jimmuller 

I did my usual commute today, 30 miles round trip. (Alas, I have to go to work from Monday to Friday most weeks.) But I wanted to be adventurous so I rode this beast, the last of my bikes to make the commute:



It's not a great bike, has slightly peculiar handling, doesn't seem efficient when pushed, and that VO saddle doesn't work for me. But dang, it looks so cool! And those 32mm tires were just the ticket for navigating the detritus of yesterday's storms. There was a lot of detritus.

sherbornpeddler

Well, we didn't see any paved mountain bike trail but we pretty much rode back and forth the middle of the island and mucked around the ports.
When not bicycle noodling, I spent a fair amount of time reading in lieu of retail store mucking.
Heading southwest to Menemsha we found Old County has a parallel bike trail that is flat, straight, smooth and separated from the motor road by a nice barrier of trees and undergrowth. We only went on the section parallel to Old County but it continues around the Manuel Correllus State Park and the airport.

Heading south on State we turned north west on dirt roads Pond Mark and Menemsha Xrd over to North Rd. They aren't bike trails, flat or smooth but they are quiet, safe and far from the madding crowd.

On our return trip heading north from Menemsha we took North (it is all down hill you know....) to State then turned northeast on nice, quiet, shady, dirt, occasionally muddy Old Tisbury Rd. The one of us with a posh new white bike walked around a couple of larger wallows.
Other than that we enjoyed the cycling.

sherbornpeddler

Classics make so much sense cruising MetroBoston. Long reach brakes and clear brake cables make bar bags practical and longer backstays with long reach brakes make for wider choice of tires. My modern day solution is a single speed so no brighter cables and cyclocross frame with cantilever brakes for fender and 35c tires. Seems fine until a hill reminds me there are no down tube shifters.

I've the same saddle for a rando bike but i can't quite slide it or a Brooks far enough back for my liking.

rholland1951

Looks like a beautiful cluster of rides...

rod

rholland1951

Jim, nice tires. Detritus Cross is the hot new emergent velo sport.

rod

jimmuller 

I have long been a fan of handlebar bags for carrying things like lunch, tire-fixin' stuff, lunch, snacks, and did I mention lunch? The trick is to find a good one. That rules out most, including that cheap one on that orange Bertin. But you're right, centerpull brakes make that style acceptable.

Most handlebar bags on the market now fall into one of two camps. One style is held in place by a rigid brace bolted to the bar. Adds weight and looks ugly. The other style was designed by an intoxicated engineer who thought that if you put straps on the back edge the front would magically stay up in the air all by itself. So you strap it to your handlebar and it flops downward like every sober person since Issac Newton knew it would.

A company in NY state called Tough Traveler used to make a lightweight bag held by Velcro straps to the bar and the brake levers. The two sets of straps held the bag quite level and stable. I bought their handlebar bag and panniers a loooong time ago; I still use the handlebar bag on the Masi because it is red, and we use the panniers on the tandem because they carry lunch, and a picnic, and did I mention lunch? I bought two other handlebar bags from them in recent years, blue being the only color available, one on the tandem and one on the blue Motobecane. Unfortunately they stopped making that one. When I checked a year or so ago they made a handlebar bag for messengers, but it was so tall that on a road bike it would drag on the front tire.

However there is now a great alternative! Dill Pickle Gear, from our own town of Medford and run by our own local randonneuse celebrity Emily O'Brien (who rides a fixed-gear Raleigh Professional), designed and makes a great bag which is supported at the front by cords looped over the brake hoods and straps which attach to the bar. With that kind of support system it does not need a rigid brace, and it works with any kind of brake caliper without resting on the head tube. It also has straps which loop under the fork crown to provide stability.

I now have three of them. They are not cheap and they are marginally big enough for the workday lunches (with ice pack) my sweetie makes for me, but they are very well made and function well. With the unicrown fork on the Centurion the fork strap comes close to the tire, but it doesn't touch it. All of which is to say, there is great handlebar bag option now. (I have no financial investment. I'm just a happy user!)

Jim from Boston

Hey jmm,

Thanks for this post about Dill Pickle; I just sent them an inquiry. I have been looking for a saddlebag for my carbon fiber bike with carbon fiber seatpost, mainly for extra storage of light items. When I did a recent ride to Walden Pond, it included a stop at Belmont Wheelworks to see what they had. In particular I was looking for bags by Carradice.

BWW did have a rear rack made by Thule for CF bikes without the stays for a regular rack. But my own shop didn’t think they mount too well and easily came loose.

I’ll keep this thread informed about the upcoming weekend of July 25-27 for the [You-Don’t Have-to-Be] Fifty-Plus Forum Sixth Annual Ride, out of North Acton. Plans for the weekend activities should more solidly coalesce around Thursday.

rholland1951

Between my starting a little later, and the Sun setting a little earlier, I managed to have a sunset ride on the Minuteman on a night when there was little sunset color to speak of. Did enjoy the somewhat subdued Night Chorus (is it them being subdued, or my high-frequency hearing going into retirement?), and found myself thinking that the cool spot at Arlington's Great Meadow was too cool, meriting long sleeves... No! It's mid-July, for God's sake!


rod

mr_bill

The studio is now in Somerville at Vernon Street Studios. Famous in two cities.

-mr. bill

Jim from Boston

Today’s training mileage quota again was 60 miles. Due to certain work exigencies, I was limited to stay within a 15 bicycle-mile radius of Norwood. So I did a ride through another little-reported sector of MetroBoston on this thread. I call it “Somewhere South of Boston.” In my Cyclist’s Guide to the Metroverse, I described:

This is the sector to which I commute, and today’s ride was a worthy one. To stay within my defined perimeter I did an L-shaped ride from Norwood through Canton to Braintree; back to Canton; South to Easton, and back to Norwood through Foxboro and Walpole.

On the way to Canton I passed under the Canton Viaduct.



From Canton I rode a pleasant residential straight shot on a street variously named Randolph, Canton, Reed, Pond and West St, through Canton and Randolph to Braintree. That ended at Washington St in Braintree, and I soon rode by the prestigious Thayer Academy.



At about mile 17 from Norwood I retraced my route back to Canton, and as I crossed Rte 138, the Canton Turnpike, I decided to abandon a peaceful residential route for the heavily-traveled, high speed, busy commercial, semi-industrial, bill-boarded Turnpike; all for the sake of novelty, since I had never ridden that segment south of Canton before. Actually it was not bad because Saturday morning traffic was light, and there was an approximate 6-foot wide paved shoulder. South of the pictured intersection, Rte 138 became more residential, and exurban, and I even passed a cornfield on the way to Easton.



I had ridden a bit in Easton before but this time I realized what a rustic gem it is; in my mind actually evocative of New Hampshire. In the small virtual hamlet center of North Easton was a collection of some restored Romanesque buildings part of the restoration of the Ames Shovel Works.


.
A usual landmark on my previous treks in Easton is this VFW Hall with cupola, and the tank out back. About a month ago while admiring it I hit the curb and fell of the bike skinning my knee, but no scratches on the bike.



On the home stretch to Norwood in Foxboro, I passed by the back door to Gillette Stadium. Soon afterwards I caught up with a rider wearing a really cool Boston Red Sox cycling jersey, a souvenir of the 2002 Pan Mass Challenge. As usual, when I meet a serious cyclist, I tell them about Bike Forums, of which he was unaware.



Total distance for my 60 mile goal was 59.17. Later this afternoon I’ll ride 14 miles back to Kenmore Square, then tonight dining and dancing in Malden with my sweetie.

sherbornpeddler

Jim,
Great Canton-Easton report and impressive ride. I learned a lot and my next ride through that area will be much better for it.
I rode my third "carlisle" this month. Lots of bike traffic and average car traffic all seemed to get along well.

rholland1951

On a Saturday rife with constraints, some more unusual than others, had a mid-afternoon ride on a truncated version of the North Bridge loop, 28 miles through the various and familiar beauties of Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Carlisle, Concord, and Lincoln, starting at home base in East Arlington and finishing at Lexington Toyota, in East Lexington. With luck, this is the last chapter of the saga of my 10-year-old Prius's air conditioner...

The Minuteman on a beautiful Saturday afternoon was in full-up Easter Parade mode. This, of course, invites misanthropy, and I found myself reacting to cyclists riding two abreast, occupying 65% of the width of the trail. Not horrible, really, but still... In one case, an approaching cyclist on the centerline was preoccupied with the breasts (two) of his inboard riding partner. This was a tad hazardous, and earned a peal of my Crane Suzu bell. Now, it would be hypocritical not to admit that I had noticed said breasts myself: they were admirably mammalian. However, geometry being what it was, my eyes were at 11 o'clock, leaving me with adequate situation awareness of the trail conditions; his eyes were pinned at 3 o'clock, leaving him with classic Y-chromosomal blindness, the lucky guy. No collisions for him, at least for the 30 seconds I can vouch for.

However, these gentlemen, not even riding abreast, generated the following dialogue:
"Some people use this to get to work."
"There can't be that many of them."
Now we're back to misanthropy... I suppose I could have taken Mass. Ave... Really, the Minuteman's a vibrant civic commons...


Soon enough, the Minuteman was over with, and the Concord crossed on Route 225.


Took a detour off Skelton Road, Carlisle, to explore the Sudbury Valley Trustees' (relatively) newly created Elliott Concord River Preserve, which I'd been noticing for the last year.


A preliminary ride looked promising...


Then...


Back-tracked, and studied the map and other propaganda at the trail-head: I had been riding down the Stein's driveway: the Preserve is accessed by a foot-path along the fence, and bicycles are banned. Oh well, another time, another modality...

The rest of the ride included today's instances of familiar terrain, familiar beauty, familiar joy.






Made it back to Lexington Toyota with minutes to spare.

rod

rholland1951

Jim, that's interesting. On a whim, I had Google Maps plot me a bicycle route from Arlington to Westport the other day; aside from some dubious recommendations like Blue Hill Avenue, much of it was on Route 138. Sounds like a plausible ride...

rod

Jim from Boston

Hi Rod,

The "peaceful residential route" I abandoned yesterday is one I highly recommend, namely Bay Rd from Canton to Taunton that parallels Rte 138 about a mile or two to the west. It even has a Wikipedia entry:

I have not ridden that historic section of Bay Rd, south of 106 (Foundry St) myself. That VFW hall is just a few hundred yards off of Bay Rd on Rockland St. A few years ago in Canton, a large sinkhole appeared on Bay Rd, and the segment north of the hole was closed off for a few months as I recall.

Another nice detour off Bay Rd, is to take Rockland St to Massapoag Ave, and head north for a loop around Lake Massapoag in Sharon, and back to Rockland to return to Bay Rd, estimated at about five miles.

As usual, nice write-up and pictures of your ride yesterday.

Jim

rholland1951

Jim, thanks for the tip: Bay Road, it is! Don't know when (or if) I'm going to try the ride to Westport (most likely on a multi-day tour, since the real point of riding there would be the rides to be taken once there), but almost all the roads from the Charles River Basin to the Westport-Fall River line are routes I've only traversed by car, so I have no feeling for what they'd be like on a bicycle. Take Blue Hill Avenue, for example: is that still a no-go zone for outsiders on bikes? There was a notorious episode, several decades ago (70s? 80s?), in which some kids following a map on an American Youth Hostels tour had their lunch money (and their bikes) confiscated, not quite the Adventure they had signed up for; at the time, that episode made the Globe, although it now seems to have fallen into the Google Shadow of things beyond casual retrieval... Anyhow, I'm trying to piece together current ride conditions information for the whole route.

rod

mr_bill

That was 32 years ago! (July 21, 1982)

This is this year:


There are lots of cyclists on Blue Hill Avenue these days. The first segment is not very bike friendly, but one you reach Franklin Park there are bike lanes on each side until you cross the Neponset. The least cycle friendly stretch is the bridge and right after where there are splits off for Rush Hill and Blue Hill Parkway. Frankly double parking will be your largest concern, especially on a Sunday morning near the churches.

-mr. bill

rholland1951

Thanks! Progress, indeed.

rod

sherbornpeddler

From a couple of trips on Bay Rd on route to Chatham and P town I agree with JimfB. I've veered off to Marion several times and further east to the canal several more PMC times but never biked in Westport. My wife biked there years ago and were just talking about riding there.

I did my local loopdeloop today and there were several large groups out enjoying perfect weather. BU and another cheerful chatting college group swarmed the sandwich shop in Dover.

Jim from Boston

At the Mattapan-Milton border Blue Hills Ave (Rte 28) trifurcates into Blue Hill Ave (Rte 138), Blue Hills Parkway, and Truman Highway; I believe this is the problem area mr. bill describes. The segment of Rte 138 through Milton and Canton is busy, but residential with a wide shoulder until at least about Randolph Street in Canton where I picked it up as the Canton Turnpike on Saturday. I do see a good number of roadies riding the Milton segment of Rte 138 inbound. One does have to traverse a busy crossover at the intersection with Rte 128 with on-and-off ramps.

On the Truman Highway (a pleasant cycling street), a short distance beyond the trifurcation is Brush Hill Rd, one of my favorite residential streets through Milton. It eventually reconnects with Rte 138 with via a steep but short climb to that intersection. The Blue Hills Parkway through Milton and Canton is also pleasant residential and becomes Unquity Rd through the Blue Hills Reservation, and eventually connects to Blue Hills River Road and back to Rte 138 at that busy intersection with Rte 128.

DISCLAIMER: I ride this area mostly outbound early, usually before 7 AM on weekdays. “YMMV.”

Obviously Great Blue Hill is a defining geographic feature of this area. Some fun “factoids”:

jimmuller 

Today's weather was glorious. So Sharon and I did 40.45 miles on the tandem today. That's not bad considering we had a gig last night in a town so far out in the sticks they don't have the Internet, they have to use the Outernet, so small they don't have their own zipcode (really!).

Photo-op, a corn field in Carlisle. Knee-high by the 4th of July:


A stop in Concord Center:


Lunch at Heart Pond, our typical lunch destination:

sherbornpeddler

Another fine riding day. What is going on? Will payback to get us back to average be swift or long?
Summer commuter traffic seemed about 1/2 of what is normal the rest of the year. I left about 5PM and without imagination rode the same route as yesterday. With all this good weather and increased milage, I'm toying with the idea of a hilly century in October.

Bishbike

Gigs and teaching youngsters how to play jazz kept me off of my bike for all of last week. Finally got out today for a 48 mile ride out to Great Brook, with a stop at Ferns to rehydrate and energize. Waverly Square is becoming slightly less of a war zone, though I almost got left crossed twice today by impatient drivers.

Great Brook Loop w/ Ferns Stop - Belmont, MA

jimmuller 

I did my commute yesterday (and as I'm having my breakfast now I expect to ride it again today). I rode the Centurion, bright magenta and yellow, Miami Vice at its best. Two co-workers noticed and asked about it. Today I will ride the Masi with its newly-strung clincher rims and new Veloflex Master tires.

I thought traffic yesterday was back to normal after being light since before the 4th. Drivers did seem to have their usual level of angst back, even in , or especially in Waverley Square.

One nice treat on my commutes lately has been a personal tough. There is a young lady, perhaps 10y.o. on a skateboard I've passed while climbing the gentle hill into Woburn Center. She always calls out "Good morning!" and I try to reply. I'm usually rather focused on the ride and the traffic so her greeting always startles me back into the world. It's a nice personal touch that wouldn't happen if I was driving. I guess if you do something enough then even the locals start to recognize the old coot riding his bike though town every morning.

Addendum: I did ride the Masi today, and amazingly enough did not have any flat tires! That bike really jumps when pushed. I didn't see my Woburn greeter this morning. I was actually about 20 minutes earlier this morning.

Tried a few route variations. One small variation twist near home didn't amount to much. The other I've been pondering for a while, just never remembered to look at a map carefully. Instead of running the MM west to Maple St I turned right on Bow and went through the residential area and eventually Lillian Rd over to Lowell St and rt2A. It's a bit shorter and about as serene, which is to say it has some traffic but wasn't difficult. It might have saved me five minutes this morning!

Jim from Boston

I recently replied to this thread on the Living Car-Free Forum, “Do you meet people on the street?.”

I usually preface "old coot" with "loveable."

jimmuller 

Nice response, Jim. Yeah, I got to know in a casual way a few people on the Attleboro commuter train when I was doing that run, but of course on a train you can exchange greetings a lot more easily than on a bike. On the ride portion there was one guy I'd regularly see walking the opposite way on one stretch of road. He always waved and called out some sort of greeting and of course I answered, unless I called out first.

About this particular girl in Woburn, I got a sense that she was on her way to some activity at the school a quarter mile behind me. Maybe it was the time of day and the fact that she seemed to move with a sense of purpose. I've gotten a least a bit of recognition from some other folks too, notably a traffic policeman in Woburn Center, a few other policewomen working school crossings in Lexington, some near neighbors here in Waltham, and an occasional resident of Woburn.

Sometime the chance single encounters are great fun and memorable. Once while riding the Masi through Attleboro on my way up a short but very steep section of road past a shopping center driveway, a weather-beaten gentleman in a pickup waited patiently for me to go by and then through the window gave me a thumbs-up. I wasn't sure whether it for the Masi (yeah, right! I fantasize that he used to ride and recognized the bike) or because I was another "loveable old coot" riding a bike up that hill. A more recent encounter was an older woman watching a road paving operation from her front gate, and as I rode by down the shoulder she yelled at me "Be careful!" It was a true act of kindness. A few weeks ago when I was a few miles from home on my return somebody in an SUV stuck in traffic beeped his horn and gave me a thumbs-up out the window. I have no idea who it was.