sherbornpeddler

Well done Timber! Well done! A great week.
BTW, re fitting, I tweaked and tweaked and couldn't get comfortable. When I seemed so far off track I was making things worse I had a fitting at my local bike shop (that really specialized in fittings) and then cranked a lot of miles. Now, after a lot of miles, I switch between different bikes and don't seem nearly as particular although I do mostly ride my dialed in bike. Buena Suerte!

Veloria

Thanks! On the mixte I have 27" x 32mm tires. On the roadster I have 28" x 38mm tires. I would not take the roadster (3-speed IGH) on a 40 mile ride through rolling hills, but the 12-speed mixte is great for that.

What I am wondering, is whether Rt 62 West continues to be just as nice past Concord, or does it eventually get busier/ less cycleable?

Timber_8

I did 165 miles this week and I ended my ride feeling pretty good. I am planning to ride 50 + miles tomorrow on part of the route for the P town ride in June. The route comes very close to my home so I will just bike over to it and run 25 miles or so up and back. I would like to ride most of the route before the ride. I have never been on the cape cod bike trail and want to check it out anyway. I am trying to get my wife to go for a trike to ride with me on my training rides as well as this summer. She is a tough sell on a 4 thousand dollar trike though.

sherbornpeddler

[QUOTE=Veloria;....What I am wondering, is whether Rt 62 West continues to be just as nice past Concord, or does it eventually get busier/ less cycleable?[/QUOTE]

Veloria,
Rt. 62 east is an acceptable route I use from Concord north through Bedford where I head off up through Chelmsford, Lawrence then Exeter and so on. A nice ride.

Now 62 west from Concord: yes, not so much, fine, ahh hmmm then fine.
Just west of Stow and parts of Hudson, bits of Clinton I'd classify as Americana but not classic cruising roads. There are good alternative roads around some of the more traffic-ed roads. Rubel's bike maps are terrrific and now Google-Bike is pretty good. From Stow to Bolton, Rt 117 is a little busy but OK (and shorter) and there are nice back roads to go into Sterling and pick up 62.

Sterling , Princeton to Barre is fine, especially if you prefer to avoid long, straight, flat roads. Great little sandwich shop in Barre.
Bon Voyage!

sherbornpeddler

Timber, nice progress on your plan and bon voyage tomorrow..
I’ve never ridden a trike but they are interesting. Recumbents are fun. I guess the weight makes them more difficult in hilly terrain but rail trails and avoiding Rt. 62 through Princeton would be fine. Seems like borrowing one for a week or so would be good.

ZIPP2001

Went in for 5 hours at work this morning and then rolled out 35 miles. The wind was killer at times but enjoyed every bit of the ride.

Hey Timber, That a way to roll out the miles, let us know how your ride goes tomorrow.

Hey Veloria, Rte. 62 out of Sterling toward Barre will give you a decent amount of climbing.

Timber_8

Well I came up a little short on my 60 miles,only did 57 miles I did ride from the house down to the Mayflower. Had a P&J for lunch, Took a few pictures and talked to this old guy from California for a little while. I fought a killer head wind all the way home. I feel great. My ass & the saddle had words again though. I worked on the Mayflower some 25 years ago, Did some restoration work to it. Funny how you take for granted what in your back yard.

ZIPP2001

I ended up with a 40 mile ride today, and had the nice headwind all the way home. Got home and just finished washing the car, man did it need it.

Timber sounds like you had a good ride, 57 miles is a nice distance for so early in the season (got to love the wind).

Timber_8

I agree this weather has been fantastic. Looks like all week will be great for commuting too. Trying to get my mileage up for June. I would like to do another century in September too if I can. I don't know where that head wind came from today but I could have done without that. I hope my average speed comes up too, I'm sure it will. All things considered I think I am off to a good start. As long as I have my abs tight for beach season.

ZIPP2001

Timber if you want to try something fun you can think about joining me cutting the state in half x 2. I live just a few miles from rte. 12 NH. boarder I ride to the NH. line then follow rte. 12 to the CT. boarder then back up. The ride is 132 miles I topped it off last year with an extra 18 for a well rounded 150 miles. i'm going to do it several times this year and your more than welcome to join me, it's a fun little item telling people you cut the state if half twice. We'll have to get together and roll around Boston sometime this summer.

Buy the way this is my big car I washed today, and I even fit my bike in it. When I go to different events people get such a kick seeing me pull my bike out of my car.

ortcutt

Lovely ride. I pulled a cue sheet from the CRW's repository: a ride called "Another Side of Carlisle." A friend and I took the medium-length route: 43 miles from the Brigham's Ice Cream World HQ in Arlington and back again. Given our starting point in Cambridge, and a few "bonus" miles owing to a missed turn, the total came to about 55. I arrived home at lunchtime and then ran a slew of errands around town on my commuter. I'd estimate the day's total mileage at 62: a nice metric century.

The ride was lovely: circling around Carlisle, Concord, and Lincoln, with such points of interest as Great Brook Farm, the De Cordova sculpture garden, and the Gropius House. What a day. And those stiff breezes pushed us all the way home.

sherbornpeddler

Nice rides!
I came up short on a 12 town tour but linked sherborn, dover, natick, wellesley, dedham, westwood, medfield, norfolk, medway and millis, just under 40 miles. Beeyoutiful day.

No Mayflower, Smartcar gymnastics or world headquarters for me: yard work, napped and ate too much.

Namenda

Beautiful day today, aside from the wind. Rode 36 miles, through Woburn, Winchester, Lexington, Bedford, and Arlington (yeah, I rode the Minuteman, in addition to some other areas). Saw more riders out today than I've seen the rest of this year combined. Amazing what a little sun can do.

For anyone interested, the Mintueman remains in poor shape in Arlington. The flooding did a lot of damage. On the bright side, a lot of work is in progress to put it all back together. Nice to see.

ZIPP2001

I was able to get out for a 29 mile ride today, great weather. I met a gentleman training for a sprint tri. on rte. 70 in Lancaster so I rode with him for a short bit.

sherbornpeddler

River Road in Sudbury and Wayland is open. Sweet!
Longest ride of the year, I rode to Carlisle via Weston (road to Observatory is a historical reminder of what used to be typical spring pavement) and back via Sudbury Center. Maybe it was my shifter cable I had to re-tighten or the large soup and sandwich for lunch but I felt I wasn't pushing too hard. I stopped to help a nice guy oil his chain. I thought he might need medical help but he was fine and happy to have me hold his bike while he oiled. Rt 27 east/south towards the Sudbury River and Wayland has a few potholes. Good ole Glezen Lane, not to be outdone by Weston's road, doesn't even need the speed bumps they normally deploy. Other than that, sweet day. After a banana and gatoraid refill at 66 miles I finally chided myself out the door to finish the century.

I stopped at the 6:30PM Dover Time Trial to say hello and watch the start and wound up riding a 22 minute loop. 20mph wasn't bad considering my 83 mile warmup and I still had my lights, bottles and road snacks aboard.

The Dover TT founders are fantastic guys, devoted to the local bike racers and local time trialing. Heros.

Rode a 12 mile route home in the dark to hit 102 miles using my sweet lights and not so sweet legs.

Timber_8

I had another 165 mile week on the Bicycle. I did it in 1 day less than last week. I'm taking it easy this weekend, the weather is crummy anyway. There were several very crisp rides last week but 2 miles into the ride you don't feel the temp anymore. Zipp thank you for the offer. I think my bike will slow you down, Hybrids are not great at maintaining a high average speed. I seem to be doing better but I am still not doing better than 13.5. I like the thought of running the city with ya though. I love your smart ride, My lifestyle has me in Pickup trucks but they spend a lot of time parked these days. I have yet to be able to think about knocking out a 100 mile ride on a whim but I am working on it.

ZIPP2001

Was able to get out for a quick 30 miles after work today. Work has been crazy with 10 hour days and 6 hours on Saturdays, so been a little tired for biking.

SBP: Your crazy !

Timber 8: Way to put the miles on so early in the season, keep it up, and you'll have no problem with your ride in June.

sherbornpeddler

Riding a bike requires balance. Finding time to ride requires balance. Sometimes I control it and sometimes I don't.
Family and job, time with each kid, time with my spouse, chores and TV, yardwork and recreation, ride with friends, ride alone. I guess I do okay with balance. I won't bore you with my failures; I'll bore you with this success.

Just at the end of a nice long ride, the shifter cable broke. No spare cable so I hopped on my single speed to join friends on their traditional Rt 135 marathon morning ride. Natick to Hopkinton back RT 135 to Waban, Dover and ....broke a spoke. I trimmed the wobble through the brakes and finished. Two wounded bikes.

LBS took me out of my funk by trading me a shifter cable for the singlespeed. The multispeed accepts the new cable and LBS will re-spoke the wheel (even I get the message when it is the third broken spoke on the same wheel). Back in balance. Spouse and I are off to wander Boston bike paths in search of Monet's sun dappled cafe.

cmolway

nice day for a ride yesterday. What started out as an easy recovery ride after Monday's Boston Marathon ride (60 miles), my normal 27 mile after work ride from Melrose up to North Reading added a 10 mile loop through the Harold Parker State Forest. It was just too nice out. That being said, a head-wind both ways (which I think is a cycling maxim) and a 10 mile commute home just prior to my ride wiped me out.

Timber_8

I took this week off commuting, been a little crazy at work this week. My riding partner in the Ptown ride will be down this weekend. I am doing a few mods to her bike and then we will put some miles down & coordinate our pace line and strategy for the ride. I will resume my commuting next week.

bikinggrrrl

Riding every day here lately. Nothing spectacular but have found that the baby sleeps a solid 75 minutes in the trailer and usually lasts for at least another 20-30 awake playing with toys and eating the snacks I leave for him. I'm going over the same ol' routes around Bedford, Concord, Lincoln, Sudbury and back to Carlisle and am surprised that I don't get bored going over the same roads day after day. Thinking that I need to get a baby sitter once a while so I can see just how slow I really am these days, without the 60 pound parachute behind me.
Setting my sights to Climb to the Clouds in July (sans baby). Anyone else here up for that ride?

sherbornpeddler

I dunno. Climb to the Clouds is 18 July, sandwiched between two brevets I'm interested in trying, my dog ate my calendar, I left my CRW membership card in my pocket at the cleaners.

Last Fall, I rode a century from Holliston up Mt Wachusett with about 10 riders; a couple were veterans of the CRW ride. They said the C to the C was great and very popular but crowded going down the mountain road into and past Princeton Center. I grow feathers and lay eggs on long downhills without a lot of riders. Cluck. Maaaybe

rumrunn6

just saw this "metro Boston" thread and thought I'd share my ride through some very thick city streets. I put some pics on the ride report thread i started
quick little zip ride out to the coast: Boston Haba!

58 miles
33.4 MAX
13 AVRG
4 hrs 28 min saddle time

the flooding has gone down and I was able to ride 117 East through farmlands into Brighton, then down Comm Ave past BU; quick jog right to Fenway and Yawky Way. Only tours today and no vendors. The team is away on the road. Yawky gets me to cross through "The Fens" (park) and turning left at the MFA on Huntington past the Opera House and a right on Mass Ave then keep going to the water and bang a left to circle Pleasure Bay and Castle Island on the Haba! which still has the fortress and canons. Great place to see the tall ships when they are in town. Also, when an aircraft carrier comes in lined with sailors, it's quite a site!

disappointed about the mileage, I thought for sure I'd hit 62

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...st-Boston-Haba!

ZIPP2001

Nice ride rumrunn6

I was able to roll out my 30 mile loop from work this evening Leominster, Sterling, Clinton, Lancaster, Shirley, back to Leominster. I'm going to try
my Worcester Airport ride tomorrow after work if it's nice.

Timber_8

I took the week off commuting but I finally met my riding partner for my Ptown ride, I have to do some work on her bike today and then we'll go out to shake it down and get it all adjusted to some of the new mods. Sunday we are going to put some miles down to coordinate our pace line and hill climbing strategy. We met through a mutual friend have been corresponding for several weeks now. The ride is 2 months away now and most of the details have been worked out, hotel is booked for the weekend & the set budget has been calculated. Shopping & recreation $ in ptown is always scary over budget. I'll be back on the commute starting again Monday rain or shine.