jimmuller 

We're still considering. The problem is timing. They want everyone finished by 5PM. A 9Am start requires an avg speed of 12.5mph with no time for stopping. That is typical or a twinge high for us running through our typical moderately hilly terrain. That's why they allow for 6:30 check-in and course open at 6:45. But it's 1hr20min from us, and we never manage to get out to do anything that early, let alone if staying at a motel nearby. So ultimately it looks like a tough time commitment, and one of the reasons I've rarely been enticed with organized rides.

Still, Sharon wants me to register anyway and we plan to do the 68mi option. Haven't decided yet.

jimmuller 

Just back and forth to work. Haven't ridden this guy in a while. He behaved very well.

otg 

I'm sure we'll run in to each other over the summer, plenty of time to plan it.

Bishbike

62 mile out and back to Harvard

Harvard Group Ride - Belmont, MA

Bishbike

Jim, thanks for posting the invite. I would love to join you, but I don't think my schedule will allow 80 miles tomorrow. Hope you have a great ride!

jimmuller 

Bummer. But if you did 62 yesterday you're sure ready for anything I intend to do!

mr,grumpy 

Hello Semi-locals! I am pleased to report that today I got in my first "serious" ride of the season on the trusty old Raleigh Marathon. After I don't-know-how-many-years of owning the thing I finally spend fifty bucks on a new rear wheel and the thing rides flawlessly. I want to say that it's my favorite bike but I'll wait till the new wears off before I make that skins of a statement! Only ten miles but it was so good to be riding and riding THAT bike in partiular!

jimmuller 

mr grumpy, great to see you getting out!

I did 100.2 miles today, my second century ever. I took a route I'm familiar with, home in Waltham to Pepperell, but with some non-direct components.

A few photo-ops presented themselves:









Lots of good events on this ride. A year or so ago I'd broken the chain in the Masi on this run, and a local cyclist had helped me out. I happened to see him today so I thanked him again and we had a nice conversation. Then on the return I fell in with a monster rider making great time despite pulling a trailer with a youngster. We came to a stop together in some traffic at a stop sign on Concord Center and he says "That's a beautiful bike!" I thanked him and we spoke for a few minutes until traffic moved again.

What are the chances of meeting two BF members on a single ride? Apparently pretty good if you stay out long enough. On the way back I was hailed by someone passing me and it turned out to be MetroBoston poster bishbike. Further on I was hailed by another MetroBoston regular rholland1951 going the other way.

It was a good day.

mr,grumpy 

It sounds like a wonderful but very long ride! This scene looks familiar to me but would have not been on your route unless you cruised up through Chelmsford too?

The bike is stunning.

otg 

[QUOTE=jimmuller;16725505]mr grumpy, great to see you getting out!

I did 100.2 miles today, my second century ever. I took a route I'm familiar with, home in Waltham to Pepperell, but with some non-direct components.

Great ride!

jimmuller 

Thank you. I did ride though parts of Chelmsford. That lake shot is Heart Pond where the BFRT goes past the beach. That's a favorite lunch stop for Sharon and me on the tandem. It's also a good gateway to further west. Go through Bedford, optionally detour through Concord, stop at Great Brook Farm, go past the cranberry bog, cut north on Elm St, and boom you're at Heart Pond.

mr,grumpy 

I know it well! My wife grew up just up the street from there in the little white cape on the corner across from Kate's Store. It's also called Baptist Pond.

rholland1951

Spent the best part of the day watching contractors rip up my 95-year-old chimney and build me a new one. Phew!


When that was done, it was 5pm, and I did a little temporal figuring and figured that I about had time for the North Bridge loop, 31 miles. Crossed paths with Jim Muller on the Minuteman in Arlington Heights and said howdy, he was returning from his century ride to Pepperell as I was setting out.

There was no mistaking the season: Spring is here. The familiar roads on this route screamed Spring in various ways, from daffodils on Monument Street to willows on Virginia Road, to swarms of gnats paying a visit whenever I stopped (some of them indistinctly visible in the foreground of the Hutchins Farm photo), to the smell of fresh-turned earth at McHugh Farm, to birds chirping and frogs singing at irregular intervals.








The Cambridge Reservoir was mirroring low clouds, grey and white, that resembled the lunar disk that I stared at for many hours through a low-power telescope as a kid, the resemblance only deepened by the rain drops' meteor crater equivalents on the water's surface. Lovely!


After that, a simple matter of pedaling got me home, through one pretty good rain shower that got the frogs in Arlington's Great Meadow all hot and bothered.

rod

Bishbike

Got out for a quick out and back to Concord, trying to recover from the beating I took in the hills yesterday.

Jim, congratulations on the century today! Those are some nice shots of the Motobeacane too.

Bishbike

Great pic Rod!

rholland1951

Thanks, Bish. Right place at the right time...

rod

rholland1951

Low-energy ride at the end of a low-energy day, 10 miles on the Minuteman to Lexington Center and back. Windy, mostly a head-wind outbound, and noticeably cooler, temperatures down in the 50s. The reduced temperature and wind seemed to be enough to hush the frogs that were making all that racket yesterday, but mourning doves and red wing blackbirds took up the slack with their calls.

rod

jimmuller 

Keep pedalin', Rod. Today was windyeeeee... Sorry I didn't say much when we passed yesterday. I'd been riding for a long time and was thinking only of getting home. I recognized you but didn't have the mental cycles available to speak. Couldn't pull the trigger.

rholland1951

The other week, I rode up Belmont Hill on Concord Ave, and noted that the Google MyTracks app reported it as a 35% grade... that seemed a little gonzo, as numbers go. Today, I went back to gather a little data with a theodolite app (GeoCam). It appears that the first stage of the Concord Ave climb has an angle of ~11 degrees, translating to a grade of ~19%. This is steep enough to get my attention, but not so steep as to get into Guinness.


rod

rholland1951

No sweat, I recognize been-on-the-road syndrome. I was in the opposite condition: I'd had a very late start, and wanted to put in the miles before night fell...

rod

mr_bill

May 3:

Highlights from a gorgeous day for a ride. Lots of folks out on the Minuteman again. (Hopefully will see fewer cyclists making close passes (single up please!) in the coming weeks.)



Heading out on Concord Rd, must get that shrubbery in the ground NOW! (This was the only "moment" of the ride. What was he thinking?)






The pocket park in front of Ride Studio Cafe is almost back!



Caught up with "BATMBL1" in front of Stop and Shop in Arlington. Those must be BATBIK1 and BATBIK2 on the rack:



Thrilled that the extension to Lowell street is well under way. Even more thrilled that the funding for the Community Path extension has been approved all the way to Lechmere and Northpoint with the GLX project.



Vernon Street Studios ahead. (You can see the path down to Somerville Junction Park, part of the Community Path extension plans, to the left just before the bridge.)



Dismounting at the Open Studios. Had to find bike parking on a side street! Wonderful event. Picked up a T-shirt from Bikeyface.


-mr. bill

Jim from Boston

Anyone want to chime in on this thread, "Where do Boston cyclists ride?"?

mr,grumpy 

With my crazy schedule and a 4 year old at home i can't believe my good fortune in sneaking in another little ride today! Today was a Recon ride over to the boy's school to see how "doable" it might be on his trailer-bike. The ride over, through town, was fine. Only almost got doored once and it was shorter and quicker than I though it was going to be. I tried an alternate rout on the way home and either the wind had come up all of a sudden or the other way was much better sheltered. Took over half an hour to ride 6 miles. Rode being a strong word as the bike and I went Walkies for a lot of the way. The verdict? I stopped at a LBS on the way home (the good one full of MTBers) to pick up a safety-flag!

Nickel

What's wrong with the rooster-tail fender? Sometimes you want to ride in grimier conditions and not look like you missed a diaper change!

rholland1951

Noticed that one..

OK, added my 2 cents to it (damn! can't find the cents key on this typewriter...)

rod