Vonruden

Thanks, the backdrop is an 1800's one room school house in Howell, NJ
https://magazine.funnewjersey.com/ol...l-sites-in-nj/

obrentharris 

Mmmmm... Torta!

Vonruden

It was delicious Brent!

northbend 

Resting after 3 days of riding up at Crystal Mountain.
I'm so fortunate that I'm healthy enough that I can still play like a kid...it just takes longer to recover when I do.

gaucho777 

More of the same on the Merlin. Not complaining.



Then grabbed my Cilo for a second ride of the day. Time to replace the front brake cable.

Vonruden

Rode up to Asbury Park against some strong winds.


Stopped by 2nd Life Bikes for their 3rd Annual swap meet. Picked up some old goodies for a beater bike.




Unfortunately this beauty was not for sale.

Chrome Molly

Out on the Roberts for a little while today, exploring some of the marshy areas. A few had open water, while others were still frozen. A 40 degree ride with a stiff wind that gave me a nice push on the return trip.

scozim 

First ride outside since sometime in November now that the roads have finally cleared up. 41 degrees and it felt awesome!

Lascauxcaveman 

Looks like it was fairly dry and light up there; something I've experienced only a couple of times at Crystal. Wish I could still do stuff like that. Although if I could afford to get my knee repaired - a prerequisite, for sure - I'm not sure I could afford lift tickets.

A day of skiing these days costs as much as my average bike.

DQRider 

I think I'm going to be posting here frequently. I bring my Leica D-Lux with me on almost all my rides and I use it a lot. Please let me know if it gets to be too much.

Today I rode my old Gitane "Gypsy Bleu" on our longest adventure so far this year. After I put fenders, racks, and bags on her she weighed in at 38.4 lbs on my digital luggage scale. That becomes significant later...

Here she is at the top of the hill before we descended into the valley:



Normally when I ride the Mississippi River Trail, I put the bike on the rack and drive down to the trailhead, because the climb up the bluffs can be a real challenge. Today however, I was feeling strong and just happy to have this early Spring weather to play in, so I left the car at home. This trail meanders alongside the river for quite a ways before it turns away from the water for awhile to avoid some big industrial activity that gets in the way.

Here's what the trail looks like from the saddle, at about chest level:



And here is the turning point where the trail leaves the river's edge - there's a nice picnic table and scenic overlook there:



After it wanders around a bit through some residential areas near the marina, the trail takes you to the old swing bridge, one that I remember crossing with my parents when I was a kid, back in the sixties:



After a nice lunch at Mississippi Pub, we turned around and headed for home:



At one point, the trail goes past the landing under Interstate 494, the south leg of the loop around the Twin Cities on I-94. There were several trucks with boat trailers in the parking lot, so folks are already out on the river in March. That's early; we have had a very mild winter this year:



Now, The Weight: My lunch had settled pretty well by the time we reached the bottom of the climb up the bluffs on Butler Avenue - I really wish I had taken a photo of that because it is quite daunting from the bottom, and I hoped that lunch would stay with me all the way to the top. I've been riding the trainer sporadically throughout the winter, but not very long at a stretch because I get bored. I built up a winter bike out of a Peugeot Orient Express, but haven't had that out much either. So I'm a bit out-of-shape.

That said, there is a stopsign about halfway up the hill. I was able to pull over and catch my breath there, where the cross-street levels the road. Then we tackled the rest of the climb and made it home fairly knackered. All things considered, it was a great day to be out on a bike.

Straightblock

Today was a local 100k charity ride with a few of my "Fast Old Guys" over-50 group.

musicdiver

While the east coast enjoys an early spring, we on the west coast must endure (OK, so it's still west-coast-mild) an enduring winter. This means that any day where the sun makes an appearance must be maximized!
Last Sunday was cold and blustery but that glorious sunshine made for a delightful cheek-reddening visit to the seaside to take in the waves:

I then rode the city bike up to a local cafe that offers both delicious doughnuts (surely 'earned' by the ride there, right? Right guys?) and a deliciously warm sun-room in which one can read a book while stuffing their face and imagining it's summer:


Today I was busy with other things 'till early afternoon and took the Centurion out to catch the last of the light before we get something ridiculous like the current forecast for snow(?!) tomorrow:

Vortac180

Kansas is not exotic, but I still had a great time riding in howling wind from Andover to Towanda and back. Winds 25 steady, with gusts to 35. A gentleman stopped me while I was resting in Towanda and said, "Welcome, we don't see many people on bicycles around here. I hope you are going with the wind!" I told him I was. I thought my legs were going to fall off on the way home.

jimmuller 

Don't I wish. All the great pics from DQR, SB, VR, yourself, make me want to go riding. We had a warmish February but right now it is 11degF, and the last few days have been like deep January. My bikes are getting stir-crazy.

Great pics, all. Thanks for them.

plonz 

Those "FOGs" (works better than fast ancient guys I suppose) are usually some of the fastest guys on the road in these rides.

Great to see vintage steel in the mix with the group of carbon bikes. I do a group ride every weekend and love holding my own whilst riding C&V.

Kdogbikes

Took a break by the lake.

Chrome Molly

Got the March metric in today. Stopped for a few photos in Hudson, Stillwater and some points along the way. Left without any food, so was running on fumes for the last ten miles back into the wind. Had to conservatively climb the last few hills or I'd have met the man with the hammer.

DQRider 

Excellent travelog, @Chrome Molly! We rode some of the same trails this weekend. That wind was a killer yesterday, no question. This first shot was taken on the Gateway Trail:



It was too muddy to ride the trails off-pavement on these skinny tires, but the trail was busy enough in that area near the fork that I felt uncomfortable trying to take photos on the pavement.

The section just after my turn off the Vento Trail looked like this, however:



What little traffic there was I could see a mile away.

With temperatures climbing into the sixties, you would have thunk it was the middle of May. However, the ice on the ponds soon brought back the reminder that it is the beginning of March, and we could still get a ton of snow any day now.



I stopped in my boyhood hometown of North Saint Paul to visit an old friend:



...and then headed homeward, back down the Vento Trail. One last shot by the old Schmidt Brewery, and then non-stop all the way home.



After a total of forty-some miles I was still comfortable and ready for more. This is a great bike

DQRider 

You live in a beautiful place, @musicdiver. These are some magnificent images. Bravo!

musicdiver

@jimmuller - Ha, OK perhaps not the entire east coast. True to the forecast, we did get hit with some slushy snow on Sunday.

@DQRider - Thanks! When riding solo there's something really enjoyable about 'hunting' for a good photo. Vancouver is fantastically scenic. Your shots are lovely as well! At some point I'll stop buying expensive bike bits (will I? ) and invest in a real camera over the cell phone. It really pays off to have optical zoom and the option to shift your focus and depth of field. Your images look like rich glossy ads for your bicycles.

nlerner

I'm on vacation this week, so the plan is to ride every day. Today I was on my '97 Lemond Buenos Aires 650B conversion. Temp when I went out was 29 F and about 40 F when I returned, but it was bright and sunny with a little wind from the south/southwest rather than the bitter cold stuff from the north that we have had the previous several days. My route was south/southwest (yes, into that slight wind) out of Boston.

This pond in Dover, MA, was pretty frozen:


This marsh will be very green in another month; it's actually a section of the Charles River, which meanders quite a bit through Dover.


A snack break and another frozen pond, this one in Millis, MA:


This rail trail opened last year in Dedham, MA. A few sections were pretty muddy but still rideable:


Total mileage was right around 50, but I took it pretty slow. I need to save my energy for the rest of the week!

Sir_Name 

DQRider 

Yes, for me the two hobbies compliment each other perfectly. Before I switched back to bicycles two years ago, I was writing about and photographing motorcycles for over a decade. With bicycles, however, you have more flexibility in subject placement and lighting.

I really like what @Sir_Name has done up above here, for instance. The bicycle is placed as part of the scenery in most images. And sometimes the scenery must take precedence. But not in Minnesota during our false Spring. Brown and mud are the two colors in the ground palette, with icy grey clouds and occasional peeks of blue sky. So when I have a newly built project bike, I tend to showcase that in contrast with the bleak background.

Later in the season I am going to try to ride to places that will offer up beautiful vistas for some landscapes. Then you will see the machinery recede a bit. We don't want people looking at the same old bikes all the time...

nlerner

Today's ride was a cold and damp 30 miler on my 1994 Bridgestone RB-T. My route headed south out of Boston to the Milton line and the Blue Hills Reservation, then east into Canton, MA, and then back home through various Boston neighborhoods.

My ride awaits after a morning meeting in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston:


Heading up Brush Hill road, might gray outside:


Not very green or blue in the Blue Hills:


Cutting through Forest Hills Cemetery in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston:

vwOvw

Nice flag picture