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First Delicious Ride of Spring!

No, not "delicious" in the sense of chocolate cream filled donuts but rather in the enjoyment
of hearing the birds all vying for air time, the Spring runoff in the little brooks I passed and
mostly, the feeling of enjoying great health and love of life in my 80th year.
What did I do to deserve this? Worked for 33 years at a drawing board in an Art Dept.
Well, maybe the fact that I did ride my bike to work and I did spend a lot of time fixing up
an old house, and of course, an assortment of boats that needed hard physical effort to keep afloat.
Considering the fact that I only spent about an hour and a half on the bike trainer this winter I am
amazed at how fit I felt on this first season ride of 15+ miles. And the whole season ahead!!

thanks for sharing, happiness deserves company!

I've done several very short rides in town in the past few weeks but not anything else before. Today was the first "Real" ride since the first week in January. Pleasant day along the Sakonett River. I'm sporting a new saddle, that seems fine after some customizing, the bike is clean and to complete bike maintainence chores, and spokes a re polished and gleaming. Nothing enhances the cycling experience like well polished spokes.

Excellent. We, too, had a good start to cycling season. Last Weds. my gf and I did a 23 mi. ride around our rural town of Lebanon, CT. Then on Sat. we had our first club ride and did 26 mi. with 8 others. On Sun. we went back to our town with 4 others and did 26.4 mi. w/1600 ft of elevation. Today my legs are a little achy but nothing terrible. At age 69 (me) & 62 (her) we are grateful for the good start. On the Sunday ride it was amazing how often we heard the cacophony of peepers.

I can't ride in the cold due to health issues, so this past Saturday was barely a go, with the temperature. It was great, in spite of the gusty wind, and helped me to feel like spring is actually here. I will be riding this afternoon after work.

I have a lot of catching up to do... I feel like I got started later this year than last, but I am not 100% sure. It sure seemed like a long winter. :)

I've now got about a hundred miles under my belt for the season. It feels great to get out, but man am I out of shape!

What a delightful time of year. Just getting on the bike is what we dream about all winter (up here, anyways).

This is the best post here in a long time, very well written Sculptor7. Heard our resident whippoorwill last week, for the first time since last summer. Always signals that warm weather is back for us around this part of the state. It is nice to ride in shorts and a ss jersey, instead of layers and a head cover under the helmet. thanks for your wonderful report, and the life background, too.

Bill

First Delicious Ride of Spring!

Mine was on April 4:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 17697410)

Last week I posted,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 17669584)

… Last Tuesday (3/24) was the first ride on my carbon fiber bike since January 1, because I keep it pristine, only ridden on dry, salt and debris-free roads…

All in all, it might have been premature to ride that route on my CF bike, but it still was a pleasure….Anyways I considered the above ride a sign that this Historic Winter is over, but nonetheless a difficult ride due to the road damage by the severe weather…

On sunny, cloudless Saturday afternoon (4/4), I did the first true ride of spring, on the carbon fiber bike, from Norwood to Kenmore. First time this year with:

no facemask, balaclava or goggles
single pair of thin knit gloves
overly warm with fleece, instead of winter jacket
single pair of tights
single pair of socks, no cycling boots.
dry snow free-roads, and shoulders with wide swaths of debris-free pavement.

I did encounter a few shiny wet patches, and though it was likely in the 50’s, thoughts of black ice did recur.

My ride was one of the windiest I can recall in Boston with gusty pushing winds, as head-, tail- and cross-winds, with sporadic gusts strong enough to push me leftwards towards the traveling lanes. Another reason to have a rearview mirror, to monitor upcoming rearward traffic for those surprise deviations from the straight forward progression.

My ride included the previously described “Goddard Street Swoop" in Brookline,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 17434802)

…I want to also tout [the downhill run on] Goddard Street by Larz Anderson Park in Brookline. From the top it’s about 1.5 miles past Jamaica Pond to Boylston Street (Rte 9). So it’s very scenic with gentle curves, with low traffic, and notably only one cross street as I recall, on the uphill side, until the road starts to flatten out at the Pond…. Just past the crest is a turn-off, so you can allow any cars behind you to pass, and then cruise almost uninterrupted for nearly the entire length. Even after the single traffic light just past the Pond, it is still declining and one can easily (for me) pedal up to 20 mph.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sherbornpeddler (Post 16887744)

…Metro Bostonians have mastered a lot of the same roads.

We all have very individual, favorite routes. I bet we could compile a list of favorite sections of roads where the sun, shade, swoops and turns fly by just right.

with this further observation; the road surfaces were smooth asphalt with no potholes until it started to level out in Boston at Jamaica Pond.

Winters in Colorado Springs are brown and ugly in a way I don't remember in the Midwest. Sculptor has captured the feeling just right. How much of this do people miss out on by closing themselves up in a car?