Push

So I decided on a new bike and ended up with a 2011 Trek Gary Fisher collection X-Caliber and I took it out for its first ride Saturday, I gotta say... I love the bike! We left with the idea that we did not have a destination and headed out on a rail trail, we made a stop at the LBS which happens to be right off of one of the trails we took and my buddy bought a set of pedals for his Jamis.

We took our time and stopped for some pictures of the new bike, had a few decent conversations with some other people who were on the trail that day and even saved a fellow who had his rear derailleur fall off by loaning him our tools, over all it was a fun morning. I did have a tiny miscalculation on an.... obstacle? and ended up with a pretty good sized bruise on my thigh, a broken toe and a couple of scratches on the brake lever and handle bar of the brand spankin new bike (rode about 10 miles with the hurt foot back to the car) but it did not really bother me because I was having too much fun on the new ride. We rode a total of just under 22 miles and my garmin data says that our total ascent for the day was 7511 feet (which is hard to believe) Its very hilly where we ride but wow! I never would have thought that much!

I thought I would share a few pictures of the ride and the awesome New England fall.....and no I don't mean me and my toe

hope ya enjoy the pictures!

This bike rack is on the trail right above a really good pond that gets stocked with trout, we usually ride past this point but since it was a take our time kind of day we stopped.


Looking down the trail.


wider shot of the same place.


Big man coming through!








This is where we were stopped when we helped the fella with his derailleur, I liked the way the bikes were positioned so *snap*!

mgw189

7500' of climbing... wow.. Nice bike though saw one at the LBS today when I was there sharp bike.

bradtx

Push, Thanks for the pics. It's good to get the first scratches out of the way early, but you went a little over board, IMHO.

Brad

professorbob

Which trail was it?

Mr. Beanz

Love the colors on the Trek!

Bunnicula

Ditto, what trail is this? It looks familiar.
It turned out to be a great weekend in NE for biking!

Neil_B

Very nice. I need to get to New England one day.

indyfabz

7,500' ft. in 22 miles on a rail trail is hard to believe because it's pretty much impossible.

himespau 

That's a pretty trail. Where is it?

Push

Indeed I did I am hoping to be healed up enough by this coming weekend to get out on another awesome ride! I am going to miss all of my mid week rides because of the toe and the ribs and the thigh and and...

I would never have thought it was that much myself but the garmin says otherwise unless I am reading it wrong? here is a snapshot of the garmin data. I will be riding this route again so I will have more garmin reports to compare to this one. I will say that there is nary a flat spot on this trail, you are either going up or going down, its not a single long ascent but a bunch of smaller rolling hills. We stopped a lot I assure you we were going faster than the 5mph our average says



This is the best time of the year to ride as far as I am concerned nice and cool with lots to look at.

Hartford county CT, about 2 and some odd hours south of ya

wfournier

Yeah, I'm thinking something was off with the Garmin there, according to my calculations (assuming they are correct) 7,511' over 22 miles would mean a constant 6.5% grade. Most rail trail top out at 2 or 3% I believe.

Edit: I don't have a garmin but I think if you upload the data to connect it may correct for some errors in what the unit records.

himespau 

But really it might be more than that because essentially all the climbing was done in 11 miles right (because it's a round trip where the descent ends up equal to the ascent)?

indyfabz

Simple math triumphs over gadgets. It would mean a constant grade of close to %6.5. Moreover, it couldn't be a constant grade up since if it were, and assuming you started a sea level, 7,500' of climbing would put you at an altitude that doesn't exist east of the Mississippi. As such, the actual uphill sections would have to exceed %6.5 average since you would be gaining 7,500' is less than 22 miles.

Mr. Beanz

I'm thinking Garmin error. We did a ride 5000 ft in 14 miles. If the OP did 7000 in 11 miles, his pics would be more drastic than mine below.

And to think a rail trail going up the grade of Baldy Rd, I don't think so. ...To get the 5000 in 14 miles, we hit plenty of sections 14-18%, to hit 7000 in 11 miles like the OP?

Push

yep, connect did fix it ( I just registered my gps after having it for at least a year lol) I just wonder why its so different than the raw data on the garmin? hmmmm.

Seattle Forrest

Thanks for posting this! I grew up in Connecticut, and haven't been to the East Coast in years. We get fall colors here, too ( see my thread about Steven's Pass ) but they're not anywhere near as intense or all-encompassing as yours.

Sorry about your toe.

They have hiccups now and then. My Garmin says I've biked from Seattle to Tibet and back, in less than an hour.

1855Cru

Hey nice bike!! I bought the exact same model a couple of months ago. I'm just getting into mtn biking and hope to do a lot of trails through the winter. Living in western NC I'm fortunate to have some of the best mtn biking trails on the east coast.

I really like my X-Caliber, the only thing I didn't like were the grips. I changed to some ergo grips and it is perfect now

Enjoy your new ride!!

Push

no problem I can't wait until the colors get really vivid (a week or 2 should do it) I will likely post a few more pictures in the coming weeks where abouts in CT did ya grow up?


Thanks! and I feel ya on the grips, they did the job but could have been more comfortable, I have some Serfas dual compound grips on my other mountain bike and will likely put a set of those on sooner than later. The bike rode great and was very comfortable, I am glad that I made the decision on the Trek, I was looking at a Rockhopper comp and a Carve when I was shopping around but they both felt a bit crowded for me (I know I know change a stem, adjust a seat) but the Xcal felt great as it stood The seat isn't even that bad, in fact it felt no better or worse than the WTB Pure V race on my other bike.

Seattle Forrest

Hampton and Lebanon, mostly. I used to hang out at Bigelow Hollow, and graduated from Lyman Memorial High School with about 80 other people. There was some culture shock when I moved out west...

chefisaac

nice pics.

Push

I have been to Bigelow Hollow state park (not to ride though) and am not all that far from Lebanon I got that culture shock myself when we moved out to LA, was out there for about 8 years and never did get over the culture shock! so back in CT where I belong now.

hopperja

From what I've read on-line, the steepest railroad grade is ~5%.

jimnolimit

Sounds to me the 7000+ was the total amout of hill climbing if you add together every uphill section and not the total elevation.

Looks like it was an awesome ride, hope your toe heals up well.

Push

that's the way that I read the info, but who knows for sure

jimnolimit

the highest point that i know of in the northeast is mount washington at 6288ft.