking of trying another, possibly but not necessarily two nights, so this is an invitation to consider joining us.

Our current thinking is a loop that connects with the Boston Minuteman Campground in Littleton and Harold Parker S.F. We've been over most of those roads before, even on our 90lbs-loaded tandem last year, so I know it isn't terribly difficult. (For this trip I hope to keep the bike much lighter!)

We have limited days this summer. A 2-night trip could go Fri-Sun or Sat-Mon, depending on the weekend of course. Our current availability is:
Aug 9 10 11 12 or 23 24 25 26
Jul 13 14 or 20 21 22

Both Harold Parker and the Boston MM CG have campsites available for those dates. A mini-group adventure experience would be awesome fun. Also a group would seemingly be safer than us traveling solo (actually duo), though these places aren't exactly out in the wilderness nor so far away that unplanned recovery is difficult. Also a group can probably go more efficiently than just one bike alone. For example, we may take just one stove, one set of tools, etc.

If this appeals, drop me some email, jimmuller @ rcn.com.

mtalinm

the good news: found a prime weekend training loop with ~8 miles of warmup before the popular Pine St. segment in Dover. then some hill work and a few miles to relax on the way back home. the not-so-good news: currently 597th out of 664 on said segment among Strava users :-(

rholland1951

That's Strava for ya: Computer-Assisted Demoralization.

rod

mtalinm

since posting, I have fallen to

gabedad

50 + out to Shirley deven area

followed this route

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/2653181

jimmuller 

Sharon wanted an adventure today. So we rode most of the "long ride" of the NSCYC Let's Go Coastal ride, Newburyport, MA to Portsmough, NH, with some side runs to keep us along the coast. I just programmed it into my GPS and followed the beeps. Well, mostly followed the beeps. (Note, there is one L vs. R error in the online route notes! Fortunately I discovered it working out the route last night. Otherwise we'd be out in the Atlantic somewhere.) We got lost a little coming out of Portsmouth, explored a few unintended roads, got back on course, decided not to do the final detour further inland, but still ended up doing about 65 miles.

It was a pretty hectic day. This being June the beaches and stuff were all open and busy. Traffic was heavy but generally quite polite and courteous. Still, it's tiring. The biggest problem was the crosswind. It was a lot of work keeping the bike moving in a straight line, especially when we'd transition between beach house and open moor and beach house and open moor and beach house and open moor. As directed by traffic signs we walked across a few drawbridges with metal-grate road surfaces.

Crossing the Merrimack River from Newburyport into Salisbury:


The busy Hampton Beach strip:


A rest stop at Jennes Beach (I think it was):


The obligatory lunch without which biking would be impossible, Wallis Beach:


A rest at a churchyard in Salisbury nearing the bridge back into Newburyport:


Across the road from that church (this pic is a homage to JJScaliger):

rholland1951

As it fell out, mostly walking this weekend, tramping around out in Harvard yesterday and 7 miles on the Western Greenway today, along with various domestic needful things. Got a ten miles ride in at sunset on the Minuteman. In the cool and dark, encountered a poodle wearing a headlight on his collar.


rod

rholland1951

Sounds good. ridewithgps is slapping my hand when I try to view the route...

rod

rholland1951

Paid a late afternoon visit to Tyler Oulton at Paramount Bicycle Repair in Ball Square, Somerville, to look in on the project bike.

The bike is built on a Surly Trucker DeLuxe frame, with S&S couplers, and is intended as a travel bike, but is likely to see most of its service right here in New England. It's definitely a bicycle these days, rather than a collection of parts. Rode it 15 miles from Ball Square to Lexington Center and back on another shake-down cruise, and found a couple of things worth fiddling with in the process, but mostly just spent the time grinning at the bike. It rolls well on hand-built 26" wheels with Chris King hubs, Sun Rhyno Lite rims, and supple Compass Bicycles 1.75" tires; the NOS Sun Tour friction shifters paired with Shimano XT derailleurs, a Sugino crankset, and SRAM cassette shift cleanly, and the bike seems to fit (although I'll know more the first time I have it out for 50 miles or more); the 48cm Nitto Noodle bars are agreeing with me. One of these first days the fun of the build will end, I'll take delivery; then the fun of the ride starts.


rod

stedanrac

Rod, congratulations on the beautiful build. Did you have the S&S retrofitted to the LHT? If retrofitted, who did it (and if not too crass, about how much?)

Thx
Steve

rholland1951

Thanks! No, not an S&S retrofit. Surly makes a Trucker DeLuxe frameset, designed around the S&S couplers. Typical retail for that frame is around $1K.

rod

rholland1951

Mental health ride after work on the Minuteman to Lexington Center and back, 10 miles, big clouds scudding along making weather, a little cooler where they were, a little warmer where they weren't. Lots of young bunnies out this evening, little guys. On the return, nearly fell off my bicycle when I saw the rainbow over Great Meadows.


This changed from moment to moment, resolving into a double rainbow.




As I rode home, I looked for the rainbow every time there was a view to the East. It was particularly vivid over Drake Village, over the trail near TJ's, and again over the ice rink. After that, all that could be seen were dark clouds. At Arlington Center a light drizzle commenced, but I didn't care: rainbows have to come from somewhere.

rod

jimmuller 

Did my usual commute today. Windy, cool but humid. On the trip home a very undecided 3-dimensional sky.

I should add that the Blackstone River was a raging torrent. The canal on the west side of the bikeway through Cumberland was also higher than normal. About half a mile south of the Martin St bridge there is a spillway intended to keep the canal at a constant (or at least at a maximum) level. I've never seen water going over its lip, but it was today.