jimmuller 

I wrote a description in that thread of the various roads I know of that might be useful for that poster. Thanks for pointing it out.

On a Colnago? You either take a different bike or you wear your skunk stripe proudly!

N, did you ever make the move to Watertown or someplace nearby?

Nickel

The stars aligned and we ended up in Waltham. It has been great but we haven't done much exploring, at least on the good roads west of here. My winter highlight was seeing someone riding a fat bike down Main Street.

I don't know if y'all are into advocacy but there are some cool things going on:
Waltham Planning Department's Healthy Transportation Working Forums | Waltham

City of Waltham 1st Bicycle Update | Bay State Bike Week

Gotta catch up to Watertown, Newton and Lexington!

jimmuller 

Welcome to Waltham! I guess we must be neighbors now. We've been here since 1987, I think. Now that spring is finally here you can start riding.

I posted some discussion of the roads around Waltham in that thread Jim from Boston mentioned:
https://www.bikeforums.net/northeast/...ists-ride.html
I don't know where in Waltham you live. We are on the eastern side near Watertown in Warrendale, the residential section between rt60 and Warren St. Our best roads may not be yours. Once you get west of Waltham Center things can get a little congested unless you know the tricks, and I'm not sure I know them because I have opportunity to go there.

For us we can leave Waltham either north, south, or east, but not west easily. East is into Watertown, Cambridge, etc. via Main St, or Greenough Blvd or the bike paths along the river. South is into Newtown, for example to Harris Cyclery in West Newton. North means going up rt 60 into Belmont and beyond or climbing the hill past McLean Hospital then left on Concord (or continuing up past Belmont CC except that the road is narrow and the pavement bad). Once you get to the Minuteman or Mass Ave everything to the west is accessible.

If these roads don't appeal or don't work for you, drop me a note and I'll try to think up some other routes.

As for advocacy, thanks for the links. We generally have minimal time but perhaps we can get by one of the public hearings. Frankly, I'd be delighted if the various towns, especially Woburn, would just pick all the gravel still on the shoulders.

Nickel

Hey Jim --

I always thought I'd run into you by now. We really like Warrendale and looked for a place there. Unfortunately it didn't work out in our time frame so we ended up near Brandeis. I like being so close to some great parks. I am pretty comfortable riding around Waltham, with the exception of heading north, where my options are limited to Bear Hill Road/Wyman St and Lexington St.

I have been commuting into Cambridge recently so my legs are tired every day right now (22mi round trip, even though relatively flat) so I haven't had the urge to ride even more on my days off. I'll get there!

I am hoping to do more advocacy because I have met so many people that want to ride more in Waltham but are nervous to do so.

The Charles River Path was repaired today (all the super bumpy roots).

rholland1951

Quickish 10-mile ride on the Minuteman to Lexington before dinner. Not at my Summer pace yet, but creeping back to it.

rod

Bishbike

36 mile out and back to Carlisle.

rholland1951

Sunset ride on the Minuteman tonight, overcast with a blue-gray light that set off the new greenery and gradually dimmed, the air still wet enough to form a bit of ground fog over Arlington's Great Meadow as the temperature fell through the 50s. Birdsong until night fell, frog song thereafter. 10 miles.


rod

rholland1951

Got yet another late start, 4:30 this time. Temperatures were pushing 80, and the landscape was greener than it has been in many months.


Lots of trail users of all kinds out, and this dialogue between a child and his father was repeated, implicitly or explicitly, many times:

Child (weaving uncertainly in the left lane): "There is no right lane!"
Father: "What do you mean, 'There is no right lane!'?"

Noted in passing that the former tree-shrine to Perry Stone has reverted to simply being a tree, albeit haunted.


Thought I might be able to do the big loop out to the Cranberry Bog and back by way of Strawberry Hill Road and Monument Street, but a look at the weather radar, and, more importantly, the clouds, suggested simply riding a modified version of the North Bridge loop.


A plausible gamble, but... Mid-way along the Monument Street rollers, a light drizzle started, and through successive transformations became a gentle Spring shower, just plain rain, and a Summer down-pour, complete with thunder and lightning. A different kind of fun. The rain was pleasantly cooling, and I didn't win the struck-by-lightning lottery, so what the hey? Got more experience with the Compass Barlow Pass tires on wet pavement, and liked what they showed me: rolled fast, gripped well. Enjoyed the gurgling of puddle water in my fenders, and saluted a farmer out plowing or planting in the rain at McHugh Farm.


Made a pit stop in the men's room at the Depot Park Freight House, and had a brief conversation with a young man with a beautiful carbon fiber road bike (no fenders, no lights, narrow tires, and dry as a bone) who was sheltering there; I'm not sure whether the lightning or the downpour bothered him more; he was arranging for a pick-up by phone. I remarked that this weather was part of the fun, which I think he regarded as debatable, and went sloshing down the Minuteman towards home on my Surly. The rain stopped somewhere in Arlington, although signs of a pretty good storm were everywhere.




32 somewhat-soggy miles through Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Carlisle, and Concord.

rod

P.S.: Sunday, the day after the Tour de Pluie, I went out to clean and lube the bike and discovered that it was encrusted with hundreds of tiny flower petals, souvenirs of the ride, and of Spring.

mr,grumpy 

Most of you Merto-guys are pretty Metro so a small report from the Countryside. The Old Eastern Marsh Trail in Salisbury is closed still. I say still only because it was supposed to reopen the 1st of May and well, it wasn't. So I had to re-route don Rt. 1 and I'll tell you what, for a second time this week I was astounded at how windy it is if you escape the cover of trees and buildings. The wind is rushing up the river and over the marshes like…. I don't know, rushing wind. Any way, I was able to re-joint the trail about halfway down and was super exhausted. Back over the bridge and ran some errands in town. Funny, when I was a kid I'd just dump my bike on the sidewalk in front of whatever store I was going into and not think twice about it. Now, I freak out whenever it's out of sight, no matter how tightly it's locked up! All the stopping and starting didn't do me any good as the ride back out of town to the homestead was longer emotionally than it was distance wise. I was shooting for more miles but I was needed at home so I felt good just getting out there. I got in 12.7 which is about where I maxed out in yeas past so I'm on track for getting a lot of miles in this season. Stayed dry the whole time too!

Oh, I just wanted to add an observation or two. My wife had my helmet in the care some where far away when I started my ride so I did without. People from both sides of the isle look at you like your an alien when you ride a drop-bar bike without a lid on! People who don't even HAVE bikes, as well as those who do look at you like your an Alien that escaped from a mental hospital if you ride your dropped-bar bike on a "trail" like a MTB.

rholland1951

grumpy,

Thanks for the Merrimack Valley report! The Old Eastern Marsh Trail sounds beautiful. With luck, they'll open it again a little later in the season. Re: looking like an alien, people do love their categories. Drop bars off the road may confuse them. Of course, some folks are simply easily confused. Best to ignore them. Or give 'em a thing or two to read, if they seem educable...

Happy trails.

rod

mr_bill

Sure signs of spring. The parklet is back in Lexington and the Bike Corrals are back in Davis Square and many other Sommerville Locations.



-mr. bill

mr,grumpy 

Cool reads, thanks for the links!
The Marsh Trail is one of my favorites in the area. It's an integral part of my 12 mile loop and when I'm out with the family we almost always see wildlife along that stretch.

Bishbike

Wonderful evening for a ride. Got out for 45 miles out to Great Brook Farm and back.

Bishbike

Another 45 mile ride out to Great Brook Farm and back. Nothing much to report, other than a turkey crossing the road.

mr,grumpy 

Marsh Trail still closed. Wind still stinks. Distance stable, time improving (slowly), I was not actually having "fun" today though.

jimmuller 

I took a different in and out on my commute today. Through Waverley Sq, pick up rt 60 to Arlington, the MM to Maple St. Previously I'd go up the hill from Waverley past McLean Hospital, then left on Concord and up the the hill, right on Pleasant to merge with Winter, to Mass Ave to Maple. The MM is considerably more serene though a bit longer that way.

Took the same way back. Near Arlington Center I stopped to help a poor soul with a CF bike towing a trailer with a young son, but that bike wasn't going anywhere. He'd thrown the chain off the big cog and it had wedged itself between the cog and the spokes. He'd pulled it so hard one or two of the aero spokes were bent. We worked at it with a tire iron for 10 minutes, it wouldn't budge. A bike shop will probably have to pull the cassette apart or loosen those spokes, and the re-true the wheel of course. He ended up throwing the bike over his shoulder and pulling the trailer by hand. Fortunately he didn't have far to go. Tough way to end a ride though.

Jim from Boston

Why?

jimmuller 

Because it thought it was a chicken?

rholland1951

One of the several virtues of CF: easier to carry.

rod

rholland1951

10 miles on the Minuteman before dinner, a short ride near the end of a long week. Conditions could best be described as benign: low 70s, enough humidity to just feel it. My pace could best be described as sluggish, very low energy.




When I got home, I washed off my first chain-lube tattoo of the year: a seasonally-recurring milestone.

rod

jimmuller 

I've ridden in to work every day so far this week. Can't tomorrow though. (I understand it is bike To Work Day too.)

The black Bianch was the ride for Mon-Wed, but today was the Masi's turn. What the heck, it's RED.

Bishbike

Because it was stapled to the chicken....

Bishbike

Quick 26 mile out and back to Concord.

Saw another turkey cross the road, trying to prove that he wasn't chicken...

buzzman

Did my 40 mile Concord loop in the rain today.

It was fun to see I was not alone in making the soggy foray. There were a fair number of other cyclists (and quite a few joggers) undaunted by H2O.

It was...well...wet. Not much more to be said.

rholland1951

The venerable old 1987 GT Karakoram came back from the spa treatment at Paramount Bicycle Repair, where I'd sent it after a hard Winter in icebike service. In addition to some drivetrain rehabilitation, it underwent its annual Spring transmogrification from icebike to balloonbike, shedding its 44mm studded Nokian W240s and putting on a pair of 55mm Schwalbe Big Ben balloon tires. Tyler managed to get these to fit with my fenders, something that I didn't think possible. I put it up on the stand and fiddled with the front fender a bit more, getting another millimeter to two of clearance: tight, but clean.


Took it out on the Minuteman for a shakedown ride at dusk, and reacquainted myself with the balloons.


It was a pleasant ride until the heavens opened, a bit after Fottler Ave.: I got very wet, very fast, and the temperature dropped perceptibly. On the up side, all that water allowed the fenders to show off, and I avoided a dorsal stripe. I turned around at that point, rode home, and made some curry.

rod